When she had almost arrived and turned into the road to the eastern Smilwald, she stopped as if struck by lightning, but after a moment of shock she let herself sink behind a barrel. She saw dark shadows of countless horses trotting up silently. Men with long coats rode these silent animals. Slave hunters! So many of them! Lenja crawled as quietly as she could under a fence into the front yard of the Schinlocks house and they were already rushing past her. She held her breath and then chaos broke loose around her. Suddenly the thunder of hundreds of horses could be heard. The people on the street and in the square turned and a uncountable shouts broke out. The riders drew their sabres and steered their horses into the crowd. Screams of pain soon mingled with the trampling of the horses, and there was clang of weapons here and there. Lenja could not remember seeing knights or soldiers coming to the festival. A cold hand reached for her heart, cramped it and paralyzed her with fear. They were lost. She was lost! She had to run away! No, she had to tell Daddy and Mommy! And then run away with them. And Rovan. She looked around in panic, lying in the bushes. Then she crawled as quietly as she could, trembling and whimpering through the neighbours 'garden to the back of her parents' house. Just as she was about to open the bakery door, she heard her father's voice: "What's going on out there, by the Seven?" He was obviously at the front of the house. Then she heard her mother: "Anor, these are slave hunters! We are attacked!" "Go into the house and lock the door Sharia, we won't let them destroy our lives." The clanging of weapons had increased and could now be heard clearly between the screams of the people. Lenja shook the door of the bakery. "Open up, open up, please open up now!" She had to go inside. Dad had said they should go inside. Finally the door gave way and Lenja stumbled into the house, threw herself against the door and reached for the key with trembling hands to turn it. A loud cry of pain nearby made her shiver and the key fell to the floor. Sobbing, she sank to the ground and reached for the key with clenched fingers, shoved it into the lock and wanted to turn it around when she heard a loud crack in the house followed by several voices shouting in a foreign language. She heard her mother scream. "No, no, no," she whimpered softly, fingering the key, sliding off. A scream of pain of her mother followed and panic broke out completely in Lenja. She opened the door of the bakery and stormed out into the back garden, past the two oak trees over to the Schinlocks' house. Her mind was flooded with fear. She stopped thinking and just ran. She came to the back door of the neighboring house. She took the handle and opened the door with all her strength. It was surprisingly easy to open and Lenja was thrown backwards by her own strength and fell on her back. She sobbed, jumped up, and stormed into the house. She ran up the stairs, opened another door, and found herself in a chamber. A large closet made of red winter cherry wood occupied the small chamber. She hastily opened the door. Bed linen. She climbed in and closed the door. A hundred thoughts shot through Lenja's head at the same time. Was her mother badly injured? What about dad?
Was she safe here? Should she look for another hiding place? To do this, she had to go out. No, no, never. She will stay here. She pushed bed sheets in front of her. Covered her self with it as best she could. Squatted very small in the corner and tried to be quiet. But she couldn't suppress her sobs. Tears ran down her face. Mom had screamed so terribly. But suddenly there was a loud crack. A door was knocked open. Here. In this house. Lenja held her breath. She heard several voices calling in foreign languages. Then footsteps rumbled through the house. Things were overturned. Drawers were torn out. The slave hunters were apparently looting the house. Lenja's lips trembled with fear. Her eyes were wide open, and her entire face was frozen into a horror-filled mask. What if they open this closet too? What if they rip the sheets out? THEN THEY WOULD FIND HER. THEY WOULD FIND HER FOR SURE! With no thought whatsoever, she clawed into the sheets and squeezed all the way into the corner. Maybe not. Maybe the miss the closet, maybe the miss the bedclothes and her. Panic had completely flooded her young mind long ago, and her thoughts were playing with her uncontrollably. Then suddenly the door near her was opened. She heard a person's footsteps. Lenja stopped breathing and made herself smaller. The closet was opened. Through a small crack past the bedclothes she saw a linen robe and a large sack. The robber, displeased, swept the bedding from the upper compartments to the floor, obviously looking for something more valuable. Then he had arrived at the subject above her. Fabrics fell to the floor and suddenly a hand grabbed the blanket behind which Lenja was hidden and tore it out of the closet. "Rushik?" The man called in astonishment when he saw Lenja and she instinctively jumped forward, past the startled robber. The latter wanted to snap her but missed her dress by a hair. Lenja rushed to the stairs, she started to run down and accidently stepped on her dress, she flew forward in a high arc and just saw 2 more robbers coming around the corner on the lower floor to see what was going on. Then she blacked out.
Rovan returned to his cart with the last thick branch. With a small hand axe he cut it into smaller pieces and put these on the cart. He sighed and let himself sink down next to the cart. With one hand he reached for his water bag and took a sip. Then he wrapped the leather straps around his palms. His father had shown him this years ago: "Rovan, you always have to protect your hands. If your hands are injured, you can no longer work. And if you can no longer work, your family has nothing to eat. Always protect your palms." Then he had shown him, that his hands were protected from friction and wood splinters when engulfing them with thin strips of leather. Rovan got up and went to his cart, grabbed the two spars and started walking. He had chosen a part of the forest in the northwest of the town. He had to go up the mountain a bit, therefore the forest was avoided by the other wood collectors. But the cart was empty when Rovan climbed up, so it wasn't too difficult. As a reward, the forest had not yet been looted, so it was easy to quickly gather the wood, split it up and return back. Now that he was going down the hill, the cart pushed a lot, of course, and Rovan had to push against it so he didn't get too fast. When he came out of the forest and the slope became gentler, he saw the village and frowned. It was far too bright. And it burned. In many places it was not only burning where the god fire was. Houses were on fire. He wanted to leave the cart and start running when he saw 2 men on horseback slowly riding up and down near the west road to Uhlheim. They were wearing clothes and obviously had no intention of helping in the village. Something was wrong and Rovan put the cart sideways off the path. Then he ran quietly down the street and as he got closer to the village, noises came to his ear. They were screams. A lot of screams. The Bailiffs Haus burned too. It was no doubt - his home was attacked, but there was no longer a fight. As he got closer, he heard all kind of hooves and then finally foreign voices. The fear of every citizen of the sand marshes had come true. Slave hunters had raided his village and had already gained the upper hand. With this realization the fear rose in him. What about his mother? What should he do? He couldn't go any further, but he had to know what was going on with his mother. And with Lenja. But the fear was too vast. What should he do if one of the slave hunters spotted him? He couldn't run. They had horses. He had to run away! Best to Uhlheim. It was a few hours of hard walking, but they might be able to send help from there. There was an imperial army garrison and a courier station. He would be safe there. The slave hunters would not try to attack a city with walls and a castle. He slowly pulled away. He ran as quietly as he could up the mountain and from there facing the road to the west.
Everything was lost. He had nothing. He also left the cart. He only had his hand axe and the water bag. He stumbled quietly along the edge of the forest. He was already exhausted from the long work, but now fear drove him on. He had to get out of here. With trembling legs, he ran west at the edge of the forest until he could no longer see his old home. Then he paused a little. He sank onto the soft forest ground, which was already covered with multi-coloured autumn leaves, and took off his shoes. They weren't meant to be marched through the forest and the thorns poked through them. Rovan rubbed his feet and sank against the tree. Then he took a sip from the water bag. Just rest for a moment, he said to himself, but then his thoughts slipped and Rovan fell into a restless slumber.