Second Chances: Starting Anew

Ina smiled in the response to the "Happy Birthday" as for the second half of his message she blinked at Alex and waited. Ina bit her lower lip as he started looking around and when he finally showed her her eyes widened as she grabbed Alex's left hand to further inspect the dice. It was so fascinating she lightly ran her finger over his birthmark studying it as Yvonne complained at him.

Ina blinked at Yvonne. "I have one that's a similar shape, but it's no pair of dice... " But oh how she wished it was! If only she could be as lucky, however Ina knew that luck was tricky and something that may seem exciting may turn up being just the opposite. Ina didn't notice that she still had Alex's hand in hers as her mind was reeling over their birthmarks. The security side that her father pounded into her brain kicked in, where there is more to guarding then kicking ass. So Ina entered her own questioning of the duo. "Why are you just now looking for other people who have the same marks? Haven't you had them your whole life?"
 
While Ina inspected his birthmark, Alex kept sneaking glances around. Someone was sure to notice, right? They'd see. They'd realize there was something wrong about the quiet boy from the temple. The one who almost never spoke and couldn't hear very well.

Without looking too obvious and hopefully without disturbing Ina, he tried to very gently pull his hand away from hers. He was sure she didn't mean anything bad by holding his hand longer than she probably should have and she was possibly more concerned with other things and yet ... He'd feel a lot better if he could slip his sleeve back over his hand.

Alex stayed silent and didn't reach for his board to answer Ina's question. He'd let Yvonne handle that. She was better at talking and explaining things than he was.
 
"Huh?" Yvonne was disappointed. Ina had a birthmark but if it wasn't similar then it couldn't really be the exact same thing. The question had her pausing and thinking over it though.

"I didn't know Alex had one until today, and then I got curious cause it's weird, you know? A real mystery!" And Yvonne definitely liked mysterious. Speaking of which, Alex was glancing around all nervous, as if someone was going to jump out and attack them at any moment. Her over active imagination was already working at it's prime, assuming he MUST be waiting for someone to pop out and seek revenge on him for being a secret Knight.

Yvonne leaned closer to Alex and whispered loudly (which made it not much like a whisper at all, so there wasn't much point to it!), "You think we're in danger, Alex? Are we being followed by Soul Reapers or Bandits? Maybe Black Knights or demi-gods?"
 
Alex blinked once and then again at Yvonne. Black Knights? Bandits? Soul-Reapers? ... Demi-gods?! He'd just been worried about people spying on them and whispering. But she'd just given him several more reasons to worry!

Alex leaned away from Yvonne and SSSLLOWWLLYY pulled his hand away from Ina. He pulled the sleeve over his hand and took another look around the tavern. This time, this time he began looking for more than just casual observers. He looked for strangers who looked their way more than once, took note of familiar faces he didn't know very well who met his eyes and suddenly looked away.

A table close to theirs suddenly grew louder as a patron sitting next to Ina roared with laughter. Alex filed him away as a stranger. He'd never seen the man before, wearing only a vest, arms as thick as tree trunks, a hairy chest and no hair on his head. The man was as bald as could be and heavily scarred!

"I tell you boys! Funny as hell!" he was saying. Then the man turned and caught a glimpse of Ina. "Wha' about you, good lookin'? Do you think that was funny?" He roared with laughter again without giving her a chance to reply to that. "By hell it was!"
 
After having a quick satisfying lunch (and a little gossiping with Ina) Yvonne decided it was well-past time for her and Alex to continue their quest for more birthmark barers!

Yvonne and Alex were just stepping outside. Yvonne glancing around, trying to decide whose house was closest for them to stop by. "I have a whole list ready in my head. So we'll start with- Hey, what's going on over there?"

As the two of them rounded the corner of the Tavern, not far from the back was that group of loud patrons that just wouldn't shush all during lunch. Half the time they had spent trying to coax Ina in to chatting with them, at least until Ina finally got fed up and left to help her father. Apparently she had disappeared back here, cause there was Ina shouting at them - At least until there was a sack thrown over her head! In a matter of seconds, the group had piled in to the back of a wagon and was speeding away down the road!

