It is night in the valley and all that illuminates the land is the moon's dim light which shines down upon it, there is not a sound to be heard other than the sounds of crickets and the soft blowing of the wind.
Laurence walks along the roadside, with an axe in hand and a few daggers stashed away inside of his frock, his appearance resembling that of a noble.
In the distance there is a figure not too far ahead of Laurence, the figure slowly making his way towards him. Laurence seems to recognise the man but cannot put his finger on it which puts him in a state of alert as the man continues to draw closer.
When both of them come within a five meter radius they both come to a sudden halt before sharing a brief glare with one another.
"I need your help," requests the strange man, his tone clearly shaken up and disheveled but yet Laurence isn't buying it.
"What for?" He replies, his body ready to pounce into action and strike if necessary, one eyebrow raised and his face filled with curiousity.
"I need refug—" he says, although his words fall upon deaf ears as instead, Laurence swings his axe through the man's leg, cutting it off, before shouting, "I know you, you're part of the Tri Firma!"
The man falls to the ground and screams in agony before looking up and stuttering out, "no… I'm not, I swear," although Laurence likely wouldn't believe this as the man was adorning the full uniform of a Tri Firma soldier, with chainmail armour and a blue overcoat with their symbol engrained on it.
"How stupid could they be to send a scout out in full uniform!" Exclaims Laurence while looking down at the injured man.
In a last ditch effort, the man pulls out a small knife and tries to stab Laurence's leg, although he saw it coming and was able to dodge it before kicking out of his hand and into the grass.
"Gabriel already alerted the Tri Firma then?"
The man, in his wounded and bloody state, looks up and questions, "Gabriel? Who's that? I never heard of him," although it was unlikely they would accept this as an answer.
"Well, you can talk with the Chief, he sure doesn't take kindly to lies," says Laurence before grabbing the soldier by his hair and dragging him along the roadside.
"Where are you taking me?"
"You're going to meet the chief as I said, now tell me, what's your name?"
"You bastard!" Screams the man, the surge of pain pumping through his body.
"Hugh Bastard, that's an odd name," says Laurence is a mocking tone.
The man, in too much agony to talk, let out blood curdling screams the entire time as he was dragged back towards the bastion.
When they finally reached the front gate's, every slaver in the bastion was curious to see what the ruckus was about, their eyes terrified and fixated on the injured man, as if the devil himself had descended upon them.
"Oh god, the Tri Firma have found us, our time is over, for real this time!" Shouts one man.
"I will never let you take this fortress!" Shouts another.
The air filled with despair and terror as the scout was dragged through the Gates and courtyard until eventually Laurence reached the chief's throne room.
"Who is this man?" Asks Abe as the man is thrown inside of the room.
"He is a scout for the Tri Firma. Punish him as needed, I need to find Gabriel," he says before stepping out the door and leaving the room to just Abe and the man.
"Gabriel sent you, didn't he?" Abe asks in a somber tone, as if his fears have came true.
"No, who's tha—" he tries to say although he was cut off by two men coming out behind the throne and swiftly chopping both of his hands off.
"That was for your lies, how can you call yourself after the Tri Firma and lie so easily, you disgrace me."
The man's eyes widen and he looks up towards the throne, a shriek of pain coming over his body.
"Well we cannot have you leave here like this, I suppose you must die now," Abe says rather indifferently towards the matter.
"No, please no, please no, please no," chants the man, his psyche broken and his soul shaken.
The man cries for his life as the two men who stood beside him chopped him down, and soon enough the cries became silent.
——————————————————————
Judith sits atop a roof looking over the moonlit valley, the sky oddly clear and the valley's vastness on full display with sprawling forests and mountain ranges to see.
In his hand is a spear and beside him a sword, he stays alert and vigilant, yet his weariness is setting in as the night becomes later.
In Judith's fatigue he fails to see a man standing at the front door of the house until the man shouts, "hello!"
Waking up from his weariness he jumps up and looks down to see who is the man at the door, although he is met with the sight of Laurence unbeknownst to him.
"Who're you?" Shouts Judith, his face in a panic and his spear ready to strike at the man.
"I'm Laurence," he says coldly, his eyes not even bothering to make contact with Judith's.
"And what are you doing here?"
"I need to look for someone, his name is Gabriel, he is a runaway slave of mine, and I heard he is here," he says, a grin painted on his face as he looks up.
Judith doesn't know how to respond so he just stares at him petrified before Laurence laughs, "your silence is all I needed to know, I will be collecting him now," before he begins to hit the door with his axe.
Suddenly, Judith jumps down before charging at Laurence although he misses his strike and instead hits his own door and entrapping his own spear, he is met with a swift kick to the chest before falling down to the ground.
"If I knew you were a kid I wouldn't have dressed up like this and I sure wouldn't have brought such a useless weapon," he says before swinging his axe at the boy although Judith was able to dodge and roll before jumping back up to the rooftop and grabbing his sword.
A dagger is thrown although it only grazes by Judith's head as he pivots his body to dodge the attack, Laurence filled with surprise grins before grabbing three more daggers and throwing them all at the same time, but this time one of them hits his shoulder.
He falls back and pulls the dagger out before Laurence climbs atop the roof and swings his axe once more, although Judith throws the dagger at the man and hits his hand making him drop his axe.
"Laurence!" He shouts as he swings his sword at the man's neck, the man grabs the sword with his barehand and knees him in the stomach.
Judith falls to the ground and loses his sword before he repeatedly gets kicked and beaten, with no sign of mercy being shown at all.
"I'm going to beat you to your death you little shit," shouts Laurence in a fit of rage.
In all this chaos no one managed to see Gabriel wake up from his sleep and grab a sword before sneaking up behind Laurence.
"Ahhhhhh!" Shouts Gabriel at the top of his lungs before slashing at the man's head with all of the force his can muster, adrenaline flowing throughout his body.
Laurence falls down to his knees before looking back up and whispering to Gabriel with a smile, "the Tri Firma, they're here, you brought them here, they will kill you as well you know, you're dead," the man having a small laugh before he becomes a silent corpse.
Gabriel runs over to Judith and ask him, "are you okay? did they hurt you?"
"I'm fine," he says in a quiet and defeated tone.
"They said the Tri Firma are gonna come."
"Oh…"
…