My breathing was not steady at all. Nor was my heart, as I leaned against the large tree for support.

  Distant voices filled the air, and I struggled to calm myself as I tried to hear what was being said. Through my loud heartbeat, and the noisy wind, I heard not just the voices of men but women.

  They were talking about many things. The oncoming storm. The lack of drinks. One of the women was complaining about her horse, it stunk.

  Calming down a little, I tried my best to not panic. It was so hard to do so, but I knew right now it was the last thing I should do.

  Witch had always said a calm mind was the answer. No matter the situation. No matter what.

  But it was so, so hard…

  Slowly crouching, I half-crawled around the tree I was hiding behind as to get behind a thick bush. I made sure to keep my ears as low as possible against my head as I peeked out over the bush, to the nearby road.

  Several wagons were on the road. Rolling along slowly, with men and women in armor and carrying weapons walking alongside them. Some rode horses. Others marched side-by-side, chatting lightly.

  I was lucky that the area was heavily wooded. On this side and the other side of the path were dense clusters of trees and bushes. Some of the bushes, like the one I hid behind, were as tall as I were and many times thicker. Especially when they grouped together. In fact, I’d been following this little caravan of people for a good while now. I had to do so from a distance at first, since there had not been enough trees and hills to block me from their sight, but as the trees became more dense I was able to approach more easily.

  Lowering a little as one of the women glanced my way; I stared through the bush at the passing figures. They were a rock-throw away, so I doubted they could hear me or smell me, but I was doing my best to be careful.

  Most of them were wearing metal armor, if only in patches like on their chests and thighs, but a few wore just normal clothes. I wasn’t really sure who they were, or what they were, since their wagons had little flags hanging on the sides of them. The flags were decorated a strange blue, with little birds upon them. I of course didn’t recognize them, but the way they were all leisurely walking and talking told me they were very confident. Odds are they weren’t bandits or anything but some kind of army, or at least a portion of one. Maybe knights, even.

  They were not people I wanted to get involved with. They didn’t just have swords and axes, but bows. Most of them did.

  Between their weapons and many horses, I’d likely not survive a confrontation with them. Especially since I wasn’t sure how deep this forest patch was. Back the way we had come had been an almost open field, though littered with hills and trees. Not the type of environment I could survive while escaping and trying to hide from such pursuers as them.

  “Hurry up!” A snarky voice shouted, quickly followed by the sound of a small child yelping.

  I flinched… waited a small moment, and then peaked back over the bush.

  Quickly my eyes found Lujic. The boy was near the end of the caravan, walking next to a large wagon with a covered top. His arms were tied at the wrist by a thick rope, which was connected to the wagon. He wasn’t the only one tied to it either. He was walking in line with other men and even a few other boys his age. They were all like him, dirty looking and tied to the cart by rope.

  I shivered at the sight of him and had to kneel back down. Not because I had been in danger of being seen, but because my blood was boiling.

  It was definitely Lujic. I’d not mistake that dirty blond hair anywhere.

  Ginny was nowhere to be seen, but I heavily suspected she was in the wagon. A few times a harsher breeze had blown by; the flaps at the end of the wagon moved enough to show there were people in it. A lot of people.

  There was no reason to believe they were anything other than captured people. The rest of the caravan were all soldiers, or at least a part of them.

  Why they’d capture Lujic like this was of course something I could not understand… but right now there was no point in trying to understand anything.

  He was tied up. Being abused. There was a taller woman walking near him, dressed in leather armor. She had a spear and kept using the butt of it to smack and poke at Lujic and the rest of the tied up people. There was no reason for her to do so, since none of them had actually stopped walking. Plus the wagon was only moving so fast anyway, so forcing them to pick up speed only made their ropes go taught as they waited for the wagon to keep up with them.

  It was that very abuse which made my blood boil. It was one thing entirely to tie the boy up like that, but to smack him for no reason?

  That was something my siblings would have done.

  The wagon, and Lujic who was tied to it, rolled past. I studied the boy as he fumbled while walking. What had been a happy boy, running around everywhere and chasing chickens, was now limping. He was favoring his left leg.

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  There was no way their uncle had found them. Right…?

  But no. I knew the truth. Since my own family had been the same.

  It was very likely their uncle was a part of this. A few did have the same hair as him… though none outright seemed to be related to him as far as I could tell.

  In fact, none of the knights or whatever they are even seemed to really care about Lujic and the rest tied to the wagon. Only that woman, who had walked over to the other side to torment those tied opposite of Lujic, seemed to have any interest in them.

  After a few moments the wagon rolled away from my area. The path they were on, the dirt road, seemed to head in a rather straight direction for as far as I could see. I had absolutely no clue where it led, but knew eventually I’d lose them if I didn’t figure something out.

