World of Taroo

by Jimmy Eriksson

  Maybe they should leave while they had the chance, thought Jay, but then doubted himself as to whether he really wanted to leave. Well up to the camp, both of them wanted to do something, but there were things to talk about, indeed. Gon laid out the fact that they should take revenge for what they took, and that they almost killed Jay last time they met. However, they couldn’t just walk in and start trouble. No matter how good Gon was and Jay had become, they were still six vs two, and there was the dark as well so it would be hard to see.

  ‘There was something else,’ said Jay. They had never killed anyone, but knew they might have to do so to protect themselves. This time would be their first if they decided to engage in a fight since the other men, most likely, would not hold back. Gon felt his hands get sweaty and knew Jay was right about what he had said. They laid up strategies and even considered riding back to the town to share the whereabouts of the bandits, but the masked men might just be stopping on the way and would be gone when the guards arrived.

  After some discussion, both of them agreed to use a different tactic. If they didn’t have to, they wouldn’t kill anybody, which would be the best outcome. They would wait until the men were asleep, and then they would sneak into their camp to take as much as possible from them. If they had a chance, they would also scare the horses away. The plan was bold and dangerous, but they both felt it was what they wanted to do.

  As they waited for the voices to be silent, they searched nearby for escape routes in case of emergency. The voices finally stopped, and even if they both had butterflies in their tummies, they descended the first cliff. As they lay looking down the camp, it was only one person standing guard that was seen. Very slowly and quietly, they got near to the camp. Well down, they took time to examine the camp and checked all of the exits they could use for an escape, and also what they could use against the men if there was a confrontation. The night guard had chosen a bad point and would not see them sneaking into the camp.

  Jay walked, without any noise, up to one of the horses that had a big bag. He cut it off with a knife and took it back, where he could safely see what was inside. Disappointed, he saw that there were only some tools and some rope. Perhaps from when they built their camp, Jay quietly told Gon came close to see what Jay had found. They checked through some other bags and found clothes and more tools that were of no use to them, but also knives. So far, there had been nothing of interest, but there was more to be searched.

  At least one bag lay next to every man in the camp who was sleeping. The bags would be hard to get and a great risk would be taken if they did. All of a sudden, one of the men woke up and started going in their direction. Both of the boys stopped moving and only had their eyes on the man. He was not wearing any mask, and his face had many scars and showed signs of combat. He stopped only a few meters from them in the woods and relieved himself.

  There was still some moon out, but they had had luck because there had been clouds covering it up and they had used the darkness to their advantage. However, their luck suddenly changed and the situation became dangerous. The moon that was covered began to shine over them, and they dared not to move in case any of them were spotted. What happened was something that would change them forever.

  The man looked up after an animal moved not far from the boys. He looked up expecting to see something small run away, but instead spotted Gon. He stopped with what he was doing as he got a shock due to the surprise. He was just about to scream to the others when he got a knife thrown at his throat.

  Jay only threw the knife out of fear, and, as he saw the man was hit, he felt a rush of sweat coming over him. Quickly, the man, with all of the scars on his face, tried to grab at the knife that was placed deep inside his throat. He gurgled and made an effort to run back to the others, but got tackled down by Gon. The knife was pulled out by Gon, who also kept his other hand over the man’s mouth.

  Before he could think about it, Gon stabbed him in the head. The man died immediately, and they both got ready for combat that became inevitable. The noise from the bushes had not gone unnoticed, and the guard was walking towards them. He called someone’s name that was most likely the dead man and was expecting a response. Some of the others woke up and wondered what was going on.

  The guard could not find the dead man because the boys had dragged him away quickly. They were amongst a few thick trees, where they hid his body. The guard got louder, and then all the men were awake and reaching for their weapons. Gon and Jay were not sure what to do, but they needed to be quick.

  ‘Should we leave,’ suggested Jay, but Gon told him it was too late as the men would surely find them. They would find the dead man sooner or later, which would make them want to find those who did it. He said they couldn’t run from this, and both decided to do whatever it took to get away free.

  They made use of the situation they were in and planned to draw all the men further into the forest. ‘Perhaps they could take them out one by one,’ they said to each other. Jay took off in one direction while Gon leapt up into a tree. The fact that they killed a man made the adrenaline come over them and also, their senses and concentration became stronger.

  The now awake men threw more wood on the fire that had almost completely died out and started it again to gain light. One of them noticed some of the bags were missing and told the others. They all walked into the forest with drawn weapons and walked in a line. It would be hard to attack the bandits from where the boys were standing, so they had to think of a better way to get them one at a time.

  Neither Gon nor Jay had seen the bandits that robbed them earlier at the farm, but Gon noticed something about one of the men. He had the brand on his clothes and there was also something else he recognised. His voice was very deep, and Gon immediately knew he was the same man.

