Miguel was peering behind the open kitchen door, watching Tulio. He was splitting up wood, and doing a very poor job at it too. Biting his lip, he tried to steady the wedge with his foot, raised the mallet and missed it about one foot. Miguel laughed at Tulio inside his head. He was glad to see him suffer. He deserved it. Just then, he saw someone coming.

He crouched down further so he was completely unseen but could still watch. It was a large, beefy man, with a gleaming bald head and gray hair, and fine merchant clothes. "SALDOVAR!!!" he yelled, causing Tulio to nearly jump out of his skin.

"Y-yes, Monsieur Monfa?"

The merchant spoke with a drunken French accent. "I told you to start splitting wood nearly an hour ago, and all I see here is barely enough for one fire!!! Winter is coming soon you idiot!"

Miguel was puzzled. It was just the beginning of summer. "Oh yeah." he said to himself. "He's drunk."

"I-I'm sorry, Monsieur. I w-was trying my best." Tulio helplessly stammered. "You see, I'm having a little trouble with the wedge 'cause it won't stand up very well. I think it's-"

"SILENCE!!!!!" the large man bellowed, swinging a massive arm at Tulio and throwing him into the stable wall. Tulio let out a horrible yell in pain, and Miguel saw that he got impaled by a splintered piece of wood. Tulio finally slid painfully off the wall and crumpled to the ground in a daze. "I am sick of the laziness in your work ethnics. I nearly killed you once, but now, I'm going to finish you off."

Miguel started to panic. He was supposed to get him out BEFORE he got hurt, not AFTER. He looked to see were he was. THE KITCHEN!!! Then he looked to see what he could use. Knife? No, he didn't want to kill the man. Pot? No, too big. Fork? FORK?!?! What kind of affect would a fork do?!?! Frying pan? Hmmmmm.... Yeah!! Frying pan!!! Tulio was already bleeding from the mouth and unconscious. He grabbed it and ran to the man.

"Leave him alone!!!!" he yelled, causing Monfa to cock his head around.

Monfa just laughed as he saw him. "Stay out of this, boy. I'm ten times bigger than you and a whole lot stronger."

"But not faster." Miguel thought. Then, he threw the frying pan at the man. Spinning wildly, it finally hit Monfa right in the kneecap, causing a sickening crack. The man instantly fell to the ground and screamed in pain.

"MY KNEE!!!! OH, MY KNEE!!!! OH GOD, IT'S BROKEN!!!!!!!"

Miguel ran over to the man and snatched a bag of gold pesetas from his belt. "I'll take THAT for all the damage you've done." Miguel said, grinning, and snatched up Tulio and ran to his horse. With a kick, they (and the burro) ran back to the house.

Behind him, Miguel heard, "I'LL GET YOU!!!!! I'LL GET BOTH OF YOOOOOOOOOU!!!!!!"

* * * * *

Miguel raced back to the house, trying not to let go of Tulio, although he really wanted to.

He couldn't believe he saved this little brat. But it was the right thing to do, and hopefully Tulio would apologize.

Rosie gasped when she saw her son unconscious. "Miguel, what happened!? Did the murderer come back?"

"There never was a murderer, well at least not the one he told us about. It was the merchant the whole time."

Rosie's face turned to venom. "I should have known. That cruel man! Why does he do this?!"