1 The first steps

"RUN" said the older brother as the two children ran as quickly as they could across the streets of the sales district. "GET BACK HERE THIEF" Yelled the vendor as he chased after the two. The two maneuvered their way past carts crates and jumped fences as quickly as possible trying to get away. With two years of experience on stealing whatever it was they needed they quickly managed to get away from anyone who was after them. As soon as they could the two hid in an alleyway to search through what they stole, after two days of not eating they desperately ripped open the bag and grabbed two apples each and half a loaf of bread, although stale they teared at the fact they could eat something. "Do you think things will change in the future for the both of us?'' asked the younger brother. "I don't know," Said the older brother as he looked away."cmon lets go back to the hideout" he said as he smiled. They both got up and out from hiding and started walking towards their hideout while avoiding anyone who might recognize them. Because they have no one to care for them they live in an empty forest with nothing but trees and below one tree was an entrance to a small bunker. The two brothers entered their hideout. As they entered the younger brother spoke " I wish we were strong so that we could leave this place and go somewhere better and wouldn't have to steal and get beaten when we get caught" he said as he sat on the ground tearing up. "Where would we go? Nobody cares about peasants like us, we can't work, and we can't survive out in the forest if we left." The younger brother frowned before standing back up. As the two were speaking they heard voices outside their hideout, immediately the older brother looked outside just barely sticking out his head and he saw the vendor from earlier with three other men each one armed with either a sword or axe. "What's happening?" asked the younger brother worriedly. "We need to leave NOW!" said the older brother with fear in voice. As soon as the four men outside the hideout weren't looking, the two children escaped as quickly as possible, running as fast as they could fearing for the worst. As soon as they were both out one of the men noticed the two brothers and immediately called out the others towards the brothers. "There they are," said the Vendor, "AFTER THEM!" He yelled out, immediately the four men started chasing the two children with intent to kill. "DON'T LOOK BACK JUST KEEP RUNNING" screamed the older brother. The two ran for their lives avoiding all the branches running as quickly as possible until the younger brother tripped over the root of a tree. "HELP" he cried out. Quickly the elder brother helped him up and they both ran once again but the four men were quickly catching up to them. "QUICKLY WE NEED TO GET TO A RIVER NEARBY, remember the time we made a small raft off whatever wood we could find?" he said while panting. "Once we get there we need to place the raft in the water and get in as quickly as possible." "ok but how far away is it from here? ''asked the younger brother. "Not too far as long as we can get there with no problem we should be able to get away from the vendor and his friends." The brothers ran and ran with only the hope that they could get to the raft before the men caught them. The four were slowly growing tired but so were the children. The vendor was not willing to give up on the chase and instead started throwing whatever he could pick up from the ground until one finally hit the elder brother directly on the head. The elder brother felt the pain but kept running for the sake of his younger brother until finally they made it to the raft at the river, they both quickly pushed it to the water and quickly got on. Relieved that they made it to the raft they smiled at each other but the vendor wouldn't give up and instead threw his axe and as it traveled through the air the axe missed the two brothers but hit the raft directly on the bit of roped that held it together and the pieces of wood starting coming apart quickly the two brothers each tried to hold the raft together by grabbing the rope but it wasn't enough. The raft came apart and the two brothers grabbed as much of the wood they could to try and float in the river as they both were struggling to hold on while in the water but the speed of the water did not make it easy. "HOLD ON WE CAN MAKE IT THROUGH THIS!" yelled the elder brother. "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THE WATER" said the younger brother panicking as he could just barely stay above water. The two brothers, already being far enough from the vendor and the other 3 men, struggled trying to get out of the water. " GRAB MY HAND" yelled the elder brother. The younger brother kicked his legs as hard as he could and the older brother did the same both gasping for air until they finally joined hands and managed to both leave the water. Both wet, cold, and extremely tired immediately dropped to the ground. The older brother passed out and the younger brother instead sat up and looked around wondering where they ended up. There were still many trees surrounding the area except here it was darker than usual. Although the sun was still shining and it was the middle of the day, the further you looked into the forest the darker it got. The younger brother shook the older brother trying to wake him up. "Hey, what are we supposed to do now? We can't go back or those men will probably be waiting for us and we don't know what might be here in the forest." The elder brother didn't respond, so the younger brother nudged him once more. Hey, are you ok? Wake up, we can't stay here!" The younger brother got worried so he tried to sit up the older brother but as he was doing so he realized there was blood coming off from the back of his head. "ARE YOU OK?! PLEASE WAKE UP!'' The wound from the back of his head wasn't enough to kill him but with all the running and swimming along with the adrenalin it must have drained him of all the energy he had. The younger brother spent the next three days suffering alone as he was dragging his brother throughout the forest on a bit of wood tied together from the bits they still had from the raft. The further they traveled into the forest it got darker and creepier. Finally as he was resting for a bit the older brother woke up. "Everything hurts," said the older brother. "You're finally awake, I spent 2 days dragging you around. Are you alright?" "If you think sore all around and hungry is ok then yeah" said the older brother.