46 Ch 46. Struggle

"You...Just...We.....Ready....." Was all Kaz could make out in his delirium. Trying to move his body he found it hard. Was it weakness due to lack of sleep that kept him from moving or something else? He could feel his body being lifted up by someone. Who was moving him? He wanted to open his eyes but found them too heavy to move. What was going on around him? 

"No!" He heard a scream for help but who's was it? Sarah, Perish, it frustrated him. He was preparing for this moment for weeks now and now that it's here he is helpless to do anything.

"A finger, just a finger. if I can at least get moving a little maybe I will wake up." He thought to himself. Putting all his strength into it he focused on his finger. Starting with his pinky he nudged it and then slowly moved it back and fourth.

"Progress... now for my eyes..." breathing hard now and feeling even more exhausted he tried to open them. Slowly but surely they made it open. Bright light blinded him for a moment as he adjusted to his surroundings. In front of him was the Caravan leader talking to a group he had not seen before. Looking over to his side he noticed Perish struggling against something. His focus was too blurred to make out what it was.

He looked to his right and Windson was also struggling against something. Using his strength he tried to move to help him but found that his hands were stuck above him. Looking up his vision slowly came into view as he saw he was tied up to a log. He looked around and saw that all of his friends were tied to logs. Each one trying to get free to no avail. His hearing returned and he heard Perish cursing the man who tied them up.

"I'll kill you!" She screamed as she struggled to break free. Sarah just whimpered and Windson was silently looking around. Most likely for a way to escape. The thing that confused Kaz the most was where was Peter in all of this? He was not sure how they got themselves into this mess but he was not about to lose everyone. Looking back at the Caravan leader he could make out the people now. There were four of them. One noble looking man with what looked like a body guard, another smaller creepier looking man in black tattered robes and a woman in eloquent revealing clothing looking back at him and smiling. It looked to be a smile of interest but he knew a humans smile carried with it more venom than anything.

"What happened?" He croaked out weakly to which Windson calmly replied.

"It looks like they tricked us."

"What do you mean?"

Perish barked back at him in the same tone she held so far. "They plan to sell us like objects!" The Caravan leader lead the group of his towards the four captives starting on the left he talked about them as if they were property.

"On our left we have two beautiful and completely in tact women. The human is an innocent piece and the wolf girl is feisty but obedient."

Walking towards Kaz he put his hand on the kobolds chest and patted it as he continued. "In the center we have a competent fighter. Saw it with my own eyes he manages to kill many bandits and even took out their leader."

Making his way towards Windson the smaller ragged man piped up. "This one is a native of the monster side I can smell it."

The Caravan leader let out a chuckle and nodded. "You have a good nose. This one wears the clothing of a human but once removed you can easily tell he is more bat than man."

"I want this one so don't you dare try to buy him from under me Relish." The ragged man spoke with eagerness in his voice.

"I don't want that one Grimish, I want the cute one in the middle." The woman giggled as she slightly caressed Kaz's cheek.

The noble gave a hearty laugh and pointed at the girls. "Of course those are the ones I want. you know my taste well Andi." He said to the Caravan Leader who smiled. But wasn't there another one in the group?"

"Unfortunately he managed to escape the capture. Rest assured it was just a human male and not one that was very impressive to begin with." Andi spoke as if uneventful.

"If he was unimpressive then how come he got away?" Relish asked with a melodic tone in her voice that hinted at incompetence.

"We let him go. he was not worth the trouble not with these four valuables in front of us."

"We all picked the ones we wanted. How much are you going to over charge us this time old man?" The noble said with a little humor but also spite behind his tone."

"Now Coran, you sting me with those words. Aren't we all friends here? Since they were very helpful and caused no problems for me how about we settle it at our normal prices." Andi said rubbing his hands.

The three nodded in agreement and Andi greedily gathered the pouches of coins from each of them before they brought in their own caged wagons to split the group up and be on their way.

"Mission Failed- Protect your friends. Reward time <3"< p>

Kaz felt his gut sink as he saw those words pop up. This was the first time he had ever failed a mission before. He was not looking forward to the consequences. More importantly he was not looking forward to what would happen to his friends.

From the distance Peter was watching them. Marking down in his notebook the direction each of his friends were traveling. He had determination in his eyes as well as an anger he had never felt before.