-To Tom Valor: The Lone Reviewer. Thanks for your review!
-Chapter Twelve:
"Where do you think they are?" The first guard asked his partner.
"How should I know?" the second guard replied sleepily.
The first soldier peered around the trunk of the tree, spying into the forest.
"Man," he grumbled. "I wish I had brought a torch. I can't see a damned thing."
"So why didn't you?"
"Because the orders from Swill made it sound like the orcs were gonna be out here before it got dark. I didn't know we were gonna be stuck in this creepy forest for this long."
"Boy am I hungry."
"Shut up...I think I hear something!"
"Why don't we go back to the castle," the second soldier mumbled on. "If we hurry we could get back in time for supper. Tonight was gonna be roast beef and Bruce said he stole a bottle of wine from the cook...he might share."
"Shut up! I can definitely hear something!"
"Hopefully it's those orcs," he said while yawning. "Though I don't like the idea of meeting them here. You can't trust an orc. What is Lord Swill doing communicating with them anyway?"
"I don't know," the first guard replied. "But it's not in our place to question Lord Swill. We just follow orders and his orders told us to wait here until those orcs came."
"But what if they don't come. I don't want to spend the night here!"
"Then you go back and get half rations for a week because you deserted your post."
"Well...we might as well take turns keeping watch. I think I might take a nap now."
"And what am I supposed to do?"
"Why, it's obvious. You keep watch and then when I'm done with my nap you can get a turn to sleep."
"Sure. Just wake up the whole forest with you snores."
The second soldier didn't reply, just leaned against the tree and took his helmet off. His partner scoffed at him but continued to scan the forest, but the sun was setting and the trees blocked most of the light trying to come through. Finally he too sat down.
Suddenly a group of birds, disturbed, rose in a flock from a nearby section of the forest. Following this there was a crash of branches and the sound of undergrowth being trampled. Breaking through a wall of foliage suddenly charged a large centaur. Leaping over fallen logs she left great ruts in the ground where her hooves had dug through the dead leaves.
The two guards didn't have time to even lift their spears before the centaur had moved in front of them, reared up, and then come crashing down again with her own spear, a collection of feathers tied around the head, pointed at the first one's throat.
"Don't move," she ordered with a low, nasal, voice.
She glared at them, looking down her long horse-ish face. She kept this up for a long time until it began to get awkward. Then she sighed and turned around, calling impatiently into the forest.
"Rurik...where are you?"
"I'm coming...I'm coming," came the dwarf's reply. He suddenly appeared, detaching several leaves that had gotten caught on the spike on top of his helmet. "I would have gotten here faster if I didn't have to go around those craters you made in the dirt."
"You would have gotten here faster if you had started running when I did."
"Well excuse me for not knowing that we were going on 'one'. I thought we were gonna start running on 'zero'.
"You have no right to do this!" The guard –the one with Hrimfaxi's spear at his throat- broke in. His voice trembled. "We're part of His Grace's Army and anything you do to us is an offense to the crown."
"Like I care," Rurik said. He chuckled and hefted his hammer, making several mock swings at the second, cowering, soldier. "And don't you try anything."
"What are you going to do to us?" The second one asked.
"Well...we might have to kill you," said Hrimfaxi casually. "But if you tell us why you were waiting here for the orcs we might not have to do that."
"It was on Lord Swill's orders!" The first soldier answered quickly.
The centaur rolled her eyes.
"You're even stupider than those orcs we just killed...wiped out their whole tribe," bragged Rurik. "How about telling us why Lord Swill wanted to meet these orcs?"
The guards meet each other's eyes but remained silent.
"Talk!" commanded Hrimfaxi, dancing on her hooves, very nearly stepping on the captive guard.
But they remained silent.
"How are things going?" came Eldon's drawl.
"Just fine," sniffed Hrimfaxi.
The halfling, Felosial, Cleon and the elf captain stepped out into the clearing surrounding the big oak. As the elf captain came closer to them the two soldiers looked at him like they had seen a ghost.
