No Doubt In The World ch.2

"Do you even know the way we are supposed to be going?" asked Monique.

"Um, yeah, it’s just this way," replied Brencin.

"And which way is that?" questioned Nataleene. Brencin looked around. "I thought you didn’t know." The group sat down to take a rest, and eat a little, they had been traveling for a few hours, but that was no comparisons for how long they would be traveling.

"How much money do we have?" Monique asked, "I have about ten bits"

"Well, seeing as I lived in a dungeon, I have none," Brencin replied. Nataleene blushed and looked away.

"Well, that’s just great, we have ten bits, we have to wait for Lisbeth. We can't go any further; we have to find some way of transportation, too. We should have left in a couple days; I don’t understand why we left so early." Monique explained. No one talked. Everyone just sat there. They would sit and wait for Lisbeth, no matter how far behind she was.

Still running, Lisbeth traveled through the forest. It was getting to be mid afternoon, she was tried and running out of energy. She had not eaten an entire thing. She thought she should stop and rest, but she had to keep going. She saw a bright piece of material through the trees. It's them, it’s them!

Monique, Nataleene and Brencin turned around abruptly, someone was behind them. They saw a dark figuring running toward them. Brencin pulled his sword from his sheath. He walked forward slowly to meet the person; he hid behind a tree. Finally the dark figure reached them and they recognized her right before Brencin struck her with his sword. She fell to the ground and her eyes twitched to the back of her head. They two girls rushed to look at the woman. It was one of Lisbeth's father's servants; he must be looking for her. The three went back to sit down and pack up their things.

Lisbeth ran as fast as she could toward the bright piece of material only to find that it was a piece of a coin bag. Damn, I'm no where near, I have to keep going. She had to slow to a walk now; she was much to tired to run anymore. She had been running for at least 3 miles. Her long black hair was sticking to the back of her neck, and she knew that it would get worse as the day dragged on. She needed something to pull it back. She went back to grab the piece of the cloth from the coin bag, and put her hair in a simple ponytail. She continued to walk, looking for anything to eat. She spotted a fire, it had food by it. She ran, and ran, and ran. She couldn’t stop; she kept running and running. She would finally find them! She kept running, that is until she tripped. She looked over and saw her servant's dead body on the ground and gagged, trying not to throw up. She had blood all over her dress, but it blended in compared to all the dirt and other messes that had formed on it now. Slowly getting up, she went over to the fire and picked up an apple, only one bite had been taken out, and the inside wasn’t completely brown yet. She had to be close, she gathered all the food she could and out it in her bag. She ran again, she knew that if she ran, she could finally catch up with them.

Nataleene was growing restless and wanted to stop, but Brencin knew that if they stopped, the girls wouldn’t want to get back up.

"Please! We need to stop, I am going to get sores on my feet, and then I won't be able to walk at all," Monique complained.

"Yes, please. I am getting tired; we have been walking all morning and all afternoon with only a short break. We haven't even eaten yet. We need to stop," Nataleene chipped in.

"Fine! I swear you women; you are so weak sometimes. Let me stop, I have to go to the water closet. Oh, please Brencin, I am famished, can we please stop? You need to learn to be strong, you must understand; we have a long way to walk, and if you can't get there, I will drop you. I won't wait for you. We can sit down for 30 minutes, at the most! No longer, otherwise, Lisbeth's father will gain on us. We can't have that!" Brencin yelled. Leaves were crunching, and all three of them turned around sharply. They saw another dark figure. Brencin drew his sword once more. This time though, the girls recognized the person.

"Brencin, out your sword away! It's Lisbeth!" Nataleene screamed. She and Monique ran to greet her and hugged her and kissed her.

"We are so glad you’re here! Brencin has been yelling at us all day! I can't stand this man, he thinks he is the king," Monique explained. Brencin butt in the happy conversation and asked Lisbeth how much money she had.

"And why is that any concern to you?" Questioned Lisbeth, "Just so you can steal it from me, you dungeon scum!" The two other girls were shocked by Lisbeth's rational behavior. They couldn’t understand what was wrong.

"No, I don’t need to steal it from you. I just want to know if you would like to walk to France, or get a carriage," Brencin explained, "A carriage is only about 30 bits, but seeing as we only have 10, we need more. And, because in a carriage, France is about a 2 weeks trip, I thought you might not want to walk, my lady."

"Oh, well, to be truthful, I have more than that, a lot more than that. The exact amount I will not tell you, but I can assure you, we will be in good shape for the next two weeks and a long time after that. Seeing as I will never be able to go home again, I planned ahead. I don’t want to go home and have my father take me to the guillotine, I have almost everything we will need," Lisbeth stated. With that, the, now four of them, began to walk again. It would be a while until they got to any sign of civilization.

