Ragged Heroes

by Andy Peloquin

  “Eat up,” he growled, then ambled off toward the fire.

  The other women had once again been tied to a separate tree, too far away for Anna to pinch the red-head as she watched the men preparing the mushrooms a little too eagerly. If they noticed her gaze, they might become suspicious, yet Anna couldn’t quite help herself as she too turned her eyes toward the mushrooms, the hunk of stale bread lying forgotten in her shackled hands.

  * * *

  Kai

  Had he been wrong? Kai had watched on as all the men partook of their hastily-made mushroom soup, yet they seemed none the worse for it. He’d been so sure the mushrooms were poisonous, and had nearly cried out in excitement as he spied Anna tricking the men into gathering them, but now it seemed his luck had run out. Perhaps the heat of the fire had rendered the mushrooms edible. Now the men had full bellies as a reward for their foul deeds.

  He touched the knife at his belt. He could always resort to Anna’s original plan, killing the men in their sleep…but they’d likely be on their guard, knowing he could still be watching them. Plus, it wasn’t like he’d been able to muster the courage before, why would that night be any different?

  He pressed his back against the tree concealing him as his mind raced for another option. It would be dark soon, and the time for decisions would come.

  “What is that!” one of the mercenaries shouted.

  He tensed, had he been spotted?

  “I could have sworn I saw a horse,” the voice added in disbelief.

  “I feel unwell,” another groaned.

  A grin slowly spread across Kai’s face.

  Someone in the campsite began retching, as another questioned why the trees were spinning.

  It was time to make his move.

  * * *

  Anna

  Anna had no time to celebrate her small victory. The dark-haired man stumbled toward her, murder in his eyes.

  “What did you do to us?” he hissed as he staggered into her, pressing her more firmly against the tree. His body odor hit her nose, making her gag.

  “I did nothing,” she said sweetly. “Why, are you unwell?”

  She noted his wrist daggers as he placed his hands on either side of her face, but her shackled hands were pinned flat to her body by the weight of him. Perhaps she could grab one with her teeth.

  “Look at me,” he growled. She whipped her gaze away from his left dagger to his face. His pupils were tiny pinpricks, barely noticeable in his deep brown irises. Sweat beaded at his temples despite the cool evening breeze. “What did you make us eat?” he demanded.

  The other men seemed to be hallucinating behind him. She sensed movement from the women too, but could not focus on them as a hand wrapped around her throat and squeezed.

  She sputtered for air as he pressed into her, pinning her arms more securely. She tried to turn her head away, but only managed to scrape the back of her skull against the rough bark of the tree. The corners of her vision began to go gray. How idiotic it would look for her to go to all that effort, only to die like this!

  Something thunked down onto the man’s head and he fell away. Anna’s vision came back in stages to see Kai standing before her, wielding a large rock.

  “Took you long enough,” she gasped. “Untie me.”

  He nodded quickly and threw the rock aside, reaching for the dagger at his belt.

  “Hey!” one of the men who’d just finished vomiting shouted. “One of the Forest Faie is making off with our girl!”

  “Quick!” Anna hissed as he began to saw at the thick ropes binding her.

  The men staggered toward them. If Kai could just undo the blasted ropes she could protect them, shackles or no. The mercenaries should not be difficult to defeat in their condition.

  “Get ‘em!” a female voice shouted.

  Just as the ropes released around Anna’s chest, the women all jumped up from the tree they’d been bound to, their freshly-cut ropes falling free from their bodies. She noticed a small, sharp object in the red-head’s hand before snapping into action.

  Leaping away from the tree she’d been tied to and into the fray, she laced her hands together and swung her heavy shackles, smashing into the face of the older man with far too few scars to be a proper mercenary. He fell aside with a wail as the red-haired woman, still in her shackles, threw herself full force at another man staggering into the sudden chaos. He shrieked as he went down, then rolled around on the ground muttering about being attacked by a giant eagle.

  The red-haired woman staggered to her feet, then grinned at Anna. “I’m Iona, by the way.”

  She smirked. “Anna, and this idiot is Kai,” she gestured to her friend as he shoved another one of the men aside.

  Kai took a second to nod to Iona in greeting, then punched one of the mercenaries in the face, knocking him flat on his back.

  Anna grinned. He might not be much of a killer, but he wasn’t entirely useless either.

  The mercenaries didn’t fight for long, and soon enough Anna, Kai, and Iona had them all tied around a tree with the remaining ropes, the shackles now weighing them down now that Anna had obtained the key. Most of the men had passed out, or were groaning and muttering nonsense. The other women seemed to have snapped back into reality, having fought their captors and won.

  “What should we do with them?” Iona questioned, standing at Anna’s side as she peered down at the men.

  “I’d say we should kill them,” she began, “but someone might have a problem with it.” She rolled her eyes to Kai, standing on her other side.

  He blushed, then cleared his throat. “Yes, I must apologize for last night. I hope I can begin to make up for my cowardice by returning your pack and bow. They’re hidden not far off.”

