{Bad Things Happen In Threes PT:1}

Underneath the starry sky of night, a bush that had stayed still most of the day suddenly began to shake wildly. Suddenly a hand poked out from inside it followed by another. Seconds later Neil pushed himself out of the bush

"What…What's going on!."

He shook his head trying to lose the drowsy feeling that clung to him. "Am I still in the forest? Just what happened to me? The ninjas! I'm sure that I saw ninjas. But how is that possible? Were there any ninjas in the movie? No just Vikings." 

After searching the two sore parts in his body and seeing that he wasn't actually hurt he began searching his things. 

Everything seemed to be there so they hadn't taken anything away from him. As he patted himself down he felt something hard hist his hand and chest. It felt like a small square no larger than 2 inches.

When he unbuttoned his shirt and flipped the edge he found a shiny brooch. He could feel that it had something engraved but since it was dark he couldn't tell what it was. 

'Who were those people? If nothing was taken from me and they even gave me some kind of brooch what was the point of knocking me out?' 

He sighed and shrugged it off, "This whole situation is weird, there is one thing for sure, however. That one this is that I'm getting the hell out of this forest. If I don't know what intentions the people had I'm not risking it. What if it was some kind of warning? I'm not going to be putting my life in danger for this stupid test."

After walking back to the beach he let out a breath of relief and readied an arrow. 

'Just let 'em come and they'll see.' 

The reason that he had gone to the beach was not only because of the ninja but also because it was an easier way to walk back home. In the dark, the forest can become a labyrinth of some kind. Since he was only 12 the people of the village didn't allow him to explore the forest often because of the dangers. 

The only reason they allowed it now was because of traditions. The day before the ceremony his grandfather had also made the men of the village scare away the dragons which decreased the likelihood of them running into one. 

Then again dragons were hard to monitor so no one could guarantee that no other dangerous dragon had been missed or arrived. 

As he continued to walk in the direction of his home, he mentally prepared himself for the disappointment of everyone for breaking tradition. That's when he froze, from afar for a few seconds he could hear yelling and then it stopped. 

He quickly let his body fall on the sand afraid that he would be spotted by whatever the person yelling was yelling for. 

'What the hell is going on? That scream, it was from someone my age. Could it be one of the kids participating in the hunt? Maybe they also came across the ninja.' 

As he continued to figure out what was going on voices of adult men began to come out of the forest. Neil quickly dug himself deeper into the sand and continued listening to the voices as they became clearer. 

"Looks like what you managed to hear was right, some of their kids are out hunting. Still, we were only able to find one of them, do you think this is enough? I mean will they value a single brat more than a ship, gold, and provisions?" 

"Sure it is, if they don't agree then we kill the boy and burn everything they have. Even if we lose they would have lost much more than a boat, food, and a bit of gold. For them, it isn't worth fighting." 

"True but I wish we did fight, I'm sure we are enough to take them. There were some mighty fine women there. Why take only a ship when we could take so much more!"

"Watch it Goax, we don't need any more losses. Those black-wearing cowards already caused us to lose our ship, some of our crew, and our dragons."

After their voices began to die out, Neil raised his head and caught sight of two men. One had an unconscious body dangling from his shoulder. 

"So those bastards want to raid our village, and they are planning on using us to do it. I have to let Grandpa know….but if I do it won't change anything, they will still have a hostage. Right now is probably the only time I can do something about it. At the moment theirs only two and they aren't expecting an attack…"

After a few seconds that felt like hours, Neil steeled himself and began running behind them through the edge of the forest. 

While he didn't care about the ship, gold, and food there was something he didn't like. That something was about the mentioning of women. When he heard that an image of his mother appeared in his head. One bastard was already thinking about it the probability of others doing the same was almost guaranteed. Who knew what those idiots might do for their lust? 

In his mind, he knew that if it came to that his grandfather would probably sacrifice whoever they had held hostage. After all the well-being of many outweighed the well-being of one person but he still felt like it was a risk. 

Not only that but the faith of the village's people will fall. They would undoubtedly start placing themselves in a 'what if it was me or my son' scenario. While the mentality of the Viking people was strong there was no need to take the risk and have the villagers have such dangerous thoughts. 

'That grumpy old man, you see I have been listening to your speeches. Yet you give me so many bumps in the head because you accuse me of only focusing on money.' 

He sighed and continued to try and boost his confidence and trust in his plan. 

'In the worst-case scenario, my attempt fails and they end up killing the hostage. Even then I can simply hide in the forest and they will no longer have a hostage. If things work out then we can return home and let the people know what they want to do.'

As he had those thoughts while racing through the forest he slowed down and furrowed his eyebrows. 

'Have I always been this cold? I'm talking about murder, especially of an innocent kid and yet I'm acting as if nothing.'