by Aaron Hicks
He passed a sign for White bridge that read forty eight miles. So he slowly increased his pace, until he was nearly at a full sprint. As he passed a farm he saw the shocked look on the farmhands’ faces in the field as he passed them. I guess they don’t see a lot of people here training for a long run, but that’s why Beletaria’s the best. We constantly train to be better, even the grand masters are constantly training, when they’re not teaching. Well actually, I guess it’s not “we” anymore. He was filled with a momentary sadness that passed as soon as he thought about Laurilli and all that he’d gained since he had left Beletaria.
As he jogged on he smiled and remembered one of the few good memories he had from when he grew up. It was the day, five years ago, that they learned how to use the Beletarian style of running. “Don’t worry about how you look doing it!” Gelshaw had yelled at Belial when he complained that they looked ridiculous. Uktesh hadn’t cared what people thought of him by this point in his life. All his friends knew that he could fight, so looking silly while he practiced a new technique didn’t worry him too much. Uktesh started to try it as Gelshaw continued to instruct, “So now you believe that you know how to run, but do you know how to fight?”
They’d just completed the first of many physical training months, and they all had found that they knew next to nothing about how to fight, so they didn’t speak up this time at the taunt. Uktesh had been able to tell that his stride still caused his feet to move too far ahead of him, but he was probably doing the best out of the class. “Belario you need to step quicker. The reason why this works is because of momentum! If you keep kicking your feet out ahead of you, you will constantly be losing your momentum. Uktesh!” he said and he gestured Uktesh forward. So Uktesh continued to try to jog to Gelshaw, “Punch my hand, boy!” Uktesh knew better than to argue, so he punched Gelshaw’s hand as hard as he could. But it didn’t move at all, in fact, Uktesh was pushed backwards slightly. “Now, can anyone explain why Uktesh was pushed backwards?”
“It’s cause he’s weak!”
“He didn’t set his feet!”
“You pushed back on his fist!”
The answers came fast, but through it all Gelshaw only shook his head. “The reason is that every time you push on an object it pushes back on you just as much. So when you jog and you stick your foot way out in front of your body, you’re breaking your momentum. Instead we jog by constantly pushing in the direction we want to go, you will find that it takes far less energy to continue moving forward.” They had practiced all the rest of that week until everyone could do it.
Uktesh continued to run and stopped his daydream only long enough to read a sign that read; White Bridge twelve miles. He was surprised that he’d been able to jog this whole way so quickly, it felt like he’d only been on the road for another few minutes, rather than the hours he knew it would take to cover that much distance. His mind wandered back to Laurilli and he hoped that she would be safe. He envisioned her being attacked, and he picked up his pace to just under his fastest jog speed. The people that he envisioned attacking Laurilli were Baloce and Dekan. “Where’s your boyfriend?” Dekan would ask.
Without contradicting Dekan’s boyfriend comment she responded, “He’s around, and will be back soon.”
“I don’t think that he’s nearby at all. I think you’re up in a tree because he left you alone, which is good for us. Finally, you’ll get what’s coming to you.”
As Uktesh imagined them attacking her, he saw her try to fight them off, first with the axe, then with Leaf on the Wind. As he had suspected, it was too soon for her to try. As he imagined her slipping from the tree and falling, he realized that he was at a full sprint with his head fully tilted forward. He didn’t remember how long he’d been at it full tilt, but now he was winded and his muscles had started to hurt. He slowed down to a slow jog, and realized that a walled town was near. It was just a worry, she’s not really in danger. He thought to himself. But he couldn’t shake the worry, as he slowed to a fast walk. Uktesh entered through the south gate and saw a similar gate across the way. He had intended to just walk through this town and keep on towards White Bridge when he saw a cart with a broken wheel, Maybe they were able to come a bit further south before the wheel broke. He walked to the cart and saw that there was a ream of expensive looking cloth in the back under a tarp. “Hey you! Kid! What do you think you’re doing?”
