A Taste of History Past

by Forrest Brant

  Curious now, Jura asked, “Well, are you just going to stare at it, or are you going to open it up and read what it has to say?”

  Again smiling he said, “I thought I would just stare at it.” He could see that she was just about ready to hit him, and it was obvious she was burning up with curiosity. “Okay, okay, I was just thinking that this paper looks much like that other scrap we got the other night. So there’s a good possibility that this is from whoever passed on that other one.” He carefully unfolded the note and was silent was he read it. After reading he was quiet and she asked, “What?” He passed it over to her and here she read the words on the note.

  “It is important that we begin to work together. We know that with what has transpired with Sabohl that trust is not an easy thing, and we could easily be working for him. We will be contacting you further, but must remain in the background so that Sabohl doesn’t get wind of our involvement. We are aware of your discovery, and can help you beat Sabohl at his own game, but we must do this before he has a chance to publish and thusly establish your find as his. We will be in contact with you in the next few days so be prepared with whatever notes and such that you have. Our options and time is very limited.”

  Like he she was silent. Looking up and then at Kal she asked, “What do we do? We were both discussing the fact that we needed help, and suddenly it’s being offered. But can we trust this offer, or is it like it so stated that they could be working for Sabohl, I don’t know, I just don’t know. But I will say this, if there’s a way to beat him I’m all for it. We did all the hard work, did all the searching, and to have him claim that he was the one and that no one other than he is responsible for this find just burns me up.”

  At this point trying to keep it light although he felt much the same as she, he touched her and said, “Ouch!”

  Questioning that comment she asked, “Ouch, what do you mean ouch?”

  Laughing now he said, “Look I know it’s a very serious situation, but your comment about burning up made me do it. I know you are a hot female and I just wanted to see if your body agreed with your statement.” Again he could see that she did see the humor but didn’t feel it was the right time. “Look, I know, and what we have to decide is whether to trust whoever this is, or continue on our own, and the one thing both of us have already concluded is we cannot continue on our own. So now the question becomes, what can we reveal to this mystery group, and what do we want to keep away from everybody. This is a very fine line that we are walking here. But at the same time I don’t want us to get so wrapped up in this intrigue that we aren’t we. That could be a bigger disaster for the two of us.”

  As she thought about it, what he just said made sense. With so much more going on and with everything becoming very complicated, with no clear answers, it would be so easy to slowly let their relationship slip away, and not be the wiser that it was happening. And if that did happen, and both were at that point in time, would they be looking back, questioning what had happened to bring them to the breakup? “You know I would say that what you just stated would be something that a female would figure out before you males. So I’ll give it to you this time, you’re right. As we’ve been discussing, this has gotten far beyond what we thought it would be when we, with your family’s blessings, started our research and searching.” She sighed, “I guess in the end it’s never as simple as any of us think it will be. And I never figured that there would be outside influences and all of this happening just because you wanted to discover your, and I guess because I joined your family, and my past. Why has it gotten so complicated?”

  In a soft voice Kal said, “I don’t know, I just don’t have any idea.” At this time both were quiet with their own thoughts, Kal thinking – We just don’t have much to make a decision here, so what’s the answer? If I really admit it, I haven’t a clue, not one. When I had asked those questions, innocently of course, who’d have guessed that that old learned would be one who stole from his students –not I.

  Jura, leaning on the table and staring at the lantern that sat in the middle of the table, was completely at loss as to which way to go, or even to know how to come up with a decision on this one. As the note stated this could be a ruse to bring them further out into the open and then steal the rest of the valuable information that they had in their possession. And if this other group was legitimate, who could say that they wouldn’t do the same thing as Sabohl? They knew nothing of them either, and it could mean that they would be stepping deeper in the quagmire with a heavy fog rolling in obscuring everything – leaving them no direction, and no way out at the end of all of this.

  “Look,” Kal said, “We’re going to have to trust someone, and right now if this note is from someone inside of Sabohl’s organization, then there’s little we can do about it. Still if it is someone else, then they may be our only way to keep this. I feel that we’ve no choice here, and if you think about it, which I know that both of us have been doing, then we’ve got to do something. So I think we’ll need to trust this group, at least initially, and say yes. But at the same time reveal nothing about what we have as far as the family history that revealed this location to us, and if at a later time they’ve proven themselves then maybe at that point we can let them in on more of what we truly have.”

