CHAPTER 7: Takers Take All

"Be smart and make the right choice, You're outnumbered," she said looking Ashen in the eye without looking anywhere else, watching his handshake as he tried to keep the wand he was pointing at her steady, without dropping it in fear, 

"Delari- Incendio," he yelled at the top of his voice, pointing the red tip of his wand at Hera, watching her duck to the side in fear only for him to suddenly hear her bust into laughter as the rest of her group suddenly joined, 

"Ah..ahh…, * she chuckled, bending and holding onto her stomach before busting out in full-blown laughter, 

" Ahhhh...was that magic or a magic trick? What do we look like? You can't even use that to scare away a low-level beast or plant. What the hell are you being taught in the academy," she giggled, going ahead to ask multiple questions while trying to regain a sense of calmness, 

"I'm just tired," Ashen said, unable to stop himself from speaking as he tried to defend himself against Hera's insults which he knew were still yet to come, 

"Hmmm, no wonder you needed the "gold wand" so badly the moment you heard of it," she said shaking her head with a pitiful expression on her face, 

"Urgghhh… for god's sake, hurry it up will you, some of us have other places we need to be and I bet the boy can't have enough to satisfy me for the night," said one of the men on her left as he went as far as to walk towards Ashen snapping the black mask on his face off as he did, 

Only to reveal a jagged face that seemed to have been in too many fights to count with a lightly faded black eye that could be seen on his face, 

"Give the box to Hera, Boy," The man said walking slowly towards Ashen as he drew out a short sword from his waist where he had placed it, with a cold-blooded look on his face, 

"I gree with Jac. You bera give the box here boy or my knives, would be caressing your insides before yee know it," Russ said spotting the same look as Jac who just spoke apart from the fact that he was bald and seemed to have trouble talking both with his mouth and language, 

Slowly the three of them stood no farther away than two feet from Ashen and he could barely stand on his two feet as he watched them bring their weapons closer to him, 

With his heart thumping loud enough for him to hear, having already lowered his wand the moment he casted a spell and all that manifested was a small whiff of smoke, Ashen looked around him, noticing that apart from the three people standing directly in front of him, only Deon and a tall lanky guy whom he didn't recognize decided to stay back without moving closer to him, 

Seeing that the war was lost, and how dark the night was, with not even a single star up in the sky and no one a mile away from him, 

With no way of protecting himself, he lifted up his box, trying his best to hold in the tears that threatened to spill out of his eyes, as he was about to hand over two whole months of savings to his robbers, 

"Here. I don't know how you all can bare to take a child's savings," he said, but the box already left his palms the moment he held it out with no one paying attention to what he said as Hera immediately turned around, opening the box in a rush, 

"Ooohhhh, not bad," she said opening it and turning it towards the others for them to see, 

" Well your savings is definitely not that of a child," Hera said turning around to look at Ashan the moment she noticed that he had already turned around to walk away, 

"Don't you think you're forgetting something?" Asked Hera the moment she saw Ashen turn around to leave, 

"What?? The box you just stole from me?" Yelled Ashan in frustration as he turned around to look directly into Hera's eyes,

"NOPE! But we'll be taking your wand and your egg too," she replied with a big smile on her face going as far as to stretch out her palm to receive them, 

"Wh...What?" Ashan stammered out as he tried to understand what she meant, 

"My wand? Why the hell would you want my wand? It was given by the academy. What would I use to protect myself in the dead of the night." he said trying to explain and give reasons why he couldn't let go of his wand, 

" Yes, the academy gave you and they'll give you another one and moreover it will fetch a nice price when we turn the tip into a "gold wand", she replied with a big smile on her face, without dropping the hand she had stretched out towards him, 

" Hurry...we don't have all day," she said a little impatiently, before giving a single nod the moment the wand dropped into her palms along with the egg which Ashan didn't even hesitate to give her, 

"An advice from a friend, I would hurry up if I were you...we're not the only ones that frequent this route," she said holding the box and tossing the wand and egg towards the last man who hadn't said a word since Ashen saw them, 

"Leo, you can hold on to that for me," Hera said with a smile, turning around along with the remainder of her team holding knives and a short sword, 

"We've spent enough time here…, we should get going," Deon said, removing his mask, no longer seeing a need to wear it even though he never considered it to be useful, 

He took the box wrapped in the skin purse from Hera, going ahead to open it since he would be in charge of the box when he noticed that all four of them were leaving instead of five, 

"Where is Leo?" He asked as curiosity was the only expression that could be seen on his face,