Dragon's Tears
Chapter 7

The horse-pulled wagon of goods through the forest at a steady pace until eventually they connected with the main road. They walked steadily and kept alert for any types of bandits who may be lying in wait for a chance to steal their wares.

Edward, Ralph, and Adrianna walked in front of the cart. While, Serenica remained at the rear. This gave her the ability to watch anyone who may attempt to sneak behind them to catch then from behind.

Through the journey, Serenica’s mind wandered; she thought about her parents, and her mother’s last words. She was torn between fulfilling her mother’s important task and settling down with Adrianna. She didn’t want to put her sister in danger, knowing she was not equipped to handle a mission as dangerous as the one her mother had sent her on. However, she also knew that, if the whole tear story was true, then her task was extremely important. Anger filled her as she thought back to the night of the ceremony and the fact that she had gotten engaged. Felin took her parents before she even had the opportunity to share the news of their engagement with them, and that was something she would never forgive them for.

“Tristan,” she whispered as her thoughts drifted to him. “Did you survive?” She wondered out loud. She had never lost hope that he would survive, and the thought occurred to her that she could encounter him in Estme.

Suddenly, the wagon came to a completely unexpected stop, causing her to forcefully slam into the back of it. She hissed in pain at the hard contact her legs made with the wagon and bit down on her tongue to silence her pained scream.

Why the stop? She wondered.

Curiosity filled her mind as she looked quietly around the corner. Three men stared at their mismatched group with mischievous eyes, and anger dominated Serenica. She knew that these men were there to rob the traders. She said nothing and quietly snuck around the wagon to get a better view and, hopefully, a good shot at the raiders with her bow.

“Hello, lowly traders, we are here to confiscate these goods for The Shadow. I hope you don’t mind. If you do, we don’t care. Do not try to fight back because we will kill you to get them,” the first raider said.

Serenica listened to him speak and looked him over. He was filthy, had no shirt on, and pulled his hair back in a brown cloth.

“Can we keep her too, Sam?” the second bandit asked as he pointed to Adrianna and smiled a nasty black-tooth smile in her direction.

“Gentlemen, we are on the way to Estme to start a trade agreement. Surely we can work out something beneficial to us both.” Edward spoke worriedly as Adrianna hid behind him, her eyes wide.

“Naw, we can’t, but we will take the wagon and the girl and be on our way now,” Sam said as he leered and began to step toward Adrianna. The color flushed from her skin, and she began to tremble with fear. She took a few steps back to prepare to run as the bandits grew closer to her and the traders.

The scream of the third bandit broke up the disturbing situation as he fell to the ground with an arrow in his back. Suddenly, the second bandit dropped to his knees and clutched his chest. Sam noticed a large arrow sticking out of him as well. He hastily looked around as he tried to replace the source of the arrows. However, a sharp object pressed against his throat caused him to tense up and stand still.

“You will not be taking my sister anywhere,” a girl from behind him whispered in his ear.

“Who the hell are you?” Sam asked in fear as she tightened the knife around his throat.

“I am not a very forgiving person toward those who threaten my sister,” she answered as she reached the dagger across his throat and snapped it back. The gurgle of the man as he took his last breath filled the air, and she dropped his body. She looked up at Adrianna, who looked pale and nauseous. “Adri, go into the wagon for a while.” Serenica ordered as she stared blankly at the bodies that littered the road.

Adrianna took a deep breath and walked to the back of the wagon, her obvious trembling made it difficult for her to climb in the back.

“I had no choice, I promised to protect Adrianna and I will stand by that promise. Negotiation wasn’t an option,” Serenica finally whispered as she fell to the ground looking despondently at the traders.

“Negotiation wasn’t an option,” she continued to whisper to herself as tears filled her eyes.

The looks that they gave her were looks of surprise and pity as they nodded in agreement. The men said nothing to allow Serenica and Adrianna to catch their breath.

“We need to get moving, more may come,” she said as she forcefully wiped the tears off of her face. Standing to her feet, she began to look over the corpses for anything valuable.

Once her inspection was complete, she found three bags of gold, a few small daggers, and a few rings. She approached the traders and held out the items in her hands for them to take.

The shocked look on Ralph’s face changed to bewilderment, and he looked at Serenica. “Nope, you saved our lives again and our cargo. Keep it!” He said this as he shook his head and shooed her away.

