"Is that why you look so scary?" Ralph asked.
"Stop trying to distract me," Beth retorted. She didn't need him to say anything about how she looked. It wasn't like he'd fussed over how he looked that much. "I just want to know if you know of the symphony orchestra piece, 'Ride of the Valkyries' by Richard Wagner?"
Ralph paused for a moment, falling further behind Beth. She certainly wasn't going to wait for him if he couldn't keep up.
"Yes, I know it, but tell me. What is it you have in mind?" Ralph said, jogging to catch up with Beth.
At that moment, Beth suddenly realized their raptors were following them as well. She'd entirely forgotten about them. She slowed her pace for a moment as she considered if they could be used with what she had in mind, but quickly discarded the idea. If they could be blown up as fast as Ralph had said, then they were best used for either mounts or maybe pulling the wagon if that proved to be the best option at rescuing the captives.
She figured that if the bandits couldn't tell where the attacks were coming from, then there wasn't likely going to be a way for them to tell how to stop them. Using grenades, machine guns, and such would be quite efficient. However, that was exactly what Beth worried was a mistake.
If any of the bandits survived this because Beth and Ralph either didn't notice them or they appeared dead and neither she nor Ralph had anytime to make sure. Not to mention those in the cages. If they got the idea to recreate what Beth had in mind, she wasn't sure that they wouldn't figure out how to make gunpowder and first cannons, then guns. She could easily be creating the start of modern weapons in this world.
Beth hoped that wasn't the case, but she didn't want to be the catalyst for that to happen. She could imagine that it might happen eventually, but she certainly didn't want to be the one who helped give someone the idea.
Eventually they reached where the wagons had been kept. At least according to Ralph, but when they got there, only one wagon was still there. Beth wanted to hit someone to relief the frustration she felt at having two wagons of the villagers being taken away. She couldn't say what fate those villagers had in store for them, but she knew she wouldn't be able to do anything for them right now. If at all.
Especially when she had no idea which way the wagons went.
"Looks like we were almost too late to save any of them," Ralph remarked, as he looked around the building that he had hidden behind earlier. "Though, I don't know how much longer they'll stick around now."
"Well, I assume that they might be waiting for the bandits that are by Cinder's family right now," Beth remarked quietly, looking around to see if there's any bandits in area. As she couldn't imagine them leaving the wagon undefended like that. "Though, I agree. We probably don't have much time."
Ralph nodded as he took a deep breath. "Okay. So, what's your plan and what do you want me to do with it?" he asked, his voice holding a twinge of excitement to it.
"Well, I'll need you to use your magic to play 'Ride of the Valkyries' as I go out there to open the cage on that wagon, one way or another. If any bandit shows up, use your magic to snipe them. Or if there's a group, lob a grenade at their feet," Beth replied, her gaze focused on the caged wagon.
"Wait, hold on," Ralph said as if Beth was about to step out into the open. "What do you mean 'snipe' and 'grenade?' What exactly is the plan?"
"Just use your magic to create the items. If you don't want to create the illusion of them, just create a magic bullet that will shoot from some distant location or throw enough power in the ground at the feet of the bandits to blow it up," Beth explained. To her it should be pretty self-explanatory, so she didn't really get why Ralph needed an explanation.
"Uh, isn't this going a little extreme?" Ralph asked, looking a little queasy.
"Hey, we tried going a low key route with the raptors, and that didn't work. So, we need to step it up a notch and make it so the bandits don't come back here at all."
"Shouldn't we try to get them to not come back through some other method that doesn't involve killing them?"
Beth sighed. "We've both already killed some of the bandits ourselves, so that's kind of a pointless argument at the moment. What I'm looking at is getting the rest to just run. They're not going to leave this place alone unless they think that they're going to have something horrible happen to them," she answered.
Ralph sighed, clearly conflicted at Beth's idea. So, she thought she'd give him an out. "Look, Ralph. If you want, you can go out and open the cage on the wagon. I'll take care of the bandits. It doesn't matter who does what as long as we get the villagers out safely, right?"
