The air was at its hottest when the sun shone overhead, but today is cool. Clouds ruled the sky. They had been blew hard from East to West since this morning by the wind and grown darker with each passing hour.
"It's going to rain," said Baldin, flapped a bit of back wagon curtain. "We better find a safe place."
"We're not in charge here, Baldin."
"I know, Master Orfus," concurred Baldin. "What do you think, Captain?"
Baldin flapped open the curtain wider. Everyone, except sleeping king in the corner, observed the sky from their position. Orfus reared back his head as Captain leaned over to get better view. The sky indeed was dark, most of it.
"We will ride a mile."
"What made you think so, Captain?" asked Liutenant.
"The wind doesn't flow much."
Deldon caught what Captain meant. Usually brisky wind preceded the rain with cool temperature and warned everyone of what is coming next. Sometimes that's not the case. Rain could fell anytime.
They're back on their ride. Sat all day. Baldin and Dorfurs kept quiet, only occasionally bantered between themselves talking about herbs and their usage which proved quite useful.
After noticing the king hardly slept and worried almost all the time days before, Orfus ground some herbs and handed Captain the herbal medicine. He instructed Captain to have the king drank the medicine twice a day before lunch and dinner. The king felt better since then. To hide king's identity, Deldon told Orfus that the king was the caravan master, Captain was his personal steward and bodyguard, while Liutenant and he were guard officers. The information helped Orfus how things worked around.
Thunder rumbled somewhere from time to time. Captain kept checking the sky, sometimes it's darker, sometimes it's brighter. He snorted.
"Let me watch the weather, Captain," offered Orfus, sitting right next to the back board.
"Thank you, Orfus. It's better if we open the curtain."
"The wind can get into the wagon, Captain." Deldon thought about the recovering king nor fragile Orfus. They could get sick from cold wind. "How about you trade your position with Orfus?"
Captain's eyes shot wide. What he said might be true, but he suggested a foreinger to sit beside the king. King of the nation. That's not possible.
"You're right, Deldon," Captain admitted. "But caravan master is sleeping. Let's not disturb his nap."
Deldon sensed Captain's resolution and felt relieved. Captain had corrected his error. He should think rather than talking first.
"We ca…"
Before Captain could finish his words, a loud high pitch sound like how an arrow whizzing cut him short and there's a boom. Something hit the wagon behind them. They all watched in horror as blaze devoured the wagon and knocked it several feet away. The impact threw the coachman and the blazing wagon tugged the front four horses by force until they smashed on their right side along the way. Laments soon followed after, so did the scream of the passengers.
"Bandit!" cried Captain. "Prepare your weapons!"
Deldon grabbed the quiver full of arrow and the bow handed by Liutenant from the basket beside him. He jumped off the wagon after Baldin, right away, a man in ragged tunic approached him with axe overhead. Instinctively, Deldon yanked out three throwing daggers from his belt, hurled one, and plunged it deep in the man's forehead. The man fell dead. The other two bandits shared the same fate before they came close enough. But more of them poured out from the nearby hill overlooking them.
He drew his arrow one after another and shot many bandits in different directions. One arrow pierced through the enemy neck, eliciting him to drop his sword and try useless effort to stop the bleeding. Bandits who were hit on their heart had sudden knocked back. Their eyes stared in disbelief at the arrow on their left chest, spelling certain death in seconds before kneeling down or collapsing. The ones running down the hill were the most unfortunate. Deldon deliberately aimed their hip. On impact, they stumbled and rolled like a rolling stone to meet their fate at the foothill. Some men survived because Deldon's arrow hit their stomach, arm, shoulder or other non-vital area, although he tried his best to kill one shot at each bandit. The survivors soon were dispatched.
"Protect the caravan master!" commanded Captain far behind. "No matter what, protect him Soldier! And also Orfus and Baldin!"
"Yes, Sir!"
"I will hold the enemy on another side of the wagon. Do your…. Die you bastard!"
A gurgling sound behind indicated Deldon that Captain had just killed a bandit. The one he ordered had to be the coachman beside Orfus and Baldin. The coachman was a soldier in disguise and a capable man like the rest of them.
"Far left, Deldon!"