"HEY!!" Yvonne was chasing them down like a jack rabbit, trying to catch up with the wagon! But as the dust rose up blocking the view, and the wagon got further and further away, Yvonne was forced to stop chasing and catch her breath. Ina had just been kidnapped by thugs! And not a single person in town seemed to have noticed to do something about it! This was awful! Someone had to do something about this!

"...We need to get supplies! We're going to rescue Ina!"
 
Alex watched as the events unfolded and while Yvonne was chasing after the men, he was glancing around all over the place. He noticed no one else seemed to have realized what happened. He thought about running back to the Temple, finding Ina's father, or Yvonne's. They'd know exactly what to do ... right?

"...We need to get supplies! We're going to rescue Ina!"

Alex blinked once, then twice. "We" as in him and Yvonne?! He opened his mouth to protest but she was right. If they didn't do something right away, they would never catch up to Ina. Those men might even kill her after they were through with her! Or sell her into slavery! Or something just as bad!

There was a soft neigh nearby. He ran behind one of the buildings and came back with a fully saddled horse and a satchel across his shoulder several minutes later. The satchel were filled with a few food items for later and the dark brown mare he led belonged to Old Man Fletcher.

Alex stopped by Yvonne and turned to pet the mare's head.
 
Fletcher's horse! It was perfect. Old Man Fletcher barely ever used the pretty mare himself, being a crotchety old man and all. She needed some exercise and they would have her back before nightfall!

"Hurry! They've probably gotten all the way out of town by now." Yvonne grabbed the saddle and pulled herself on up. She arranged the reigns in her hands before leaning down to snatch Alex. He had to help hoist himself on to the horse, or she was liable to pull the clothes right off his back! With a click of her tongue and nudge of her heels, Yvonne urged the mare in to a jumping gallop!

It only took a few moments to hit the edge of town where the main road started to fork off in a few different directions. Yvonne paused them for a moment, walking the mare in a circle while she leaned to check out the roads.

"I've read a dozen books about animal tracking and this shouldn't be much different. Uum.. Ah! See there!" she pointed down at one of the roads. "Those are fresh tracks! Hooves and wagon wheels! We're going this way."

Yvonne tilted the horse towards the left road, the one that would lead them away from Haler's Mill and in to the forests beyond.
 
As Yvonne rode out of the town, Alex held on tightly. He was no stranger to riding horses but this was his first time doing so with Yvonne in the lead. And it was not an easy experience. He shut his eyes and began to say a prayer for safety as the horse galloped onward. He was sure his stomach was flopping over and over and when she paused, he opened one eye, mildly surprised he was still in one piece.

Alex sure hoped Yvonne had read enough of those books to not get them lost somewhere. He doubted anything he knew could help them find their way home otherwise. He said a quick prayer for Ina that she was alright and another one for them that they wouldn't get killed trying to rescue her. He hadn't had much time to pack much of anything in the satchel he wore, just things he'd happened to pass by while getting the mare. He hoped it would be enough.
 
There was just something really exciting about stealing a horse and chasing after kidnappers! Down roads you've never traveled before on an adventure you didn't plan to have! Having the wind in your hair and horse zooming by. Sunlight and forests. Plots of an upcoming battle and rescuing the damsel from a fate worse than death!

In fact, Yvonne was entertained for some hours thinking about it. Daydreaming scenarios even while the galloping horse had to slow to a walk and the sky was going from light blue to warm shades of orange. They were a long ways from Haler's Mill by now and still hadn't come across the bandits.

Yvonne was frowning as she leaned over to check the roads. There were still hoof prints everywhere and she thought they still looked fairly fresh. But they really should have caught up with those kidnappers by now. They couldn't be too far ahead. It was starting to get dark, and her plan was to save Ina before sunset.

She was just about to voice her concerns to Alex, when the sound of horses caught her attention! The mare was stopped as she nudged Alex to listen to the sounds too. Not far off, there was the soft neighing and... some singing!

"Someone is camping out nearby in the woods!" she whispered. "I bet it's those jerks that stole Ina. We need a way to sneak up on them."
 
