(Leif Blackstone)
The old village chief who walks around with a cane and is hunched over is lying to everybody here. The guy is some sort of demon, or better yet a hidden ninja. The way he wields his sword as an extension of his body is nothing short of amazing. I end up on the ground far more times than I can count. After the day has come and gone, all my bruises and scrapes are gone. My energy is ready to go at it again. We go through the proper stances again and again, and then it's off to sparring again. The days pass pretty quickly. My brother and I always wanted to learn karate or kendo, but our parents were totally against it. We needed to get good marks and learn skills that would prepare us for careers in business. Even I, 'the screw-up,' was not allowed to take it easy with my studies. This was something new and interesting.
For an old guy he's no pushover. He takes advantage of any momentary lapse in focus on my part. Every session teaches me something new and intriguing, yet the process is really challenging. His technique is just astounding. He must have been a terror on the battlefield back in his day. Even the elder becomes exhausted after a while and is unable to continue. He advises me to run or study my forms once more.
Whatever the stone has done to my body is amazing. Even after hours of training, I can still continue. I'm tired, but it's not enough to make me give up. When I lay down for the night, all my aches and pains are gone the next day. Bardulf takes me on some of the trails that the bandits will be coming in on. I’m trying to think of the best place to ambush them. That's the only way I see us winning with a bunch of farmers. The village chief was no help in that department. On my second day of training, I asked him how he would have fended them off back when he was a warrior. He claimed he'd wait in the woods and then try to send all his men in to surround them as they approached. So they don't utilize any ambush strategies. The only thing we have over the bandits is superior numbers, and that's it. The people do not know how to fight, and most are women and children. If we were to go his way, most would die before even being able to do anything, so I am trying to come up with a new strategy.
While sitting in my favorite spot in the river, I chuck a rock as far as it will go.Then another. We have the numbers; we just need a clean way of taking them out without actually engaging the enemy. After throwing one more rock, I get a huge Eureka moment. I may have even said it out loud. Turning around, I see the village elder watching me with amused eyes as I was sitting in the water.
“Call Bardulf and have him show me the trail that they came up in again.”
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(Leif Blackstone)
It's finally the day Novac and his bandits are due to arrive in town. Everyone knows their job. The village elder and I argue over who should be left behind in the village, just in case they send a scout. He claims that they will recognize him and that they will not be concerned about seeing a harmless elderly man watching over the food. It makes sense, but if the bandits get past our ambush, they will head right for him. He stays adamant about being the one left behind. For the past two days, we've been lugging large rocks from the river up a separate trail to a cliff that overlooks the mountain pass. It wouldn't take much to pick up a large one and chuck it over the cliff. It's not very high, only about fifteen feet, but the bandits will be unable to reach us while we are up there. We gather all of the children and send them into the woods with two older women while our plan is put into action. The rest of the men and women move to our vantage point overlooking the cliff.
Bardulf and I are sitting next to each other with eight big stones between us. “You think this is going to work.” Bardulf asks me.
“It just depends on how many stones we can get off.”
We put the women in groups of two, so they can lift a stone together because they are that heavy. It's the same with the older generation. All the villagers wanted to get back at the bandits for what happened the last time. My original intention was for the elder generation to keep an eye on the kids in the woods, but they, too, wanted to retaliate against these predators. This plan is better and makes more sense. The more we have throwing, the less we have to worry about some making it to the village, or running away.
My nose picks up a new smell. Someone who's not from our village. Over the past few days, my sense of smell has improved dramatically. It has simply taken some time to adjust to each scent. Whatever is happening to me is short of amazing. Then Bardulf and I hear the patter of his feet running. While noticing my movement, everyone goes to their rocks like they are about to get ready to throw. I raise my hand to get everyone's attention. While shaking my head no, I give them a hunch-down-lower motion. We all lower to the ground and back away from the edge. We hear him running by. My hand still gives the people a stay-low gesture while I stand up and look both ways.
“He's just a scout.” I whisper to Bardulf. Tell the others to wait for my signal. After telling the others to wait, he crawls back towards me.
“I don't like the waiting.” Bardulf whispers to me. “So where are you from, Leif?”
He wants to do this now, so I just reply offhand. “Originally a place called Alaska, but then I moved to a place called North Carolina.”
“Carolina.” He repeats very slowly stressing the lina part. “Never heard of the place is it from somewhere up North.”
