The Entitled

You could see the girl in a shining, white dress in the garden behind the large manor. The garden was open and well kept. There was a single fountain closer to the manor and lines of of paths and bushes through the garden. There were colorful flowerbeds around the garden, mostly filled with yellow and red flowers in different kinds of arrangements.

The girl was on the edge of the garden. She was digging a puddle of mud with a long stick she had. It was like she was looking for something, even though nothing could be found from the puddle. She was merely spending time as her father didn't have any time for her. His father was all the family she had, as she had no siblings and mother dead years ago, but as he was the head of one of the noble families in the city, he was usually busy.

"Hey, Eve! Are you going to spend all day pushing the stick to the mud?"

The girl, Eve, lifted her gaze up from the puddle to see Sigmund, a boy of her age, walking on the low cobblestone wall towards her. He was wearing very fine clothing, pants made of dark leather and a blue velvet shirt with silver colored embroidery and golden buttons. He had a short sword sheathed on his belt. The hilt and pommel were silver, highly decorated. As he was young, the sword looked a bit too long for him.

"Well I have nothing better to do alone as you've been with your father all morning", she grinned and threw her stick at Sigmund.

"I'm the eldest one of my brothers and my father wants me to be prepared as the future head of the family. I'm kind of surprised your father isn't taking you with him to any of the meetings."

"I bet it's because I'm a girl, not a boy like you are."
Eve tried to swing her stick angrily, as she forgot she already threw it at Sigmund. She ended up kicking a rock on the ground.

"Surely your father doesn't think that way. He's a very kind man and the meetings are really really boring."

"Like this would be any better when I'm left all alone!"
She was so angry she couldn't control her voice and shouted louder than she had meant.
"I can't stand this right now. Let's go to the woods so we can be alone without any adults disturbing us."

"But we're alone right now."

"I SAID LET'S GO!"
Eve climbed over the wall and started running towards the woods next to the garden. Sigmund had a deep sigh and followed her to the woods. He had no intent of stopping her as the day was clear and they had plenty of time before the evening.

The forest was large. The majority of trees on this area were pines and spurces, but the woods were open enough to move around easily. The ground and rocks in the woods were mostly covered with a thick, soft layer of dark green moss. You could see yellowish, grey and even reddish moss all around the ground, but they weren't as soft as the green moss, which felt almost like a wool filled mattress.

After a while he had catched up with Eve who was surprisingly fast, even though she had the dress on. She turned at Sigmund and greeted him with a smile.

"Finally you caught up with me, I had to slow down a bit to wait for you."

Sigmund grinned. Eve had stopped to wait for Sigmund next to a notch in the ground. The notch was surrounded by large, rough surfaced rocks, leaving a two meter drop between the rocks. It wasn't a large drop, but falling down would surely hurt.

"Will you jump first?"
Sigmund was a bit worried how Eve would handle the jump with her skirt. He knew she wouldn't listen to him if he tried her not to jump. It wasn't a large gap, but jumping with a skirt isn't easy.

"Sure, go ahead", Eve said while stretching her legs a bit. She was looking at the drop quietly and lifted her skirt a little bit to give her legs more space to move.

It took only a short dash to get enough speed for the leap. Sigmund landed safely on the other side, then he quickly turned to look at Eve and her attempt at the jump. She started to take a few running steps and then tried to run faster and faster. Eve was holding her dress a bit higher with her hands, but in the moment of the jump, she let go of the dress and swung both arms in the air, like trying to get a little bit higher.

And she too landed on the other side. Just a foot away from the ledge.

"It was easy, as you saw", she grinned while pulling her dress back down.

"Oh yes, I did see", he replied with a grin. Eve tried to slap him, but Sigmund was fast enough to move away and started to run from her. He saw a cave in the distance and decided to run there while Eve was still chasing him.

When they got closer to the cave, both of them had forgotten the chase. The cave wasn't a huge one, but it was high enough for a grown man to easily fit in. There was a light coming down to the cave in the back of the cave, 10 to 20 meters away. It was really difficult to know distances in the dark cave.

