Clash of Men

by Damon Glatz

  “Why do you think he is helping us?” Ohitekah asked quietly to Nicholas

  “He’s not helping us, he’s stalking us. All he wants is to kill your buddy Red.”

  “Why didn’t they just fight in the town? Why wait?”

  “Lance is from an honorable, noble family. He won’t duel someone who doesn’t accept his challenge first, unless provoked, obviously. He wants a good honest fight, and Red most likely feels the same way.”

  “Well, why didn’t Red just take him out with the guards when he had the chance?”

  “Maybe Red respects him. Maybe he thinks Lance would give him a good fight and maybe Red looks forward to his challenge. If that’s true, we better keep an eye on both of ‘em. Red is a Mythic, a very skilled Mythic, and if he thinks Lance proves to be a challenge, then Lance is a man to be feared.”

  Ohitekah paused, thinking to himself. I wonder who would win if they did fight. There’s no way Lance can beat a Mythic. Then again, what kind of chance do I have?

  Nicholas slapped him on the back again, the same spot as always. “Don’t worry, lad! Your buddy Nicholas the Brute is here!” He let out a roaring laugh.

  Ohitekah laughed as well. “Please, you couldn’t even beat that samurai from the town!” he teased.

  Before Nicholas could argue, Red spoke up. “He was no samurai.” He slowed down his pace so they could catch up. “Those men were a disgrace to northerners.”

  There was a pause. A quiet thought from Ohitekah became audible. “Who are your people? I know little about them.”

  “We are a proud culture from the north. As you know, thousands of years ago we built a Great Wall to defend us from foreign attacks. Behind our Wall our cities are large and beautiful, the lands lush and colorful. We do not have a king, but we have an emperor. The emperor lives in a palace where citizens have been forbidden to enter for a thousand years: The Immortal Palace. The several districts of the dynasty are ruled by Daimyo, who control different areas within the wall. The Daimyo have generals and the generals have samurai armies who must fight for them to defend our land. However, the Daimyo and everyone else all have to obey the Shogun. The Shogun is the highest military commander in the land and is second in authority only to the emperor. That was my position. Shoguns are warlords who defend our lands with the collective armies of samurai. The samurai are noble warriors who fight for a Shogun, and are bound to a code of honor. Ronin are samurai who have been dishonored, and now look for other men to buy them to fight. The men you fought were Ronin, nothing more. All actual samurai live behind the wall and defend their emperor.”

  Ohitekah tried to imagine the Great Wall, stretching across the world, big enough to defend against hundreds of armies. It seemed magnificent. “Could we visit it?”

  “It is no tourist location, it is a military border of our territory. I suppose we could see it from a distance. But it is well guarded, I would know.”

  “When was the last time you went to your country?” Ohitekah wondered out loud.

  Red gave a pause. “Not for a very long time.”

  Ohitekah wondered what Red could have done to not be able to return. After all he did defeat the Fire Mythic and end the war. How bad is that? He tried to change the topic. “Nicholas? Do you have any walls in your kingdom?”

  “Ha!” He laughed. “We barely even have buildings, lad, little better than what you tribes folk live in. Then again, we don’t need walls or fancy fortresses, we let the seas defend us. All our armies fight on the waves and in our ships.”

  "Navy,” Lance mumbled from the rear, everyone paused to look at him. He took a deep breath “Armies fight on land, the Vatnics don’t have an army they have a Navy, which fights on the sea.”

  “It was a figure of sp—” Nicholas began.

  “Well it was incorrect,” Lance quipped. He glanced away, deciding he was just better off not speaking.

  Red started to ride ahead again, and Ohitekah and Nicholas talked for a while more about their homes and families. Nicholas described the Hall of Kings, where his father ruled, the largest hall in the country. It was ‘Next to the largest mead hall in the world!’ he proclaimed. Nicholas gave a big laugh after that one. He told drinking stories and contests of strength from when he was Ohitekah’s age. Ohitekah told him hunting stories, and games he used to play with his friends. They laughed and talked until they caught up to Red again, who had stopped. Soon Lance caught up with them as well, looking irritated.

