Chapter 23

Two days have passed since Auron gathered them into a meeting, the team bought all the things they needed for their journey. In these past two days, Auron continued his performance every night to earn as much money as he could. Then he separated 100 gold coins, which is just a small portion for his own travel while the rest of the money were given to Marlena.

The five of them were ready to leave and Bana cried in sadness.

To console her, Auron said he will stay for another two days before leaving for Braavos. Fortunately, he was able to convince the little girl to be strong and to take care of her grandma.

At this time, all of them were in the port as the five of them was about to board the ship going to White Harbor.

"We will see each other again soon, don't fail me."

Marlena almost cried but she managed to stop her tears. She immediately wore her game face with a look of determination in her eyes.

Auron patted Bronn's shoulder and said, "Take care, my friend. Be seeing you."

Bronn nodded and boarded the ship followed by Marlena, Melisandre, Heman and Shera.

Bana was sitting on Auron's shoulder waving her hands goodbye.

When the ship disappeared on the horizon, Auron and Bana returned home.

While the little girl was taking care of her grandma, Auron said he's going out to do some errands. He let Hedwig stay to play with the little girl just to keep her busy and occupied.

Auron went to the slums area weaving through the streets. He then stopped at the corner watching Daenerys in the distance. She was sitting at the corner of an alley a few meters from him. Her clothes were quite dirty and she was crying leaning on her knees.

Auron sighed as he cannot resist consoling her. He looked around and found a patch of forget-me-not flowers from crevice of the city wall. He plucked three stems of the flower and fetched 10 gold coins from his coin purse before placing it in a clean cloth.

He walks towards her and saw she was busy crying that she didn't notice someone is approaching. He hurriedly place the cloth in front of her with the forget-me-not flowers before leaving swiftly. He hid in the corner watching her.

Finally he saw her looking up and she looked surprised to see what was in front of her. She hurriedly took it, afraid someone will claim them before looking around trying to find the mysterious individual who gave it to her.

"I hope you endure the challenges my dear." Auron muttered before leaving the slums.

After leaving the slums, Auron went to find Baldy and his group. They were frightened when they didn't noticed he was suddenly among them.

"Baldy, I'm about to leave Tyrosh. It's been a pleasure doing business with you."

"Oh, that's a pity then. Thank you for hiring us Storyteller."

"Well, it's not a pity because I have another proposal for you."

"Oh, I thought that this will be the last time you'll see us."

"Perhaps."

"Very well, let's hear it."

"Given the ability of your group, I assume that you all know where I am staying, right?"

Baldy suddenly got nervous, "It's not what you think, we're merely curious. We won't spill on you."

"Relax, it's good to know that you have this intention. Listen, there were two people currently living in that house. An old lady and a young girl named Bana. The task I have for you is to protect them in secret. You have two options on what to do once the old lady dies. First is you take care of the young girl for me until I come back to get her. Or option two, which is to escort her to Westeros in White Harbor. My only requirement is no harm must be done to her. No funny business. In return, I'll give every single coin I earn tonight. Deal?"

Baldy doesn't know if he should accept it or not. He feels like it's a trap.

"I will give you a substantial amount of gold once you have delivered her to me safely."

Baldy gritted his teeth and accepted the deal by clasping Auron's hand.

"Deal."

"Very good, it is really nice to be doing business with you. But I must warn you though, I have a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long journey. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If something happens to the girl when I'm gone.."

Then Auron suddenly changed his tone into a hoarse voice. "I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

Baldy gulped hard and he vigorously nodded while sweating profusely.

Auron smiled and said, "What the hell are you guys waiting for? We have a customers to satisfy. You'll be my collector for tonight."

As everything was settled and arranged properly, Auron felt a huge stone was lifted off his shoulders. He is ready to leave and the little girl was sad because of it. What he promised in consolation is, he will send Hedwig to her from time to time.

Auron also secretly left 20 gold coins in her room and a note containing instructions. Thankfully, Marlena was able to teach her how to read during their stay. She was a fast learner and she have a sharp mind. She just lack proper guidance in literature.

He must admit that he already grew fond of her. She was like his niece in his past life. Very lively and energetic. A jumping bundle of joy and many times he was tempted not to leave and wait for her grandma to pass away. But he have to..he had to.

