Gon and the master said goodbye, and as Gon walked away in the night, the snow that was still falling slowly was now avoiding him as it fell. In the snow now behind Gon stood Master Tiger looking upon a man he had great respect for and then disappeared in the night.
Caught by the Enemy
The snow mountain was behind Gon, and a greener landscape started to present itself. Some of the trees were dead and stood alone. The landscape was still cold, and there was a long road yet to the land Darcolian kingdom’s castle was, but he would pass a couple of villages during the way so he had chances to stock up on food. After walking for four hours, he stopped and made camp. There was still only wasteland, but luckily, there was firewood from the dead trees that stood here and there. The night came, and Gon stared into the fire. He did not feel the cold but had chills still from time to time. He saw himself and Senji as they went camping with the kids and then when the three of them were sitting together for the first time after they saved Senji. The fire was warm but his heart felt cold and lifeless. A tear ran down his cheek and he turned away from the fire in an attempt to sleep.
The morning after, he woke up and started walking towards a hill further away hoping to spot anything. As he walked up the hill, he saw a flower growing alone and avoided stepping on it. He came up to the top and indeed, there was a village in the far edge in the direction he was going. It took him a further three hours to get there with no rest, and when he entered the village, he couldn’t see anyone. The village looked abandoned and there were only a couple of chickens running around. He went through the houses but no one had been in this village for many months. After he found firewood in one of the houses, he killed a chicken and proceed to cook it.
The sun would be up in another four hours, and Gon decided to continue rather than staying in the empty village. He walked until the sun set and brought up a map he took from one of the houses and lay it out next to the fire he had just lit. The way he was going was leading him to another village, and there were plenty of landmarks on the way since the landscape had changed. There was then forest on one side and mountains on the next coming up.
This night would be the first in many days that he would hear night life from the forest that he was close to. The morning came and with it, some self-cleaning followed. In the beginning, he could walk normally but the rain became very heavy and he took shelter in the forest. The rain stopped after an hour and Gon was able to walk again, but the landscape had turned into small lakes that were stretching for a long way. The road became dry after he had been walking for four hours and the road started to go uphill. The road went close to the mountain and on the side. There were tracks in the road from carriages and horses so the road must have been used within a couple of days, he thought. The road started to head down and he could see another village in the far corner of the mountain. He walked through the dark after it had come almost directly after he had started to walk down the mountain. He finally entered the village and this one had at least some people in it. He heard voices coming from a house and they seemed to be several in the house.
He knocked on a door, but the voices he heard earlier stopped, and when he knocked again he could hear a man’s voice faintly telling the kids to be quiet. Gon understood there must have been some trouble before and they were scared. He took some fire wood and set up camp a little further away and planned to comeback in the morning when they could see who was knocking and maybe that would calm them down. The night passed and he woke up by a dog standing next to him and looked curiously at Gon. He walked with the dog back to the village and then the people were out but he saw immediately that they had some fear of him and asked him who he was. Gon had no intention to reveal why he was there and said, instead, that he was looking for a relative who was living in the land. The back story became very good and the people bought it.
Gon told the man that it was him who knocked on the door, and the man apologised and said they sometimes got bandits that wanted to rob them. The doors were very thick, he said, but they didn’t want to take any chances. Gon understood and said he was hoping he could buy some food, but the man invited him in and the wife cooked Gon a nice breakfast. Gon asked about the other village that was abandoned, and the man told him about the men who came and had them removed because they refused to hand their money to them. He said he didn’t really know why or who they were but heard something about them being spies from Grasoll that came to take some of the money. Gon said there were many stories spreading about both sides in the war to put doubt in the people. The man said he was aware but he believed their king would look out for them. He said King Arobe was even more ruthless now since his only son was killed by the Grasoll kingdom guards and took no chances. He sent soldiers out to the villagers to find out any movement made that was new at regular times.
Gon knew that Jay was the one that killed the prince but did not want any trouble so he said nothing and listened to the conditions that were about to escalate. The man said the king had ordered all the right age men to join the army. The Grasoll land’s army would be coming in any day and attack the man thought and he was worried for the villages that lay in the way. He was afraid some might disappear as the fights brought them in but hopefully, the war would miss them. Gon brought up the map after breakfast and wondered if there was any other village that was not on the map and the man said there was a guard fort on the border to the kingdom and not much after until the castle. Gon said nothing about going to the castle and wondered if there would be a better road to the villages that might shorten the time getting there. The man showed him a path that was fairly low of valleys and forest and went towards the next village.
Gon asked about a road he pointed at that was crossing the path, and the man said Gon should not walk that road since it went to the kingdom and passed some bad camps on the way. Gon said he appreciated the man’s help and thanked the wife for the food. He left the village with some extra food and headed towards the next village. There was at least two days’ walk, and he was not slowing down. On the way, he practised with his staff and stopped only briefly to relieve himself or to eat. He had brought a lot of water from the village, and it was heavy but walking for that long definitely dehydrated him so the weight of the water became lighter after every hour.
