Chapter 19: 019 – The Chase – Part 1 –
Uriel grabbed Zeresha's reign and led her away from the inn, with soft steps the mare tried to copy him by slowly raising her legs and moving in a slow sneaky manner.
They quickly made it to one of the stone houses and hid in the street behind, then Uriel peeked around the corner still hearing the sound coming from the distance.
"I knew we'd find that thing here," the sound of a man traveled through the village,
"Its tracks are everywhere in this dump,"
Uriel froze not recognizing the voice, but then he looked down at the road and realized that there were tracks in the ash, his tracks and Zeresha's.
Uriel turned to Zeresha and motioned for her to be quiet as he hurriedly mounted her while trying to be as quiet as possible.
"Wait," suddenly the voice of the man sounded again this time it was much closer,
"These tracks are fresh and there's someone with the horse," he chuckled.
"Someone that managed to escape must have returned," the man laughed, and several snickers joined him.
"Find the survivor boys, and try not to rough em' up too much, the soldiers promised five silvers crowns for every survivor we kill, but ten silvers for anyone we bring back alive" the man chuckled.
Uriel's eyes shrunk upon hearing the man speak, he held tightly onto Zeresha's reigns and turned her to the side, and then he peeked around the corner to see that there were five men, and they had two horses with them.
At a glance he recognized the man at the lead, he was an arrogant prick who led a band of bandits, calling themselves 'The Red Fangs'.
If there was anyone else that made his list of people he wanted to kill then it would naturally be those dogs who kept harassing the village for supplies.
When the soldiers of Gilshu stopped patrolling the roads because of the war it was this group that started to cause trouble with the village.
It wasn't like the villagers were especially afraid of them, but if the village didn't give them what they wanted then the band would go to the farmer's homes on the outskirts and cause a ton of damage.
The bandits were too afraid to pick an actual fight in the past because if they killed anyone then the village would have surely taken action against them.
The village never took any serious action because the band had quite a number of people, if they missed any there was a chance that they would return in the night and kill the farmers who were a distance from the village.
But as soon as the soldiers of Queen Rothwart had arrived the bandits disappeared without a trace, it struck Uriel as odd that the bandits returned all of a sudden.
The fact that they had a deal with the soldiers planted many thoughts in his mind, thoughts that he unfortunately didn't have time to pay attention to because just then one of them shouted.
"I see someone!" one of the bandits shouted.
Uriel pulled on Zeresha's reigns and urged her forward, the mare responded to the urgent situation and kicked off at her fastest speed.
Uriel's hair trailed behind him in the wind, he turned around and his eyes landed on the leader of the bandits, Bug Eye'd Will, who was drawing an arrow.
Uriel's heart shuddered with terror at the sight of the bow, as the last images of his mother and father flashed through his eyes.
Whoosh.
Putch!!!
The sound of the arrow caused Uriel to fall still, but a second later it hit the earth a dozen yards away.
Uriel shivered at his luck, but a second later he noticed another arrow hit the land a distance away from Zeresha this shot was even worse than the last, and he realized something the bandit leader didn't exactly have good aim, and Zeresha was quickly pulling away out of his range.
A second later a third arrow came flying at them, but this time Uriel didn't panic as the arrow would not get anywhere close to him.
It hit the ground a far distance away as they reached the village exit, but he got comfortable a little too soon, only a few seconds later two of the bandits came charging on their horses.
Uriel entertained the thought of fighting them for a second but he gave up on that idea, his body still ached from the night before and he didn't know if he could beat them after all they had swords and the edges were sharp, unlike his sword.
"Run girl!!!" Uriel urged Zeresha, they couldn't stop not for a second, the moment they caught up was the moment that he died.
"Nghhhh!!!" Zeresha gave a powerful cry and sensing the urgency she broke out into frantic gallop, her hooves hammered upon the ground as they darted past the field of corpses and they continued back down the road towards the farm.
Uriel had never seen Zeresha move so fast before, but as he looked back he saw the bandits were still in sight and their horses were doing their best to match Zeresha.
Ten minutes quickly passed by, by which time his home had come back into sight, he gritted his teeth seeing the bandits still hot on his tail.
He needed to stop and grab the supplies he had left behind, but if he stopped for a second then the bandits would catch up.
"I'm sorry girl we can't go back," he cried and stroked her back, her favorite treats were all still in the barn hidden beneath the trapped door, he had decided to leave it until he got a wagon to cart it all, but now he couldn't retrieve anything.
He buried his tears and urged Zeresha onward and off the road, he couldn't return to the road anyway if he tried to return he would be heading straight for the bandits.
They broke from the road and pushed into the fields of farmland where the land was still pretty clear, there were several fences set up on the outskirts to keep stray beasts from wandering in, but Uriel knew of a few spots where the fences were in need of repairs.
Quickly he stirred Zeresha into areas where there were tall bean stalks, tall enough to hide them from sight.
He ducked low against her back and had the mare walk slowly to catch her breath and so that they would be quiet, in that state they crept towards the fence.
Several minutes passed in which time he heard the bandits run through the fields, cutting down the thick and tall bean stalks as they searched for him.
Uriel was sure to keep Zeresha quiet as they avoided the pair of riders and eventually reached the edge of the field where there was a caved-in part of the fence.
Zeresha hopped through the opening with ease and started to head away from the farm, but after just a minute of the two of them creeping away, they heard a shout.
"The little shit is getting away!" one of the riders shouted.
Uriel turned back to see the rider pointing straight at him, "Dammit," Uriel gritted his teeth and pulled on Zeresha's reigns once more forcing her to break into a flat-out sprint.
He shook on her back as they were no longer traveling on a clear-cut-out road and the land was bumpy and uneven.
They managed to put a bit of distance between themselves and the bandits, but that was all, in the distance he could still hear the sound of the galloping horses.
It seemed that they had managed to get past the fence and were already in hot pursuit.
Uriel looked at Zeresha apologetically as he was forced to urge her once more to increase her speed, her breathing was starting to get rough, and he knew that she couldn't take much more of this frantic chase.
Uriel scoured his surroundings looking for anything that could help him evade the bandits, as the minutes passed by he lost his barring, they were running wild into the open terrain into areas he had never visited.
And with each second Zeresha pushed forward, "Come on!" Uriel cried in complaint finding it all too unfair.
He pleaded to the gods, Demeter and Amphitrite, they were the gods he offered alms to.
But nothing happened no aid, no miracle, he didn't even know why he bothered the gods didn't help the night before.
Not even when all the villagers were weeping their names, they certainly weren't going to help him now.
Zeresha was starting to slip up in her steps but somehow the bandits were gaining on them, they had returned to the edge of his vision.
Their horses were tired but still seemed to be in a better condition than Zeresha.
Uriel didn't know what to do he looked back at them and at the earth, he extended his hand out to the acres of open terrain.
"I command you to rise!!!!" he roared at the top of his lungs trying to copy what he had done the night before, but his eldrin failed to answer his plea.
"Argh," Uriel gritted his teeth and tightened his hold on Zeresha's reigns when suddenly he heard a strange snapping sound.
Uriel's eyes shrunk as he suddenly felt himself become super light, he looked down and found himself in the air, as he looked further behind him he saw Zeresha tumbling through the earth, and in his hands, he found that he was holding onto a torn part of the reigns.
It all clicked into place as he realized the cause of his current predicament, the reigns snapped the sudden snap from the torn reigns must have hurt Zeresha and sent him flying through the air.
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