The night went by as the cold winds are the only whispers there is, the adults that understood the harsh reality were the quietest, Jason's father seemed to be more worry, as day after day passed Jason noticed his father and a couple others were trading messages from behind the light, although the guards did not notice anything special.
One day one of the slaves collapsed from hunger, after him another, hunger and exhaustion was creeping onto the people, but everybody was too nervous to care about it
By sunset Jason's father collected some men
"The guards seem to scatter across the forest holding their lights, while only a few stay at the camp for its safety, if we use this to our advantage then we can make a way out" he told them" I have already told the rest about the plan"
One guard came to the stable shouting at everybody to go to sleep, for tomorrow they are going to another camp, silently the once chaotic men walked out one after another to their sleep chambers, it wasn't long before night fell and guards scattered across the dark grounds, only a very few stayed at the camp with their horns ready for any weird movements, one guard from the two guarding the door of the slaves heard a falling noise, as he opened the door his hors ready the other stayed behind for any unexpected incidents
Suddenly inside the house a rope from above hanged the guard that dared entry while a wooden homemade spear came fast from inside striking down the other, it was one made from the leftover planks of the reconstruction, the two guards had rusty swords but the slaves did not take much care of it, they drugged the body inside and took both swords
One was held by Jason's father and the other by one of his trusted friends, the bodies were hidden inside the chamber, the slaves went inside the forest seeing that there is no guard lights around, through the forest they seen lights moving around, Jason's father holding his daughter and son while guiding the group avoided every light as they walked across the forest, some were moving, others were still, step by step quietly they into an open field.
As Jason's father was about to give order to go back another way, a voice to shouted, "Fire", arrows struck from every side, not caring if it is a man, women or child, the group scattered like flies,
Jason's father held his boy's hand, and picked up his daughter and run towards the dark followed by some of his men, one of them spoke, "How? Weve seen enough lights in the forest for them to not have these many men ready to strike, and how did they know we were planning to escape"
Jason's father said "They planned for us to escape from the start, planted the roots for us to fall into their trap, they are having fun with this"
"They led us here on purpose to scatter us around and make us weak, they reduced our food portions and made us work harder for the same purpose as well" said Jason's father
"So, the lights were fake? Used to get us into the spider's nest?" said another one from the group
Some silence went by as they were running before it was Brocken "Yes, we are fighting a losing battle they already planned ahead"
As they run more This time there was no light, Jason's father asked
" How did they turn them off if they were all in that field" just to see one from a far not moving an inch
"Then going along what you said that light must be a decoy, said one holding a sword"
As they got closer, they saw a young boy with black hair holding the torch and an axe, on his cheek there was an eye symbol with many rings around it, one of the slaves holding a sword sprinted faster saying
"We need to strike him down before he alerts of our location" just to be shot by an arrow in the head, it came from the bushes,
Another one of the slaves spoke and said, "we need to go back we are not sure of the numbers" but behind them the guards have already caught up to them, while they were distracted the boy holding the torch threw an axe finishing another one of them, while from one sides an arrow struck another slave while a 2 other boys one with black and another with bland hear cut down some of them with their blades, Jason's father nervous and afraid upon his children went to the only empty side
This path seemed empty "If the others are to be bait, we can still survive" said the father, just to be met by the masked man in front of him
"Moving inside the spider's web only leads to your location young man," said the masked man
The father stopped in his place before putting down his daughter and telling his son "If you walk by the river, you will reach the mountains, there you will be able to survive" as he pushed his son away with his daughter, the son started running
The father thought to himself "I have a sword, a rusty one but a sword, he is without a weapon or maybe a knife hidden somewhere, if I strike him down fast, I can make it out with my children"
On the other side Jason running with fatigue and hunger covering both thought and body, on a small edge he fell along with his daughter into a mud holes, as he tried his hardest to get up, he heard the sounds of the guards saying they heard some noise, he did not have time to pick up his sister so he covered her with mud and stayed hidden behind the trees
Keeping eye contact with his sister, it was obvious that in her situation breathing without leaking voice wasn't an option, the guards came, searched and started going far searching a bit by bit, they were leaving just for his sister to cough, she couldn't hold her breath any longer, their eyes shined like wild beast, and with brutality they picked her up and set her on fire.
The screams, the smell of flesh, the look on her face, hunted Jason as he couldn't possibly do anything in that situation, they left her burnt body there, as what was left of her head fell of her body, Jason removed his shirt and put it inside of it
"You will have a proper burial" he said with eyes that have lost their light, the child that thought life can only be better as you grow older faced the harsh reality of life, as he walked back to tell his father the sad conclusion, he saw the corps of the people he spent his life with, when he finally reached his father, he saw him beheaded.
Without any reaction he added his father's head to the collection and walked out the forest, the guards weren't checking around no more, for they thought it all came to an end, as he walked towards the everlasting night, beside him the singing flow of the river was his only condolement, as he left the forest, his head wasn't filled with anger, sadness or revenge thoughts, he was just shocked, traumatized ,his eyes was as empty as the soldier's hearts, and yet he hadn't any emotion on his face.