Yvonne might have spent those hours of riding daydreaming but Alex found himself dozing off repeatedly. He started awake whenever Yvonne made any type of sound that could be construed as a sound of discovery or that odd sound girls sometimes made for no apparent reason. He'd come to associate any type of sound Yvonne made (and many of her actions) as leading to trouble.

Alex's head jerked up when she nudged him and he blinked around. It was darker now than he remembered it being. Had they really been at this for hours? He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with the back of his sleeve. Camping. Darkness.

"It should be easy. We can use the ground for cover and there lots of brush to use for camouflage," he said, his voice so soft he didn't need to whisper. "One of us has to stay downwind with the horse while the other sneaks off to check things out and maybe take out anyone keeping watch." The disturbing part of it was that he remembered quite a few times where the dream Alex had gone alone and slaughtered a group of men one by one just because they'd been traveling with the real man he'd been after.

No witnesses, no evidence ...
 
Yvonne gave his plan serious consideration. After all, he seemed to know these things and a rescue mission was serious business all in itself. She had a plan in mind.

"Okay, I am stronger so I'll go check out what the camp is like. You take the horse," she paused looking around for a good spot, "over there! When I find out how many there are and where Ina is, I'll come get you!" Before she dashed off, she needed a weapon. Yvonne found a pretty good stick nearby. It was hefty, long, and pretty solid. Wasn't pretty, but for the moment it would be perfect.

"I'll be right back!"

Yvonne never did stay still and wait for discussion. Bouncing in to the bushes like a rabbit, she snuck around the trees and through the low forest grasses. One had to give her credit; she knew how to be sneaky! Yvonne was silent as could be as she crept closer and closer to the camp.

The campsite had at least a dozen men, but none of them that Yvonne could recognize from the Tavern. They had a large fire with a wild boar roasting over a spit, several horses, and a wagon filled with barrels. The group could have easily just been a band of merchants, but there came a loud chuckle from several of them followed by something getting tossed back and forth. It was a bloody severed head!

"HAHAHAHA, poor Bellicose! Never saw us coming! Want a drink buddy?" One of the large fellows was trying to give the head a drink. The whole group laughed again.

"Oi, oi! How much did we get for the girl and all of that loot, Grimmy?" called out another.

Ah ha! The girl must have been Ina! ....of course the bad news was that the men that kidnapped Ina were dead, and these men apparently sold her off to someone else! Those ginormous jerks! Yvonne listened a little longer, trying to see if they would talk about where they sold her. Road... barrels.

There was a snap behind her. Yvonne turned around expecting to see Alex wanting to get in on the spying. but she was staring at a large hairy chest. She looked up... and up... and up, to finally stare at the tallest man she had ever seen with the biggest and bushiest beard any man could have! Three seconds later his hand had covered her whole face and she was squeaking for air!

An hour went past... and Yvonne never came back to the horse!
 
It all happened pretty quick. One moment Yvonne was pointing to a spot somewhere off to the side and the next she had picked up a stick and gone slipping away! Alex opened his mouth to say something but she had disappeared by then, so he shut his mouth, dismounted, and moved the mare over to the spot she'd indicated. As he waited, he slipped a hand into the satchel he wore and fed the mare an apple.

An hour later ...

"She should have been back by now," he whispered to the mare. He tied the reins to a branch securely but in a way that, if needed to, he could untie it by pulling it just so. He petted the mare, said a quick prayer, and slipped through the brush.

Meanwhile, Yvonne found herself gagged, blindfolded, and tied to a tree. The jackasses had promised to 'have some fun with her' later and had it not been for the gag in her mouth, she would have given them a piece of her mind! She kicked at them whenever they came near but that only made them laugh and convince them of how much fun they'd have.

One of the men tossing the bloody head around threw a little too long and the head went sailing over his buddy's head and into the forest! "Oi, mate, watch how ye're throwing our buddy around!" the man who'd missed it said.

"I'll get it! I'll get it!" the man who'd thrown it muttered. He really didn't want to get up and go rummaging around in the dark but he'd just get pestered until he got it back. He followed the path the head had taken and got on his hands and knees when he suspected it had disappeared in one of the bushes. Grass, grass, hair, he grabbed onto the hair and yanked only to pull up--Alex! "Eh, what's this!"

