The Story Of Dusk

Senja curled her body on the corner of the cage, her eyes looked worriedly at the dark forest through the bars.

The leader of the bandit felt something uneasy, but he couldn"t let this matter slip as the person behind the darkness had killed two of his subordinates, so it was only right for him to ask for the compensation or took their life in exchange.

"Moved!!!" The leader of the bandit waved his hand and commanded seven people to enter the forest.

The second group brandished their sword with a loud of noise, they swung their sword to cut through the bushes.

"No one here!!!" One of the seven people shouted to inform their leader, followed by the other person, who had checked different spot.

The leader of the bandits furrowed his brows, he didn"t look please with the report. "Check thoroughly! I want that person to be death for killing our brother!" He yelled back, forbidden his subordinate to comeback without result.

However, before he could hear another report, he felt something hard pierced through his chest.

It happened so fast and before they could react another arrow pierced through their body. The person, who aimed them, was having a great accuracy, though it was dark, but he managed to kill another two more person after the leader of the bandits.

Seeing their leader fell from the horse with an arrow stuck on his chest the remaining men was in great alert.

A burly man dismounted his horse and ran forward before he threw a sabre toward the direction of where the arrow came.

A man in black clothes with straw hat and veiled that covered his face, jumped to avoid the weapon and dashed in lightning speed toward the bandit.

With a swung of his sword, he managed to kill him, splattered more blood on the ground.

The children inside the carriage started to crying and screaming, seeing the brutal scene unfolded before their child"s eyes.

After the man, who wore a stray hat killed a few people, the remaining men gathered around and encircled him.

This fight would be one against fourteen, such a big gap.

Senja didn"t know what that man in straw hat wanted by provoking the bandits, but whatever his intention, he wouldn"t leave this situation unscathed.

Those bandits couldn"t be underestimated.

If all the children closed their eyes and covered their faces with their hand, so they wouldn"t see the next gruesome scene, Senja wasn"t one of them.

She kept her eyes wide opened, followed every moves of the unfair battle. She had seen something similar like this in her life, thus there was no point to close her eyes.

That didn"t mean that she wasn"t afraid, but she needed to see the result of it and find an opportunity to escape, maybe this was the answer of her pray.

Probably G.o.d finally show some mercy on her and was being kind after the hardship that she had gone through.

Senja was sitting near the door and if only she had a key, she would be able to escape from this cage. She stared at the padlock on the cage"s door and tried to break it by pulling it down, wishing her strength was enough to set her free.

Of course, that was a waste of effort as the padlock didn"t even budge.

Senja rattled the padlock harshly, her action didn"t draw attention of her captors, because they were too busy to fight the man in black clothes.

The other children"s cry slightly ceased down as they looked at Senja in confusion, but no one dare enough to approach her, they only stared at her with big round eyes.

When Senja felt her hand had started to get hurt and her effort wouldn"t have any good result, her shoulder slumped as she sat back in disappointment.

But, before she could think another way out from this cage, something brushed pa.s.sed her hair with strong wind, something shimmering and sharp.

That thing hit the padlock and broke it into two.

It was a sword.

A sword that the straw hat man had used. He threw his weapon to open the cage"s door, but why? Why he was helping them?

Senja raised her hand and ran her fingers on her right cheek, apparently the sword not only broke the padlock, but it grazed her skin in the process too.

The wound on her cheek wasn"t deep and it didn"t hurt much, after all, she had suffered the worse than this.

A little boy in the age of eight or nine, rushed forward and shoved Senja aside as he kicked the door that was not locked anymore and jumped from the carriage, he ran to save himself before the bandits notice it.

His action followed by other children, they were scrambling out of the carriage cage as they pushed and pulled the other children.

Senja was still in shock from the event before and was pushed aside until the last child got down and ran toward the dark of the forest.

Senja was the last child that got off from the cage, but she didn"t run like the other, instead she hid behind the huge horse that belong to the bandit while watching the rest of the battle.

She decided she would run if the man in the straw hat was about defeated, but up until now, the fight was still and it was hard to say who would win it.

By now, ten of the bandits had died while the remaining four still fought the man, though they had many wounds on their body.

The man in the straw hat also seemingly had reached his limits as blood trickled down on the ground that he was standing.

Senja didn"t know why she was waiting for that man, probably because he had helped her… no, he helped all the children to escape.

But, when those children had their family to return to, Senja had none. It was her step mother who had sold her, so where she had to go then?

Senja crouched down beside the black horse, subconsciously wish for the man in the black robe could win this fight, he wouldn"t be a bad guy, right? Because he had helped them earlier.

It took another long minute before the battle left only two people, who was facing each other, the man in straw hat and the last bandits.

Both of them was exhausted, but refused to back down. Their raging breath even could be heard from where Senja"s hiding place.

The last bandit had a bigger and burlier posture than the man in the straw hat and seemingly he had more strength left in him.

The last blow from the bandit sent the man flew a few meters away before her body collided with the tree behind him. His straw hat came off and revealed his face.

With this distance, Senja couldn"t see his face clearly, but he was younger than she expected.

The man grunted and coughing blood, trying to raise his hand and ward off the bandit"s attack, but he was too weak for that.

Without waiting for his opponent to stand up, the bandit raised his sword and directed downright toward the man.

"You will die in my hand!!!" He yelled viciously, feeling a victor was in his hand already.

The man tried to move, but the bandit kicked him and pressed his chest on the ground, made sure he couldn"t move when the sharp blade pierced his heart.

The wind bristled as the moonlight shone brightly above them, as if witnessing the death of that man. He had closed his eyes, seemingly had surrendered to his fate.

However, the expected pain never happened.

The last thing that was heard, was the man groaned in agony as he fell weakly on his back with his sword clattering beside him. His eyes opened wide in shock by the sneaky attack.

Feeling the pressure had disappeared, the man in black clothes slowly opened his eyes and found the bandit was on his last breath with an arrow stuck on his neck.

He moved his eyes around him and found a little girl in fine dress, shuddering with pale face, was slowly lowering the bow in her hand.