Chapter 49: 47- Loot and Captives

Marik ran to where the girls should have been engaged in combat, according to the sounds he was still hearing, and came around the corner of a tent to see only Sai there holding off two bandits while surrounded by about ten dead bodies.  Sai was managing to keep some keep some distance as she swung her rope-sash in a circle at her side.  The bandits seemed unsure of how to get closer to her without risking injury or death.  Marik crept up behind one of them and Sai, noticing his intentions, started moving forward towards the other one as well.  

As both bandits took a quick step back at the sudden charge from the girl in front of them, Marik swung his force claws and cut off the head off the bandit he had been sneaking up on.  The movement in the peripheral of the remaining bandit's vision caused him to glance over, which ended up being a mistake.  Sai took the opportunity to swing her rope-sash across her body, around her back, and over her shoulder, making the sharp end fly out at an incredible speed and into the side of the bandit's turned head.  Sai yanked on the rope and caught the returning dagger-shaped piece as if it were a knife throw being played in reverse.

Sai walked up to him with a smile on her face and pause in her steps as she noticed the new hole in his leg.  Her face changed to show her worry but Marik shrugged slightly to let her know that it wasn't really bothering at the moment before looking around some.  He couldn't see any signs of his sister around and he was feeling more worried about what had happened to her than a small wound that would heal before too long.

"Where's Sara?"

"Hm?  Oh, I told her I could take care of the last two so she sprinted off to find whoever was screaming a while ago."

"I see.  Let's go find her then.  There could still be a few bandits left and I want to make sure she's okay."

"See?  You do care about your sister."

"I never said I didn't.  Just not as much as you and Kiara."

Marik turned and began walking among the tents in the direction he hadn't gone to yet.  There were a few shoddy constructions here and there in the camp that were made of sticks and clay but he didn't feel that there would be any people in any of them so he didn't bother trying to check through them at the moment.  Eventually they came to the other edge of the camp where Marik could see several horses tied to a pole that had been driven into the ground.

A little further away was a wagon that had the cargo area filled with cage of metal bars.  There were no horses yet hitched to the wagon but there were several people inside of the cage and two bandits where busy shoving one more into the opened gate of the cage.  As they shut the gate one began to do fiddle with something that Marik couldn't see but presumed was the lock while the other one turned around and froze upon seeing Marik and Sai standing there.  He gave his buddy a light elbow nudge and pulled a crossbow out from behind him where it had been resting on the back of he wagon.

Marik was a little too far to try and do anything at the moment and he didn't enjoy the idea of getting shot again so he crouched down a little as if to be ready to move but made no further advances.  The bandit quickly realized that the loaded crossbow he was holding was the only thing keeping the two bandit hunters in front of him from coming any closer.  His fellow bandit pulled out a spear in a similar fashion and readied it as well while considering what their next course of action should be.  Marik wasn't sure what exactly to do in this situation, either.  Luckily, several of his wishes were soon answered.

Sara had somehow been sneaky enough to get under the wagon without being noticed and was now crawling out from underneath it.  Unlike her normal self, she wore a quite enraged expression as she lifted both of her swords to the height of her face, with one extended out and the other kept close, and moved with all the speed and grace she could muster towards the closest of the two bandits, which happened to be the one with a crossbow.  Her forward sword slid cleanly through the bandit's back and out of his chest and the startled look on his face started to tilt as her second sword removed his head and let gravity pull it away from his body.  

She pulled both swords back to herself to let the dead body fall before her and charged at the now prepared spear wielder.  Marik just watched the fight, deciding not to intervene unless it seemed that she needed help.  Since her initial attack had been a surprise, she was able to get into the range where her swords could barely put scratches on the bandit but was still close enough that the bandit had trouble keeping her at optimal distance for his spear techniques.  Sara couldn't really parry the spear's swings from her position and Marik could tell that the blocks were throwing off the way she normally moved from one move to another.  However, she was still dealing more damage than she was taking as she managed to put scratches and light cuts all over the bandit while still being able to stop each of his attacks.  The balance seemed like it had finally broken when one of her blocks finally snapped most of the blade off of one of her swords but she immediately lunged with the other one extended and plunged it into the bandit's midsection.  The bandit didn't die immediately and dropped his spear to try and retaliate but Sara twisted the blade inside him slightly and then gave his face a headbutt, causing him to fall backwards as she let go of  her swords handle.

Marik slowly walked up to check on the bandit's condition since he didn't want to find him barely hanging on to life and trying to get them in the back when they least expected it.  He nudged the body with his foot a few times and then lifted his foot and stomped as hard as he could on the man's throat.  It felt a little strange with the bare feet of his beast form and he was sure that had he been wearing boots it would have been more effective but it seemed to be enough that he could feel the crushed throat under his toes so he lifted his foot again and took the few steps to stand before his sister.