Uktesh turned and glared his most menacing glare, brought his hand up to the hilt of his sword over his right shoulder and growled, “My name’s Uktesh. I was hired by Tylor to bring his goods to Manori. Are these his?”
The man halted in his tracks at his glare and tone, “I didn’t mean to offend, bounty hunter, it’s just that this one ream of cloth is worth a year’s wage for me.” Uktesh released his sword, but tucked his thumbs in his belt. He allowed the man to see his two knives and eased up on his glare.
“Here is the letter of intent signed by Tylor. The rest of his merchandise, you can bring once the wheel is fixed. I’ve been hired, as you can see, to bring back the cloth.”
“I can’t read. How am I to know what that says?” the man whined.
“If you can’t read, blame your parents or yourself for your ignorance. As for me, I’m taking this ream. It’s worth a gold more if I return with it before sun down.”
The man looked up, “sunset’s only ten hours away. You’ll never make it back by walking. Is your plan to take the ferry to the north?”
“No, I’ll run back. But that’s my issue, yours is to hand over the merchandise.”
“I need a witness. I’ll get the mayor.”
“This town has a mayor? I thought the nearest one was in White Bridge.”
As he walked off, he shouted over his shoulder, “Where do you think you are?”
Uktesh thought about it, I couldn’t have run the whole way by now, last I checked I was twelve miles away! That’s at least another hour of running, most likely an hour and a half. But since I saw that sign, only a half hour has passed. He thought about it some more, maybe the sign was incorrect. He nodded to himself, That must be it.
The man returned with four people, and again Uktesh fell into the persona that other’s mistook as mercenary. “This is the mayor.” He said and pointed at the portly man on his right, “These other three are his scribe, son, and daughters’ husband. They can all read, so if you would be kind enough to hand the paper to them.” Uktesh handed them the paper. They each read it and each took their time. Finally they nodded to each other and grinned momentarily when their eyes met.
Great! They’re planning to rob me! Wasting time was a way for their men to get set up. “Is all in order?”
“Yes, young man. All seems well.” The mayor said. “If you will allow us to wrap the cloth to protect it, you can be on your way.”
“That’s fine so long as I watch the wrapping.” Uktesh saw a flicker of disappointment, but the mayor nodded. It was quickly wrapped and soon Uktesh was left alone in the middle of the square. The five men just stood around as they pretended to talk, though Uktesh knew that they just wanted to watch him. When Uktesh started to walk north, he heard a shout, “Son!” The mayor shouted, “You may be turned around, but Manori is that way, to the south.”
Uktesh nodded, “So it is. But I’m going to go north and get a hire on the ferry to take me south. The ten minutes north will be made up by the quick trip south. It’ll be close, but I suspect that the ferry’s my best option.”
“I thought you said you were going to run, young legs like yours will be able to do it!”
“So I thought, but your witnesses took too long for me to run back.” Stupid old fools! Let’s see if you enjoy feeling that you took so long setting up the ambush that it caused me to change my mind. But Uktesh was sure to keep the joy off his face.
The five men looked stunned, “Well I still better hurry.” Uktesh saw that there was a tube that the cloth wrapped around, so he slid his unstrung bow through it and hitched the r
eam of cloth and bow over his shoulder. He quickly jogged towards to the north gate, and once out of site, jogged around the wall to the east. He waited in the shadows, as he saw a rider gallop out of the town. Less than a minute later, he saw eight men sprint to follow the horse, which Uktesh realized was the mayor’s son’s horse. Eight men! They weren’t taking any chances. Maybe my mercenary act was too good.
Uktesh shrugged, happy to have avoided the conflict all together and fast jogged back towards Manori. He knew that his trick would be caught in, at the most, ten minutes, when they reached the ferry and realized that he wasn’t there. He hoped that by that time, they would’ve lost interest in him. The weight over his shoulder suddenly felt heavier, Nope, this cloth is far too expensive to give up on that easily. He took a deep breath and fell into a balanced form called Bull Rushes Down, the only balanced form that required a bit of distance to run towards the enemy.
