“The mountains are the safest place I could get these people. We both know the lancers will be tearing across the barren in a matter of days, so I had to act faster.” He said with a stressed look on his face. I sigh and rub the back of my neck. Yes I know of the lancers, but why are they attacking so soon? This doesn’t make sense.
“Why so soon? But also why bring me? I’m only a swordsman, no match for a lancer.” My voice came out too weak. I have to be strong for him, because I already know what he’s going to ask of me.
Don puts his hands on my shoulders and offers me a smile. Why would he smile? He never does. “I saved as much as our village I could. Others took groups of the villagers in different areas. However, I took you because you need to lead this pack now.” What does he mean? Why do I have to lead it, he’s perfectly fit for the job, and im far from able to handle this. I have to take a few deep breathes to steady myself, my hands started trembling and I didn’t even notice.
“You’ve always been strong, and I know this shouldn’t be too difficult for you. Just believe in yourself. And I chose you for this group because we were the decoy group; we were meant to be the first ones to leave so the scouts could relay that information back to the army and then they’d follow us.” He pulls me close to him and wraps his arms around me, I look out the window and see Steve coming up the stairs. “But now I must continue my mission and be that decoy, make sure you get these people to safety. I love you son.” He smiled at me, his eyes were glossy. But before I could say anything he jumped out the window and landed on the soft snow, and went charging down the path with his sword drawn; running into the black unknown of the night.
“Jack!” Before I knew what was going on, Steve was pulling me down from the windowsill, he yanked me onto the ground and pinned me there. His voice was no longer composed of its happy self. His face was now serious but sympathetic. His eyes met mine and he loosened his grip and spoke quietly. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but this was the plan all along...”
The blizzard continued its bombardment upon us, and the winds deafening roar almost made it sound like an explosion went off only a few yards away. I look over my shoulder just to make sure I didn’t lose anyone, Steve has his head down guarding his face from the cold. Laura also has her head down, but also has Emma attached to her left arm. I crack a smile at the sight, it’s kind of cute.
“I think I see a small cave up ahead, let’s make shelter there!” I have to yell over the blizzard. No one objects, and we head towards the crack in the mountain face and escape the storm. The cave isn’t too deep, but it offers us shelter for until this storm ends. It’s dark and cold in here but we have no other options. Lora and Emma sit down against the far wall in the back of the cave, not making a sound. I pull out some sticks from my travel pack, and arrange them into a campfire of sorts.
“Steve, you alright?” I ask as I draw my two swords off my back, and angle the one in my left hand towards the wood, then scrape the right one across the left one’s edge and spark a small fire.
“ Yeah, just hoping this storm blows over.” He says hopelessly. I sigh. “ Me too…”
No comments:
Post a Comment