"That's a shame," Ulric said to Dinah. "Maybe he'll be more of a challenge the second time around," he commented hopefully.

Ulric stepped toward John, looking at where the younger man was pointing and saw for himself that the tracks turned suddenly eastward. The slaver crouched down to examine them. "There's an extra set of tracks mixed in with 'em now" he said, his expert eyes noting where Water Snake's prints joined up with the others. "Maybe leading 'em judging by the way some of the new prints are tracked over by our quarry."

---

"Is the journey far?" Brinley asked Water Snake. "To the boats, I mean?"

Snake was speechless when Willow took his hand, he could only reply with a shy smile, it's the first time he was touched by a girl of such beauty. Brinley's voice took him back to the matter at hand, "Not too far, just hard" replied Snake. The docks where the boats and ships hang around isn't too far from the village, but the problem is actually finding one, and one that will accept slaves and ex-slavers no less.

---

Down by the docks, Captain Masamune was busy examining his maps on board his ship. It was a mighty vessel with numerous cannons on both sides and a figurehead of a dragon in front along with a battering ram. The ship flew no flag and was only equipped with huge red sails. Captain Masamune is a man no different from his ship. Tall and well-built, he is armored in red from head to toe, and armed with a katana on one side and a dagger on the other. Seated at the helm of his ship, he sighed and took off his helmet and rested it on his table. "These treasure maps are proving to be harder to read than I thought."

"Sir, movement ahead." One of the musketmen politely informed the duke, who nodded and moved to walk a few steps in fronr of the line of men. He soon recognized Ulric and the rest of the group. It had to be said that the group led by Alexander moved surprisingly fast - maybe the marching drills had really taught them a thing or two.

"I do hope you have some good news, Ulric." The tall nobleman's tone was slightly strained, but still polite. "I am assuming the property isn't trying to hide it's tracks too well, is it?" Alexander dropped on one knee next to Ultic and examined the tracks. "...You wouldn't reckon there are natives here?" He paused to think for a moment how to take this new possibility in to account. "I suggest we do not act with hostility towards the natives, at least for now the property is more important."

@Kelewen @Marcus XVI

John nodded. "Maybe they're in the village with the natives?"

@xChrome

Willow looked around and she said, "We'd best hurry. I have a feeling they're onto us now."

Ulric's eyes narrowed slightly in irritation when Alexander and his henchmen showed up. He'd purposefully left without them and hoped that the Duke would have taken the hint. The slave hunter should have known better.

"Most likely," he said, agreeing to the theory about natives. He'd encountered various tribes over his life and it was hard to say how they'd react to outsiders. Some were openly hostile while others had been inviting. "Maybe send a few of your fastest men ahead to scout it out so we know what we're walkin' into?"

---

Now that the pace had slowed enough to allow the group time to look closer at their surroundings, Brinley couldn't help but marvel at the strange and wonderful plants here. She'd spent most of her young life herding sheep in the hills close to Port Harwick where most of the trees had long since been timbered out to make room for grazing land.

Here, everything was so bright! The plant leaves were so many vibrant shades of green that she didn't even know existed before today. And some of them even had large flowers of bright reds and oranges. "It's so beautiful," she said out loud even though she was mostly talking to herself.

When her gaze shifted ahead, she noticed the trail where Water Snake was leading them seemed to split; one path continuing on along this side of the river and other toward a rather perilous looking bridge. "Do you think we're going to cross that?" she said back to Gregor, Szandor, and Oliver.

@Kelewen

John looked between the two men. He did not like noblemen much, due to the fact he used to work for one. He had been heavily abused, which was where he had gotten the scar that went down his face down to his neck.

Willow continued walking, then she fell behind, bringing up the rear. She felt uneasy about all this.

Oliver nodded violently and started to run across the bridge, with a grin. He raised his stick in the air and shook it. He then pointed below them, towards the water, and shook his head. He was about halfway across the bridge, waiting for the others.

Ulric and the Duke's chatter drew the attention of the village scouts, it didn't take long for them to track them down. They noticed roughly 15 men, armed with weapons of all sorts, the prime picture of danger. One of the scouts headed back to the village to warn the elder, while the rest remained hidden and followed the slaver's every move.