  Anna smirked, glad to hear her belongings were safe. “No apologies necessary. If you were the one who left the mushrooms on the trail, you saved us all. Perhaps I should have listened to your original plan to begin with.”

  “My original plan was far less clever,” he admitted, though he beamed at her compliment.

  “Well,” Iona interrupted. “I’m all for leavin’ them here to rot. We can report them in the next burgh in case anyone wants to come gather the remains.”

  Anna was liking Iona more and more. “Let us be off then,” she announced, glancing at the other women milling around them. “Hopefully we’ll come across a caravan to get everyone back to where they came from.”

  Iona nodded. “Most of us haven’t got too far to go, though a few came all the way from the small villages bordering the marshlands.”

  “Then let us be off,” Anna replied, sparing a final glance to the captured mercenaries. She still wanted to cut out the dark-haired man’s tongue, but she’d let it go for Kai’s sake.

  Really, she should leave Kai at the next burgh with the women. He was beginning to make her go soft.

  “I’ll kill you!” the dark-haired man suddenly groaned.

  She laughed, then turned away. “Not if your stupidity kills you first!” she called out.

  Kai, Iona, and the other five women all followed her as she led the way back toward the path. It was a strange feeling indeed, leaving her enemies alive, but one she found she didn’t mind. It was always such a pain washing blood from her clothes anyhow.

  Chapter 8

  Kai

  They reached the burgh later the following day. With coin stolen from the mercenaries, Anna and Kai had bought themselves a fine meal at the burgh’s sole inn, where they now sat. The rest of the coin had gone to the women. They’d all been given enough to get themselves home after they reported the mercenaries to the men in the village.

  Kai sighed, poking his fork into another boiled egg. His full cup of tea steamed beside his plate. Speaking with Iona and the other women about the simple, quiet lives they would return to made his heart ache. He missed his family, and though he did not miss the members of the Gray Guard who watched over those in debt to the city, he found he was reluctant to gi
ve up quiet mornings on a farm, watching the sun rise amongst golden fields.

  Anna ate her meal like a ravenous animal, but he didn’t miss the way she occasionally flicked her gaze to him, waiting for him to announce his intentions.

  If he chose to remain with her, to learn the skills of the blade, and perhaps thievery too, his life would change forever. She was cold to him more often than not, but he couldn’t forget the way she’d stayed behind to fight the mercenaries, urging him to run away. In the short time since they’d met, Anna had saved his life more than once, and he liked to believe he’d saved hers too, even if he’d been the one to endanger her to begin with. He liked to think it made them friends, though he knew Anna was likely never to admit it.

  Still, life with her would at least be interesting, and he’d be his own man for once, indebted to no one.

  “Well?” Anna questioned, scraping the last remnants of food from her plate. “Have you made up your mind?”

  He took a deep breath. This one decision would likely decide his fate for years to come.

  Slowly, a smile crept across his face. “When do we leave? I’d rather like to get started on my new life of adventure.”

  She grinned, and he found he enjoyed the expression far more than her scowl. “First thing in the morning, but…are you sure? You’ll have to get your hands dirty from time to time, and I won’t have you looking down on me.”

  He nodded as the reality of his choice sank in, realizing that he never could have truly considered the alternative. He'd had a taste of adventure. There was no going back. “Well,” he began with a wry grin, “someone has to keep you from killing everyone.”

  She snorted, then lifted her hand to call the barmaid over to refill her mug of tea. They finished their meals and relaxed for the rest of the day like nothing had happened, but Kai didn’t miss the way Anna smiled whenever she thought he wasn’t looking, and he was quite sure she didn’t miss him doing the same.

  The End

  Learn what happens to Anna and Kai in the future with the Tree of Ages series.

  https://www.saracroethle.com/tree-of-ages

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  About the Author

  Sara C. Roethle is a Fantasy author and part-time unicorn. She enjoys writing character driven stories in various fantasy realms with elements of Celtic and Norse myth, humor, and metaphysical ponderings.

  Whips, Toothpicks, and Doorstoppers

  Stevie Collier

  Chapter 1

  The ex-bandit flicked a metallic toothpick from his fingers. He watched as it struck home in the far wall, completing the smiley face image. It had taken him three weeks to fashion enough toothpicks to make the image, but what else was there to do?

  Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

  He’d already fed himself. Took a nap. Thought about feedings the prisoners. Took another nap. Finally fed the prisoners, and now he had nothing else to do in this lonely town but kick up his feet on the desk and pray for some action.

  The sun shone through the window something awful and he pulled down his makeshift hat to cover his eyes. Even that, though, wasn’t enough for the beams of light reflected off the badge stuck to his vest and straight into his eyeballs.

  He pulled off the badge and rested it on the table. Though it’d been years since he’d accepted the pardon and taken on his new career in law enforcement, he still got that weird feeling when his eyes fell upon his name stamped on the metal square.

  Cuda.

  He let out a deep breath and scanned the room to check on the prisoners. The building was small and rectangular in shape. The ground had no floor, so his boots always tracked in black soot that the volcano Gurgamesh spit out every other sun-cycle. Even though his town was a good distance away, the damned explosive mountain was still able to reach it. He couldn’t imagine what sort of hell it must have been to live in the capital city of Zel. Whose idea was it to put the capital city of Reah so close to the damned volcano, anyways?

