[JonPop]

The BetterMan Knights decided to just go ahead and spend the night at Nikki's and head out at first light to scour the hamlet of Holster.
If a house to house search didn't turn up anything they planned to fan out into the countryside.
Nikki was very happy to accommodate the Knights and made rooms available and company for the night if any of them wished, free of charge.

Sir JonPop decided to Ride back to the castle and confer with King Arthur to see if they could devise a plan. The Knights had sat in Nikki's bar for hours, talking and drinking and could not come up with a better strategy than a house to house search in the morning.

When Sir JonPop arrived at the castle and requested to speak with the King, he was told that King Arthur had taken a company of soldiers and gone to the hamlet of Holster, to Nikki's to meet with the BetterMan Knights.
Sir JonPop, remounted and at a full gallop, headed back to Nikki's, wondering why he hadn't passed them on the road.

[JonPop]

When Sir JonPop arrived back at Niki's, he was surprised to see only a handfull of soldiers milling around and two posted on either side of the door. One of the soldiers took the reins of Sir JonPop's horse and tied him to the rail. Sir JonPop saw that Sir Stud's horse was still tied where he had been all morning and told the soldier, sternly, "Get this horse fed and watered, find him a stall for the night." The solder said, "Yes sir." and untied Sir Studs horse and led him away.

When he entered, he saw the Knights had pulled their chairs in a semicircle around King Arthur and were in deep discussion.

King Arthur said, "Sir JonPop, I apologize that you made that ride for nothing, I had dispatched a rider here to Nikki's to inform all of the Knights that I was bringing soldiers. The Knights have informed me that the messenger never arrived."
He added, "I have sent a company of soldiers to the hamlet to block off the exits and secure the town.
There had been a sighting of the wagon containing Sir Stud, entering the hamlet but the man that saw this, was leaving town and lost sight of the wagon. We must assume that Sir Stud is being held there."
Sir JonPop said, "That's why I didn't see you on the road, as I was riding to the castle, you took the fork to the hamlet of Holster." King Arthur said, "Yes, I wanted to secure the hamlet before coming to Nikki's to meet with the Knights." Sir JonPop added, "And no news of what happened to the messenger?" King Arthur said, "No, he has just disappeared."

[JonPop]

It was starting to get very dark and Sir Studs head was killing him.
He could taste blood in his mouth, so he knew that he had been hit pretty hard. His stomach was churning and it was all he could do to keep from throwing up the steak that he had at Nikki's.

He had given up on trying to free his hands and just sat and waited for whatever was to happen next. He hoped that the alarm would have been sounded by now and his brothers would be looking for him.
This gave him strength and a resolve to hold out no matter what happened.

The door opened and a light came into the room, followed by a very large man. Sir stud squinted through the pain in his head and tried to see the man's face. Suddenly he recognized him as Lars, the man he had a run in with, at Nikki's this morning.

Lars looked at the BetterMan Knight, tied and helpless and let out a loud laugh and said, "I'll teach you to make a fool of Lars" and kicked Sir Stud so hard in his side that he knocked him over sideways.
Sir Stud let out an involuntary grunt and thought that he might have broken a rib. Lars pulled Sir Stud upright and leaning in close said, "You my good Knight are going to make Lars a lot of money." Sir Stud did his best to spit in his face, but could only manage a bloody dribble onto his chin.

[JonPop]

Sir Stud, was glad that Lars had left after just a few minutes. His head hurt even worse now and his side was killing him.
He found that when Lars had kicked him and the chair over, that it had loosed the rope, slightly and he begin again trying to free his hands.

He wished, more than anything, for a drink of water.

He had no idea how long he had been in this bare room, but knew it was late into the night. Sometime in the early morning hours, he finally drifted off to sleep.
He was slapped awake by a man that he hadn't seen before. The man said, "Wake your ass up, we are going to be leaving." Sir Stud, saw through the small window, that it was just beginning to get light. He asked, "Where are we going?" The man again slapped Sir Stud, which made his head start throbbing again and said, "None of your damn business, you just better not try and resist."
The man took out a knife and cut through the rope holding Sir Stud's hands and pulled him up by his arms. Sir Stud's hands were completely numb and his side hurt so bad that he knew, that trying to fight this man was useless.
The man threw some ragged clothes at Sir Stud and said, "Put these on." Sir Stud took one smell of the clothes and his stomach finally gave up what food it still contained. He tried to turn and throw up on the man, but he stepped back and out of the way. When he was reduced to just dry heaves, the man stepped forward and slugged Sir Stud in his sore side. This brought up anything else that was left.
Sir Stud collapsed on the floor and the man dragged him up again by his arms and said, "Get your ass dressed."

