Tales of Oescienne - A Short Story Collection - Volume One Read online

  “How’s the view from up there ladies?” Scede called up to Kihna and his sister.

  “I can see everything!” Kihna cried out.

  “I just hope these crossbows have good range,” Gieaun added. “If we can hit someone enough times, it should discourage them from making a run for our flag.”

  Jahrra nodded her head in agreement. Three points wasn’t much, but multiply that by fifteen or even ten, capturing another team’s flag might not garner enough points to win the game. Oh, and Jahrra was determined to win this one. Even more so, she was burning to capture the golden flag belonging to a certain set of twins and their team.

  “Alright,” Jahrra said, gathering her other three teammates around. “Scede, you’re going for the red team, right?”

  Scede nodded.

  “Rhudedth, you’re going for green and Pahrdh you wanted the blue team, correct?”

  “Yes,” Pahrdh said.

  “And I’m going for the gold,” Jahrra said with an air of vengeance.

  “We wouldn’t dream of taking that honor from you,” Scede claimed, standing up straight and placing his closed fist over his heart in a gesture of obeisance.

  Jahrra shoved him good-naturedly and in the next minute they were creeping down the hill to start the hunt.

  “Be careful and good luck!” Jahrra called quietly to her teammates as they all took a different direction away from their base.

  Although they had decided leaving two people behind to guard their ‘castle’ while the others used stealth and skill to sneak into the enemy camps was their best option, Jahrra felt nervous. She didn’t think it would be the easiest way, but she was hopeful nonetheless.

  Casting aside her wayward thoughts and sending up a plea to Ethoes that her friends fulfilled their own goals, she crept back through the city, staying close to the backs of the buildings and using the occasional wooded hillside to hide her progress. She had caught a glimpse of Eydeth and his team heading northeast when they had first dispersed, but Jahrra couldn’t be sure that’s where they’d find their territory. She decided that a surreptitious check of the city’s perimeter would give her some answers.

  She bristled in annoyance when the edge of her shirt snagged on a branch fifteen minutes later, drawing the attention of someone on the red team. She wasn’t fast enough to dodge the arrow they sent her way and as she dove behind a tree, the tip of the arrow caught her hip. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, she moved quickly and silently farther up the hill to get out of sight. She would have to be more careful in the future.

  An hour passed before Jahrra finally caught a glimpse of something promising. She had descended back into the city, keeping to the shadows of the buildings. At one point she used a passing cart to disguise her movement, ducking behind it as it rolled past a clump of her classmates, all three of them armed with green-tipped arrows.

  She quickly ducked behind a building to wait for them to move on, but as she was waiting a splash of yellow caught her eye. Jahrra jerked her head to the left and spotted a yellow ribbon tacked to the corner of the building she was using for cover.

  Feeling her heart leap into her throat, she swallowed hard and crept closer to the edge of the small shop. Another yellow strip of cloth was nailed to the corner of the city’s stable several feet away.

  Got you Eydeth, she thought as her eyes narrowed. Now, all she had to do was locate the flag without being seen . . .

  Jahrra peeked around the corner of the building once more, and then she saw it. There was the golden flag she sought, waving gently in the breeze as if beckoning her forward. She was tempted just to run for it. Taking time to check the area for guards could draw their attention, but if she just bolted, maybe she could use the element of surprise.

  Sweat dripped down her forehead and stung her eyes. She gritted her teeth. It was so tempting just to run . . . But she had already been shot at twice, hit once, and she couldn’t risk acting before checking her surrounding area. Patience, she told herself, patience . . . Forcing herself to keep still, Jahrra carefully looked around the building again to assess her options.

  Eydeth and his team had chosen well. Their flag, tied to a long, sturdy branch like all the other banners, was standing in the middle of an abandoned pasture behind the stables. Several rocks were piled up to keep the pole from falling over and most of the pasture was surrounded by a neglected yet sturdy fence.