  “I guess that makes sense.” Jura leaned back in her chair put her arms behind her head and stretched. “All I can say is that for me, as I’ve been thinking about it, I’ve only gone in circles with no answers at all. I know that we need help; I know we need to trust somebody, but who? And because we know that we’ve been backstabbed by Sabohl, someone you trusted, then who’s to say that it will be any different with these guys? We don’t know them at all. For all we know they may be laughing at us right now knowing that we have no real choice in this, and in the end they’ll get what they want, and we will be the ones who do the work and get nothing.” She shrugged, and threw her arms out in surrender, “I just don’t know. We know so little, just so little. After all, like you said, we’re just bakers, business people trying to earn a living, and learn about your family’s past. Is that so much to ask? Is it so much to ask people to just leave us alone and let us learn the truth?”

  Again in a quiet voice Kal said, “I guess it is, I guess it really is.”

  * * *

  It was the middle of the present 9-day and the bakeries remained extremely busy, again as to why they had no answers, but appreciated it. Still it meant that there was too much to do and too little time to accomplish all that needed to be done. So the notes were temporarily forgotten until in a transaction another note was exchanged. When he realized that was what had happened he could only see the back of the individual who had passed the note to him as he left the bakery. With the crowds of people still waiting to be served, he couldn’t stop and follow, and there was nothing out of the ordinary for Kal to be able to identify this individual. Shaking his head, he put the note away and promptly helped the next customer in line. It wasn’t until he broke for the midday meal that he remembered the note. And as he and Jura sat in the office he looked up at her and said, “We had another note passed to us.”

  “Really?” She was sitting on the opposite side of the small desk with a sandwich in her hand and water sitting on the table. She placed the sandwich down and asked, “Did you see who it was?”

  All he could do was shake his head. “By the time I realized what had happened, whoever it was was almost out the door and all I saw was his back. His clothes were nondescript, average build, nothing to identify, and no, before you ask, it’s been way too busy to even find time to read it. So we can read it together.” Taking a bite of his sandwich he could hear the din from the floor of the bakery. Even though many took the time to eat at the midday, it was still chaos out on that floor. He unfolded the small note, noticing that once again it was written on the same paper as the others. He read aloud these words:

  “Time is very short. Sabohl is putting together his report. If we do
not have something before the end of this present 9-day then he will have won this round. We will stop by everyday around the time you received this note. If you are with us then it must be now. Place your response inside the sack. The contact will be wearing a dark shirt with a torn pocket, and will comment that he had just caught this pocket on a nail, and it was his best shirt too. He will then purchase one loaf of your heavy grains bread, and be flustered as he can’t find his coin purse. At which point he will look down and comment, “Ah there it is”. According to the response that we receive will determine how we will proceed.”

  “Pressure’s on that’s for sure, so what do you think?”

  “Too little time, too little knowledge, and still we have to make a decision – this sucks.”

  He laughed a little and commented, “I don’t think we can put that in the return note.”

  “And why not? After all that’s exactly the truth.

  “You know you’re right, but I think we need a little more than, ‘it sucks’, don’t you think?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE ANCIENT CLAN SITE

  It was cold, and it was snowing intermittently. Again he asked himself, why the heck was he, and especially Jura, here? While they had beaten Sabohl on both the announcement and the location, it did not matter because at this moment his minions controlled the site. Although there wasn’t anybody here that could be tied directly back to him – he wasn’t stupid. Kal, Jura, and the field members of the Historical Society or board, and again these members couldn’t be traced back either, were looking at the entrance to the ancient clan home. They could see the smoke rising from a couple of fires, but other than that there was no movement. Not that the movement could be seen from their location. It had always been one of the advantages of this location that any attacking force would have to attack uphill and the only entrance was through a choke point giving all the advantage to the defenders. When he had finally viewed the location for the first time he really wondered how his ancestors had conquered this place. Whoever had occupied this location before his ancient ancestors would have become extremely careless to have lost it.

  Well, it didn’t matter now, since this place had been abandoned for a very long time, and now a descendant from that clan had come back to claim it. Not really, but in a sense this was exactly what was happening – although what was here belonged to all, not just he and his family. So here they stood in the snow and winds, remaining within the small forest out of sight.

  Trehe, facing him asked, “What do you want to do? It would be nice if we could have a fire since it’s so very cold right now, but I know that’s not an option. We have no idea how many, or if they’ve just hunkered down or they have guards up and watching. There’s just no way to look into that place at all to get that information.”

  “Yeah, and it’s no wonder my clan kept this until they abandoned it. Besides I’m just a baker. I never knew anything about making attacks or searching out some place to see how many might be defending a place. So this is something you’re much better at than I am.”

  Trehe shrugged, “Not really. I’ve been assigned, well the group that I’m a part of, is assigned on keeping track of everything that Sabohl is involved with. And believe me, that is a full time job all by itself. He’s smart, and he keeps his ties hidden as much as possible. And, as you’ve learned, much of his ties are to less than reputable members of our society. After all, as we explained to you, it was this group who was responsible for the break-in of your shelter when you were gone. Look I’m freezing out here. We need to come up with some way to get inside there and expel the ones who are there, some ruse or something. I really don’t think there are that many, but I could be wrong. Oh, by the way can you use that staff?”

