Ferra lay on the chopping block awaiting her fate. She turned her head to look at Blight, watching him intently. Blight took a second to revel in the moment before grabbing a large two-handed sword that was previously resting on the ground next to his chair. He glanced over at Clyde and chuckled to himself as he watched the boy desperately struggle against his restraints. Pitiful, Blight thought to himself before standing up and slowly walking over to Ferra who was calmly waiting. Blight casually stood above her, sword in hand.

  “Any last words, half-elf?” He asked, his voice filled with spite.

  Ferra remained stoically silent. Blight snorted and spit on the ground.

  “Hmph, nothing to say? That’s probably for the best. I wouldn’t want to waste my time listening to your worthless words anyways!” Blight smirked sinisterly and raised his sword. “Don’t turn away, boy!” Blight said turning his glance towards Clyde. “Watch! Watch and remember this moment. Don’t fail me again!” Blight turned his eyes back to Ferra and prepared to strike.

  Blight firmly planted his feet and brought his sword down with ferocious force. Clyde stopped fighting against his restraints and tightly closed his eyes. He anxiously waited to hear the crunching and squishing sound of Blight’s blade slicing through Ferra’s neck. However, when Blight’s sword came down, the only sound Clyde heard was the dull thud of steel getting stuck in wood. Clyde quickly opened his eyes and frantically glanced around to see what happened. He saw Blight standing over the chopping block loudly swearing as he tried to dislodge his sword from the wood. Clyde then noticed that he could not see Ferra and saw that the Ruffians were looking and running around trying to locate her. As Clyde continued to look around, he heard a voice whispering to him from behind. Though initially panicked, Clyde quickly calmed down after he recognized the voice.

  “Hey, come on. I’ll cut you free.” The voice whispered in his ear.

  “Ferra?” Clyde whispered puzzlingly.

  “Who else? There you go.”

  Clyde felt his restraints loosen and turned around to look at Ferra, but to his surprise no one was there.

  “What! Where’d you go?”

  “I’m right here,” Ferra replied. She was so close that Clyde could feell her breath on his cheek.

  “How are you…”

  “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, we need to go before they notice you’re untied. Do you know how to use one of these?”

  Clyde watched as a thunder fist seemed to materialize in front of him. “Yeah, a little,” he replied taking the weapon. “What did you have in mind?”

  “You see those barrels over there?” Ferra asked, using her hand to gently turn Clyde’s head in the direction of the barrels. “They have the Dwarven rune for explosive carved into them. I’ve seen runes like that used by Dwarven traders that used to come through the village. If I had to guess, I’d say those barrels contain the powder the Ruffians use for their weapons.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re right,” Clyde said, starring at the barrels. “And if I shoot them with this thunder fist they should explode.”

  “That’s the idea,” Ferra replied. “Then we can use the chaos caused by that explosion to get out of here.”

  “Okay! Well then, here goes nothing!” Clyde aimed the thunder fist at the barrels and focused his breathing, preparing to take the shot.

  ***

  “Argh!” Blight yelled out, finally dislodging his sword from the chopping block. “Where’s that half-elf!” Blight angrily looked around until he noticed Clyde aiming the thunder fist. “Hey you idiots! Over there!” Blight yelled at his men, pointing his sword towards Clyde.

  The Ruffians suddenly all turned to face Clyde’s location. They clenched their weapons, snarled, and began rushing Clyde’s position.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Now Clyde! Take the shot!” Ferra frantically yelled.

  As the Ruffians quickly descended upon Clyde, he took one last deep breath and fired his thunder fist. The recoil of the weapon knocked him back into Ferra, and as they both rolled across the ground, she became visible again.

  The blast from the thunder fist tore through several Ruffians on its way to the barrels, leaving many of them either missing limbs or with large holes in their abdomens. The shot rang true and hit a barrel dead center, resulting in a massive explosion causing a chain reaction that detonated the remaining barrels. Blight was violently thrown off his platform and those Ruffians nearest the barrels were vaporized into a mist that was now raining down, drenching the village. As Clyde and Ferra lay on the ground covering their heads and slowly regaining their hearing, they began to hear the screams and gurgles of the dozens of dying and maimed Ruffians. After lying still for a moment and recovering their senses, Clyde slowly got to his feet and helped Ferra up.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Clyde said after picking the thunder fist up off the ground.

