They continue walking at a brisk pace, able to keep up the small talk, as well as cut down on how far they had to go. After about 17 minutes of brisk walking, they slowed down to a walk, Winter reaches out and grabs Sasha’s hand holding it while they continued walking. Sasha looks over at Winter and smiles, squeezing her hand lightly. Gerald is still sitting at the same table, after the ladies left. He went up to the innkeeper and asked for a beer as he was still waiting for an invite or rejection to show up on his menu, in his inbox. After waiting what feels like forever, his inbox finally chimes showing he has a new message. His excitement grows, as does the feeling of nervousness that overcomes him. He presses the menu button, and then the button for the mail, his inbox opens and sitting right at the top is a message from the guild (Raven’s Talon). It simply states (We are sorry, but right now we are not looking for any new members, try again in a few months. We might have some openings then. Sincerely, Leo Talon (Guild president).
Gerald sits there in shock after reading the message, he was so sure he’d get into this guild! (Well, there is no point in just sitting here, if they’re not going to accept me. Might as well take Sasha and Winter up on their offer to join them.) he thinks to himself as he grabs his things, and the chest and takes off running out of the inn, and down the street. Hoping to find the ladies before they get too far, and he can’t find them. He takes off at a dead run, trying to catch up to them. After running for almost 20 minutes, he finally sees them in the distance holding hands. He finally catches up to them, and yells “Hey!! Can I still join you??!” The ladies turn around and smile when they see him. “What did you say?” Sasha asks. “Can I still join you? The guild rejected me, and I have no reason to stay here. So, I wanted to know if I could still join you guys on your next trip?”
Sasha and Winter exchange a small glance and smile, and Winter says “Of course, we wouldn’t rescind that offer. Come with us.” The three of them keep walking down the road, and after a few hours finally make it to the Providence of Raynvalley. They walk into town and see that everything looks ruined. There are broken windows, doors were hanging on their hinges. Furniture and glass was thrown in the street, weapons and armor were discarded here and there. It didn’t look like there were any bandits still in town, but the three of them were still on their guard none the less.
They walked through the main road, and into the square, Winter gasped in shock, standing frozen looking at the Gallows that wasn’t there before she had run away. Hanging from the gallows were a lot of people, their faces were red and swollen, from the nooses around their neck. There were old men and women, political prisoners, or people who stood up to the bandits, kids with one of their hands cut off for trying to survive by stealing food, thieves who broke into people’s houses during the chaos, and what looked like the mayor and his family.
The three of them walked through the square, looking at all the wreckage. Windows were blown out, glass scattered on the ground, doors off their hinges, bodies in the street, and blood sprayed and pooled all over, carts and merchant stalls were laying on their sides destroyed, the contents scattered around the area, rotting in the sun. The smell of the town was a mixture of blood and rotten food, fruit and bodies. It was horrible smell and sight. There was a giant pile of bodies in the middle of the square next to the gallows. Townspeople they didn’t hang, they murdered and piled up, their property, armor and weapons from the stores and other objects were piled with them, and set everything on fire.
The bodies still smoldered a little, the black and white smoke filled the sky. After finally walking through the town, they get to this grand, stone and brick house. They slowly work their way up the front path, weapons drawn just in case they get attacked. Winter knocks on the front door, and yells out “Master, it’s Winter. I’m home!” the door slowly swings open on its hinges and bangs against the wall. They stand there for a few seconds in the doorway, waiting to see if someone will come and greet them. “Let’s start going through the rooms, I guess, and see if anyone is alive still. And, to make sure there isn’t any more bandits still hiding in the house.” Winter says.
They step on broken glass, pottery and utensils, and they are checking all the bodies on the ground to see if anyone made it out alive. So far there isn’t anyone. Winter heads upstairs, and starts walking slowly through the rooms. Memories coming unheeded to her mind, of the first time she arrived at the house, her first sexual service to her Master, meeting and making friends with all the servants, and the first time they called her part of their family. Tears come to her eyes, and she hastily wipes them away. Hoping that her Master was still alive.