  Clever, Eydeth, Jahrra mused wryly. Although the spare pasture was obviously not suitable to keep in horses, there was still plenty of good fencing to create an obstacle for anyone hoping to make a mad dash for the flag.

  Jahrra narrowed her eyes and scanned the entire fence line. The most obvious entrance was several yards in front of her, where the gate had been left wide open. She spotted a few more gaps in the fence where a rail had fallen down, creating a hurdle. Those neglected areas wouldn’t be as hard to get past as a solid fence, but it would be just enough to slow someone up and make them vulnerable for an ambush.

  So, Jahrra thought as she finished her assessment, you hope to lure us in and then trap us like sheep? Jahrra would be very shocked if Eydeth and half of his team weren’t currently hiding behind the thick shrubs just beside the open gate. Her suspicions were only confirmed when the tiniest rustle sounded from the bush closest to her. The leaves were thick enough to hide even the brilliant white Eydeth and his teammates wore, but Jahrra didn’t need to see them to know they were there.

  Now all she needed was a plan. Could she distract them somehow? If she had Scede, Rhudedth or Pahrdh with her, they might be able to pull it off. But her other friends were off trying to secure the flags belonging to the other teams.

  I hope they aren’t having the same trouble I am, she thought.

  Minutes passed and no one from any of the other teams came by. Jahrra wondered if they were too intimidated to attack Eydeth’s camp or if they were simply doing what she was doing: waiting and biding their time. Jahrra sighed quietly, her mind going back to the idea of making a run for it. She knew where Eydeth and his teammates were hiding, at least where some of them were hiding. She glanced back around the building. The shrubs were far enough away from the gate to prove a bit of a challenge if they were to try and shoot her from their hiding spots.

  Should I trust my instincts? she wondered. That they won’t shoot until I’m clear through the gate? Could someone be waiting on the far side of the field on the other side of the fence? Or will they just assume I'll run right in, not expecting an ambush?

  Jahrra chewed at her nails and felt herself growing restless. If I’m going to run for it, I had better have a plan of escape. She eyed the wooded hillside beyond the pasture. If she could somehow grab the flag, leap the fence and make it into the trees, then she stood a chance. Jahrra studied the far end of the fence line one more time. There. A weakness. The top rail had come loose from one of the posts and was resting on the ground. She could hurdle that, easy. And if she just simply applied some of the skills she’d learn from her elfin trainers, Yaraa and Viornen, this should be a walk in the park . . . if her enemies were exactly where she thought they were.

  It’ll be risky, she told herself, taking a deep breath and getting ready to bolt, but the reward will be so worth it.

  Jahrra stood up straight and took a deep, calming breath. She shoved the small crossbow into the quiver with the arrows and dye packs, tightened the straps, and shifted the bag so that it rested against her stomach and not her back. For what she planned to do, she needed her arms and back free. She took another deep breath, counted to three, and leapt into a full sprint. She quickly picked up speed, eating up the distance between the building she’d hidden behind and the wide open gate. Sixty yards, fifty, forty . . . She flashed through the gate, running at full speed and felt more than heard Eydeth and his comrades leap out of the bushes and run to close the gates.

  Jahrra kept going, grinning to herself. She had been right.

  The flag was waiting for her, only twenty yard
s ahead now, in the middle of the pasture. A golden tipped arrow struck the ground just to the right of her, its yellow dye splattering harmlessly on the grass as her boots sped past.

  Ten more yards . . . Another arrow chased her, this one landing between her feet, the dye just speckling her pants. Not a true hit, she thought to herself as she pumped her arms, her breath coming faster.

  The flag was only a few yards away, but Jahrra didn’t slow. She stopped moving her arms, but her legs kept up their speed. Just as she was about to pass the flag, she threw her arms forward, reaching out to grasp the wooden flag pole in one hand as she dived into a roll. Her fingers grasped the warm wood tightly as she tucked her shoulders and brought her head in to her chest. The back of her shoulders hit the ground with great force and the crossbow, in its bag with all the arrows, jostled about as she completed the roll, coming back up on her feet, her momentum barely changing. Without thinking, she tightened her grip on the flag, ripped free from its stone prison, and drove her legs even harder, aiming for the hole in the fence several yards ahead.

