Part 1 - Escaping Death
Somewhere in the woods there was a big tree. Not that unusual for the woods. What made this tree stand out from the other was that underneath the tree, between the roots, someone had made a home for himself. Due to some heavy winds, the tree had been de-rooted for a bit, causing it to have formed a hole underneath. The person now living there had made it bigger, covering up the entrance with some vines in order to make it less obvious. Inside of the hole wasn't much to brag about either. There was small bed, a chest and a pole in the middle of the room with on the pole nothing but an oil lantern, a bow and a quiver with arrows.
Not that far from the tree through the thick and plenty bushes was a dirt road. The only thing keeping the clearing and the tree from anyone passing by. On the other side of the road was nothing. A great deep fall down to some rocks, spelling the end of anyone not too careful about their movements.
Over the entire width road was a small almost invisible tripwire. It was a rather long rope, leading all the way towards the hole under the tree. The wire was attached onto a singular bell hanging right above the bed, there to wake up the homeowner sleeping in the bed. Unfortunately for him, his sleep wasn't going to last much longer.
A bit down the road around a corner, two horses were galloping, approaching fast. A bit further behind them were what looked like two more horses, going as fast if not faster than the ones they were chasing. As the first pair turned the corner and continued to run, the tripwire got triggered, tugging on the bell. Unfortunately for the horse and their rider, the tripwire was made poorly and tugged on the leg of the horse.
Underneath the tree, the bell started to ring. The guy in bed woke up fast, rolling out of bed onto the ground. He wasn't fully awake yet, groaning and looking around. It took him a second before he got up and grabbed his bow and arrows, getting outside the tree.
On the road, the horse that had been tripped was the one next to the ledge. The horse started to neigh as they fell down with the rider getting thrown off. She yelled together with the horse as she was barely able to miss the ledge. Unfortunately for her, the horse felt a bit too far to the side, disappearing in the depth. On the other horse was also a woman. She jumped down, grabbing what little she could in the small amount of time that they had. It wasn't going to last long before their pursuers would appear from around the corner.
"Get up fast!" It didn't appear like she was too concerned about her companion for now, giving the horse a hit on his behind.
The horse let out a neigh as well as it started to run again, going down the path without a rider now. The woman that hit it quickly knelt down, grabbing the other one and pulling her up and to the side of the road, into the bushes.
Behind those bushes in the clearing was standing the man from the tree. He had heard the commotion but didn't know what had transpired. He had an idea but nothing more than an educated guess. Hearing the two people in the bush in front of him, he would grab an arrow out of the quiver. He wasn't that experienced with it, almost dropping the arrow from the stress.
Just as he managed to put the arrow on the string, he froze as another pair of horses came closer. The horses stopped right next to where the first horse had plummeted into the depth.
"One of them fell down."
The voice came from a man who sounded out of breath. As the other person said something, it was clear that the pursuers were both male.
"Leave her. If she fell down then she's as good as dead. We need to catch the other one before we lose her." Without waiting for a reaction, he went back onto the chase.
The other man quickly following in his tracks. "She won't get far! Her horse is too tired to keep it up for much longer!"
As they left to pursue the horse, nobody made a sound. The girls in the bush stayed silent and so did the guy with the bow. After what felt like a minute, movement could be heard in the bushes. One of them seemed to stand up to look and see if the men on the horses had left. That was the cue of the bow wielder to start talking.
"Thank Pan that they kept following the horse." Said the first person. "I wasn't sure if it was the right idea but I didn't see another way out."
The other person took a bit to answer, panting and seemingly still on the ground after being pulled in. "T-That was a good move. I wonder what caused my horse to fall."
"Hmm… That's a good question. In any case, get up, we need to get moving before they catch the horse."
It once again stayed quiet for a bit outside of one of them grunting. It wasn't clear if it was the on standing up or if it was the other one helping the other person on her feet.
As soon as the one on the ground found her footing, she let out a deep sigh. "Damn it! That stupid horse took my bow and snacks with him down that ravine!"
The guy with the bow took a deep breath, lifting up the bow as he aimed the arrow at the bush. He started to talk before the other one could, wanting to get this moment over with so his heart could finally ease up. "You two in there, come out with your hands up!" He was speaking rather loud but with a soft tone seeing as he didn't understand the situation fully. Sadly enough for him, the bushes were thick and plenty, giving him no vision on the people he was trying intimidate.