He finally came to the bridging road and read the sign standing there. It said the kingdom was about a four days’ walk away. He counted and between on a map next to the sign was the guard station that the villager told him about. There was no doubt in his mind that he needed to go in that direction, but he needed to avoid the guard house and get into the kingdom. The kingdom was surrounded by walls of mountain and the guard house was seated between the kingdom and outside land with a great wall between the mountains. The guard house acted like a doorway and anyone crossing must identify themselves.
Gon sat down and looked at the map he found in the old village and it was clear it was an older map because it didn’t have the guard house on the map and there was something else. On the new map next to the sign, there was only mountain in surrounding the kingdom but on the old map, there was a path leading in the mountain and down the other side. The side of the mountain was most likely guarded and full of soldiers and there was probably a reason for it being erased off the map.
Ahead-on confrontation with the guards would be bad since he was alone and would probably lose. A trip to the mountain could end up costly if there was an ambush of guards and there was no escape to the side. After some thinking, he decided to go to the next village anyway to perhaps get more information and it was on the way to the mountain passage so if he chose to go there then it would be closer. After walking towards the village that went past an old ruin, he stopped and sat down. The clouds had gathered and there was a cemetery from very long ago and no one had been taking care of it presumably since whatever small city that was there fell. The cemetery made it eerie and spooky. The noises from the ruin would be enough for anyone to run away but there was
no fear inside of Gon and the only thing on his mind was to find the security forces and kill whoever was to blame for Senji’s death. Should it be King Arobe then he would die for it.
The fire was harder to light because of the wet land, but he managed to get it started and cooked himself a meal of a mouse he had killed with his staff. There was not much shelter in the ruin but some walls of a house had fallen against another wall and gave some shelter for then. He had light and bad sleep and wished for Senji to come and lie next to him. In the morning, the fire had been put out by a small rain, and Gon stayed under shelter for a little while more to think about what to do. He suddenly heard someone coming close in what sounded like a wagon, and he looked carefully out from the shelter and saw a man sitting under the cover of the wagon’s roof.
The wagon was possibly going to the village so Gon walked out from the shelter and approached the wagon. The man stopped and asked Gon who he was and why he was in the old ruin. Gon told a story about searching for his uncle and had been to the other villages and was told that another village lay another couple of days away. The man looked suspiciously at Gon but told him it was going to rain for a while and Gon could join him to the village. Gon accepted and brought his things with him. They travelled for half a day, and during the time, the man asked a lot of questions and acted like he didn’t trust Gon. The man did his best to not sound like he was suspicious but Gon could tell easily. He kept to the story that he came to search for his uncle and wanted to go to the village.
When the man came to a crossing, he told Gon that the village was beyond the hill in the distance and Gon went off and let the man continue to another path. When the man had disappeared out of range, he took out the map and looked at it. The road that the man was going on was leading up to the mountain and was the same road that was erased from the map. He wondered who the man was and continued towards the village. The night had then shown itself, and Gon made a last camp before he entered the village in a couple of hours. He set up camp in the forest and again slept lightly and woke up when the morning sun graced the forest. He headed down towards the village and as he came close, he got a feeling that someone was looking at him. The feeling followed him, and when he looked around, he saw nothing that told him that he was being watched. He entered the village and got welcomed by the man that was the leader of the village. He invited Gon to his house and told him that they were the last village and his relative was not there. The man said if Gon wanted to ask in the kingdom, he had to go back and give a good reason to get in to the kingdom since he was not a resident of Darcolia, and with it being a brink of war, they were reluctant to let anyone in.
Gon thought the man gave a lot of information away if it was so unstable in the land but played along. The man said the weather would be bad for a while and that Gon should stay until the weather let out. Gon asked if there were really no more villages around, and the man said the closest town outside the land was behind the mountain and the only way through was by walking the mountain itself, but there were bandits and soldiers in there as well. The man said there was another way which was to go around the mountain further away and pass the other side and walk into the other land of Domoro. There, he could walk to the other town but it would take two weeks on foot. Gon thought the man was acting strange and said he would go back to the road going to the kingdom and ask for permission to get in and hope for the best. The man asked Gon if he would like to borrow a house for a couple of days until the weather got better. Gon said thanks and got shown the house.
When the door was closed, he looked out the window behind the curtain. The people seemed apprehensive about him being there. Perhaps the news about the first village had them worried about whether he was a criminal. The village was strange and Gon felt he should be on his way soon and set his plan to works. He would go through the mountain but would disguise himself as a guard. The man in the house said there was an outpost not far away and was fairly unguarded; if he would take care of the soldiers and steal their uniforms, they might believe he was one as well. With so many new recruits, it would be hard to figure out who was a real soldier.
