The trail began to peter out as the jungle thinned, slowly giving way to a large, dilapidated building of wood and stone.

Blake held up a hand and Dorm stopped behind him. The bandit leader clenched his fist and raised two fingers, then pointed upwards without saying a word. Dorm nodded silently; he and Kosuke needed to climb trees to get a better view of the place. The boy appeared behind them and scampered up a tree like a monkey his agile body moving with lightning speed. Dorm followed up an adjoining tree at a more sedate pace, his limbs still stiff from the battle on the track and the sprinted pursuit through the jungle.

He reached a point in the tree where he could rest comfortably and watch The Marauders base. Smoke rose from the building’s chimneys and from inside he could hear shouts of greeting and running feet.

“Ta ma duh!” he cursed under his breath. If only they had been a bit faster through the jungle they would have caught the ambushing party. He could have had Saffron in his grasp already. If only they had been a bit faster.

Ok he needed to look at the layout, he needed to asses the situation if they where going to attempt a rescue mission. He could see two sentries spaced out below him in no recognizable pattern. Further across there was another two but they were sitting down together sharing a cigarette.

How many entrances? There was a large double doors out the front and what looked like the top of a small door frame on the far corner. On Dorm’s side there was some kind of stable, but it had long since fallen into disrepair sat rooting, its roof bowed under the weight of the plant-life atop it. That was what they could use, that was their way in. From those stables they could climb onto the roof and perhaps work a window open. If all else failed the roof didn’t look exactly strong; breaking a hole in it would probably be fairly easy, albeit noisy.

He slid slowly down the tree, careful not to make any noise. Kosuke was down already and he and Blake were crouched in the underg