  They had reached the end of the forest, and there was nothing but rolling golden grass in front of them as far as the eye could see. They were now at the border of the kingdom of Ashland, and back to the wilds of the plains.

  Chapter Fourteen:

  Collaboration

  Bolt took an excited step forward.

  “Not yet,” Red spoke. “I do not think we are ready.” Red looked at the horses, at the men. “We are undersupplied, we must spend the night here and gather what we need. Besides, none of you have enough water.”

  Ohitekah halfheartedly agreed. He was excited to return to his comfort zone, but he understood that his friends were not prepared for a long journey across the plains.

  “Ohitekah, begin hunting and set some snares,” Red commanded. Ohitekah nodded and dismounted Bolt. “Nicholas, go gather wood for the camp, and make a pile. Get as much as you can.”

  “A please wouldn’t kill ya,” Nicholas remarked quietly before stomping into the forest.

  Lance said nothing and turned his horse before Red could issue a command. He knew what to do.

  After establishing a camp location, Ohitekah walked into the thick of the woods, marking his trail as he went. After all the excitement of the past few days, he enjoyed being alone and on the hunt. He scanned the forest floor for tracks to see what might be in the area. He saw signs of deer, rabbits, and some large elk. His first step was to set snares and traps for small game around the area. Then he scanned the area and located a well-traveled deer trail. He found a tall Y-shaped tree nearby and got comfortable in the middle.

  The stillness of the forest calmed him, and he had to fight the urge to fall asleep. Squirrels played in the bushes around him, birds started landing in the branches nearby. This was a good sign for Ohitekah; if the birds couldn’t notice him, the deer certainly wouldn’t. He waited patiently for several hours, listening and watching carefully. He suddenly heard some crackling on the trail under him.

  A gorgeous buck walked beneath him, slowly and unalarmed. It was eating the berries along the trail. Ohitekah readied his bow and controlled his breathing. He silently drew the arrow back to his face, eyeing the perfect place to strike it in the heart.

  Suddenly there was a large crash that echoed through the woods. The birds panicked and flew away, the deer bolted into the forest and disappeared in its startled fright. Ohitekah lowered his weapon and looked around. Keeping in mind that it could be a bear, Ohitekah was not sure to be scared or infuriated at the sudden noise. Ohitekah looked for the source of the crashing. He began to hear loud singing. It was Nicholas, with an armful of logs, belting the words of a drinking song as he marched down the trail.

  “In the land of the blue

  I’m stronger than you

  In the land of the sea

  You’ll never beat me

  If somehow, I lose

  I won’t feel a bruise

  Even enemies hear the call

  Of our grand mead hall

  Let’s all have a drink on me!”

  He stopped singing for a moment to pick up a log beneath the tree Ohitekah was hiding in. Ohitekah quickly took aim and shot the log out of his hand. Nicholas dropped the rest of his wood and raised his fists in a defensive, yet offensive manner. Ohitekah jumped out of the tree, landing in front of him.

  “Good lord, boy, you scared the hell outta me!”

  “You big lummox! You scared away all the game!”

  Nicholas rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. “Sorry, lad. I thought you wen
t the other way.”

  “By the gods! It would be a miracle to find another elk today!” Ohitekah stormed off. After a moment he could hear Nicholas’ singing begin again. Ohitekah smiled, forgiving the big fool who saved his life.

  He walked a while to the far opposite side of the camp to avoid Nicholas and hopefully anyone else. When he passed by the camp only Lance was there. He was training alone, swinging his sword back and forth, and practicing various moves. Surely, he planned on using these against Red. It reminded Ohitekah that Lance was not there to help; he was only waiting for the end so he could fight.

  Ohitekah watched him quietly for a moment. Lance was fast, but Ohitekah was sure he stood no chance against Red, a Shogun and a Mythic. Ohitekah hoped that he would succeed in his quest, if only to be able to watch the fight between Red and Lance. If Red considered him a threat then Ohitekah believed him.

