Ren groaned and winced as a wild, sharp pain surged through his head. A musty stench slipped into his nostrils as he tried to inhale. Gentle clinks were the first sounds he heard, followed later by constant creaks.
He reached for his head but his hand refused to move past his chest. He finally forced his eyes open to see metal cuffs locked around his wrists and tied down with a chain slipping through a loop anchored to the ground. He felt that he was moving, or being moved.
He raised his head. Five men sat opposite him, chained in the same way. Beside him, about four men were cuffed down too.
"Shit. Not again," he groaned.
He tugged hard at the chains, but they didn't bulge.
"Hey! I'll kill you if you pull that chain again." The man opposite him yelled in anger.
"It is no use. Only them hunters know how to unlock the chains," an older man beside him said, with a strong local accent.
Ren's eyes traced the chains again, through the rusted loop and up to the wrist of the angered, brawny man in front of him.
'I simply asked to be healed. This is too much for a freaking trial!'
His chain-mate spat in front of him. Others beside him joined in the act, like they were waiting for him to initiate the disgusting ritual.
"What was that for?"
Ren grimaced as he caught sight of their sputum in front of him.
"You should pay the kid some respect. After all, he saved them from the excessive taxes."
"Curse that!" The spitting initiator barked back at the older man.
"He is a nuisance. A murderer."
"And you're better?"
The older man continued.
"He has the mark that only the worshippers of the ancient god of chaos have, so it is only natural for him. But he is definitely an agent of balance."
"Balance my arse! If he was so much of a good thing, the Golden Seat wouldn't want him dead."
Ren's eyes shifted between them like a lost child's. He had no slightest idea what they were rattling about, but one realisation struck him—this whole trial was fucked up.
His eyes went down to the lock again.
"You know what?" Ren said, smiling. Brawly snarled at him.
Ren yanked the chains to himself, forcing his chained partner to the floor. His face smashed into the pool of saliva that he and his hateful colleagues had made.
"You're one extra jerk that life has thrown my way, and I just want you to know that I don't like jerks."
Brawly sneered back at him, pissed, as he pushed himself off the floor.
"I will kill you before the Golden Seat can."
Horses neighed and stomped. The cuffed men jolted forward, almost falling on the floor.
Ren heard murmurs and voices yelling about a rift and a bridge.
"Take them out," The Courteous Gunman's voice sounded from outside their carriage.
A loud click echoed and the back of the carriage they were in swung open. A stern-looking man hopped onto the carriage.
Without a word, he started unlocking their chains with a ragged key.
"Step out. And don't even think of running," he said when he was done.
They hopped out. Ren took in the view of his environment. It was almost as dry as the desert with jagged, sunburned mountains streaked with shades of rusty brown that added a weird beauty to the plain.
The road they'd been travelling on was nothing more than a narrow track carved by countless wagon wheels. On either side, thorny shrubs danced angrily in the wind, and far in the distance, a single black vulture traced slow circles in the orange sky.
He noticed men with shotguns lined outside by the side of the carriage and he quickly understood that running was a death sentence.
"Are you sure bringing them out is the best option?"
"I'm not losing my money, if that's what you mean," Gunman raised a brow at the stern man.
"If you've got a better idea on how to cross the rift without using that old bridge, and without losing my fortune makers, then fire away."
The stern man looked at the old wooden bridge that ran across a large canyon, and then scratched his head.
"No? Thought as much. Round them up. We'll follow the rift down to where it's crossable."
The stern man grunted. Ren and the other chained people were all rallied together and led off the sandy road into the area with sparse grass by the armed men.
The Gunman led the way on horseback, followed by the stern man and two others.
A soft crunch made the horseback entourage stop.
"Did you hear something?" Gunman said, his hand resting on his revolver.
The stern man shook his head. They scanned the area again before they resumed the journey.
The rift was a gaping canyon. It looked steep enough to hide a skyscraper, wide enough to contain a river and long enough to be a road. Ren peeped into it, it was darker than night down there.
The sun slowly began sinking into the horizon, filling the sky with a deep orange tinge.
"We'll have to camp," Gunman said as he hopped off his ride.
"I love my treasures in good shape," he winked at Ren.
Ren glared back at him.
The armed men dragged them to a large rock and forced them to sit on the sandy floor. Ren grunted, pain surging through his joints, back and head as he sank to the ground.
Brawly dropped beside him. The close proximity made Ren uncomfortable. The only person who could ever be that close was Mace, and that was because he was a good person.
The men set up a fire and sat around roasting steak that smelled like century-old eggs. As the men roasted, they tossed nibs of meat at their captives. The captives struggled for a bite like hungry dogs. Ren's stomach growled, but he refused to heed its complaints.
He kept on staring at Gunman, specifically at the rolled-up paper that he slid into his boots.
A smile curled up Ren's face. 'Must be something too special to hide.'
The night was a direct contrast to what the day was. Aside from the darkness, the cold that came with it was unbelievable. The tunic Ren wore did little against it. The prisoners were shivering, their teeth gnashing and clattering, in the cold.
The captors had sleeping bags and a whole fire to keep them warm throughout the night. Some of the prisoners sat closer, but Ren's paired captive refused to even come an inch close. Ren shifted farther from him, wary of the killer stare he kept throwing at him.
Slowly, Ren was drifting to sleep, even with the cold biting at his skin.
Thud!
Something dropped at a distance, waking him up from his half-sleep state.
The horses neighed and clamoured about the post they were tied to.
He squinted ahead of him, past the sentries who were already scanning around with their shotguns. With the aid of the fire, he caught a round, huge shadow moving in the dark.
'Is that a rock?'
In a blink, it disappeared. Ren rubbed his eyes and focused again behind the fire.
A pair of red glowing orbs appeared behind the horses.
"Fire!" one of the guards shouted, fumbling for his rifle.
He fired a shot in the direction of whatever those orbs belonged to.
A strangled scream ripped through the camp, followed by the violent snap of ropes. The horses bolted into the dark, dragging the ropes behind them.
"We are dead," the old man said, bowing his head somberly.