Tale of Death

Chapter 8 - Suna Desert 2

The bandits slowly approached the carriage from all sides, keeping their eyes on all the possible places someone could come out from, some had their eyes locked on Shi and the older man.

Shi couldn't help but be scared and worried at the same time about her possible pending doom, sweat ran down her face and her hand started to shake from fear. While this was going on, she still tried her best to calm herself down, she knew it wasn't the time to be scared but instead the time to try to rationally figure a way out of this situation.

She moved back to the back of the wagon, hiding behind the wood that blocked the front, she placed her eyes against a small hole she found in the wood. The hole wasn't very big, but it did what she wanted it to, allowing her to see outside without being seen herself, limiting her to only seeing anyone from the direct location.

Through this peeping hole, she was able to notice a tall and muscular copper-skinned man, walking towards the wagon with what seemed like a great ax in his hand. She quickly moved her eyes away from the hole, hoping that she wasn't spotted, but doubting they would notice her. She had to think of a way to get out of this, there is no way she could fight that man, let alone the 5 others with him, running was the best choice.

She had no weapons so she couldn't try to fight, not that she wanted to, that would just be a waste of a new life, they were all probably armed with weapons and maybe even magic, while she didn't have any of those. Her best bet was to just wait for the perfect moment and make a run for it, but that was going to be extremely dangerous and could end badly if not timed right.

The bandits approached the front of the carriage. Her mind snapped out of her thoughts as she heard a yelp from the dwarf driver as he was grabbed by his clothes and thrown onto the ground, by the tall man. Shi was able to see this because she went back to peeping through the tiny hole.

As the man lay on the ground, clearly in pain from the bash, another one of the bandits approached him. It was a female whose face was covered by cloth and seemed to be wearing a very long dress covering her whole body, from top to bottom which Shi assumed was possible to prevent sand and the sun from affecting her.

She took out a dagger that was attached to her thighs under the dress, kneeling her body down to the man on the ground. She grabbed him by the head and yanked it backward, moving the hand that held the dagger, she placed it against the man's neck. For a split second that followed, she seemed to stop, as if thinking about something, but as the driver was about to react in order to protect himself, the woman slit the blade along his neck.

The blade ran across the man's throat, tendons, and veins, all of them being slashed in the process, cut open as the blade was pulled across the man's neck slowly and back out.

Blood gushed from the wound and gore dripped from the open neck, splattering onto the sandy floor as they fall forward. The man's body fell to the ground as she let go of him, his body starting to spasm from the pain and blood loss. It didn't last long though, soon the body stopped and fell limped, Shi knew what this meant.

Once again all Shi saw was red, the red blood gushing out of the man's neck as he died, his lifeless body falling onto the sand of the desert painting it red. Shi couldn't help but get a bit emotional, she didn't know the man a lot, or even all the well, but, he did give her some advice over the time they were together.

Now was not the time for that though, no tears, she controlled her emotions, worried was all she felt now, she knew if she messed up that might be her next, she had to do it perfectly and run, even if she doesn't know where she's running to, she knew she just needed to run.

One of the male bandits, the one Shi had previously seen, approached the carriage from the front. He walked up to the door that was located on the righthand side of the carriage which was also the only way she could get out from. Even though he had moved out of sight from the hole, shi could tell he was trying to get it open because of the shaking from the door.

Thankfully Shi had thought ahead and locked it with the latch from inside, stopping them from getting in. Although in hindsight that may have been a rather bad idea, since it alerted the bandits that someone was located inside the carriage still, not that she had a choice. It was either lock it and let them know someone was still inside, or, leave it open and let them see her inside.

The muscle man, what Shi had decided to start calling the bandit, took a few steps back and in a running dash, rammed himself into the door breaking it open into pieces. Shi was in utterly stunned that someone was able to just easily break through a wooden door like that with just their body, however, Shi had no time to be in shock, she was seen by the man so she needed to act fast.

Shi got up and dashed to the door with all the strength she had in her malnourished body, attempting to slip under the man and get out of the carriage. She was successful in doing this, it seemed that the man was all strength no speed, so he wasn't about to grab him.

Unfortunately for Shi, this wasn't the same for the other bandits, especially the female bandit that killed the old man, as she was standing right outside the carriage.

'Shit!' She thought to herself as she quickly attempted to change the direction she was running in, but the female bandit was faster than her at the time. She reacted fast enough to get in front of her body and stabbed her dagger into Shi's thigh, causing her to fall to the ground and howl out in pain.