Colt was in a predicament. He couldn't run with Shelly, because it was clear she had no intent of leaving until the gang of thieves had been served their due justice. He couldn't run by himself because he'd come to realize that he wasn't getting to the Authority base without her. Don't tell her he said that, of course.
So that left him with his one option: to fight. It wasn't ideal by any means. There was one of him and about eight of them, and the one of him probably couldn't beat any of them in a battle, much less all eight. But, as he knew, it was his one option. Ideal or not, that was what he had to go with.
"So, are you gonna wait for them to come to us or..."
"Relax, I'm going," Colt said, then he realized, "Wait, that's not a bad idea."
"Well, it kind of is," she said.
"I've got this," he told her. "I'm an officer of the Authority, remember?"
The plan was to stay where he was, and pick off the thieves one by one as they challenged him. It would be easy. What could possibly go wrong?
It took a minute, but eventually Colt heard hurried footsteps as the thieves drew closer to them. The tree leaves started rustling around them, and the first person who emerged was Stuart. Seeing as the man had been behind him, Colt hadn't gotten a good look at him. Now that had changed. Stuart was even bigger than he'd thought, with shoulder blades that stretched out far from his XL-sized chest. His legs were shorter than his chest was, and looked ridiculously skinny and small compared to the rest of his body. He had a normal sized, bald head, which was made to look smaller than it was due to the shoulders on which it sat. He wore the same dark green clothes as the rest of his gang, but the outfit looked extremely tight on him.
Colt decided he would point his out to Stuart. "No wonder you're so cranky," he said. "I mean look at those garments!"
Stuart growled and trudged toward him. He had a knife in his hand, and Colt had to stop himself from laughing at the sight. Someone needed to get this man a larger weapon.
"Colt..." Shelly warned from behind.
"Don't worry," Colt replied. He didn't move, staring up at the large man as he moved closer. "I've fought this guy before. He ended up with a piece of bark in his leg."
That reminder didn't seem to help Stuart's mood any. The big man charged him, as Colt had expected, and he dodged around his legs. He was faster than Stuart, he knew that much. So he'd use that to his advantage.
Stuart tried stabbing in with his knife, but Colt sidestepped the blow and swung his sword at Stuart's massive chest. This move didn't go exactly as he'd planned. The big man simply swatted his sword out of the way.
"What was that?" asked Shelly.
Colt turned back and flashed her an irritated look. "I don't see you helping any."
Shelly just shrugged, unbothered. "Don't have a weapon."
Stuart had taken Colt's moment of distraction to swing at him. Colt was able to dodge it just in time but was left off balance. He swung his sword several times, but Stuart dodged them all without much effort. He tried another strike at the chest, but this time Stuart saw what was coming, grabbed the flat side of Colt's sword, and used it to flip Colt onto the ground.
Colt coughed a couple times, the impact to his back winding him.
He'd managed to keep hold of his sword so he attempted to strike Stuart's legs from his spot on the ground. Stuart simply stepped out of the way, though, and sent a boot straight to Colt's face, bloodying his nose and blurring his vision.
Through his semi-consciousness Colt felt himself being lifted up and held at knife-point. He heard a yelling sound in the distance and figured the other thieves had arrived and Shelly had gotten the same treatment.
Colt managed to detect a figure approaching him, but couldn't make out who it was. Then he felt a blow to his face and, as a result, his blurry vision began to clear. Trowt himself was standing before him again, with Stuart behind him. Stuart was holding a knife to his neck this time, but other than that it appeared he was in the same situation as before.
Trowt did not look very pleased. Colt could see he was fuming, the fire back in his eyes, trying to decide whether or not to strike Colt again for good measure. He ultimately decided against it, but it looked like it took no small amount of restraint.
"Do you realize what you've done?" Trowt spat at him.
Colt blinked. "You hit me pretty hard, but it's coming back to me."
"You've decided your own fate is what you've done," said the leader of the thieves. "Rather than simply robbing you dry and leaving you for dead, we now have to execute you ourselves. It's a gang rule, you see."