A few minutes later, there was the sound of a thud! And then the men began to get into a commotion about finding someone else out in the woods which caused Yvonne's heart to grow cold! Alex! They found Alex! She struggled even harder, especially when she heard them taunting him! All she managed to do was pull the blindfold off, letting her see that several of them were in a crcle, kicking and punching and--

"Agggh!" one of the men fell back, clutching a bloody wound in his heart ...

Blood. There was blood in his mouth. His blood. He licked his lips, raised the short sword just so. "You want some fun. I'll give you fun," he said as the other men drew their own blades, and the rest who hadn't been participating arrived to join in. His heartbeat increased, his blood was racing. He raced forward behind some barrels, kicked them at the men chasing after him. The first few tripped and then he turned to stab the man behind him in the gut. He pulled the man's knife out of his belt as he fell, then turned his attention to the others ...

He tore a deep slash in one man's chest, threw the knife into another's neck, then raced over to Yvonne. He kicked more barrels and everything he could use as an obstacle at them, giving him enough time to cut her ropes. Two men died when they tried standing on opposite sides of him and running him through before he ducked and they ran each other through instead.

He lashed out and tripped one man, then stabbed him through the gut, wrenching the blade out and standing in time to parry one man's thrust and impale him through the ribs. He killed one man by driving his sword backwards as the man was trying to ambush him from behind. He picked up another knife and threw it into one man's chest, then sliced one man's stomach open, and drove his sword into another's chest.

The last man died, clutching a slash in his throat.

Alex dropped the sword he was holding, fell to his knees, and blacked out.
 
"Rrrrlleerr! Rrrrleerr!! Urrgh!! Gah!" Yvonne managed to get rid of that stupid gag with her shoulder, only to be a little dumbstruck! He was going to get himself squashed by a bunch of hairy thugs! She was squirming and struggling to get herself untied and go save him from certain doom. Yet in a blink of an eye he was fighting hairy thugs! Sword swinging, knife throwing, really gross blood splaying fighting. The very same boy that couldn't even face down dumb a bully Kyr that morning!

Then he passed out. THAT was like Alex.

"Alex! You jerk, don't just pass out!" The entire gang was dead. Bodies all over the place. Yvonne had never actually seen a real human dead person before. No wonder he passed out. She was feeling kinda sick herself.

It took her until sunset with a lot of bending in ways that were really going to ache later, but she wiggled herself out of those ropes and away from the tree with little more than a bunch of irritating rope burns. Alex hadn't stirred yet, and she was getting really worried that he might have gotten himself slashed to pieces in the middle of all that fancy fighting.

Gingerly stepping over fallen bodies, she dropped next to Alex and shook him. "Alex?" She looked him over. He got socked in the face pretty bad, and probably elsewhere too, but it didn't look like he had any cuts or stab wounds. He was still breathing too.

"Get up, please?" Yvonne glanced around. There was no way she wanted to spend the night in a bandit camp surrounded by dead people. What if they became zombies in the night? She to keep Alex safe from zombies at least! Yvonne moved to grab his legs. She'll just have to drag him back to the mare and find them a safer camp!
 
"Uhh ... Yvonne ...?" Alex opened his eyes. The sky was dark. He looked around. Camp. Yvonne by his legs. Dead bodies ... Dead bodies?! He jerked up and then winced as he rubbed his jaw. He ached all over, especially around his face.

"Yvonne! What did you do?!" The last thing he remembered was blacking out after that guy had found him. She must have taken care of them ... somehow. And now, now he wasn't quite sure what was going on!
 
"Me?!" Yvonne dropped his legs, staring down at him incredulously. He really did all that, passed out and doesn't remember? He looked scared and confused. For someone like Alex, maybe it was better he didn't know. He never fought with people and always ran away. It was too much for him!

"I killed them, obviously! Like they were going to do to you." Yvonne leaned down and grabbed his hands to pull him back up to his feet. "We'll have to find somewhere else to camp for the night. I heard them say they sold Ina, so we'll have to pickup the search again in the morning."
 
