It has been twelve hours since Elara and the other Winterseed women escaped the premises of Glenwood for Winterseed.
At this moment, Liara could be seen standing inside a large room, breathing heavily as she looked at the bodies of three men lying on the floor in front of her, in a pool of their own blood.
They were the same three soldiers guarding the gate earlier, who had tried to have their way with her when they discovered Elara wasn't around to protect her as usual.
After she left with the three of them, one of them took her to his room, which was quite large, even bigger than some houses in Winterseed.
As the soldiers argued with each other about who would have her in the end, she scanned the room and found a dagger lying beside the big bed. Sneakily, she walked closer, grabbed the dagger, and hid it under her gown.
After staying with them in the room for about ten minutes, she rejected it, saying the room wasn't good enough, and then she was taken to the room she is currently standing in.
As usual, the three soldiers argued once again. Using the opportunity, she stabbed them in the back.
However, being someone who had never hurt a fly before, she immediately felt different as a sense of remorse, guilt, and other negative emotions flooded her system.
"What have I done?" she asked herself for the umpteenth time. Tears threatened to drop from the corner of her eyes.
She looked at the corpses once again, and her heartbeat intensified.
How would she bear the guilt of this forever? How would she even explain this to the others when they arrived? What would they do to her if they found out? So many thoughts rang in her head at once, causing her to have a slight headache.
"What should I do now? What should I do?" she repeated to herself.
As she whispered these words to herself, she heard footsteps approaching. Her eyes widened, and she immediately panicked.
She quickly sprinted to the door and locked it from the inside to prevent anyone from entering.
"Millson, come on out, man! You're in big trouble with the captain! Are you inside? Come on, answer if you're in there, or else you're gonna be in more trouble than you already are!" came a voice from the door.
The owner of the voice knocked and tried to open the door several times. Each time he attempted to open the locked door, Liara's heart skipped a beat. She only relaxed when he finally left.
She returned her gaze to the corpses and quickly made up a plan in her mind. She couldn't let herself get caught in the middle of this mess. Even if she could escape and return to Lord Fagin without getting caught, she would be in deeper trouble, as she would have to answer for her sisters.
"I hope they are okay and my sacrifice doesn't go to waste," she muttered as she began acting on her plan.
It was the late hours of a dark night, with only the moon hanging in the sky, providing light over a narrow path in the middle of a dense forest leading to Winterseed from Glenwood, where a group of six beautiful women could be seen running at top speed.
Elara could be seen running in front, her expression accentuating her determination to reach their destination.
The other women looked really worn out, having run all the way with minimal rest.
"Elara, let us rest! My legs can't bear this anymore!" one of them complained.
"I agree! My legs hurt so much! We need to find a place to rest now, it's the middle of the night, for heaven's sake!" another joined in.
Elara stopped in her tracks and looked at the others. Her expression was serious at first, but then she let out a sigh, and it relaxed.
"If we rest now, we might fall asleep. Falling asleep in a forest filled with wild beasts and monsters is not true rest," she said.
"We know that already, but still, we are not beasts that can continue without rest," they complained.
Elara and the women argued a bit about what to do.
As they were discussing, the neighing sound of a horse reached their ears, causing them to look at each other with fear and panic in their eyes.
"They have sent their soldiers already!" one of them exclaimed.
Immediately, they ran into the forest and found trees to hide behind.
The sound of the horse galloping towards them grew louder and louder by the second.
After a few minutes, the horse finally closed the distance. From where Elara hid, she spotted a large carriage driven by two white horses.
She had stayed in Glenwood for almost two years, but she hadn't seen anything , which made her wonder if it was really Glenwood soldiers chasing after them or someone else.
As the horse-drawn carriage drew closer to her, the sweet singing voice of a man reached her ears.
♫"Beautiful nights, in di forest so bright
Gotta reach di village, business tonight
Pray Jah bless mi, with rewards so right"♫
Hearing the voice and the accent, she realized it wasn't one of Glenwood's soldiers, but she still wasn't sure.
'Even if he's not from Glenwood, we still can't trust him. Who knows what he'll do if he finds five beautiful women stranded in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night? I can't even begin to imagine it,' she thought.
But then suddenly, the horse stopped moving, and the carriage came to an abrupt halt.
The women hiding behind the trees began to panic, wondering if the rider had seen them. Elara gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.
A door opened in the carriage, and a young man with long white hair tied in a ponytail walked out. He was dressed in fine clothing with golden embroidery that glittered in the dark, he looked far superior compared to anyone from Glenwood.
The young man squinted his eyes as he observed different spots in the forest, coincidentally looking directly at the spots where the women were hiding.
"Five beautiful women hiding inna di woods at night? Dat no good. Wah y'all hiding from? Just tell me, me a go help yuh."
AUTHOR NOTE: Sorry guys, I had a very long and difficult project to complete for my course so I couldn't update.
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