13 Reunion Part 2

Panda gnawed on his fingernails and looked around every couple steps at his surroundings. His heart beat faster and faster and he started sweating profusely. Since overhearing that one guy he felt apprehended and grew paranoid.

To make matters worse, they had to go to the residence of that one person no one in the group ever wanted to meet. Sure, finding his classmates took priority but he couldn't help and imagine what kind of punishment he would have to endure if he was caught.

Slaves seemed like an established fact in this place. Did slaves possess human rights? Probably not. Could they eat satisfying food? Nope. Did they have the guarantee that nobody would assault them from behind? Never. Shivers ran down his spine and he remembered the words the drunk guy spat out about 'delicious and tender young children'. His face got paler and paler and his imaginations were running wild. Just when he was about to imagine scenes he would never forget in his live, he stumbled upon Vincent in front of him.

"S-sorry.", he apologised.

Vincent and Claire stood there in front of the entrance to the mansion and gazed at it with fearful eyes. In the place where a big gate or door should have been, was actually nothing at all. Nothing hindered them from moving in to take a look inside, but weirdly enough that deterred them even more so.

Now that they were so close to it, the entrance looked like a wide open black hole, swallowing everything that dared to tread in its path!

They looked at each other one last time and confirmed their decision once again before they picked up the few pieces of courage they had left to step foot inside.

They first took small glimpses from the side of the entrance to make sure nobody was inside. After securing the area, they made their way through and found a big hallway in front of them.

The lighting was worse than outside, maybe because the 'Boss' was already asleep there weren't any torches around the place.

Still they could discern the outlines of some of the objects. To their left was a staircase that led upwards. In the right corner, there was a desk and baskets full of .... weapons! Swords and sabres of different sizes laid there inside. In the upper left corner was a small cabinet and in the upper right corner were big and tall ... constructs?

The children closed in further into the room and the constructs turned out to be cages! Cages made out of metal! But what shocked them even more, were the captives inside! Their classmates! They finally found them! They laid there still sleeping.

"Hehehe, what do we have here I wonder?"

A rusty voice came from inside one of the cages. The children flinched when they heard the voice but luckily didn't make a sound. To their surprise it was an old man draped in dirty dark garbs. He looked at them with a curious smile on his face. His eyes looked dark-green, his limbs and face haggard with a brown tan and his white hair was dishelveled.

Silence broke out between the two parties and the children didn't know what to do in this situation. This was actually the first person they had made real contact with since entering the camp and according to their rules they should escape immediately upon being exposed. But the old man seemed harmless and he was also just a captive, so what could he do?

Next to the old man, the captivated children moved slightly.

It seemed like the old man's voice had awoken some of them from their deep slumber.

The first one to wake up was a muscular tall boy with dark skin and black hair. Shock was written on his face when he saw the people in front of him. He couldn't believe his eyes and he had to blink several times till he recognized his classmates again. His breathing quickened and he wanted to speak up but Vincent walked up to him and held his finger on his mouth and whispered to him:

"Shhh, stay quite Kyle, if you don't want us to get caught as well!"

Kyle realized the situation they were currently in and the iron bars of the cages fell into his eyes. He remembered the things that had happened to him and his friends today and tears poured out of his eyes but he didn't make a sound. Another person woke up next to him, but before she could even see what had happened, Kyle covered Lora's mouth with his hand. He was already having a hard time not to scream and shout out loudly and he knew she would have even less restrains to keep her feelings down. As if to confirm his thoughts, the moment she saw Vincent's group outside the cage, a muffled shout came out of her mouth and Kyle could feel how his hands got warmer because of her heavy breathing.

She didn't try to stop him and just sat there silently while a stream of tears ran down her eyes.

Vincent Panda and Claire had troubles themselves to stay clear headed and keep their emotions under control. They knew that the situation didn't allow them to releax. Danger lurked around every corner and they had to act quickly.

"Where are the rest?", Claire asked with teary red eyes.

.............

Meanwhile in the other camp

Sieg wanted to continue discussing some issues with Gorst. He wasn't sure how reliable of a source for information Gorst was but he didn't have much of a choice here.

Gorst was still half naked and tied up but he didn't resist anymore as much as he did in the beginning. He just looked around and observed the children move and do their stuff.

"Hey, what's so interesting?", Sieg asked Gorst.