No matter how hard he tried, Sir Stud couldn't get his clothes off as he just couldn't lift his arms over his head. The man, took his knife and cut the clothes from Sir Stud's body, cutting him in several places. He then pulled the stinking rags over his head and led him outside to a waiting wagon.

[JonPop]

Sir Stud was thrown in the back of the wagon, he was gagged and again his hands were tied and a gunny sack placed over his head. He was then covered with a pile of straw.
He had seen that there were two men sitting on the buckboard with Lars holding the reins.
Suddenly, the wagon took off with a jerk and headed off down a bumpy road.

Sir Stud could feel that the wagon made many turns and not knowing where he was in the first place, even though he knew the Hamlet well, gave up trying to figure out where they were heading.
The wagon stopped and he heard men's voices and even though their speech was muffled by the straw, he made out questions about the load.
The wagon started moving again. Sir Stud thought, "I hope that was people looking for me." The wagon hadn't traveled far, about 30 minutes by his reckoning. When the wagon stopped, he was dragged out by his feet, straw and all and dumped hard on the ground. The men didn't remove the sack from his head but led him down a ramp into a damp smelling room.

[JonPop]

He was pushed, roughly down into a corner, his feet tied and the gunny sack removed from his head. Lars stood over him and said, "We are going to demand a very large ransom for you, Knight and if your King won't pay it, I will personally cut off your head and send it to him on a stake.

I would rather have had Sonic Celt, because we were followers of the Black Knight, but you will do, since you caused me to look like a fool at Nikki's. Sir stud said, "The King ain't gonna pay you shit for me, asshole and when my Brother Knights find me and they will, you are going to die a slow death in the courtyard of BetterMan. This earned Sir Stud another kick.
He said, "Could I have some water?"
Lars laughed at this and told one of the men to go get some water.

The man came carrying a bucket of water and set it down. Lars said, "Let me hear you beg for the water and I might let you have a drink." Sir Stud said, "I ain't gonna beg you for shit, Lars. Ya'll will be doing the begging when ya'll are gonna be hanged." Lars picked up the bucked and threw it into Sir Studs face. He managed to catch a little bit in his mouth. Lars turned to his man and said, You keep watch outside. Sir Stud had a chance then, to look around.
He figured he was in a root cellar as the walls and floor were dirt.
There were bags of potatoes and onions lining the floor and walls.

Lars turned and went up the ramp followed by his man who shut the doors covering the opening. It was pitch black.
Even though he was soaking wet now, he felt some better as the cold water had cleared his head. He used an old BetterMan Knight trick and slid his hands down behind his butt and pulled his legs through. He now had his hands in front of him. He managed to roll onto his side and pull himself up. He bounced over to a bag and grabbed a potato, he ate this with relish, thinking, "Damn, I don't remember a raw potato ever tasting this good."

[JonPop]

None of the BetterMan Knights, nor the King got much sleep. Most, hung around in the bar, talking, drinking strong tea to clear their heads or eating.
When dawn was just starting to break they had the soldiers bring their horses to the front door, mounted and prepared to start down the road to the hamlet of Holster.
A farmer pulled up in his wagon as they were about to leave and said, "King Arthur, I have discovered a body in the culvert next to the road about 2 kilometers up the road." Pointing behind him. King Arthur said, "Sir Sikdogg, have this man show you what he has discovered, we'll wait for your return."
Everyone dismounted and returned inside to wait.

About 30 minutes had passed when the wagon pulled up and Sir Sikdogg came through the door. He approached King Arthur and said, "Your Highness, We have, who I think is the messenger you sent yesterday, in the back of the wagon."
They went outside and the King looked and said, "Yes, this is the man I sent to tell all of you that I was bringing soldiers and was to meet up with you here at Nikki's, did you examine the body for cause of death, Sir Sikdogg?"
He said, "Yes, it appears he was bludgeoned to death, Sir."
King Arthur instructed the farmer to take the body to the castle and have Doctor Remek notify his family and prepare the body for burial.

