by Obert Skye
“Does that mean unattractive?” Clover asked. “If so, I agree—everyone’s so dirty here.”
“No, it means if Payt were to—”
Geth wasn’t able to finish because boors by the hundreds emerged from a break in the fields and stormed in on the impromptu gathering of stunned Stone Holders. For being such a dumb and thoughtless group of individuals, the boors were remarkably good at attacking. The dark, barky boors wrapped their arms and legs around the Stone Holders and bound them like rope. For every boor that bound someone up, two more boors would arrive. Almost instantly the Stone Holders were outnumbered and being completely wrapped up.
Geth could see Zale voluntarily trying to give himself up to an approaching boor. Geth dashed in and with a swift kick crushed the knees of the boor and sent him crumbling backward. Edgar began swinging his long arms and bowling over dozens of boors with each twist of his upper body.
Clover, keeping invisible, leapt from boor to boor, slashing at their arms and legs. Geth saw three go down as Clover swiped his claws at the back of all three of their legs.
Geth grabbed Zale.
“Let me go!” Zale demanded. “Let me give up.”
Zale hit Geth in the chest, but with his arms being so weak and unused, the hit barely registered. Clover witnessed the incredibly feeble blow.
“Maybe we don’t really want him,” Clover said, embarrassed for Zale.
Geth fought off a boor with one arm and held onto Zale with the other as more and more barky beings filled the landscape and locked down every last Stone Holder.
“We have to run!” Clover said.
“No way,” Geth insisted, punching a tall, dark boor in the ribs.
“There’s too many!” Clover yelled.
Boors were filling up every inch of space. Edgar was no longer on the offense but on the defense, simply trying to keep the boors from overcoming him. Clover jumped from Geth and onto Edgar. He yelled something in the Tangle’s ear. The beast swung around in a complete circle, sending boors flying in all directions. He then lunged and caught Geth off guard.
Edgar wrapped his arms around Geth and Zale and held them both so tightly that their faces became red. He twisted, and with huge, high leaps he bounded across the ground and into the trees where so many of the boors had just come from. Edgar crashed through branches and bushes and out into a cluster of tall rocks. The stones jutted up out of the soil like rockets that had been frozen at blastoff. Edgar moved behind the rocks and pushed his back up against a cracked slab as if to hide. No boors had followed, but they could hear the commotion of the captured Stone Holders on the other side of the boulders. Edgar turned and stepped to one side just enough so that they could all see out though a break in the rocks.
Edgar was holding both Geth and Zale in front of him with Clover on his head. From their vantage point they could all see the last few Stone Holders being wrapped up by boors. Zale tried to yell out and get captured, but Edgar brought his tail around and with the tip of it covered Zale’s mouth. Geth was struggling to get out as well, but his wish was to single-handedly take on the hundreds of boors that were now there.
“Let me go,” Geth whispered harshly.
“You know how much I hate being the voice of reason,” Clover argued. “But you can’t beat them.”
Geth was going to argue some more, but the sound of something happening on the other side of the rocks stole his attention. Through the crack they could see the boors shifting and moving as something else came into view. They heard the horses and knew Payt was arriving.
As the horse’s hooves clicked, they could all see the wagon coming into view, with Payt sitting on the front of it and Eve by his side. Eve’s expression was as blank as the sky. Under the influence of Payt’s voice, she was nothing but a shell. Next to Eve were a couple of Payt’s lead boors. Payt himself appeared angry, and the claw marks across his face made him look considerably more frightening than he once had.
Geth’s heart ricocheted wildly against his ribs. It was one thing for Clover to stop him from picking on the boors, but it was another thing entirely to deny him the right to pick on Payt.
“Let me go,” Geth insisted.
“Shh,” Clover said soothingly.
Edgar trembled uneasily at the sight of Payt.
Payt climbed down from the wagon and onto the ground. He looked at all the Stone Holders as his boors held them tightly.