While Nataleene and Lisbeth walked ahead, Brencin and Monique walked together.

"So, where do you come from?" Brencin inquired.

"I am originally from France myself, but I only lived there a little while. When I was about five I moved here, so I don’t really remember it very well. I can't wait to get there though, I haven't been there since," replied Monique.

"I am sorry about before, in the dungeon. I haven't been or seen a women in two years, I think that my actions, um, might have been a little rough. I wanted to apologize earlier."

"Oh, well, that’s quite all right. I think I will be fine now. The pain didn’t last that as long as I thought I would, and that is not supposed to be suggestive."

"You’re beautiful you know. When you three walked in the room you are the first one that stuck out. You have beautiful eyes, that's what really stuck out. You could pierce a man's soul with those. I know you pierced mine." Monique looked away blushing; she didn’t understand love very well, considering she was only 16. She was getting old in her society, and hadn't married yet. Her parents were always bugging her to go out with the nice young man, or this lovely fellow. She couldn’t stand it.

"Thank you," she whispered. Brencin looked at her closely, and studied her face. She couldn’t look back at him though; she was much too shy.

"Have you ever been with a man before me?"

"Isn't this getting a little personal?" Monique was a full red and her hands were shaking.

"I guess. You don’t have to answer." Brencin was studying her again. Monique was flattered, but she couldn’t get involved with this man. He was a murderer. He had killed an innocent man. He had been in a dungeon. Her parents would kill her before they let her even look at this man. Brencin began to touch her face. Her face was hot and she knew it, this was so uncomfortable. He started to lean in for a kiss, but before he could touch her lips, she ran away, having to run behind a tree. The butterflies in her stomach had come up.

By the time Monique came back to walking, the group was far ahead of her. She ran to catch up, and when she got to Brencin, he grabbed her by the waste, pulling her back to him.

"Just walk with me for a little while longer," Brencin said. Monique looked at him sheepishly as if he was going to hurt her. "I'm not going to hurt you if that’s what you’re thinking, according to you, I have already hurt you enough to want a sword stabbed in you somewhere."

"I didn’t think that you heard that."

"I did, and believe, what you got was probably a lot better than having a sword being in there." Monique, not knowing what to say, just laughed nervously and continued to walk on.

"You know, I am not going to rape you. I am not that kind of guy."

"Then why did you already do it?"

"What?"

"I am just kidding you, no need to be worked up over nothing, you whore-son." Monique laughed over and over again at this insult, it was her all time favorite, that and the look that was on Brencin's face made her laughter uncontrollable.

"Let me see, are you kidding me again, I believe so!" Brencin started to chase Monique and they ran far up ahead of Lisbeth and Nataleene. The two other girls just stared in amazement.

"You know, for someone that was forced to be his wench of pleasure, she doesn’t seem to up set about it now," Lisbeth laughed. Nataleene joined in, and everyone was finally happy. No one was complaining, for once, they were all getting along.

The next morning, Monique and Brencin were nowhere to be found. Lisbeth and Nataleene were appalled.

"Lord, that woman has accepted to be his wench of pleasure. That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!" Lisbeth shouted.

"Don’t jump to conclusions! I know Monique has more class than that!" Nataleene scolded. From behind the campsite, the two girls could here giggling. It was coming from the creek. Nataleene and Lisbeth went to go check out what was happening. From their peeping spot, they could see Monique and Brencin playing in the creek. Monique had given in to Brencin's good looks; it was as simple as that.

As Monique and Brencin walked back to the campsite, Lisbeth and Nataleene hurried back to go to where they were sleeping. Monique and Brencin decided to wake them up and get breakfast started.

"Why are you two so wet?" asked Lisbeth curiously.

"Oh, we were playing in the creek. I thought you two knew, since you were peeping. The water was great, you should have come and joined us," explained Monique, "Oh well."

After breakfast, the group started to travel again. It was only the second day, but they had already gone a long way. No where near any civilization, though. Brencin walked ahead, and the three girls trailed behind. They decided not to walk with their shoes; they were giving them blisters. Instead, they would, form calluses on their feet to make them strong.

"I thought you despised this man. What changed?" asked Lisbeth.

"I found that he has a softer side than most people know, or choose to know. He is a gentle person, and he has a heart; I just connected with him. He is intelligent, too. He understands what I have come from, who I am in a way; we talked all morning. He woke me up very early this morning, he took me down to the creek, and we just talked, and then we played in the water," Monique explained.

"What do you mean he understands you? We understand you too, but you don’t wake us up early in the morning and go play in a creek," Nataleene cooed, " I think a certain someone has fallen into a trap."

"Think what you may, but you have no idea," Monique stated. And with that, the girls did not say another word. They kept walking without anyone saying a single word. Monique ran to catch up with Brencin while Nataleene and Lisbeth stayed behind. The other two girls could not understand why Monique had such an attraction to him after what he did to her.

