THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART THIRTY TWO )

Jonah's guard whose name was Jermiah was not about
to wake Jonah, he knew better, Jonah would only make an example of him.

No his only hope was not to stick around, Jermiah
had eaten and drunk well, he decided there and then
to escape, he turned and ran off through the forest
without looking back. His thoughts then turned to
the girl as he ran, he wondered how she had escaped, but in a way, he was glad that she had.

********************************

Jonah was the first to awake, that morning, the
first thing he did, was to relieve himself, then
he washed down at the rivers edge. He saw the fish
under the water and thought, 'yes this is a good
day to fish, after I have put the men to work.'

All of a sudden, a voice was calling him from the
camp, "Jonah!...Jonah!" he looked around angry at
being disturbed, "Oh what is it now?"

As he turned Ezra, one of Jonah's men was running
towards him, "It's the girl, she's gone."

"What! where's Jermiah?" said Jonah.

"He's gone too," said Ezra.

Jonah could not believe, that one of his own men
would betray him.

Ezra turned to Jonah, "I'm afraid that's not all,"

"What do you mean...not all?" said Jonah.

"Arvid has gone as well."

Jonah by now felt betrayed, he paced up and down,
"what's going on, my own men betraying me?"

"Should we go and search for them?" said Ezra,
almost afraid to ask.

"No!" shouted Jonah, "they will be long gone by now." He needed time to think alone. Ezra sensed
this and left Jonah on his own.

Once Jonah had thought the situation through, he
called Ezra back, "I have made a decision, I want
you to call all the men together, I want a meeting,
do you understand Ezra?"

Ezra had never seen Jonah so calm, it was unnerving
to see him like this considering what had happened.
"Yes I understand, do you want me to call them now?"

"Yes! right now," Jonah was feeling slightly pleased with himself.

Jonah took his time finishing his wash, then calmly
made his way back to the camp. Jonah could see the
men all standing around waiting. 'Blithering idiots,' he thought to himself.

As he approached the men, he spoke, "I suppose you
are all wondering why I have gathered you all here?
well if you don't already know, the girl escaped last night."
The men all stared at each other, then looked back
at Jonah.

"Right not only has the girl gone, but two of my
men have also left and betrayed me, it seems I'm too easy to decieive... so I have made a decision, from now on, any man who tries to escape,
will have to live with his consscience, because for
his escape...another man will die, do you understand?"

The men were terrified and wished they had tried to
escape before. Bruin turned to his friend Daniel
and said, "I had the chance to escape with Joshua,
I should have gone, but I was too frightened, now
we have even more to fear."

Jonah shouted, "right now all of you...back to work."

The men turned and walked away with a big depression hanging over them.

To be continued .........THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART THIRTY THREE ) | ABCtales