We watched in disbelief as it rolled to the ground, not making it far, but still, it rolled.

  "Dad!" Abigail shrieked as she managed to get out of grasp.

  She looked over the body, trying her best to do something, to heal in any way she could.

  At this point, she was frantically doing anything.

  Olfen chuckled as they crouched beside her, "Your father's death. I killed right in front of you, and you were powerless to do anything."

  He lifted her chin to look at him, and all we could see were the tears that streamed down her face, dropping to the ground.

  Abagail quickly spit on his face, but that only resulted in her punch to the stomach.

  "Damn you!"

  "Make another move, and I'll ensure she joins her father."

  His sword was aimed at her neck.

  Yet again, I was powerless to do anything about my current situation.

  One wrong move, and she, too, would be dead.

  While everything was happening, a hum pierced through the tension in the air.

  "What is that noise," Louis asked in confusion as the hum grew louder and louder.

  It was then clear where it was coming from the dungeon.

  As the hum got louder and louder, at its very peak, it stopped, just like that.

  Nothing more or nothing less.

  Where did that sound go to one?

  We all waited patiently to see what was coming here.

  The bandits had their swords ready for whatever was to come.

  It was then we finally saw the figure; he arrived,

  Lenin arrived.

  That usual smirk was on his face as he looked at his surroundings. There was a slight hint of disappointment, having to see a head on the ground, but he quickly gained his composure.

  "All of this for me?" He chuckled, pointing at himself.

  Olfen is cocky as ever, pointing his sword at him.

  I knew this would end well for any of them associated with Olfen.

  I felt relieved in an instant.

  Olfen scoffed, "Who even are you."

  Lenin tilted his head as he began to laugh loudly to himself.

  Louis looked at me as if we were witnessing a manic at work.

  But that laughter soon died out as I gazed directly at Olfen.

  "Well, you're about to find out."

  ZAC

  What had felt like minutes felt like hours.

  Scratch that; it felt like we had been waiting for years outside the bandit camp doing nothing.

  I wasn't sure what was happening there, but I knew that whatever Lenin was doing took a while.

  I slumped myself onto the ground as I looked up in the sky.

  So many things happened to me, and I never thought I would end up in this situation.

  I never thought I would do anything remotely like this, but here we are now.

  "Hey, how are you feeling?" Louis sat beside me.

  I sighed, trying to smile for him, "Doing the best that I can."

  He nodded, "That's good enough." Louis, too, looked up into the sky to see the birds flocking in the air.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  If only we could become those birds, free from the problems of our everyday world, that would be great.

  But it wasn't for people like us.

  "That Lenin, guy, should we have left with all of them?"

  Louis's face was etched with concern. Seeing someone who had no idea what Lenin could do was funny.

  I nodded lightly, "Trust me, we're doing him a favour by leaving when he told us to."

  Louis felt slightly relieved after hearing that as his eyes drifted to another person.

  More specifically, Abigail.

  She had been quiet this whole and seemed utterly defeated.

  Her mind wandered off to a prison of her own.

  We could not do anything for her now, even if I wanted to.

  It would be better to leave people alone in situations like these.

  "I'm surprised we managed to pull her out of the camp," Louis muttered as we watched Abigail look motionlessly as ever.

  "Yeah. . . Thanks to Aron, we were able to leave in time."

  All I could do was watch from afar.

  To think that she had to witness the death of her father was already hard enough, but to have to move away from the place that she had known for her whole life was another.

  I knew that I wouldn't be strong enough to handle what she was going through now; all I could do was watch in sorrow.

  "Sir." Aron declared as he saluted me, "What should we do now?"

  Louis and I exchanged looks. I could see that Louis was doing his best to contain his laughter.

  He wasn't helping in the slightest with that.

  I chuckled lightly at Aron, "You don't have to call me that; just call me by my name." I waved my hand in dismissal.

  He titled his head, "Are you sure?"

  I nodded in confirmation, "Yeah, of course, it's a bit weird having someone call me that." I looked at the ground, "I'm nowhere near that level to be called quite yet."

  Aron saluted once more at me, "As you wish, Zac. But until you're ready, I'll call you Sir again."

