Chapter 33

The Bandits – Part 3

As she sat there watching the bandits and looking around the camp, she thought about how she could deal with these horrible people.

She thought about heading back to the church, but with the darkness that would be difficult, and she might end up tripping or being attacked by an animal. Even if she did get back, she didn’t think the villagers would jump on the bandwagon very easily to go and attack the bandits given all they had been through. Especially since many were quite weak from the lack of food.

So, she searched high and low at a good distance away from the camp for anything that could help her take them out. She found tents housing food, water, and what looked to be loot from their raids, given the dirty and what looked like blood in some cases gems, jewellery and other odds and ends. But eventually, she came across the equipment tent, which was full to the brim with swords, spears, daggers and all manner of armour.

She could gear herself up and take them on, but as she had thought before, there was still a lack of experience and a large number of bandits to fight. Another thought was to rid the tent of its gear, leaving the men to only fight using what they had on them, but even then, the swords and spears they had by their side just made that plan pointless.

As she moved to search somewhere else, she spotted a satchel poking out from the pile. She didn’t know what was inside but she had a couple of guesses given it was with the weapons.

Sneaking into the camp, away from the eyes of the slaves and the bandits, she made her way to the tent and entered it. Opening the satchel she found she was right.

Bottles filled the satchel, all holding different volumes of liquids of varying colours. Across each of them was a label with a symbol, which as far as she could tell, told the effect of the liquid. The symbols ranged from what looked like a church’s cross, to a snake’s head. But, the one that interested her the most was the cloud and moon. She racked her brain trying to figure out what it could symbolise. The cross probably had something to do with healing or dealing with the undead, should they exist in this world. The snake head was either venom or anti-venom. But the only thing she could imagine the cloud and moon to represent was sleep. That or something to do with werewolves, but she didn’t think that was likely.

If it was to do with sleep, she might just have something to help take out the bandits. But she just had to figure out if it did what she thought and how to get them to take it.

.....

…

The night dragged on, and the men grew drunker and drunker, with no sign of stopping, all aside from the boss who Olivia now saw had a very large sword at his side. While it grew darker and harder to see, the moon still gave her a source of light to see with, but Olivia knew she had to act soon.

She wondered if she could wait for them to sleep, but who knew when that would happen. Plus, she also figured that while they had no traps, the boss might end up being a lookout for the night. That, or this being a fantasy world, they might have something to sober themselves up and any number of them could end up on watch. The possibilities were endless.

As she continued to think about what to do, she heard the bunny-kin tell the girls she was going to relieve herself and started to walk away from them.

Olivia watched as the girl travelled just outside of the camp, heading as far away as the rope would allow, the light of the campfire hardly reaching where she was. At this point, a plan suddenly formed in her mind. A bad plan mind you.

‘I don’t know what else to do. I need someone’s help and she’s on her own. It’s now or never…I just hope this doesn’t cause some trauma for her down the road.’

Not seeing any other option on how to do this, she slowly snuck her way closer to the girl and waited for her to finish up. Then… she made her move.

Olivia dashed up behind the girl, and put one hand over her mouth and the other around her waist. They were just far enough away that the men and women in the camp couldn’t see her, and the drunken noise covered up the sounds of struggling from the girl. With all her strength though, the leg kicking and panicking didn’t hurt her. Mentally it did, given what she was doing, but physically, not so much.

“Shh, shh, calm down. I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to talk.” Olivia whispered into the girl’s ear, as she pushed and struggled against Olivia’s grip.

Nothing changed as she heard Olivia’s voice, so she tried again.

“Please, just stop and listen. I’m here to help”

She continued to shift about, but it seemed that managed to get through to her as she slowed down her movements. After a while, she ended up limp in Olivia arms, knowing that there was no way out of her grip.

“Listen, I am here to help. I’ve come from the village that was attacked by these bandits to save you. I just need you to calm down and listen to me. Ok.” Olivia said, before waiting for some form of response. She then realised she still had her hand over her mouth. “Nod if you understand.”

The girl quickly nodded her head.

“Ok good. Now, I’m going to release you ok. I want you to stay where you are, talk very quietly and… try not to look at me. My appearance will probably startle you and that’s only going to lead to us getting caught. Do you understand?”

After a slight hesitation, the girl nodded again.

Olivia then made good on her word and slowly moved her hand away from her mouth and waist. The girl thankfully followed her instructions and remained facing forward.

“Now, I think I know how to deal with them, but I need your help. First, do you know what this is?” Olivia said as she brought the bottle in front of the girl, the low light being just bright enough to show off the symbol. Thankfully, it wasn’t good enough that she could see the colour of her hand. It didn’t occur to her, that she would be able to see how much larger her hand was compared to humans or elves, but while that was the case, the girl didn’t spare it a second thought.

“Where did you find that?” The bunny-kin whispered in a quiet voice.

“I found it where they stored all their weapons. Do you know what it does?”

The girl quickly grabbed the bottle.

“Wha-” Olivia managed to get out before she was cut off.

“Of course I do. It’s mine. It’ll put whoever drinks it to sleep.”

Olivia was a little confused by this. How was this bottle the girls? Does this mean that the rest of the bottles in the satchel were hers as well?

Putting those thoughts aside as the bandits needed to be taken care of first, she spoke about her plan.

“Ok good. I was thinkin-”

“-Put it in their drinks so they fall asleep. Got it.” The girl said as she stood up and walked and started walking over to the camp.

“Errr.”

Olivia just sat there stunned. She thought she would get confirmation of what it did and have to place it in their drinks herself somehow before one of the girls then took it over to them. That or she would be hesitant about wanting to hurt people. Yet here she was, stupefied as she watched the girl just stroll over to the drink tent and dump about half the bottle into the ale that was going to be served.

…

Olivia quickly managed to break out of her stupor and journeyed back over to where she had a good vantage point of the men. Once there, it wasn’t long before she saw the bunny-kin very calmly bring the bottle over and start pouring drinks.

The men groped her as she did, but it hardly seemed to affect her. Whether this was due to knowing it should hopefully be over soon, or she just really wasn’t affected, she had no idea. Given her collected response when Olivia was talking to her, it may be the latter.

In the brush, she watched as the girl headed away and the men heartedly gulped down their drinks.

But as before, it was all but one that did this.

The boss was still slowing down his consumption, trying to not get blind drunk, and was only taking small sips of his drink.

After a good few minutes as he slipped from his drink, his eyes started to get droopy, and he had to shake his head to stay awake. But once he got his eyes opened, he looked at his colleague and realised that all of them had collapsed on the floor asleep.

“What?!” He shouted, quickly standing up. He wobbled as he did and nearly fell sideways. Holding one hand on his head to steady himself, he waved his other around trying to find his sword.

Having seen all this happen, Olivia knew she had to act fast.