Aiden exhaled. It was the first time he had ever really had to kill somebody, and although he did it efficiently at the time, he was a bitten shaken by it after the fact. His plan had worked flawlessly. The bandit he sole the crossbow from called his bluff and charged at him with a dagger. A quick smacking sound and a hissing dart found itself buried in the man's neck. Though he [i]was[/i] aiming for the heart, he was used to a bow, and was a little unsure about how the crossbow would shoot. As soon as he shot, the other two bandits charged at him, knowing he couldn't reload fast enough to hit them. So naturally, Aiden ran. But The bandits ran right into his trap. The second one was right behind him until suddenly he tripped on a rope strung between some trees. Aiden quickly turned around and smash the but of the crossbow to the bandit's head. The third bandit cam around the bend in time to see his comrade take the blow and stopped in his tracks. Now, the bandit has seen two of his comrades defeated by one kid, and he could see the boy was ready for him to make a move. Which in fact, he did. He decided to cut his losses and high tail it before he was next!

In Aiden;s heart, he felt a bit of pride, that he was able to kill a couple bandits and return the favor from seven years ago. He quickly started to make work of the bandits. He took their belts, a dagger, four more bolts, and a club. He tucked the dagger down his mid calf length boots, and stuck the club at his belt. To Aiden's dismay, this lot seemed to not fancy carrying a sword with them. He started to walk back to where he left Serra last. "Serra? Its all right now, you can come out." 

... no reply.

"Serra?" He rounded the corner and saw she wasn't there. "SERRA!" He shouted frantically. He noticed some boot prints approach her hiding spot and some signs of struggle in the adjacent foliage. There was a place in the mud where it looked like someone could have fallen, with the large footprints leading up to it. And the only footprints walking away, were not that of Serra's. Meaning she had been taken. Aiden cursed bitterly, he was careless. He stood up from where he was inspecting the ground. And started to follow the trail.
---
Over time the trail became harder to follow and he lost track if it. It had been two days that he had been tracking the bandit, and it seems as if the bandit knew he may be followed and made every attempt to cover his tracks. while it wasn't enough to keep him from being tracked, it was enough to slow Aiden down to where he started to notice that the tracks were getting older, not newer, showing that he was falling behind. He stopped to think.

If a bandit were to kidnap a girl, it would probably be to sell her....hopefully. the only place to do so would be at a nearby town, and for this kind of shady business, it would have to be a large one. The closest large city he could think of is Loadwater, which was where they were headed in the first place. If Aiden was to catch up to Serra, skipping ahead and finding her at the point of sale would be his only chance. So he marched on toward his original goal.

Upon arriving at Loadwater he could get a strange vibe like he shouldn't be here. There were odd temples that looked fairly new, and plenty of gallows. All the people seemed quiet and uninterested to talk. He arranged one of the belts he got from the bandits into a makeshift sling so that he would have to carry it in hand. He sat down at a public bench and pulled out his journal that he kept for his sister. It already had so many outlandish stories in it, but holding it now just seemed to bring him pain. Something told him that his sister and father weren't dead, but at the same time, he didn't have an explanation for what happened either. He wanted to write, but he felt to bothered by all the recent events and put it back in his pouch. 

It was at that moment that the gong sounded. Instinctively, he started to look for a place to hide, from all those years of practicing with the bell at his hometown, but this sounded different. He stood up and looked around to see people stop what they were doing and start to mass at the gallows. That strange feeling he had before about this city, seemed like it was about to be confirmed. Especially when he caught site of a person without any white in their eyes. That made him do a double take and a step back.

Without looking at where he was going, he seemed to have bumped into someone, and when he turned around to apologize, he was stunned at whom he had found.

"A-Agurios? Brisa? Is that you!?" He said, shocked to see anyone from the town again.

(Sorry for the book, guys, I wanted to make a nice little catch-up post to get up to speed)