  He left us to our accords.

  "He's an interesting fellow, huh? For a bandit, he doesn't seem like a je-"

  "Jerk?" I questioned him as he nodded.

  "I thought that as well, but he seems to be much different than the others."

  WHOOSH!

  We all jumped to our feet, alerted by the noise the bushes were making.

  I clenched my sword, ready to battle whatever was coming my way alongside Louis and Aron.

  However, Abigail had the slightest care in the world as she continued to look down at the ground in defeat.

  Nothing would make her relax, so we prepared for the worst scenario.

  Thankfully, that wasn't the case this time.

  "Lower your swords." He chuckled, raising his hands jokingly in surrender, "I'm not the enemy here."

  I sighed a breath of relief as Lenin came walking over to us.

  I reassured Louis and Aron, who also reluctantly lowered their swords.

  To everyone's surprise, except mine, he appeared to leave that camp without a scratch. I was expecting blood, but not a single drop of blood was painted on his clothing.

  It was just his unwavering smile that reached us.

  But that wasn't the only thing that surprised me today. Soon, loud, bustling noises could be heard coming from behind him.

  As I squinted my eyes, I noticed the crowds of people that followed behind me, old and young, talking to one another, those who were like us, trapped in the bandit camps.

  "Is it just me, or there's way more of them than before?" Louis muttered in awe at the number of people arriving.

  I nodded slowly, "You're not wrong with that."

  Lenin patted us both on the shoulder as he walked away.

  "Wait!"

  I was surprised that it was Louis who called out to him.

  "Yes, uh. . . What's your name?" Lenin smiled, looking over his shoulder.

  He cleared his throat, smiling, "Louis, I just wanted to ask a question."

  Lenin nodded.

  "Back at the camps, when you were with Olfen.

  Lenin tilted his head, smiling, "Who's Olfen again?"

  Louis gave Lenin a blank stare; his surprise was evident all over his face.

  I wouldn't have been surprised if Lenin didn't recognise them.

  "He was the leader," I added, but I knew that wouldn't be enough for him to know who we talked about.

  "The one bandit who talks a lot."

  A spark of recognition appeared in his eyes, "Ah yes! Him. . . He was interesting, to say the least, but what about him?"

  "He had hundreds of bandits in support with him, and to see you without a scratch is strange. . . Did you kill all of them?"

  Louis asked the question that the people around me desperately wanted to know.

  I was curious to know if he had done it all alone.

  Lenin continued looking over his shoulder. He didn't say any words that confirmed this, but it was written on his face.

  A large smirk that was enough to know that he did it all by himself.

  "Come on, guy, let's start going!" He chuckled lightly as he touched his stomach, "I'm super hungry! We should get there as soon as possible, onwards!"

  He left with a chuckle as we watched him from afar.

  "So that's your leader?"

  "Yes."

  "He's. . . Pretty interesting." Louis muttered.

  "Tell me about it." I smiled as I placed my hand on his shoulder. "But trust me when I say He's the best leader."

  That was enough to put a comforting smile on Louis's face as he watched the crowd follow him.

  "So. . . What is he going to do with all of these people?"

  "That." I tapped my chin, "I have no idea." I sighed.

  Seriously, what was he going to do with all of these people?

  There were hundreds of them, and they were following Lenin to our village.

  The traffic would be insane; having them here would create more problems than solutions.

  "We should probably get going, no?" Louis asked.

  I nodded, "Yeah, we should; you should head off first."

  Louis was about to question me but stopped, knowing what I had done before.

  He silently nodded, leaving me to do what I had to do.

  "How is she doing?" I asked Aron, who was trying to do his best to take care of her.

  "Not good," he commented. I've never seen her like this, so broken and shattered."

  As I mentioned before, it's not every day that you get to have front seats to your father's death.

  "Help me with getting her up."

  Aron nodded as we lifted her back up. She was still so motionless, almost as if she were lighter than a feather.

  The hurt with her was latching onto me; I couldn't help but feel bad for her because who wouldn't?

  We continued walking with her, and it looked like her mind was wandering to many places I could not reach.

  The question was now, how would I help her out of the space?