"Good job.  You okay?"

"Mm."

Sara continues to stare at her handiwork with a somewhat blank expression.  Marik wasn't entirely sure what all was going on through her mind so he couldn't figure out what exactly he should say to try and help soothe her and bring her back to reality.  He figured she would just need a little time to sort things out and he'd be willing to talk to her if he thought she needed it.  For right now, however, there seemed to be other people who needed more help trapped in cage right behind her.  Marik gave his sister a last nod and went to check on in the people in the cage.

The clothes that all the captives wore were either torn and barely functional, incredibly dirty and bloody, or both.  Marik could tell that some of them had been through some tough times as there were some that were missing ears, tail, or other limbs.  It looked like most, if not all, of them were women but it didn't seem like a good time to try and check to make sure or ask about that with the nearly starved and haggard state they all seemed to be in.  Marik though for a little bit and then sighed.  He wanted to try and do something about it but strong mental care was not in his skill set and he didn't have any supplies on him at the moment.  Not to mention that it was now likely that some of those women would now have a fear of men after their traumatic experience.

He turned and looked at Sai, since he wanted to leave his sister be for the moment, and waved her closer.  He didn't say anything since he didn't want to scare the captives at the moment and just pointed his thumb at them while hoping that Sai would get what he wanted her to do.  Sai looked past him and blinked.  Then she looked back at Marik and gave a sigh before nodding and walking up to the cage.  Marik looked around a bit more and saw another wagon and a carriage a little further away.  

With the supply of horses and the three vehicles he thought they could try and loot the place of everything possible to bring as much as they could back with them.  There'd be some annoying procedures when they got back to town but it was better than just reporting it all and would give them a better chance to make some extra money from the whole thing.  The biggest problems would be the handling of the horses and figuring out how to act as coachmen but even if none of them had any experience with it there shouldn't be too many problems trying to figure it all out.  Hopefully.

Marik walked over to the horses and started trying to handle them based on what little he remembered from doing so in his past life.  These horses were the same kind that could be find throughout most of Koshtir and were slightly different from the horses he remembered from his past life.  They were furrier, looked a little thicker, and had longer legs to act as appropriate beasts of burden for the beast race.  He was glad that all of the horses seemed to be trained well enough to not go wild as he started to mess with their leads and finally managed to get one horse free from the pole they were tied to.  He led it over to the free wagon and spent some time trying to figure out how to hitch it up as best he could.  It took some time and he wasn't sure if he had done everything the right way but he finally managed to get the first horse attached to the wagon and went to get the second horse to hitch up.

As he went back, he noticed Sara had seemed to at least partially snap out of her sea of thoughts and was trying to help Sai take care of the captives now.  He diverted from his original and path and stopped near the open cage to talk to the two and explain his plan of the moment to make sure they agreed.

"Hey, I'm going to try and hitch up that wagon and then start going through the camp to grab as much stuff as I can.  Then I want to hitch up this one and let all these people move over to the carriage where they'll be a little more comfortable at least.  Hopefully while I'm collecting stuff around the camp I can find some better clothes for them.  Then we can load up this wagon with whatever I didn't grab the first time around.  I want to try and bring back as much as possible with us so, although I doubt it, if there's anyone of them that is in a condition to help then..."

"I don't think that's going to happen," Sai told him with a stern face.  "I'll try and ask around just to make sure, though.  Once we have everyone settled down a bit more and checked out then I'll come help you and let Sara watch over them."

"Okay.  We're also going to have to learn on the fly how to be coachmen.  I want to try and hurry so we can be back with the convoy by evening."

---

Marik was sitting next to Sara on the seat of the caged wagon as they followed the carriage ahead of them.  He was letting her hold the reins at the moment as he intended to leave soon.  Luckily there had been one woman among the captive who knew a little about how to drive carriages and wagons and had been willing to teach them as well as drive the carriage for them.  The camp and the dead bodies had been looted as thoroughly as Marik felt they could within the time limit he had set for them.  Sai was currently leading their miniature convoy while driving the open wagon at the front and they planned to try and make it to the road where everyone would camp and wait for Anthony's convoy to catch up.

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That meant, of course, that someone had to go let Anthony know that it was okay to proceed.  Marik decided that having the girls stay with the captives was a better idea and he had had more interaction with Anthony anyways so as soon as Sara felt comfortable with driving he was going to head off and meet back up with the convoy they were supposed to be guarding.  He glanced behind them and saw that the horses he had tethered to the back of the wagon were still following along, glanced up at what he could see of the sky through the foliage and then looked back at Sara.

