Chapter 11 A toss to decide

Suddenly, he heard his companion curse, making him turn his attention in his direction.

"What happened?"

His companion shook his head. A trace of uncertainty could be seen in his eyes.

"I don't know, but they slowed down their advance. Normally, they wouldn't do anything like that. All they would have to do is to just keep going and they could swat us to the side like we're some sort of flies. So why would they slow down their horses?"

"Huh! I don't know. I'm not really good at the thinking part. I'd rather have you do all that thinking stuff and give me the conclusion. So, what do you think? You do the thinking and then tell me what is the result so I can go ahead with the killing."

"I think we should get a couple of guys and rush after the sleigh. I fear it's a trap and now that our lady is left with no guard around her, they will attack."

His partner nodded after a moment.

"That could happen. So who's going?"

"How about drawing lots?"

This came from the man who was in charge previously. The others nodded in a hurry. This could be a chance for them to get away from this situation after all.

"Drawing lots? And how would we go about it?" this was the self-proclaimed pervert.

"We'll toss a coin. Before the toss, each of us will guess whice side ends on top. Those who guess will follow the sleigh. Those who don't, will remain here to keep the others at bay for as long as possible. What do you say? There's no better way than this as I see it."

Finally everyone approved and started guessing. Four gave the tails ending up while the rest guessed the heads. Then the leader took out a coin and tossed it in the air. It flipped through the air a moment then started falling back down. The leader caught it in his hand and covered it with his other palm. The rest of the men were looking at his hands, waiting for the reveal that would decide if they could live a bit longer.

Seeing that the leader was slow to reveal the result, they started grumbling in discontent.

"Just hurry up, will you?" "We can't wait here forever!"

Others more on edge started swearing and threatening him. It was better to just say it was the pervert who was among the four who bet on the tails. His friend was also among the four, but he was more reserved, waiting for the result.

"Hurry up you little fucker! I don't have time to waste on your little game of waiting until the season changes for the reveal. Show the result already or I'll bash your head in with my bare hands!"

Spittle was starting to fly out of his mouth due to the eagerness with which he was swearing. The others were just shaking their heads in mock sympathy for the leader. It wasn't the first one, someone ended up on the wrong side of the spittle in an argument with him. In fact the only one who could rein him in was the one standing beside him, his comrade.

Finally, the leader caved in and the result was revealed. It was tails.

"Fuck! All this mental preparation and now giddy-up horsy! We have somewhere else to go. Why didn't I choose heads? I'd rather mphffft..."

Of course, this voice belonged to the pervert whose mouth was finally covered by his friend's hand, who looked around with a forced smile.

"Sorry everyone, but we're on our way. He's just expressing his reluctance at leaving all of you behind... Let's go!"

He kicked his horse with his ankles and dragged the reins of his friend's horse to follow him. The other two followed them and left in a hurry for fear of being forced to remain. The others watched them disappear around the corner in the distance with longing and envy in their eyes.

When the four of them disappeared in the distance, the others looked at the leading man and tried to figure out how he felt about the situation they were in. But his face was blank, not showing anything on what was going through his mind.

"That's weird! Why hasn't he exploded into a fit of anger so far? If it were to be any other person acting and talking to him like that, he would have long been executed. But that pervert that has only women in his mind since he joined us was always forgiven no matter what he did or how far he went into his dereliction of duty. Even now he let it go..."

That's what was going through the mind of all those remaining in place, the thought of trying to figure out the reasons for the unusual forgiving mood of their leader making them forget about the dangers they were about to face.

The wind started gaining strength suddenly, making the snow hit them in their faces, making them squint their eyes. The snow hanging in the trees beside the road fell to the ground in a pile. The sky turned dark, dark clouds descending and covering any light.

Both horses and men were spooked by the sudden change, the horses jumping and snorting while trying to turn tail and run following the direction of the sleigh. But the riders managed to keep them in check by exerting pure strength, even though they themselves were not comfortable at the moment. Their hearts were beating so hard that they felt it jumping to their throat.

Lightning flashed across the sky and a few seconds later the sound of thunder was heard muffled at first, then growing stronger as it approached them, making everyone, man or animal, tremble due to the vibration in their bodies.

About a kilometer in front of them, in the direction they expected their enemies to be, horses neighed and voices of men cursed at the sudden change. To their left flashed a light from the sky and hit a tree, turning it into powder. The thunder scared the horses and made them jump, trying to escape and in the process some of the riders were thrown from the saddle and were crushed under the feet of the spooked animals.

Another series of curses followed while they tried to control the panicked horses, but the panic intensified when a new lightning struck even closer to their right, about fifty meters, the thunder deafening them. And then simultaneously two lightning bolts struck in front and back of them, catching them in the middle and the horses went berserk jumping on their hind legs and whinied throwing their riders to the ground and dispersing in every direction to escape from this place.

Cursing, the men who were still able to get up stood looking up at the sky. The wind grew in intensity even more, throwing the snow into their eyes, making them spit out the snow that ended up in their mouths.

"What is happening with the weather so suddenly? And the sky darkened so suddenly, even thunder and lightning in the middle of the winter. I haven't seen or heard about something like this before. I'm telling you, something weird is going to happen!"

The others turned their attention to the one that spoke and cursed him under their breath. They knew all this, why did he have to say it out loud? Couldn't he just keep his thoughts to himself, instead of scaring them even more?

The road in front of them grew darker and darker, turning black in a matter of moments. Then a grey light punctured the darkness, growing bigger until it reached the dimension of a door.

They watched fascinated as the light hovered over the ground until it finally stabilized. Then a deep rumble was heard and the wind cut through them, the snow flakes turning into tiny blades. The blood coming out of the wounds was instantly frozen, while they started feeling cold on the inside. It was both physical and mental sensation of cold. Their bodies started to tremble and they felt like they lost control over their own bodies while looking at the strange light. They started to approach it even though they tried to oppose their own actions, but they couldn't stop themselves.

Slowly, something started coming out from the light. They looked behind it, but there was nothing else there but darkness. They couldn't understand how could something show up out of nothing.

That something floated slowly out of the light and hovered above the ground while the wind disappeared. The sudden silence was creepy. They started shivering and started praying for their souls while looking up at the object. They were trembling from terror when they recognized what it was.

It slowly descended on the ground and when it was finally firmly on the ground, the light disappeared. But despite the darkness around it, it grew more distinct. It was illuminated from the inside. It was a stone box covered by a heavy lid made of granite. The illumination came from under the lid. There were some scenes carved both on the box and the lid, but they were not interested in looking at them. They were too terrified for that.

The box was a meter tall, two meters long and one meter wide. It was a coffin. Their minds grew numb while their bodies surrounded it, despite their failed attempts of taking back the control of their own bodies. They shook in terror looking at the light growing in intensity as the lid slowly started to slide.