The Story Of Dusk

He had made too many mistakes in the past that he couldn"t even count again, but absolutely, helping Senja wouldn"t amend his sins, even so, he still wanted to set everything right.

At least there wouldn"t any more blood that spilled because of him and atop of anything else, he had promised to the little girl to bring her to the next village.

With that thought, he used all of the resources that he had and tracked down those bandits whereabouts.

It wasn"t an easy feat, but in the end he found their traces.

The night had turned dark without the moon on the sky, even the stars refused to shine tonight, giving Gong Xu another difficulties, as if he had not had enough of it.

Gong Xu tracked them until the deserted place, where rocks were surrounding them and the dust lingered in the air.

He frowned, because this road wasn"t the path that one would take if they were about to come to M city district 10, the location of Black Sword Clan.

Before those bandits said that it was w.a.n.g Yu, Senja"s father who had sent them here, but why they brought her to this kind of place?

Or, probably he got it wrong?

Or, those bandits never had an intention to bring Senja back to the mansion?

***   

Senja felt something wrong when she mounted the horse with the man from the village, because she didn"t cross this road before.

She knew because she was enjoying her surroundings when Torak pulled the rein of her horse slowly.

"I didn"t cross this road before." Senja tilted her head and looked around, she didn"t recognize the trees and seemingly they were becoming narrow as they move forward. "We are not in the main road." She remarked.

Yes, they were in the deep of the forest now and Senja was too late to realize it.

"This is shortcut." The man informed Senja, but it didn"t convincing.

"If this is a shortcut, then we should have arrived in the village by now." Senja started to grow worry. What was happening now? "My brother must have arrived now."

However the man didn"t reply to her again as he made the horse to run faster.

Senja didn"t have another choice except to clutch the man robe even tighter to prevent her from falling down.

"You are not coming to ask for help right?!" Senja shouted in panic as her voice blew with the harsh wind. "Who had sent you!?"

The first person in Senja"s mind was her step mother. It should be her, who had arranged these people to find her. This time, maybe they would kill her directly without take a risk to sell her again.

"Who had sent you!?" Senja yelled, feeling agitated by the way her step mother treated her.

Why didn"t she just leave her alone? She didn"t want to come back to the mansion as well! Whom the person wanted to go back to that h.e.l.l again?

"If Carye who had sent you, you can tell her that I will not go back to the mansion, so please leave me alone!" Senja wanted to punch the man on his face, but she couldn"t do it because once she did that, she would fall on the ground and injured herself.

It would be fine if there was no hard rock, but if it was, her head would hit it and she would die! Senja was afraid with her own thought and hugged the man"s waist even tighter, though that wasn"t what she wanted to do.

"If you bring me back to the man that with me before, he will give you money!" Senja kept trying on her desperate state to make that man left her alone. "He will give you big amount of money!!! And you can say to my step mother that you have accomplished your task! I swear, I will never return!"

Senja could feel the branches around her grazed her skin and tore her dress.

"This is not your step mother, this is your father"s order." The man finally spoke.

His answer was like cold water that poured down on Senja"s head and streamed right to her heart. She should have known, her father must have been involved in this matter too.

How she could forget how he had been trying to kill her three years ago? She shouldn"t have think that her father wouldn"t try that again.

And now, since Carye had made an opportunity for him to do that, how he could let it slip from his finger?

But, how about her grandfather? Didn"t her grandfather should have known about this also? They were in the same fortress the last time Senja heard the news about them.

With the answer that the man gave to Senja, the little girl abruptly became quite. If her father was behind this, what else she could do? These people wouldn"t be ordinary bandits like what Gong Xu and she had thought, they were not after money.

How she could escape from them?

The man took Senja further away and it was long time before they finally arrived at their destination.

He helped Senja to get off from the horse and easily nullified Senja"s attempt to run away. He then swiftly tied Senja on the big tree while waiting for someone.

"You will kill me?" Senja asked, her eyes were dim as if there was no life inside of her, because by the way that man looked at her, she knew what the answer. "Why do you have to kill me? I am just a little girl. I have told you that I will not return to that mansion. I swear, I will not."

That man shook his head. "I am sorry girl, but I have to accomplish my job."

"Don"t you have a daughter? A son?" Senja tried to make that man took a pity on her.

"I have not even married yet." He replied callously.

With that Senja also didn"t say about children anymore.