“Well, well,” Payt said with arrogance to the crowd. “Who knew that a dirty lithen would help me finally discover where some of the Stone Holders have been hiding? Perhaps there’s value in a lithen after all.”
Payt looked closely at a couple of the Stone Holders. His boors held onto their victims, making no noise. A few of the Stone Holders squirmed and muttered, but most of them stood captive in a silence of resignation and defeat.
“Now,” Payt hollered out at the crowd, “who has Geth?”
When nobody replied, Payt continued.
“Did he die when he fell down that hole?”
Nobody answered.
Galbraith was being held by two thick boors. One was wrapped around him like a sleeping bag and the other one was holding him at the shoulders. Payt stepped up to Galbraith and smiled.
“Do you know who I am?” Payt asked.
Galbraith just stared forward.
“Do you know what happened to those lithens?” Payt tried. “I chased them down the same hole I used to smoke you out.”
Galbraith didn’t look up.
“Let’s hope for the sake of Zendor that they’re dead,” Payt hollered. “Of course, for your sake it won’t make a difference.”
Payt leaned in closer to Galbraith and whispered in his right ear. Every captive Stone Holder lifted his head to see what Payt was doing. Galbraith’s eyes widened as if in shock. His eyelids then closed and reopened slowly. Payt’s voice had begun to conquer another mind.
“What an easy recruit you’d be,” Payt said, sounding bored. “But you’re not worth my breath. Release him.”
The two boors holding onto Galbraith let go of him. The Stone Holder remained standing there and looking forward.
Payt lifted his right leg and kicked Galbraith as hard as he could in the chest. The defenseless Stone Holder flew backward and hit the ground violently.
“Pathetic,” Payt said. “You wouldn’t have lasted a day in Reality.”
Payt walked back to the wagon and addressed the large boor that was holding the reins of the horses.
“You,” Payt said coolly. “I want you to stay here.”
The big boor climbed off the wagon.
“I could talk at all of these fools and bring them over to my side,” Payt said sternly to the large boor. “Heaven knows their brains are pathetic enough. But I think I’ll use this moment to teach Zendor a lesson. I want you to destroy them all,” Payt ordered.
The Stone Holders who were held captive and had been silent up until now began to plead and beg for mercy from Payt.
“You want mercy?” Payt yelled angrily. “You’re talking to the wrong person. I didn’t become a fourteenth-level medieval warrior in the nonfairy division by possessing mercy. I know how to rule. Now, kill them all.”
Geth pushed at Edgar, trying to get out, but the huge Tangle kept a tight hold. Through the crack in the rocks they could see Payt ride off in the wagon with Eve by his side.
“They won’t really kill them, right?” Clover whispered.
The moment the wagon was out of view, the large boor that Payt had left in charge made a gesture to the others with his arms. The other boors began to tighten their arms and steal the lives of the Stone Holders they were wrapped around. Zale watched in horror as Clover cried and looked away. Geth screamed and hollered, but the sounds of Stone Holders doing the same thing and with much more volume drowned out his anguish.
Clover couldn’t take the awful scene any longer. He leaned down and in a whimper instructed Edgar to go. Edgar shifted to face the east and began to run.
Chapter Nine
Pulled Apart and Torn Asunder
In a national survey that I just made up, sadness was ranked as the number-one cause of sorrow. Now, perhaps I’m being too technical, but being bummed out can cause major discomfort. It can lead to things like anguish and even full-on lamentation. Of course, I don’t mention this to make you upset, I mention this to let you know that life is best enjoyed when you steer clear of unnecessary situations that may cause unhappiness. Stay away from crumbling buildings with poor foundations. Don’t hang out in a shark tank dressed as meat. And please, if it’s at all possible, never let a person like Payt have even a little bit of power. Almost always it will lead to an overall feeling of misery, despair, hopelessness, and defeat. Sorry to go all thesaurus on you, but no matter how you say it, sadness stinks.
