Quest of the Bounty Hunter: Kidnapped

Disantia

Disantia and Elizabeth rode off at the first light, their packs laden with only enough food and water to last them the day.

"How many miles away did you say we were?" Disantia asked loudly over the thundering hooves.

"50." Elizabeth answered. "Should be there in 2 days. About 25 miles a day."
"I'm sure we could do 50 miles in a day if we traveled nonstop."

"Yeah, but these horses are old. That's the only way I got them for so cheap."

Disantia was silent for a while. "Do you have a layout of the castle?"

Elizabeth nodded. "From Klieria."

"When we stop for the night, we should look at it." Disantia suggested.

Elizabeth nodded again, but said nothing.

The silence lasted for over an hour. Elizabeth seemed to be occupied with watching over her shoulder for anyone following them and for any villages on the horizon. Disantia knew they should travel by the woods to avoid riding in open view of anyone who might be using the same road, but she just couldn't do that to the poor, elderly horses. And Elizabeth didn't say anything about it, so Disantia didn't ask to change their travel path.

They stopped for lunch, a drink of water and a short rest for the horses after 20 miles and 7 hours of boring riding.

"This girl had better be worth the effort." Elizabeth said disgruntledly.

"Oh, she is. Not only can she shapeshift herself, but if she is touching someone else they can both shift into a inanimate object." Disantia said defensively.

"Could be useful." Elizabeth said with a nod as she cupped her hands with water to splash over her face.

"Let's not waste any time here." Disantia said hopping back onto her horse. "C'mon."

Elizabeth jumped back up onto her horse and kicked her heels into its side to get it moving.

"It looks to be about noon. We should make it by nightfall at this rate." Disantia said as the horses began to gallop along the path.

After two miles, Elizabeth called over her shoulder,"There's a village. We'll have to ditch the horses and sneak around the outskirts."

"Why not go totally around it?" Disantia asked.

"We need more food. The innkeeper didn't let us take very much."

Dismounting their horses and letting them run free, Disantia and Elizabeth set off towards the village.

"Should we take our masks off and just go straight through?" Disantia asked.

Even though it was a bad idea to show people your appearance even if they didn't know you were a bounty hunter, it was even worse for them to see your mask and arrest you.

"I don't know. Can we risk that?" Elizabeth said pondering the idea with a frown.

"I'm always careful. I think we should be fine. Anyway, we can put our masks in our packs, take off the cloaks, and blend right in." Disantia said crossing her arms.

Elizabeth thought about it for a few more moments; she seemed torn between doing the easy choice versus the better choice.

"I guess that would probably be fine." Elizabeth finally gave in.

They removed their masks and cloaks and placed them in the pack that Disantia was carrying.

"Just two girl dressed in all black carrying weapons. Nothing suspicious." Elizabeth said with a stressed laugh.