Moonlit Sins - Vol 4. Chapter 5: Hunter & Maleva's Incursion

Chapter 5: Hunter & Maleva’s Incursion

The following day, Aurora dispatched Hunter and Maleva for another excursion.

This time, instead of being instructed to look after the village and protect her, they were asked to go much further away from Cherrywood on this incursion to hopefully uncover why these imperial soldiers were so interested in going to their home and hurting them. 

They weren’t given a lot more instructions than this by Aurora, so the entire point was for them to see if they could locate any more imperial soldiers in the region or whatever else clue that could help them figure out what the heck was going on right now. 

They followed a secret path in the woods, which brought them further away than they typically went.     

After travelling and trekking through nature for hours, they finally arrived in another town.

This small town was called Pine Rock and, even though it was only a tiny town, it was already a much bigger town than Cherrywood ever was or could ever hope to become. Pine Rock was also the closest town to Cherrywood.

When they arrived there, they soon went to the local inn, so they could finally sit down and have a bite after voyaging for so many hours. 

“I am starving!” Maleva informed Hunter.   

“I’m surprised you didn’t hunt something on the way to eat…” Hunter glanced up at his ravenous hunting companion with a grin. “Well then, let’s find a cozy corner and feast!” He said, giving Maleva a playful spank. Typical Hunter, always playfully teasing Maleva. He just loved watching her curves jiggle.

Taking Maleva’s hand, Hunter led her to a booth before calling over a barmaid. “Two ales, and three of whatever special you have today. My huntress is particularly famished.” He said with a playful wink.

It wasn’t too long before they were served to their table within the inn. The barmaid brought them their two ales and three servings of a special type of beef and vegetable stew and as soon as the food was brought to them, Maleva began eating two of the three servings. Hunter was entirely right. She was famished. He knew his woman. 

“This is so delicious!” she declared. 

Then, after they finished eating, the door of the inn opened and Hunter witnessed something that made him feel uneasy and uncomfortable right away—there was another group that showed up. More soldiers. The knights entered the inn and they all looked like they were searching for someone or some people, possibly a pair of people. 

“What’s wrong?” Maleva asked her boyfriend since she noticed that his expression changed suddenly. She couldn’t see the entrance of the establishment, but he could and this meant that he saw the soldiers first. The huntress had to turn around in the booth to finally see them…    

“No, do—” 

Too late. 

Before Hunter could stop the eager Maleva, she looked directly at the armoured group of imperial soldiers. They calmly surveyed the inn with calculating intent. 

Hunter grabbed Maleva’s hand, turning her gaze back to him. 

“Keep calm. They might be looking for us. Just act natural and keep a cool head.” He whispered this quietly to Maleva, taking a more serious tone than usual. The hairs on the back of his neck rose with trepidation.

“Right… But it still doesn’t make sense, how would they even know what we look like?” Maleva whispered to him, questioning this entire thing.

“You’re making a great point…” Hunter didn’t know for sure what this was all about… 

It wasn’t often that Maleva agreed to keep a low profile like this while she was supposed to be having supper.

The soldiers could very well be looking for… 

Time will tell…

Nothing was too certain yet…  

The many soldiers searched the inn, scaring mostly everyone within the establishment, including the innkeeper, a bald, bearded man who was very shy and charming. And now the innocent innkeeper was being persecuted by these troops…

“What are you doing? What are you looking for?” The innkeeper asked them, full well knowing that these men were up to no good and that they hadn’t come here to have an ale or a bite…       

“We are looking for two dangerous outlaws. We are aware that they come to hide in this town. We are looking for a young man and a woman. The man in question has brown hair and he’s a skilled fighter. The woman has red and green hair and she’s said to be a dangerous and barbaric huntress. We want them,” the captain in charge of these soldiers shouted within the inn ordering everyone to bring Hunter and Maleva right to them.  

“They know we’re here…” Maleva whispered to Hunter, trying to hide her long hair as much as possible using her tunic, beginning with shoving her ponytail inside of her sleeveless shirt. 

Hunter grinned and shook his head.

The soldiers were after them and they were in grave danger. 

The soldiers began actively shoving and pushing people around, breaking things within the modest establishment as they searched for them!        

“Good thing we ate before this. Now time to burn some calories! Come on!” Hunter grabbed Maleva by the arm and rose to his feet, pulling her along. They couldn’t stay here, but there was no way they could escape unseen either. Taking off down the back hall, Hunter pushed through an exit into the back alleyway. 

Looking in either direction, he knew anywhere would be better than this. The loud clamouring of stomping boots thunder closer to them… 

However, when they went for the exit, they realized pretty early on that there were more of them outside, waiting for them, predicting that they were going to try to run away. But there was something different about the group of knights that they ran into outside… An older man was wearing a black and white outfit leading the group. He looked like a butler. 

“Please don’t run, we don’t want to hurt you,” the butler-looking man raised both of his arms in the air and desperately attempted to calm the situation down a bit. 

Hunter and Maleva froze for a second.

“Let us go!” Maleva shouted, ready to battle at any moment now.

“No, you don’t understand… You have been invited to the castle. The prince requested to see you, two…”