Asiul then tied one end of the rope around the tree and tossed the rest off the cliff as he began to descend slowly to make sure he didn't fall. When Asiul was almost to the bottom his hand slipped and he fell to the ground making a loud crash and to his dismay alerted the bandits of his location and had to flee. In desperation to help Asiul, Isuki grabbed the rope and jumped off the cliff.
"I'm on my way!" shouted Isuki
Isuki got almost to the ground when he let go and braised himself. As he landed he took off running after Asiul when he finally caught up with him Asiul could hear the concern in Isuki's voice.
"What are we gonna do now?" said Isuki as they ran.
"Well for starters we need to figure out which bush is the fake one then get back behind it and get as much water as we can and then run really really fast and hope for the best" said Asiul.
"What's the chances of success?" said Isuki.
Asiul stood there looking at Isuki with uncertainty in his eyes
"About 14% if things go as planned" said Asiul
"ONLY 14% THAT DOESN'T REALLY INSTILL CONFIDENCE" exclaimed Isuki
"Then just don't mess up and we should be fine. Besides wasn't running one of your specialties in school u had the fastest time on the track if I remember correctly. So just do what's natural and you'll be fine" Asiul said with a grin and a slight snicker to his friend.
Isuki looked at his friend with an unsure grin on his face, not sure how he should respond to his friend's compliment / insult but now's not the time for any of that seeing as the bandits have gotten even closer. With a hardy sigh he looked at his friend and then stood up and breathed deeply before shouting towards the bandits.
"Oh look, a mound of bricks on two legs believe they are more than mere children playing pretend villains." while the bandits may not fully understand what the young man just said to them but they can tell when they've been insulted and they were very unhappy about it. With pure anger the bandits charged at Isuki as he took off running in the opposite direction to give Asiul a chance to get close to the bandits camp to find the fake bush with the pond behind it. When Asiul believed the coast was clear he made a run for the bandit camp and started looking for the fake bush. Meanwhile Isuki continued doing what he does best and ran a lot.
"If Asiul doesn't hurry there gonna end up getting me. I don't know how much longer I can run for, they're starting to try and cut me off" said Isuki. On the other side Asiul was making his way through the bandit camp as he approached the bushes he noticed a box on the ground by one of the bandit's tents "This could come in handy I'll just grab a couple of these." Then Asiul pushed his way through the bushes to the pond with the special water.
"Finally I found it, now I just need to grab the water and get out of here. Hima didn't tell us how much water we needed to get him so I'll just do this and hope it's enough." Asiul pulled out their canteens from his bag and began filling them with water from the pond. Once they were full Asiul ran out of the bushes and shouted out to isuki. "Ive got it lets get out of here now!"
Hearing this Isuki gave a smirk and pointed to the cliff they'd come from, getting the message Asiul started running to the cliff to meet up with Isuki. When they finally met back at the cliff out of breath Isuki asked Asiul. "I hope you got enough water because I don't think I can do that again for a while."
"I wasn't sure how much so I dumped our canteen and filled them with pond water. Hopefully this will be enough to satisfy Hima but our main priority right now is to ditch these bandits and get back to town." said Asiul
"My canteen! Man, I'm thirsty after all that running." said Isuki with a slightly sad tone in his voice
"Don't worry I'll get you a nice cold drink once we're back in town for now just focus on running, we won't be able to make it back up the cliff safely with the bandits closing in so we'll have to make a run for the road out of here." said Asiul as he put the canteens back in his bag and started running to the far left side of the cliff where the road was located.
"If we don't do something now they're gonna tail us all the way back to town we need to get out of their line of sight." Isuki said
"Your right and I have just the thing to help." said Asiul as he reached inside his bag and pulled out a bundle of dynamite and a match that he'd held onto before they were brought here.
