Right of the Victor

I soon realized why people prefer not to travel out of the city I lived in. Outside those walls was nothing but a vast wilderness for miles, littered with bandits and thieves. If you carried money and food, you were going to be robbed. If you didn’t, you would starve to death and be unable to buy anything you needed. Not to mention that Umbriel was a trade city in which everything could be very highly priced, and money was necessary for survival. Usually, I’d be confident in my abilities to defend myself, but that was in a one on one. Bandits didn’t care about honor and would have five bows pointed at me in an instant if I came across them. So, as I treaded across the dusty road leading away from Folium-my home city-I kept one hand on my sword and both eyes on my surroundings. There weren’t many trees yet, but I could see the dark shape of a forest slowly appearing on the horizon. While I was almost safe in the open, the same wouldn’t be true in there. With an annoyed sigh, I prepared myself for any harm that may come.

By the time I finally reached the forest, night was falling. That wasn’t good. My only options were to keep walking through the night and stay on guard, or try and go around. Neither were ideal, as going around would take an extra few days of travel. I made the mistake of not being patient enough, and went straight into the trees.

Moonlight is famously weak on most nights. This one was no different. Faint trails of white light feebly broke through the treetops above me, providing just enough to see and no more. At this point my sword was out of its sheath and in my hand, gripped steadily. I wasn’t willing to be caught off guard here. Turns out that didn’t really matter.

Joining the moonlight suddenly was an orange flicker behind the cover of the trees, breaking through the patchwork of branches. Fire. If it was a forest fire, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but it would have been much bigger and less contained. My heart started to beat faster as I realized what was going to happen. Robbery and possibly murder…it had been stupid to come in here after all.

“Show yourself.” I called into the woods, raising my weapon in front of me. The only answer that came was laughter, and not that of one man. There were at least four. Two were at my back. Quickly glancing around, I watched each of them step into the open, all armed. Two had bows, one had a torch, and all of them had swords.

“He’s just a kid. Awfully brave one, though.” One of the men spoke to the other three. It was the one without a bow or light, who also seemed to have authority around him that the others did not. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Lengin Anguis.” I answered without really thinking about what that would lead to.

“Oh, nobility. That’s just wonderful.” He gave a shark-like grin, “So you’ve got money. And you’re worth money.”

“No and no. Guess I can’t expect intelligence from a half-wit street bandit, though.” I sighed, “My family is dead, so if you want a ransom you’re out of luck. And you can try to fight me, but you’ll die.”

“He’s got a tongue and an ego on him as well! That’s fun.” The bandit looked to his friends as they joined him in laughter. “Let’s see if he can back it up. Arnold, go at him.”

The guy apparently named Arnold slung his bow across his torso, putting the arrow he’d had in his hands back in the quiver before pulling out his own sword. It wasn’t a great weapon; shoddily made and questionably proportioned. Arnold may have even tried to forge it himself.

“Do I really need to waste my skill on this man who doesn’t even have a proper sword?” I muttered before adjusting my stance and facing Arnold. He was a big man, but that didn’t equate to being a skilled fighter. Of course, he rushed straight at me, probably going for intimidation with his superior size. I’d faced plenty of opponents who used this strategy, and it was incredibly simple. Sliding sideways at the last moment, I stuck out a foot and tripped the bulky man, sending him toppling face first into the earth. Before he could get up, I had my blade at his throat.

“Anyone else want to get beaten? I can do the same to all of you.” I looked at the other bandits, two of which now had bows pointed at me. Nobody answered. We all stood in a silent standoff until the bandits’ leader grabbed a bow from one of his men, loaded it with an arrow, and fired within a second. I flinched, sweeping my sword towards where I thought the projectile would be aimed, but no sound came from there. There was a wet thud and a groan beneath me instead. In Arnold’s head was an arrow, blood and other fluids leaking out from the hole it had made. Arnold was dead.

“A shame he failed so badly. We don’t need him, though.” The lead man laughed, “My turn.”

He tossed the bow back to his henchman, bringing forth his own weapon. It was a much better sword than Arnold’s had been. Because I treated fights as more of a formal event than just about anything else, I asked his name first.

“Vargos. That’s all you need to know.”

“Sounds dumb.” I didn’t give him any further warning before rushing in with a feint strike on his right, pulling back and transitioning to a thrust with my sword straight at Vargos’ stomach. He was better than expected; Vargos didn’t fall for the feint and knocked aside my stab with a flourish.

“You’ll have to do a lot better than that, unfortunately.” He said as he returned a slice aimed across my chest, which I was forced to retreat to barely avoid. Sighing, I decided I should possibly take him seriously. As the brief duel continued, I started doing faster movements, better parries, and ended up completely disarming Vargos. His sword was launched across the road, and the two bowmen drew back their strings to make sure I couldn’t do anything else without risk of death.

“Cowards. Aiming your bows when you know you can’t beat me fairly.” I sheathed my weapon and slowly raised my hands, completely sure I couldn’t do anything else, as annoying as that was.

Vargos simply laughed at me, walking over to where his weapon had fallen and bringing it back.

“You’re good, I’ll admit. Real good. So, I’m going to give you a couple of options.” He crossed his arms, ignoring the questioning looks of his two remaining assistants.

“Hurry up and say them, then. I don’t want to waste any more time here.”

“Hold your horses, little man. I’m still in charge here.” He said condescendingly, “You can either give us all your money and your sword…or you can join us. Up to you.”

I paused. Of all things, that wasn’t an offer I expected. If I was honest, I’d been thinking I was about to die. Fortunately, this new chance had presented itself. Death wasn’t even viable here, at least not at face value. If my weapon was gone, though, it wouldn’t be long before someone else decided to kill me.

“You know as well as I do that that isn’t a choice, moron.”

“Yep, I do. So, you’re coming with us?” Vargos gave an obnoxious smile, knowing he had me trapped. After going through my options once again, I nodded. I was joining a group of bandits. What would my family have thought…it didn’t matter. They were still dead. As Vargos and his men started trekking back into the thick trees, I followed. What else was there for me to do?

I wasn’t built or trained for forest survival, and that quickly showed itself. While the other three men were able to easily move through the branches silently and smoothly, my clothing got caught on every other stray stick and twigs snapped beneath my feet. Each time I did anything that made noise or slowed us down, I received a glare from one of the others. Their approval didn’t matter to me, though, and I just smirked in return. This was going to be a long night.

Sleep apparently wasn’t something expected for bandits. Not these ones, anyway. We walked the whole night, guided only by torchlight and Vargos’ sense of direction. If he was wrong about where we were going, we’d all be lost. Eventually we broke free of the trees, though, the landscape opening into a flat plain in front of us.

“Took long enough. Where are we even going?”

“It wouldn’t have felt so long if you’d have shut your mouth. And we’re headed to Umbriel.” Vargos smoothly replied. That was the same place I’d been going before I was caught by the bandit group. Convenient.

“Why the hell would we go to Umbriel?” I asked, trying to make it seem as far from my original objective as possible. I may have ended up as a part of this group, but that would change sometime. I never actually planned to stick with them.

“It’s where the rest of us are.” He replied patiently, “Thought you’d be at least smart enough to know it wasn’t just four men ambushing you pointlessly.”

I frowned. So, they weren’t working alone. It made me wonder just how big of an organization these three bandits were part of. And how high up Vargos truly was in the ranks. If he wasn’t as important as he acted, it may have been even more of a mistake to get myself involved this way. I had plenty of time to dwell on those thoughts as we walked towards the shape in the distance that was a city.