The Pearl Of Vynes - Chapter 33 Bandit Camp

Inside the house, Alice was packing a number of things into her bag. Nadine watched as she wrung her hands in worry from the soon to come events. Alice finished her packing and walked out of her old room. Joel was waiting for her at the door while Nadine watched on.

“You know how I feel about you going” Joel said.

“If I don’t they’ll come back and I won’t be around” Alice said in response. Joel sighed bringing out a sword that he was hiding behind his back.

“When I used to travel with Miles back in the day, I used to carry this around and it has saved my life many a time. Now I wish it to protect you” Joel said as he handed the sheathed sword over to Alice. Alice could feel a familiar hold in the blade and withdrew it from its sheath. The sound of drawing metal, sung in her ears. Looking over she could see runic markings on the sword, glinting in the slowly lowering sun. Putting it back in its sheath Alice strapped it to her waist. Giving a hug to Joel and Nadine, Alice strode out of the doorway making her way down the road to the bandit’s camp. As Alice walked down the road, the forest the bandit had talked about came into view. Alice didn’t what happened to the bandit after she left but considering the mood of villagers he probably wasn’t going to come out alive. As she walked along the sun had already hidden itself behind the hills and stars slowly started to come out. As she watched the sky go by, she noticed a large black bird was flying past her at full pace, if she didn’t notice the distance between them she would have said it was a common crow, but the size of it was much larger. The bird circled and dived down onto the ground in front of her. Slowly it started to form itself into a human, who shook the last of the feathers of himself. Alice recognised him as the clothes began to show.

“Miles!” Alice said.

“You cause me plenty of trouble these days” Miles grumbled.

“Yeah, sorry about that I’m not too sure myself what happened” Alice said sheepishly.

“Well I have a feeling I know why” Miles said. “Come on we’ve got a lot of time to make up for, I left Tane up north and it took me days just to get back to you”

“Wait, there’s something I have to do first” Alice said firmly. Miles halted his walking along the road and turned to Alice.

for visiting.

“Alright what is it this time?” Miles asked. Alice explained the situation with the bandits, and her current plan.

“Hmmm, that definitely explains the new shiny stick of yours” Miles remarked.

“Alright new plan, we take out the bandits and we start back on our trip” Miles said clapping his hands together. Both he and Alice then started their plan for when they were going to take over the encampment.

The shouts and celebrations gave away their position rather quickly. A number of people were celebrating with tankards in hand and food in the other while dancing around the campfires. Their shadows cast across the forest were as if some odd ritual was taking place as the noise echoed throughout the trees. Alice and Miles were hiding behind some of the large trees outside of the encampment. Alice signalled to Miles and they separated, circling around the camp while everyone was partying. Miles grabbed a man and knocked him out as he hid him in the shadows. Alice grabbed another, drunk from his ale and slid a sword through his chest while covering his mouth to stop any sounds being made. The slumped body on the ground was quickly dragged behind a bush, the massacre that hit the camp was silent and brutal. People disappearing and soon there was no one left behind. The quiet settled on the camp and a couple men came out from the main tent at the site.

“Who dares to challenge me!” the large man in the centre bellowed. Alice regrouped with Miles as they watched from the shadows, watching the man grandstanding to the woods.

“Be careful when you take him on Alice, you don’t know if he’s got something up his sleeve. There’s a good reason why he’s lived so long” Miles whispered to Alice.

“No worries I’ve got a few surprises up my sleeve as well” Alice said winking to Miles. Miles grinned at her enthusiasm and waited for something to happen. The leader sitting in the centre waited for anyone to come out and challenge him, but mostly he was waiting for an attack. He already had his magic circle up and hidden around him so a ranged attacked was impossible and magic wouldn’t be a good idea either considering it would just reflect back at him. He smiled to himself, being prepared always made the difference. As he chuckled, the sudden noise of his companion caught him by surprise. The man had a large piece of wood stuck inside his chest, a stream of blood coming out of his mouth and collapsed into the ground. Another man shouted as he was grabbed and brought back into the trees. The last remainder of men stood fast, but still shivering in fear from the attack unseen in the forest. A rock came whistling out from the tree and brained another man. One of the last remaining bodyguards ran into the forest but his shouts were soon cut off with a unnerving gargling noise. Alice finally stepped out from the shadows to confront the bandit leader.

“Well, I have to say that only one person taking out my crew is definitely impressive. It also pisses me off you killed them all” the bandit cursed at Alice.

“Should’ve thought about not attacking villages then” Alice retorted.

“Ah, you must be an Brave. Come for my head have you? It’ll take more than a pair of green horns to take me down” the bandit leader shouted. The man started to using hand signs and muttering to himself and Alice could feel the air getting hotter. Soon a fireball appeared in front of the man, not quite larger than his head but the heat caused Alice’s body to sweat. With a grunt of effort the man pushed the liquid fireball and it shot off towards Alice at an incredible speed. Alice dropped to the floor as the fireball passed over, the heat from it felt it cooked her back slightly and hit a tree. The tree instantly caught fire and smouldered to ash.

“The next one won’t miss” the bandit threatened and brought his hands down again to do his incantations again. Alice leapt forward but she noticed a shadow behind the man and skidded to a stop. Miles appeared behind him and gave a solid chop on the bandit’s neck, rendering the man unconscious.

“Man can think ahead with an anti-weapon shield but can’t remember it doesn’t work with hand to hand” Miles sighed. Alice walked over to the man, bringing out some rope she noticed lying on the ground and tied up the bandit leader. Coming up with a bright idea, Alice tied another rope around the man’s knots and had him swinging from the tree. The man came to quickly after that and started to panic.

“Curse you, I’ll have your heads for this” the bandit yelled at the two of them.

“I don’t think he understands his situation” Miles remarked towards Alice. Alice went up to the man and dealth a heavy blow to his chest, his rib made an audible snap and the man howled in pain.

“So will you answer our questions now?” Miles threatened, Alice at the ready to break something else.

“Yes” yelled the man, crying from the pain. The man let out little whimpers while Miles came over and started to heal the man’s injuries. He groaned as the ribs began to stitch themselves back together. The bandit hung limply as he breathed hard.

“Why attack the villages?” Miles demanded at the man, grabbing his cheeks and turning the bandit’s gaze towards him.

“My father, the count of this region recently had denied me a chance to go to the capital. So I ran away, he didn’t want me to be an Brave so I hid out with the bandits here. Earnt their respect after a few fights and I wanted to have more” the man prattled on.

“It was supposed to be easy but then this Amazonian here couldn’t hold herself back and apparently slaughtered my troops” the man sneered in disgust at Alice. Alice came over and slapped him, sending a couple teeth flying.

“Hey Miles, what condition are we allowed to send this kid back to the count?” Alice said coldly.

“Well I can heal him but don’t go to far otherwise even my magic won’t help” Miles said suggestively. The bandit started to struggle from his bindings as he stared terrified at Alice.

“Boo!” Alice said and the man fainted. Miles healed up the last of his injuries and Alice threw the man over her shoulder.

“So what’s the plan Miles?” Alice asked.

“Well we’ll have to return the man to his father, hopefully he won’t beat him too badly when we return him” Miles remarked. The two of them laughed as they walked their way back out onto the road. The count’s castle wasn’t too hard to find, sitting upon a loft hill it stood out quite jarringly in the rolling hills and greenery of the area.