Both of them went silent fast, both of their movement having come to a full stop. It took for a bit for one of them to start moving again. A rather young woman came into his view. She had brown hair and was fully naked.
Expecting the man in front of her to be shocked with her nude body, she was rather surprised to see that it didn't faze him in the slightest. She didn't did what he demanded though, holding her bow and a quiver in her hands.
As he didn't see her friend appear, he wouldn't stop pointing the bow are her, waiting for the second person. Neither of them spoke a word as he was getting more and more nervous about the situation. "Where's your friend then? And put your hands in the air."
This demand made her grin. She could see that he was getting nervous as he started to dance from one foot onto the other. With her bowhand, she took an arrow out off the quiver before dropping it, putting it with ease onto the bow but not aiming it at him just yet. "And why would I do that?"
Seeing the threat but not wanting to kill anyone, he would give her his full attention, exactly what she wanted from him. His full attention as her companion used the bushes to sneak around the clearing to get behind him.
Just as he was about to answer her, a loud crack could be heard to his left. For just a split second, he looked to the left. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the first girl coming forwards. He quickly took a step back, looking back at her. "Where's your friend?"
The girl looked behind her towards the bush that she just came out of and then back at him. "Not sure, I could swear that she was right behind me. Lilly, come out before mister nervous here decides that the string becomes too heavy for him to keep pulled back."
No answer came as her words entered his mind. She wasn't wrong about the string getting too heavy. Keeping it pulled back like this for this long was exhausting. His arm started to ache as if to beg him to let go. Not wanting to accidentally kill her either, he would slowly let the string come forwards, still keeping the bow raised.
"That's better don't you think? How about this, you stop pointing your arrow at me because if you don't then you might get executed." She said this with a big grin on her face, playing with the feather of the arrow on her bow.
That only confused him. He knew enough about the Gruges to know that human private executions weren't allowed. "And who might you be then that you can just order an execution?"
His question remained unanswered as she looked behind herself towards the bush and the road behind it, trying to listen. After a couple of seconds she focused back on him, lifting up her bow and drawing the arrow back with a certain grace, one that her opponent didn't seem to have.
He didn't like this one bit though, quickly drawing the arrow back and aiming at her once more. "Lower your…!"
Before he could finish the sentence, he felt a sting on the side of his head. The sting went to his brain as his vision quickly started to fade. He fell down like a sack of potatoes, letting go of the arrow.
He had been hit in the head by the second girl. It wasn't a heavy hit but the place that she hit him was rather well chosen, causing a quick knock out. The arrow that he had been holding back flew towards her friend, almost hitting her.
She let out a yelp, quickly ducking out of the way, not that she needed to. This caused her friend to quickly run to her. "Hey! Are you alright?"
With a shiver in her body, she would slowly look up, nodding slowly. "Yeah… I'm alright…"
As it happened to be, both were naked for some reason. As they gave each other a hug, they looked up at the person on the ground. He was nothing impressive. He was almost as big as them and not that much older it seemed like. His blond hair was on the shorter side which wasn't uncommon.
Seeing as he didn't immediately shoot them, it was obvious to them that he was a third party, someone not included in their affairs. "What shall we do with him?" As the one that had hit him whose name was revealed by the other one being Lilly. Lilly looked at her friend who looked almost identical to her.
"Not sure sis. Perhaps we should leave him here?" She looked around the area, hoping to see any clue to why he would be here.
"There." Lilly pointed towards the tree where the custom vines were still pushed to the side after the guy had barged through them. "My guess is that he lives here."
"Looks like you hit the nail on the head. Grab his arm and we drag him to the tree. Perhaps we can find something to tie him up."
"Do you think he has food?" Lilly sounded rather hopeful.
"Is that really your main concern? Food?"
Lilly's sister shook her head as she grabbed one arm, waiting for Lilly to do the same. As they started to pull, Lilly would look a bit closer to him. "Look Emma, what the hell is… he wearing." She had to take a break in between the sentence in order to breathe.
As they pulled him towards the hole which wasn't too far, Emma would look closer as well. His clothes were weird, something she had never seen before. Keeping that mystery for another time, she threw him in, letting out sigh. "I don't know… Must be something very exotic."
Having pulled an unconscious man over the ground cause the quiver to be emptied over the forest ground and his bow to be left outside. For now they didn't give that a second thought and instead went inside after him. They gave his humble abode a look of disappointment.
"What a sad way to live." Said Lilly, walking to the bel over the bell, flicking it with her finger before turning around to look at her sister.
