Groggily, I woke up. But something didn’t feel right.

My eyes were open but everything was black. My body felt heavy and numb. This wasn’t normal. I should be in bed in the forest cottage. Testing my fingers, they wiggled weakly and I could feel the hard press of ropes on my wrists and ankles.

What the hell happened?

My mouth was gagged and all I could say were grunts of pain. A body rolled next to me and bumped into me. Maybe that was Oda, but I had no way of knowing for sure.

I heard the sound of footsteps coming towards us and I stilled my body pretending to still be asleep.

“How much do you think we’ll get for these two?” a gruff voice asked as he kicked the person next to me. They didn’t let out a grunt of pain, so they still must be unconscious.

“Not sure how much we’ll get for the scrawny boy, but people usually pay good money for girls,” another voice answered.

It took all of my patience and control to not hiss in anger.

They continued with their conversation, “Well, at least we know that the holy knights will pay us well for the half-demon we caught the other day.”

“Speaking of which, don’t you need to give him another dose of sedatives? It’d be bad for us if he woke up,” the first voice ordered.

“Yeah, you’re right. It was a pain to capture him in the first place. I’m sure the Paladin will be happy to have him returned to her”.

With that, they both walked away from us and I heard a door close and lock.

From their conversation, it seems they didn’t realize Oda and I were half-demons. But why were they kidnapping people? Were they intending to sell us on the black market?

I quietly struggled to get out of my restraints and with a bit of brute strength, I was able to rip the rope apart. Removing the gag and blindfold, I was able to see that I was in a small room and around me on the ground were other people who were restrained like I was. As I suspected, Oda was next to me and I prodded him awake.

He was groggy and with a finger to my lips, he understood that he had to be quiet. Quickly, I freed Oda from his restraints while explaining what I had learned about our situation and we carefully walked towards the locked door.

There was a small window we could look through and it seemed like there wasn’t anyone around. Suddenly the floor jerked and it sent us sideways. I caught myself with a hand on the wall but Oda wasn’t as fortunate. He fell onto a person and woke them up. The person started to struggle but I quickly elbowed their head knocking them back to unconsciousness.

“Was that necessary?” Oda asked me incredulously.

“Oh, so you want the kidnappers to come back here due to the commotion?” I sarcastically replied.

Oda hung his head and said no.

Speculating out loud, I said, “We must be in some sort of vehicle. But what kind of shady group would have one? How would they get past security checkpoints with all these kidnapped people?”

I looked at Oda, “And how exactly did we get into this situation huh?”

Oda looked at me with a fearful expression. He tried to come up with something, but now wasn’t the time for arguments. We had to find a way out and then I could slap some sense into his empty head.

“What if we create a distraction?” Oda suggested.

“Like?”

“Well, didn’t you say they captured a half-demon? What if we freed him and let him run amok. During the chaos, we could escape!” Oda schemed.

“That’s the first smart thing you’ve suggested. I’m impressed,” I said. “But we don’t know where he’s locked up. Not to mention we don’t know what kind of condition he's in. He could be in a drug-induced coma for all we know”.

“But we won’t know unless we try right? And it’s better than staying in this room”.

“Fine. If I were them, I’d keep him under surveillance. So we should look for a place that is guarded,” I said.

Oda nodded in agreement, “Okay sounds fine. But what are we going to do about the locked door?”

“Well, if I didn’t lose my bag, I could have picked the lock,” I snapped out angrily. All the food and items I had procured were all gone. All that hard work for nothing. “I’m assuming you don’t have your daggers on you?”

Oda shook his head, “They’re called baghnakhs actually. And no, they seemed to have taken them from me”.

I sighed. Looking around at the other unconscious people, I told Oda to help me search them for bobby pins or any other type of slim metal. So together we rummaged through their clothing and hair. Finally, I found a few bobby pins from a young woman who was off to the side of the small darkroom.

I was surprised to notice that she was fairly well dressed for a captive. Maybe she was some noble’s daughter and was kidnapped to be sold in the black market. Well, her fate wasn’t much of my concern. And if we made a break for it, I’m sure everyone here could find a way out too.

Bobby pins in hand, I crouched next to the door while I had Oda make sure no guards were coming. With a small successful click, the door was unlocked. Oda quietly cheered and I pocketed the bobby pins.

I stuck my head out and looked in both directions of the hallway. There was a door opposite of us and it seemed like the left passage led to a dead end. Along the hallway, light crystals were held in place by metal grates and gently illuminated the passageway.

“Where do you think they put my weapons?” Oda whispered as he looked through the windows of each door we passed.

“Not sure, but we don’t exactly have the time to go look for them room by room,” I replied as he started to open a door. I was going to tell him to stop but I saw that the room was filled with storage chests and no one was nearby.

I quickly followed him into the room and closed the door behind us. Oda quickly went through the chests one by one looking for his weapons. Since we were here, it wouldn’t hurt to see if my bag was here as well. Thankfully, I found it stuffed away in the corner of the room and I quickly rummaged through it to make sure all my things were still inside.

Nodding my head, I tied my bag and secured it to my person. Hearing a cheer, I saw that Oda had found his weapons.

“Yay! Now let’s find that half-demon!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can't wait for the next chapter?

Become my patron for as low as $1 a month to gain exclusive sneak peeks and early access chapters! Chapters will be released early on Tuesdays for patrons.

www.patreon.com/FaerieWarrior