They took in a few steps in the dark, but then Eve fell down. She saw the cave floor was covered with bones, pieces of clothing and skulls. There wasn't any fresh corpses, but as the cave floor was filled with human bones, she screamed.

"Let's get out from here, now!"

It took Sigmund a few seconds to realize what was on the ground. He bent down to get a better look when Eve had already ran outside from the cave.

"Come out with me now Sigmund, please!"

Sigmund didn't reply, but she could see how he was holding a skull in his hand in the cave.

"Please Sigmund!"

"Yes. Please come to us,", said a low male voice behind Eve. She turned around and saw three men in dirty, ragged clothes which seemed to have been expensive at some point. All of the men looked quite similar at a quick glance. All of them had dark hair and were somewhat average length. The man in the front, looking like the leader of the three, had a short beard too. They all had weapons hanging on their belt, short swords and one of them had an axe.

Eve turned quickly back towards Sigmund and screamed loudly before the leader of the three grabbed her.

"SIGMUND HELP!"

Sigmund threw away the skull from his hand and unsheathed the sword. He could see how the man lifted Eve high in the air using only one hand. With the sword in his hand he ran out from the cave, but he had to slow down. The two other men had their weapons in their hands and both of them moved to different sides of him. In front of Sigmund was the leader, holding Eve in the hand. As it was the only opportunity to act, Sigmund ran towards the gang leader and thrust with the sword towards his throat.

The leader moved faster than Sigmund had assumed. In one fluent motion, he stepped from the way of the sword, tossed Eve towards the cave and grabbed Sigmund easily like a baby.

"You're Sigmund, aren't you? Your father is rich and powerful enough to give us a good leverage for negotiatons. Nevermind the girl even though she looks noble too. Lads, get back here and we'll leave the way we came"

Pain shot through Eve's body as she fell inside the cave. Even though the bones were hard, they had softened the drop when she hit the solid rock floor of the cave. Under the crumbled bones under her, Eve could feel something cold and hard under her arm. She picked up and she could see it was an ancient relic from the past. A weapon of the past, rare nowadays but still effective.

With the weapon in her hand, she stood up and saw how the leader stood there, holding Sigmund tight as the men were returning to them. Eve stepped outside from the cave, holding the weapon in her hand and hoping she could still save Sigmund.

"Sigmund watch out!" was the last thing Eve shouted before pulling onto the trigger of the ancient weapon she held. A loud gunshot ran through the air and the bullet flew fast towards the gang leader. Even though he was fast and tried to dodge the bullet, it grazed his face. Shouting in pain he dropped Sigmund to the ground, who quickly took off, running toward Eve.

"Come with me, let's run through the cave!

Sigmund grabbed the hand of Eve, who was still in shock from the shot. Sigmund guided her through the cave and they both started the climb upwards. They both could hear the bandit leader shout in pain, but they didn't look behind them to see if they were following them. The hole in the cave ceiling was small, but large enough for them to fit through. Small enough to stop the men if they tried to follow them.

As they climbed up from the cave, they ran quickly towards the town.

How were they able to enter? My father has told me, none of the rabble living outside of our town should be able to enter!" Sigmund shouted while running, his voice trembling.

Eve looked up in the sky and could still see the purple shade of the force-field covering the area. It was supposed to stop anyone from entering the town and the woods around it unless they entered through the special entrances, which were heavily guarded.

"It's just as my father has always told us, the people living outside are evil and do not deserve the safety of the ancient technologies our town has."

Eve could see how tears were running on Sigmund's face, but didn't know if he was more angry or afraid.

They finally arrived at the town. The run back home seemed longer than the run to the woods. The guards were patrolling on the muddy street, farmers were driving their wagons with horses and donkeys and the town was a mixture of partially demolished, ancient concrete buildings and buildings constructed from wood and bricks. Now they both knew they were safe again.

At least for now.

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All images from Pixabay!
_{Read the previous stories from the same world but different times and characters:
A cold story
Three short stories}