@DriveEMOut

Snake was walking down the river as he saw Oliver running past him and onto the bridge, he tried to stop him but he was already halfway across. Oliver's speed took him by surprise and he shouted, "Come back, bridge not safe, road to other village!". And indeed the bridge leads to another village, though not one belonging to one of Snake's people. Many different tribes inhabit these lands, they mostly avoid contact with one another but Snake knows that those who live across the river aren't too fond of foreigners.

Oliver rushed back across, his speed remarkable. He wrote another sentence in the dirt. 'We get weapons before we go? Please?' He looked hopefully at Snake, pleading with his eyes. His eyes were boring into Snake's, searching for something inside the man.

Alexander closed his eyes for a brief moment as he straightened back to his feet. "That is a good idea. With our luck we'll be outnumbered and I'd rather avoid a fight if I can..." He wouldn't send his men in to possible danger without a good enough reason - after all at this point the members of his personal guard were his friends, they had fought many battles together. "...Still I suggest we stay together for now. Maybe a larger group will give the natives enough of a reason to stay away from us." The duke barked a few orders and two of the musketmen moved roughly 50 feet away from the rest of the group. Far enough to work as eyes and ears, but not quite far enough that retreating back would become a dangerous task - ofcourse if they would get ambushed, now that would be a completely different situation. The tall man glanced at Ulric and smiled faintly. "Perhaps we should continue following the trail?"

Snake looked at the sentence written by Oliver, but sadly he could not understand a word, his understanding of their language is only limited to speech and not reading. He looked over to the other slaves while pointing at the sentence and shrugging, hoping that they would provide him a translation.

---

Meanwhile across the river, another native observed from a distance, though not one from Snake's tribe. Oliver's actions on the bridge caught his attention. This man seemed dangerous, and has tribal markings all over his face and body. Armed with a bow and arrow, he took aim at one of the slaves and fired an arrow...

@xChrome

Willow looked. "He wishes to know whether we'll get weapons before we go."

Oliver turned towards the bridge, and his eyes grew wide. He fell to the ground, an arrow embedded in his shoulder. Blood was visibly pouring out, and his face was drained of color, Oliver being shocked. He made a strange grunting noise, and pointed to his shoulder, blood pooling very slowly beneath him.

Willow's words entered Snake's ears the same time the arrow pierced Oliver's shoulder, Snake reached out to grab Oliver before he falls to the ground. Snake turned towards the direction the arrow was fired and spotted the other native, the other native made a sound mimicking a bird which is a signal for his people to come and join the hunt. Snake wanted to run across the bridge and stab the native badly, but right now his priority is set on stopping Oliver's bleeding. He could not remove the arrow as it would just worsen the bleeding, Oliver requires medical attention but they could not turn back, the slavers are probably at the village by now. He handed his spear to Willow. Luckily or not, Oliver was a kid so Snake could lift him with ease, he did so and exclaimed to the other slaves, "We run, now!"

The Duke's faint smile irritated the slaver more than it really had reason to. But Ulric continued along the still-obvious trail with the others, keeping his thoughts to himself as they drew closer to the village. A bit of slick and stealthy movement caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He kept his eyes straight ahead and his tone level so as not to alert the one shadowing them, he said quietly to the others. "The natives know we're here. There's at least one following us ... off to the right."

@DriveEMOut@xChrome

Willow helped to catch Oliver. "Oliver!" she choked out. She looked at Snake as he picked up Oliver and she nodded, holding Snake's spear. She began running bringing up the rear.

Rain a 19 year old maiden wakes up and wonders where she is and why nobody is nenearby. She stands up as the broken chain drags behind her as she walks, she continue to walk hoping she could find someone. She sits down resting a bit before she continue her journey to find anything useful on this island.

Szandor felt a rough shove by willow as the others ran by him. He saw the young mute boy in the natives arms but was unsure what had happened. The pain and dehydration made his head swirl as he started to run again to keep up with the others.

"Where are we going?", he screamed.

@Hundsgugel

Willow said, "We're running to the docks! Hurry now!"