"More like, well, out west, but Alaska is where I grew up. It's extremely cold. "My family owns a lot of land there." “Or will.” I mutter too softly for him to hear.
“If you own a lot of land, why are you not there helping take care of it?
“My father kicked me out of the family.”
“I’m sorry, Leif. The elder said you might know how to read. Did someone teach you?”
“Yes, where I’m from we have something called a school where all the kids go to learn how to read and write.”
He gets almost stars in his eyes, like he can’t believe what he's hearing. Then we hear a twig snap down the road. We both hush up and put our heads to the ground. We hear him running right by us towards the way he came. My nose didn’t pick him up this time. Must have been downwind.
“Okay, the first part of the plan is going smoothly.” I whisper to Bardulf.
“Dulf, go on down the line and hide behind a tree, but make sure you can still see them walking down the road. Then give us two signals, the first to let us know that you have them in your line of sight. The second to let us know when to start throwing. As soon as you give us the signal, you pull out your slingshot and start firing. Do you have any questions about the plan?”
“Why did you call me Dulf? My name is Bardulf.”
My nose sucks in air, and I take a deep breath to calm myself down. “I just said it because it was shorter. NOW DO YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE PLAN.” I stress to him.
“No problem, but what's the signal?”
I’m starting to get a little aggravated. “I don't know, just make something up, wave your hands in some sort of motion, just don't make any noise so we don't give ourselves away.”
“I will do this," he says as he spreads his arms and flaps his arms like a bird while wiggling his body back and forth.
As he finishes the motion, I have a strong urge to push him off the cliff.
“We need him. We need him. We need him, I mutter under my breath.
“Great, go do that; remember one for when you see them and a second for when they are right below us.”
“Okay,” I hear as he starts to walk off. “But I still don't understand why you called me Dulf.” I hear him murmur as he gets farther and farther away.
When this is over, I'm getting as far away from that kid as I can. If we survive, I suppose. Okay, get out of your mind, Leif. Need to watch Dulf and be prepared for the attack.
After waiting for another 5 minutes, I smell the horses first. They are getting close. Another minute goes by, and Bardulf starts flapping his wings finally like a bird. He looks like an idiot is the only thing I can think of. He would have definitely been the class clown at my old school. We hear their horses clomping as they are getting closer. Wow, my fingers are starting to sweat. This plan better work.
Bardulf does his final bird dance. My hand flashes to the villagers to let them know to start picking up the rocks. Before my mind can process what I’m about to do, my hands pick up the biggest rock in my pile, and I let it fly over. It flies right down missing the guy by a foot and smacking the ground right next to him. He looks at the rock then glances up towards me.
“Damn,” I mutter under my breath.
Before the guy can get out a warning, he gets popped in the head by a small rock that was shot at an angle. I look over to see Bardulf jumping in the air and shaking his body back and forth like a victory dance. Okay, maybe I won't shove him off a cliff.
A state of chaos follows. Together with the other villagers, we wreak havoc on the bandits. They are like ducks sitting in water. We rain down rocks after rocks; the horses get startled, and it seems like the men down there don't know what to do. They start falling left and right. The largest man there, dressed in excellent leather, appears to be reaching for his sword, but Bardulf takes a shot and smacks him in the hand.
An archer next to the big horseman pulls a bow off his back and starts to draw an arrow. I pick up a particularly nasty-looking rock and let it fly. Please let my aim be true this time. Before he can get a shot off, it hits him squarely in the head, and his head kind of explodes all over the place. Wow, I should probably feel a little guilty that I just killed someone, but all I can think is better take out the rest before they come up here and kill me.
At last, the leader gets up and shouts, "Move on me." It's only him and one other person who are still on horseback. The other two got knocked off. The large figure in the nice leather armor that rallies and rushes ahead out of our line of sight was probably Novac. The second man on a horse hoists one of his buddies up, and they quickly follow.
As the villagers are hurling their remaining rocks—not even aiming yet—I seize the sword the elder handed me and begin moving as quickly as I can in the direction of the village.
Bardulf appears behind me at some point, keeping up with me in a jog.
"We're being followed by two other villagers. However, you had a good head start over us."
"Then, how did you catch up?" I ask him while pumping my arms.
“This is my forest. I have always been the fastest in my forest.”