Edgar ran as fast as he could while holding Geth and Zale tightly. Sadness chased them like a wolf nipping at their heels. The Tangle was a simple, frightening beast, but even he understood how important it was to get as far away as possible from what was happening.
Geth, on the other hand, felt they were heading in the wrong direction. He kicked his heels into Edgar and threw his head back, trying to crack him in the chest. When neither of those things worked, Geth leaned forward and bit Edgar’s arm as hard as he could.
The Tangle roared from the shock of the bite.
Edgar opened his arms, and Geth and Zale dropped out. Zale sputtered and rolled into a ditch while Geth used the momentum of his fall to spring back up and begin running toward the spot they had just come from, leaving Edgar and Zale behind. Clover leapt onto Geth’s shoulder as he ran.
“You can’t do this,” Clover said, using his best dad voice. “There are too many.”
“Too many for what?” Geth yelled. “They’re dying.”
“We’ll probably die too,” Clover informed him.
“There are worse fates,” Geth insisted. “And I’ll sleep easier dead than if I don’t try.”
“Do people sleep when they’re dead?” Clover yelled.
Geth was too busy running to respond.
Geth hurdled over a short wall of stone and ran directly into the gathering of boors. They were all still slowly squeezing the breath from the captured Stone Holders. Like snakes choking the life out of a victim they constricted. Some of the Stone Holders were red in the face or near passing out. Geth grabbed the nearest boor and ripped him off of the Stone Holder he was squeezing. He hit the boor in the jaw and kicked out his legs. With the boor on the ground, Geth administered a single hit to the face, and the poor mindless boor was out.
Geth ran to Galbraith, who was still lying on the ground in a daze from Payt’s kick. Geth pulled him up and tried to shake some sense into him.
“Come on!” Geth yelled at Galbraith. “Get up and fight.”
Galbraith just stood there as Geth knocked out a second boor and Clover began slashing up a third. Two more Stone Holders were freed, but still none of them were moving.
“Galbraith!” Geth barked. “They’re going to die.”
Geth reeled back and gave Galbraith a sharp hit on the right ear. The blow seemed to wake Galbraith up.
“Fight!” Geth ordered.
Geth turned and beat at the boor behind him. The boors lacked the ability to think for themselves. They knew only what they had been told to do. The second they were pulled off of their victims, their singular focus was on reattaching themselves and continuing to strangle. It made it easy for Geth and the others to simply pull them off and knock them out as they struggled to get back to strangling.
“There’s so many!” Galbraith yelled as he looked around and witnessed all the Stone Holders that were slowly being choked to death.
“Then go faster!” Geth ordered, unmoved by the impossibility of it all.
Clover sliced up the back of a barky boor and quickly leapt to another, where he cut off a good chunk of her dirty hair. Each boor he messed with would momentarily release its grip, giving the Stone Holder it was suffocating a chance to breathe.
“Keep doing that!” Geth cheered. “It’ll buy us some time.”
As each boor was pulled off and knocked out, a new Stone Holder would join the fight. Some Stone Holders took a few moments to commit to doing battle, but once they saw that it was making a difference, they got at it.
Exhausted, Clover leapt to another and jammed his claws into the boor’s arms. The boor screamed and released its victim while another Stone Holder swooped in and knocked the boor out.
Geth could barely lift his arms any longer as he looked out at the hundreds of Stone Holders still being squeezed to death. His forces were growing in number, but so many were exhausted, and some Stone Holders were seconds away from dying by strangulation.
Geth heard a thundering noise from behind him. He turned to defend himself and saw Edgar charging toward the group. Edgar instantly began to pound and knock out any boor still standing.
Clover smiled proudly.
Edgar was a welcome sight, but they still needed more help. As if on cue, Anna sprang from a field to the left with her troops following behind her.
Geth smiled wide.
“I can see that,” Clover chastised. “You didn’t smile when Edgar arrived.”
