10 The British Empire

************( 45 minutes later)..

Lautner and jill arrived burckingham in a horse and carriage, anf already half way towards the path leading to the royal castle.

The taste for singing had already faded out of lautners lips, he had become exhausted.

Jill had slept off before their arrival at burckingham, after minutes of ruminating about matters concerning her past and her present life.

Sleep made Jill unaware the carriage have arrived burckingham and already looking to take a path leading towards the castle, about five miles away.

At that time, they were riding amidst the confines of trees, it flanked the left and the right side of the road they rode on, it was quiet, lonley and broody, full of hysteria, you can't imagine the specific sudden danger that may occur, anything could possibly happen.

Lautner heard rustlings and scufflings coming from inside the woods, to him it sounded sinister, an accost by predators or bandits was what he thought, lautner kept his heads up, his ears wide and concentration too.

Astride a stallion he was sitting, looking side by side, having experienced an event as deadly as war, never removed fear as one of his feelings, he was afraid.

He looked around and at his further left, he saw a burnt wood, and an orange tree with kink branches.

Some people must have camped here Lautner thought, induced by the evidences he saw.

A little rustle came from behind, Lautner shifted his head towards his back, he looked to see if there was someone stalking the carriage from behind. He never cared to wake Jill up to help him spy around, he thought not to involve her in a blood cuddling situation.

She would only panic rather than help out, Jill is a person that can be startled by the cracking sound of a piece of wood, she would probably be a dead-weight in this sort of situation. Lautner thought.

Lautner changed his view to his front, and he saw four blubbery men, pot bellied and tartared looking. The blubbery men ascending out from the woods, with their hands strapped over the handle of a mattock, they had sinister motives for wielding such a deadly weapon.

Lautner and the carriage were two miles towards reaching the front Bailey of burckingham castle, if given a chance , he just needed to elude the blubbery men in some way and they'd be safe.

The four blubbery men filled the path where lautners carriage was going to pass through, causing a road block.

Lautner stroked his bridle gently, the stallion halted, bringing the whole carriage to a stop.

"Who may you all be.?" Lautner inquired.

The four blubbery men exchanged looks within themselves, taking a while, they all smiled.

"We aren't here to exchange identities, one of them spoke, he was in front of the rest, making him look more like he was their leader, he was Edgar Howe, a bandit famously known in the British kingdom.

"Just hand over all you got, and we will be on our way, leaving you and your life intact." Said Edgar Howe.

"Is that a threat.?" Lautner asked.

"Not yet,

but failure to comprehend, will make it a threat." Edgar replied

Lautner cackled, it was expressive of disdain.

"Am sorry I dont bargain with scally-wags." Lautner said.

"He is calling us worthless, Edgar." One of them said with a squeaky tone to Edgar who stood in front of them all.

"Don't feel offended Matt, we will know who is more worthless, a scally-wag or a corpse." Edgar's appearance contoured into that of an angry man. The mow, the tight spout, and a brightly stroked frown-line explained how angry Edgar had become.

Edgar swung his mattock in a swirly motion, showing off how skilled he was in handling them, must have butchered a lot of his adversaries with it, he was about to add Lautner to the list.

Tension rose, it sent lautners stallion marching and neighing uncontrollably, it's senses told it, danger was feasible.

The neighs, and bickering forced Jill out of sleep, inside the carriage, she woke up, a little confused about the location, she knew she was in a carriage. But.

" why aren't we moving?" She asked.

Unresistedly, she fell to the tempt of looking outside for she heard people arguing, Jill sled open the curtains by her side, and put her head out to see what was happening outside.

She saw four blubbery men making up grounds towards Lautner, weilding mattocks.

"Argghhh.!" She shrieked, and it drove an attention towards her, one of the bandits saw her before she sled her head-back into the carriage, breathing out loud, with her eyes bulged and mouth widely open. "why did I scream" she asked herself covering her lips in awe.

She knew one of the men saw her, and he'd be coming for her.

*****Outside the carriage******

It was almost going to be said, the bandits closed in on lautner,

He was half beleaguered.

Lautner's fists molded over the bridle on his stallion, he had a plan that seemed audacious, and also had two results which are mutually exclusive to the eachother, if his plan works for him, he lives, if it doesn't, he dies.

"You are our last hope boy, don't let me down" he spoke to the stallion, It produced thick sizzling sound from it's nose, as a reply to Lautner.

Lautner flogged the bridle thrice in a manner and a speed called quick successions.

The stallion bolted ahead, seeming unintrested in not trampling over the bandits with it's foot.

The bandits sled into halves, as the stallion forged its course towards their direction, two bandits flanked the left path, with Edgar and Matt the right side, they all brought out their swords and cut loose the ropes attached to the carriage as the carriage forged through their midst,

the stallion took off with only Lautner on it and ropes bellowing wildly in the air, Lautner rode on to get help.

The carriage crawled to a few meters before squelching right in front of the bandits.

Jill was in the carriage alone, shivering and griping her biceps with both hands, all but what they would do to her was her fear.