The Unexpected Move 

The next morning people headed towards the entrance to Folksville. Villagers with bows got onto balconies of houses and men waited for the tax collectors. Timaneus’s mom was helping people by giving them food and drink. Timaneus sat on a bench and waited patiently. Soon they came. About thirty well-trained guards came through in the middle in carriages made of wood and pulled by fine horses. The guards walked proudly. Then the villagers loosed their arrows, arrow shafts hissed through the air striking several guards.

 

Three toppled over, blood spilling onto the floor. The lead guard yelled “Traitors! Fools! You dare attack! Charge my men!” the guards unsheathed hand and a half swords, halberds, broadswords and got out their battleaxes. The villagers jumped out of their hiding spots (Barrels, boxes and other stuff like that) and attacked. The lead guard smashed his elbow onto a jumping villager. The villager fell back stunned the guard stabbed out with his broad sword and killed the villager. Timaneus was at the back watching the fight, Misam was trading blows with a guard, he caught Timaneus’s eye and yelled “Timaneus go to the forest, you’ll be safe there!” Misam nodded at Timaneus’s mother and she nodded back. She shouted “Yes go Timaneus!” The battle wasn’t going well, the guards were well-trained and the villagers weren’t but the villagers had a big numbers advantage.

 

Timaneus took off running towards the forest. He ducked under a branch and found himself in a place where there were no trees for several metres. Two men jumped out from behind a tree. They wore hoods and had masks covering their face, swords hung on their waist. “There he is,” whispered one of the men, “Remember we test him not kill him Misam’s orders,” Timaneus didn’t hear this but said “What’re you people doing here?’ one of the men held his sword up “We’re here to kill you.” Timaneus took a step back, one man charged, his sword was raised. Timaneus unsheathed his jewablade and held it tightly. The man swung and Timaneus parried the blow, it jarred his arm. Sparks flew from their blades. The man shoved and Timaneus stumbled back and then ducked to avoid a blow. The man spun around and attacked Timaneus stepped back frantically trying to block off blows. This wasn’t like a practice spar and Timaneus was still a beginner at this. Natural instincts took over and he dived for cover, the place he’d been landed a rock. The other masked man had thrown it, Timaneus watched as the second man unsheathed his blade and the two men charged. Timaneus was in trouble now, he’d never fought two people. He did everything he could to avoid fighting those two directly. Timaneus step-sided, ducked, dived and kept retreating to avoid blows. Timaneus knew the forest quite well, he’d spent a lot of time in there exploring.

 

Just to his luck as they neared the river bank, one man slipped and hit his head on a tree, he fell to the floor unconscious. Timaneus charged and tackled the other man. They both fell onto the muddy bank dropping their weapons on the grass, Timaneus kicked the man on the side then tried to get onto the grass above. The man grabbed his leg and pulled Timaneus slipped and smashed his head on the ground, he got up, his head was ringing and he was a bit drowsy, Timaneus smashed his fist into the man’s head. The man groaned and slipped further down the muddy bank. The man leapt and got onto the grass. Timaneus snatched his jewablade and backed off, the man charged and they attacked each other ferociously. The man swung at his arm, Timaneus parried easily, then Timaneus shoved him back and swung for the man’s shoulder. The man fell back and the stroke missed, Timaneus aimed a kick at the man but he missed. Scowling he watched as the man got up, he attacked again, Timaneus was tired and exhausted, he blocked off another stroke then turned and ran. He ran swiftly and then the man slowly fell back. Timaneus was a natural athlete and got away quickly, unfortunately Timaneus had hit his head and forgotten that this was a dead end. He stopped at several fallen over trees and a few boulders. The man ran and he found Timaneus, they charged at each other. They both tried to drag each other to the ground, Timaneus kicked the man in the fork of the legs as the man swore and bent over to pain, Timaneus jabbed his elbow into his head. The man toppled over but as a last resort he lashed out with his foot, it caught Timaneus in the stomach and sent him flying back. The man hit the floor hard and lay there. Timaneus stumbled back then slid down and collapsed.