Chapter 3

And so the four bandits, Kea, Klepto, Tensu and Boro slipped out into to the night to catch themselves a king. By this time it was low moon, the tall grass feeling cold and dewy. Their work must be quick, for daybreak was due soon.

Benyos was sleeping peacefully, leaned against his new enphant friend. The animal did not stir at the sound of approaching hostiles and neither did the former king. No, not until the rustling of grasses was uncomfortably close.

Rustle rustle. Step, step, pm, step. These were the sounds that Benyos heard first. Followed by uneasy whispers, Is that him? ... Shhhh, idiot he'll wake. ...He's not wearin a crown... shuddup, it's him. So Benyos, careful not to open his eyes, slowly sat himself alert (as not to hint his awareness to the hostiles). Slowly he tightened a hand around each sword hilt. At the right moment, he would pull them quickly from their sheaths and strike. Closer he heard them. Closer, closer... Now!

Benyos opened his eyes suddenly and leapt to his feet. But a club to the head caught him off guard. No, it did more than that. Benyos the Wander, former king of Jenko, was officially knocked out cold by the mighty club of Boro. Now, one might think this an unworthy defeat for such a man of noble birth and intensive battle training. But even the toughest of men experience their own embarrassing defeat in their life, at one point or another. And so was Benyos knocked out. Before his body could fall to the earth, Boro caught the man and slung him over his shoulder.

Now. Benyos was not at all slight of frame, no. Tall and stately he was, rough and strong. But not so tall or strong as the gargantuan Boro. No, Boro was giant in his own right. Therefor, Benyos was slung readily over Boro's shoulder.

(What of the enphant? The giant beast simply laid there and continued to sleep. Not the most alert of creatures they were.)

The bandits returned quickly to their underground hideout, Boro carrying their hostage the whole way. Now the hideout was not a simple cave in the ground as one might think. There was a ladder that went down quite deep. (It was obscured from casual surveillance by the tall grasses.) And the ground that this ladder was connected to was not dirt. It was a hard wood flooring. And this flooring belonged to a tunnel which connected to what looked a bit like an underground cabin. There were torches on either side of the cabin door, it even had windows, which were shut at the moment. The sides of the cabin were obscured by the tunnel walls which were indeed of the earth. Inside this cabin were several rooms and chambers, some of which had windows upon the ceiling which looked toward the outside world above and allowed sunlight into the room. Most of them had no windows at all and were lighted with fire lamps or glowing lurid stones that had been dug up from the earth. This was the home of the seven bandits.

Now these four bandits, whom had done the act of kidnapping, sat about in a circle deciding what to do with their new ... loot. Is e really the king? Klepto asked, intently scanning the expensive things draping the hostage. Klepto hailed originally from the Kingdom of Dretka of the peach stones. For most of his adult life, Klepto was a wanted man and he spent his days roaming from kingdom to kingdom. Recently, Klepto had escaped from a prison in Jenthamoon and that is what brought him to Kea's small band of outlaws. (Like his nickname implies, Klepto was a kleptomaniac. A theif of all theives.) It was not surprising that he was not familiar with the politics of Jenthamoon.

Of course he's the King, simpleton, hissed Tensu.

Klepto thought to himself for a bit and said, Then he's got one o' them magic stones on him don't he? You know? One of them teleportation rings.

Don't be silly, Klepto, Kea interjected. You can't steal one of those.

Wot? Why not?

You won't be able to get it off. Don't you know? Those rings graft themselves to the skin of the ruler wearing it. Death or amputation is the only way to remove one.

Well wot if I wanted to wear it, it'd graft to me too, right?

And here Tensu's patience caused him to answer curtly, No they only graft to royal blood. If you want it so badly why don't we just cut it off him.

Kea protested. There will be no cutting off fingers in my hideout!

Looking somewhat disappointed Klepto sighed, Fine then. He ain't wearin one anyhow.

You idiots, mumbled Tensu. Here's what we do. We write a ransom note to his dear old father back in Jenthamoon. We have Betty deliver the note and then we wait for their reply At the corner of the West Jenthamoon Forest. $7,000 we ask for. No less or we don't return him. haha. Just think of the chaos in Jenthamoon without their new king. They will pay any amount of money. heheh.

Boro and Klepto nodded their heads in agreement. I like $7,000, Boro mused. That was perhaps the only part of the plan he understood, but everyone understands money, especially when you are a bandit.

I don't know, Tensu, Kea said thoughtfully. $7,000 seems like quite a bit to be charging for a man who won't return to his kingdom. What if he refuses to return?

How do you know that, Kea? He moit just be on a little vacation for himself, Klepto wondered.

It's obvious, Klepto. He's a runaway now. He doesn't even call himself King Jenko anymore. He thinks he is Benyos the Wanderer. No ... believe me. He will not return.

No matter, Tensu said snidely. We will kill him and ship his body back to his kingdom after, of course, we collect the ransom.

No, we won't be killing him, Tensu, Kea said sternly to the evilish bandit.

Why, love, why do you care? Tensu's eyes gleamed with mischievous glee.

I don't. But there is no need for unnecessary blood shed.

This is why women should not lead troupes of outlaws. Your kind are far too soft. When Tensu spoke, he did so in a snakelike manner. He never yelled and he was rarely truly angry. Always slow and sneaky with the occasional striking word. He always had some sort of plot to carry out, for the gears in his head never stopped turning. Never.

Deal with it, Tensu. I don't need your opinion, and Kea left the dispute there. Tomorrow we will write a note to Jenko's father and Betty will deliver it the day after that. If Jenko refuses to go, we shall have to do it in a kidnapping fashion again. It is not our problem if he runs off again. And I will agree to the ransom price of $7000, he is the king after all.

And with that the bandits all retired to their separate cubicles for the night and dragged their hostage to a windowless chamber which used only the glow of dug up stones for light.

Benyos slowly opened his eyes. His head throbbed wildly with pain. It took him a moment to clear the smog from his thought and to remember the events of that last night. Yes, the embarrassing realization hit him swiftly, he'd literally been defeated by a bandit wielding nothing more than a club. How could one such as he be overcome so easily? Vexed by this thought, Benyos rose slowly to his feet. He would discover an escape route from this chamber. Thinking that the entire hideout may be as dark as it was here, Benyos grabbed a few of the glowing stones piled in the corner. (Any light, no matter how dim, is valuable.)

So Benyos meandered slowly through the dark chambers of the bandits' hideout. Because the floor of the entire place was wood, his wanderings did not go unheard. Soon, Benyos would find himself running into the most unpleasant of encounters.

Some say he was not fully human, that he knew no speech of any tongue. Some say he was merely a savage intune with only the most basic human needs. Whatever was true about him, a creaturish man was lurking in the darkness. Listening to the clump, clump, clump of the prisoner's boots, boots, boots. This was how he hunted...

This concludes Chapter 3 of Benyos the Wanderer.

Next time Benyos will find himself face to face with a very unpleasant encounter. We will also be introduced to the rest of the bandits. Will Benyos escape or will the bandits be able to carry out their plan for ransom? Find out in Chapter 4.