"I can take a turn carrying it, if you'd like."
Colt readjusted his grip on the fish barrel and grimaced. He shook his head to decline Shelly's request, though he did appreciate her offering.
"I'm the one selling these, so you shouldn't have to worry about it," he told her.
"If you feel that badly about it you could just give me 80 percent of the profit once you sell them," she suggested.
Colt chuckled. "Only 80? That's a bargain right there."
"Hey, what can I say?" Shelly laughed. "I'm just a great friend."
"Oh, the best," Colt agreed. "But I think I'll carry them anyway. Besides, we're almost at the base."
Shelly nodded. "The final stretch."
They'd spent another couple of days walking and now were visibly very close to the Authority base. They still couldn't actually see it, but their landmarks on the map were getting closer and closer to the dot that represented the base. Colt would be surprised if it took more than another half day to get there.
Thankfully, the trip had started to speed up a little. They weren't going any faster than they had been, but it sure felt like it. Colt knew that this was because the mood between him and Shelly had increased substantially. They finally understood each other, and could talk to each other easily and lightly. It made time feel like it was going by much faster.
The end of their journey was looking rather promising. At least, until Shelly got shot.
This time it came out of the blue. First they were walking like normal, pushing various plants out of the way as they trekked along the path. The next thing Colt knew Shelly had cried out and was doubled over with pain.
"Colt!" She yelled out and clutched her side, eyes almost closed due to the pain. Colt sat down the barrel and ran over beside her, looking around frantically for the attacker.
"What happened?" he asked hurriedly. "Where'd it come from?"
Shelly just shook her head a couple times. "I... I don't..."
She stumbled back a little and then fell down onto the side of the path. She was breathing heavily and looked like she was about to pass out at any moment.
Colt kneeled down to help her but she shook her head again. She pointed into the distance.
"Find the shooter," she said. "Before they attack again!"
Colt nodded and turned his back to her, pulling his sword out and keeping it at the ready. He peered deep into the forest, looking all around him for any slight signs of moment. But there was nothing moving. He couldn't hear anything either. Whoever was stalking them must be a professional, or at the very least know what they're doing. Colt suspected that this wouldn't be some low-life thief like the one he'd let go a couple days ago.
If he couldn't spot his attacker, he'd have to lure him out using other means.
"Hey, coward!" Colt yelled into the forest. "Come out here and fight me, why don't you?"
"Oh, I plan to," replied a familiar voice from behind Colt.
Colt closed his eyes as he became filled with dread. Not him. Anyone but him. He took a deep breath, then turned around to face his opponent: Barnaby Trowt.
Trowt was standing on the edge of the forest. He held a bow in his hand, an arrow notched and pointed directly at where Shelly was laying.
"You're going to want to lower that," Colt told him.
Trowt's dark and tired eyes snapped toward Colt but the bow didn't move an inch. "No," said the thief. "I don't think I do want to lower it. That would be stupid."
Just like you, Colt wanted to say. But maybe Trowt did have some wits about him. He was a decent thief, that was for sure. He seemed to have good aim and was completely invisible in the trees, meaning he was not someone Colt wanted to underestimate.
"Then maybe you should at least reposition it," Colt said. "I'm the threat here, not her."
"I don't think of you as much of a threat, Colt," Trowt put emphasis on his name, maybe proud that he'd been able to deduce that from Shelly's shout. "Especially not when there's an arrow pointed directly at your lady friend."
Colt grimaced. Trowt was right; there was really nothing he could do without Shelly being hit with another arrow. And this time the shot would likely be fatal, if the other hadn't. But he could keep talking. That was becoming his specialty.
"On the contrary, I think I'm a very big threat to you, Trowt," Colt said. "Especially when you don't have your gang of idiots here to back you up."
"They're my gang of thieves," Trowt corrected, "and I don't need them. Not for this."
"So what happened to them? Did you guys break up?" Colt feigned some sadness in his voice. "My condolences."
"Oh they're out searching for you right now. They want revenge too. But I'm glad I got to you first. We'll have a lot of fun. But first I need two things from you."
"I'll give you something alright," Colt said, gripping his sword and taking a step forward.
Trowt simply pulled back the strings of the bow a little, making Colt come to a stop. The thief smiled, satisfied. "That's what I thought. Now, do what I say and maybe only one of you has to die."
"Can I choose which one?"
Trowt thought about it, then shook his head. "No! Now first thing's first. Give me back my knife, immediately."
Colt just shrugged. "Couldn't even if I wanted to, which I don't."
Trowt's nostrils flared. He looked like he wanted to release his hold on the arrow, but even he was smart enough to know that doing that would remove his only leverage.
"And why is that?"
"I gave it away," Colt answered, which was a half-truth. He had given it away, but it was currently only a couple dozen feet away beside Shelly right now. Trowt didn't have to know that though.
"That knife," the thief said angrily, "was my prized possession. And you gave it away. Like some cheap, worthless item?"
"In my defense I had no idea it was your prized possession. And also in my defense, it kind of sucked."
In anger, Trowt turned his bow to face Colt and let go of the arrow. It was sent flying toward Colt who, having expected this, ducked down as it whizzed by him.
As the arrow flew somewhere into the forest behind him, Colt wasted no time in running at Trowt. He wasn't going to let the thief have time to notch another arrow into his bow. If he pointed the bow at him or Shelly again there was nothing he would be able to do. He doubted making Trowt angry would work twice. So this was his one shot.
