A Hero With/Out Time

Chapter 6: My kidnapping. (Part 3)

In the end I waited. The minutes ticked by and the cold began to seep into my body. Even with the fine clothes I was wearing, the cold was eventually getting the better of me. Bored, I sat in silence straining my ears for any sound. Then to my surprise there was a patter of feet.

"Hey!" I yelled as loud as I could betting on the chance it wasn't a bandit. "Anyone out there? Hello?"

The footsteps stopped and there was suddenly a loud snap of wood. Light entered the cave as a heavy wooden door collided with the wall in front of me. An orb of white light hovered into view and closely behind it the smooth strands of hair reflecting in the same colour.

"Rain?" the Hero looked at me surprised as I did to her. Her armour was scratched all over and there clear signs of black blood dried against her clothes. Monster blood.

"Hero," I smiled. "Could you please give me a hand?"

"Y-yeah," she immediately set to cutting me free. "What are you doing here?"

"Turns out 'Faith' was working with the bandits. She led them right to us," I rubbed my wrists tenderly as the thick rope fell apart.

"I...," the Hero frowned in disbelief but she nodded. Apparently my trust was high enough. "What about Taylor?"

"She managed to get away with carriage. I was taken here," I looked around the room again and quickly found what I was looking for. My bow and some arrows. "What are you doing here, where are the others?"

"We were split up," she became dejected. "When we arrived the bandits let loose a horde of monsters at us. During it all I fell through a hole and ended up down here. I don't know where the others are...."

"They'll be fine," I said on reflex. "I-I mean they're all strong and Ronalt's with them."

"You're right," she nodded vigorously, confirming to herself her hopes. "We need to get out of here first. Can you walk?"

"I believe so," I patted the dirt off my clothes. "I'll follow you."

"Your wrists," she looked down at the bloodied marks. "I-."

"Don't worry," I hid them from sight. Unlike Marley the Hero wasn't gifted in healing. It was unfortunately the one type of magic she couldn't grasp. If she could, then their might not have been a reason for any of us. "They don't hurt too much. Let's just get out of here."

It was clear she was conflicted, but in the end she knew what she couldn't do, "This way then." The orb of light shifted and lit the way ahead.

Well I had to admit not killing myself was a great idea. In a grand stroke of luck I had the Hero, in other words the strongest human on the continent and maybe even the world. I followed her easily. There was hardly anything that posed a real threat to her... then again as I thought back to it the Monster was one. Surely there couldn't be more than one of them right? Looking around however the system of caves were definitely much older than the bandits had been using them. There was no telling what creatures could actually live there.

"Do you hear that?" the Hero suddenly stopped and whispered.

I narrowly avoided walking into her back, "I think so." After straining my hearing I could make out the agitated voices of people talking up ahead. Slowly the Hero and I moved forward sticking to the darkness as she extinguished her light.

"What do you mean they killed all the monsters!?" it was Faith's voice. "And you're sure none of them died or were injured?"

"W-well the one with the white hair fell and disappeared," a bandit replied. "But there's no way she could survive that."

Faith groaned, "Then where are they now?"

"They're on their way here. We're trying to kill them but nothing is working. We've almost ran out of everything."

"Shit! Those monsters took forever to capture."

"We still have the 'that' one."

"You want us to all die? That 'thing' stays where it is."

They finally came into view. It was a large cavern filled with tables and chairs. More than a dozen bandits including Faith stood in the centre. Across from us was another entrance and in the corner a large iron portcullis blocked something. An array of runes I couldn't understand spread across the walls beside it. The much newer words 'Do not open' were plastered on top of it.

"Boss at this rate they'll make it here," another bandit spoke nervously.

"Damn it," Faith cursed. "Jackson go get the hostage. We'll use him as bait here and once they arrive we'll sick that 'thing' on them. Even they won't get out alive."

"B-but who's going to open the gate?" his words were filled with fear. Whatever they had was something I didn't want to meet.

Faith's voice lowered dangerously, "If you keep talking, it might be you."

Jackson ran off towards us but as soon as he had turned the corner the Hero knocked him unconscious. She let his body slump to the floor.

"You were right," she looked towards Faith disappointed. "It was all a trap to begin with."

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Let's wait. I'm getting a really bad feeling about whatever's behind those bars."

"If it's enough to make you feeling anxious, shouldn't we stop them before they can open it?" At closer inspection the iron used to seal the area off was much older than the rest of the objects in the room. Whatever was trapped there had been trapped long before the bandits came here. Worse still the more I looked towards it, the more the feeling of apprehension in my chest grew. It was as if whatever was on the other side was something that didn't quite belong.

The Hero went still. It was only then that I noticed the line of sweat on her brow. She was anxious. Of course she was, if it weren't for the number of times I had died I would be as well. Just knowing the fact I would come back settled my heart but for her, every moment could be her last. As powerful as she may be she was still just one girl.

"You're right," her voice jittered. "Now is our best chance."

I didn't know what to say. Did I have the right to comfort her? To tell her what to do, to try lift her spirits, to tell her that she would be okay? Instead my mouth opened and closed with no words to say and I just nodded.