His gaze flew left to what was left of the blazing wreak wagon. Two front horse kicked out in desperation and other two behind stayed dead, woods crackled and snapped with smokes rising up, but there was movement. Several men crawled on the ground. One half-burned man cried out for help and two other men sat without complete limbs. One lost left arm, another one lost both his legs. These two men played their sword against three bandits surrounded them. Liutenant warned him about those bandit which infuriated Deldon. His focus increase and he shot three arrow in a quick succession. One arrow tucked inside the brain of one bandit through his temple, instantly dead. Another arrow hit the bandit's hamstring, sending him to his knees and one of the soldiers had his sword on his neck. The last bandit had the arrow on his right arm. He grunted and stared around till his eyes met Deldon's, but another soldier quickly stabbed the bandit in the groin and proceed to cut him more as the enemy fell down.
"Arghhh!"
Deldon turned to Liutenant, finding his calf hit by an arrow. Liutenant almost knelt down if he didn't had his point head sword thrust the ground and leaned on while holding the sword grip. Throughout the attack, the bandits didn't use any range weapon. He traced back the possible arrow coming direction and found a prominent figure above the hill, holding a long bow.
The man stood out from his peers. Most of the bandit wore ragged clothes or incomplete leather armor set, but this man wore a brown vest under exquisite black jacket paired with a pair of black pant. His appearance was clean and tidy. He had short jagged hair alongside white pale skin. And he grinned wide.
Deldon nocked an arrow and aimed the prominent figure. The man might be the bandit leader, although not the one what Deldon expected from his appearance, but he didn't hide and instead stared Deldon as if daring him to shoot him. Deldon did. The arrow flew swiftly towards the bandit leader and it stopped an inch in front of the bandit leader's outstretched hand. He clenched his fist, shattering the arrow in quick motion.
"Magic!" Deldon whispered within him. "This is not good. We're in grave danger."
"Die!"
The roared snapped Deldon out of his reverie. A huge bald bandit rushed toward them with his spiked club had been reared back behind him, readied to be unleashed upon Liutenant once within range. Somehow, Liutenant only watched and panted.
"Shot him, Deldon!" Liutenant ordered. "I can't move. The arrow has been poisoned with something."
Without Liutenant to hold his ground and kill anyone who had spared by his arrows, Deldon was on his own in this west side of the wagon. Deldon shot the man, but the huge bandit jerked his head before the arrow was released and whizzing past him. The huge man knew he aimed for his head. Panic stroke Deldon. His hand shoke as he drew another arrow because the man had reached the foothill, just one stone throw away.
Breath. Remember your training.
Deldon reaffirmed himself. Even after fighting countless time, he could still panic on the prospect of hand to hand battle. He preferred to shoot enemy from afar. He rotated his bow 45 degree to the left, knocked two arrows and aimed the huge bandit as he roared in his way to introduce them his spectacular club.
The huge bandit jerked his head again, however, this time he heard thuds instead of whizzing. He felt a thump like a boulder smashing his left body, what a tremendous pain. He screamed, no sound came out, only a low groan. His throat was full of something and stuck there as if he was choked by an apple. He dropped his club in fear of the worst when his hands probed his neck then left chest, red sticky liquid smeared his hands. Death had come for him like all his comrades. Suddenly, he lost his strength and everything turned black.
"Fools! Is it that hard to kill the guards and capture the king?!" boomed the prominent figure. "I will kill you lots myself after this battle!"
Deldon dragged Liutenant to the back side the wagon after he had shot more bandits. Some of them stopped when their leader threatened them. They roared and rushed again. Around five bandit cavalries now joined the tray. Captain ordered Deldon to shoot them down which he did and kept fighting until the bad news came.
"Fireball!" shouted Captain. He looked grimly at all people. "Get away from the wagon!"
"Heal the liutenant, Baldin. I'll hold the line!"
"But…"
"Just heed my words!"
"Yes, Master Orfus!"
Deldon didn't understand what the old man meant, but he ain't got time to think, let alone staying. Once again he dragged Liutenant. The man was heavy as a lifeless body and maybe they wouldn't make it in time. He couldn't abandon his superior. Meanwhile, Baldin watched over Liutenant's wound. Before Deldon could complained, the loud high pitch sound of fireball swallowed any sound around. In an instant, Deldon raised his left arm to cover his face.
Boom filled the air followed by a loud cracked sound of wood hitting something hard. Deldon expected something hot hugged him, instead, he felt nothing but a slightly hot air. There're only crackles then.
"What has happened?" asked Liutenant, gasping.
Deldon lowered his left arm. Their wagon was engulfed in a blaze against almost invisible blue wall. The wall rose high and formed a dome which contained all of them from the fireball. Captain, the king and the coachman, they had jumped and sprawled on the ground the moment the fireball hit the wagon, shared the same astonished Deldon had when they looked around them. Orfus stood upfront with his staff aloft, an unexpected reinforcement at such crucial time. A wizard.