The Pass by Zion Kistler (books to read romance TXT) 📖

day.
Breakfast could be smelled by the time they were down to the eating and council room, and Treaf realized that somehow he was actually pretty hungry after the incidents of the previous night.
“I wonder what Malock’ll be doing,” Mildo said as he and Treaf sat down at one of the tables in the middle of the room. Treaf answered with an inaudible sound once he realized the full content of the question.
“He’ll probably be training people. That’s what he did in Goshop, but I guess then it really mattered.” Treaf shuffled his place slightly and looked over at a few people sitting several feet away from them.
“It doesn’t really matter, though, and here comes our food.” Indeed their food had arrived, and it happened to be a roll with a few eggs and slabs of delicious looking meat.
By the time Treaf had started with his food things had really started to get loud as everyone went into their eating places. Treaf was definitely not looking forward to packing, but he was determined not to dread it, since there was no point in doing so.
Soon Mildo and Treaf were walking on the other side of the threshold when he saw the commander coming in from breakfast. He must live in one of the townhouses, Treaf noted, and then they continued on their way without any further thought.
In a few minutes’ time they arrived at the training area and Treaf felt a determination to beat Mildo. He took off his cloak and over shirt, which was heavy and weighed him down. Besides, the sun was out, and Treaf knew too well that he would be extremely hot in no time, especially when fighting an opponent like Mildo.
Treaf stepped into the fence, and Mildo followed on the opposite side, the one that Treaf seemed to be on most of the time. He shunted all thoughts from his mind except for beating Mildo, though, and soon he was completely ready.
He started running at Mildo, and Mildo dodged him for some reason, instead of blocking his blow; in fact he kept doing this until Treaf stopped moving around and went into a defensive position. Mildo did not sprint but rolled, which made it very difficult for Treaf, and in the end he had to jump high in the air to avoid Mildo’s upward, pressing blows. It’s too bad I can’t use magic or some sort of supernatural ability to take him down, he thought, once he realized how hard it was going to be to beat him. But then he swore loudly and jumped backwards when Mildo made a wide swiping arch. He then swiped back, but Mildo grabbed his arm and held it there. His hands against Treaf’s forearms felt like pincers he had such good grip, but Treaf knew immediately that Mildo was planning to stab him and end it there. If I could just....he then tried using his brute strength to knock his hand off, but this did not work, so he pounded it with his own fist, and Mildo soon had to let go, cursing and shaking his hand. Treaf then saw the chance and tried knocking Mildo out with the pommel of his sword, a trick that might have worked against someone else. But not Mildo. Instead he raised his leg to a very impressive height and blocked the edge with his boot. Shocked, Treaf pulled back, waiting for Mildo’s next move, which was probably going to be unusual. He actually lunged this time, and Treaf blocked it, not thinking anything of it, and actually he was rather disappointed.
But then Mildo made a downward swing, and it was aimed at Treaf’s shoulder. He made a feeble attempt to block it with his sword, and he barely made it on time, and he swore again. It would have been much easier just to back out of the way, but Mildo was much too smart for Treaf and knew that he could slowly eat away at his energy by forcing him to make stupid moves. So instead of waiting again Treaf decided to do something that he had never tried before: he leaped at Mildo, he had abandoned his sword, and he started punching Mildo over and over in the chin. His fists were large blurs, and Mildo yelped in surprise when the hard surfaces met with Mildo’s chin. I actually kinda feel bad for him. My right arm has a gauntlet on it, so it would be the equivalent of hitting him with a piece of rock. After a few seconds Treaf had hit him about twelve times, and Mildo finally resigned, blood all over his face from his mouth and nose.
Treaf was smiling and panting, and Mildo was groaning loudly in-between outbursts of cursing and swearing.
They both backed out of the training area, and Treaf did not make any yelps of victory. Instead he began washing his face with a bowl of water that was set before him a ways off from the fence. Mildo followed him, a heavy nosebleed littering the ground.
