Chapter 7: The Plan

Vanessa rushes into the forest, sweat all over her face, as tears run down her cheeks as the forest was all around dark, she quickly reaches the tree with the secret ladder up, Jessica already saw her coming, and threw the ladder down, ‘what is going on?’, Vanessa rushed upstairs, she explained what just happened, and that her home was totally destroyed, Jessica told her she was following the bandits for a while now, she noticed they moved around the forest pretty often, but never actually went to the village until now, she also tells Vanessa she knows where their hideout is at, they could attempt to safe Maria, but this would need a good plan, Vanessa looked very worried about her mother, ‘if she would die before I can make it up with her since the last time we talked, I would never forgive my self’, Jessica did not hear what Vanessa just said as she points out of the camouflaged window, ‘Look there!’, a few men were walking around the forest near the tree with the treehouse, one was holding a torch, while the other was holding his sword out, as quick as they appeared they disappeared into the forest out of sight of the treehouse.

Vanessa looks at Jessica, ‘we should ask the village guards for help, we can not take on that many men on our own, especially when having a hostage’, Jessica nodded, as both of them made sure nobody was around the tree, they would go down the ladder, hiding the ladder within the leaves on the side of the tree, before rushing to their home, they could see multiple people rushing from the nearby water well to the house to try put out the fire, the fire was quickly put out as multiple guards arrived, after the house got secured that it was safe from fire, but clearly was not liveable anymore, most furniture was burned, the stairs and kitchen were destroyed, going up the stairs would probably make you fall to your death if anything breaks one of the guards instantly recognized Vanessa, ‘Oh! There you are, I am so glad you are okay! Wait for a second.. where is Maria?’, Vanessa looked down not replying for a moment, as Jessica sets a step forward toward him, ‘she got kidnapped, by the bandits in the forest, I know where their hideout is at, but they are with a lot, they want a high amount of resources in return for her life’, the guard looked at Jessica, ‘you seem to know very much about this situation, who are you? I have not seen you before in this village’, Jessica looks at him straight into his eyes, ‘I am Jessica, but we have no time to discuss this, they could be torturing her by now!’, he nodded, ‘well, I guess you could be right at that, but there is not much we can do right away, we need a plan, also my name is Dean, I am the head guard of this village’, for guards they mostly looked like normal people with some armor and weapons, almost like bandits but more washed, and more expensive armor, then regular bandits or people mostly have.

Without saying another word to Jessica, Dean started yelling at a fellow guard, ‘Get the other men! We are going bandit hunting tonight!’, without any argument, the man runs off quickly into the other part of the village, within the next twenty minutes there were around twenty men, the head guard Dean, Jessica, and Vanessa.

Jessica took a map from her side pocket, it was a map of the whole forest, she explained quickly that she made it since she basically lived in the forest, she knew any place on it, and she would notice almost instantly if anything on the map had changed, like the bandits moving around, leaving destruction all around the forest, but also they made their base at the forest, which gave them the chance of going in without them getting to fight back with a lot of force, depending on when they attacked them.

Vanessa, head guard Dean, and the other twenty men all followed Jessica, as she suddenly stops, she quickly whispers, ‘in the bushes!’, as all the men and Vanessa jump into the bushes, as one of the bandits passes the bushes, he looks around him, as they all could hear him mumble, ‘Stupid forest critters, urgh’, as he looks more around him, he was holding a torch in his left hand, he would notice something from one of the bushes, ‘wait you are not a critter-‘, without any hesitation Jessica grabbed the man from behind, as she pressed a knife at his throat, pulling him to the ground, ‘make any noise and I will kill you’, she whispers to the bandit laying on the ground in front of her.

To Be Continued.