Chapter 4 Trespasser

The two traveled to the nearest town to find a horse. Amara wonders how they will be able to get one, but she lets Radley take incharge.  Maybe he has some money to buy a horse. She shrugged at het thoughts.

There are a lot of people in the town. Seems like there is a festival going on. She swears she heard Radley say it's perfect timing. She wonders why his master told that. “Now I call him master, urgh!”   Amara shivered at the thought.

“Wait here.” Radley whispered to her.

She checks the place where Radley left her. It is near a horse stable. The owner seems to rent out his horses to the people. She saw Radley having a conversation with a fat small man, around 60’s. Amara concluded that it was the owner, since Radley came back holding a fine looking horse.

“How did you manage to get that?”  she amusedly asked.

“Communication, your majesty.” he proudly said.

Amara rolled her eyes which made Radley laugh a bit.

“Well, you have to learn how to play with people's emotions and mind if you want to survive my dear.”  Radley explained. “Basically , we are stealing this horse, without the owner’s knowing.” 

“Yes, but how? I want to know how.” 

“Well, I told the owner that we are from the north. And we all know that in the north there are plenty of magical creatures who are guarding gold. I just told him to lend one of his finest horses and I will come back with the payment. I pointed you out to him. I said you had the gold. Now look at our back princess. Is he looking?”

“Ah…yes..” Amara worriedly said.

“Well, hope on the horse princess.” Upon saying that, Radley assisted Amara to get on the horse. He jumped right after Amara. “Now look at our back, does the owner look a little alarmed?” he asked.

“Ah…yes?” confused response of Amara.

“ Cool. Now hiya!” Radley quickly yells at the horse. The horse started running so fast. Amara heard the owner of the horse shout.

“Thieves!”

Shocked people quickly ran out of the way. Amara feared that they might hit bystanders or people walking on the street. She looked at Radley who seemed to not have any fear. He just continued to maneuver the horse.

“One rule when you steal,” She heard Radley say. “ never stop! Hiya!”

Amara just closed her eyes. They are near the gate, heading out of the town. She knew that once they come out, nobody will dare to follow. People in this town know that when you take that road, you will find death. And they cannot even come back to this town if ever, they’ll be in jailed and tortured.

“Do not close your eyes Amara.” Radley instructed Amara to just open her eyes and see what was happening. She has to be brave.

Amara opened her eyes. She saw two guards at the gate trying to stop them. But since the gate was just an open one without anything to block the way, Radley just continued and even made the horse run faster as it could.

The next thing Amara sees are guards jumping out of the horse way. They seem to know that there is no way the two of them will stop.

Successfully, they got out of the town. The people there were staring at them. Some just shook their heads, some looked at them with anger and some just laughed thinking we are not in our right mind and that we will soon die.

We took one last glance at that town, and then Radley instructed the horse to take the way to Adoran. It will be a long journey for sure.

The sun nearly sets and the two travelers feel tired and hungry. However, they cannot stop since they are in an unfamiliar place. They still have 3 days left before reaching their destination.

“Once we see a place that seems safe, then we will take a halt and rest. We have to search for food too.” Radley broke up the silence.

“Well, we should have stolen food as well.” She said,

“Well you should have done that rather than waiting in the corner silly princess.” Radley teasingly said.

“You told me to wait!” Amara replied. Annoyance was visible in her tone.

“Just joking,”  Radley tried his best to hide his laughter. “We don't have time to steal food. Besides, I heard that there are plenty of fruit bearing trees on this road. Since people do not go here, they said there is a paradise growing somewhere on this road.”

“That’s just a myth.” Amara concluded.

“Well, myth or not, we will surely discover it. But I do believe it. Since nobody ever dared to go here than those suicidal people, there is a posibility that forest here were left untouched.. Some call it a paradise before hell.” 

“Is that…what we are talking about…” Amara wisphered in disbelief.

She was pointing out a forest where a lot of fruit bearing trees,from apples to mangoes, are visible to the naked eye.

“See… I knew it! I told you it was real.” Radley said in such happiness.”Now let's go there and eat and might as well spend the night there and continue traveling tomorrow, before the sunrise.” He added.

The two headed out to the forest. They can smell the sweet fragrance of the air coming from the forest. It’s alluring.

They successfully entered the forest but since it’s almost sunset, the forest becomes dimmer. Radly halted the horse and got off it. Then she assisted Amara. RAdley continued walking while holding the horse’s leash. Amara followed him. All of a sudden, an arrow passed by right in the horse front and hit a truck. The horse was startled and Radley almost got the horse out of control since he also sheltered Amara on his arm and guided her to kneel. Gladly, the horse calmed down after a while

“Hold this.” Radly instructed Amara to hold the lead rope.”I will check who attacked us.” After saying that, Radly tried to walk from where the arrow came from but before he could take a step, a man showed up. He immediately gets back to Amara and hides her behind his back.

“Trespasser!”