When he arrived Treaf said to him, “I beat you.” He laughed. “Didn’t expect that, did ya’?” Mildo groaned in a half painful, half angry way. Treaf felt himself start to laugh, but then decided not to. That would just fuel Mildo’s anger and next thing Treaf would be covered in bruises.
“Are we going to go at it again?” Treaf asked, and Mildo nodded. Treaf looked surprised, and he realized that Mildo really had a determination to beat Treaf, and Treaf had a determination to beat Mildo.
§
The next match there was really not much to explain, and the victor ended up being Mildo. He had not bragged much, but Treaf knew that Mildo was personally celebrating. And this was with a sword he isn’t even used to, Treaf thought, stunned, as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground. That had been a hard match, and Treaf had been utterly surprised at Mildo’s skill. Whenever I move ahead by just a little bit, he always comes and claims my spot, he thought, spitting on the ground.
Mildo was over by the water, and Treaf walked past him, saying that he was going to get a drink. Mildo trailed him, and Treaf put his hands in his pockets. He was now in a bad mood, no matter how one looked at it.
It seemed like quite a while before they arrived at the Guest House. It was not packed, in fact no one was in it at all, save the janitors and other people who worked there.
When Treaf walked in he saw that Malock was just coming out of the top floor, and Treaf guessed that he had previously been doing some of his ‘business.’
“You should be packing,” he told Treaf, and he groaned. Malock looked slightly surprised, and then Treaf said, “I’m just gonna get a drink of water first,” he said, and with that he told Mildo to do the same and they headed to the kitchens. Luckily they got into them without being seen, for Treaf had a strange feeling that they were not supposed to be in them right then.
But after drinking they went outside and Treaf truly wondered where all of the bags were that would lead them out of The Jaragon.
It did not take long to find them. About thirty-five bags and other things were all grouped in a certain area not far outside the Guest House, and the surviving army was all putting things into them, and when some of them were done, they put them on about thirty horses that were grouped there also. It almost reminded Treaf of the group of Dark Hoods they had seen on the hunting party not so long ago. Actually it’s the same seen as the day we left Goshop. Treaf sighed and breathed in the morning air. That was such a joyous day, Treaf remembered.
He and Mildo then went over to a few packs and started stuffing in some food and warm clothing. The whole thing was basically made up of tents, (judging by the space taken up,) and after that the leading staple was food, and then off course they also had all of the other things that they would need along the way. If they were, however, to run into any Dark Hoods or any other various dangers, Treaf would probably get very angry and kill all of them.
He then looked up and saw that Malock was standing a few feet fro him, and Treaf asked, “We won’t be traveling in different groups like last time, will we?” Malock paused for a second, and if this pause had been longer it would have seemed that he had not heard Treaf at all.
“No. We only have thirty people, and last time we had much more, roughly a hundred. Including the Beings, that would be about two hundred.” Malock then grimaced and looked back to his work. “It is quite obvious to me that we are going to lose this war no matter what we do. Even if we had a thousand Beings, things would still be hard.” Treaf was angry at Malock, and he needed to stop himself fro saying something that he shouldn’t. Since when does Malock have all this authority and knowledge? And I know that we hardly have any hope. But we can still try to do what we can. He grimaced and scowled. Mildo was beside him, and he could tell that he noticed that Treaf was for some reason in a bad mood.
However, the next few minutes were extremely silent, and this sort of silence troubled Treaf.
Having nothing else to do, Treaf thought of the route they would be taking in his head. This plan of traveling had become all of their lives, and Treaf hardly thought of it to be treacherous anymore. It was just the life’s goal.
After about a week they would be arriving at the camp of the Twelve Lords of The Jaragon, which were located about a mile and a half from the Northern Ledges. Treaf realized that this would probably be very interesting of an encounter, and he wished that they would join the forces, but he doubted it. If they were just going to go around to different countries and