It was a beautiful morning, the sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly, warming his cold body from the night before. He didn’t really care about the nature around him. All he cared about was getting some food in his hungry stomach. He hadn’t eaten for days and was absolutely starving. Somewhere in the distance he heard hoof beats approaching. He didn’t want to be seen because you never knew who it was. He went off the path and crawled away in the thick bush beside the path.

Several minutes later he saw three men on horses approaching. He didn’t recognize the men and saw several bags attached to the horses. ‘Food!’ he thought immediately but could he overpower the three men? They weren’t armed as far as he could see and he was strong. But should he risk it? He didn’t have much time to think it through but in the end his hungry stomach won the battle and he decided to take his chances. He grabbed his knife and crawled through the bushes getting ready for his attack. He hoped his advantage of surprise would get him through this as he jumped out of the bushes in front of the first horse holding the knife in front of him as a threat. The men reacted immediately and halted their horses.

“Do you have food?” the man with the knife asked. The first man, Steve, nodded in response.

“Hand it over” he ordered. The first man nodded again and reached inside his back. He knew there was something in his bag he really needed right now. The man who was still holding the knife averted his eyes to the two other men behind Steve and Steve took the opportunity.

*BANG* Steve fired the pistol, he got out of his bag, in the air. The man with the knife jumped at the shrill noise and fell down to the floor, trying to protect himself. Fearfully he looked up, seeing Steve dismount his horse and quickly moving towards him. The other two men also dismounted. As they came closer, the man on the floor recognized the three men. He mentally kicked himself for not recognizing them sooner. The three men were guards of the king! How could he have NOT seen this?

“Don’t move!” one of them instructed. The man on the floor froze. The third one looked him over, lifting his head so he could see the man’s face before he grabbed the knife which had fallen to the floor when Steve fired his pistol.

“What should we do with him?” the man with the gun asked the second one who was obviously the leader of the three.

“Um…” the second man pondered the question.

“We could… We could take him with us to the palace; we don’t have enough man supplies. We could use a strong man like him” They literally decided his destiny and the man on the floor cringed at the thought. They are making me a slave! His mind screamed.

“Good idea sir!” the third one exclaimed before jogging to his horse to get some rope.

“Yeah very good idea if I do say so myself,” the leader beamed. “Alright tie him up so we can go” he instructed while the third man returned with the rope. He walked over to their newly found slave and grabbed his hands pulling them out in front of him. He quickly tied the man’s hands together then he attached a rope to the rope around his wrists to pull him along.

“What’s your name boy?” he asked while he pulled the man up. The man didn’t answer him. He followed the man who pulled at the rope. As they passed the second man, he got a lash from the horse’s whip and he winced.

“What’s your name?” the man asked who slapped him, holding the whip ready to strike again.

“JC” the man answered. The second man looked him over once more before nodding, giving the third one the signal to pull him along to his horse. He mounted his horse and bound the rope to his saddle before setting off towards the palace. Forcing JC to run along with the speeding horse as the three men laughed amused at their new found slave.