Sasha and Gerald start to check the rest of the rooms, there isn’t anything in the rooms to salvage, since everything is destroyed, and no one is alive. They get to the back of the house, and walk through the kitchen to the back patio. They step out into a once beautiful garden filled with different flowers and roses, the flower beds were trampled and broken, but their perfume was scenting the air, along with the scent of blood. Winter finally comes downstairs and meets them on the back patio they stand there looking at what once was a beautiful garden.
A massive fountain with broken, beautiful marble statues of horses rearing up in the middle of it, various parts were broken off, water cascading around them, stained red. Small stone benches were scattered around a gravel path leading down to a small creek, that slowly bubbled and gurgled along. Scattered around the garden were dead bodies, most looked like they were cut down trying to run for their lives. Winter runs from body to body, trying to see if her Master is one of them. She sighs in relief, when she can’t see him, until she sees the blood trail leading away from the gardens, and back to the house. The three of them follow the blood trail to the inside of the house, and it leads them to a small hidden cupboard like room, behind a painting next to the stairs.
Winter grabs the edges of the painting and yanks it open suddenly. Hiding inside of the small room that was behind the painting is an older looking servant, he looks frail, but was once strong, his once clean-shaven face has a full beard now, and his hair that used to be so clean cut was now a ragged, matted mess. He had bruises all over his body, and he was slowly scabbing over the cuts he had on his body. It looked like he got hurt bad while trying to avoid being killed by the bandits. Winter yells out “Hudson! You’re alive! What happened?” “Winter? Is that you? We thought you were killed when we heard those bandits captured you.” Hudson says. “Yes, it’s me Hudson. Sasha here saved me from the bandits and her and Gerald brought me back home like they promised. Where is the Master? I need to tell him I’m home. And come out of there. You’re safe now, there isn’t any one here.” Winter says as she holds her hand out to Hudson.
He grabs it and clambers out of the hole, standing up and brushing himself off. Winter hugs him and starts crying in happiness that someone she knew and cared about was still alive. “So where is the Master?” she asks. “I’m not sure, I haven’t seen him since the bandits broke into his study where he barricaded himself in there to escape them. I think he might be there, but if not then they took him somewhere. Probably trying to find the money he has hidden around.” Hudson says. He turns and looks at Gerald and Winter “I’m the Master’s number one, right hand man Hudson. I take care of the house, and servants when the Master isn’t here. Nice to meet you.” Winter takes off running to the stairs, and takes them two at a time until she reaches the top and she runs to the end of the hall, to the one room she didn’t check because she’s not allowed in there. Gerald, Sasha and Hudson chase after her.
She tries the door, and it swings open and stops just short of hitting the wall. That’s a bad sign, considering the door was always locked, and the servants weren’t allowed in there except the cleaning ladies. She stood in the doorway of the massive study, the carpet was cream colored, there were a couple leather chairs sitting overturned in front of a broken desk, there were deep bookshelves on the walls, but were now empty. Oil paintings and country maps that used to take up most of the other walls, were now ripped and tossed around. A globe was spinning slowly on a side desk near the door.
The main desk was broken in two, splinters of wood were strewn all over the room, desk drawers were broken and thrown about, books were torn in half, pieces of them, and loose pages were spread all over the room and the pages were fluttering in the wind from the broken windows. The walls had holes punched in them, the room looked like it was ransacked, someone was looking for something and couldn’t find it. There was a sharp scent of blood in the room, the once cream-colored carpet was now stained cherry red in places.
Winter falls to the floor and lands on her knees and starts crying, Sasha grabs her, holds her close and just lets her cry on her shoulder. After crying for what seems like forever, Winter rubs her hands over her face and looks at Sasha and Gerald and says “We need to find him. Even if he’s alive or dead, we need to find him. Will you help me” “Of course, we haven’t found him yet, so our journey isn’t done yet. “Sasha says. “Where would your Master go Hudson?” Sasha asks. “I’m not sure, he has a small cabin not far from here, where he has some of his most valuable items stored there for safe keeping just in case something happened to the house, like it just did a while ago.” “I can take you there.” Hudson says. “Let’s go then. I’m curious about what happened to him as well.” Says Sasha. Hudson starts to walk out of the study, and down the stairs.
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