Chapter 9 (the journey to the parade)

They went with horse carriages, across the swampy plains of Venice into Padua, across the mountains route of Padua, they rode to Ferrera, they ventured from Ferrera to the border town of bologna, they passed across the border town of bologna to Ravenna, they bristled on the grassy plains of Ravenna into Rimini a riverine area, through the swampy roads of Rimini, they rode to Pesaro, from Pesaro they rode across the woods of Urbino, the next place they were to arrive was Assisi.

They were in Urbino after a week on the road, Urbino is a sparsely populated land, rich in nature and wildlife, a dwelling place for professional hunters, most of Urbino a covered in trees, it had only two towns where people lived, the rest of Urbino was forests and jungles, with many animals living in it.

Apart from storms and swampy roads, their journey hadn't seen any major challenge, most would call it a peaceful journey.

Lorenzo and the soldiers, moved the horse carriages at a slow pace confident they would achieve arriving at Assisi, having passed bologna without coming across bandits made a feeling of belief in them that luck was in their side and would be by their side all through the journey,

The horses trotted, its feet clumped dragging the carriage along which made screechy sounds, gentle winds blew dry leaves around, birds like cuckoo's and Willow warblers sang as daylight approached, all these put together formed a good and peaceful atmosphere for Severus and the soldiers sleeping inside the horse carriage,

A soldier was assigned to each horse carriage to ride and watch over the carriages all through the night, they were the only ones awake, while the rest slept inside the horse carriage.

Hushed Rustlings suddenly intruded into the prevailing absence of sound, the sounds came from the flanks before the horse carriages.

The first soldier riding the first horse carriage stretched his head to the side, he looked back at the second horse carriage, the soldier at the second carriage made a sign, slightly nodding his head.

"We better stop the carriage, something's coming before us." The first carriage rider suggested.

"I can hear it coming, it's coming ever closer."

The second soldier announced.

The soldiers halted both their horse carriages.

It didn't take long after that,

A countless number of deers scurried across the Rocky road with a fast pace, the does run behind the deers while the kids ran beside the does, erupting up clouds of dust from the ground due to rugged pacing.

After a while, the deers were all gone in a beat, and the clouds of dust cleared away.

The soldiers riding on the carriage kept solemn, watching around with sharp eyes for what the deers were running away from, a predator, a hunter, bandits, outlaws and pariah's or the unusual dame witches, a lot of ideas covered in their mind.

After a while, noises from the deers died away completely, the whole surroundings became calm, everyone was held on thrall, fists holding tight onto their ropes, sweats Making its way out of their pores, breathing for them became less easy.

The horses at the carriage stomped, making sizzling sounds with their noses, the soldiers riding the carriage knew the predator was close given their horses had been disquieted, they both drew their swords and kept their swords in a position of use.

The chittering Willow warblers and cuckoos flew off their perches, the horses neighed and stood up on their feet, thus came out a Caspian tiger from the bushes, a remote predator propelled by hunger to its current location, it is rarely seen by many hunters in the jungles of Italia.

It gnarled at the horses as soon as it came out, they were also satisfiable of its cravings, just like the deers.

Its dangerous-looking eyes aimed to stick its canines into the horse's necks, the horses kept neighing and marching preventing the Caspian tiger from getting a clear aim for their necks.

"Why are the horses neighing so loud, Valentino, calm those horses down." Said Lorenzo, he yawned while stretching out his limbs.

He was sitting inside the carriage, his head propelled backward and rested on the chair, it was the most comfortable position of sleep he could attain, given that carriages aren't spacious enough to lay prostrate.

"Sir, our horses are being attacked by a predator," Valentino announced to him.

Lorenzo and the soldier with him brought their heads up eagerly, without dithering they reached for their sword and drew it out, Lorenzo stepped out the carriage, he found the Caspian tiger prowling about in front of the horses,

Valentino who rode the first horse carriage hopped down from the driver's seat,

"I will try to fend it off with my sword'' Valentino said.

"I would call that identical to suicide, kittens can be fended off but this is a big cat." The second carriage rider made his point.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you," Lorenzo said also.

Meanwhile, Severus and Marchisio had woken up in their horse carriage, they stepped out of the carriage too, they both had a wonder in their faces as to why the carriage had stopped,

Marchisio asked the carriage rider.

"What happened, Berardi?"

"I think you should be asking, what is happening?" Berardi replied sarcastically.

Severus glanced around, his hands were still in chains, he moved further to see what Valentino was looking at, the horse carriage in front was obscuring Severus's view of the Caspian tiger,

He came a little further and found the Caspian tiger before the horses, then, the tiger's view had already changed from aiming at the horses to aiming at Valentino who was approaching it carefully with a sword.

The tiger growled at Valentino to fend him off, Valentino kept approaching it in a crouching manner.

"Hey, you could come off worse if you do that," Severus warned Valentino.

Valentino did as though his earholes were stuffed with cotton, and can't hear a thing.

He showed no listening ears to anyone, everyone resolved in them to let him fend off the big cat, but all were ready to run if the tiger's heavy Jaws clamps down on Valentino.

The tiger triggered off without warning, it jumped into mid-air, Valentino raised his sword above his head.

While all watched in suspense.

To be continued.....