Chapter 1- Bandits

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The woods are lovely dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost

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The night was drawing nearer, as final rays of the setting sun painted the horizon with splendid hues of orange and yellow, a few stars started to litter the sky, the majestic orange turning to deeper blues, marking the end of a long day.

Somewhere in the middle of a forest, on an abandoned pathway, a young lad stared at the setting sun with a thoughtful look on his delicate face. Dark eyes drifted towards his legs that were tied to a branch with a rather thick rope that left him hanging upside down quite above the forest floor. Sighing softly his eyes narrowed on his captors finding them fussing around with his brown leather satchel.

Bandits, as these men claimed themselves to be, were not common in this part of the land, but lady luck just loved to play tricks on him, the more he tried to avoid trouble the more it seems attracted to him.

Three poorly dressed men, two muscular creatures on guard, looking over at him and for any other potential interruption, swords hanging from both their waists while the third, somewhat shorter white-bearded man was busy trying to open the small satchel.

"How in the devil's name am I supposed to open this darned thing." Cried the white-bearded man in frustration.

"Boss have you tried to cut it open?"

"Of course I did you, idiot! It just won't budge." Scoffed the boss trying his luck one last time before throwing it on the ground.

"Let us try boss, maybe we can rip that thing open with our swords" both the buff men looked at each other nodding their heads in synchrony making him toss the worn-out satchel at them huffing, before he let out an exasperated sigh

"Fine do what you must! Just get me the darned dagger."

So this was what all this was about, though the boy to himself, eyes twitched in annoyance on seeing his poor little satchel being harassed by those stupid bandits.

Thinking back at it, these men have been following him for quite a few days, at first, he tried to avoid them thinking they would give up soon, but when they got too persistent it started to get on his nerves, it was quite strange for bandits to follow people around especially an ordinary young boy like him.

To get to the bottom of it he decided to play along with these idiots to see what they were after, given he could have easily gotten them to open their mouths but where was the fun in that, trouble comes looking for him too often so he can't see, why he shouldn't have a little bit of fun with it.

It was not difficult to guess that somebody else has put them up to this, mere bandits like these could not possibly know what his dagger is. Oddly enough they have not tried to harm him much or rather they could not touch him without getting hurt themselves so after much effort, they managed to trap him in what seemed like a trap laid out in advance, and started to rummage through his belongings right away.

At times it felt like they wanted to demand him whatever they came for but knew better than to get close, his mouth curled up in amusement at that thought.

His chain of thoughts was interrupted by a string of profanities that came out of the three men, the boss looked close to pulling out his hair, It was beyond him how such a frail-looking thing can be this strong, they've been trying for hours for lord's sake!

Hesitatingly one of the subordinates suggested " umm boss why don't we take the whole thing with us" 

"Why didn't you say that earlier, you fool!" He yelled flustered, eyes widening in realization.

He was just about to throw his shoe on the other man's head when they heard a snicker, turning to look in the direction where the boy was supposed to be hanging, they found him leaning on the tree with a lazy look on his face.

Amused at their shocked faces he pulled out a delicate-looking obsidian dagger about the length of his hand from behind him and waved it before them,

The boss's face paled on seeing the dagger in his hand as his eyes quickly traveled from the dagger to the satchel, he stuttered out " b-but I-i saw -"

"Did you now?"

The boy cut him off, quirking an eyebrow at them amusement shining in his obsidian eyes before a look of seriousness crossed his delicate features

"How do you know about this dagger?" his cold voice made the hair on their back stand in fear, only they knew how much they suffered in the hands of this devil, they had their bodies covered in bruises and cuts before they managed to capture him and to top it all they couldn't even touch a hair on his head.

The three of them shook their heads in unison, looked at each other, faces pale. The subordinates glanced at each other and in silent understanding, pushed the boss in front making him glare at them.

" We don't know." The bearded man bit out, ready to flee for his at moment least the boy make a move,

Displeased the young man took a step forward making them all flinch back in fear.

"I'm telling the truth!" shouted the boss, hands trembling

" a few days back a man came to us, he told us to look for a person with striking silver hair and that if we could get him an obsidian dagger from you he promised he would give us a lot of money in exchange for it"

"How did he look?" 

"I told you we don't know, he was wearing a maroon cloak, his face was covered with a hood, only his chin was visible"

"Anything else?"

The man paused for a second before replying " his cloak looked fine, one could tell with a look it was something expensive, something only the rich and nobles could afford"

A strange glint passed by the young lads' eyes before he turned to them, lips curling into a sweet smile that made a chill go through their spines.

That smile cannot mean anything good.