  A few more arrows flew past her, one of them making a full strike in the low of her back. Cursing inwardly, she forced herself to speed up, this time zigzagging a little as she ran. You can do this, Jahrra! This is nothing compared to what Yaraa and Viornen make you do!

  She reached the fence, hurdled it with little effort, and continued sprinting up the rocky hillside, seeking the relative safety of the trees. Sweat poured down her face and her ribs ached from her hard landing, but she had Eydeth’s flag and nothing was going to make her stop now. Just as she disappeared behind the first row of trees, she thought she heard the livid scream of her nemesis at the far end of the pasture. Jahrra allowed herself a small grin, but she didn’t stop. She sprinted until she could hardly breathe anymore; moving deeper into the small copse but making sure she stayed within a hundred feet of the city’s outskirts.

  After several minutes she slowed down and quickly stripped the yellow banner from its pole and tucked it into her bag before picking up her pace once again. This time she would make an extra effort at returning to her own camp unheard and unseen. The last thing she needed was to get ambushed by another team and earn enough dye stains to make her effort at capturing Eydeth’s flag all for nothing.

  * * *

  Jahrra spent an hour of slow and careful weaving through Aldehren as she made her way back to Gieaun and Kihna. Despite her effort, she’d been shot by someone on the blue team as she moved from a forested hill onto the streets, and then had a near miss when she paused to adjust the bag that carried her ammunition. After the second shot she had slowed her progress down even more. Won’t do any good if I keep getting shot, she grumbled to herself as she crept up to the boundary of her camp.

  Before coming within range of the redwood trees, Jahrra cupped her hands and imitated the call of a mourning dove. Four more calls greeted her and she eagerly jogged the final incline to find Scede and Rhudedth leaning against the trunks of the redwoods, both speckled with their own collection of dye marks, but grinning foolishly.

  “Oh no!” Jahrra breathed. “You guys were shot too?”

  “Yeah,” Rhudedth answered, “but we gave them back as much as they gave us, and look!”

  She held up a green banner as her smile widened.

  “Excellent!” Jahrra cried as she pulled Eydeth’s yellow banner out of her bag.

  “We managed to steal three flags!?” Scede added as he dropped the red banner on top of the others.

  “And managed to keep ours safe!” Kihna said as she climbed down her tree to join them.

  Gieaun was right behind her. “You should have seen all the people we shot!”

  They all exchanged stories of their adventures for a few minutes, then Rhudedth looked up and said, “Where’s Pahrdh?”

  At that moment, another mourning dove call reached their ears and the five of them returned it, letting Pahrdh know it was safe to enter camp.

  He looked rather glum when he climbed up to the top of their hill. He appeared to have more paint marks on him than everyone else and he didn’t carry a blue banner in his hands.

  “I was ambushed,” he muttered irritably. “It was a trap. Ugh! I should have known!”

  “It’s okay, Pahrdh,” Jahrra said grinning. “We managed to get all our flags, so I’d say we’ve done better than expected.”

  “True,” Gieaun added, “but the game’s not over yet. Where are we going to put these other flags? We’re allowed to hide them, but they have to be in plain sight. That’s going to be hard to do, considering their colors.”

  Jahrra frowned, studying the green, red and yellow flags. Gieaun was right. They had at least a few more hours left in the game and any one of the teams they had robbed could descend upon their camp at any moment to get back their flag and to take off with the others if they wanted to. It was one thing to guard one flag, but with four, every team would be after them.

  “No it won’t,” Kihna said confidently, responding to what Gieaun had said about hiding them. “Look.”

  She pointed over at one of the clotheslines that hung lower to the ground than the others. When they had first picked this spot as their camp, Jahrra had been slightly concerned that someone might trip over the line in the heat of battle, but had since dismissed it from her mind. Now, as she ran her eyes down the rope, taking note of the colorful sheets and towels that hung there, she grinned.

