Chapter 22

The carriage came to a halt a few meters away from the gate of Fleming town, with the horses neighing softly, as the carriage driver halted their advancement. There were two guards (Skipp and Grant) in front of the half closed gate and they both walked briskly, with a straight gait towards the carriage, immediately the carriage halted. Both of their sheathed swords were clutched tightly by their hilt and the swords slightly dangled back and forth, as they walked. After reaching the carriage, they spoke cautiously with the carriage driver, asking the tall, lanky fellow, a series of security conscious questions, with stern, no-nonsense expressions etched on both of their faces.

Senro looked through the transparent windows of the carriage and observed the two guards. He noticed that both men were dressed all in black, from head to toe and a silvery moon was embroidered on the chest area of their clothing. He, immediately, had a sure feeling that this two men, without a doubt, were part of the vicious black moon bandits. If one wanted to even hide his identity as a bandit and be inconspicuous, wouldn't it be so obvious if he wore a clothing that screams the name of his bandit organization? I mean, who the fuck, in his right mind, embroiders a gigantic, conspicuous moon to his clothing? What the hell kind of fashion statement is that?

Well, of course, if he was just a regular, jolly traveler, with no prior information about what's going on in Fleming town, he might have been hoodwinked, no scratch that, he would definitely have been hoodwinked to believe that this two guys were actually guards, who were just doing their regular jobs.

The strange clothing apart, this two guys were acting professionally and behaving exactly, as the job description suggests, without them showing a single flaw in their performance. They weren't exhibiting a hint of the viciousness and carefree behavior the bandits he had come across so far, were prone to show. So, if he was just a regular, jolly traveler, he might not have added any importance to their clothing. He might have just thought that maybe that's what the guards in the town wear or maybe, that was the clothing preference of the people of Fleming town. But, he wasn't some jolly, regular, naive traveler now, was he?

After the two guards had finished questioning the carriage driver, they beckoned on him to alight from the carriage and open the back door of the carriage, so they could inspect the goods, in case of any contraband or dangerous items. The carriage driver quickly alighted and did as he was told. He opened the back door of the carriage, where the supplies, packed clothing and the other items used in their travel were kept, with a bronze, metallic key, strapped to a bunch of keys and gave way for the two guards to thoroughly search through all of this belongings.

After about ten to eleven minutes of strict inspection, the two guards gave up their search and instructed the carriage driver to open up the passenger side of the carriage, so they could clearly see the passenger or passengers aboard and also, so they could inspect that area of the carriage, as well.

The passenger door of this carriage could only be opened properly from the outside, because the door developed issues, some days back, during the duration of the journey. When once the door was closed, it was difficult to open from the inside and some times when they were journeying on the road, the door would just open up on its own, without no warning. The only choice was for the carriage driver to lock the door from the outside and unlock it, if any of the trio needed to alight from the carriage. It would have wasted valuable time looking for a carriage repairman to fix this problem, as they were scarce to find to begin with anyway, so they decided to manage the carriage that way.

The carriage had already informed the two guards about this issue, prior to when they both searched the back door of the carriage and so that's why they instructed the carriage driver to open up the door, instead of beckoning on the passengers to open it up themselves.

'This two fools are overdoing things. There is definitely an ambush waiting for us ahead.' Senro thought to himself, as he smirked derisively, after he heard the guard's instruction to the carriage driver. They must have seen the carriage coming from afar and so, they must have devised a plan to hoodwink them and prevent them from escaping their clutches.

The other towns they had passed through didn't bother with this level of security scrutiny. The most the guards did in some of the towns they passed through, was to just ask the carriage driver certain security, conscious questions. None of the guards bothered to check or inspect their belongings or the carriage. There was even a town where the gates were wide open and the guards didn't even bother to rise up from their chairs to stop the carriage. They just waved them through, to pass the gates. But, this two were insisting that they want to even check the passenger side of the carriage.

Senro believed that there could only be one reason for this sort of security scrutiny; they both wanted to find out who their targets were and decide if they would be hard and dangerous to handle for the ambush unit up ahead and probably, find a way to notify the ambush unit , if the targets were too dangerous. This was also the reason they took their ample time to strictly check through every belonging of theirs in the back of the carriage. If they had found any weapons or dangerous items, then under the guise of both of them been guards, they would have confiscated the items and maybe said something like "Hey, we don't allow weapons and dangerous items into our town and so, we are confiscating this. When you want to leave the town, you guys can come pick it up later." By doing this, they would be weaponless and defenseless against the ambush ahead.

It was a good thing that his sheathed daggers were in his side pockets and not in his bag, at the back. As for Sasha and Zedd, those two were bare handed fighters, so there was nothing to worry about.

Senro turned slightly to look at Sasha's facial expression and also faced forward to look at Zedd's. Both girls had the same derisive smirk on their faces, as he had a second ago.

'They are definitely thinking the same thing I am thinking.' He thought to himself. Those two, pretend guards were fooling nobody, but themselves.

Senro's mindset, as well as the mindset of his companions were set on an ambush waiting for them behind the gates of Fleming town and so, they got prepared, mentally, for it. The only task they had to achieve now, was to keep a naive and stupid face and pretend like they were just regular travelers, when the passenger's door side of the carriage is eventually opened.