The only light was coming from the entrance. Light that was slowly getting more dim as it was late in the day. For now there was enough light for them to see. The pole in the middle seemed to be stable but not helping with keeping up the tree as the tree had stabilized on his own. Emma walked over to the chest, opening it up. In the chest was a big assortment of items but for now the one she was most interested in was a rope.
"Hahaa! Let's wrap us up a gentlemen." She said with a chuckle, walking over to him and kneeling down. "Gimme a hand pretty please."
Lilly jumped up, walking over to her and putting him in a sitting position against the pole as they started to tie him up. They seemed to be rather alright for just having been hunted for their lives. Neither of them showing any signs of stress or despair. That didn't take long as when Emma went to tie the knot, she couldn't do it and failed quite often. When Lilly came over to help, she saw her hands shake.
She softly put her hands on the rope and took away the ends from her sister. "Hey hey… take it easy okay? Let me make the knot. Take a deep breath."
Emma let go of the rope as she took a deep breath. She shivered as she could remember how close she was to falling of the edge. Wanting to have a distraction, she went back to the chest and opened it up, looking inside.
As soon as Lilly was done, she would get up. After throwing a quick glance at Lilly, she would decide to get out of the hole. As she did so, the vines irritated her, getting in her face. Without any patience, she would tear down the vines. Surprisingly, they came down with ease. Once outside, she started to collect the arrows and the bow that he had dropped, bringing it inside together with her sisters bow and arrows.
As Lilly came back inside, Emma just closed the chest, being empty handed. Emma sat down on the chest, thinking of something while Lilly walked to the bed, putting the weapons onto the bed. Seeing as she had been focusing on her sister, she wouldn't realize that the arrows slid down and fell on the ground. When she finally noticed, it was already too late making her shrug. "Anything useful in the chest? Any food or clothes?"
"Hmmm? What? No not really. There are small pots in the chest but they're too small to be food." She looked at the guy they just tied up, tapping her finger on the chest. "You know, we can always take his clothes."
Lilly looked from Emma to him, starting to chuckle as she shook her head at the idea. "Seeing as there are no clothes in the chest, I doubt that those clothes are fresh."
Her argument made enough sense for Emma to not mention it anymore, instead looking at Lilly. "We can wait for him to wake up so we can question him? I doubt that he doesn't need to eat so there has to be food somewhere hidden." She didn't sound so sure about that though seeing how small his house was.
She got off the chest and started to push it in front of the guy as there were no chairs in the home. Lilly helped her pretty fast, getting it in front of him before sitting down. Lilly waited to sit down as she want to his bed, grabbing the bedsheets and sniffing it. It didn't smell bad so she brought it to Emma. As she sat down, she wrapped it around herself and offered the other half to her sister. Emma scooted over and got into the bedsheets as well.
Just as they both got comfortable, the guy made a soft sound, slowly opening his eyes. It took him a bit before he was able to focus his eyes on something, his eyes continuously rolling away. When fully conscious, he felt a sting on the side of his head. As he tried to rub that spot, he realized that he was tied down. Only then did he see the girls in front of him.
It stayed silent for a bit as both parties seemed to look at each other before he started to laugh. It didn't sound joyful at all. "Great…" He said with obvious sarcasm in his voice. "Tied up in my own home by two naked females." He shook his head as he looked down at the ground, feeling uncomfortable. During this, both Lilly and Emma stayed silent. "Come one, what do you want from me?"
"Just some information" Said Lilly.
"And you think I'm going to give you that information?"
"Well, we aren't tied to a pole are we?" Answered Emma with a tone that didn't tolerate resistance. But that was exactly what he was giving them.
"No you aren't, but it also looks like you two don't have clothes." The guy laughed at his own response.
"Well, we can just take your clothes!"
Lilly had enough of this. "Stop!" This way we go nowhere. We need your help or information and you need us to let you free. So how about this, we ask you a question and you can ask us a question?"
Now the guy stayed silent for a bit. He looked at them both before letting out a long sigh. "Not like I'm going to get a better deal."
"First question." Said Lilly as she thought about it. "Let's start easy. Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"Hey! Those are two questions!" Yelling that went together with him starting to try and get free. His hands trying to untie the knot. As that wasn't so fruitful, he realized that they had been looking at him without any smile. "Okay fine… I'm Lucas and I live here if that isn't obvious."
He was about to ask them his question when Emma kicked him in the leg. "And now the truth peasant."
