The tower had been a recent addition. Its height of over thirty feet gave the villagers a little better idea of what was coming. It was also an excellent spot for Alex to see how the preparations were coming. The little children were planting the spikes in the clear zone. The men were moving the tables into position. Horses were already attached to the farthest section of the bridge but that would not be removed until the clear zone preparations were complete.
Alex wondered if he had overreacted by starting the preparations. Jo had seen only one Yaki. Alex had no doubt that she had seen a Yaki. All of the original villagers had seen them close enough to remember them. No, Alex determined. Even if it turns out to be a false alarm, the value of a practice exercise was worth the disruption. Within four hours all of the preparations were complete. Now they had to wait.
It was early winter so the trees had lost most of their leaves and the view from the tower was excellent. Alex had climbed again to look around. Nolan was on duty in the tower. Alex knew if there was anything to see it would have already been reported but he didn’t like waiting. He admired the villagers. It had been their idea to fortify the village, their decision to never again evacuate.
Two days went by and there were no Yaki sightings. The villagers were beginning to talk about rolling back their defenses. Alex was inclined to agree, but decided that a scouting expedition was in order before they lowered their shields. Alex and Eddie swam across the river and weaved their way through the spikes in the clear zone. They climbed the west hill and crawled to the top. There appeared to be no activity in the next valley and the pair descended to the bottom. This would have been the area where Jo saw the Yaki. They searched around and found the remains of the deer but no Yaki.
The next valley to the west connected with the mountain pass to the Gordo Region. Alex led the way up the next hill and again they gazed into the valley. Alex was about to descend into the next valley when he thought he saw someone move. Quietly, they waited to catch sight of the figure. Alex felt his heart beating faster as he watched goblins starting to come into the valley from the mountain pass, hundreds of goblins. The Yaki were coming also but what really scared Alex was the sight of goblins riding Yaki. He knew how fast the Yaki could run and he had heard how fierce the goblins could fight. Working together his enemies could destroy a great many villages. Alex and Eddie had to get back to the village quickly. One of them would also have to alert the King’s Army. Fortunately for the villagers, the goblins were upwind and heading south, not east. Alex lightly touched Eddie on the arm and they quietly headed back to the village.
They ran at a fast pace but slow enough to proceed quietly. They detected no pursuit and made it back to the village without incident. There was no sounding of the horn, rather the need for a village meeting was passed by word of mouth. When the villagers were gathered Alex explained the situation. He ordered the villagers to extinguish all fires and keep noise to a minimum. He also explained that he was going to try to reach the nearest garrison and get help. There was a murmur of dissent concerning Alex leaving but Alex could not permit anyone else to take the risk alone. The villagers accepted the news bravely and prepared for battle. No one complained about extinguishing the fires even though the last few nights had been so cold that water buckets had frozen.
Alex was preparing to depart when the shout came down from the tower. The enemy had arrived. Alex ordered the fires lit and the villagers ran to their positions. The village defense plan called for one defensive position for every two villagers so there would always be people not fighting.
There was no attack immediately. The Yaki and the goblins gathered in the trees on the other side of the river. “ What a weird alliance” Alex thought, ”these large fox-like creatures with saliva dripping from their fangs and the hideous looking goblins with their swords, axes, and bows.” The Yaki were not very intelligent creatures and would have charged into the spikes or drowned in the river. Nobody had planned for a goblin attack; it was unheard of for goblins to come this far south. The goblins seemed to be studying the village to determine its weakness. Alex saw several goblin explorers head south through the trees. He was sure that they would follow the river to see if there was a crossing point further downstream. Alex knew there was not. Still, they would be able to swim across outside of the villagers’ bow range if they wished. Alex knew how cold that water was and thought of the goblins trying to fight when they were wet and freezing. The thought brought a slight smile to his lips.
The explorers returned and shortly thereafter arrows started flying from the trees. The arrows were well short of the village and no threat. The villagers knew the range of their arrows and would not fire until the target was within their range. After a few minutes, goblin archers raced from the trees toward the riverbank, weaving between the spikes as they ran. They stood on the opposite bank and started firing. The villagers started firing back and goblins started dying. The goblin arrows kept flying. Another immediately replaced each archer killed but their arrows were not hitting the villagers. The villagers had excellent protection and enough people and arrows to keep this up for a very long time.
Several Yaki ran forward and tumbled down the riverbank. They attempted to cross the river but Alex watched their bodies being carried downstream by the frigid water. The goblin archers, seeing their arrows were having no effect, retreated to the tree line. The battlefield fell silent.
“Those goblins are really stupid,” commented Laman. “I counted at least forty dead goblin archers and I don’t think they even hit a single villager! And the Yaki, ha! People will find their frozen bodies floating in the Targa Sea.”
“They may be stupid,” retorted Kyle, “but I’ve heard stories of goblin raids. They don’t give up because of heavy losses. They think that dying in battle is the only proper death for a warrior and a glorious thing. Look out there, Laman. There are hundreds of them and more are still coming over the ridge.”