As Monique and Brencin walked, he looked over at her and smiled. He grabbed her slender hand and they continued their journey, hand in hand. The way Brencin felt was unimaginable to the girls, but maybe he was just desperate. He didn’t think so, here he had a beautiful, intelligent woman that had no man in her future. Who wouldn’t fall in love with her? That morning had been wonderful he thought.

"I have never really had a man in my life, you are really the first, if you truly feel that way about me. And to answer your question, there was no man before you. You were the first. My parents always tried to fix me with these peasant boys that they thought were nice and deserving, but after a go with them, I realized that the only thing they wanted, was for me to give myself to them. I wouldn’t allow myself that. There is something about you though, it makes me want to know you, be with you, I can’t figure out what it is though. Just something, it makes you very mysterious. I want to know more about you now, I already told you about me."

"Well, I don’t know where to start. I grew up in France. You already knew that. I was very close to my family. I spent time with my mother in her garden and I worked with my dad, too. He worked as a blacksmith, he made armor for jousters. He worked very hard and was one of the best blacksmiths in France. I always had money when I was young. My parents might give me two bits everyday to just go out and play with. I had a brother and a sister. My sister was older than I was; she was about 7 years older than I. She was very energetic; she always had something to do. She would wake up before everyone else on Sundays and make us all breakfast. My brother, who was also older than I, was very lazy. But I think that is what made him so fun. When he wanted to do something, which was very rare, he would go out and do it. Otherwise, he would just sit and play with his toys. We had a very small family, but that is because after me, my mother could only have babies that would die. It was very strange. But, because of our small family, it made us very close. That is, until that day."

"T ell me more about that, you were very vague when you told us the first time."

"I was only 15, and my parents, my brother, and my sister were all killed, I was out at the time fetching bread for my mother. You are probably wondering why my brother and sister were at home since they were so much older, but on the day of the lord, my brother and my sister would bring their families over and we would have large feasts. I was only gone for a short time. She had given me two bits and told me to hurry home because she wanted a feast for my father. He had made armor for the champion of jousters, I don’t even remember what they are called. I hurried to the bread maker, which was about a mile away. I waited for her to make the bread, and she got done quickly, but you know how long bread takes. I ran back home and when I walked in the door, my mother was lying dead by the stove; my brother, sister, and father were sitting at the table, they had been slaughtered. An angry jouster had come by the house claiming that his armor was bad and had made him lose all his money. He killed them all. He didn’t get to me though…"

A single tear ran down Brencin's face and Monique wiped it away. She took his face and kissed him. He deserved it. He had completely opened himself to her. After that, the two went to play in the creek to get their minds off the horrible story.

The group continued to walk, until a strange little man popped out from behind a tree.

"Woh, weary travelers! My name is Brevet, I am a wizard. Is there anything I can do for you today? You all look awfully tired. Maybe a spell, or a potion for one of the ladies to get rid of those sore feet. And for you," said the Wizard eyeing him up and down, "maybe I should give you a potion for love." The travelers all looked at each other and wondered how he knew these things about them.

" Sir, or Brevet, how do you know such things about us?" questioned Nataleene.

"Oh, I am psychic," Brevet stated. The travelers once again looked at each other. "I am not really, I just thought I would tease you. I have been following you for about a mile. The effect was great though, you all truly believed me," the wizard laughed. The four others just stood there, no expression on their faces. "Well, would any of you like to buy something, or am I just wasting my time, selling myself to you?"

"A soothing potion would be magnificent, our feet are killing us!" Monique whined.

"All right, let me get that out of my bag here," the Wizard began to grub around his bag, "One minute, I am very unorganized."

The travelers sat, exhausted from walking. They had not seen a small village yet, and were wondering if they ever would. They had no record of how far they had gone, or even where they were. Brevet had finally found the potion.

"All right sweetheart, that will be 5 bits," the Wizard had a wide grin on his face.

"No, no, no. That is far too much wizard. I can find this potion in a market for 2. Sell it to the woman for a fair price. We are weary travelers, not dolts," Brencin said confidently.

"Fine," the wizard said shrewishly,"2 bits it is. Take it and get out of my face."

Monique handed him the 2 bits and said her thank-yous. The wizard walked off the way they had come from. The travelers, all still sitting down took a sip of the potion and passed it around. Everyone needed it. The afternoon had set its toll and it was beginning to get very hot.

"Maybe we should stop for mid-day meal, I have a terrible hunger," Lisbeth moaned.

"Yes, I think we will," Brencin said decidedly. And so, they stopped for lunch, but they did not know that someone was watching them. Someone was sitting there, lurking. Someone was not a very nice someone.