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punch through the skin. It was with only a small amount of resistance that the blade went through the man’s body completely.
     
    Out of the corner of his eye, Caleb saw one of the highwaymen emerge from the cloud of dust and prepare to attack. He never made it though. Caleb’s knife, which had been sheathed at his right hip the entire time, had wound up embedded into the highwayman’s forehead to the handle.
     
    Weight on his sword brought Caleb’s attention to the man that he had impaled with it. He had collapsed and was in the process of sliding off of the finely made longsword. Tilting the sword a little farther down sped up that process.
     
    With his sword half covered in blood, Caleb looked at the four living highwaymen. It seemed that their leader had picked up his sword and was prepared to take part in the fight.
     
    “Don’t attack him all at one time,” their leader suddenly said. “You’ll trip over yourselves, and if you’re going to die, then it best profit the rest of us. Attack him one at a time, and feel free to step in if you see a gap in his defenses.”
     
    He doesn’t talk like I thought a criminal would talk, Caleb thought idly. And why is he giving them orders loud enough for me to hear?
     
    He had no time to think further on the matter as one of the highwaymen ducked down and took off running towards him. The thrust that he aimed towards Caleb’s abdomen would have succeeded had the young man not been able to jump back and slap the attacker’s blade with his outstretched sword.
     
    The highwayman that had attempted to attack Caleb had been thrown off-balance by the way his attack was batted away, but that was not what did him in.
     
    Caleb quickly slammed his elbow into the side of the off-balance highwayman’s neck. It took little effort to place his left hand on the back on the man’s head and turn it suddenly. Using his elbow to force the neck to remain as it was, Caleb was able to snap the man’s neck, despite his lack of physical strength.
     
    Though Caleb had just taken out three men, the fight was over. The distinctive feel of metal slamming into the back of his head was the last sensation he experienced before unconsciousness took over.
     

Chapter 6
     
    As he finally reentered the realm of consciousness, one question plagued his mind. What’s going on? Groggily opening his eyes, he instantly became aware of a few things.
     
    The first thing that he noticed was that his feet were cold. They were also bare, his boots having been removed while he was unconscious.
     
    The second thing that he noticed was that his belt had been removed, meaning that his sword, his knife’s sheath, and his quiver were not on his body.
     
    And the third thing that he noticed was that he had a pair of metal cuffs around his wrists with a one foot long chain connecting them.
     
    What in the world is going on? At that moment, he remembered his encounter with the highwaymen. A sense of revulsion filled him as he remembered killing three men during the encounter. That revulsion was quickly suppressed, however, by the reminder that the men had been criminals that freely robbed travelers and had been willing to kill him.
     
    Why am I not dead? Confusion filled him as he tried to come to a conclusion in regards to what was going on. Surely they wouldn’t just leave me alive after I killed three of their men, would they?
     
    “So, you’re finally awake.”
     
    His eyes opened at the unexpected words, making him aware of the night sky. The feminine voice that spoke those words surprised Caleb. He had not expected to see or speak to a girl in the middle of nowhere.
     
    Sitting up, Caleb looked to the speaker and saw that there was a girl sitting about six feet away from him to his left.
     
    By the campfire that was about twenty feet in front of him, Caleb could tell that she was a thin girl close to his own age with relatively light skin. Tangled hair fell to her shoulders in a deep shade