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It has been 3 days since we left the Ravenmoor for the Royal Academy and I already wish for death.
I am stuck in a carriage with 9 other noble boys who have never ridden anywhere for long periods of time without having their every wants attended to.
The first day of travel was kind of alright, everyone got to know each other and talked the time away, I even taught them a few car games to pass the time.
By the time we arrived at an inn that had already been pre-booked for us, my social batteries were dead and quickly dived into my assigned bed while trying to ignore the kids I was bunking with that somehow still had things to talk about after a whole day of travel.
The next morning, the knights that were escorting us had the pleasure of rousing and rounding up all the kids to freshen themselves up, and eat some breakfast before getting back on the road. After watching them try to wrangle over a hundred 8 year olds, I do not envy their job.
It almost matched the expression of herding cats, especially when it came to most of the noble kids and some of the merchant kids, the commoner kids who seemed to be used to waking early in the morning were almost done with breakfast before the first noble kid came down to the dining area.
Excluding me of course, I knew that if I dawdled in bed, I would be waiting in line for everything. So at the rooster's first crow, I hopped out of bed, did my business, and was down with the first few commoners to get some chow. After which, I decided to hop inside my carriage and open a book while waiting for everyone else.
The second day of travel was much more subdued due to the noble kids still being slightly cranky from waking up so early, it was a peaceful time for me to do some reading. It was from late morning onwards that they started getting restless and started making noise, prodding and irritating each other to entertain themselves and get a rise out of each other, it even got to the point that I had to stop a slap fight that broke out.
The next day, those 2 boys engaged in the slap fight acted like nothing happened at all and were playing with each other, but that meant that they and every other boy were rowdy while I tied my jacket around my head to muffle their ruckus while trying to get some reading done, but try as I might, I could not concentrate with all the noise in the background.
Then all of a sudden, the carriage came to a stop. Have we arrived at the next stop yet? I thought we would only reach in the evening.
As I unwrapped my head, the muffled sounds of children were silenced and I could hear the shouts of the knights outside barking orders.
"Bandits! Defensive formation!" I heard the shouts coming from outside.
I turned to see my previously rowdy travel mates huddling on the floor of the carriage as close to the center as possible and as quiet as I had never seen them before. Curious to see these bandits causing the hubbub while my hearing was muffled, I peeped through the gap in the curtain to see knights positioning themselves around my carriage, and beyond that, I could see the silhouettes of people running along the treeline.
"It seems like all these security precautions came in useful after all." I mused to myself as I gripped my ceremonial knife and hoped for the best while preparing for the worst.
***
A day before the bandit attack, the shady-looking man who received the information at the bar was riding his horse hard through trees and thickets along a somewhat hidden animal trail.
"Dammit, I should not have let those whores sweet talk me into more drinks, now I am almost late, the boss would tan my hide we don't have enough time to prepare."
As the shady-looking man kept riding, he soon came upon a more cleared out dirt road between the trees, that's when an arrow was shot some distance in front of the horse, followed by a voice from an unseen person, "Halt! Who goes there?!"
The shady-looking man pulled hard in the reigns of the horse, brought it to a stop, and shouted back, "Tim, s'that you?"
After the shady-looking man replied, a man in a tree peeked around the trunk, "Jay? How's you been man, yous been away for quites awhile."
Jay just waved, "Yeah, catch up with you later, I got some important news for the boss."
Jay was then waved through and rode for a few more minutes before coming upon the ruins of what once was a small keep, but now was mostly reclaimed by nature. The holes in the stone walls were patched up with wooden logs and there was not even a gate where a gate should be, just 2 men guarding the entrance.
Soon Jay entered the main hall where there were around 50 men eating, drinking, gambling, and even fighting with each other. And at the end of the hall was a tall wooden throne draped in fine fabrics and adorned with the skulls of both man and beast.
Sitting on said throne was an absolute unit of a man with a scantily dressed woman in his lap feeding him some food.
After dodging a thrown mug and evading a man being tackled by another man, Jay arrived before the throne and took out the paper with the information he bought, "Boss, I think we got quite the haul this year. Bunch of noble and merchant brats on the way to the Royal Academy."
The boss, who was locally known in the area as Dome Dasher Dom, took the paper and gave it a read. After he was done, a feral grin came to his face as he suddenly stood up, making the scantily dressed woman fall to the ground with a yelp.
"Gather the rest of the boiz, we got a big score coming in!" Don shouted to those in the hall and was replied with cheers as the men ran out the hall to spread the word and make preparations.