It wasn't until Yvonne grabbed his hands and hauled him to his feet that Alex saw the blood. When he did, he blanched and suddenly felt really sick to his stomach. If Yvonne had done the killing, why did he have all the blood on him and she didn't have a spot ... He swallowed. "I ... I'll be right back," he stammered and went staggering into the bushes. He didn't return until the contents of his stomach had been emptied and he was able to drag in gasps of fresh air.

Be calm, Alex. Be calm. But then he needed to clean this blood off. He pulled off his robe which left him in a long-sleeved shirt and trousers, and followed the sounds of water to a small brook. He took the opportunity to start scrubbing himself clean and didn't return until his skin was red from having scrubbed so hard.

Alex returned with Old Fletcher's mare and looked over the horses the men had. They were obviously well fed and in great condition. "Do you think they stole everything they have here?" A stupid question, maybe, but one that would help get his mind off of things.
 
He didn't believe her story. Didn't mean she wasn't going to stick to it, though. While he disappeared for a few minutes, Yvonne got herself busy with... borrowing supplies. Finding Ina was going to take longer than a single night. She doubt Alex had enough time to grab days worth of stuff when he took Old Fletcher's mare. Picking through a bandit camp wasn't pleasant and neither was searching bloodied dead bodies. Now she did have spots of blood on her dress, and she wasn't too pleased about that either.

"I bet they did." she replied when he finally returned. He still looked pretty sick, but he had washed off all that blood. "They got exactly what they deserved, so I don't feel bad about killing them at all." Yvonne eyed the horses.. They couldn't just leave them there all tied up and with everyone dead. So she stepped about, pulling off saddles and reigns and getting them untied. All except one!

"We'll take this one! The others will find their way to new homes before long. Um, I guess we can send Fletcher's horse back home too, so he doesn't get all freaked out and start running through town. She should know her way back home, I think."
 
Alex nodded. Horses were said to have a keen sense of direction and if any of them knew their way back to town, it would be Old Fletcher's mare. He was a bit sad to see her go, though. If the mare left, there was a good chance they'd never be able to find their way home again. They'd been traveling for awhile now and Yvonne's sense of tracking didn't instill a lot of confidence in him.

Alex helped fill up satchels of food supplies. "Do you know where they took Ina?" he asked when they'd looted the corpses and it was time to leave.
 
Yvonne shook her head slowly, looking thoughtful as she finished making sure their new supplies were securely on the new horse. The horse was a beautiful white mare with a few silvery grey patches o her coat. She looked very much like a prize purebred, surprising for a group of bandits to have.

"They only said they sold her. We will have to hunt down slavers first and question around to see if anyone has seen her." There had to be another town near by or a trade-route road if those bandits had stolen and sold her that quickly. Ina couldn't be TOO far away yet.

Yvonne climbed on the horse and leaned to grab Alex to help him up behind her. "For tonight we're just going to find somewhere to camp. A good cave or clearing away from these jerks. We can't get very far in the dark like this." Yvonne would have been willing to try, but Alex seemed so worn out and tired. Not just physically! Not to mention trying to see tracks was near impossible in the dark... and who knew what sort of things lurked out in the forest at night?
 
Alex swallowed when Yvonne mentioned hunting down slavers and questioning them. Men who didn't give a second thought about selling another human being as a stranger's possession made his heart grow cold. It wouldn't be easy getting them to talk and it would be even harder since chances were, they wouldn't have anything worth trading the information for. But they couldn't give up. They had to find and rescue Ina. No matter what.

So Alex spent quite a few hours, more like several, clinging to Yvonne as she found a place to camp for the night. He didn't have much to talk about and strangely enough, Yvonne was silent. He was so tired, he felt so drained, he didn't bother to ask. Oh well, he could always ask her in the morning ...

When they woke up, the weather was bright and sunny ... and Alex still felt drained. Last night's events were like a dream to him. Or a nightmare. Yvonne got him up nice and early and the two of them ate some apples and he shared a couple with the mare.

"She really is beautiful," he told Yvonne. He pet the mare's neck and felt the muscles move as she chewed. To be honest, he envied horses. They raced like the wind. Well, raced until they beat the wind. They could keep going and going, they could leave their troubles behind them. Everything probably blurred and became ... one when they raced. He wished he could run like that, without having his lungs gasp for breath and his throat clench up.
 
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