15 A very unexpected encounter

`Crey, Dacks and Jayde. I can't let them live, they will soon find out about their friends` deaths and they may decide to follow my trail to avenge them. Worrying about bandits trailing me to kill me would make my journey... uncomfortable.`

After packing his belongings and looting the bandits Damian decided to eliminate the other bandits before they became a threat.

It took him an hour to find a good place to hide his horse and supplies, as taking them with him to the bandits' camp would not only ruin the element of surprise but also endanger Marengo`s life. It would only take one stray arrow to finish off his horse, Damian will not place his horse's life in Lady Fortune's hands.

Armed with his bow and quiver on his back, and his sword at his waist, as well as his throwing knives hidden in different parts of his body, Damian Artois sets out on his hunt.

***

The night dyes the forest black and gives it a gloomy air that it would not have during the day, the shadows dance on the ground and the branches of the trees moved by the wind produce sounds similar to the cries of a soul in pain.

Even the brilliant silver moonlight fails to lighten the mood.

If Damian were a more superstitious and cautious man he would be trembling in his boots and dare not cross the forest in its darkest hour. But no, he doesn't care about ghosts or spirits. Careful not to step on loose twigs or dry leaves, he moves like a cat towards his prey.

The bandits' camp is in a clearing about five meters from the stream, in the center there is a bonfire and on the side closest to the stream there are five horses tied to some trees.

Seeing the horses, Damian can already see the coins for which he will sell them in the nearest village.

`Coins later, now l have to deal with these three.`

A man is sitting on a log around the fire, warming his hands and shivering slightly from the cold.

The Reach has warm days and nights in summer, but as fall approaches the first signs of the end of the sunny and happy season are cold and windy nights. Currently the temperature is still quite warm during the day, not a scorching heat like in the middle of summer but a placid and relaxing one, but the nights turn cold and dark. Even the light of the stars seems to diminish in intensity in this period in which the seasons change.

The other two men are curled up in their sleeping bags, well if one would feel charitable enough to call the blankets they're curled up in like a caterpillar sleeping bags.

`Good, this is the perfect spot.`

Damian takes his bow in his left hand and three arrows in his right hand. He places an arrow on the bowstring and moves a little to the left for better aim.

`Aim.`

He fixes his aim on the man who is sitting by the fire. His back is to him, so he doesn't have to worry about the bandit seeing him.

`Prepare the arrow and then shoot.`

He pulls the bowstring and after a moment he releases the arrow, which flies through the air like a rocket until it hits the target. The bandit falls to the ground, and as he does so a sound is heard as he drops the knife and the apple he had in his hands.The knife bounces off a stone with a noise that echoes through the camp.

`Shit, I didn't see the knife.`

Damian quickly moves to change position.

***

"What the-Crey! Dacks, wake up, someone shot Crey!" Jayde jumps up and grabs the sword he had next to him in one hand and moves in search of the archer, not staying still for a moment so as not to become an easy target.

"Fuck." Dacks takes his ax and looks around him frantically. "Who by the Crone's saggy tits did it?"

"No fucking idea, maybe the hunter Crey robbed the other day." Jayde searches for the archer among the trees as he keeps his ear tuned for any sound but the sound that he and his friend make combined with the neighing of the altered horses drowns out any sound the archer might be making.

"Fuck, I knew we should have killed him! That bastard followed us by foo-" Before he can finish the sentence an arrow pierces his back.

"Got you, cunt!" Jayde runs into the woods and attacks a figure he saw hiding behind a tree.

***

Damian sees the bandit, whose name he thinks is Jayde, running towards him with a raised sword.

`His movements are sloppy, it looks like he is about to hit me with a stick, not slash down. Amateur.`

The redhead dodges the blow and without bothering to unsheath his gladius he throws one of his throwing knives at Jayde, given the short distance between them and the force with which he threw the knife, it plunges into the bandit's chest up to the hilt.

"Argh." The bandit drops his sword and falls to his knees.

The throwing knife plunged into his lung, so death wouldn't welcome him into its arms quickly.

Damian looks into Jayde's terrified eyes and draws his gladius, with a quick swing he cuts deep into the bandit's throat killing him almost instantly.

"Cruelty for the sake of cruelty is unnecessary."

The redhead took the bandit's sword, as well as the sack of coins that he had tied to his waist, and entered the camp.

After quieting the horses he collected all the items he will be able to sell and put them on the horses' backs.

"Let's see, three stots, a mule and a rounseys. Stots usually sell for a little less than a golden dragon, a mule for around 120 silver stags and rounseys for around 450 silver stags. Of course these prices can vary taking into account the horse's breeding, state and age as well as the place and season, things are always cheaper in summer and more expensive in winter. I will keep the mule to carry my supplies and I will sell the rest."

