Escape from Sansen

Tears run down Lane's face as she climbs down the side of the castle. She makes it to the bottom of the castle and jumps off landing in a bush. Lane looks around, the town is in chaos as large beasts rip people to shreds, and short, deformed pale men stab townspeople left and right.

Lane is frozen in fear, she doesn't know what to do next, but then she remembers her father's instructions, "Get a message to the capital."

Lane's fear turns to determination. She looks towards the main road that leads to the Sansen's main gate.

"That's the fastest way out," she decides.

Lane puts her hair in a ponytail, takes two short breaths and runs towards the road.

Lane makes it just a few yards when she spots someone hiding. It's the townswoman she met at the market earlier that day.

Lane runs to her, "Come on, we have to get out of town!"

The woman is surprised to see her, "My lady, there is no way we can make it!"

Lane tries to reason with her, "The only way out is the main gate, at the city wall, and the fastest way to get to the gate is the main road, let's go!"

The townswoman panics, "NO!! We have to hide!"

Lane grabs her hand and looks her in the eyes, "There is no hiding! I'll get you out of here, but you have to trust me!!"

The woman takes a moment, "Okay!"

They get up and run! Around them soldiers fight against the pale men, and other soldiers are being eaten by hulking beast. Luckly Lane and the townswoman go unnoticed in the chaos. Lane and the townswoman spot a horse and carriage on the side of the road.

Lane recognizes it, "That's Mr. Clayton's carriage!" Lane and the townswoman run to the carriage. Lane strokes the horse to calm him down, but then she stops. In front of the horse are four pale men over the body of Mr. Clayton. The townswoman screams in horror, the pale men spot them. Lane quickly helps the townswoman onto the carriage, and she barely gets into the driver's seat when the horse gets frightened and runs over the pale men.

Lane takes the reins and leads the horse in the direction of the main gate. She looks back, and sees the pale men the horse had run over moments ago are somehow fine and are now chasing them. Lane desperately whips the horse's reins, "We can do it! Come on!"

Lane sees the main gate, it's closed, "I'll have to ram it!"

Lane grits her teeth and whips the reins, the horse is going at full speed now. The pale men are not far behind. The horse spots the gate ahead and instinctively turns away from it. The carriage detaches from the horse and slams into the gate. Lane and the townswomen are knocked over, but still on the carriage.

The pale men rush in, but the horse is in the way and begins kicking and stomping at them.

Lane grabs the townswoman's hand, "Come on, we have to get over the gate!"

Lane boosts the townswoman up, the carriage is tall enough to allow them to reach the top of the gate. The townswoman climbs on top of the gate and pulls Lane up. Lane and the townswoman jump down outside of Sansen and run away.

The Captain stands at the top of Sansen Castle, watching the destruction below. In the distance, he sees a handful of townspeople fleeing Sansen. The three Lieutenants walk up behind him.

Lieutenant 3 speaks up about his findings, "Captain, I found the location of the key"

Captain pulls out his magic book, "Where is it?"

Lieutenant 3 responds, "It is under the castle, buried in an old tunnel system."

Captain turns to Lieutenant 3 and hands him a single page from the magic book, "Begin digging for the tunnels and send a hunter to find the humans who've escaped, we can't risk the possibility of one of them leaving with the key"

The Lieutenants respond all at once, "Yes sir!"

Guy is walking through the woods when he comes to a clearing. In the middle of the clearing, there is a wood cabin with a sign on the side that reads "pub". Guy walks up and says, "What's up," to two customers chatting outside and walks in. The pub is full of mercenaries. Everyone in the pub sits in their mercenary groups planning and talking, except for Guy.

He walks in and sits down at the bar top alone, "One ale, Robert."

Robert, the owner of the pub, gives Guy a pint of ale. Guy pulls out the bag of money he got from the warden.

He throws Robert a coin, "Keep them coming."

Robert catches the coin, "You got it."

Guy takes a big gulp of ale. Suddenly, five men enter the pub and walk up behind Guy.

One of the men leans against the bar next to Guy. "Having fun?" says the man

Guy takes a sip of his ale, "Well, Garth, I was having fun until you walked in"

Garth grumbles, "We were supposed to leave for the Sansen job the morning, but instead we woke up and found you gone!"

Guy continues to sip his ale, "I told you I could do the job on my own."