"Is that what I think it is?" asked Isuki
"It's exactly what you think it is." said Asiul with a grin
"Where did you find dynamite?" asked Isuki
"Those fools just left it in a box unattended, so I figured that meant it was fair game." Asiul said sarcastically as he lit the fuse on the dynamite and handed one to Isuki
"Let's put on a good show now, what do you say." said Asiul
Isuki grabbed the dynamite from Asiul with a smile "lets put on a fire work show."
"On the count of 3 we throw. 1. 2. 3." on 3 Asiul and Isuki both turned and threw the dynamite towards the bandits, careful not to directly hit them. With a nice big blast dirt was thrown into the air making a smoke screen. "We should throw a couple more just in case with another solid throw they caused another explosion, now with a very decent smoke screen Asiul and Isuki continued making a run for town. Once they reached the edge of town Asiul stopped Isuki. "We should hide here for a minute and make sure they're not on our trail."
"Agreed but we shouldn't waste too much time and make it back to Hima with the water." Isuki said as they made their way behind a nearby wall. They waited for a few minutes and once they believed they were in the clear they made their way through town to Hima's shop.
"Do you think they're going to be okay? They've been gone awhile. I'm starting to get worried." said Sooleco
"Don't worry, they seemed like strong boys. I'm sure they'll be okay, just have faith in them." said Hima
"You shouldn't have sent them there alone." Sooleco said scolding Hima
As Sooleco and Hima spoke they heard a voice getting louder "We made it back! I hope you didn't miss us too much." shouted Isuki
Asiul and Isuki approached Hima's shop "Did you manage to get your hands on the water like I asked?" asked Hima
"We did I wasn't sure how much you wanted so I grabbed as much as I could." said Asiul as he pulled the 2 canteens out of his bag and handed them over to Hima
"This is more than enough I'm surprised that you got away with this much to be honest." said Hima with a surprised look on his face
"Are you both okay you didn't get hurt did you?" asked Sooleco
"Well we encountered some bandits when we got there." said Isuki
"And with a distraction from Isuki I was able to sneak through to the water they had hidden behind some fake bushes." said Asiul
"But how'd you manage to get away from them without being caught or followed by them?" asked Sooleco
Isuki looked at Asiul and they both gave a smile and then said together "We made and explosion"
"More precisely we used some dynamite I found to make a smoke screen to allow us to get away unseen." said Asiul with a confident smile
"You didn't kill any of them did you?" asked Hima
Confused, Isuki responded "No we made sure not to throw it at them directly so as to not hurt them, we're not murderers after all."
"Why do you ask though?" asked Asiul
Sooleco looked at Hima, "You might as well just tell them."
With a sigh Hima nodded to Sooleco and turned to Asiul and Isuki but before he could speak the group heard another voice shouting as it got closer to them. The voice made it to the shop panting and out of breath and spoke "we got a problem!" Asiul and Isuki turned to see who it was and immediately their eyes opened wide with shock
"What are you doing here!" the boys shouted
The voice turned to the boys with an equal amount of shock on his face "It's you brats!" the voice had been the captain of the bandits that they'd just robbed.
"I outta beat you to a pulp, you dumb brats!" said the bandit captain
"Now now James that enough." said Hima
In a look of panic and fear bandit turned back to look at Hima "I'm sorry boss"
Asiul and Isuki both looked at each other then turned to Hima "What does he mean boss." Asiul said
With an awkward smile Hima looked at Asiul and Isuki. "That's what I was going to tell you boys a moment ago. I run that bandit group, They protect the water for me and at the same time act as a test for those I feel worthy. Although I don't tell them about the testing part so I'm genuinely surprised that you got away and especially with this much water."
"So they work for you and you sent us there anyways." said Isuki
"Well I needed to test you and make sure you'd be strong enough or clever enough to help Sooleco on her quests. James and the others were the best way to do so." said Hima
"James?" Asiul said with a hint of curiosity
"Allow me to introduce you real quick to my captain James. He manages the bandits for me when I'm here working and informs me of situations that require my help." Hima said as he began to explain the situation to the boys.