***

Finding a village took him two days, and when he did, he was disappointed because he could only sell one of the horses (a stot) and part of the bandits' supplies and weapons. The village was almost twice the size of Greenwood, but even so there weren't many merchants and the people didn't have much use for horses. Well, rather: they didn't have the coins to buy them.

There were several people who wanted to buy his new horses, but at prices that were downright insulting.

Someone even had the nerve to try to buy the rounsey for two copper stars! Two copper stars! A copper star equals 8 pennies, 16 pennies for a horse worth more than 2 golden dragons!

What an insult!

And the guy even had the nerve to act like it was a great deal! As if he was doing Damian a favor!

The redhead had to bite his tongue not to tell that jerk what he thought of his "oh so generous offer", the last thing Damian wanted was to start a fight so he shut up and ignored him.

`Well, at least my purse is heavier than this morning.` Damian thinks, his coinbag is 270 silver stags heavier. `I started the trip with 1 golden dragon and 52 silver stags, and in just over a week I not only doubled that money in cash but also have about 4 or 5 times more in goods. Lady Fortune is being kind, but I have to stay alert because each gift has its shadow.`

Damian urged Marengo and he began to trot faster, the other 4 horses following closely behind. In the village more than one person looked at him and his belongings with open greed, Damian saw several groups of youngsters huddled in a circle and muttered as they looked at him.

It doesn't take a genius to guess that some are planning to steal his belongings. From their point of view he is just a 12 year old boy with more coins and horses than he needs, an easy prey they would think. If they were more intelligent or observant they would have noticed how Damian's hand is never far from the hilt of his sword or how his eyes dart from side to side looking for any possible threat.

In one-on-one combat, Damian is not afraid of losing against some untrained greedy men, but if he were to be ambushed by many people... That's why he plans to get as far away from the village as possible before it gets dark.

`It was very cautious of me to enter the village at dawn, thankfully I foresaw that greed.`

***

After a day of arduous riding he did not stop at dusk, Damian was cunning and lit several bonfires on his way to mislead possible pursuers and continued advancing until late into the night. When he finally stopped to camp he didn't start a fire.

The wind howls like a raging beast and the moon is hidden by a thick layer of coal-black clouds. From his tent Damian watches as the first drops of rain fall to the ground and he snuggles deeper into his sleeping bag.

The temperature drops further with each rumble in the skies, and soon the entire forest is engulfed in a raging storm.

`I hope the horses don't get sick.` It's the last thing the redhead thinks before falling asleep. When he woke up the darkness of the night was replaced by daylight, but the rain still didn't stop.

Damian looks at the dark gray sky and the abundant rain that bounces between the branches of the trees before falling to the ground and being absorbed by the earth.

`I have little desire to ride in this weather, but I can not stay still. Those greedy thieves could catch up to me, if they followed me of course.` Damian doesn't rule out the possibility that no one is chasing him and that it's just his paranoia playing with his mind. `It doesn't matter, it's better to be a living paranoid than a careless dead man.`

The advantage of the rain is that it will hide his trail and if someone is really chasing him they won't be able to track his steps, another plus is that the rain will demoralize his possible enemies. Nobody likes to be soaked to the bone.

Damian picks up his camp and after tying his cloak well so that the water does not wet his clothes, he mounts Marengo and continues his journey to Oldtown.

***

"Stupid rain, stupid mud, stupid Westeros." Damian mutters to himself.

At noon the rain stopped and the sun showed its shiny smile again, but the aftermath of the rain would still take a few days to completely disappear. Those aftermath include a lot of mud, after dismounting to cook his lunch the redhead was unlucky enough to slip and fall on the muddy ground. Not only were his clothes completely muddy, his hair, once a beautiful flaming red, is now nothing more than a blackish brown with thick layers of mud between the strands.

Damian sighs annoyed and continues riding, luckily for him two hours later he hears the sound of some river or stream`s current and part of his annoyance disappears.

The prospect of bathing and getting all this mud off of him lifts his spirits and Damian hurries to the horses.

"Come on, boys, I need a bath!"

After a few minutes he sees the river between the trees and he slows down, the storms could have detached or made the land near the water more fragile, he has lived near a river for more than a decade and is very aware of these things.

He ties the horses at a safe distance from the river and goes down the small hill that overlooks the river bank, once there he takes off his clothes and begins to remove all the mud from his hair and body.

Damian is in the middle of washing his hair for the fifth time when he hears a very feminine scream.

He raises his head and sees a girl being swept away by the current.

The girl is obviously naked.

"What the actual hell?"

***

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