  There were three cells in his jailhouse, and all three were full, which was rare. Cuda could go three or four months without a single person having to spend a moon-cycle behind bars. Not only was having three persons locked up uncommon, but their crimes were even more unusual for his quiet town.

  The first two cells held murderers. The first one, a mean looking man named Tarx, had killed a man for taking a sip out of his beer at the local spittoon. Cracked the man’s skull on the bar, he did, killing him instantly. Tarx came in quietly enough, understanding that Cuda wasn’t the man to mess with. He’d rather take his chances in the court of law than face the wrath of the lawman’s legendary whip.

  Cuda had a reputation for having the fastest wrists in the Red Territory of Reah. He wouldn’t be surprised if folks in the other three territories had heard of him as well. However, a fast wrist could only do so much to handle a whip properly. One needed strength, and lots of it, in order to use the whip proper-like. It just so happened that Cuda was a man with a lot of strength.

  Cuda looked over at the shattered mirror he’d purchased off a traveling trader and found an old man staring back at him. The last of his bright red locks had disappeared years ago. Red hair was iconic in the land of Reah and men usually considered another man worthless when he’d lost it. This was probably why the life expectancy of the Red Territory was so low. People just gave up on the elderly.

  The ex-bandit, now lawman, did feel washed up, but that didn’t mean he was ready to die anytime soon. On the contrary, he had dreams of retiring one of these sun-cycles and building himself a nice little home far from civilization. Far from people, in general. In order to do this, he needed money, and in order to get money, he needed to live longer. And, of course, to live longer, he needed to remain strong, smart, and a master of his whip.

  The second man in the next cell over was a murderer, but cut from a strange sort of cloth. He was completely and utterly insane, and it didn’t take a genius to see it. The man, who kept calling himself Ripper, had a terrible tick that sent his arms flailing around for a few seconds, often banging on the walls and bars. The skin of his arms were testament to this, as they were covered in scars, bruises, and bleeding wounds. Ripper was also incredibly skinny. Cuda didn’t doubt he could tear the man in half over his head.

  Ripper had strangled three women in three different towns and no one as of yet had been able to catch him. Cuda, on the other hand, had heard of this horrible person and been ready for him. He caught Ripper spying from the rooftop of the town hall, just waiting for a woman to wander off on her own. It was a wonder no one else had spotted the tormented fool, as there was no way for the man to stop his thrashing arms.

  Catching of Ripper hadn't been no incredible accomplishment. Cuda had just sat on the rooftop, waiting for him to climb up and continue his espionage of defenseless women. Ripper hadn’t even noticed him sitting there when he took his usual spot at the roof’s edge. The worst part about the arrest was that the crazed man had been butt naked, his body, just as his arms, covered in shiny scars.

  The third cell, Creator bless her soul, was a woman known for stealing bread from the local market. 'Course she’d only done it a few times every month or so, making it hard to catch her, but what else did Cuda have to do? Nothing, that’s what. Poor thing hadn’t been able to stop shaking since the arrest. Probably because she now shared a home with two murderers and a man of law who once had a career in pillaging and robbing towns just like the one she lived in.

  But Cuda was a man of equality. Man or woman, this lady had done wrong and she deserved everything the judge of this quiet town was gonna give her. He didn’t feel sorry for her, not very much, at least. She should have known better than to steal in his town. It was just disrespectful. She ought to have known his reputation. He may have started on the wrong side of the law, but now that he worked for it, well, he was damned good at it.

  A pecking on hi
s window gave him a small start, as he hadn’t expected anybody, and he was right. It wasn’t nobody, just a miniature glint flier come to bring him a message. He’d always admired the small black birds. He’d thought them so beautiful, their soft feathered bellies, their wide wingspan, and, the most interesting part of all, the sheets of metal they grew on their backs to protect themselves from the rays of the sun.

  Truly a wonder of nature. Glint fliers were known for the way they hunted their prey,using the metal on its back to shine light into the eyes of its target, making them easy pickings. Sadly, he’d only seen them dead of old age, lying on the ash covered grounds. Once, as a child, he’d picked one big black feather off of one and placed it in the rim of his hat for good luck. To this sun-cycle, he still had the black feather in his hat and hadn’t yet fallen to the an enemy's weapon.

  So it made sense that he about kicked over the desk in his excitement to see one alive and trained well enough to bring a parchment of paper, clasped tightly between its long black beak. The little bird eyed Cuda with curiosity, its metal-covered headflicking back and forth as it studied him. He could see himself in the reflection of its black, beady eyes.

  Slowly, Cuda reached out and took the parchment from the glint flier. The bird cawed at him and flung itself back into the air, heading back to wherever it called home. He found himself jealous of the man or woman who had the skill to catch and domesticate one of them.

  Bringing his attention back to the rolled-up letter, he unraveled it and gave it a look-see. What he saw made his heart beat just a little faster.

  To Whomever finds this,