12

"Well, this is new," The old woman said.

We were standing in front of a large wooden wall, with 6 men standing on top of it. 5 of them had bows pointed directly at us, flaming arrows sat ready to rain down on us. The only man that didn't have a bow had a sword.

"Welcome to our lovely home, now if you place everything you have on you on the ground, my men here won't turn you into meals for whatever lucky critters come by next," The swordsman said.

"We actually need to pass, so let's work something out. What if we give you half of everything and you let us pass?" I asked, hoping they wouldn't see how idiotic the deal was for them.

"Why the hell would we agree to that, we get half of what we want, and you get to live. Sounds like a complete loss to me," he said.

"It only appears that way because you don't know us. We are rare goods merchants, the things we carry are so valuable that even half of our inventory can make you all excessively rich men," I lied.

"Well, if half is so great, then all of it is double those riches," He reasoned.

"That is correct, the only problem is that you have to actually catch and subdue us. Please don't make the mistake of thinking you are the first person to ever try and detain us. You aren't even the first person today to try it. Take half and at least you'll get something out of this encounter," I said confidently as Bella and Teresa stared at me.

The swordsman rubbed his chin while he considered what I had said. While he did that a new thought occurred to me.

"Now that I'm thinking about it, moving that much rare loot is going to be difficult. What if instead we give you one item so valuable you will never need gold again?" I asked.

"Again, you're trying to scam me, you think I'm dumb enough to fall for that?" He said, becoming visibly angry.

"I promise you the fabled sword of Mortebello is no lie. It was used to slay the unkillable dragon, Deathbreather." I said and nudged Bella.

I couldn't outright tell her to help me out magically, I just hoped she understood me.

"Behold," she said and held out her right hand.

A golden sword appeared in the air above her hand. Even in the darkness it shined brilliantly. It had jewels of almost every color in the grip. It looked amazing, if I hadn't been standing as close to her as I was, I wouldn't have been able to tell it was a mirage. The guys on the wall were astonished by it. I could see the desire to claim it, filling them.

"And you're just willing to give this to us?" the swordsman said skeptically.

"Well to us this is just another trinket, especially compared to the treasure we are on our way to collect," I said and immediately regretted it.

I watched the idea enter the swordsman's mind. His head jerked upward, and his eyes widened.

"Okay, we'll let you through. Give us the sword and then we'll escort you to the next treasure and relieve you of that as well. If you give it up without a fight, we'll let you live after that," he said, and the wall began to open.

As the door opened the swordsman came down to join us. The archers never moved though. I couldn't let him get close enough to see that the sword was fake. I nudged Bella again and she gave a slight shake of her head. It was ever so slight, but it spoke volumes to me. I wasn't sure if Teresa could do anything from our position, but without any other option I nudged her. My elbow barely made contact with her before she vanished.

The moment she left my side, the archers fired their arrows simultaneously. 5 jets of flame flew directly at us. Bella waved her right hand, and a barrier repelled the arrows just before they hit us. The archers scrambled to reload as Teresa did her work. She appeared in front of the swordsman; her sword had already detached his head from his neck. She vanished again and reappeared on top of the wall in front of the first archer. He panicked and fired his bow directly into her face. She snatched the arrow out of the air and shoved it through his left eye. His lifeless body fell from the wall with a crunch.

The second archer was trembling so badly he missed with his shot. The smile that spread across Teresa's lips when the arrow sailed above her head terrified me. She bolted over to him and grabbed the back of his head. He struggled with everything he had as she pushed her sword through his face inch by inch. When his struggle stopped, she ripped the blade free and let his corpse fall. The remaining archers had run from the wall and were trying to scurry past Bella and me.

"Oh no, you guys like fire right," Bella said and raised both her arms with her palms up.

As the men approached us flaming, wooden stakes sprang from the ground and impaled them. Their screams and the smell of burned flesh made me feel dizzy.

"Oh, come on, if this bothers you just wait till we get into a real battle," Bella said and patted me on the shoulder.

"That was pretty clever, if you hadn't talked them into opening that gate, we might have had a serious problem on our hands," Teresa said as we walked out of the makeshift fort.

"Thanks, I just played to my strength," I said. I was still a bit nauseous, but the compliment felt good.

"Don't get cocky, that only worked because those simpletons were morons," Bella said with a grimace.

"I think you all did great as a team, remember to always celebrate the victories. What is the point of living and surviving if you spend your time miserable?" The old woman said.

"That was oddly philosophic," Bella said.

"Was it? I just say what I've learned to be true over the years," The old woman said.

"Exactly how old are you?" Teresa asked with her head slightly tilted.

"Honestly, I stopped counting a long time ago. It just made me sad to keep track of how long I had been forced to live without the people I cared about," she said with a sigh.

"You wouldn't happen to remember how long ago you stopped counting and maybe how old you were when you stopped, do you?" I asked.

"I know how math works; you know?" The old woman said and chuckled.

As we walked I began to notice snow covering the tops of the trees. The mountain plateaued and we found ourselves standing in front of a cave.

"Let me guess, we have to go in there, right?" Teresa said and drew her still bloody sword.

"Are we at the empty cave?" the old woman asked just before we heard a noise so loud it shook the ground at our feet.

"Yep, completely empty," Teresa mocked as a gigantic, two-legged, white, furry monster stepped out of the cave.