Chapter 130
They crouched down and continued compact, Dag and Reidar forward and Karl further back.
As Dag predicted, there were guards.
Three men with torches stood still, about a hundred yards from each other.
Behind them, the descent continued, until it reached a small but high wooden palisade.
"Behind those wooden walls must be the operating base of those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds" Dag whispered, turning to his friends so as not to disperse his voice.
They approached a few more meters, remaining hidden in the vegetation.
Behind the fence, Dag spotted two roofs and a chimney, throwing out white smoke.
"There are only two houses behind those walls and they don't look very big. I don't think there are more than 20 men inside. Including the guards, they should be about 25" Dag continued.
As he turned to the enemy village, Dag noticed that a man was heading towards it, over a large wagon pulled by two battered horses.
"What the f.u.c.k is he doing?" asked Karl, observing the scene.
"Perhaps he is bringing supplies to the village. He must be one of them" Reidar replied softly.
Dag turned again to his companions, looking at them in the eye.
"Are you thinking what I think?" he asked wryly.
Reidar hinted at a smile as Karl tried to figure out what Dag was referring to.
"We will remain camped here until that wagon leaves again. We will follow it and use it to safely overcome that fence and kill the bandits' leader" Dag said, detailing the new plan to his teammates.
The three adventurers spent the night on the hill, among the branches of the dense vegetation on its summit, useful to hide them and to insulate them from the cold wind of the night.
When dawn came, Reidar woke Dag, touching his shoulder.
He rose in shock, believing they were under attack.
Reidar nodded his hand, urging him to crouch down so as not to be seen.
"The wagon has departed, Captain" he said, pointing Dag the chariot that had just left the enemy village.
This time there were two men on it and the horses seemed to have a lot less trouble dragging it: it had to be empty, they were going to get some supplies.
Dag and Reidar woke Karl up, making sure he didn't make too much noise.
The three guards were no longer guarding the village and the Sun was about to rise.
Taking advantage of the silence of dawn and the faint chirping of birds flying into the valley, Dag and his companions quickly descended the hill, heading for the wagon.
"We keep our distance. The wagon is moving slowly... at this rate, we will be able to keep up with it without being noticed" Dag said, suggesting his companions to hide if the two bandits driving the wagon should notice their presence.
The two bandits on the wagon spoke to each other as they shook the bridles of the horses.
They came even closer to the coast and Dag and his companions were forced to divert to a second hill, due to the poor vegetation of the stretch closest to the sea.
The other hill was like the first one and the three adventurers managed to overcome it with an eye on the chariot, whose speed remained constant.
"Who knows where they're going... perhaps in another country?" asked Reidar, imagining what the two bandits' destination might be.
"I doubt it, Reidar. If they are bandits as they seem, entering a country means attracting the attention of the guards and being outnumbered. I don't think they want to be caught, they're not that stupid" Dag said, never looking away from their objective.
After about half an hour, the wagon stopped in a clearing, having swerved inland.
It was a s.p.a.ce surrounded by trees, which allowed the young warriors to hide easily, in order to observe the movements of the two men, who were more than a hundred meters away from them.
The bandits got out of the wagon and one of them opened the rear doors, entering the wagon.
He came out soon after with two axes in his hand.
He gave one to his companion and together they headed for a large nearby tree, with a slender and resistant trunk.
One at a time, they repeatedly hit the trunk, coordinating.
Within minutes, the trunk detached from the roots and fell to the ground, emitting a thud and making all the insects and nested birds in the adjacent vegetation fly away.
The two men continued to hit the trunk, removing the protruding branches and cutting it into so many smaller pieces.
"They're just lumberjacks! They're going to bring that wood to their village... maybe they're going to expand!" whispered Dag to his friends.
"It's better this way... with those two hatchets, they won't be able to stop us" Reidar said, pulling out his bow.
"I think killing them is the only solution..." thought aloud Dag, who for a moment softened by the appearance of those two lumberjacks.
They looked like two helpless men, laughing and joking with each other... but being part of that group of bandits, they certainly weren't.
"I will now get up and walk towards them, saying that I am lost. Reidar, when you can aim one of them, hit him and I'm going to trap the other. We need more information before we launch the attack" Dag continued, explaining the plan to his teammates.
Reidar nodded and Karl tried to hide better among the shrubs.
As planned, Dag rose from his hiding place, pretending to walk in that direction by accident.
With a bewildered air, as he looked around, one of the two lumberjacks noticed his presence and both bandits immediately stopped cutting wood, pointing their weapons at Dag.
He raised his hands: "H... Hi!"
"And… who are you?! What are you doing here?!" one of them asked, while the other looked at him with an angry air.