  Gon waited patiently for his chance that was coming soon enough. Finally, one of the men, who held a crossbow, walked right below the tree that Gon was hiding in. The archer never saw it coming, and with a heavy blow to the head from Gon’s staff, the man fell to the ground, unconscious. The others could not see him in the thick forest and with only four left, the odds became better.

  The fire that then burned might have lit up the camp, but the light only shone a little through the forest. Jay also got a chance when another man got close, and as he turned towards Jay, he got the knife in the stomach. While the man stumbled back in pain, Jay looked on for a brief second as he just realised what he had done.

  He then headed back to where he knew Gon was and saw the unconscious man on the ground. With all the men scattered around, the boys decided to run back to the now empty camp and had a head start from the other men. But not everything went as well as they hoped as their shadows gave them away while they ran. One of the men that saw their shadows called out for the others and then started running back to the camp himself.

  As soon as the boys arrived, Jay released the horses and scared them off. The horses ran fast, and Gon and Jay now stood in front of three dangerous looking individuals. The man Jay stabbed with the knife was leaning over behind them and would not have too much power left. He made an effort to return, but he then sat himself down due to the amount of blood coming out.

  With the situation now completely changed, Gon knew what he had to do. He asked if the bandits were responsible for killing the other travellers. One of the men, who was covering his face, asked Gon who he was. Gon replied that they should remember them from before because he said they had crossed paths once before.

  The bandits looked at each other, and one of them, all of a sudden, remembered and said it was in the other town of Dofamu, maybe a few months ago, that they stole their money. Jay said, ‘Correct,’ and showed a little scar on his throat that had been a small cut the last time they met.

  With a deep voice that the boys recognised, he said with an angry voice that there would be no scar this time when they were finished with them. He then charged at them, while the others quickly followed. Gon and Jay st
ood ready with their weapons drawn, and when the three bandits came running, it all seemed more exciting than scary.

  The first swing of the sword was delivered by the first bandit, who missed completely. He got a foot in on the side from Gon, who attacked another man and swept the bandit’s feet, then continued with a strike towards his head. The bandits knew how to fight as well as defend, and they swung their weapons towards the boys, who jumped away.

  Jay was engaged in a fight with a man who had only half an ear and managed to push him on the side and cut him over the leg. The man fell down on one knee, but was quickly up again and defended against a strike from Jay’s sword. The fight continued and there was clearly a difference between the knowledge of the bandits and themselves, when it came to swordplay.

  Jay, despite only picking up the sword for a couple of months, was a natural and found the bandit he was facing to be easy to defend against. He cut the bandit more and more and when a chance came, he stabbed him in the shoulder of the arm in which he was holding the weapon. With a quick sweep, Jay slashed the bandit’s throat, who fell to the ground.

  Jay looked for a second over the first person he had properly killed, then moved without sorrow over to Gon who was fighting well against the other two bandits in a fierce duel. Before Jay arrived to help, Gon swung his staff and hit one of the men in the stomach, and as he bent over, Gon snapped his neck with a heavy strike with the staff. The man with the deep voice, still wearing a mask, now found himself fighting two and was, for a brief moment, forced to defend himself as best he could.

  From the side, suddenly, came one more previously unaccounted man who had returned late and saw what was happening. However, the assistance was nothing more than a brief one as Jay got a lucky strike with his sword over the knees of the man, who fell down. Jay stabbed him close to the neck and then continued to aid Gon.

  The masked man with the deep voice lost his face cover and had to back away, but he was hit on the hand by a strike from Gon when trying to defend himself and lost his sword that dropped to the ground. Knowing he was outmatched, he ran towards the forest, and after him, came the boys. He ran past the bandit that had a knife in the stomach, who made a last effort to swing his sword at the boys as they ran past. He died from another blow from Gon’s staff that caused too much damage to his head.

  The last of the bandits was at the cliff that he tried to ascend, but he went slowly with a damaged hand. Jay was about to climb after the man, but Gon stopped him. Both of them looked at the man who was struggling.

  Gon pointed to the unconscious man still lying on the ground not far away, and Jay walked up to him and took his crossbow. Jay didn’t know how to use it, but Gon did and from below, he took aim. He breathed slowly and then held his breath for a few seconds. He fired the bolt that flew through the air and a scream followed as it hit into the back of the man.

  He screamed, but still made an effort to continue to climb up. Gon reloaded another bolt that he got from Jay. Again, he took aim and, with strong concentration, again hit him in the back. The man was no longer climbing but only holding on. After a few seconds, he lost his grip and rolled down the cliff. He hit his head hard on one of the rocks and blood could be seen coming out from the head. His deep voice came out but with nothing they understood. The boys stood on each side and saw him gasp his last breath that came soon after.

  When he was still, they decided to walk back to the now awake, but dizzy man who had the crossbow. He did not see the boys standing so close to him and began to walk back to the camp. They followed him to the camp, and none of them tried to soften their steps on the ground. Despite this, he still noticed nothing, and they could hear him call for the others.