He took off like an arrow as he Rushed. The wind howled, as he Rushed down the road, and he felt like he was flying. He then thought about how foolish it was to use Rushing as a form of travel, and then about how he again was forced by circumstances to use a skill in a way that it was never meant to be used. He knew his speed would be impressive. As he Rushed on, he saw the sign that indicated that White Bridge was twelve miles away. He knew it had to be off by a few miles, that even Rushing as he was, he couldn’t have travelled twelve miles in forty minutes. Finally, after another ten minutes, he reverted back to the Beletarian jogging, and continued on.
After another hour of his fast pace jog, he slowed down a little more because his injury from the saber rabbit, that had not been an issue for nearly a week, had started to become irritated by the run, And probably mostly because of the Rushing. He paused for a moment to stretch out his tightened thigh. Then he started to jog again, this time a much slower jog, as he hoped to conserve his ability to sprint, should he need it. He jogged on for an hour more and had to switch the ream of cloth on his shoulder twice. As he paused again to switch the ream he noticed a cloud of dust back towards White Bridge.
Great, they have lots of horses, he thought as he considered the odds that someone else would push their horses that hard. He came to the conclusion that most likely the mayor and his group had continued to chase after him. He started to jog again and picked up the pace, because, as it was he was going to be able to make it back to Manori with some time to spare. But if he had to deal with the mayor’s men, it would be too close, unless he sped up some more. After another half hour of a fast jog, he found that his leg was fine at the speed he’d been going. So he readjusted the ream and started to jog faster. It only took a few more minutes of the jog before he could see the horses in the distance. When their riders saw him, they started to whip their horses to faster speeds. Uktesh was forced to jog at his fastest jog and knew that it would become an endurance test now. Who could run longer: himself or the horses that must have been at a full gallop for hours. He smiled. He knew who could run longer, but the combination of speed and endurance would make this race interesting.
After another half hour it became clear that the horses would win the race unless he Rushed again. It was also clear that all eight of the men that had been sent for the ambush, were after him. He wanted to wait to use Bull Rushes Down until the last moment though. So he continued to jog for nearly another hour, until the lead horse was only a few feet behind him. Uktesh spied that the riders did not have bows. He took a deep breath and Rushed forward. He could hear the sounds of surprise and the curse words over the drum of the hooves. He didn’t know how long he could hold up this pace, but as the wind howled in his ears, he thought he heard the sound of labored breath coming from the horses.
They ran on and, even while Rushing the horses were able to slowly catch up to him. So he sighed and moved up into an imperfect form similar to Bull Rushes Down, called Hawk Soars. He immediately felt his leg muscle twitch in pain, but he forced himself on. Now, as he began to travel twice as fast as his fastest sprint, he was out distancing the horses. He heard the sound of horses as they neighed loudly. He turned to see that there were only six chasing after him now, and the remaining six horses had pink foam on the edges of their mouths.
I can’t let these idiots kill their horses. It’s not fair to the horses. He slowed to Rushing and pulled his unstrung bow out from the tube of cloth. Now that the horses had begun to catch up, he swung his bow like a club and hit the lead horse in its muzzle. It slowed to a walk and stopped. Then two more horses decided they didn’t want to run anymore, and slowed to a walk no matter what their riders did.
Three left! Those three split apart and came abreast with him, and Uktesh knew that they planned to crush him between their two horses. He let them get close enough to try and when they did he used the second, vertical, form of Hawk Soars to jump up as high as he could. He planted each of his feet, one on each horse’s withers, and swung his bow. He knocked the two horsemen off their saddles. Uktesh gestured rudely at the remaining rider, and then he drew his sword from the sheath at his waist. Uktesh grinned and repeated the gesture. The man charged his horse at the two horses that Uktesh stood on and viciously cut the legs out from under the horse closest to him.