He charged at Trowt and made it over to him before the thief could get a hand on another arrow. Colt gripped his sword and drove it toward Trowt, performing a forceful stab maneuver that would be impossible for him to block in time.
Unfortunately, Trowt must have been ready for an attack like this. The thief moved swiftly out of the way and Colt's sword sank far into the trunk of a very thick tree. Colt grabbed his cutlass and pulled as hard as he could, trying to dislocate it from the trunk, but having no such luck. Thankfully, Trowt didn't try an attack. The thief simply ran back into the forest, managing to evade Colt's eyes and ears in a matter of seconds.
Colt knew that Trowt would be back. He was probably moving over toward Shelly right now, and if he got the drop on either of them it would be game over. That meant that Colt needed to retrieve his sword pronto and find Trowt before he found them.
Colt placed a foot on the trunk of the tree to try and gain more force. He placed both hands on the hilt of the cutlass and pulled as hard as he could. He felt the trunk giving a little as the sword came loose a little. So he kept pulling, trying as hard as he could to pry his sword from the firm grasp of the tree. Finally Colt started to feel it move a little and before he knew it the sword had started to slide out a little. He continued to pull until...
The tree released the sword quickly and without warning, causing Colt to stumble backwards and the sword to go flying away from him. Colt regained his balance a little but then crashed into something solid behind him and fell to the ground. The smell that ensued told him exactly what he'd run into. The barrel of fish had hit the ground alongside him and spilled everywhere for the second time. He was beginning to really hate that thing.
Colt was about to sit back up when he noticed something that took him aback. There on the grass with all the fish was a large metal object. He reached out and touched it, feeling the cool but slimy metal. He wondered for a moment where it had come from, and then it hit him. It was a weight that had been at the bottom of the barrel. It must not have fallen out last time, but it came loose this time after Colt slammed into the barrel with such force. It was a large, solid weight that had probably made the fish barrel at least twice as heavy. So why had the fisherman put it in there? Was it supposed to be some sort of practical joke to make him carry around something like that? Or was the fisherman trying to sabotage him and his journey? No, he wouldn't do that, Colt thought. So then why would he put a weight in the barrel?
He didn't have much time to think on his. The sound of laughter brought Colt back to the situation at hand. He sat up and faced Trowt, who had reappeared and now had his bow trained directly at Colt.
"That was pathetic!" Trowt laughed. "That is why I don't consider you a threat, Colt."
"If you don't consider me a threat," Colt said, his mind in overdrive trying to think of a plan, "how about we have an even fight. No weapons for either of us."
Trowt just shook his head. "What about a counteroffer?No weapons for you, and both weapons for me."
Trowt bent down and picked up Colt's cutlass from the ground.
"Let's see if this little kid's weapon can actually finish the job," the thief said, pointing it at Colt as he came closer. "I'm going to make Shelly take me to her rich father, but you no longer serve a purpose to me. Are you ready to finally die?"
"Not really," Colt muttered. The fact that Trowt still thought that Francois Souffle was a real person made him want to take back everything he said about the thief being semi-smart. Trowt was definitely 100 percent stupid. And now the 100 percent stupid thief was about to kill him.
Trowt came right up in front of him and Colt got to see what it looked like to be on the opposite end of his cutlass. He liked the hilt side more.
"Any last words before you die, Colt?" asked the thief, touching the cutlass to his neck.
"Yeah," Colt replied. He reached out a hand and felt around until he grabbed something that felt cold and slimy. Then he gripped it and used the round metal weight to hit Trowt across the face as hard as he possibly could. "Francois Souffle isn't real!"
Barnaby Trowt just blinked at him before he stopped moving and slumped to the ground.
Colt got to his feet, breathing heavily. He got his bearings really quickly and then stumbled over to where Shelly was laying. He knelt down beside her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'll be fine," Shelly replied, trying to sit up a little. "The arrow didn't make direct contact. It just grazed my side, fortunately."
"That's good. That's really good."
"Did you get the guy?"
"Yeah," Colt replied, leaning himself back on the nearest tree trunk. "It was Trowt."
"That guy again?" Shelly murmured. "He's annoying."
"I know, right?" Colt said, smiling.
"Is he dead?"
Colt glanced over where Trowt's body was. He shrugged. "I dunno. Could be."
Shelly just nodded, and they both fell silent as they recovered a little.
Colt's mind drifted again to the fisherman and the weight he'd found at the bottom of the barrel. He looked over and saw the weight was sitting on the ground where he'd dropped it. Some blood had gotten on it. He thought about one of the last things the fisherman had said to him, when he'd given him the barrel of fish and sent him off on his way.
"Who knows? Maybe it'll save your life," the fisherman had said.
Thinking about it now, he was right. Without that weight at the bottom of the barrel, Colt would be dead right now. Killed by some thief using his own sword. That would've sucked.
But could the old man really have known that would happen. It was impossible, right? Must've been a coincidence.
Colt and Shelly rested for as long as the dared to stay in one area, and then when both of them had recovered well enough they left the area. Colt made sure not to take Trowt's bow and arrow, so that way the thief would have a decent fighting chance if he was still alive.
Colt and Shelly got back on their path, walking slower now that she was recovering from an injury. It still didn't take too long though. Less than a day later they emerged at last from Gold Forest.
The never-ending line of trees came to an end. The path that they had been on for so long came to a stop, and they were able to see their entire surroundings for the first time in forever. And directly before them, only a small climb away, was the Authority base.
They had finally made it.