  At the camp, he saw the dead bandits and then woke up more due to the adrenaline that rushed throughout his body. He spun around after Jay said to him to do so and got a chill as his eyes met the two boys. Jay stabbed the man through the chest, so it was visible from the back. The man shook and began to cough out some blood while trying to speak. Jay pulled back the sword and the man fell to the ground and died within seconds just lying there.

  The boys were surrounded by silence and were just standing there looking over the camp. ‘Strange,’ said Jay and told Gon he was not sad for what they did. Neither was Gon who replied, with a compliment to Jay for having grown into a great swordsman, despite the short training period. ‘At least no one else would get hurt by the men,’ the boys said at the same time. They smiled at each other, and without wasting time, began to look through the camp for anything of value.

  If this were other people, both of them would have left the camp as it was. There was something about taking things from dead people that would usually have been a problem. However, none of them felt the slightest sense of guilt for taking from the dead bandits.

  When going through what they could find, it became clear that the bandits were living wild on the money they stole. There was not much left, but they did find something of value in form of some gold coins. It was located in the bag that was in the middle of the men when they were sleeping. They also found other smaller valued coins in a small bag on one of the dead men in the camp as Gon searched his body.

  Gon said he didn’t feel bad when he looked at the dead men, but that it scared him a little that he didn’t have these feelings. Jay said others would have gotten hurt from the men’s lack of compassion, so why should they show any. Still, this was not really who he was, thought Gon and rolled one more of the bandits to his side to be searched. He found a few more coins and said silently to the dead man that at least they would use the money for good.

  After they had decided to finish and that there was nothing more to find, they climbed up the cliff again. They carried the gold and other things they had found to soon find themselves back at their camp. They wouldn’t light the fire back up again this night, and both of them were too tired to do anything more. After all that excitement, both of them felt sleep coming quick. They climbed up the wagon to sleep, with silence between them as they had much to think about.

  Gon said maybe they should get a tent instead of sleeping in the wagon. He got no response and fell asleep when he saw Jay was already passed out from the intense fight.

  Just in Time

  The two boys had left the valley and had been travelling for some time now and had seen and experienced some things that they couldn’t imagine. They had to stop briefly at a pond after they realised their clothes had some blood on them. Going through the country wearing marks of blood would perhaps not be the best, so they took some time to clean them.

  After the meeting with the bandits, they had gained more courage and confidence in themselves. Jay had become so confident with the sword, and it had seemed to be a part of him as he was swinging it and killed some of the bandits. He did seem to have become a little more silent and thought much about what happened. Gon understood and believed Jay must be having the men on his conscience, but knew he would eventually return to normal.

  They stopped at a village to get more water and they sat down and relaxed for a while. They heard something from one of the other people that had just come to the village. Someone had found the dead bandits, and some soldiers had been sighted where the boys were travelling. A man in the village asked if they had seen anything, but both of them shook their heads. The man walked to the next house to see if anyone knew what happened, and this was the moment when Gon thought it would be a great idea to leave the village.

  They bought some pork and got directions towards a forest not far away that had good resting places in them, and they decided to leave towards the forest. They finally came to a more secluded part of the road, where the trees were many and you could leave the road for several small paths to open ground inside the forest, and they figured this was the place the villager talked about. They sat up the tent and built a fire.

  The village they just passed had really nice pork, they said to each other as they stuffed their faces. After an hour of eat
ing and drinking with lots of laughter, Gon said to Jay that he was tired and went in the tent that they had also picked up in the small village for a good price. Jay was not far behind, but was sitting and sharpening his sword with some of the things brought from the house in the small farm.

  He asked Gon what he would do if he met his uncle on the road. Would he follow him back to the small farm? Gon was quiet, but after some time said he was done with his uncle and would like to go his own way. He added that they had grown more apart over the years, and his uncle reminded him more of a stranger than family as each year passed by. At times, they wouldn’t speak for days, and in some instances, several weeks. They would almost avoid each other, and when they met, it would be the exchange of just a few words. They seldom ate together, and his uncle would also, at times, spend a few nights in the town with some woman he knew well.

  Jay finished with his sword, and after putting it safely away, he joined his friend in the big tent. The entrance to the tent was open, and in the forest, they could hear all sorts of different sounds. The noise was interrupted by another wagon on the road, and they could hear laughter and singing from a woman that sounded beautiful. The wagon stopped for a moment, and the boys listened for footsteps or other noise, but heard only the less noisy forest. The horse and wagon started to move again and was driving down the road to one of the other secluded places next to the road, the angel-like singing continuing.

  The boys said good night, and Jay fell soon into a dream, while Gon lay awake for another moment and thought about his uncle who he might never see again. Jay had gotten him thinking about the times when he and his uncle actually got along, but it seemed like a long time ago now. All was well anyway, he thought and knew they would have parted ways eventually in the end in any case. Gon was so tired before, but was now a little more awake, and he found that very annoying.