Uktesh was barely able to shift his weight to the other horse. He had tried so hard to save the horses once he realized that they were close to death from exhaustion. It’s not fair! This poor animal had tried so hard to catch me, only to have one of its master’s friends kill it! Uktesh realized that he was furious, only after he realized that he’d leapt from his remaining horse and performed a balanced unarmed attack that as far as he knew, he’d just made up. He kicked off the horse with one leg, his uninjured one, spun in the air, and kicked the man with the knee of the leg that had kicked off the horse. His hands, while he was doing that, had slid the sword down and away from his body. Now he was straddling a semi-conscious man, who bled freely from a broken nose and most probably several missing teeth. With one hand, Uktesh had an iron grip one his opponent’s wrist that held a sword. Uktesh had to drop his bow to complete the maneuver.
The man tried to punch him with his free hand, but Uktesh, once he had dropped the ream of cloth between them, batted away the fist with his right hand and punched him across the mouth. The horse without any instructions had slowed to a walk. The man tried to punch him again. Uktesh twisted his left hand and broke the man’s wrist and he dropped his sword. Uktesh punched him again for good measure, jumped off the now stopped horse, and grabbed the ream. He retrieved the man’s sword and his own bow. To his frustration he saw that some of the fallen men were now standing again and were on their way towards him. He put the bow back through the middle of the ream, checked to ensure that the protective covering had shielded it from the man’s blood, and once satisfied, he continued his jog towards Manori. But then he stopped suddenly when he realized that he was at the tree where Laurilli was supposed to wait for him. By Rushing and then Soaring, I must’ve made the forty eight miles trip in little over four hours!
“Laurilli, come down! We have to hurry. Those men are trying to rob me. The good news is I got you a sword!”
He walked under the tree and looked up at the lowest branch only to find a trail of blood that had not been there when he left her. Baloce and Dekan! Now that he looked around, he could see signs of a struggle that lead off into the trees off the road. Uktesh Rushed and then Soared through the trees. His eyes followed the clear trail that they had left. He could hear Laurilli as she struggled and the sound of a man as he cursed at her. Uktesh burst onto a scene out of his worst nightmare. Laurilli had been attacked! dark bruise had already formed under her left eye. She was tied to a tree. One of six hooded people had a knife on her and had paused in his attempt to make a show of slowly cutting her clothes from her body. Uktesh assumed the six hooded people were men.
Uktesh dropped the cloth ream, his bow, and completed Hawk Soars. While one of the assailant’s head fell from his shoulders, Uktesh had already spun into
a perfect Crescent Moon, a spinning sword attack that sliced the two men who had been near the final cut into Laurilli’s clothes that would have caused them to fall from her body. His sword felt no resistance as it cut from left shoulder blade to right and severed both their spines in the process. With two quick flicks of his wrist, he cut Laurilli loose.
As all three of the dead men and Laurilli collapsed, Uktesh turned on the three hooded figures. One whose voice he did not recognize said, “A demon! Run!” The three turned as one and ran off. Uktesh turned to chase them down, but the thought of Laurilli left alone again froze him in his place. He cleaned his blade on the shirt of one of the fallen men and saw Laurilli was curled up in a tiny ball.
How could I have been so foolish! I should’ve never left her alone! She’s worth far more to me than one gold piece! If she had come we would’ve had to fight the eight men, though, because we would never have been able to out run them. He glanced towards her and saw that she now sat with her back against the tree. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, and her eyes were vacant. His heart ached to comfort her, but first he needed to check to see who attacked Laurilli.
Uktesh took off the hoods from the dead men. The first two he didn’t recognize, but the third was the second man from Tylor Taylor’s Tailoring that hadn’t said anything. That man must’ve heard our plan and set about to attack us when we came back! Is no one in this world honest? Is no one worthy of trust? He immediately thought of Heathyr and Laurilli and knew that there were at least two honest and trustworthy people. He quickly searched their bodies and found nearly four golds worth in coins. So either they’re all wealthy enough to carry this much money or they were paid recently.