Chapter 28 - Captured

Reeve sighed when he saw the bandit holding Eskaria with a sword pointed at her neck. This was precisely what he was trying to prevent, yet it still happened. If they had ran away, they might have gotten away without being captured. Only if wishes were horses …

"Fine", he said, as he raised his hands in surrender.

Everyone turned to look at him, with puzzled expressions. Riza couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing?"

"Surrendering? Is it weird?" asked Reeve, as he realized he might have done something no one knew, except himself.

Riza shook her head, while the bandits moved over to tie all of them up. The leader of the bandits mounted his horse and led the bandits back to their camp. Aside from just tying everyone up, they made sure to place dirty bags made of sack cloth on everyone's heads so that they wouldn't see anything. When they were done, the began to drive the carriage with Reeve, Eskaria, Rizaneth and the soldiers tied up at the back.

After travelling for what seemed like ages, but in reality, was only a couple of hours, they arrived at their destination. What was this destination? Oh, nothing much. It was just a small village hidden in a forest. When the bandits took off the bags, Reeve couldn't help but gasp. The air in the bags was so horrible it was like having unwashed socks covering the whole head. It was beyond terrible!

Reeve looked around as they were being led to a 'prison' of sorts. This 'prison' was an open space with large cages made of iron grouped together. These cages had metal bars that were so close together a person's hand could not fit between them, let alone a person's head. It seemed like whoever made these cages didn't like people escaping from them. Well, that was if he had made them to hold people. As Reeve was still thinking, he was separated from Riza and Eskaria, who were taken to a different cage, while he was put into a cage with one prisoner. As for the soldiers, Reeve didn't know where they were taken.

The sun was beginning to set, and the darkness was creeping in. Inside the cage where Reeve was thrown into, there was a young man with short, black hair. He looked to be around fifteen years of age, unless he used some ancient magic to retain his youth and he was already over one thousand years old. Then again, didn't Karim say there were only four types of magics? So that possibility was nullified.

"Hello there, what is your name?" asked Reeve.

The young man took a single glance at him, before ignoring him. Reeve frowned deeply. He was simply trying to engage in a conversation. It seemed as if the young man was not interested in conversing with him.

'This is going to be a long imprisonment', thought Reeve with a sigh. He scanned his surroundings. Outside the cage was a guard placed by the bandits. Every few hours, the guard would be changed. The cage was locked from outside, and it was impossible to unlock it from the inside. It seemed like whoever made these cages was totally paranoid in terms of security! Currently, the sun had already set a few hours ago. Aside from the guard who brought them food, no one else came by. Reeve decided to get some sleep.

"Hey you! Wake up!" echoed a voice in Reeve's ears.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, before yawning. Cold water was poured over his head, literally. All his sleepiness vanished to be replaced with anger, rage, and a sense of humiliation.

"What do you want?" he asked the guard who had poured water on him.

"Oh, you think you're in your home where you can sleep all day, do you?" asked the guard with pride.

"Isn't imprisoning me enough? What do you want now?"

"We want to know where you were going and why?" asked the bandit.

"Eh? Why do you want to know that?"

"None of your business! Just answer the question! Where were you going?"

"Oh, we were going to Sky City!"

"And why is that?"

"That is none of YOUR business!" replied Reeve with a smirk.

"Clever, are we? I'll be back! Hmpf!" said the guard as he left.

"So, you were going to Sky City?" asked the young man who was sitting in a corner of the cage.

"Now he speaks! Thought you were deaf and dumb", replied Reeve.

"Hmpf! Whatever!"

"You and I are imprisoned here. Tell me, why are you acting like this towards your fellow human--"

"Fellow human? Have you looked in the mirror?" asked the young man with a smirk.

Reeve face-palmed himself. He had totally forgotten he didn't look human at all.

"Fine. Whatever you say. My name is Reeve. If you don't want to tell me your name, just keep it and see if I care", said Reeve, as he stood up to look at his surroundings once more.

The young man seemed to be hesitating, before saying, "My name is So—Kurian."

"Nice to meet you Sokurian."

"It's Kurian, you idiot, not Sokurian!" declared the young man. From Reeve's perspective, it was clear that this young man had just lied about his name. He was somewhat sure that his name started with an S, not with a K.

"Fine fine. Nice to meet you Kurian. Anyway, how did you get captured?"

"That's a long story."

"Well, it's not like we're going somewhere."

The young man sighed. "We were going home from the Southern Water tribe, but along the way we ran into the bandits and we were robbed. I was captured, while everyone else was murdered", as he said this, he had a very somber expression.

"Why did they capture you and kill everyone else?"

"They found out that my family is rich, so they decided to demand ransom while holding me captive!"

"That makes sense. However, if your family is rich, why would they send you to the Southern Water and back without proper security?"

"Eh?"