"First of all, what kind of insult is that, secondly, how do you know whether it is the truth or not?" The kick didn't really hurt so he decided to ignore it for now.
"Mmm" Emma shrugged and closed her eyes. She didn't really have a reason to not believe him. She just wanted to seem smart which didn't really work.
"Anyway, my question is going to be the same. Who are you and what are you doing here? Seeing that you two are almost identical I can figure out that you're twins so perhaps your answer will be more helpful to me."
When they asked his question, it seemed normal to them. When he asked them for their name, they were rather confused and gave each other quick looks of confusion. Emma was the most confused as Lilly was the one that had talked to him earlier. "I could've seen this coming. If he knew who I was and wasn't hunting us then he wouldn't have aimed his bow at me like that."
Lucas saw their confusion and wasn't sure what to say at first. "Seeing that reaction you two must be rather well known. You were hunted as well so I would guess rich. I'm going with two daughters of a well-known baron."
Emma was the one that would answer his question. Of the both of them, she was a bit more high on her horse. "We are Lilly and Emma Cantervere. We are the rightful heirs to the throne of the Human Gruge. That makes us your superiors."
Lucas shook his head as he had a smile on his face. "My superiors? I think not. I haven't gotten a superior in a year or so. I told you that I live here in peace and quiet, unbothered by any tasks given by anyone that calls me their underling. By the way, what was that? A Gruge? Never heard of it."
Now the girl were even more confused. "How do you not know what that is? How long have you been living here?" Emma seemed to not understand. This human was not making any sense.
Lucas didn't answer right away. He looked at a wall as he thought about it. "I'm not so sure… About a year? The exact same time that I stopped taking orders." He focused back onto the girls.
"And where do you come from then if you are not from the human Gruge?"
"Let's just say that I'm not from this world. I'm not sure where I am. I just know that where I'm from, there weren't any centaurs or satyrs. As soon as I noticed that I was on another planet, I decided to hide. Now can I finally know what a Gruge is?"
As they looked at him, they were still skeptical. "Like we have to believe that. You from another planet." Emma wanted to continue talking but Lilly gave her a push with her elbow.
Lilly wanted to keep thing at peace for now and decided to answer his question. "So… A Gruge is a sort of group. Me and Emma are from the Human Gruge. There are others like the Skeleton Gruge, Stalter Gruge even a Cloud Gruge where wizards live. Although they don't like to take part in 'earthly affairs.'" She said that last part in a mocking tone. "They keep to themselves is what I'm trying to say and we can't reach them due to them living in the clouds if that wasn't obvious yet."
Lucas nodded as he understood. It was weird to the girls that he just accepted it like that, as if he had experience. But still Lucas wasn't believing them. "So let me get this right. The princesses of the Human Gruge decided to come and play into my forest all naked?"
Emma nodded as it indeed sounded a bit extreme. Sadly for them it wasn't a lie. "We were on our way for a diplomatic missions. But apparently not everyone wanted our mission to succeed. We were swimming in a lake while our camp was attacked. Our bodyguards kept the centaurs busy for a while so we could get away. But… they all died while we grabbed the little things we had and ran for our lives. I managed to get my bow while Lilly was out the water later. I didn't know where she had put her weapon so she left without hers. Luckily our servants hadn't taken the saddles of our horses yet. So before you ask, the ones chasing us were also centaurs."
This information shut Lucas up for a couple of seconds. His eyes wandered down to the ground as he repeated the information in his head. Eventually he looked back up. "So nobody here is a bad guy. How about you untie me then?
"No!" Said both Lilly and Emma without hesitation.
This only cause Lucas to sigh as he shook his head. "And why won't you untie me?"
"You honestly think that we believe your other planet story?" Asked Emma as she didn't believe a single word of what has been said by Lucas.
"And you two think that I have to accept without hesitation that I'm being held hostage by two naked whores in my own home?" At this point Lucas had lost his patience. He had done what they wanted but they didn't let him go. He had nothing to do with their assassination attempt. But his insult did seem to create a reaction.
"Excuse us!? It's your majesty! And second of all, our father is your king!" Yelled Lilly frustrated. These princesses didn't seem to encounter someone insulting them too often. They both seemed red in anger as they looked at him.
"In this land I don't have a king, let alone a country to call home!" Yelled Lucas back at her. And secondly, his daughters of 16 years old are standing in my home yelling at me while being naked!"
Emma got up and slapped him in the face. It was a hard and loud one as Lucas his head turned with the slap. His cheek quickly turned red. "We demand respect. And to be clear, we aren't 16 but 19!"