  The more he thought about it, the more Ohitekah began to get angry with Lance. Red was a friend. Lance was the enemy, someone who wanted his friend killed. What if Lance tried something in the middle of the night? What if this was all a trap to steal the Mythics’ awesome power, and stop me? More terrible scenarios started flashing through Ohitekah’s head, each evolving into a worse case situation.

  Maybe I should take him out now.

  He readied a shot. Ohitekah had killed the executioner. Maybe this time he could kill again. This time he would kill the prince of Ashland. His breath grew heavy as nervousness set in. He drew back his arrow, aimed at the heart, the perfect shot. Lance stood in the middle of the camp dancing with his sword, unsuspecting. Why wait for Lance to betray them when he could end it right here?

  He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around in surprise.

  Of course, it was Red.

  Red shook his head. Ohitekah loosened his grip on the bow.

  “Why?” Ohitekah asked, his voice cracked a bit.

  “Just trust me,” Red said quietly.

  Ohitekah looked back at Lance. He stopped his training and was sitting down in the grass, watching the horses.

  “But what if—” Ohitekah looked back at Red, but he was gone.

  Ohitekah was jealous of his silence, Ohitekah thought of himself as very sneaky, but Red had him beat. Ohitekah sat down and caught his breath.

  He heard a familiar stomping and soon Nicholas was back in the camp. He dropped his pile of massive logs and looked proudly at his collection. Lance ignored him.

  “Look at all this wood, lad! Just in one trip, too,” Nicholas said to Lance with a smile.

  “Shall I get you a medal?” Lance said without looking at him. Nicholas frowned.

  “Well, you can go get your own wood then, you stuck up bastard!” Nicholas shouted. Ohitekah tried not to laugh at their argument.

  “I planned on it,” Lance said quietly. Ohitekah was surprised he did not get offended. Nicholas began stacking the wood into a large pile.

  Ohitekah left the scene to clear his mind. He began to check and reset his snares. The prizes caught were three mice and a rabbit. He tied them together and slung them over his shoulder. He walked back as quietly as he could, trying to practice Red’s silence. His fur moccasins made this very easy as they made no sound against the ground. On his way back, he heard a loud crack of something walking. The sound was louder than a small animal, but nothing as loud as a person.

  He instinctively crouched and concealed himself. He looked for the source. Scanning the area he thought the source of the crack came from, he saw the culprit. It was the same buck as before, just off the trail. Before anyone else decided to ruin the shot, Ohitekah quickly aimed and claimed his meal. The deer, after receiving the arrow, took off into the forest in a panic, as expected.

  Ohitekah waited and remained hidden. Deer, even if expertly hit, will often use their last bit of energy to run away. He knew if he tracked it too soon, the deer would only get more excited and run further. He waited about half an hour then began to follow the trail of blood. It limped and staggered north. The trail of the wounded animal was easy to follow. The deer was a short distance away and lay dead in the grass.

  This is enough meat for us to last more than a week! Won’t they be excited to see this! Ohitekah decided to take it back to camp before field dressing it. He could hopefully salvage more that way. He dragged the huge animal back to camp by himself, which, luckily, was not too far. Nicholas had just finished constructing a huge stack of wood surrounded by large rocks. It looked similar to what his tribe would build before a great ceremony.

  “Wow, you built all this?” Ohitekah asked, acting impressed. He knew Nicholas wanted someone to be amazed by his fire pit.

  “Of course I did. All by myself, we’re gonna have a celebration tonight!” Nicholas smiled. “Look at Lance’s camp over there! It’s so small!”

  Lance had moved away from the camp with his horse and built a small pyramid of twigs. Ohitekah figured that Nicholas was just trying to one up Lance’s camp. Lance ignored them both entirely and tended to his kindling. Nicholas picked up his flint and began to start his own fire. Red walked into their camp from the forest. He looked Nicholas’ wood tower up and down.

  “Nicholas?” Red said.

  “What?”

  “You want every thief and guard in Ashland to see us? Take off all but two logs, Lance has the right idea.” Red motioned to Lance’s tiny collection of sticks. Lance looked at Nicholas and gave him a cocky half grin, then turned his attention back to his own work. “Anyway, most of these logs are too big, we need to bring these with us, what were you thinking?”