Hundreds of women emerged from the fields and began to fight alongside the Stone Holders. For the first time in the battle, the numbers favored Geth’s group. The women beat at the backs of the boors with sticks while Stone Holders pulled them down and knocked them out. A couple of girls dressed as cheerleaders flew through the air and administered kicks to the faces of boors. A woman dressed in a karate outfit took down a fat boor that was choking the life out of a thin Stone Holder.
“Happy to see us?” Anna hollered as she fought alongside Geth.
“Very,” Geth hollered back.
“Payt’s burning our fields,” Anna yelled, beating the back of a boor so that it would release a cowboy Stone Holder. “It might be time for us to consider fighting back.”
The boor let go of the Stone Holder and passed out against the ground.
Anna twirled and then leaped her way over to free another. Stone Holders and the women of Those Who Hide fought beautifully for being a group of people that had just stood by and watched for so long.
A few minutes later the fight was over. Six Stone Holders had been strangled, but the majority had been saved. All the boors were bound with ropes of witt and pinned to the ground by Anna and her girls.
Galbraith lay on the ground like a hyperventilating corpse trying to catch his breath and come to terms with the fact that he had actively fought against Payt. Geth and Clover and Edgar gathered around him and sat down.
“You okay?” Geth asked.
“I reckon so,” Galbraith said, reminding Geth that he was a cowboy in every sense of the word. “That’s a funny-looking horse you have.”
Edgar snorted, and Clover patted him behind the ears.
“Payt was going to kill us all,” Galbraith continued. “He almost did. In the past, he would capture, but now he brings death.”
The sound of rustling in the field behind him caused Geth to turn and stop talking. Geth looked up to see a somber-looking Zale walking back from where he had so valiantly hidden.
“Thanks for helping,” Clover said sarcastically.
“I was hiding and thinking,” Zale said weakly.
Edgar snorted.
“I’d say I’m sorry,” Zale snipped, “but I’m still alive. And I know what we must do.”
“We?” Geth asked happily.
“We should find Lars,” Zale said. “That woman is right. He is the key to surviving Payt.”
“Lars,” Gal
braith said almost reverently.
“I’m glad the lithen thinks I’m right,” Anna said, walking up to the group. “Lars is quite wise; he’s helped countless beings in need.”
“And there are other Stone Holders near Lars,” Galbraith said with excitement. “If we were to meet with them, we would have quite a force.”
“Does that mean you’ll fight?” Geth asked.
“I was sleeping,” Galbraith said softly. “I was sleeping and when I woke up I was almost strangled to death and then I was kicked to the ground like a dog. I figure if I’m not safe sleeping, I probably need to do something to fix it.”
“What about you, Anna?” Geth asked.
“We don’t want to be involved,” she said. “But we can see now that we have no choice. Payt’s burning our fields, killing anyone who stands in his way. It looks like the return of the lithens has brought us a lot of danger. Some of us wonder if you and your brother aren’t the problem.”
“Do you?” Geth asked.
“No,” Anna replied. “I know that Payt is the cause of our misery, but I still fear the fight.”
“Great,” Clover moaned. “There’s no way Geth doesn’t follow that with some inspirational saying.”
Geth stared at Clover.
“Really?” Clover asked. “You weren’t thinking of something to say? How about, ‘The only fight to fear is the fear we fight’? or maybe, ‘Fear is the one thing that fighting takes tips from’?”
“That’s confusing,” Anna said coldly to Geth. “Were you really going to say that?”
“Not exactly,” Geth joked.
“It would have been close,” Clover said.
“So what’s the next move?” Anna said. “This victory is only going to make Payt angrier.”
“We find this Lars,” Geth said. “I can see no harm in seeking out someone wiser.”
“He is a rare voice of wisdom in this realm,” Anna said, stretching her hands into fifth position and acting like the ballerina she was.
“It’s about a two-day hike across Zendor,” Galbraith said. “The Stone Holders in that area know his whereabouts.”