  “Someday we’re going to have to pay for all our good luck!” she cried as she picked up the pile of stolen banners.

  The six of them spent the next several minutes arranging the stolen flags on the clothesline so that they blended in with the other towels, sheets and clothing. After that, they huddled around their own violet banner to discuss the plan for the rest of the day.

  “I think we should be done with hunting for more banners,” Pahrdh said with a hint of resignation.

  “Agreed,” said Rhudedth. “We should stay here and spread out, shooting anyone who comes within a hundred yards of our base camp.”

  Jahrra thought this was a good idea as well, but she feared Eydeth had something more sinister up his sleeve.

  In the end, they went with Rhudedth’s plan and for the next hour, they managed to scare off the other teams as they shot at them from the cover of the redwood trees and the height of the hill. When Eydeth and Ellysian failed to show up, Jahrra’s nerves started to prickle. She called her teammates back down to talk it through.

  “I know they are planning something,” she said, her eyes scanning the shadows.

  “Well, what do you propose we do?” Gieaun asked, crossing her arms and arching a brow. “Do you want us all to go out and spy?”

  Jahrra opened her mouth to make a retort, but then she thought about Gieaun’s words. “Not to spy,” she said slowly, “but to lure.”

  “Huh?” Kihna asked.

  “To lure!” Jahrra smiled mischievously and crossed her arms. “I have an idea.”

  * * *

  Jahrra was almost shot five more times as she crept back through the city, searching for any sign of Eydeth’s team. Curse them, where are they?! Dread pooled in her stomach and sweat trickled down her back once again as she imagined that perhaps this had been their plan all along; to make her think they were plotting only to sneak into her camp while she went out looking for them. Jahrra was just about to turn back when an arrow whizzed by her head, a flash of yellow catching her attention as it disappeared into a pile of hay.

  Mission accomplished! she thought as she sent a violet arrow towards one of Eydeth’s teammates before turning and running directly back towards camp.

  She was winded by the time she reached the top of their hill. She took a few moments to catch her breath before shouting, “Gieaun, Scede! Where are you guys?! Eydeth shot at me and I think he saw me come this way!”

  She waited a few moments but was met with nothing but silence. She released a few curses then called out again, trudging back and forth
between the redwoods, “Rhudedth, Pahrdh? Kihna? Where are you guys, you were supposed to stay and guard the flag!”

  Jahrra turned to face the street below, one hand placed on her hip, the other letting her crossbow hang loosely at her side, as she donned a bewildered look. “Maybe they just left to scout the boundaries,” she mused in a not-so-quiet voice.

  In the next moment something hard smacked Jahrra on the side of the face, causing her head to whip to the side and her vision to become clouded with stars. What the . . . ?

  She quickly held her hand up to her temple and pulled it away to see if she was bleeding, but the moisture on her fingers wasn’t red, it was yellow.

  Hot anger welled up in her stomach as she snapped her head upwards. She scanned the bottom of the hill and was nearly hit again with another bolt. This one managed to graze her hair.

  “What are you getting at, Eydeth!?” she shouted angrily. “Head shots don’t count you idiot!”

  She moved herself more securely behind the redwood, willing the pounding in her head and the ache in her temple to go away. Her eye was watering and she was livid, but she had to control her temper or Eydeth would get what he wanted.

  He casually stepped out from behind the building he was using as cover. Unfortunately, it would still be hard to get a clean shot at him.

  He held his crossbow loosely, another yellow-tipped arrow resting and ready to be fired.

  “There’s something nasty on your face and I was trying to kill it,” he sniffed.

  A torrent of chuckles answered him, all of them coming from the edges of Jahrra’s territory.

  She seethed in anger. There would most definitely be a bruise on her face tomorrow. No Jahrra, she thought as she ran the plan through her mind once more, just have patience. Just get him and his cronies to move in a little closer . . .