Ralph took a deep breath and shook his head. "No, it'll be alright," Ralph assured Beth. "I can do this. I just didn't think we'd have to go down this route."
"I didn't either," Beth admitted, "but it's the only thing I can think of that I can be sure will work."
"Okay. Let me know when to start the attack. I don't see any bandits, but I'm sure there's some nearby," Ralph said.
"Good," Beth answered, starting her approach of the wagon. "Start it now."
_
Embris was carrying Nymis with one arm while Rephis was following along behind her with their hands clasped together. Her father was carrying Lyshean, while Cinder was holding Feon's hand as they carefully ran through the trees. Amelia had gone on ahead a minute ago to see if they were heading towards bandits or not.
Embris felt a nagging sense of fear threatening to take her over, but she did her best to push it away as she felt tears leaking out of her eyes. If she let it consume her, she'd be hurting not only herself, but the rest of her family's as well. She wasn't going to let anything happen to them if she had anything to say about it. Her mother had left her as the woman of the house until she got back and she wasn't going to fail on that front. Not while she still had breath in her.
Still, she should have realized the bandits would have come looking for outlying homes around the village. It wasn't like there weren't places like that at every village, so she felt she should have realized something like this could have occurred.
Which was all the more aggravating that she hadn't done anything when they first learned bandits were attacking the village. She knew that her home was in danger, but allowed the distance from the village to make her think they bandits wouldn't come out this far. Which she couldn't help but now realize she'd been wrong. Completely wrong.
Slight movement near her feet almost had her trip over her feet, with how startled she was, until she realized it was Beth's weird dog, Flare. Breathing a sigh of relief, as quietly as she could, she allowed herself to relax a little.
While she still thought the dog was weird, she couldn't help but feel a little safer with it around. Especially with what she'd seen from it on her first encounter with Beth and that dog. If it wasn't a puppy and instead a full-sized dog, she knew she wouldn't want to get on its bad side. Which meant that she knew it at least would help her family's chances of survival.
Allowing herself a brief glance behind them, she couldn't help but notice a plume of smoke rising from where her house was. Or maybe now, used to be.
She felt a small sense of loss at that knowledge. While it hadn't been anywhere near the best house in the village, it was still home. Where her family lived and where she learned a lot of what her mother did. Mostly leatherwork, but also a small amount of smith work and swordplay as well. The only consolation was that they survived ending up caught in the destruction of the house.
Looking forward again, she almost didn't notice the movement around a large bush to her right. At first she didn't know what it was that she saw, but then when she realized it was in fact movement, she threw herself on the ground, earning a complaint from her youngest sister who clearly wasn't happy about having her oldest sister's weight suddenly thrown on top of her. Although, a small part of her was glad her youngest brother wasn't complaining at having been forced to the ground with them.
Looking around, she thought that may she'd overreacted, as she saw Cinder still running, but her eyes widened in horror as she saw an arrow protruding out of her father's side, just below his armpit.
"Father!" she cried out, the shock of it making her feel completely cold throughout her body.
Her cry made Cinder look back, who stared for a moment in horror, before racing back to him as he slowly fell to the ground. Cinder quickly let go of Feon's hand and ran over to their father, his hand reaching for the arrow in his father's side, a look of panic spreading across his face.
"Amelia!" Cinder shrieked out as he clearly tried to stem the flow of blood from their father's side, as their father coughed up blood.
Embris looked away, mostly to see if she could see if there was going to be another arrow or anything coming at them. She couldn't help but wish for anything that could be used as a weapon at the moment. Anything that she could put her hands on and use to defend her family. Even if it was a useless toy sword, that would be better than what she had with her.
She had left her dagger at the house and hadn't realized it until it was almost out of view. She wanted to go back to get it, but knew that it would probably take too long. Yet now, she regretted not having taken the time for that simple task.
She knew her thoughts had been about trying to get her family out as fast as possible and trying to stay ahead of the bandits, but now she wished she had made them go just a little slower. Slow enough that she would have been able to have her dagger with her, so she wouldn't feel so helpless. So she would have been able to do something to protect her family.
