Tao froze, gasping quietly as the dagger was being pressed threatening against his throat, a man standing right behind him. The young boy could even feel the man’s body, which was almost being pressed against his own. At that time, Tao wished that he had just stayed home. It was his very first night on his own, and he had already been attacked?

“Hand over all of your belongings, and then we wont hurt you… Too much,” said the man with his lips against Tao’s ear, as Tao could feel the dagger being pressed harder and harder against his throat. He carefully swallowed, as he didn’t know what to do.

He couldn’t just hand over all of his belongings. The old woman had given him all those coins, and he wouldn’t just let a group of bandits easily steal them away from him.

“I-I refuse,” Tao muttered with a shaky voice, not being able to move at all because of the dagger.

“Oh? Then what should we do with you?” asked the man with a smirk, pressing his own body a bit more against Tao’s, making Tao frown a bit in disgust, since he clearly could smell the man’s lack of soap.

“He’s quite good looking, isn’t he?” said another bandit, being a young woman about Tao’s age, as she examined Tao’s face as well as his body, taking the chance to even lift Tao’s ragged shirt to show his well-trained stomach.

“Y-Yah!” protested Tao, trying a bit to move against the touch of the young girl, but she just smirked as the dagger was being pressed even harder against Tao’s skin, even making a single drop of blood run down his throat.

 “We should bring him along, guys,” said the girl, winking a single time at Tao as the third bandit started tying Tao’s hands behind his back. Tao swallowed quickly as he felt his heart beat faster. He turned his head slightly to look at the bandits, seeing how their clothes consisted of dark, almost black, leather armor, with some kind of a red cloth covering the lower part of their faces, making it difficult to tell exactly who they were, but they were clearly from the Green Valleys, since their hair was black.

Would they be taking him away now? And where would they take him? Would they kill him, or just steal his things and leave him to rot in some ed up cave?

Would they leave him for a dragon to come and kill him?

“Why did this happen to me… I just started my journey,” Tao murmured quietly to himself, only him being able to actually hear his words.

“Start walking already,” said the bandit leader as he removed his dagger from Tao’s throat, Tao being unable to do anything as they’ve tied his hands, and taken away his staff. So he just started walking in the direction they were leading him, sighing deeply as he realized they were walking in the opposite direction as he was headed. So if he were so lucky to get away from them again, he would have to travel even further away. That was just great!

None of the bandits actually talked to Tao on their way, the young boy just looked at the ground, and realized, that after hours of walking, the grassy ground would slowly turn into dirt, with all the green wildlife gone. He wouldn’t dare to ask when they would be there, or why they had traveled so far away from their camp – he just kept walking. He didn’t want to risk his life by asking, by talking.

Well at least the people following him around had revealed themselves, right? They were the only ones who had been spying on him, right?

But how come, that Tao could still feel someone’s cold eyes on him? How come, that he still felt as if a stranger was watching him?

“This is so odd…” he murmured, but felt quickly someone push him harshly from behind.

“Shut it, punk!” scolded one of the bandits, followed by a small laugh from the two other bandits, “We’re there soon, anyway.”

“His weapons are pretty nice, though,” said one of the bandits as he examined Tao’s knife, “It’s clearly not something you can just buy anywhere.”

“Oh, maybe he’s rich, eh?” said the girl with a small smirk, “I think we hit the jackpot here, guys.”

“Bull. If he was rich, he wouldn’t be walking out here by himself!”

“A run-away prince, maybe?”

Tao just sighed to himself, as he continued to walk in the morning sun.

----------------------------------

“Hey! I say dibs for that!” exclaimed the female bandit, as the three bandits were looking through Tao’s belongings. They had finally arrived at the camp a few minutes ago, so Tao were just sitting on the ground, a bit away. The camp itself was hidden from the road by various rocks and cliffs – there even was a small cave belonging to the camp. However, there was no grass, plants or trees as far Tao could see, so he was actually a bit worried, that they might be close to the Red Sands. That would really , since it was even further away from the White Mountains than the Green Valleys were.

“Hey guys, exactly what should we do with this guy?” asked one of the bandits, as he had found his way into Tao’s back, and grabbed a piece of the bread Tao had brought with him, making Tao frown slightly at him from afar.

At least they hadn’t found his coin purse yet – it was well hidden inside his pants, a place they probably wouldn’t dare look for goodies, if they cherished their life.

“Well, we could make him stay the day. He will get no food, only a little bit of water,” said the young girl with a smirk on her lips, “And tonight, we can kill him if we want to at that time.”

“Then why bring him here?” asked one of the bandits, making Tao wonder the same thing.

“Well, he is pretty good looking, right? We could always sell him,” suggested the girl, shrugging a bit, “But I’m not one to decide that. You can think about it until tonight, then we’ll walk to the market tonight.”

Tao eyes grew wide at the girl’s words, especially since he had heard so many horrible stories about slaves, who had been sold to cruel “owners”, violence, , as well as death! The young captive suddenly started struggling against the binds on his hands, even though it was pretty clear, that it wouldn’t work.

“…” he swore to himself, cursing under his breath. He really had to find a way to escape from that bandit camp, immediately! It was already about midday, so it wouldn’t take many hours before the sun would be on its way down, and the evening and night would arrive. So you could say, that Tao was pretty busy with finding a way to escape.

“Did you listen to our small conversation, little boy?” asked the young girl with a sly smirk on her lips. Honestly, Tao just wanted to get killed right away instead of being sold as a slave?!

“M-Maybe… But why?” Tao asked, closing his eyes tightly in pain as the young girl grabbed his hair and pulled him close with a small smirk on her dry lips.

“Because even though we often kill or kidnap people, it’s very rare to actually succeed in kidnapping a good looking person, you know?” she laughed softly, “And good looking people, not talking about people in a good shape like you, are worth a lot on the slave market.”

