The green, calm and relaxing current of the river was the calmest of the day, with no regret for being tugged to a very tiny wooden boat.
Victor had a firm grip on a net with both hands, sitting cross-legged in one side of his boat, closing his eyes to inhale the soft air.
The odour of wet earth and algae-scented air heightened his senses with each breath. The warm and early sunset's warm glow filtered through the green leaves that hung over the river, throwing clear and glossy shine through the clear water. An experience Victor gratefully appreciated. His eyes were closed, feeling the warm sun against his skin.
A sudden gush of a wave against his boat snapped him back into reality, causing him to catch a sudden fright, almost letting go of the net. He gasped and realised it was nothing. He glanced around at his flourishing surroundings of bird calls and chattering squirrels, logs, moss and leaves that laid around against the river.
He sighed, alleviated, then looked into the distance of the river, seeing the stone bridge connected to the stockade, it was so low that no boat could underpass, the guards upon it having an owl's eye upon those fishing on the river.
Victor shook his head and peered into the water, seeing right through the crystal-clear waves.
"Great," he sighed, seeing no fish whatsoever caught in the twine net made from thin strings of rope.
The splash of water through the holes of a net near Victor sent drizzles of water to splash from it, catching Victor's attention. Another slave was busy pulling his fish-full net onto his boat.
It was peaceful for Victor, but now his thoughts started drowning in his conflict and circumstance.
He was aware that guards around the river kept an eye on him, but he also knew that they were lazy, so he sighed and started mooning about, sitting like a lazy boy in the boat while pulling lines in the cool water as fish started swimming by.
"I wish things could be better," he whispered to himself, resting his hands in his lap while staring into the distant horizon of dusk, catching only the sun within his view since all around was just flora, the sun perfectly descending beyond the sight of the cobbled bridge crossing the river.
The rocking of a nearby boat shook dangerously with splashes of water, sending Victor's boat to start shaking. The wining creak of her boat swayed dangerously as she staggered.
Victor threw his attention to the side.
Her dazzling voice cursed as she faltered to one side of her boat, causing it to get closer to Victor's boat.
"Umm, may I…" Victor stuttered, standing up and holding out his arms if her comely figure were doomed to fall.
Victor's eyes widened as she fell back.
With a quick reaction, Victor could do nothing but jump to catch her beneath her arms, shoving his boat to drift away while he fell with his back on her tilted boat with the girl in his arms. A creaking thud with his back on her tilted boat, then a fall in the shallow water on the moss-covered shore.
By accident, he laid on his back. Half his length was in the water while being lucky that his head was on the shore. Yet so, the sunset's delicate light had just turned the world a-flame with orange when he saw her, staring deeply into her emerald green eyes, falling away into her rare beauty.
Victor was soaked in water, her outfit of tight, flesh-hugging leather pants and cloth ragged shirt was covered with a few drops of water. Her body laid between Victor's legs while he had one knee bent towards the sky, resting his foot in the shallow water. To Victor's surprise, this young girl was about as tall as he would be.
Her emerald eyes blinked twice.
"Wow," she amazed, kind of nervous as to the astonishing structure of Victor's impressively handsome face, her voice slightly thin and high.
Victor pulled a smug smile of admiration across his straight jaw, scanning her alluring features.
Her almond coloured complexion fit well with her golden brown hair colour that grew as long as to the end of her spine.
The most outstanding feature of all the other shades of brown and almond was her eyes, damn it was amazing.
Her straight-edged nose was small, the small and attractive ball-tip flawless in the sunlight. She had a comely figure which was fit, a wasp-waisted body. She had round and alluring lips. Her small, square jaw was perfectly straight and ran into a small rounded chin.
Her eyes jumped around at his features, but she didn't know he knew why.
Victor blinked away the attraction,
"Sorry about that," he apologised, meeting her eyes as their faces were romantically close. He was being gazed at through the eyes of paradise.
"Thank you," she responded in a mumble.
