"Who is there?" Zoeske asked from inside the tight container, unable to see anything other than what seemed like an unlimited darkness. He felt the container jostling whenever they moved fast, which made him realized he was on a horse-drawn carriage traveling on a rocky path, which was strange. As the horse slowed down and the jostling become gentler, he felt the direction of gravity shift slightly. He immediately felt a sense of relief after he noticed the path the bandits were taking him to was actually the one and the only path leading to The Malin Village.

  "A rocky way and moving upward," Zoeske said. "They must be a Malinians."

  With no warning, the box jostled with a strong force, and Zoeske's face hit the sides of the container. The horse stopped moving, and the sounds of two people's footsteps were getting closer. Zoeske started to sweat while his eyes widened and anxiously shuffled around, scanning the surrounding and waiting for the inevitable confrontation with the bandits. Presumably, they should never have stopped at this isolated area, which Zoeske knew about how isolated this path is by looking at the map. He expected these bandits to have stopped at the beginning of the mountain path to The Malin Village. Thus, many bad scenarios that might happen to him flashed through his mind.

  Slowly, the container, which appeared to be a huge wooden box covered with a rag to prevent Zoeske from looking through the holes, began to open. Zoeske was finally able to see the bandits. But they were masked, poorly masked, so some parts of their faces were evident. They screamed, "Come out!" Their voice was softer than those of regular adults, and Zoeske wondered if they are young or just sounded that way.

  The first bandit looked fit and tall. He was kind of gentle and elegant in his movements. However, the other one was the opposite. He was overweighted and looked clumsy. Neither of them showed any real threat, which Zoeske had sensed. And fortunately, this had calmed Zoeske down a bit from the nervousness he felt for a while.

  "Move fast," the other one said. They tied Zoeske's hands before putting him inside the box while he was unconscious. "Who are you?"

  "I'm pretty sure this is my question," Zoeske said.

  "Confident huh?" the first one said. He pulled his dagger from his belt and pointed it towards Zoeske's face.

  The other one seemed nervous. He said, "Huh? Wait, aren't you exaggerating? Mister Jacha will kill us if he know we are threatening people."

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  "Shut up," the first one shouted. "We barely see him. He has no right to rule us."

  Zoeske carefully observed what was happening, trying to find a way out of this situation. Once he heard the emotional turn of the first bandit, he said, "I can see it from here, you look similar to Jacha."

  "How do you know my father?" he responded.

  Zoeske thought (that was pretty easy). He said, "I have heard he is brave, miraculous of Malin, and you too share the same traits. I can even see you surpassing him someday."

  The first bandit blushed. He said, "Sh - shut up moron, tell us who you are?"

  "My name is Zoeske, and I came to The Malin Village to meet Jacha. He is my father's friend." Zoeske said.

  The other one's nervousness grow evidently. He said, "Oh no, we are in trouble."

  The first bandit looked at the other one in an irritated way. He said, "We will let you go, but promise us to not tell anyone about what we have done to you."

  "Not before I see you're faces" Zoeske said.

  "Humph," The first bandit mumbled.

  ...

  "Woah ... what happened to your both hair?" Zoeske asked, surprised.

  "What?" both bandits replied, confused.

  "It's like you two have burnt your hair," Zoeske said.

  "Shut up, we have kinky hair since birth and our skin is darker than yours too," bandit one said. "You ignorant, didn't you know there are many races other than yours?"

  "It is probably his first day after leaving his cave," the other bandit said.

  "Anyway, we have done what you asked for." the first bandit said. "We gonna leave now."

  "I want to meet your father," Zoeske answered.

  "You are wasting your time," the first bandit said. He walked toward the horse, prepared to leave. "He is coming back after two weeks and even when he is here, I am his son, I barely see him."

  "I can wait him there," Zoeske said. "Please take me with you two."

  The two bandits looked at each other, wondering why he insisted on going there. Both knew about how bad their own village's reputation was in the region. Even though, Zoeske didn't care about that.

  The first bandit said, "our village is in a bad situation recently. We can't bear having guests. Come back after two weeks, and I think that is too a bad idea."

  "Hey," Zoeske desperately smiled. "My father is a merchant, you know what does that mean? and how much a ransom can be worth?"

  Both bandits looked at each other again, and sigh loudly. They felt sympathy towards him offering himself to be a hostage. The first bandit looked at Zoeske. He said, "we are bad, but not that bad. Don't get us wrong, we still believe you will leave our village after the first day. Take a step on the carriage, we are moving."

  The way to the Malin village should take six hours. Zoeske sat quietly in the horse-drawn carriage, looking at the harsh terrains in this area. They had almost taken everything from him, and he was hesitant to ask for water. He waited for hours until they reached the village. It was already close to midnight, but someone was standing at the entrance of the village. That brought a chill into both of the bandits, and made Zoeske confused about what was happening and who was waiting for them?