The day passed and Gon came out to see if he could buy some supplies for the road and maybe get more information. The villagers didn’t want to talk to him and walked away as he got close. One man stayed on his chair outside his house and told Gon what he suspected that the villagers were afraid that he was a spy or criminal and would make the king send his soldiers out to question them about him. Gon didn’t care about the village but knew it would be a bad idea if the guards came and checked him out. It would create unnecessary suspicion about him. As he walked back, the man said not to trust the leader of the village. Gon decided to leave the same night, and when he noticed the people had turned the lights off, he sneaked out the window and started to silently walk to the side exit of the village. He had to hide when a man came in from the exit and stayed there.
Gon wondered why he had put himself there and waited and hoped the man would move voluntarily. Gon looked behind him as he heard footsteps coming from the village. He went back and entered a small shed that had a horse in. From the window, he saw the leader of the village talking to a man with a soldier’s uniform. He couldn’t make out what they were saying but understood what was going to happen as soon the soldier brought his sword out and waved to someone he couldn’t see. From the side, a couple of soldiers came out and the three men walked towards the house Gon was in earlier. The man standing at the side exit of the village was probably a guard as well and would sound an alarm if he saw anything. If the guards couldn’t find Gon in the house, they would surely think he was suspicious. He might have to walk back and get back to try to explain who he was so they might let him go on. He quickly learned that the men would not have cared who he was when they spread out and made it impossible for Gon to get back in.
The head guard took aim and kicked the door in. The other guards stood outside and Gon could see the man slashing the bed he was supposed to sleep in. The guard said Gon was not there and the guards blew a horn that brought some other guards closer to the house. The five guards started to spread out and told everyone to open their doors and anyone harbouring criminals would be taken away. The guards went in to some houses and Gon looked for a way to escape without having to engage in combat since he didn’t know how many soldiers there were. He looked at the horse that might be of assistance and started to untie it. The guards made noise, and some of the villagers screamed and were afraid. The guards went through the house he was hiding behind and he pulled a lot of hay over him.
A guard came and looked at the shed and walked in. He had a torch and aimed it to the floor and saw something in the corner of the shed. The sack that Gon had was lying behind horse and the man checked it. Gon knew he needed to be quick and was able to get his staff under the horse without the guard hearing or seeing it. The guard stood up fast and took a breath to shout out what he had found but Gon slapped the horse under the stomach so the horse kicked back and hit the man who flew out the door. The noise became more than Gon hoped for and he got up and mounted the horse. He grabbed his bag as he exited the shed and another guard had seen him when he was going to investigate the noise from the shed and sounded the alarm.
Gon then ran to the exit but the door had been closed and Gon was forced to continue in another direction. He came out on the middle of the village where it was more open and looked for a way out. He saw the archers guarding the entry of the village, and they were aiming crossbows towards him so he had to move to the side to lose their sight. Another guard approached, running from the side, and Gon tried to ride around a house but was met by another guard. He kicked the horse on the side, and as he got close, he smacked the guard in the head with the staff and killed him instantly. He rode until the horse got an arrow from an archer on the side of the body and was forced to stop. Gon jumped off and knew there was no way out other than to fight.
There were ten guards in total that he had se
en and two of them were down. He saw a soldier got close and another archer reloading his crossbow. Gon jumped in through a window and ran out the other door and ended up behind the archer with the crossbow. The man turned around but Gon was quick and kicked the archer in the stomach so he lost his grip on the crossbow, and Gon used the reloaded crossbow to shoot the guard running behind him out from the house he just exited. The arrow hit the man on the head and then Gon grabbed another arrow from the archer’s holster, and without the crossbow, stuck it through the back of the head. Another arrow sailed very close to Gon, and missed him just barely. He ran to another house and the old man that told him not to trust the leader of the village opened the door for him. The man told Gon to go to the roof and pointed to the ceiling. Gon jumped up and was fast up on top of the beam that held the roof.
Two soldiers banged on the door and the man brought out a knife, and as the men slammed the door open, he stabbed one of them in the chest and started to wrestle the other one. Gon jumped down and grabbed the soldier off the old man as he was about to cut him down. He grabbed him in the head and pulled him back. With one kick, he broke the back of the soldier and grabbed his sword and stabbed the other guard again and left the sword in him and ran out again. He said thanks to the man as he left out the door. He met another soldier that came from the side and tried to hit Gon with a sword, but Gon avoided it and punched the man and continued on forward towards the leader’s house. He saw the leader look out the window and took aim at the door. An arrow hit the side of the wall next to the door. He kicked the door down and ran in and grabbed the leader. He held him in front of himself and told him to reveal the best way to the kingdom. The man said the mountain was guarded heavily, and that was now the only way through the mountain that was safe.
World of Taroo Page 33