They again mounted and started down the road.

[JonPop]

A soldier raised his hand and stopped them as they were entering on the main road and said, "Your Majesty and Sir Knights, we were doing a house to house this morning and found this note, along with some ripped up bloody clothes and some rope." He handed up the note to the King.
The King read it and said to the Knights, "This is a ransom demand, for Sir Stud. The kidnappers want 100,000 gold coins for his return."

They heard a shout and saw that Sir Bret had a soldier by the shirt front, pinned up against a wall with his feet off the ground.
Everyone dismounted and hurried over to them. Sir Brett said, "This Idiot let a wagon full of straw leave the hamlet at first light this morning, he said, that the man said, that he was just going to replace the bedding in his horses stall. He said he had been up all night and was too tired to check to see if anything was in the wagon."
By this time, Sir Bret had released the soldier and he sank to his knees.

King Arthur said, "Describe the man driving the wagon soldier." The soldier, in a very shaky voice said, "There were 3 men, your highness, one very large man in a black coat and hat and a smaller man sitting beside him. There was a man in the back sitting on the loose straw. Sir Sonic said, "The one driving sounds like Lars."
The King said to the other soldiers, place this man under arrest until we can sort this out and to the soldier said, "Was there anything about the wagon that was unusual, was it painted or bare wood? What color were the horses, any distinguishing marks?"
The soldier said, "The wagon was just bare boards and the horses were just brown your majesty." The King said, "This doesn't give us much to go on, but take us to the place where the note was found."

[JonPop]

The house had obviously been abandoned for sometime. The soldier led them around to the side, to an added on room.
The soldier said that orders had been given not to disturb anything until the BetterMan Knights had a chance to inspect the scene.

Sir Sonic pushed his way past and entered the room. He looked around, saw a chair with remnants of rope still attached and evidence of vomit on the floor. He used the point of his sword to lift up Sir Stud's ripped up clothes and saw traces of blood and that they had been cut with a knife.

Sir Rob, came around from the side of the house and said that he had found
a pile of straw and fresh wagon tracks. He also said that one of the wagon wheels had a large chip out of the wheel.

King Arthur said, "I'm going to take all but twenty soldiers and return to the castle, I need to talk to the family of the slain messenger. I have full faith in my Knights that you will find Sir Stud and deal with his Kidnappers. I would prefer that they be taken alive if possible, to stand trial."

The Captain formed up the soldiers and with the King leading, headed to the castle.

[JonPop]

Lars pulled up the doors to the cellar and pushed Betsy down the ramp.

She landed in a heap at Sir Studs feet. He said to Sir Stud, "You wanted this whore? Well you shall have your wish.
The two men held Betsy while Lars pulled off her clothes and with great relish, fondled her large breasts.

Sir Stud charged with head lowered and struck the smaller man in the back and knocked him on his ass. He tried to swing at Lars but the big man grabbed his tied hands and hit him full in the face, knocking him over backwards.
The small man came and kicked Sir Stud, hard in the leg. The two men then stripped him of the foul smelling rags and bound him and Betsy together tightly, with their arms down at their sides, facing one another. Lars checked the ropes, laughed and said, "You two lovers have fun, while I go and collect my gold."

When the men left, the doors didn't shut all the way and a crack of light gave them enough to see each other by.
Betsy said, "Oh my Knight, I am so happy that you are alive, but you smell like you have rolled in something dead."
Sir Stud, spoke very carefully as Lars had split his lip when he hit him.

He said, "Yes, Betsy and I'm sorry. I think they planned this all along and knew I would smell repulsive to you. But you must tell me how you were captured."
Betsy said, "I was very upset when you were taken and when Sir Sonic and the other two Knights arrived, I told him what I had seen and then went home. This morning I was going to ride back to Nikki's to see if there was any news and they stopped me on the road and took me prisoner."
Sir Stud said, "I am so sorry, but having you here with me, with your breasts pressed against my chest, makes this ordeal almost tolerable and don't worry, I will find a way to get us out of this."

He told Betsy all that had happened since he had been taken, leaving out the worst parts of the beatings.