Kabul - Acceptance: Sequel to 'Yasak - Forbidden' (A Goktug Alp Love Story)

CHAPTER 6

Goktug and Melike had been on the road since the dead of the night, and the sun had already peeked out from under the horizon- but they were not going to stop. They got off their horses eventually at one point as they followed Kuzgun, for they had heard others coming along on their steed- though both they and the one they were following had yet to know who the other pursuers were.

They tied their horses up behind some tall trees, making sure they were hidden well before they continued to track their escaped prisoner, and before long, they heard voices speaking in a foreign language only Goktug could understand, hence revealing the identity of those who were chasing Kuzgun were;

Mongol soldiers.

"Bastards," growled Melike after Goktug had told her what he had made out, and her husband smirked next to her. "Melike," he teased, and she turned to him to shoot a glare. "I do not remember there being a call for bad language." "Nowhere near as vile as you and Boran's," she scoffed, as Goktug sniggered. "Now shush, let us focus on what's happening here." They continued to follow Kuzgun, who had not yet realized that the Mongols were following him, until he took a long tumble down a ridge into a dusty ditch after tripping over a stray root of a tree. Melike and Goktug suppressed their laughs, but Goktug pulled Melike deeper into the bushes they were hiding in as the Mongols finally came into view, crowding around the weakly struggling Kuzgun that was lying on the ground, his mop of greyed hair all over his blood-stained face.

"So he works for the Mongols, ehh?" murmured Goktug, keeping a firm grip on Melike as if she were going to escape- though she had no intention to. "Explains why he did what he did." "It does," agreed Melike. "Yet how someone could be so low to do so is beyond me." "I feel the same way," nodded Goktug. "Even if I was amongst them once." Melike gave him a soft smile, before they turned back to the scene in front of them whilst they hid from view.

Kuzgun did not make much effort to stand up from where he lay sprawled out on the ground, as the Mongol soldiers grouped around him. They spoke a few words that Melike and Goktug could not hear, before one of the soldiers got down from his horse and forced Kuzgun to his feet, then tying his hands in front of him to a long rope so they could drag him on their horses. "They do not seem satisfied with him," murmured Goktug. "Well, Osman Bey did get away now, Mavi Gozlum," Melike whispered back. "I doubt that they will forgive him for such a slip." "Yes," agreed Goktug, as the Mongols began to make their way with Kuzgun on a different path through the woods. "Haydi, Cilek. We must follow them to their camp or lair, it will surely lead us to their master." "Do we leave our horses?" Melike asked, and Goktug nodded. "Better to follow them on foot," he said, and Melike agreed with a nod of her own before the two set off after them, keeping their footsteps soft on the ground as they pushed through the flora.

It did not take long before they were led to what clearly was a Mongol camp, decorated with bloody skulls of both animals and humans alike, and large blue and red banners hanging from wooden pillars that were thrusted into the ground. Melike scrunched her nose at the ghastly smell of religious incense that filled the air, mixed with the whiff of what seemed to be rotting corpses.

She and Goktug would have gone in further, to see who ran the camp and who Kuzgun was directly working for, but there were too many soldiers crowded around and patrolling- it was difficult for them to even hide with the number of people there were in the large base belonging to the Mongols. Goktug pulled his wife down behind the bushes deeper, nearly squashing her with his weight in an attempt to hide her. "Ouch, Goktug," she hissed, and he apologized immediately. "Sorry," he whispered, as they watched the dispatch of soldiers that they had seen earlier trot in on their horses, dragging Kuzgun behind them.

"Look!" Melike pointed toward a group of Alps amongst the crowd of Mongols in the camp, their eyes on the entrance to the camp as Kuzgun was being brought in. "Oh, you back-stabbing, betraying little shits," muttered Goktug, and Melike did not even notice his use of vulgar language as she too, was annoyed beyond her own knowledge. "They look like Coban Alps," she whispered. "They must be involved-" "Would Yavlak Arslan know about this?" asked Goktug, and Melike shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Maybe let us go in for a closer look-?"