"Nothing much.", Gorst turned his attention towards Sieg now. They looked at each other silently and Gorst broke the silence first:

"May this lowly one know which noble house this Sir is coming from?", he asked with a humble voice and nice smile, but his eyes revealed certain suspicion.

"We aren't nobles! So there is no house that we could come from. Why do you think we would be nobles?"

"I knew it haha, so you aren't haha. Well, that was a fault on my part I guess. It's your clothes Sir. They are ... too clean, and ... White! This colour is reserved for the most noble people in Aldara. So it's no wonder I assumed you were such."

The Uniforms? It was because of their School Uniforms?

"And, who do you think we are now? And what did you say, Aldara? Is that where we are?"

"You can't be nobles, that is for sure. The Lady earlier sure is brutal but she doesn't have that haughty and arrogant mannerism most nobles possess and I don't believe nobles would ask such stupid questions either. You must be foreigners, most probably children of rich merchants. I guess you got robbed, fled and stranded in the Maze Forest somehow. It's a miracle you have survived till now though. Congratulations I suppose hahaha!"

Sieg already started missing the stupidly acting Gorst. He was less annyoing at least than the version in front of him.

He didn't refute him regarding the rich merchants claim. It didn't matter for now, and he didn't seem to believe him even if Sieg told him he was wrong.

"You haven't answered my questions yet. Aldara? Maze Forest? How are they connected with each other?"

"Playing the guide for a bunch of rich brats, tz. Listen foreigner, this land is part of the Aldara Empire, and you unlucky souls got dragged into the Maze Forest by some unfortunate circumstances. The Maze Forest is a mysterious area that stretches into all kinds of places all over the World!"

"What? How can that be? No way, the forest can be this big! This doesn't make sense!"

"Yes it doesn't and that's the point hahaha! Many people wonder how the forest could be so vast and far-reaching but none are any wiser. You can find traces of it everywhere you go, and the most mystifying thing is that even though its parts are separated by seas and mountains, people who were once thought lost in one part of the country appeared in a completely different country hundreds of kilometers away instead! And the key to that is the fog!"

"Fog?"

"Yes, the Maze Fog! 'Once the Maze Fog appears, run away run away, or it will take you to a place far away far way!' Even small children possess this much knowledge about this. It appears in irregular intervals and swallows any living being that is so stupid to step into it. Where they land and what fate awaits them is up to the Gods to decide! In the best case they only find themselves in a foreign country and in the worst case ... they might be near a den of wild beasts and monsters hahaha!"

Sieg felt a headache coming. So much nonsense he couldn't comprehend at once.

"So why are you here? Why are you and your Boss here if it's so dangerous in this forest?"

"Because the Boss is blessed by the heavens or by the devil, who knows. He knows which parts are dangerous and which contain valuable resources or villages to plunder. That's the only reason we are all following him. He says, he is hearing the angel's voice which leads him into safety and victory. But sometimes at night, you can hear his pained loud screams everywhere in the camp, and as if being possessed by the devil he attacks anybody who gets near him. Pray to the Gods, that your friends come back safe and sound or else ..."

"Shut up with this stupid rubbish!", Sieg told him furiously. It was bad enough with all the garbage he kept spouting, but talking bad about his classmates who were risking their lives right crossed his bottom line!

"You and me know, that we are stuck in the same boat here! If you can't provide us with any useful information, we might as well leave you here tied up so that their scouts find you, sooner or later!", Sieg threatened him.

Gorst gulped down his saliva. He realized again, in what kind of situation he was currently stuck in. The kids held the upper hand, so it was better to cooperate for now at least.

"Hey, hey, don't get angry. Don't worry, if your friends are careful enough the drunk guards right now shouldnt be able to detect them for a short while. And I do believe that you are all quite smart. Smarter than most kids I've seen in my life. And you're right, you are the Bosses now and I will help you with my utmost efforts! Even though it's been quite some while, I remember the way to the last village we run over. If I retrace the trails we should be able to get to safety somewhere."

"Where is that village?", Sieg asked after he calmed down.

"To the south!"

"What about the east and west?"

"I am not sure about the west, but we can't go to the east! Definitly not! Our Boss told us that the Maze Fog was going to erupt there tonight!"

"Is that so...", Sieg mumbled silently.

Suddenly Anastasia rushed over to him:

"Sieg! Bad News!"

"What?"

"Charlotte! She is gone!"