The reason why I've only ever thought of this idea, but never acted upon it, is because their senses are incredible. I'll need to be quiet, careful, and invisible. I grab a green and black outfit, it's good, but not invisible. The only way I can be invisible to them, is to bring something native to these woods, something normal. Obviously, Willow's not the quietest thing, but he'll have to do.
I spend my breakfast memorizing everything Jaxon ever taught me how to walk silently, how to cover your tracks, how to track, and more. Obviously, this is reckless and dangerous, but if that idiot never got himself into this, I wouldn't have to get him out of it.
I sigh annoyed, and angry. We were supposed to be in this together, I never really knew how much I really meant to him I guess. I grab Willow and put him into my backpack, I slip a knife down my boot, I put a bow in my bow across my chest, arrows in my backpack, and a dagger in my belt. Alright. I think. Let's go.
I walk almost silently through the woods, caution in each step. I sit off the edge of the path and waited until I could see a minion.
It took all afternoon, but finally I see one. It walks expressionless through the woods. It never looks down, just straight ahead. I shiver at the sight of it. Ok, I think. Let's get this over with.
I remain crouching in the tall ferns surrounding the path. I slowly stand up to follow the man. I walk soundlessly after him, he follows the path mostly, looking out for other humans probably, the man is walking forwards, like he has been, but he's walking off the path for the first time. His pace seems to have quickend, which is bad for me, since I have less time to think about my steps.
Willow weighs me down as I already struggle to walk quietly after the man. Then something happens. I take a wrong step, I make a noise. I wence at the crack the stick beneath my foot made. Willow, who had been doing fine the whole time, started shaking.
The man starts towards me, and like lightning, he's on top of me. We lay there, me completely surprised with the man on top of me forcing me to look into his dark, red eyes. I try to push with a grunt, but he's too strong, too heavy. His arms hold mine down, but I wiggle one free, he goes to grab me again but I pull out my dagger.
I plunge the dagger into his chest where his heart is supposed to be at, but I'm not even sure these things have them. I go to stab him again but instead take my chance to escape. He rolls off me and onto his feet, the black ooze began to pour out. He's now standing there his mysterious eyes stare into my brown ones.
The man ran at me again, I move out of the way, these things may be strong, but they're certainly not smart. He stumbles, but quickly recovers and ran at me again. I pull out my bow and shoot, but there isn't enough time to aim. The arrow's top disappears into it's skin, but all it does is stop to pull it out, that's enough, enough for me to plunge another arrow into its eye.
I walk over and put my foot on the body pulling the arrow out, then picking the one up on the ground. I slip my arrows into my bag. Willow had calmed down, but I'm worried the impact hurt him. I slip my bag off my shoulder and opened it wearily.
Willow slips out stretching. I sigh, relieved. "You're quite the survivor, " I say, trying to keep my voice down. I know I don't have long before the minion pops back up again.
I put Willow back into the backpack, and I notice something in the distance. A house? It looks like a small cabin. Didn't Jaxon say something about a cabin? I walk to it changing my pace to a run, not caring who heard. I'll rip every single one of her minions apart if I have to.
I charged into the building, but there was no one there. It's a trap I think, but I don't care. The room was very small, consisting of a wooden table and chairs, a window, and a door to another room.
I step towards the door, my hands trembling as I open it. I see Jaxon shirtless, tied to a chair in the middle of the room. I run towards him his head lifts and I see them slowly light up.
"Oberon" he says worry filling his eyes, "It's a trap,"
"I know, I'll be okay," I say, I pull out my dagger, and began to cut, but something grabbed me from behind, vines.
I struggle against them but they're too strong. They hold my hands tightly behind me, so that I can't grab anything. I see Cora's eyes filled with joy, and then I see her minion, and he hits me in the head, everything goes dark.
◈◈◈
It was finally time for me to go, to see what I'll be doing for the next five years of my life. I left the house and sighed, it was already almost curfew, but that's when I'll be working I guess, I'm more worried about going back though, it'll be way past curfew then.
I pushed my worries aside and walked to the town well, there was a single man leaning against it, in fact there wasn't anyone else around, it looked like a ghost town, probably because it's so close to curfew. I walked up to the man "Hello, I'm Oberon, I think I was supposed to meet here for a job," the man ignored me.
"Hello? Are you deaf?" he looked at me and looked away.
"Look, I talked to Kayden and-"
"Right this way," the man finally said, leading me towards a house. "It's important you don't say anything about this, or we'll take the honor of killing you ourselves," he said darkly, "personally, I don't think we should hire desperte people like you,"
I would've been angry, I should've been angry, but he was right, I didn't deserve a second chance, and I could send their company tumbling. So why did they choose me? I know of plenty of people who didn't get a chance, who deserved a chance.
"Sir, why'd I get chosen to have a chance?"
"Good question, I just met you and I hate you, and you ask too many questions," the man said without even looking at me for a second, "Same here." I grumble.
We enter the home and it looks like any other home, it has a kitchen, dining room, stairs to the attic, and a door where the bedroom belongs. We walked towards the bedroom, next to the door, a man held up his hand. "Seriesly, this is ridiculous, I've only came in a minion times," but the man at the door didn't budge.
The man who met up with me pulled out a dark blue card, there was a gold star on it and nothing else. The man at the door moved and when we walked into the bedroom, I saw it wasn't a bedroom at all. There was a ladder downward, but they don't make basements anmore I think, but this isn't the only peculiar thing, in the room I could see several UV lights shining down, I didn't even know they made those anymore.
Kayden met us at the bottom of the ladder, "hey, it's our newest recruit!" he said.
"Ok, so you'll be going out quite often because-" kayden started, "No! Not her! She and I just met and we hate each other!"
"Well, you seem to have that kind of effect on people, Jordan, anyways Oberon, you'll work for Jordan."
Well, Jordan wasn't the only one that seemed to hate this plan, I also already hate Jordan but I didn't say anything, because this is my last chance and I wasn't ready to die yet.
Kayden and Jordan continued to argue, and for the first time I saw what was behind them. They were plants, hundreds of them. My eyes widened in horror, I knew it'd be bad but not this bad. The plants were called the Arabic Plants, which translated as The Death Plants.
The plants have unmistakable deep purple flowers. They were banned because if you use then you'll be high for a while and advenchally, die. If you use normal amounts it'll take up to five years, but most only survive one or two.
◈◈◈
I open my eyes, the world is blurry and my head hurts.