12. Hideout 2

Ast loaded a stone in his catapult and launched it in the opposite direction. On hearing the sound the man moved towards the sound to check things out, Ast quickly moved near the pot and poured half of the poison from the bottle in it. This poison was colourless and odorless, so he wasn't worried about being found out. After that he quickly ran towards the bushes where Anya was.

"Ast would be alright?" asked Anya with her red eyes, she was scared for the both of them. "Sis do you trust me?" asked Ast. Anya nodded. "Anya i know that you are scared but know this, that you can depend on me for now and forever. We were taught about the kind of world that we live from the very beginning. But i promise you, by hook or by crook we will survive. You and me against the world Anya" said Ast trying his best to convince her sister. Anya simply said yes looking Ast lovingly and hold on to his hand still shaking a bit.

Soon it was noon, Ast didn't dare to move out before of the bushes, he was waiting for the poison to work, hoping it would work. By his estimate they would have eaten by now and the poison would have taken effect. He again reassured Anya and then started sneaking towards the camp of the three man. He saw two out of three were already dead lying on the ground lifeless, while the third one was lying on the ground shaking, crying and begging for help but to whom he was begging it wasn't clear.

Ast moved towards the man when he seemed it safe. " wow you have high tolerance to poison" said Ast without any emotion. " It was you, why. Why did you do it?" asked the man.

"Well you bandits kill and plunder all the time so what's with the question. Listen carefully I have the antidote to the poison so if you tell me what I want to know I will let you live" said Ast.

The bandit was a bit shocked to see such viciousness from a kid but he was on borrowed time so he quickly agreed. " Tell me where is your hideout? How many people are there? Is there some sort of artifact with you guys and how powerful is your leader?" Ast asked quickly.

After 15 mins came back to Anya he told her what he did. Anya was shocked when she heard how her little brother killed 3 men." Anya I am telling you all this not to scare you but to prepare you for things that might come in the future. Don't worry about anything I don't want you to change and I don't want you to be scarred, you can talk to me about anything and the path that you will choose in the future I will support you no matter what. So take your time and depend on" Ast said giving her a warm smile. Anya just hugged him for a long time.

After that Anya became calm and both of them moved toward a nearby mountain. Ast had gathered the information about the bandit's hideout, there was a naturally formed cave at the base of the mountain which was underground and really hard to find and thus acted as a best place to build a hideout. The bandits would often venture out together and plunder for a month or two and then return with their loot to live as normal citizens, the ninja type dress was their group uniform which hides them pretty well. He also came to know that the whole group of 15 had gathered to place their loot safely inside their hideout. Each 15 of them have a key which was required to open up the array that was placed there and Ast took the 3 keys with him.

When Ast and Anya came close to the foot of the mountain Ast asked Anya to hide again, Anya denied and asked him to give her a task as well but again Ast convinced her and promised her that he would train her after surviving this (though he himself was a novice). Initially Ast did not want to confront the bandits but he came to look for an opportunity to poison them and if the opportunity didn't appear we would go back, he had no intention of taking any risk.

Ast waited with Anya in the bushes far away, they could clearly see 5 tents erected close to each other and luckily they too were preparing their food Ast also saw that the pot of water was placed near the edge of the camp separately and 15 people comprising 12 men and 3 women were drinking alcohol and chatting merrily about their recent loot. They had already placed the valuables in their hideout and were planning to leave after having a celebration. Ast moved close to the pot of water and poured the remaining poison in it. His task was easier cause they all were intoxicated.

Ast again moved back to the bushes where Anya was and waited for the inevitable. After 2 hours of waiting the group began to fall to their death one by one and they all died in their state of intoxication without realising anything. Ast came and collected all the keys Anya looked from some distance. Ast then brought Anya near the cave and started opening it by placing the keys in order. When Ast and anya entered the cave they were first surprised at how well the cave was hidden. They was a huge pile of gold and some weapons at one corner, a garden was there at the center and a huge tree with gold bark at places was there at the middle of garden. The tree had three purple fruits. The three fruits looked magical and were ripe, both Ast and Anya were attracted towards the fruit. Towards the back end of the cave was a beautiful pond with overflowing elemental essence, things like this were considered as natural treasures which helps an elementalist to comprehend their element and strengthen their soul.