He doesn't want to see her crying on his departure so he sneakily left the house and went to the port early. He managed to board a ship going to Braavos and the vessel left Tyrosh right away without waiting for additional passengers. Auron looked back at the city of Tyrosh taking a deep breath. He promised to himself that he will take care of the people he left there and protect them under his wing someday.

The journey from Tyrosh to Braavos took 7 days and half sailing day and night. The captain of the ship recognized him and decided to waive off his fee. He just have to sing something on the deck to let his crew become entertained during the trip. Auron didn't reject his good will so their journey to Braavos became fun and enjoyable.

But as they say, when you are too happy, Uncle Murphy will suddenly kick your nuts. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Two days away from their destination, they suddenly encountered pirates. The crew went to high alert, ready to engage the incoming enemy.

Auron on the other hand was still relaxed. He search for the captain and found him on the bow of the ship.

"Captain, could you lend me your best bow and a quiver full of arrows?"

The captain turned around looking at him with surprised expression.

"You want to fight them? I was under the impression that you aren't the type of guy who fights."

"You'd be surprised. There's always a first time for everything. Who said a storytellers doesn't fight?"

"They do?"

"Well, I can't speak for bards but for me, I'm more of a balance type. Doesn't hurt to learn something to defend yourself. You might not know this but I'm also a sellsword."

The captain shook his head clearly not believing him or rather doesn't have much hope of what he will do. But the captain obliged lending him a fine long bow with quiver full of arrows.

The whole ship was in a tense atmosphere. Watching the slowly approaching pirate ship.

Without wasting any time, Auron climbed up to the crow's nest assessing the distance of the enemy. Fortunately, it was still daylight albeit a little cloudy afternoon.

He let Hedwig fly to scout the number of the enemies. He warg into Hedwig as he fly over the enemy ship. He counted the number on the deck and it was around 50 pirates ready to swing into their ship using ropes.

He warg out of Hedwig and began to feel the long bow. He tested the strength of the bowstring finding it somewhat decent.

He nocked an arrow, pulled the bowstring to the maximum and aimed.

Fwooooooooooooosh chuk!

The first pirate to go down was the helmsman. With help of Hedwig earlier, he remember the locations of every important person on the pirate ship. With helmsman gone, the pirate ship has slowed down.

Fwoooooooooooshh!

Another pirate fell down to the sea.

Down below, the crew in Auron's ship didn't know anything about the pirates being attacked but then one of the crew finally noticed the pirates falling to the sea one by one.

"Look, what is that? Why are the pirates falling down to the sea?"

The captain squinted his eyes and said, "They are being attacked."

"Attacked by who?"

As if on cue, they heard a crisp sound of a bowstring vibrating at the top of their ship's mast. All of them looked up to the source of the sound. Then they noticed, everytime the bowstring sounded, a pirate would fall down.

"Oh my Merling King! Who's that?" The Captain exclaimed in astonishment as he pointed at their ship's crow's net.

"It was the Storyteller!"

"His skill in archery was on par with the most powerful archer in Summer Islands."

They suddenly noticed that the sound becomes faster and faster while their distance from the pirate ship became farther and farther.

Fwoooooooooooooosh!

Fwooooooooosh!!

Fwoosh

Then the sounds completely stopped. The same thing happened to the pirate ship. The people on the passenger ship weren't able to come to their senses until the pirate ship became a tiny speck of dot on the horizon.

All the passengers aboard was still stunned silly. They were all still dead silent.

Then they heard someone coming down from the mast.

"Ahhh~ Finally! Some peace and quiet." Auron came down from the crow's nest landing steadily on the deck. He then walk up to the Captain after spotting him from the crowd. His footsteps was the only sound that can be heard by everyone.

Auron stopped infront of the captain intending to return the bow and said, "Here, thanks for lending it to me."

The captan felt nervous and said, "Oh no no no, you just saved everyone. Take the bow as token of my gratitude."

"Are you sure? This a fine bow we're talking about."

"Aye, thank you for saving all of us."

"I will accept it then. If you don't mind, captain, I will have to excuse myself. I'm quite tired and I think needed some rest."

"Of course."

Auron walked back inside the ship to return to his own room.

Meanwhile, hushes and whispers sounded as they excitedly talked about what happened earlier.

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