"Oh," said Colt. "Sorry to inconvenience you."
"You will be sorry. And to be sure of that I've elected to kill your lady friend first."
Shelly started to protest. "Wait, I'm not—"
"Yep, that's my lady friend," Colt said. "Please don't kill her before me, I don't know what I'll do." He said all of this with an air of sarcasm, as he'd come to realize that the thieves didn't seem to pick up on it.
Trowt gestured to the other big man, Morton, who was holding Shelly again. The man brandished his knife and brought it to her throat. He brought the knife back a little, preparing to make the finishing blow.
"Wait!" Colt heard himself saying.
Trowt looked annoyed, but he gestured again at Morton, who put the knife down with a disappointed look. Poor guy, he just wanted to kill people. Was that too much to ask?
Colt sighed, considering whether or not he really wanted to go through with his plan. He decided he would, because what else could go wrong? Actually, don't answer that. Enough had gone wrong as it was.
"You don't want to do that," he told Trowt.
Barnaby Trowt, leader of the gang of thieves, obviously disagreed. But his curiosity seemed to win him over, because he asked, "And why not?"
"Well I don't know, maybe you do want to do it. It's just... I thought you guys liked riches and gold and stuff like that."
There were some murmurings from the rest of the gang, all of whom were crowded around and listening intently. They probably just wanted to see Colt and Shelly be killed, but as Colt had expected, their ears had been caught on the mention of gold.
Trowt stepped forward and prodded Colt with some hand gestures. "Go on."
"My friend Shelly there," Colt pointed to her for good measure, "is related to the one and only Francois Souffle."
The thieves echoed the name quietly and in awe, then realized that they had no idea who it was. Shelly shot a confused and slightly annoyed glance over in his direction, but Colt figured she should just be happy to still be alive.
Trowt silenced his gang, then turned back to Colt. "Who is this Francois Souffle?" he asked, spending a lot of time on the name pronunciation.
"You don't..." Colt feigned a look of great surprise. "You don't know Francois of the great Souffle family? I'm surprised, I really am."
Francois Souffle, of course, was a made-up name given to a fake person created from Colt's imagination. Trowt's Thieves didn't have to know that, though.
"These... Souffles," said Trowt. "They are rich, yes?"
Colt made a coughing noise. "Isn't that an understatement."
Trowt furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"Yes, they're rich," Colt said plainly, spending great effort on not rolling his eyes. "Very rich."
"And you," Trowt crossed over and gave his attention to Shelly. "You are related to them?"
Shelly looked like she wanted to attack Colt more than the thieves. But she must have realized it was their only way out of their predicament, because she said, "Yes. Francois is... my dad."
She practically had to spit the words out, but Trowt and the rest of the thieves didn't notice. Their eyes were dollar signs and their hearts gold. They had been blinded by the mere thought of money.
Trowt stepped back so that he could see both Colt and Shelly.
"Both of you will lead us to this man and his family," he ordered.
Colt tried his best to make it look like that wasn't his plan all along. "Oh man, do we have to?"
"Yes!" Trowt said, and gave gestures to both Stuart and Morton.
The large men untied Colt and Shelly, but kept firm grips on them. Trowt pulled out a knife that was similar to the one that the other thieves carried, other that the silver hilt on his. He pointed it between Colt's eyes and then gestured ahead.
"Get a move on," he said. "Take us to the Souffles."
Shelly shot yet another questioning glance at him, which he ignored. She probably thought he didn't know where to go from here, but Colt had a plan. A good one, too, if it worked properly. If it didn't... well they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.
Colt led the other thieves out of the deep forest and back onto the main path. Trowt walked alongside him while Stuart held a knife to his back directly behind him. Shelly, Morton, and the other thieves followed along behind them.
After they were back on the path, Colt went back the way they came. The thieves thought he was leading them back into town but in reality he had something entirely different planned. He wasn't going to take them into the town at all. He was looking for something in particular, and finding it would be the hardest part.
