Worlds Apart by ninja jinx (different ereaders txt) 📖

locks at her feet to show my determination. “I may have never seen war or death, but if not for your children I would be a person who had died. Merely an empty shell” I looked at her eyes and revealed my seriousness of the situation.

I wanted to do everything for those two who had saved me that day, when they could have abandoned me. Being together with them had healed my heart from the pain and rejection of my mate. It wasn’t me who was in the wrong; it was my mate who didn’t deserve me. However even knowing this fact didn’t mean it was so easy to accept, even if the bond between us two mates was long broken and my wolf was gone. Always the thought of my wolf, my other side gone, angered and saddened me. I couldn’t feel her presence, couldn’t hear her or talk to her, she had locked herself away. Clenching my fists tightly, I realized that even if she was gone, I was never giving up. I couldn’t give up, because no matter how painful it was there were others suffering greater pain. So I would wait for her to return but now I had a reason to live, a reason to think of others and not myself.

“Your hair….” She said and I bit my lip remembering Mathew telling me that it was an unusual colour. “It is black…”

“Please let me do this” I said “even if I have unusual coloured hair or I am a female!” For a long moment we stared at each other before the foot falls of many people getting closer snapped us out of our world and into reality. The lady snatched my arm roughly and threw open a door which seemed to blend with the wall that I didn’t notice. Dragging me inside I was consumed with the darkness but my eyes adapted quickly to my surroundings before a dim light filled the space.

It was a small storage room, no bigger than a few steps with shelves lining the walls and on each shelf were bags of food, clothes and bottles of a mysterious liquid.

“What is this, a secret room?” I asked and the woman grabbed a bottle filled with a white paste and rummaged through some clothes, pulling out this and that from the sack.

 “You said you wanted to save them?” she asked after a moment as she wrapped everything in a cloth and handed it to me. I was still with shock as she continued to stuff food in a leather bag which she grabbed from the shelf. “Well for now you can’t do anything looking the way you do. So for now go back to the sea and dye your hair, change your identity and forget that you’re a woman. Woman like you can’t live in times of war without being sold to men.” Handing me the bag she looked at me. “I hope you are true to your word girl, and don’t take it back as soon as you see danger” she muttered.

“I won’t” I answered sharply and the lady shrugged as if she didn’t know whether to believe me or not.

“Either way, I don’t care what you do after this since it ain’t my problem. But for now you can’t stay here, you have to leave and get away” she paused. “But if you still want to save my children then first head to Morten’s main city, south of here.” She suddenly began to shove me towards the back wall when we heard to heavy sound of multiple steps. “Here take this”, handing me a rolled paper and a sword which she pulled from behind the shelf she pressed her hand to the wall. The wall shuddered before opening up to reveal a passageway which seemed to stretch for quite a distance. “Take this route and you should reach the sea. When you get there, quickly change yourself and escape”

“What about you? Aren’t you coming?” I asked, taking a step into the passageway and looking back at her.

She shook her head, her hair falling on her scarred face. “I have a duty here. I can’t leave” and then I was plunged into darkness. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 7

The cart hit another bump in the rocky road and I clutched the sword and bag closer to my chest. It felt sweltering under the unforgiving sun; the bandage which I’d wrapped tightly around my chest was becoming sticky with sweat.

“How much longer till Morten?” I asked no particular person and the man next to me who had huddled into himself spared me a glance. His eyes were fearfully wide and his mouth was quietly muttering unknown words, with hands tightly clasping a silver chain. The chain must have been something very special to him for him to hold it so close to his heart. But when I thought about it, everyone here was much like him, to taken from the horrors of the battle and trying to hold onto something gone.

Horrendous I thought, the wars were horrid and terrible. But even so, I needed to know how close I was to Morten. “Excuse me?” I asked the man in front, his whip lashing at the horse to move forward. “How far are we to Morten?”

“Quite boy” he snapped back at me his accent thick with annoyance, not even turning around. “You’ve been asking that dratted question for long time going. If you don’t shut up I’ll chuck you out”.

Unconsciously I touched my short hair, now dyed the brown of chestnuts, which fell in locks to just past my ears. That’s right; right now I was a boy, leaving behind the identity of a girl in the waves of the sea that night.