  “Bloody hell” was all Nicholas muttered. In a belligerent manner he began to disassemble his mountain of downed trees. Ohitekah took his time to clean his kill and prepare the meat for cooking, a tradition he could perform without thinking. Nicholas squatted over his now pathetic stack of twigs and tried to light it. After a few unsuccessful moments Red stood over him and cleared his throat.

  It took Nicholas a second to realize what Red had in mind.

  “Oh yeah, you’re the fire whatever...” Nicholas took a step back. Red snapped his fingers and created a small flame above his hand, he flicked it into the logs. It took quickly and they had a small blaze going. Ohitekah created a rotisserie over the flame and skewered a portion of the deer meat.

  Red walked over to Lance’s camp. He created the small flame in his fingers again and offered to start Lance’s fire.

  “I don’t need your help, Daisuke, this isn’t my first fire.” Lance was using a fire bow contraption he created to build friction for his own kindling. Red said nothing and walked away. After a few moments Lance had his own fire going.

  “By the gods, boy!” Nicholas exclaimed while wolfing down a large piece of meat. “This is the best venison I’ve ever had!”

  “You should try my mother’s,” Ohitekah said, smiling.

  Ohitekah looked over to Red. He cut himself a very small bite and took his time to chew.

  Oh, that’s right, Mythics don’t need to eat. I guess he was just curious to the taste.

  Red looked up and gave him a small, yet approving, nod. Ohitekah glanced at Lance, sitting alone at his camp. He was not eating. Ohitekah stared at him for a long moment.

  Maybe Red was right… Maybe we should trust him.

  Ohitekah stood up.

  Nicholas tugged on the tail of Ohitekah’s shirt. “If he’s too stubborn to eat our meat, let ‘em starve,” Nicholas said, still chewing on his venison. Ohitekah shrugged him off and walked over to Lance.

  “I don’t want your deer, I’m catching my own meat,” Lance spoke, stoking his fire. Ohitekah observed a snare he set up opposite of him across his camp. The snare itself looked well made, Lance must have been taught basic survival skills as a child, but this may have been his first time actually performing them for real.

  “You should probably move it further into the forest, the fire would scare away anything that would be interested,” Ohitekah said softly, then walked awa
y. Lance said nothing and remained seated.

  Ohitekah walked back to his camp and finished his food. The rest of the meat was prepared the best that it could for the trip. The sun had long since set. Ohitekah had no proper bedding, so he decided to use the fur from the deer to start making a personal sleeping mat. Once the cutting and sewing was done, he had a nice sized mat that was very comfortable.

  Nicholas was snoring on a thick fur mat that he had brought with him. Red was sitting cross-legged, staring into the forest. He did not need to sleep, and apparently, he did not want to. Ohitekah wasn’t sure if Lance had slept or not. Falling asleep was uncomfortable with the new strangers around him. He was still not trusting of Lance.

  Red must have a reason if he is staying awake, he will keep an eye on us.

  Ohitekah opened his eyes to the rising sun. Red and Nicholas were packing their things. Lance’s horse was ready to go but the Prince was nowhere to be seen. Ohitekah was surprised he was the last one up for once. He packed his new mat and things on Nicholas’ horse as he had room to spare and Bolt had no saddle. Ohitekah gave Red a double take, as he noticed Red now had supplies on Blaze that he did not have before. He had a new longbow and more.

  Where did all that come from?

  Lance had walked out of the forest with a rabbit over his shoulder. Ohitekah realized that he had moved the snare back into the woods like he suggested and smiled.

  “I think we’re ready to go now,” Ohitekah said. The rest of the group nodded.

  The open fields had been calling to Ohitekah for the past day, and he couldn’t stay away for another moment. He jumped on Bolt and the two stormed off riding towards the open plains. He could hear the laughter of Nicholas as he and Bolt charged ahead. The rush of the wind was exhilarating. The trail grew wider, and the opening was just ahead. They galloped way ahead of the rest of the group and through the trail, bursting out of the woods and back to the wide-open plains.

  His smile quickly disappeared. Nearly fifty bows were suddenly drawn and aimed at him.