Chapter - 4

THE DEATH GAME

 

“Don’t make us wait. Otherwise, we won’t get our ale down the neck tonight without this violence. Work has been quite easy for us these days. Our hunting skills might wither.” One of the bandits on the deck tried to insinuate us.

 

Everyone looked at each other but no one took a step further. No one wanted to die from taking an arrow to the heart but rather wait for the beggar’s food. For days they had been weakened by hunger and their will to fight was gone.

 

They were just a mere group of small children who were unfortunate to not possess any magical aptitude and fell into the hands of these kidnappers. All they could hope for was that their mysterious buyer would at least be kind enough to feed them.

 

It was at this point of confusion someone stepped forward. From the group, a girl wearing a small cape wrapped around her one arm. Looking down at the ground, a defiant gaze from below was enough to hold everyone’s breath in anticipation of what was about to come.

 

“Did you not learn your lesson from yesterday, girl?” The leader of the bandit spoke from far holding his bow and readily nocked it with an arrow.

 

“I was born like this and since then I have lived miserably like this … so I might as well die like this.” The girl responded in a defiant tone as if she had only found courage after cheating death for once already. She might have believed she could do it twice.

 

Being more than sure of it herself, Caige knew she could do it again.

 

She had already made up her mind that she would never live that prisoned life ever again.

 

“I guess the girl has become daring or stupid. But the tales of heroes and saviors always end with their own demise…” the leader of the band snapped at the girl’s recklessness.

 

Without a word, Caige ran while others watched. And those with the bows took their aim.

 

The death game was on. The same rules. Several arrows to hunt down a single prey.

 

But Caige knew she was no hero or a savior to be.

 

She had never been and how much she would like to be, she can never become one.

 

She was weak, but she had her intellect. Her fear commanded her to survive, against all odds. Not with something intangible like fiery passion but on instinct and carefulness.

 

The cape tied around her arm came undone and she wrapped it around her body with nothing but only her feet visible.

 

It was the same cloth she had got her hands on at the last moment, that covered the dead bodies. The key to her victory.

 

“Stupid girl, the cloth won’t save you.” The bandits laughed at Caige’s stupidity. And the other children who were watching from far turned their gazes away from her forthcoming throbbing death.

 

For a moment Caige might have increased her chance of getting hit by becoming a more visible target. But while the men were focused on taking aim at the red cloth something unexpected happened…

 

Like as if a wind moved on its own…

“What!? How?”

 

“Where did she go?”

 

“…where is she?” The leader of the band shouted in fury.

 

Somehow, while running Caige had suddenly disappeared and the cloth simply fell to the ground. Like an old magic trick, she disappeared from everyone’s eyes.

 

... All eyes desperately searching for her in the wide world.

 

While the people were too busy watching Caige. Seeing what she could do. Underestimating her in every possible way, and only thinking of her defeat in this meaningless rebel.

 

But Caige could think beyond that, freeing herself from all the distractions. She always planned to do the unexpected. Being unpredictable.

 

“⸺Look there she is behind the barrels.”

 

“Aim at her... quickly.”

 

“She is getting closer to the food cart. Yeahhhh.!!” It was the first cheer from the fearful crowd.

 

“Maybe she can do it.”

 

“Come on… run. Run.”

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Every kid watching was suddenly amazed at the unique magic trick Caige had pulled off without actually using real magic.

 

With every passing second, she came closer to the food cart. The means of everyone's survival would have soon been in Caige’s grasp. And they would be able to eat something good and nutritious after a long time apart from sawdust bread and murky water.

 

Caige ran at full speed and whatever little strength she could muster within her legs that had grown frail and thin in these past few days. But still, she carried on, moving in zig-zag hoping to dodge the arrows that came flying at her.

 

“It’s close. I will make it. This time for sure.” Caige said out loud as she fastened her pace.

 

To reach to the cart quickly, before an arrow comes to pierce her back. She bent a little lower and took a huge leap to the cart. Reaching out for a miracle to happen...

 

“Shoot her down. Now.” The leader of the kidnappers cried again loudly.

 

With only a few inches gap between Caige and the food cart.

 

Shsssshhhh….

 

An arrow zaps through Caige’s arm, only grazing it. But it was more than enough to set her off course to fall and roll on the ground. Only falling a few meters away from the cart.

 

Caige did not try to move next, and most probably fell unconscious because of a lack of energy.

 

The children watching this scene broke into a disarrayed formation causing chaos and protested trying to give Caige another chance. Such a commotion could attract attention from the city's watch, so their kidnappers needed to quell the mob.

 

“Lock every kid inside the prison cells and throw that girl inside too. We camp here tonight.” The leader of the bandit group announced as he frustratedly gazes at Caige’s silhouette being carried by his men and put into the cage along with her cage-mates.

 

Caige who had suddenly become a hero in everyone’s eyes had failed yet again to prove herself.

 

⸺But has she completely lost..? the question still remained.

 

At night…it is said that the most fierce animals hunt. And the most fierce animal is not the strongest lion hunting out in the wild. But the oar of a wounded lion is the fiercest of all.

 

Caige still lay motionless in the corner of the prison. While on the other end Shae and Dia sat quietly. Neither of them spoke.

 

It was almost the middle of the night and even the number of guards had reduced.

 

While no one was there to hear or look at what the kids did in their cage and they could not think of any possible way they could attempt to escape. The men were relaxed and sleeping soundlessly in their tents.

 

“I know you are awake. What exactly were you trying to achieve out there?” Shae spoke without any expression as she stared at Caige.

 

For a second everything remained still until Caige rolled and moved.

 

She struggled for a moment and then the single rope that tied her hands sheared into two strands and fell to the ground.

 

“Is that another magic trick?” Little Dia spoke innocently.

 

For Caige, to get what she wants she first needed to know what she was. Caige had always loved the stories of heroes and supreme mages from birth like any other ordinary child.

 

But from the time she had left the first cage she had come to learn another new important lesson from the corpses that she could not always be what she wants but she can definitely be the real Caige.

 

And if she tries to be anything else, she dies.

 

Caige confidently looked at Shae and the fascinated little Dia. An arrow with a sharp pointy edge in her hand which she stole and hid within her clothes during the game.

 

The objective was never to get to the cart but to smuggle a weapon inside the prison, even if it was something as small as an arrow’s head. With Caige’s ingenuity, nothing was far from her reach.

 

“It's time we make our escape. Together.”

 

***

 

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