“No problem, Kyle. We’ll be glad to give them all a glorious death. Let them come. We can start a branch of the Goblin Proper Death Society. You know, ‘Stand right here to be processed. Thank you. Next!’ It’ll be fun,” he laughed.
“You’re sick, Laman. The goblins will probably fill the river gorge with the dead bodies and then march over them,” Kyle added. “You heard Alex before. They’re streaming in through the pass. They don’t care how many die as long as they win.”
Just then the sound of an ax hitting a tree echoed through the valley. The purpose of the clear zone was not just to remove cover from the riverbank but also to remove the source of trees large enough to span the river. Alex thought the goblins were going to try and create a bridge. It was suicide, of course, but, as Kyle pointed out, the goblins didn’t care. Worse, it was getting dark. If the goblins decided to create their bridge at night, it would be hard for the villagers to see them.
“Laman,” asked Alex, “Do you know how to make a catapult?”
“I’ve never seen one, Alex, but ought to be able to rig up something. What are you thinking about?”
“I think the goblins may try to drag trees down to the river tonight to make a bridge or dam the river. It’s going to be hard for us to see them. Even if we rain arrows into the dark and get a lot of them, they may succeed. I was thinking that if we could pepper the ground with burning coals we could slow them down until sunrise.”
“I can try making something, Alex, but I’m not going to come up with anything useable for tonight,” replied Laman.
“Okay, Laman, but build it anyway. If we can come up with some other diversion for tonight, we may be able to use your catapult tomorrow night.”
“Will do, fearless leader,” Laman quipped. “I guess you’re planning on them staying until either they die or we do?”
“Yes, I can’t imagine anything that would make them give up.”
“How about a forest fire?” asked Kyle.
Alex’s mood brightened a little. “Yes, we could burn them out i
f we could figure out how to get the fire started. The leaves over there would help get the fire going. Eddie and I could certainly reach the trees from the tower but they would just put the arrows out as quickly as we fired them.”
“Don’t aim for the leaves,” prompted Kyle. “Aim for the Yaki. Remember how quickly the Yaki ignited? How they ran around howling and rolling on the ground? You ignite half a dozen Yaki and they’ll start the fire for you.”
Alex was smiling at Kyle’s plan when he felt the first snowflake. It was early for a snowfall in the valley but the temperature certainly had been cold enough for it. There was a lot of excitement across the river as well. If it was snowing down here, the goblins had little time to make up their minds which side of the pass they wanted to spend the winter on. Within hours the pass would be closed if it wasn’t already. Alex decided to help make up the goblins’ minds. “Kyle, I’m going to find Eddie. You get us a couple of buckets of fire arrows and hoist them into the tower.”
Alex rounded up Eddie and they returned to the tower. Alex could hear a great deal of commotion across the river and the tree felling had stopped. There were several Yaki crouched at the edge of the trees eyeing the fallen goblin bodies. Alex knew that as soon as darkness came the Yaki would slither out and retrieve their meal. He didn’t think the one that he was aiming for would be one of the diners.
Alex and Eddie let fly their arrows within seconds of each other and quickly reloaded. Within minutes there were howling Yaki carrying fire throughout the woods. Some of the beasts headed for the clear zone to be punctured by the spikes or shot by the villagers. One even made it to the river, only to be swept away. Alex saw a flaming Yaki body fly from the woods into the clear zone. Its head had been severed. More flaming Yaki came flying out of the woods. The goblins were killing the fire spreaders and tossing their bodies out of the woods. The other Yaki were none too happy about this and were growling and snarling. Eddie and Alex kept firing until their buckets were empty. Here and there small fires had started but not the forest fire they had hoped for.
The enemy camp had polarized into goblins and Yaki. Evidently, the goblins could communicate with the Yaki because Alex could see one from each side in the middle of the two groups in an apparent argument. The snow was starting to come down heavier when both enemy factions turned and left the valley.
Alex decided to spend the night in the village and leave in the morning to alert the garrison at Bordon. During a quick village meeting, Laman was elected to be the village leader until Alex returned -- assuming he would return. Just after sunrise Alex stripped off his clothing and swam across the river towing a rope. He tied the rope around a tree and Eddie sent Alex’s clothes and a towel across the rope from the tower. Alex was dry and dressed but he was still chilled to the bone. He would like to have been warm before starting his journey through the snow but that had not been an option. Eddie next sent over a backpack loaded with provisions and a sack containing Alex’s weapons. Eddie untied the rope and let it drop. Alex coiled the rigid rope as best he could and waved goodbye.
Alex was wary of running into stragglers from the goblins’ retreat so he angled well south of the valley that connected with the pass. It was still snowing heavily and Alex realized that it would take him over two weeks to get to Bordon on foot. Alex turned west when he reached the road to Bordon.