Surprise filled her face, and her eyes widened in shock as Serenica looked at Edward skeptically with her mouth agape.

“You heard the man. It’s all yours,” he declared with a smile.

“Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate it,” Serenica said with a blush. “Now, we should get moving. There may be more bandits waiting to come and take revenge for this group.”

They continued their walk through the afternoon, and the later it got, after a long dispute, Edward and Ralph finally decided to stop off the main road to prepare lunch. Edward lit a small fire, Ralph gathered the lunch ingredients from the wagon, and the girls walked into the woods to the nearby stream for water.

Once they had gathered the water, the two of them began to head back to the camp. “Do you regret it?” Adrianna’s words broke the awkward silence in the air.

Serenica kept facing forward, her mind had been filled with the what if’s from the incident, and if there was anything else she could have done. She looked over at her sister who still was pale and she took a deep breath.

“Do I regret it? I have thought of any other scenario that I could think of and if there was anything else I could have done that didn’t involve killing them. Every scenario I ran through my head involved me killing them or them killing us all. I promised Mom I would keep you safe, and I intend on keeping that promise.”

“But..”

“There are no buts, Adri. Those men were going to take you and do unspeakable things with you. I would do it again if your life was on the line… Which it was. You are all I have left and I’m not going to lose you too.”

Silent tears streamed down Adrianna’s face as she nodded in understanding.

“Now having said that I don’t want to make a habit of it either,” Serenica whispered.

The smell of smoke filled their nose as they realized they were closing in on the camp.

“I’m telling you, there’s more to these two girls than getting lost! Any normal traveler wouldn’t have blinked twice at a dead bandit. I’m leaning towards runaways.” Edwards voice filled the air and the girls looked at each other in panic. “They also mentioned Ashbourne, maybe they are from the village and did something bad?”

“It doesn’t matter, if they want to tell us they will. They haven’t robbed us, they saved our life twice. We are almost to Estme we can finish this journey,” Ralph countered.

Serenica didn’t want to interrupt, so she purposely crunched on a pile of dried leaves to alert the two men they were returning. Suddenly the conversation had been silenced. Serenica and Adrianna walked into the camp and stood there in uncomfortable silence.

The two men looked up when they saw the girls staring quizzically at them. Adrianna put down the bucket, and they took their seats next to the men and ate their lunch in awkwardly. Edward looked at Ralph in anticipation and motioned for him to start talking.

“Girls, we have something to say, and please do not cut us off and listen. When we let you stay at our camp, we assumed you were runaways or missing kids. Although the story you gave us fits that scenario, are guessing that this is not the case. You have something going on. We are not asking you to share it with us, but we want to thank you again for saving our lives more than once. Please take this as a token of our appreciation.” He handed the girls a large bag of gold and some leather armor.

The girls gasped in confusion and guilt as they looked at the men. “Keep this on top of what you got from the bandits. We aren’t asking you to tell us your story; whatever it is, it must not have been good. But please be careful on your travels. We are pretty sure you don’t have family in Estme, and you have another destination in mind. Use this money to buy packs, a sleeping bag, a couple of flasks, and some provisions when we get to Estme,” Ralph offered.

Serenica and Adrianna looked at each other, guilt plastered all over their faces. Adrianna felt tears come to her eyes, and she jumped up and gave them both hugs. Serenica looked at them with a smile. “Thank you for trusting us enough not to kick us out of your camp before we reach Estme. Also, thank you for everything you have done for us. We appreciate it so much.”

“You’re welcome; be careful with whatever your life throws at you and give yourself time to figure things out. You will only hurt yourself if you jump from place to place without taking the time to relax and figure out your emotions.” Ralph expressed it to Serenica with a wink.

“Now that we have had that conversation, let’s get back on the road,” Edward said as he threw the water over the fire.

Serenica stood to her feet and put on the leather armor that she had just been given. She placed her daggers in the leather holster they had given her and slid her bow onto her back. She smiled excitedly because they had provided her with an idea of what she needed to do as soon as she reached Estme. Once she had her supplies, she would look for the rogue her mother spoke of.

Daylight slowly disappeared into the night as they continued their walk. The smell of salt infiltrated their noses as they realized they were nearing the ocean. “Estme ahoy!” Ralph said as he pointed to the lanterns that lit up the darkness around the walls that surrounded the city.

The girls held their breath in anticipation; this was their first time out of their village. This experience has already taught them that this is a whole new world compared to what they are used to.