"Okay.  If you think you got this then I'm going to head off now.  It's almost evening..."

"I'll be fine.  We'll see you tomorrow, right?"

"The convoy should be well rested at this point so hopefully we'll be able to leave early and catch up to where you guys end up by late morning."

"Alright.  Be careful."

"Same to you.  We'll...uh...talk when I get back.  Okay?"

"Hmm?  About what?"

"Sis, I'm not an idiot.  I might act a bit harsh at times but it doesn't mean I don't want to help you when I see you're having problems."

"I'm fine."

"Right.  We'll have a little chat anyways.  I'll be off for now."

Marik didn't give her a chance to refute and jumped off the wagon and rolled.  He stood up and watched for a bit longer to make sure everything looked fine and turned around to started heading in the direction they had originally come from.  As he ran he adjust his course to head slightly further into the forest in the hopes that he would come across the trail they had followed or left behind while making their way to the bandit camp.  After about an hour of running, just as it was getting too dark to see as clearly, he found the trail he was looking for and let out a sigh of relief.  Now he could backtrack along this trail and make it back to the convoy by morning.

The lack of sleep would be a bit of an issue but he planned to take a nap once the convoy started off again so he did everything he could think of to help himself stay awake as he ran.  Sometimes he switched to running on only two legs so he could work on casting his arcanistries.  He figured it would help him stay awake some and the practice while being somewhat tired would likely be beneficial in the long run.  He went off course once or twice but before the sky began to lighten up again he caught a glimpse of what seemed to be the light of a fire through the trees and headed in that direction.  

He came into a campsite clearing and saw Anthony's convoy set up much as he had left it.  There was what Marik assumed was a guard sitting near the campfire while dozing off.  He didn't blame them too much for that since it really should have been his job instead of one of the employees but he also thought that having a guard who was falling asleep like that meant they could have just gone to sleep appropriately and not bothered setting up any guards after all.  It wasn't like they could do much against an attack anyway, and any bandits who might attack were supposed to be getting taken care of by the three mercs while the convoy waited here.  Marik stopped running and walked over to where the guard was slumped over to sit next to him.

As he sat down, the guard employee stirred a but and shifted sleepy eyes in his direction.

"Hey.  Why don't you go to bed?  It's almost morning anyways so I'll go ahead and stoke the fire and finish up the watch, okay?"

Marik actually was feeling pretty tired himself but figured that he could at least keep himself awake by trying to stay busy until the sky started to get brighter.  The man nodded and walked off while still being half-asleep and Marik stretched for a bit as he rested.  As soon as he started to feel the drowsiness coming upon him once more, as it had done even while he ran, he stood up and collected some smaller pieces of firewood to put in the fire and walked around to check on all of the wagons, carriages, and people he could see resting.  Just as the sky started gaining the hints of color to show that morning was fast approaching, he finally approached Anthony's personal carriage and knocked on the door.  After few moments and the sound of shuffling, the curtain in the window was parted and the window was opened to reveal the sleepy face of the carriage's owner.

"Morning, boss.  I know it's a bit early still but I figure with a full day of rest that everyone can get up a little early today."

"Marik, huh?  So everything went well, after all."

"Mostly, I guess.  Unfortunately there were a bunch of captives.  Their waiting up the road a ways for us, now.  I'd like to try and reach them before noon so we can work out how we're going to proceed from there and all that.  I personally haven't had any sleep since I left, either, so I kind of want to make sure we get moving before I konk out for a few hours."

"I see.  *yawn* Give me a bit and I'll start waking everyone up, then."

"Alright.  I'll go ahead and slip into the rear wagon and catch some sleep.  Sai or Sara should notice you when you get closer and wave the convoy down so you can wake me up then if I haven't woken up by that time.  The roads should be safe, otherwise, so feel free to travel without worries to that point."

"Mm hm.  I'll try to have us moving before long.  Good work."

"Thanks.  'Night."

Marik turned and did as he said he was going to do.  He found the wagon that had a spot reserved for them and slipped into it.  He stretched out a little and was asleep almost as soon as his eyes were closed.  The sleep was light and he would occasionally become half awake as he felt the wagon shake and rattle.  As he realized that something felt a little off he woke himself up and looked around to see that they were leaving the road.  He stretched a bit to wake up the rest of the way and prepared to get out of the wagon as soon as it had stopped moving, which didn't take long.

He jumped out and circled around the convoy to see the three vehicles they acquired from the bandit camp sitting nearby.  He looked around and found Anthony already out of his carriage and talking to Sai so he walked up to them to join the conversation.

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