***Author’s Note: From now on, thought-commands to skeletons will be surrounded by brackets ( ).
Example: (Scout the forest) he glanced at Lamp.
Instead of: “Scout the forest” Jay thought-commanded Lamp.
I hope this increases your reading experience. Note: A thought-command is a telepathic communication that only Jay and the skeletons can hear.***
Jay had the skeletons help the prisoners to stand up straight.
None of them had seen Jay, but they had felt his touch and heard his voice, and he would use this to his advantage.
All six prisoners were turned away from him, and each of them were now shivering in fear as they now realised it was not cannibals, but the undead which kept them captive.
Jay could tell numerous thoughts were rushing through their heads:
Why would the undead take them captive? If their bodies were not used for their flesh or bones, then what use did they have? What would the undead want with the living other than to devour their flesh and bones anyway? Could the undead be reasoned with?
None of them had seen anything like it, and feared for their very souls - perhaps death would be the best outcome.
For now though, all they could do was stand there silently, their jaws sealed shut - yet each of them were expecting a blade to pierce their chests or slit their throats in some sort of dark ritual.
Jay stood behind all of them, still not letting them see him as he began to speak with a sense of authority in his voice.
“If you give me answers, then perhaps I’ll let you live - otherwise, you will join my legion of the dead, and serve me as your eternal master and your soul will become mine. Kneel if you will submit to questioning, otherwise prepare to relinquish your souls.”
Jay added the kneeling part as none of them could currently talk, and he then had them blindfolded again.
If they could see that each other weren’t kneeling, perhaps it would inspire them, so the blindfolds were necessary.
Jay then took out the pin from his inventory, the [Needle of the Starved] which he got when he entered this dungeon, and pricked each one of them on the back of their necks.
“With your blood, the pact is sealed. Kneel or give up your eternal souls.”
As Jay pricked them with the needle, the needle turned red.
“Red… tainted?” Jay wondered silently for a moment, pausing his performance.
Jay had assumed that ‘tainted’ meant they may have been a cannibal, but couldn’t be sure. It was called the needle of the starved, so that didn’t mean it was directly related to cannibalism.
Seeing that they were all still standing, Jay continued.
“Only one of you needs to kneel. The last one standing will be sacrificed as a tribute to me.”
They must have been well trained, as none of them knelt - yet Jay was crafty.
“Ah, good. The first one to kneel. The rest of you, well, I don’t really need you, but if you kneel now you will at the very least save your soul.”
It was all a lie as none of them were kneeling, but it worked.
Three dropped to their knees, and two more followed. If one would answer questions, then there was no point in resisting.
Only one was left standing.
Jay stood behind him, grasping his neck with the necrotic gauntlet and sending shivers up his spine.
“So, the last one not to kneel. You must be their commander? It’s a shame.”
He didn’t really want to kill the captive, as the man was simply doing his duty, and something felt wrong about killing a man of honour.
Instead, Jay pulled him out of the line and had the skeletons strip him of his clothes and camouflage as he struggled and groaned, then Sweeper wore his clothes.
The naked man was silenced again and stashed behind a nearby tree, and his ears were now covered too so that he couldn’t hear anything.
Sweeper and all the skeletons were still coated in blood from the slaughter last night, so it would appear as if the bones were recently pulled from a corpse.
Jay had Sweeper stand before the five kneeling men with blindfolds on.
The blindfolds were removed, and if some of them weren’t shaking in fear before, well, they were now. In fact, each of them were trembling as they recognised the clothes Sweeper was wearing.
Before them was a blood-red skeleton, the remains of their commander who had now joined the undead legion. Like the other skeletons it now stood guard over them.
Losing their lives was one thing, but having their souls enslaved eternally was unthinkable. They would sacrifice anything to keep that from happening. No price was too high to pay.
Jay added mana to each side of the first man’s head; he extracted the bones fixing his jaw and skull together before removing the mouth binding, allowing him to speak.
Red and Sweeper now held their weapons to his throat as Jay removed his hand bindings.
“Which way to your village?”
The man looked around, glancing at the sunlight.
“That way.” he said weakly, a sadness filling his voice as he felt like he had betrayed his villagers.
“Do the rest of you agree? Nod your heads if you do.”
All of them immediately nodded. It seemed that man wasn’t lying, and as most of them gazed at Sweeper wearing their commander’s clothes they nodded even faster, making each of them seem like little children who had been caught in the act.
“Huh, maybe I scared them too much.” thought Jay, and he decided to release their stress a little.
“I’m not here to claim lives. The cannibals took something from me - the black cube. I just want it back, and some information. Your people will not be harmed.”
The five bound men didn’t seem any less frightened, but having some small hope of living was better than none.
They were still standing in a line, and Jay took out one of the duresome chains from his inventory. He had the skeletons bind their hands to it, connecting them like prisoners along the chain.
The tattered pieces of fabric binding their hands would fall apart soon. It would probably be easy for them to escape given enough time, but it was a temporary measure. Jay only needed them to lead him to their village afterall.
After that, if they escaped it would make no difference.
Besides, even if one did escape, the skeletons would easily chase them down. Plus, it would have only been a matter of time before the skeletons would find the escapee or the village anyway, and since all of them submitted he would only need to keep one to guide him.
The prisoner at the front was the only one with one of his hands free, which he used to point which way to go.
As for the naked man who would not submit, he was brought along further behind by Handy and Red. Jay still needed the other prisoners to believe that Sweeper was their resurrected friend otherwise they may stop leading him to their village.
For now though, everything was going according to plan.
As Jay walked behind the prisoners, he noticed all of them glancing at Lamp and then standing nearer to the chain, gripping it firmly. It had become like their lifeline.
“They fear Lamp the most.” Jay grinned.
There were six prisoners, five skeletons and Jay.
The party of twelve was led through the forest, sometimes coming to trees which were marked before they would turn and walk to another with more markings, guiding them to the village.
It seemed that these five men weren’t sentries on the outside of the village, but were more like scouts which would track the movement of the cannibals, which Jay thought was quite prudent of these villagers to do.
“How much further?”
“N-not far.” the man at the front nervously said.
Soon enough they came to a path, and the guiding villager was no longer needed so he blind folded them all and covered their ears and kept them walking for a while.
Soon enough, a structure was in the distance. A palisade wall.
“Hmm…” Jay had a plan.
He brought back the naked prisoner further behind the party and Sweeper helped to dress him again. Next, Jay wrapped the duresome chain around all six of them, forming a circle with the six prisoners on the inside.
Jay then stashed the bundle of prisoners in the forest with Sweeper to guard over them, and then he slowly walked towards the palisade wall as if he were taking a leisurely stroll through a park.
The rest of his skeletons marched in defensive formation around him towards the village, a sly smile on his face.