“Sorry I…“I began but stopped when I smelt something like blood and sweat thick in the air. No one else could smell it but with my heightened sense it was like being rammed with the scent so strongly disturbing. Something wasn’t right, I thought unnerved. I looked to the tree’s and the area around me.

“Stop the cart” I demanded and the man grunted in annoyance.

“Look here boy. I don’t know who you think you are but here I make the-“

No one could even take another breath before the cart was rammed to the side and toppled over. Everyone fell to the side, bags, things and bodies scattering on the road. I sat up quickly, having prepared myself somewhat for something dangerous the moment when I smelt the blood and having jumped out mere seconds before. Grabbing my sword and swinging my bag around my body, I got up into a low crouch. Be calm, don’t rush I thought as I took everything into perspective. All types of men were rushing from behind the rocks, ditches, and the shrubs by the side of the road, swords raised in the air.

Bandits?!

After I noticed the man who had been driving the cart forward lay dead on his side, a rock having cracked his head open, blood pouring out and tainting the ground. The horse which had fallen picked itself up and looked upon everything in confusion. The cart was dented on the side, having being rammed by a man standing six foot tall and weighing 200 pounds who too got up from the floor, being thrown back with his own force.

“No!” the man who had been next to me on the ride said as he held the chain closer. “NO!”

The tall and scary looking man smirked, a smile so sickening and evil it sent chills down my spine. He enjoyed seeing suffering and anguish was what I thought. I couldn’t die here, I must not die here.

“Give us your valuables and the women. Men will stay behind to die!” a man who I assumed was the head leader said, stepping from behind the buff six foot goliath. Wearing dark pattered clothes, he looked like an ordinary man except for the various mutated scars on his body.

“No, not the women” a husband pleaded as he held his thin wife to his chest, sobs wracking through her body as she grasped tightly onto his thread worn shirt. “Please spare my wife, we’ll give you anything so-“

One slice was all it took to take his head. One clean slice from a sword sent his head rolling to the side, his eyes and mouth opened in shock. Blood spurted out and the wife screamed. Her cry so shrill and painfully tormented as her husband’s dead body flopped forwards and onto her chest. The tangy smell of blood filled the air and I covered my mouth, too horrified too look away.

“What you lot waiting for?” the leader grunted as if this one kill from his sword meant nothing to him, which it probably didn’t. “Give us your stuff or you’ll end up like that fellow!”

Meekly everyone followed the instructions, too afraid to do anything else. Some however did try to escape only to have their arms and legs cut off and themselves screaming in agony. It was either try to escape and have your limbs cut off or follow through with what they asked to keep all your body parts.

Staring at the sword, I struggled to part with it. Though it was heavy, it was the only weapon given to me by the children’s mother. And if I were to give up my sword, even though I had never before learnt how to use it, I’ll be left with no weapon, my previous dagger having been left at the place where I cut my hair.

One of the men looked at me, seeing what I’ll do next and I bit my lip and threw the sword onto the pile of valuables. Its ok, I thought, I still had the map with me, which was wound around my body and tied with string to keep it in place.

“Ok you lot” the leader said as the women and girls were loaded onto an iron cage sitting on top of a sturdy looking cart which they had brought from behind the tree’s. “We’ll take the women and the horse, and since we’re such kind people, all we’ll do is tie you up and leave you here. You can choose to escape or die”. He smirked pleased with himself as if he really thought that what he was doing were the actions of a generous and good man.

I came to understand with clarity why it was so important for me to dress up as a boy, and the true gravity of the situation. It took all my self-control not to act rashly like the last time and just plunge straight into an attack, which would undoubtedly cost my life.

The bandits tied the rope not to lose but not too tight around everyone’s hands and legs, throwing each man to the side of the road. The rope was probably done in such a way to give an opportunity for escape if a person tried hard enough.  “If you’re lucky” the leader continued to say as he got on a horse, “Maybe some travellers or merchants may stop and help. Heaven forbid though if you run into Drogon soldiers!” When he said the last part of his sentence, he didn’t look that unpleased or distressed, in