Embris could see three bandits. One was keeping her distance, holding a bow, while the other two approached, one with a sword, and the other with rope in her hands. Embris suddenly realized these weren't the usual kinds of bandits she'd heard about. Rather these were ones who targeted villages to sell those they could capture as slaves while killing as many as they thought would be too much trouble to bring with them or merely died as they tried to capture them.
Embris had a feeling that the arrow that had hit her father was meant for her instead. Yet, while she couldn't be sure of that, she still wasn't willing to accept that it was her fault it hit her father because she dodged it. Instead, she knew precisely who's fault it was. The one who'd shot the arrow. As while she'd dodged it, her father wouldn't have been hit by the arrow if that woman hadn't shot it in the first place.
However, while she wanted to keep running, she knew it wouldn't be hard for that woman to shoot another arrow. If she was hit herself, she knew she wouldn't be able ot help her family in any manner. Even though she couldn't see how she'd be able to save them in their current situation.
As the two bandits approached, Embris became aware of a growling sound near her. She looked over and was surprised to see Flare. She'd forgotten about the dog, but was also startled to see her normally dark eyes glowing orange. Not only that, but the air around her seemed to distort, like the heat on the hottest summer days.
Embris wasn't sure what was going on, but she couldn't help but feel a trickle of fear run up her back that had nothing to do with the bandits. While Flare had been friendly to her family, she now was starting to wonder if she shouldn't have been so accepting of the dog. Even though she didn't sense any hostility directed at her this time.
She heard laughter from the bandits as they approached casually, looking like they weren't worried at all about what Embris or her siblings might do. Though, they stopped about twenty paces from them, their eyes focused on Flare. The one holding the sword made a motion with her hand and the bandit in the distance nocked an arrow and shot it in one fluid motion at Flare.
Embris couldn't help but close her eyes, not wanting to see Flare getting skewered by the arrow, but as she heard the arrow fly through the air and then stop, she was surprised that the growling continued. In fact it turned into full out snarling.
Embris looked in shock as she saw Flare had snapped the arrow in two with her jaws, apparently having caught it in mid flight. Embris could only imagine what would have happened when she'd first encountered this dog if Beth hadn't called her off.
Yet, as she looked at the bandits, who were clearly stunned, Embris realized this was her chance. She couldn't say if this was going to be the smart thing to do or not, but she felt it was the greatest chance to make sure to save as much of her family as she could.
"Cinder, get father to Amelia and save him!" she ordered her brother. "I'll take Nymis and Rephis with me and hopefully we'll lead the bandits away from you."
Cinder looked over at Embris, his eyes looking a little hollow with tears streaming down his face, while the rest of his face showed the terror he felt as he struggled to help their father. Yet, he seemed to at least be present enough to hear Embris and he nodded.
Embris didn't wait for anything else, she quickly got to her feet, helped pull Rephis to his feet and started to run in between the bandits and where her house used to be.
This was a desperate gamble and she couldn't say what to expect, but she hoped that the bandits would be too focused on Flare to do anything about her running away with two of her siblings.
Behind her, she could hear shouts and more snarling from Flare, but didn't dare look back. She allowed herself only one thing for her mind to focus on and that was running to get her brother and sister to safety. She may have made mistakes in the past that she wished she could have been able to undo, but even if this was a mistake, she was certain it was the right thing to do. The bandits clearly worked as a team, so it wouldn't help them to split their attention between two groups.
Embris only wished that she could have communicated with Beth and her friends about were they could have met up when this was over. At least if the worst came to happen. She wasn't sure what might happen after this, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from doing what she could. She just knew that she needed to prioritize getting her siblings to safety, no matter the cost to her.
She wasn't even aware of how long she had been running when she finally started to feel tired. Nor did she know how far she'd run. Just that somewhere along the line, she'd started carrying Rephis as well. All she could be sure of was that the bandits hadn't followed them and the brother and sister she'd brought with her were safe.
She just hoped that the rest of her family was safe too.