Kingdom Fallen

Volume 1 Part 10: Abducted

The noise from the parade seemed to have calmed down and was instead replace once more with the joyous drunken celebration of the townsfolk

"Sounds like the parade is over," Bethany said

"So, what do we do now?" I asked

"I don't know about you, but I could go for some snacks," she suggested

"Juneberries?" I asked excitedly

"Sure, let's go," she said before we went back down into the crowd.

As we made our way through the crowd, I could almost see the juneberry stand. I continued to push through the crowd smiling widely as I smelled the delicious smell of freshly picked juneberries

"Yes Bethany, we made it ," I said stopping at the Juneberry stand before I noticed something. Bethany had been trailing behind me since we had left the roof, but now she was nowhere to be seen.

"Bethany?" I said finally make note of her absence. I turned around and realized that I had lost her in the crowd of people.

"Bethany!" I called out, but got no response

"Bethany, are you hearing me?!" I hollered as I made my way back into the crowd

"Bethany!!" I called out, but once again got no response

Then suddenly I felt someone's hand tap on my shoulder, thinking it might be Bethany I quickly turned around with a relieved smile, but it wasn't her. It was a pregnant woman in her mid-twenties with a newborn baby in one of her hands and a child about the same age as me holding on to her other. Her husband, a middle-aged man stood behind her

"Oh, my little boy, are you okay?" she asked concerned

"Yes ma'am," I respectfully said

"Why you running up and down like a crazy person?" her son bluntly said with his finger stuck up his nose

"Billy, that is not nice," his mom said smacking him upside his head

"Ow mom," he whined

"Pardon my son. Are you lost sweetie?" the woman asked me

"No, I'm not lost. I'm looking for Bethany," I said and her husband immediately looked away and avoided eye-contact

"Bethany? I'm not quite sure I know who that is," the woman said

"Mommy, that's the pretty barmaid from the tavern daddy always goes to after work," Billy said getting a silent glare from his father demanding that shut up

"Oh really," she said giving her husband the side-eye, but the man continued to look away guiltily

"Do you know where she went?" I asked

"No, but I saw Daddy looking at her in the crowd when he thinks you're not looking" the kid said as cold sweats began running down the man's face

"Really now?" the wife said with an ominous tone

"I don't know what the kid is talking about. It's just rambling," he made an excuse

"No, daddy I saw you staring at her,"

"Mister, this is really important. So please let me know if you saw her," I pled before he let out a sigh

"Yeah, I saw her being led away by two men," the husband said

"Two men?" I questioned

"Yeah," he confirmed

"Did you happen to see where they went?" I asked

"Listen kid, I don't know if you should be getting involved in this. Those guys don't exactly seem like the friendliest characters," he said

"All the more reason that I have to go," I said

"They went that way through back alleys," he said

"Thank you," I said turning and vanishing into the crowd.

Due the urgency of the situation I paid little attention to the people surrounding me, I bounced into a few, jumped over quite a few and swerved around others in a maniac dash to head towards the alleys. Due the banquet even with my skills in tracking it would have been next to impossible to find her so I had no choice, but to lift the cloth from my eye as soon as I was away from the crowd.

Now with the specialized vision I could see everything. Even in the dead night my golden eye could see perfectly yet there appeared to be no clues. I was frantic, but just as I was about to freak, I remembered what Mister had told me. I stopped and closed my eyes. I quickly gathered my thoughts and took a deep breath.

"There's no use freaking out. I need to focus," I said snapping my eyes open. I looked around again, this time I noticed something strange. A puddle, so miniscule that it could easily be overlooked. I moved over to it and nipped a finger in it

"It's beer," I said before looking at the puddle. It had a few smaller droplets leading down a pathway.

"It's this way," I said rushing down the way. As I continued down the path I saw a piece of cloth. I felt the fabric and it was clearly from her dress. I was obviously going the right way, but had no way of knowing where else to go

"HELP! HELP ME!!" a loud shout was heard

"Bethany,!" I jumped up dashing into the direction the sound came from. Soon a figure started to come into view. A long distance down where most wouldn't be able to make out shadows were two men. One of the men held her tightly whilst the other prepared a bag. Given the distance it would take too long if I were to run so I decided to use the smarter tactic

I took the bow and tried to notch the arrow, I stared down the alley and copied Mister's stance, even down to his breathing as I slowly raised the bow. This was to be my first time firing an arrow at any target, much less a moving and living one. I took a deep breath to calm myself down before I locked unto a target and released.

Despite using the same stance, this attack was way less powerful, however it still tore through the sky rapidly approaching the man preparing the bag before shooting straight through his hand forcing him to drop the bag and let out a painfilled cry

"AAAHHHHH!!!!!!"