"Captain...Captain Relcunalyn..." they stammered.
"Bruce? Eben?" the elf captain asked.
Bruce, the first guard, saluted clumsily.
"What are you two doing here?"
"We were demoted to privates after you were arrested, sir," Bruce explained. "We knew something was wrong, and they came to question us if we knew anything about what you had been doing those past few months. We wouldn't tell them anything, sir," he continued, babbling. "But then they took you away and they told everybody that you had been arrested because of treason. We didn't believe it...did we Eben? No we didn't sir, and we tried to find out where they had taken you...but someone found out and we were demoted..."
Relcunalyn held up a hand to silence the soldier.
"You know these two?" Felosial asked.
"Yes, they were in my corp when I was still captain."
"Have you been released then...pardoned?" Eben asked hopefully.
He stopped talking as Hrimfaxi's spear jabbed him in the chest.
"You can only speak when we say you can!" she told him.
"Let them up," Relcunalyn said to the centaur. "I trust them."
Reluctantly the centaur backed away and the two guards stumbled up, grabbed their own weapons and saluted the elf correctly.
"No, the king didn't pardon me," He told the soldiers. "I escaped. I committed no treason...I was falsely accused and given to the orc tribe as prisoner."
"Now how about you tell us what Lord Swill wanted," Rurik said.
"Yes, sir," Eben said, turning to dwarf as if reporting. "We were sent here to meet the orcs. They were going to bring a young boy with them who we were supposed to take prisoner and bring to him."
"Did he want this boy?" Hrimfaxi asked, pushing Cleon forward.
"Yes, ma'am," Bruce replied. "Fit's the description: Blond hair, blue eyes, about ten years old but runty."
"Why does Lord Swill want him?" Eldon asked.
"I don't know."
"Perhaps he committed a crime?" Eben offered.
"No...he lived in Hali before I bought his indenture. He's never traveled so there's no way he could have offended the king in Hensville."
"Did you say you got him in Hali?" Relcunalyn asked.
"Yes."
"And recently?"
"Yeah...not two weeks ago. Why?"
"You mean you just got him?"
"I told you that already! You think I need help to do my job? No! I just bought his service because I pitied him."
Cleon's shoulder drooped a little. He looked up at the elf captain and his eyes then shifted to the centaur.
"And you've been a big help," Felosial said, sensing the boy's disappointment. "Hasn't he Hrim?"
"Of course," Hrimfaxi said, on cue, but honestly enough. "He's not like those other rowdy human foals I see...and he know's what he's doing."
"I think I might know why Lord Swill wants him then," Relucunalyn said, kneeling down and staring straight at the boy. "Tell me your life story, Cleon," he asked.
"I don't remember much," the boy mumbled. "The first thing I remember was living with Nana, she took care of me and a lot of other orphans."
"Was she a mid-wife?"
"She helped women with their babies."
"Go on."
"But then she died, and me and the other children were sold. Some of my friends were sent to houses...adopted I think. But I was sold with some others at an auction. There were a lot of people and they kept on yelling and shouting out prices. Finally I was taken off the stage and brought home by Mr. Kutter. He said he owned me now and that I would have to do chores if I wanted to eat. He called me stupid."
Relcunalyn listened intently to the child's rambling.
"And sometimes he hit me...and then one day I went out to search for a lost cow that had gotten out of Mr. Kutter's pasture...it wasn't my fault but he said I had to go get it. But while I was out there some orcs came and took me away. Then Hrimfaxi came and rescued me. And she's much nicer than Mr. Kutter. I'm glad that I live with her now."
Hrimfaxi blushed suddenly at this. She patted the boy on the head with a huge, tattooed hand.
"Can you help us?" Relcuanlyn asked the two guards.
"At your service, sir," they both saluted.
IMPORTANT!!!!!:
-I made this a long chapter because I'm leaving for a trip...to S. Africa. It's for about two weeks so I won't be able to update...PUH LEASE review!!!!