>Chapter 1<

*Bang*

A loud sound could be heard as the carriage slowly moved along the uneven, cobblestone path and its wheel dropped from a stone that was slightly higher than the others. Soft howls of the wind could be heard throughout the whole green forest. Leaves were fluttering and falling on the ground. It could be inferred that it was probably autumn but closer to early autumn because of the uncomfortable heat.

As the carriage moved along, you could see a boys eyes fluttering as if struggling to open. And finally they fully opened and the said boy started to look around, trying to find out what was happening.

Before he could properly understand the situation or what was happening in general, he could hear a quiet voice from the opposite of his „seat". Well it could not really be called a seat because they were basically sitting on the wooden carriage floor on top of an old ripped blanket.

"Oh? So you're finally awake"

"Where are-"

He looked across from him and stared at the person he finally recognized as Tim, his friend. Even though he posed that question in a joking tone, the nervous expression on his face said otherwise. The boy, otherwise known as Phillip, was about to ask a question, but was suddenly stopped when the other boys gave him a sign that he should keep quiet. He immediately recognized this sign so he kept quiet and let them explain the situation.

The carriage was by no means small, so they could easily move around without bumping into someone and it being cramped, but they didn't move anyway afraid that they would make some noise and alert the man or woman. Well perhaps there were more of them outside.

"Where are we?" Asked Phillip in a quiet voice, quieter than a whisper, afraid that the person outside would take notice of his question.

"I don't know. I was the first one to wake up and that too was just a minute ago." David said after listening to Phil's question.

Nobody anything for quite a while and just listened to the sounds of the carriage traveling while feeling the intense heat with grim expressions on their faces. Wait... heat?

"Ugh why is it so hot in here?"

A groan along with a complaint came out of Patrick mouth, which was kind of loud because of the noiseless ride they were "enjoying" up until now.

"Shh!"

A quiet shushing sound could be heard from Jacob as he held up his index finger up to his lips to show that he should just keep quiet.

"Oh..."

Another sound came out of Patrick mouth, but this one was one of understanding, thought the understanding expression quickly changed into one of apology, as he realized that he just released another loud noise. The group just gave him a glare and quickly silenced him.

"But, it is weird that it suddenly got so hot, wasn't it snowing just before we fainte- ugh…"

Tim whispered in doubt when he felt another throb of pain quickly flash in his head before he remembered what happened before they fainted.

"Right, what was all that about?" Said Patrick, but this time, he said it more quietly so that he wouldn't get glared at again.

"How am i supposed to know?" David said in a frustrated tone while Jacob just quietly observed the situation before his eyes.

"Did we get kidnapped?" Tim asked as he was nervously looking around the wooden carriage.

"That's the most plausible explanation." Jacob quickly chimed in to the conversation while agreeing with Tim's suggestion.

"But why is it so hot in here? Why are we in this... carriage? How did we even faint in the first place? And most importantly, why did we even get kidnapped?" David just asked a bunch of questions that were on everyone's mind but nobody voiced them out.

A moment of silence followed in the carriage but, inside of the boy's' minds, it was anything but quiet, it could be only described as chaos. I mean, when was the last time you got kidnapped? Like, never right?

As the silence followed for the second time in these five minutes that they were talking, Patrick couldn't keep quiet anymore and asked a question that was on everyone mind, even if they weren't of it.

"S-so... what do we do now?"

The group looked at him and just quietly sat in their place trying to think of how they should act next. The contemplation session ended in a few seconds as Phillip said.

"I think we should just pretend to sleep and observe where they take us."

"Sure." Tim quickly agreed with Phil. "There's nothing we can do in this situation but to observe quietly... i think."

"I agree with Phillip as well." David said.

"A-are you guys sure this will work?" Patrick asked with words laced with uncertainty.

"Well, it's not like we can do anything else." Jacob agreed with a nod.

"If you don't like it, what do you think we should do?" Timothy asked Patrick with an amused tone in his voice.

"..."

Patrick contemplated this question for a while but before he could even reply, an amused chuckle escaped Tim's lips before he said.

"Right, exactly what i was talking about."

Another bout of silence followed, but this time the group of friends just quietly watched their surrounding for a while before closing their eyes, pretending to be unconscious.

They waited for a long time and now the sun was about to set. Just as they were losing hope that nothing was going to happen, the flap to the carriage opened and a person walked in.

Nothing was heard but a deafening silence and the soft breathing of the group of boys.

The person walked in with slow steps. Creaking sounds could be heard as he walked deeper into the carriage, right in front of our group, who were sitting there, pretending to be knocked out. They tried to keep their breathing slow for the fear of being found out.

The person approached walked closer and closer. Right now, he could be seen standing right in between the five teenagers. Then, he turned to his right side, where the duo of David and Tim were leaning against the wooden walls of the carriage.

The unknown person of unknown gender and unknown race stretched out his hand and reached out for...

*Clang*

A loud sound was heard as the person reached out his hand for a knife that was hanging on the wall before it fell to the ground.

"Tsk."

The person clicked their tongue in annoyance and then bent over to pick up the knife that was currently lying on the wooden floor. The two boys, Tim and Dave, were currently breathing as heavily as they could afford to in this kind of situation.

As the person finally straightened out their back, they then turned around and started walking out of the carriage slowly.

"Fuuh..."

Though, before the person could even walk out, a loud sigh of relief was heard before that certain person realized their mistake and stopped midway.

The person that was walking out, now holding a knife in their hand, stopped in an instant.

An eerie silence descended upon the carriage and only the creepy howls of wind and wolves in the distance could be heard as the person turned around a looked at the culprit of the loud sigh, of course it was none other than Patrick.

After a couple of seconds, but what felt like an eternity for the boys in their teenage years, the person clicked their tongue, turned around and walked out.

Now that they learned from their mistake, or that was basically just Patrick, they patiently waited until nothing could be heard before releasing a sigh containing all of the stress simultaneously.