Chapter 3 Kidnapping

The thing was that she wasn't the only one who got sleepy, the two kids that were in there with her had both already collapsed on the ground and were out cold while Leah had finally passed out with Paul in her arms.

Roy seeing this scene before him began to get confused as it would be understandable for Leah to be passed out due to the stress of childbirth but then why would the kids also be passed out, it simply didn't make sense. Bending down Roy just shrugged his shoulders and figured that his kids were exhausted from playing or something.

"'sigh' You know if you two were just gon-" But before he could even finish his sentence he got dizzy all of a sudden and felt his legs begin to buckle.

'What's going on, why am I getting dizzy' Not knowing what to think Roy simply grabbed the two children close to him and got up trying to get to his wife and newborn child.

'Come on, get there, I got to protect them all..' However, before he could get to the bed he fell over with his kids firmly tucked under him. His large body obscuring any sight of them.

The old woman seeing this all unfold before her was very confused, in only the span of a few seconds everyone in that room had collapsed in front of her, smelling the air she could smell a sweet aroma spilling into the room from outside of the room. Even through just a small whiff, she was already feeling light-headed so she used a purifying spell to try and quickly get rid of the dizzying effect.

Too bad that it was too late as the aroma had already been in the room long enough to affect her and her purifying spell was just too weak to be of any effect at that point.

'What! Why isn't it working, I know that my magic is pitiful but it should be enough for just some basic sleeping potion' Irene thought. To be honest the spell actually did help her out as it allowed her to still stay awake for a bit longer and it just made it so that her body lost all strength.

As Irene was in the middle of her thoughts she was able to hear some movement outside the room as well as a couple of voices whispering.

"Hey, are you sure that it worked?" Asked one of the voices.

"Yes, it'll work, I researched this village beforehand, all they have is a single hag who knows the bare minimum of healing magic so we'll be fine" Answered back another voice.

The footsteps were getting louder and soon they were on the other side of the door, through their conversation Irene could hear two voices conversing but, through the silhouettes on the door, she could see that there were 3 people.

As soon as they opened the door and walked through she could see them and it was three men dressed in all black with a cloth covering their nose and mouth as well as bandanas covering the top of their heads so all Irene could discern from them was that they were male from the shape of their bodies and that was it.

As the three men walked in they walked around the room as they analyzed everyone around them they saw that Roy had collapsed on the ground with the two kids in their embrace and saw Irene laying on the ground face-first as she tried her best to look as unconscious as possible.

The first two that walked in had gone right past her so she thought that she was fine, that was until the last of them had walked right up to her and pulled her up by her hair.

"That was a pretty good act you did there, you even fooled those two dumbasses but you can't get past me" Said the final man as he rummaged in a little satchel and pulled out a little glass container that has yellowish dust inside it, opening it and sprinkling some on his hands he blew it all into Irene's face.

"Goodnight" He said to her as she was starting to lose consciousness.

"Why..?" She managed to utter quietly and as her mind began to wander in and out of consciousness she managed to hear a reply that simply stated that she had "no right to such information" Then she passed out.

Focusing back on the rest of the room the man who had just dealt with Irene walked further in and focused especially on Roy, who was on the ground, so that he could see if he was also conscious.

"Hmm, seems like she was the only surprise in here, I must've underestimated her when I was doing the recon, oh well no point in having any regrets over her, she's dealt with now." Said the man

"She was lucky boss, if it wasn't for the contents of the contract she would be dead by now, hehe" Responded the man, who had spoken before, with a sinister laugh.

"Yeah boss, these missions are pretty boring, why do we even do them?" Asked the one who up to this point had remained silent.

"Hahaha, it's simple, money. We do one of these once every couple of months and it's always at a wayward place like this for a lot of money. It's low risk, high reward the best kind of business." Explained the leader.

After this brief exchange, the trio had made their way to the foot of the bed and had noticed Paul in the arms of his mother sleeping away without a care in the world.

With the three at the foot of the bed, the leader had stepped forward and proceeded to grab Paul and pick him up out of the arms of his mother however he didn't expect the mother to have such a tough grip and failed to lift him up the first time.

'This bitch, let go!' He proceeded to pull a bit harder and got him out of her arms albeit nearly falling backwards in the process.

"Boss, we should get going, the effect of the sleeping powder will be wearing off soon and we got to get moving" Said the silent one.

"Yeah you're right, let's get moving and remember not to take anything, the client has already got the story sorted for the public and any missing jewelry or money will damage the authenticity of that story besides the amount we'll get as payment will be way more than anything you'll find in this dump" Informed the leader to his subordinates and just as quickly as they appeared the trio were out of there, this entire exchange lasted only a couple of minutes.

The leader then wrapped up Paul in a blanket of sorts and held him close to his body as the three of them made their way out of the village, which was relatively easy due to the lack of a wall being built surrounding the village. They simply ran out into the woods and after 2 hours of this relentless running, they finally took a break to hydrate and have a quick snack to rest up.

"'sigh' how much more do we have to keep running till we get to the rendevous boss" Asked the chatty one.

"We'll get there when we get there, now no more questions!" He retorted back, clearly sounding irritated that one of his subordinates keeps asking questions.

"Just shut up already, you can clearly tell that the boss is getting pissed and yet you keep going on and on, I swear one of these days I'll gut you myself" The one who had been silent up till now finally spoke up giving a quick threat that sent chills up the chatty ones' spine.

"Let's go, we've rested enough, there'll be a carriage that's going to pick us up and take us to the drop"

With that said the three of them then made sure that there were no traces of them where they rested and then got on their way once again quickly becoming three small dots in the middle of the woods getting farther and farther away.