Garth points his finger in Guys face, "And I told you I run this guild, not you! We do things as a team here!"

Guy nods his head annoyed, "Garth, I joined the guild to build up a reputation in this area, and now I have it, so I don't need you! I'm not trying to be part of a team or group! It's a waste of time!"

Garth grits his teeth, "You've got two options. One, you give me my money and get off my turf or two!" Garth pulls out a dagger. "Well, let's not think about option two."

Garth then stabs the dagger in the bar top and lets it go.

Guy looks at the dagger, "You mean this option?" Guy flicks the hilt of the dagger, snapping it in half. Guy catches the broken handle.

"Why you little punk!" Garth goes for a punch, but Guy throws the handle of the dagger at Garth's throat. Garth falls to his knees and gasps for air. Garth's men look at Garth and then at Guy.

Guy throws his hands up, "You want some too!"

The men shake their heads and quickly grab Garth, "You son of a bitch! We trusted you!"

Guy shakes his head, "Yea well, I did you a favor, trusting people is a mistake."

Garth and his gang stumble out of the pub, Guy sits back down drinking his ale alone.

A few miles in the woods outside of Sansen, a handful of townsfolk have gathered around Lane. "My lady, where is the warden?! What's happening?" The townspeople ask.

Lane can't find the words to explain what happened to her father, "My father...was killed." The people gasp.

Lane continues, "But don't worry-"

The townspeople interrupt her, "What do those things want?!"

Lane tries to speak up, "I don't kno-"

She is interrupted again, "What are we going to do?!"

Lane is losing control of the crowd, they won't give her a chance to talk, "The Warden is gone, we're on our own!"

Lane gets angry, "SHUT UP!"

The people stop talking.

"Yes, my father is gone, but I'm still here! If you would all calm down, we can figure out a plan!" Lane explains.

The people all agree.

Lane continues, "We can't fight those monsters, so the only thing we can do is get word to the king."

A person responds, "But the capital is weeks away, my lady."

Lane quickly responds, "That's okay, we can head to Locktin, it's not far from here, from there we can send a raven."

Lane can see the townspeople look unsure, "I know it's scary, but you have to trust me."

Everyone agrees.

"Okay, let's head out," says Lane.

She leads the people into the woods in the direction of Locktin.

Lane and the townspeople have been walking for hours, everyone seems exhausted.

Lane tries to keep them motivated, "Come on everyone, once we get some more distance from the town, we can settle down for the night-" Snap

Lane and the townspeople hear branches and brushes breaking, they stop and listen. Behind them are four pale men and an unknown figure riding on a large beast. They are far away, but traveling fast. Lane and the townspeople begin to realize something's coming.

A few people start running, "their hunting us!"

Now all the towns people begin to run.

Lane gets ahead of the group and leads them away, "Everyone follow me!"

Garth and his gang on a road in the woods.

Garth rubs his throat, "You cowards didn't even help me!"

His gang looks ashamed. Garth hears something rustling in the woods and holds up his hand, telling his gang to stop. Suddenly Lane and the townspeople break out of the bushes and onto the road in front of Garth and his gang.

Lane realizes she's run into a group of fighters, "Please help, we're being hunted!" she says in a panic.

Garth smirks, "You got money?"

Lane can't believe the question, "What, no?"

Garth addresses the crowd, "Do any of you have any money?"

The townspeople start rummaging through their pockets, "Yea...a little."

Lane has had enough of Garth, "There is no time for this!"

Garth's smirk leaves his face as he hears another noise.

Lane explains again, "They're right behind us!"

Garth gets serious, "Get behind me!"

The townspeople and Lane quickly get behind Garth and his gang. Garth and his gang listen carefully, but the rustling has stopped.

Garth turns to his men, "Go check it out!"

The men look at each other, none of them want to go. Finally, one of them steps forward with his spear extended. The gang member approaches the woods. Suddenly, a pale man jumps out of the darkness and attacks.

Garth pulls out a magic book and activates it. His gang also pulls out their weapons, but suddenly three more pale men jump out of the woods. Garth uses his magic, shooting high pressured wind at one pale man, but they have no chance. The pale men quickly stab one gang member after another, tearing them apart. Lane and the townspeople take off running in all directions. Lane stumbles out of the commotion with the townswoman she saved earlier. They're all scratched up and crying.

To be continued...