Clip, clop. Clip, clop. Clip, clop. Peter groaned at the horrid sound, rolling over on the floor as he tried to return to the safe refuge sleep offered.
Clip, clop. Clip…clop, clop…clip. Now there were shouts. He groaned again, then muttered, “Let me sleep…”
The sound of doors being thrown open and men shouting continued, until there was a loud, Bang. Bang. Bang. As someone pounded on the door.
There was a gasp from the kitchen and who Peter thought was Amelia whispered, “Oh no, they’re back.”
“Who?”
“The soldiers. They must be looking for you. Come on, you have to hide.”
Now that woke Peter up. He sat up, immediately running over to the others and beginning to wake them up.
“Hurry,” Amelia urged them, “You must hide before they see you.”
Amelia led them to a small closet near the back of the house and told them to hurry before she ran off to check the front door.
It was dark in the closet, and although some of the others were barely awake, Peter could still tell that they were frightened by the constant knocking on the door.
Amelia and Jean had hidden Luke in the bedroom, laying him on the bed as Peter hoped they wouldn’t question why he was laying there, unconscious.
“Hello,” he heard Amelia greet a soldier, “What are you doing here so early? Usually, the tax collectors come around a week from now.”
“Miss,” the soldier responded, “Have you seen any of these kids recently?” Peter heard the sound of paper and assumed it was the posters the Dueglesteiners had shown them before.
There was a long silence, presumably Amelia looking at the posters in turn before saying, “No, I can’t say I have.”
“Have you taken any children under your care recently?”
“No, it’s just been me and Jean.”
Another pause and Peter thought he heard another soldier muttering to the one who had knocked on the door.
“Ma’am, we’re going to need to search your house.”
“What?” Amelia exclaimed, “This is absurd. Why on earth would you need to search my-”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but it’s mandatory right now that we search every villager’s house.”
“I demand to speak to your superior officer! This is unjust and unfair, bursting into people’s houses, demanding to search it-”
“Ma’am, would you please just move out of the way?” the soldier sighed, “We have a job to do.”
“Here,” another soldier offered, “Let me handle this.”
“Steve, you don’t have to-” the first soldier started to say, but Steve seemingly burst into the house, running around as he searched.
“Steve, stop!”
“No, Rick, you know what will happen if we don’t search this house!” Steve continued to run around, searching for any of them.
Peter held his breath as Steve and Rick passed the closet, bursting into the bedroom Luke was in.
“Who’s this?” Steve demanded as Amelia ran over to the room where they were.
“That is my son,” Amelia told them, “He’s not any of the ones you’ve been looking for.”
“I thought you said it was just you and your daughter,” Rick argued.
“Well, how were you going to react if two soldiers knocked on your door demanding if you’ve seen a group of children?” Amelia yelled, “Wouldn’t you be afraid for your own children’s safety?”
“Ma’am, we’re trying to find these children for your safety,” Rick soothingly told Amelia, “They are a danger to Dueglestein and must be dealt with. If you’ve seen any of them, if you are harboring any criminal of any kind, please contact us.”
“I will,” Amelia agreed.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
As Rick and Steve began to walk out of Luke’s room, Peter heard a pair of footsteps stop in front of the closet. He held his breath, hoping that nobody would think to check where they were hiding.
“Huh,” he thought he heard Steve mutter, “Wonder what’s in here?”
The door opened and Peter, who was in the front, fell out of the closet on his hands and knees. He offered a little smile to Steve, whose face was in complete and utter shock.
“What the-”
Peter heard a grunt as Skylar jumped over Peter’s body and hit Steve across the face with her bo-staff. Steve fell to the ground, out in an instant.
At the same time, Adalene ran for Rick, who immediately held his hands up in defense as she held her dual swords to his throat.
“Uh…hi,” Rick offered, his pale face covered in sweat.
Adalene offered a steely glare, her face as expressionless as stone.
“How many are in this town?” Skylar demanded as Rick continued to sweat.
“Uh…just a small platoon…”
“A platoon?” Richard exclaimed, “That has to be about thirty soldiers!”
Everyone stared back at Richard, whose face turned red. “My, uh…father was in the military…” he muttered, “He uh…taught me a lot of facts about it…”
“What are you even doing here?” Skylar continued, “Why are you searching this town?”
“I-I don’t know, something about some kids-” Rick’s face contorted into confusion, as he stared at each of them in turn. “Wait…wait a second…”
Rick stared at the children again, his mouth open wide as he realized they were the ones he was searching for. His face turned to a focused frown, and he kicked Adalene in the stomach, causing her to double over in pain. With himself free, he took a horn from his belt and sent an almost deafening tune as he called for help.
Richard was the one who jumped into action this time and threw one of his shortswords at Rick’s arm, catching the sleeve into the wall of Amelia’s hallway.
“What did you do?” Richard put an arm up to Rick’s collarbone, pinning him in place.
“My job,” was Rick’s cold reply.
For a moment, Peter felt a little bad for the two soldiers. They weren’t cold-blooded killers like he’d originally thought, they were just two men following orders. Perhaps they didn’t know why they were trying to capture them, because they were just doing what they were told.
But that feeling only lasted a moment. Because the next moment there were shouts and the sound of stomping feet as a dozen soldiers stormed into Amelia’s house, and told the eight of them to kneel in the living room with their hands behind their heads.
Peter stared at the floorboards in shame as whom he could only guess was the lieutenant demanded to know why Amelia would harbor wanted fugitives. But she kept silent, refusing to answer any of their questions.
“Listen, woman,” the lieutenant ordered, “You’re going to-”
There was a creak on the floorboards as someone slowly stepped into the room. Peter turned his head expecting to see one of the soldiers, but instead, he saw a face covered by sandy blonde hair, stumbling into the room with a sword trembling in his arms.
Luke didn’t have a shirt on, but he must have found his jacket because it was hastily hung over his shoulders while his chest was bare. He was still drenched in sweat, his skin a sickly color but even then, his blue eyes were as bright as ever.
He stood there, weak but defiant, glaring at the soldiers who surrounded his friends. Even though he was sick, he still stood tall to protect those he loved.
“Get…” he muttered, “Away from them…” Luke defiantly lifted his sword before he stood straight up, shock in his eyes as if a feeling passed over him.
Then he fell forward onto the ground.
The lieutenant blinked, then said to some of the soldiers, “Well, I guess he’s one of the children as well. Bring him here.”
Luke was dragged over to the rest of them, much to Skylar’s anger and dismay.
“Now,” he continued, “Where were we-”
A horn sounded in the distance, followed by shouts and screams.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me! Why can’t people just let me finish-”
“Sir!” A soldier rushed into the house, “It’s the rebels! They’re attacking our forces!”
“Talking.”
ns 15.158.61.21da2
