Moon's lie

First Deed

"Sister?" Alon asked the boy in surprise.

The boy was pointing at the cage filled with about ten girls. His finger was pointed at the girl at the very back. She was sitting in the cage with eyes vacant of hope. Her face did not match that of a child, no, not even adults would wear such an expression on their face.

Tears began to fill the boy's eyes, but before any sound could leave his mouth, Alon covered his mouth with his hand. Still, some sobs managed to escape.

He looked at the pack moving farther and farther and only removed his hand after the pack was quite a distance away from them.

The boy was now trying his hardest to stop himself from crying while looking at the disappearing cage. Alon tried to console him but the boy's tears kept falling no matter how hard he tried. After holding back for a minute or so, he burst into tears and buried his face into Alon.

Alon sat down and put the boy in his lap and started to stroke his hair and in between his sobs, he fell asleep.

Alon was now looking at the child. He felt sorry for the child, but he knew if he had acted before, he would not have been able to protect the boy and secure the girls simultaneously.

He still wanted to help the child though. He made up his mind.

******************************************************

After sleeping for about an hour the boy woke up.

The boy looked around and found that he was alone, Alon had left.

He looked for Alon but couldn't find him. After searching some more he gave up and returned to where he and Alon had hidden before.

On the ground, there were words engraved. 

The boy looked at the letters and tears once again filled his eyes.

"B...But I can't read."

The boy said between his sobs as he started to cry once again.

*******************************************************

Alon was running through the forest, following the trail left behind by the bandits. He was running at an incredible speed.

"He must have woken up by now."

Alon said to himself while running. Though he had been running for an hour now that too at such speed, his breathing was still incredibly calm.

The fatigue from before could no longer be traced on his face.

He knew that he had grown strong in the past three years, but he didn't know how he would fare against the experts of this world, so he decided to make his every move cautiously while still doing what he wanted to in the end.

In simple words, he decided to be cautiously reckless.

Moon had told him that his physical body had reached a level where it could not be honed further, at least not with common methods and that now he had to decide what path he would tread on.

Remembering Moon's words Alon started to circulate energy within his body, concentrating it in his legs, and dashed forward with an incredible burst.

His already incredible speed, with the sudden burst, was so fast that Alon could feel himself breaking past the sound barrier. After a couple more bursts he stopped and returned to his 'normal' pace.

"This is still my limit it seems," Alon said in a dejected voice. Though he had achieved such an incredible speed, he was still unhappy.

He continued to move at the same speed with occasional tries to increase his speed further.

Wherever he passed by his speed would create strong gusts of wind. The winds were strong enough that they even uprooted some trees along the way.

"There's too much resistance," Alon said unhappily as he looked at the strong gusts he created.

"I'm still a long way from understanding even the rudimentary laws of wind."

Before he could dwell further on how to improve his speed further, the back of the bandits' pack was now in view, and so was the cage.

Alon had decided to make his move before the bandits reached their base; he knew he would only have a chance at succeeding then.

He reached into his pocket pulling out his handkerchief and covered his face. He could not allow himself to fall into a situation where if he failed here somehow, he would end up being chased.

Too much was riding on his survival, so he couldn't be too reckless with his actions.

He made a swift dash and appeared right behind the cage and continued running while keeping his head low.

The girl at the very end of the cage looked up and her eyes widened from shock.

Alon place his index finger on his lips and said in a low voice, "Tell the other girls to hold onto the bars of the cage, hurry!"

The girl must have thought that she was hallucinating as she rubbed her eyes violently a couple of times.

"Hurry up," Alon added urgently.

The girl finally acted hearing the urgency in his voice and passed on the message to the other girls. In the next moment, all the girls had tightly held onto the bars without causing any unnecessary commotion.

'What smart children.' Alon thought to himself while looking at the swift action taken by the girls.

The bandits on the two horses pulling the cage noticed the girls' behavior and scoffed.

Just as they were about to turn their heads back around, a chill went down their spine. He saw a figure running behind the cage. Before he could confirm what he saw, even before he could alarm the other bandits, the wheeled cage came to a halt.

The horses pulling it were flung into the air along with the bandits.  A cloud of dust rose by the fall of the two horses, intercepting the vision of the bandits in the front.

The girls were still tightly holding onto the bars.

Alon, now on top of the cage looked down at the girls holding on with all their might.

Looking at their tethered clothing and eyes that should not belong to a child, anger rose in Alon's heart.

He looked back at all the bandits that were now looking in his direction with cold, murderous eyes.

He landed from the cage and walked toward the collapsed bandits. He knelt down beside them, pulled out their sword attached to their waist, wielding one in each hand.

And said in a comforting voice, "Girls, close your eyes for a bit, it'll be over soon."

Just as he finished his words, he shoved his swords into collapsed bandits' throats.