Colt was relieved when they came upon an area of the forest that looked even more unkept than the rest of it. He remembered this place, and knew he was on the right track. The thieves started complaining about the overgrown trees and bushes in their way, pushing them aside. It was then that Colt noticed a familiar lump on the ground. He positioned himself right, walked toward it, and hoped for the best. If it wasn't what he expected it to be, he'd be in real trouble.
Colt walked right beside the lump of dirt and passed it. Trowt, however, who was walking to his left, stepped directly on top of it. In an instant a rope was tied around his left ankle and he was flung into the air. His knife flew out of his hand and Colt reached out and caught it on its way back down. Trowt wasn't as lucky, and didn't come down at all. Instead he was stuck upside down, suspended from the large tree branch by his ankle.
The rest of the thieves looked up at their leader, confused. As they slowly started to realize what was happening, Colt used the moment to his advantage. He tucked the silver knife beneath his belt, tugged Shelly away from Morton, and ran for it.
Colt laughed as he dared to steal a glance back. "See ya, trout!" he yelled.
They sprinted as fast as they could back the way they'd come, with the thieves right on their tails. Colt and Shelly were both running out of breath and energy quickly, and were almost caught when something saved them.
"Wait!" yelled a voice. "Come back! Save me!"
The thieves all stopped and hesitated as their boss called to them. After a moment of silent debate, they all turned and ran back to the tree where Trowt was likely still hanging. Colt and Shelly ran for several more minutes just in case the thieves' priorities changed, then started to slow down.
Colt leaned against a tree to catch his breath for a moment, then stood back up. "We've got to keep moving," he said. "We've lost a lot of time coming all the way back here."
He started to continue walking, but Shelly grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Hold on just one second," she said seriously.
Colt nodded. "I know, you want to congratulate me on my genius plan. I just knew that lump of dirt was a booby trap. I told you, didn't I? But it's whatever, you can save your thanks for later."
Shelly shook her head. "No, it's not that. Do you even realize what you're doing?"
For the first time Colt noticed the look in her eyes. She did not look happy, relieved, or even really tired. She looked angry. Very angry.
"What are you talking about?"
"You're not an Authority officer," Shelly said evenly. It wasn't a question. "You lied to me. You made me come here with you and you've been lying all along!"
"Hold on a minute," Colt protested. "I didn't make you come here. I didn't want you to come here. If anything you made me take you along with me!"
"Because I thought you were part of the Authority! I thought you could get me here safely to... oh never mind. We're going back. Right now."
"Look, Shell, it's not–"
"Don't call me that," she warned. "As a matter of fact, don't call me anything. Come on."
Shelly turned to leave, but Colt didn't make an attempt to follow. She turned back, glaring at him.
"What are you waiting on?" she demanded. "We're going!"
"You're welcome to leave if you want to," Colt said. "But I'm not going anywhere. I told you when we met, I have to get to the Authority base."
"Why do you need to get there anyway, if you're not even in the Authority?" Shelly challenged, hands on her hips.
"I have business there," Colt said simply.
"Oh yeah? What kind of business?"
"Can't tell you."
Shelly scoffed. "Of course not."
"Oh," Colt said. "Well if it's so unreasonable, why don't you tell me what business you have there?"
Shelly didn't say anything, she just continued to glower at him.
"Exactly," he said. "Now, you go home and I'll continue my journey. I have to get back to my fish."
That sentence didn't sound as menacing out loud as it had in Colt's head, but regardless he turned and stalked off. He walked for a couple minutes and noticed that Shelly was shadowing along behind him.
"What are you doing?" he called back to her. "Go home."
"No!" she shouted back. "I'm just going to grab my satchel. Then I'll be on my way, and we'll never have to see each other again."
Colt hoped she was right. She might have brought food, but this girl was a big pain. Besides, he could probably find his own food. Right? What did he need her for anyway? He was making big progress, and soon he'd be at the Authority base and then out of Goldtown forever.