  “I’m okay with it, but I’ll never be as good as Jura.”

  “Jura? Your mate? A female who is good with a staff, really. Now this I’ve got to see.”

  Kal smiled, “I wouldn’t challenge her, it might damage your male ego.”

  Trehe laughed, “Then this I’ve really got to see. You must be just fair if a female could beat you.”

  Shaking his head, Kal said, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He turned around and signaled Jura to join him and once she did he said, “Jura, Trehe wants to challenge you to a round with the staff. I warned him but he can’t believe that such a small female, or any female, could defeat such a big male as he. So let’s head to the other side of these trees – besides the exercise will warm us up.” They headed out the backside of the trees close to the area where the original two that had followed them had camped. The others followed not knowing what was transpiring. Turning to the rest Kal said, “Your leader has challenged Jura to a round with the staff. He said that he would go easy, after all there’s no female out there that could defeat a male. Not my words but his.” He looked over at Jura who had an evil smile, and he knew that from being with her as long as he had that Trehe was just about to learn an important lesson.”

  As they entered the area where the boulders were Trehe stated, “Look I’ll go easy on you. After all you are a female and aren’t very big.”

  “She smiled back saying, “Two falls is standard for a round. Is that okay with you?”

  “No, I said I’d go easy so one is fine, unless you want it the other way.”

  “I think two is better. That way if you fall both times it can’t be the result of you tripping or something, leading you to believe that this was just a fluke.”

  “Okay, shall we?”

  A line was drawn in the dirt, although because of the cold and the light snow it was more a scratch than a line. Both toed the line to signal they were ready and she at first appeared to handle the staff a bit clumsy. Trehe seeing an advantage immediately attacked but to his surprise she easily blocked his attack followed by a quick counter that swept his feet out from under him and he landed heavily on the ground at which time she placed the end on his chest marking a fall. She turned demurely and casually toed the line allowing him to see her very feminine posterior, turned around and leaned back on her staff. She smiled and simply waited until he stood up and carefully approached the toe line. “That had to be an accident young one, but you won’t be able to do that again.”

  Again she smiled and didn’t say a thing. She stepped back casually again inviting him to attack which this time he refused. He was noticing that there appeared too much efficiency and fluidity to her movements. So with heavier concentration and care he came at her with his staff at the ready position. No, he wasn’t going to allow some slip of a female beat him at this. Attacking with a feint, followed by a sweep at the knees meant to bring a person down she easily dodged the move and then blocked the follow-through. Again she smiled at him and at all times didn’t appear to handle the staff well at all. Yet, everything he had tried, to this point had failed. It was time to just finish this and put her down. So he attacked with the idea of coming down on her head followed by a strike with the lower portion of the staff aimed at her hips followed by an upper cut directed at her chest and neck. To his surprise she easily blocked every one of those moves. Who is this female anyway? She teased him with what looked like an unskilled move, but with what he had experienced he didn’t take the offer.

  Again she looked at him and smiled. The ones who were witnessing this were silent. Their boss had bested every one of them a number of times, both in practice, and in some of the rounds they had worked to keep in shape. Here was a female who had already put him on the ground, and so far he hadn’t been able to get past her defenses – unheard of. Both came to the ready signaling that they were ready to continue. Using what he considered his size, weight and strength he feinted with an attack low using his left hand to bring the lower end of the staff at speed to her legs followed by an immediate swing through to bring the upper end of the staff to the top of her head. While this move looked awkward, he had practiced it much and it had been one of the moves that he used to successfully defeat the ones who w
orked with him. Inwardly he was smiling because it seemed that the move was going to work as it always had in the past. With speed and precision he made his follow through expecting to make contact, only to find that she had immediately blocked the move and had followed through with one of her own using the left end of her staff to hit him in the stomach.

  The move was completely unexpected and had pushed him back and off balance, and instead of following through, and putting him on the ground a second time, she deliberately placed the left end of the staff on the ground and held it at the ready giving him a chance to recover. Again, who is this female? Now cautious, he approached studying his opponent. Yet there seemed to be nothing special about her or the way she held her staff. He was at loss as to how she had been able to block his attacks and feints, let alone turn the tables on him. He decided that he would use a flurry of combinations to overwhelm her, starting with an attack at the legs with the bottom of the staff, bringing it around at her head with the upper end followed by a thrust and then an attack to her midsection, but she blocked every one. She smiled at him and said quietly, “If you want to stop now and save your male ego we can, and I’ll even allow you to call it a draw and that you just had a bad day.”