"Sir, I am thirsty, can I have a drink?" Senja cleared her throat to show him that she meant with her words. "And little bit hungry, actually."

That man didn"t heed her request, neither he gave her any water, he just stood there in alert, sometime the wind that brushed pa.s.sed the branches could make him stood up as his hand flew toward his waist that Senja a.s.sumed where he put his weapon.

A blade? A dagger? That thing was too small to be a sword, if that so, Gong Xu would have noticed that earlier and they wouldn"t be in this situation.

Sonja regretted that she didn"t listen to Gong Xu, the attack on the village must be a lie as well. She should just ignore him from the beginning.

But, what was happening with Gong Xu now? He must have realized something was wrong if Senja didn"t appear. Was he all right? Or, did he engage in fight?

Would he look for her? Or would he just continue with his own journey? After all, during this time, Senja was like an extra burden for him.

"I thought it will be hard to take you from him, but apparently he just left you alone like that." The man started the conversation as he took a wooden flask from his leg. "Today is my lucky day."

Senja frowned because the man wanted to have a conversation with her after a long silence, but then she saw the flask in his hand and scoffed derisively.

"He didn"t leave me." Senja retorted. "You said your village is in danger, that is why he was coming to help you. He didn"t leave me." Senja was adamant with her word. She didn"t like the thought that she was being abandoned again.

The man waved the flask in his hand and said incoherently. "Whatever you want to say, but the fact, here we are!"

Senja didn"t know how much he had been drinking, but the thing that she knew was, that man was already half drunk by now.

Senja didn"t want to waste her time to talk with the old- drunken- man, thus she chose to kept her mouth shut while looking for the opportunity to escape from him.

She doubted that Gong Xu would come and saved her again. He had made it clear that he didn"t like Senja.

"Who is there?" The man shouted.

He abruptly stood up and stared at the direction behind the little girl, who was tied at the tree. Senja couldn"t possibly to see the people who were coming, but from the sound of their footstep, there were many of them than Senja could imagine it.

However there was one of them who was wailing in agony. The words that came out from his mouth, was only curse.

"I will kill that man! I WILL KILL HIM!!!" The man roared, his voice filled the forest, scaring the birds that perched on the branch. "Let me go back!!! I will kill him! Why don"t all of you kill him!?"

Senja slightly tilted her head and looked at the man, who was carried by his shoulder with the other two men, was panting heavily as his eyes bloodshot with killing intent.

She gasped as the man expression scared her, she shuddered and lowered her head, trying to make herself unnoticed.

However, once that man saw her, he dashed toward Senja and was about to kick her. If it wasn"t for the other two men, who moved swiftly and prevented him to do so, Senja would suffer greatly, at least she would fall unconscious by his strength.

"This is all because of her!" He pointed Senja with his hand, which covered with red clothes. The clothes must have color white at the beginning, but his blood had turned it to b.l.o.o.d.y red.

Senja startled as she tried to cut the rope from her body with no avail.

The rope was too tight and she was too weak to break it.

"STOP IT!!" The leader of the bandit roared, he unexpectedly threw his sword that stuck deeply on the tree, only an inch away from the noisy man"s ear.

This method seemingly efficient as he stopped wailing and gritted his teeth, holding back his anger. He couldn"t afford to be on the bad side of his leader, because it would be mean he could lost not only his hand, but also his head.

"This is Senja?" The leader shifted his eyes after he had taken care of his man. "Untie her." He ordered to the man who had brought Senja over, apparently that man already sober now.

"Do you know who has sent us to capture you?" The leader knelt, so he could be in the same eyes level with the little girl.

Senja rubbed her aching hands once the rope that bit her skin was being released. "I know. He wants you to kill me right?" Senja"s voice was steady. She even surprised by how calm she could be to talk about something like this.

"Right." The leader nodded and added. "But, he also said, if you can help him than he would spare your life."

Senja gulped down, her eyes squinted as in alert, because whatever her father wanted her to do, it would never be something good. She shouldn"t have surprised by this, because she already knew this beforehand.

However, the next word of the leader of the Bandit made her felt like someone had sucked the air around her and left her with nothing as she was having difficulty to breath.

"If you agreed to follow every word of your father"s order, he will spare your life." He said in low voice, but there was something vicious that laced by the way he mention it.

"What do you mean with every word?" Senja was having bad premonition about this. "I have to follow every order from him?"

"Yes." The man nodded firmly. "Including if he asks you to kill your grandfather."