“I-Inhumane…” groaned Tao, frowning slightly in disgust.

“Yeah, I couldn’t agree more, but it’s quite worth the money,” hummed the girl before leaving Tao alone once again, as she walked back to her two companions.

“We could also bring him to the boss?” suggested one of the men.

“Nah, she mostly just wants blonde guys, and they’re not even found in the Green Valleys, you know,” the girl said.

Tao just sighed for himself as he leaned back against the big rock he was tied to. He crossed his legs while biting his lips. He definitely didn’t feel like being sold like some kind of item.

Why couldn’t he just be like any other guy from his town? Why did it have to be him, who had that strange power of his? If only he didn’t, then he could marry a cute girl from his town.

Yeah, that would be so great.

Tao closed his eyes and started daydreaming, as he usually enjoyed doing. However, it wasn’t a big enjoyment, as the three bandits kept disturbing him by making noise and laughing over ridiculous jokes. The young captive wasn’t really sure either, but for some reason, he felt like he had been sleeping once in a while – well he hadn’t really been sleeping the last night either. He hadn’t really been daydreaming about anything in particular, he had just been thinking about the beautiful, green valleys, and maybe the sight of a beautiful, young girl with long, black hair, and a short, white dress, too. He was a guy after all - he had his needs and dreams.

He had always wanted to marry a young, beautiful girl. He didn’t really have a crush on anyone, but he had always wanted to see someone with blonde hair, actually. He had heard, that they should be the most beautiful people in the whole world! Just thinking about marrying one of them, would be so amazing.

His dream girl would be tall, thin, but not too skinny since he liked curves. She should have dark brown eyes, and the most beautiful smile. He wouldn’t mind if her gums would be showing a little bit when she laughed, that would just be cute. He definitely wanted someone with a beautiful laugh – oh, and she shouldn’t be too girly.

As he sat there, daydreaming, the time just started moving really fast all of a sudden.

And before he knew of it, the sun was setting.

Tao knew, that now was the time, where the decision would be taken; being killed or sold. He didn’t know which was worse, but he would probably prefer being killed, even though that would mean he wouldn’t be able to succeed in his journey, and Bao wouldn’t see him again.

He was more worried about Bao than anything else.

“So, what should we do with you?” one of the men asked as he had walked to Tao’s side, looking down at him with greedy eyes, “Well, you are quite good looking, compared to the most people we see around here.”

“But his eyes look really strange? What if he has some kind of disease?” frowned the other man, making them all look at him with wide eyes as they examined his strange face. Tao couldn’t really help but raise an eyebrow at that comment.

“His eyes actually make him look quite frightening in some way…” murmured one of the men, making the girl look at her companion with cold eyes.

“Yah! Make up your mind already! Of course he isn’t sick!” she scolded.

“How can you tell? Have you ever seen such eyes before, huh?!” yelled one of the men back at her, making her shut immediately as she turned to look at Tao again.

“Maybe it would be better if we just killed him, then his disease wouldn’t spread,” said one of the men – the man who had been holding his dagger against Tao’s throat earlier.

Yeah, he would probably enjoy killing him.

Tao thought it was quite annoying that they couldn’t really make up their minds. At first, they kidnapped him, then they wanted to sell him, and now they just want to kill him instead? Then why hadn’t they just killed him right away instead? Then he wouldn’t have to suffer all day by being in fright of being sold to filthy, disgusting people.

Well, Tao could clearly tell that they weren’t as organized, as they wanted it to look like.

However, he was still too busy looking for a way to escape, to actually care much about what they wanted to do with him, because he wasn’t ready to die already!

“I’ll go get my dagger,” said one of the men, while Tao was still busy, not even hearing what he said.

Even though, there was one thing he did notice – it was the feeling that had been by his side ever since he left his village. It was the feeling of that stranger – stalker – looking at him. It was bugging Tao so much, that he couldn’t just reveal himself already, because Tao could clearly feel him there!

Why in the world would such a person even be following Tao around for a whole day?

Couldn’t he at least send help, or anything?

“Here we go,” said one of the men, making Tao laugh a little bit on the inside. Did they actually think, that the dark shadows under his eyes were the cause of some sickness? Had they honestly never seen a guy with such eyes before? Pathetic.

However, Tao quickly lost his mental smile, as the dagger was once again being held against his throat, making his eyes grow wide in shock and fear of actually being killed. He looked directly into the eyes of his future killer, so he would at least be able to recognize him in the afterlife, and maybe take revenge from this easy kill. The bandit’s eyes were dark, almost pitch black, just like the most of the people in the Green Valleys. Tao honestly felt slightly embarrassed, that he should be killed by a group of only three bandits. A group, that wasn’t even that well organized, but what could he do about it? His hands still being tied behind his back, he didn’t know whether or not he should tell them, that his eyes weren’t caused by some sickness.

Tao’s heart started beating faster and faster for every second, as the bandit holding his shirt tightly was hesitating a little bit with the killing. Why Tao didn’t know.

He couldn’t see his own eyes.

He couldn’t see, how his own eyes had turned ice blue, once again.

The bandit couldn’t feel, how a pair of angry eyes, got closer and closer to them, the steps being completely silent, as if he was flying.

Tao’s stalker.

_______________________

A/N: 

So... As you can probably see, Tao isn't exactly "gay" in this fanfiction, even though it's Taoris... >D Huhuhu~ Dreaming about a tall, beautiful girl with blonde hair and a gummy smile... *dies a bit* ~

OH... 

Yeah. 

Tao's stalker is funneh. OuO/ huehuehue~

Comments are love~! Comment and tell me what you think ! ~

... tbh I think Tao would make a great slave.. I would gladly buy him.