  “Sounds good,” Ferra replied, wiping the bloody mist off her face.

  As they left the village, they noticed a few of the Ruffians’ horses wandering around a field. Clyde walked over to one, slowly raised his hand, and after the horse accepted his touch, Clyde gently patted its neck. He then led to horse to Ferra.

  “Can you ride?”

  Ferra nodded and then climbed on the horse. Clyde joined her and they rode off heading South, in search of a peaceful town.

  ***

  After riding for a few hours, the sun began to set.

  “We should stop here for the night. I’ll get a fire going,” Clyde said, bringing the horse to a stop.

  “What about the Ruffians?” Ferra asked. “Aren’t you worried that they are searching for us?”

  “Don’t worry,” Clyde reassured her with a grin. “It’ll take them a while to recover and get everything back in order. They won’t send out a search party until then. We should be able to rest until dawn without worry.”

  “Okay,” Ferra said, smiling back at him. She then led the horse over to a tree and tied its lead up around the base. Ferra sat on the ground trying to get comfortable as Clyde made a fire.

  ***

  “So,” Clyde began after they had sat around the fire in silence for a while. “Are we going to talk about you turning invisible?”

  Ferra sat still and did not answer for a while. When she finally did, she sounded both tired and confused. “I’m not sure there’s much to talk about. I don’t know how I did it, it’s just something that’s happened to me randomly over the past few years.”

  “Do you think it has anything to do with you being half-elf?”

  “I don’t know!” Ferra responded, noticeably agitated. “I’ve never talked to anyone about it before. You’re the first person to know about it.”

  “Oh,” Clyde responded, trying to think of something to say. “Well, I’m just glad we we’re about to escape. Let’s try to get some sleep. I don’t know how long we will be riding for tomorrow.

  “Okay,” Ferra responded before lying down.

  ***

  They awoke as the sun peaked over the horizon, neither of them having got much sleep. Clyde smothered the few coals that remained from their fire as Ferra untied their horse. After they both mounted their stead, they continued riding South, in search of salvation.

  After riding for several hours, it was already past noon and both of them had started to lose hope that they would find a town before the sun set. Then suddenly, they noticed a wagon approaching them. As the wagon got closer, Clyde and Ferra waved the driver down.

  “Hey! Hey, can you help us?” They both asked waving their arms.

  The wagon driver pulled up beside their horse, removed his cap, and wiped the sweat from his brow. They noticed that he was a middle-aged balding human who – by his clothes and the contents of his wagon – they could tell was a farmer.

  “Howdy,” the farmer greeted them with a friendly grin, revealing all his missing teeth. “I’m Stuart, but you can call me Stu. What are you two doing out here on your own?”

  “We’re trying to find the nearest town,” Clyde responded.

  “Do you know where that’s at?” Ferra asked.

  “Oh, that would be Ve’rié. It’s about an hour ride from here if you keep following the road South.”

  “Thank you,” Clyde said. He then clicked his tongue, and the horse began to trot down the road.

  “Be safe,” Stuart called out after them. “There are plenty of Ruffians patrolling these roads.”

  “We will!” Clyde yelled back.

  As they rode away, a tear rolled down Ferra’s cheek.

  ***

  After riding for a little over an hour, the sun was beginning to get low in the sky. They rode over a hill, and that is when they saw the vibrant and sprawling city of Ve’rié, the self-titled “Free City.”

  “Hey, Ferra! Look! That’s the town that old man told us about.”

  “Finally!” Ferra said, leaning around Clyde to get a look at the town. “I could really use a soft bed and a good meal, and you could definitely use a bath!”

  Clyde gave her an annoyed look before nudging the horse with his heel.