  They’d either enter a town, or leave this forest area and enter another large open field and plains. Either result would force me to back off… which would only get Lujic hurt, or worse.

  But what could I do…? It wasn’t like I could just walk up to him and untie him.

  Were they possibly slavers? If so, could I buy them…?

  “With what money, Renn?” I whispered angrily to myself as I grumbled and glanced around.

  I found the path I’d take and stepped away from the bush. Keeping low, I slowly walked through tall grass and dense foliage. Keeping myself quiet, I slowly kept pace with the caravan and Lujic.

  I needed to save him. Somehow. And Ginny too.

  But how?

  I could possibly kill a few of them. I could ambush them, or just outright overpower them… but I’d not be able to kill all of them. Not by a long shot.

  I couldn’t just take them back. If I walked up and tried to claim they were my children they’d likely just tie me up too. At least, until they saw my ears and tail. Then they’d just kill me, or worse. So I couldn’t do that either.

  Could I somehow steal them back…?

  The wagon Lujic was attached to was not the last wagon in the group. There were two more behind the one he was attached to. But the other two were smaller, and not covered. They were the flat box types, stored with goods and boxes. One was even being pulled by a pair of oxen and not horses.

  Reaching a new bunch of trees, I hid behind the largest with the lowest branches and peered around it to count the people near Lujic. Not including those tied to the wagon like he was, I counted a quick thirteen. That included the abusive woman with the spear who had slowed a little as to talk to a man on a horse.

  Thirteen people. And that was just at the end of the caravan.

  My stomach hurt as I stared at Lujic. The boy didn’t look like he was crying, but his face was skewed with sadness. The poor boy almost looked as sad as he had when his sister hadn’t been waking up and had been coughing blood.

  Hopefully Ginny was fine.

  This explained their bedding back at the house. They had liked leapt out of bed, shocked at the intrusion. Ginny may have even been pulled out of bed by one of these bastards.

  Would… would they have hurt Ginny?

  I nearly ran out from behind the tree, just to rush over to the wagon and check for her. The thought of them killing her, leaving her dead in some ditch somewhere, made me nearly lose it.

  It was possible, of course. What if they thought her too sick? Too disabled or broken to be worth anything? Not even their time?

  Looking away from the wagon and Lujic, I bent over and clenched my teeth. I felt like I was about to throw up.

  This wasn’t good! Not at all!

  My head began to throb, and I forcefully calmed myself down. I took slow, but deep breaths, and made sure as my tail twitched and spasmed it did so low to the ground, and not against any of the nearby bushes as to keep it quiet.

  Don’t panic Renn. Don’t freak out.

  I can figure this out. It wasn’t impossible. There were ways.

  Surely…

  After a few moments of wallowing in my own thoughts and the despair laced through them, I slowly sat up to peer around the tree again.

  Lujic had his head hung low. The woman with the spear had returned to his side of the road, though her focus was not on him. She was messing with a leather pouch… which as she lifted to her lips and took a drink out of; I realized was a water pouch.

  I glared at the woman, hoping she’d choke, but she didn’t. After a moment she finished and tossed the leather pouch onto the edge of the wagon Lujic was tied to.

  Although glaring at her made me feel better, I knew I needed to do more. If I just hid behind the shadows all this time, I’d not be able to save the kids.

  So I needed to first figure out more. I needed to study these people. I needed to find an opening, and find a way to exploit it.

  Just like when hunting a large prey. Just as when Witch and I had hunted those elders. Even though it seemed impossible at first, there was always a way if you just calmly assessed the situation and took your time.

  “They don’t have time…” I mumbled angrily, and shook my head at myself.

  Crawling a little to the next group of bushes, I stood up a bit and hurried away from them. I went deeper into the forest, so I could outpace the caravan. My plan was to go as far as I could ahead of them, to see maybe if I could tell where they were going. Or if the forest would continue so that I could have at least a few hours as to formulate a plan.

  I honestly wasn’t sure yet what I was going to do. If it was just Lujic, I might be able to rush forward and grab him and escape before they could catch us. It was a stupid idea, and a long shot, but it was at least something I’d be willing to attempt.

  But with Ginny being nowhere in sight, I had no idea where she actually was. Which meant I’d need to find where she was first before doing anything. Last thing I needed was to find a way to save Lujic, only for them to threaten her life as to get me to give up or something.

  As I hurried ahead of the caravan, staying out of sight, I continued to think of all the different ways I could probably save them.

  Regretfully most of the ideas died as quickly as they were born… but I kept thinking and trying to find ways.

  I’d save them. No matter what.

  One way or another.

  Hopefully.