She shrugged away the distraction and stood up with Victor between her legs, still half in the water. She got a seduced scan from Victor's eyes, examining her from legs to head.
"Jane," she introduced, holding out her arm in an offer of helping him up.
Victor glanced from her flawless almond-skinned hand to her green eyes in the orange tint that the sunset had spilt. He grabbed her warm, lean hand and got pulled to his feet as water trickled down his rags and leather pants.
"Victor," he announced, smiling at her.
"If it weren't for you, I would've fallen into the water," she thanked, stroking a strand of golden-brown hair over her small ear.
"If it weren't for your boat we both would've fallen into the water," Victor laughed, delivering an adorable blush on Jane's cheeks, with a short giggle.
"How did it happen?" Victor asked, the last sunset disappearing from beyond the horizon.
"I think some fish were swimming too fast into my net," she explained with a smile.
"None swam into mine," Victor moaned, jokingly.
The nocturnal sounds of the night started to fill the gloom, crickets, owls and cool gusts of swooshing wind.
"I think we must go…" Jane suggested, "before the guards mistreat us," she affirmed.
"Yes, but I…" Victor started, before hearing a sudden scream from within the river.
Victor rushed through the undergrowth on the shore with Jane behind him, halting behind a tree at the sight of the bridge he saw on which two people stood.
"That's not good," Jane referred, seeing a guard punch a small slave boy to the ground on the cracked cobblestone bridge.
"Hey!" Victor yelled.
"No, don't!" Jane cursed under her breath before Victor furiously stepped to the bridge.
"How dare you yell at me!" the rough-voiced guard responded, leaving the crying boy on the ground as he watched.
Victor approached the heavily armoured guard and realised that cold steel was around his throat, gripping aggressively as the giant lifted him into the air. Victor gasped for air and kicked about, uselessly beating at the arm of the juggernaut.
"Your life ends tonight, Victor," the soldier threatened, throwing him hard on the stone with an acute cough from Victor. He realised that it was the same guard who almost beheaded Nathan.
Jane stifled a regretting curse, she was also in a bad spot at the moment, lurking at what's happening from behind a tree.
The guard bent down to grab Victor's foot, only to get kicked on the chest. He staggered a few feet and grew furious, boiling mad.
He tightly curled up a fist and swung it with hard intent at Victor's head, bashing a painful hit at his cheekbones, delivering a groan as his head lolled to the side. Victor croaked at the pain as the powerful soldier grabbed his foot and dragged him towards the stockade.
Victor tried grabbing at the cobbles beneath him, even though it scraped at his flesh and pulled the shirt from his chest over his head, as he got dragged off the bridge, he searched for Jane, only to see the boy still croaking of pain on the bridge.
He furiously clenched on his jaws and accepted his fate, furiously banging his fist on the dirt in surrender.
"Are you hurt?" Jane helpfully asked, scanning the boy who laid on the cold cobbles and crouching to examine him.
"I'm not okay," the thin-voiced boy croaked.
Jane glanced at each side of the bridge, seeing the river they fished in, and seeing the river snake onwards towards nowhere.
"I have an idea," Jane proclaimed, pulling the boy to his feet and scanning her surroundings, only to see guards patrolling upon the thick walls of the stockade.
"Come here," she said, grabbing the boy's hand and going to the shore beside the bridge.
"Look out for guards while I get a boat for you," she instructed, leaving the boy on the incline that led to the shore.
After a moment, she managed to drag a boat across the dirt path and to the other side of the bridge, where the river continued to flow.
"This river leads to a village, be careful and be safe," she wished, hoping that a good village would provide refuge to the boy. She knew that she could escape the same way, but she didn't want to, for quite a reason, her caring side took over for the moment.
The boy quickly hugged her and settled himself into the boat, being pushed into the current by Jane.
Jane knew he'd be safe, for the foliage around the river would obscure the view from guards on the stockade's walls.
She ran over the bridge with wet hair and damp clothes, running to the stockade.