Due to the power of the slap, his face was forced to the side. He remained looking to his right for a second before moving with his mouth to test it. Nothing seemed wrong so he slowly looked back at them. "Congrats… That means I'm still superior in age." He didn't take the disrespect though, getting angry as he didn't accept the smack. "And if you two really were in danger then you probably need to be more quiet!" From that point on he just started to yell every word. "Because if they find me, then at least I won't be in danger because I'm not on the run for some half-horses! And if you forgot it! We're next to the road where they saw one of your horses take a dive! Where do you think they'll turn back to after they capture your other horse and see that it's empty!?"
Emma was barely listening to what he was saying, about to yell back when Lilly grabbed her arm. "He's right" Is what she said in a very soft and barely audible tone. "We shouldn't be yelling so much."
Emma on the other hand was still angry and looked at Lucas for a second before looking back at her sister. "I don't care. You do realize that he has been cutting the ropes ever since we started to talk to him right?" She said this in the same soft voice, making sure Lucas couldn't hear her.
That is what took Lilly's attention. She looked past Emma to Lucas. From this spot she couldn't see the ropes but she didn't need to. She believed her sister. She would then tug on Emma's arm as she got off the chest, letting go of the bedsheets so she was naked again, walking outside as she motioned for Emma to follow.
Not wanting to parade nude like Lilly, she would wrap the bedsheets closer around herself, following her. When outside, it was obvious that it wasn't going to be light for much longer.
Lilly had picked up an arrow that she had missed the first time that she collected his arrows. "How about we ask a couple more questions and then act like we go to sleep. If he tries anything, we can just shoot him. You ask some questions and keep the bow ready underneath the bedsheet. Whenever he attack, you shoot him. In the meantime I'll be checking out his bow and keep an eye on him from behind."
Emma was still angry and needed a bit to cool down. After taking a couple of deep breaths, she would nod and look back at the entrance. She remembered having dropped her bow and quiver before after the event. She started to look for them on the ground, not seeing them.
"I took them inside when I grabbed his bow. Go in first to grab it and I'll come after."
Emma nodded slowly before looking back inside. From here she could see him sitting there. "Don't take too long."
Having said that, she went back inside, walking past him to the bed to grab her weapons and hiding it before going to sit back on his chest I front of him. Not much later, Lilly came in as well. Getting a quick glance from Lucas due to her still being nude when going past him before being outside of his view. When at the bed she realized the arrows had fallen on the ground. Not really paying too much attention to it, she just grabbed one and put it on his bow, aiming at Lucas but not pulling the string back. From here she could see the rope easily and he didn't seem to have a knife. But even in the dark she could see that some ropes were cut.
Lucas decided to make Emma more mad due to her being the only one to react to his jabs. "Maybe you royal highness could get off my chest with her royal bottom."
This caused Emma to get red in the face but she managed to keep her cool although her hitting him wasn't completely out of the picture. She was very much capable to do it again. "Do you by any chance have some extra clothes or food?"
"Does it look like I have extra food or clothes?" He asked in return as he knew that they had already looked through his home.
"It's just a simple yes or no question." Said Emma acting like he was dumb for not understanding the concept.
"No!"
"So you always live in those weird looking clothes? I don't believe that at all."
"Not everyone can afford more than a hole in the ground with only a couple of things."
"Why are you so hostile towards us." Asked Lily who was starting to get tired of the constant hostility.
This time it was Lucas his turn to look surprised." You mean outside of the fact that you knocked me unconscious, tied me down in my own house, robbed me, hit me because I didn't show two good looking robbers respect?" But after saying that last part, he shut up and looked away, shaking his head slowly.
"So that is how you think about us." Said Emma with a bit of amusement in her voice.
Lucas didn't react anymore though. It dawned to Lilly that he was embarrassed and he was probably done for the evening. " I don't think he's going to talk much more if I have to be honest. Maybe it's better that we continue later."
It also helped that it was getting too dark to be able to see much anyway. The further the sun set the faster it went thanks to the trees and bushes.
Even though he had managed to make Emma upset, she was still smiling when she got up and walked to the bed. Now that they both were next to the bed, it was obvious that the bed wasn't really made to support more than one person. Not that it stopped them from trying. Lilly got in first, followed by Emma. Both had their bows ready underneath the sheets as neither of them planned on sleeping, just watching Lucas who was with his back to the bed.