Midget theft

When Jake awoke he saw a naked Rudolf in front of him snoring as loud as ever, he did not question it. Just accept things as they are was his motto when it came to Rudolf. Soon, Rudolf awoke and told Jake what had happened. "Fucking idiot," Jake said as he finished the story. They full-heartedly laughed together after that; then they heard the terrifying waddling again.

"We will start our journey again" then she stared at Rudolf, "Not a fucking word", she waddled back to her carriage; the carriage started moving. They would arrive at Blue City if nothing unexpected happened.

Jake returned to his meticulous meditating, Rudolf decided to do the same. He decided to concentrate all his flame into his finger, it turned blue-green. He could barely hold it for seconds, then he had to recover his energy before concentrating it back into his finger. His thought behind this process was that he would increase his capacity for flames.

The road was completely flat, to their left there were mountains and to their right, there was a sea, a large one at that. The road was no longer bouncy and the only things they could hear was carriage moving against the dirt.

The carriage stopped abruptly. Rudolf who was dying with boredom thought they were finally at Blue City and jumped out of the carriage. He was still on a dirt road and surrounded by trees. In front of him and slightly shocked there were four people. They were quite skinny, average-sized and holding daggers. They had not expected such a large build to be inside the carriage and got quite shocked. "Give us everything you have and nobody gets hurt" they muttered. Without realizing it, their entire body and especially the hand holding the dagger was shaking.

Jake heard the ruckus and jumped out of the carriage, it only took him two seconds to realise what was happening. However, he had not envisioned the bandits looking like this, however; the bandits already had issues with one person but now they had to face two. The second person had very scary eyes, he also had a bone arm which scared the bandits as they had not seen anything similar. The bandits all fell on their knees at the same time begging for mercy, saying that they were sorry and never really meant it. Jake got a bit pissed as he thought 'the second bullies realise they are weaker they beg for mercy', he was two seconds away from slaughtering them. When he heard a much more dominant voice further forward. '

Rudolf and Jake rushed to the front, there they found three bandits. They were trying to restrict the midget but she was kicking, biting and struggling with everything she had. When they saw the Rudolf and Jake walking towards them they simply knocked her out. Honestly, they did not expect that much fury from a little midget but they had been wrong.

Each one of the men had various scars on their faces, they were wielding different weapons as well. One of them had two swords, one had two daggers and another one had a wand-like weapon. At this point Jake had his bow out walking towards them steadily, Rudolf had his sword out burning with a red flame.

Jake then released his arrow at the mage, it went straight through his heart killing him on the spot. Jake felt a huge burst of dopamine at that moment, it was the best feeling he had ever had. It felt so good that it was bordering the line of pain, it made him extend every limb in his body including his hands, he dropped his bow. The feeling disappeared as quickly as it came. The rogue quickly picked up the midget and put a dagger towards her head. they were in a classic hostage scenario, "move one step and she's out" they said. They were gambling their lives on the importance of the midget. In Jakes mind, she was worth mere silvers and maybe some reputation, but it would not be just for him to kill her. She woke up and started struggling but it proved futile. They slowly walked into the forest before disappearing into the darkness.

Jake and Rudolf turned their backs to find that the weaker bandits had run away whilst they were distracted. They were left alone with the carriage, the midget could be dead for all they know, but that did not align with the bandit's mindset. Most likely they were bandits for money, it was more valuable for them to keep her alive than to kill. Question was, were they going to be able to handle her temper.

They decided to inspect the carriage, they took off the white cloth from the boxes only to find grains, salt and wheat. They walked over to the dead mage and ravaged through his clothes. They pocketed his stick like a wand, it could be valuable. They practically stripped the bandit, in his right pocket they found a letter.

-

From the Loud Man.

I have found the base of the Xenix, they have started invading your territory, below is a map with their base highlighted.

(attached to the letter was a map with a large X detailing the location of their base )

-

Jake stood there and thought about it for a while. His quest had just gotten a lot harder, the letter did not seem to detail the location of the bandits base. Instead, it seemed to be an enemy base, would they really have to travel to it, in order to gain intel on the location of their base. There is no way they could accomplish that before they would murder the midget. Even if they did they would get shit from her because they had practically failed their job. Also, there was no way they could secure the carriage. However, the camp would certainly have some other reward at it, besides there was not anything waiting for the at Blue City. At the same time, they kind of had a moral responsibility to go after the midget. It was a tough decision, it was giving Jake a strong headache as he tried to figure out the possibilities of each decision.

They ended up pocketing the letter and walking towards the city. They did not seem strong enough to do anything substantial about the entire scenario yet, they quickly prayed for the midget and kept on going on their way. Now, Rudolf was also in debt, and Jake was simply deeper in the debt hole. What would happen to them if they did not pay off the debt? Probably prison, or involuntary work Jake thought. Either way, they wanted to avoid that and they knew just the place to earn a lot of money.