Two days later, Alex heard the sound of battle. Snarls and growls competed with the sounds of men. Alex hurried his pace, but approached cautiously. He rounded a bend in the road and saw four kingdom soldiers in hand-to-hand combat with goblins while a Yaki was feasting on a fresh kill. He fitted an arrow to his bow and slowly shot it through the Yaki’s neck. He plucked another arrow into a goblin’s back. Two more goblins that had been looting bodies had escaped Alex’s view of the battleground and now were charging towards him. He shot one in the chest but the other goblin leaped at him and knocked his bow from his hand. They rolled in the snow, each trying for an advantage. The goblin rolled on top of Alex and reached for his throat. Alex gripped the goblin’s wrists and started to spread them away from his throat. It was a bad move. The goblin’s mouth opened and Alex caught a glimpse of incredibly sharp animal fangs heading for his neck. Alex pulled with his right arm while pushing with his left and managed to roll the goblin over. Lying atop the goblin, Alex quickly reached into his small quiver, grabbed a quill and thrust it into the goblin’s eye.
Alex shot to his feet, ran towards the remaining fighters, and reached into his small quiver for two more quills. Two kingdom soldiers were ganging up on one goblin while the other two soldiers had one goblin each. Holding a quill in each hand, Alex headed for the even matches. He stabbed each goblin in the back with a quill and they dropped instantly. The soldier with fiery red hair twirled and threw his knife at the remaining goblin. Alex was amazed. At a distance of over twenty feet, the knife sunk into the goblins neck. The battle was won.
“Thank ya, mate,” greeted the knife-throwing soldier. “Sergeant Ferguson here. Any that pulls me out of a scrap can call me Fergy. We’re much obliged.”
“Glad I was able to help. I’m Alex Tork from Lavinda,” Alex said as he shook hands with the heavy set sergeant.”
“Todd Racor,” the dark soldier said. “Are you the Alex that’s friends with Oscar form Bordon?”
“Yeah, are you guys from Bordon?” asked Alex.
“All but Fergy here,” replied Todd wiping the snow off his black mustache. “He’s up from Tagaret to train us border boys.”
“Yeah, right!” added the young, blond boy. “Some training. And we thought training was just practice. Brian Wilby, Alex, and damn glad to meet you.”
The overweight soldier was the last to join them. He strode over slowly, shaking his brown locks and gasping for air. “Bill Hodge, Alex. You must be a friend of Reese, too, then and that puts you in good stead with what’s left of the Bordon garrison.”
“What’s left?” quizzed Alex. “You mean this is all that’s left of the entire garrison?”
“Almost,” answered Fergy, shoving a pipe under his thick red mustache. “We left a skeleton crew there and rushed east on reports of goblins. We found the reports to be true. Have you seen any further east?”
“Saw lots of them,” replied Alex. “They attacked Lavinda then headed west towards the pass. I set out the next morning for Bordon to warn the garrison and haven’t seen any since, but I bypassed the valley that leads to the pass. If this party was heading west, I’d think it was because the pass is closed.”
Fergy lit his pipe and inhaled deeply. “I’d say you were right. Lavinda’s wiped out then?”
“No, not a single casualty. We designed Lavinda to be defendable and for the most part, she is. We hadn’t planned on goblins coming with the Yaki and I imagine we’ll be making some additions to the defenses right soon.”
“Brian, Todd, round up five horses,” Fergy commanded. “Tell me, Alex, what are those things sticking out of the backs of those goblins.”
“Myric quills, my secret weapon. I learned in the Yaki attack five years ago that they are a potent weapon. I also carry reeds to propel them. The poison kills instantly.”
“I may have come up here to train others but I can see that I have a lot to learn from you frontier men.” Fergy lit his pipe again and gathered his weapons. “Alex, you’re going to join me on a little trip to Tagaret.”
“Thanks for the offer, Fergy,” replied Alex, “But I’ve got to get back to the village. Come spring those goblins will be back and we’ve got some preparations that need to be done.”
“Alex,” stated the gruff sergeant, “It was not an offer, it was an order. I’m one of the King’s Own, a sergeant in the Red Swords. Now, in case you frontier boys haven’t kept up on kingdom law, that means I have the power to order you to accompany me. To refuse is treason. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir,” spat Alex. “But it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“No, you don’t, son,�
�� soothed Fergy. “No, you don’t. But don’t get your butt in an uproar. I’m bringing you down for the good of the frontier. If you fought the Yaki five years ago, you’ve fought them three times now. You’ve fought the goblins twice and you’re still alive. You know the country, and you have some tricks up your sleeve that allow you to survive. The King’s Army is small, not familiar with the frontier, and has not fought the enemy. The King’s advisors need to hear what you know. Your village will be safe until spring as well as the many other villages up here and we’ll be back with reinforcements long before that.”
“I’m sorry, Fergy. I’m a little short tempered, I guess, but Lavinda means a lot to me. I should’ve realized that there are other villages that need protection, too. Let me get my gear.”
“Sure, Alex. Bill, I want the three of you to head back to Bordon and report on what has happened. Alex and I are heading for Tagaret.”
Fergy and Alex headed cross-country for Klandon. Within a day they were out of the snow and able to proceed faster. Each night when they stopped they would share stories, Fergy of life in the military and the capital, Alex about the villagers and the village. They each had developed a growing respect and admiration for the other. When they traveled through the marshes along the Boulder River Alex showed Fergy how to catch and dequill a myric. In the evenings Fergy would instruct Alex in swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat. By the time they got to Tagaret they were good friends.
Origin Scroll Page 14