Chapter 21
Estella woke up Thomas since the two of them agreed to switch again once the sun came up. Before Thomas started pulling the cart he brought out his canteen and drank some water--waking up Annie to feed her some after he had his fill. Although it was a bit awkward, Thomas checked Annie to make sure that she didn't have an accident in her sleep; thankfully she was still clean. The three of them then continued on the road.
Estella had calmed down yet again and was willing to talk to Thomas. They didn't speak many words along the way but Thomas told Estella about the encounter with the illegal slave trader when he was younger and how the bandits trapped him in a cage. Those weren't the only reasons why he opposed slavery but she wouldn't believe him if he mentioned his past life or his resurrection and it was enough to allow her to understand his actions--even if it was just a bit. This past few days were eventful; if someone told him a week ago that he'd experience something supernatural then he wouldn't believe them.
Up ahead was a long straight path that went uphill. The hill was kinda steep so Estella pushed the cart from behind and made sure that Annie wouldn't fall out. The two of them felt tired before they had even finished climbing up the hill when Thomas suddenly got a second wind and started pulling faster. Estella almost fell and was about to yell at him until she saw why he was so excited.
There was still some distance between where they were and the city walls but they could at least see them from near the top of the hill where they were standing. They had actually made it. Getting to the top of the hill, Thomas and Estella could finally see the road leading up to the city and the city's gate. The people looked small at
Getting down the hill was a bit tricky since the cart wanted to roll down on its own so Thomas was forced to use the handles as breaks by digging them into the dirt at times. Their speed was much quicker downhill and soon they had reached the line in front of the city's gate. There were many guards watching over the crowd and they seemed to be looking for something.
The line wasn't moving so Thomas decided to signal the guards. "Excuse me, sirs! I really need to get into the city! My sister is badly injured and I need to get her to a healer!" To seal the deal Thomas forced himself to cry while Estella watched from the side in surprise.
A few of the guards decided to check on Thomas's group and had surrounded them--some with both hands on their spears. "Is that your sister laying in the cart?" Thomas nodded and the guard that seemed to be in command directed two of the other guards to check out the cart. After confirming Annie's injuries and making sure she was still alive they decided to bring Thomas's group to the front of the line. "Do you have anything that can prove who you are?" The only thing that could prove his ident.i.ty--the village family ledger--was in the hands of a bandit so he shook his head. "Turn over all weapons and armor. Right now the city is in lockdown but the three of you can be brought to the dungeon for now. Don't worry. You will be released after we confirm your ident.i.ty and there's a healer at the dungeon that can stabilize your sister's condition. All of your belongings will be returned to you after release."
Thomas didn't have much of a choice so he removed his chainmail vest and helmet to give to one of the guards--his gauntlet and pauldron were currently stored since they kept getting in the way. The longbow, arrows, dagger, and s.h.i.+eld that were in the cart were confiscated and a guard pulled the cart ahead of them while two guards escorted them from behind. The entrance to the dungeon was only a short walk from the gate.
Thomas and Estella had to write their names, their age, the name of the place they were born, and the place of their permanent residence or an identification number and the name of the organization they belonged to. Neither one of them belonged to an organization and Thomas didn't know where he was born so he left that part blank. Annie's paperwork didn't have even a single box filled in.
Annie was carefully placed onto a stretcher by two women wearing black robes before being taken away. "Don't worry, they're just taking..." the guard picked up the blank sheet of paper to look at her name and noticed it was empty. "... you forgot to fill out her paperwork. What's her name? I'll fill it in."
Thomas wasn't sure if Annie was even her real name. "I don't know. She called herself Ann."
"I thought you said that she was your sister." The guard filled in her name as Ann with a note saying that it might be a fake name but Thomas couldn't see what he was writing. "Do you know anything else about her?" After Thomas shook his head the guard let out a sigh and collected their paperwork.
Name: Estella
Age: 17
Place of Birth: Eastern Greenskin Alliance
Current Residence: None
Identification Number:
Organization:
Name: Gren
Age: 12
Place of birth:
Current Residence: Newton (destroyed)
Identification Number:
Organization: Foxhound
The hobgoblin's paperwork was normal so verifying her ident.i.ty should be easy. The boy's paperwork, on the other hand, raised a few questions. The boy was older than he looked, the boy marked that the village he was from was destroyed, and the guard had never heard of the organization that the boy wrote down.
For now it'd be best to just bring them to a cell and then report the paperwork to his superior so he could deal with it. "Follow me." The guard walked ahead and led the two of them to an empty holding cell. While closing them in he gave the two of them a small greeting. "Welcome to Adierton."