Horace and Will were twelve years old. They were living as orphans in Redmont. Always torturing each other.

On a normal Sunday morning Horace stole Wills underwear and hid it under his own bed. When Will came out of the shower and walked in his tiny room with the rickety bed and musty cupboard he saw that his underwear was missing!

He knew immediately that Horace was the one that stole it. Naked that he was he grunted a rough towel around his waist and ran back up the landing to Horace's room.

When he came in he saw Horace lying on his bed with the blankets half over his large body. One leg hung limply out of bed and easily hit the floor. He had a big grin on his face

"Missing something Will?" he said mischievously.

"Yes, and I think you know exactly what!" Will said angrily.

"No, sorry. I don't, but wouldn't you want to get dressed before the girls see you like that?" he said meanly

"I would! but a certain person has taken my underwear away!"

"And who is that particular person?"

"Hmm... how about YOU !!?" Will accused.

Horace looked indignant while Will continued to look at him with a stern look

"No, it's not me Will" he said questionably.

"Perhaps it's Maria, she thought he was dirty after you put seven colors in it yesterday when I scared you"

Will felt his cheeks turn red when he thought of how shocked he was when Horace suddenly emerged from behind his curtain.

For a moment he lost his self-control when he jumped Horace while he was still lying on his bed. he slapped him in the face and punched him in the stomach and thigh.

Lady Mary, their guardian in the orphanage, heard the cries of pain that Horace roared through the corridors. She ran up the stairs as fast as she could and found the two in Horace's room. Horace lay on his bed, defenseless against the blows Will fired at him. She grabbed Will by the ear and he stopped immediately as he felt how hard and mercilessly she squeezed it and then turned in her firm fingers as hard as she could.

"Will! What do you think ?!" she shouted

"Gorlog's beard! have you completely taken off?"

She let go of his ear but immediately grabbed him by the shoulders again when he saw the chance to pounce on Horace again.

"HORACE STOLEN MY UNDERWEAR!" he shouted angrily, his timid gaze still on Horace.

Lady Maria glanced at the towel that was about to slide off his waist and then looked at Horace, who was still groaning on his bed because of Will's hard blows.

"Is this true Horace?" she asked

Horace nodded in agreement

"well, give it back right now!" she said sternly

Horace nodded again as he got out of bed and snatched under his bed for the underwear.

"And Will" Lady Mary said "I NEVER want to see this again is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am" said Will with his eyes ashamed on his feet.

She paused for a moment and nodded approvingly when Horace returned the underwear to Will who was desperately trying to hold up his towel.

She looked expectantly at the two boys.

"Sorry" Horace still said painfully.

"Sorry" Will said softly back.

Lady Maria looked at Will sternly and pointed in the direction of his room.

"And are you going to dress yourself, Will"

"Yes ma'am" he said and walked out of the room.

He knew Horace would not leave it at that, so he put on all his clothing as quickly as possible. He also knew that Horace still had pain in his thigh and could not run ... although that would not be for long.

As soon as he had put on his pants and shirt in a messy way, he quietly left his room and went down the stairs to the back door. As soon as he closed it behind him, he left for the forest as quickly as he could

Horace, meanwhile, was groaning in his bed. the pain stopped luckily and he decided he couldn't let Will go. As quiet as he could (which still sounded like a dinosaur with a bell chain around his neck) he walked to Will's room. It was empty. The moment he had determined that, he heard the back door fall softly into the lock. Without thinking, Horace ran down the stairs, skipping 2 steps each time.

He also opened the door, but Horace with more strength and less careful. He could just see a glimpse of Will disappear into the forest.

Will was not deaf and of course heard that the back door was pulled open and slammed shut later. He was almost certain that it had to be Horace.

Will knew that Horace was faster and certainly stronger with his long muscular body. He couldn't sustain it that much longer and he decided to do the only thing Horace couldn't do.

He ran to the nearest tree and climbed into it as if his life depended on it. That was true! As soon as he was sure he was high enough, he leaned against the thick trunk and caught his breath.

Horace saw that Will climbed a tree into panic and the courage sank into his shoes. He paused for a moment to catch his breath, but he knew that he was not allowed to show his weakness. No matter how scared he was about heights, Will had to pay for the blows he had dealt.

He ran to the tree and saw that Will had reached about half the tree.

"Will! If you don't come down now ... you'll leave me no other choice." He screamed

Will, who had caught his breath in the meantime, knew that Horace would never dare to go that high, so his words didn't bother him

"Oh yeah? well i'm not coming down ... so come and get me"

"FINE!" Horace was really angry now and with those words he took a deep breath and started his climb.

Will was still sitting quietly in the tree when he saw Horace place his left leg on the lower branch. He certainly did not expect that. He watched Horace get higher and higher and he started to get closer. Uneasily, Will looked up, but he saw that he was far too small to touch the next branch !!

Out of the blue Will feels a firm grip on his ankle and he had to hold on tightly so as not to be pulled off the branch. Horace pulled himself up until he sat down on the branch next to Will. He tried to push Will off the branch, but Will clung to the trunk of the tree. Because of all the weight on the branch, they could feel him bending and hearing how he started making breaking noises.

"TO GET OFF!!" Will screamed

"The branch is starting to break because of your heavy-weight, rude giant that you are!"

"rude giant ?!" that only made Horace even more angry, which brought even more strength to it.

"If you call me that again I will tell you ..."

before he could finish his sentence he felt the branch fall under his thighs and before he knew it he lay with his back on the grass. Will, he saw, lay a few meters away.

Will had landed harder than Horace, and for a moment they both stopped and were processing what had just happened.

Only when everything came in, Will realized that he had landed very hard on his arm and Horace felt his ankle swell.

Will stood up carefully and saw Horace doing the same in the corner of his eye. For a moment they stood looking at each other to think about what they had argued about again.

At that moment he heard a strange sound from a little further

ZOOF ZOOF ZOOF

He saw that Horace had also heard the strange noise. When he thought that, he saw a gust of wind fly past Horace's ear, tousling his short hair. Not even a second later he felt the same thing happen to himself.

KLING

something hard flew against the oak that he and Horace had just dropped out of. He looked confused for a moment and Horace had the same look on his face when they looked at each other

suddenly Will saw movement on the wide path behind Horace...

"Horace ... don't look behind you, but there is someone on the path a few meters behind you."