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2024-10-29 19:42:56Scarlett leapt from the tree and silently grasped the window, "There is no need to hide Scarlett, we have no need for secrecy." She sat on the single chair while Alex sat on the bed after Alex pulled her in.The moon and the brilliant stars that shone through the window were the only sources of light.
“Well, you’re here now, may I ask why you’re following James and I?” "I didn't want to bother you,""Your fool is of no consequence; I only follow you," "That fool is my friend, and his name is James;" I would anticipate the use of his name, "Either way, you're the one I follow," and "And for what cause?"Alex stood to gather his belongings and said, "I would wish to join you in your journeys, should you not want me I’ll be on my way." "I would be honored, but only if you apologize to James and disband the use of the word fool, he is much smarter than he lets on, we will leave tomorrow so be ready by then, you may take my bed." "No, a lowly peasant such as myself has no place in the bed reserved for a knight,"Scarlett blushed, even though Alex couldn't see it in the dim light. Especially from a man who looked so attractive to her, she had never been treated so well before. She took off her coat and sat down on the soft bedding after he left. Within a few minutes, she was asleep.The room was only illuminated by the morning light when Scarlett awoke. She sat up, sighed, and then rubbed her eyes. James unintentionally entered when her door suddenly opened.James stopped when he noticed how small Scarlett was sitting on the bed. "Hey Alex, we need to start—" "What are you doing here!?" James asked. he inquired,"Do you generally burst into rooms that aren't your own!?" “What if I had been naked!?” she yelled."You mean this is dressed? You ought to feel ashamed!"At least I'm not a liar!"“Fool? Fool!? I'm not a coward!”"What are you two fighting over?" Alex inquired as he approached, his gear scattered about."Alex, what's this woman doing in your quarters?"“Yes, but why?” "I gave her the room and slept elsewhere.""She has asked to join us," "I think not," and "Oh?""She's a problem," "How so?"He tried to give a reason, but gave up: "I... well..." "Can she at least not call me fool?" James hung his head in defeat, and Alex gave her a look of disappointment. "Sorry," she said, "Sorry whom?" “I’m sorry James, I do not believe you to be a fool,” Alex said as he put his hand on his ear. “That’s a neat trick,” James said, looking at Alex. “Hmph, you’re forgiven.” “Good,” Alex said, “with the two of you settled, gather your things.” We will proceed after a brief river bath.
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The Righteous Way Chapter 8
James stood sweating under the hot sun. Alex stood across from him with a wooden sword in his hand. James charged with his two wooden knives and Alex easily blocked one with his sword and grabbed James ’s other hand twisting until he released his weapon. He pushed James away and waited for him to pick up the practice weapon once more.“Your attacks are obvious, you need to use grace, not brutality,” Alex said.James crept towards him holding his weapons up. He thrust and was knocked away, James then spun with the hit and almost struck Alex ’s side, but failed as Alex caught his arm before the blow.“Close, you used the momentum of my parry against me, very instinctive,”“Maybe you’re right, I should use a sword,”“Well, before you make the switch let’s try something else.” Alex dropped his sword and put up his arms in a fighting stance. James did the same. Alex swung at him and he ducked then retaliated with a flurry of strikes to his friend’s abdominal region before leapi
The Righteous Way Chapter 9
“You are a thief, aren’t you?” Alex asked,“Well not any... oh... you mean?”“Yes,”“What?” asked Scarlett,“Nothing wench, just leave it to me,”“James --” Alex tried,“No, let’s see what the fool can do,” Scarlett gave him a smile.Once Alex was free James began to look at the door. “No handles on this side or keyholes... but it’s a simple latch mechanism.” He pulled out one of his daggers which had been hidden in his pant-leg. He slid it through the crack and lifted the latch. “Still think the all-seen sword is the only weapon worth holding?” James slowly opened the door and peeked about. No one was in sight which gave him an eerie feeling. “I guess they all feel safe enough to leave us unguarded,” he said,“Be careful anyway,” said Scarlett.The three exited the building and disappeared into the shadows. Once they were a safe distance from the village James crouched in the dirt and began to draw.“Alright, so if this is the village we need to set up here, here, and here,” he
The Righteous Way Chapter 10
“That’s very clever,” said Alex as they stepped on the fresh made path, “I should learn how to construct one,”“Why?” asked James from under his hood, “If we’ve not horses to pull it?”“Because we could share the design with other kingdoms,” said Scarlett, “Typical you’d only think to use it yourself,”“And you like walking in the deep snow?”“No, I loathe it, but you should know by now we do not act for ourselves,”“I do know it, but sometimes I wonder why not make life a little easier,”“Because challenge invites growth,” said Alex , “While luxury invites stagnancy,”“I’m not asking for a castle, just a horse, maybe one for each of us,”“When I first met you how far could you run before being winded?” Alex asked,“I don’t know, a fair distance I guess,”“And how far can you run now?”James thought about it. It had been six months since that fateful day of their meeting. He realized he could run three times farther and faster now than before and was much stronger.“I see your poi
The Righteous Way Charter 11
“It can’t be true...” she cried, “I don’t want to be alone,”“You’re not alone, we can help you find a new home,” said James ,“I don’t want a new home! I want my daddy!”She ran away through the snow. Alex stayed behind staring at the moon while James followed her. She ran towards the city, but tripped and fell into a snow-bank. She laid there screaming until James picked her up to rock her.She only hugged him and cried as he carried her home. When they arrived she was asleep. Scarlett met him outside the hut. “What happened?”“We informed her of the truth, she didn’t take her father’s death very well,”“How would you expect her to take it?”“I know, but hopefully we can find her a new family,”“I guess we’ll worry about it in the morning,” said Alex now appearing around a corner, “We could all use a little sleep.”The troupe entered the hut and did their best to find places to sleep. James put Isabelle on her bed and he covered her before retreating to the floor. All three dri
The Righteous Way Chapter 12
“This place looks promising.” James said,“What about Isabelle?” Scarlett asked, “This is no place for a child,”“Take her to the beach,” James said, “I’ll bet she’s never seen the ocean.”Isabelle’s face lit up as she tugged on Scarlett’s cloak. “Can we? Please!?” Scarlett smiled. “Of course, let’s go for a swim.” The two ladies left for the bay. Guards soon arrived to break up the scuffle and after the fight was over James and Alex entered. Broken tables and chairs were strewn everywhere. Broken glass from the many smashed bottles littered the wet floor. As the patrons filed out with bruised bones and faces Alex approached the distraught tavern-master.“Animals!” he shouted, “Every last one of ’em!”“Would you like some help?” Alex asked,“What help? Don’t you see my tavern!? It’s smashed to pieces,”“Well sir,” said James , “My companion and I are skilled woodworkers, we can fix up your tables and chairs in no time,”“And what would you ask in return?”“Food, water and three
The Righteous Way Chapter 13
He kept pushing forward listening to Isabelle’s screams. Something grabbed the back of his shirt keeping him from swimming farther. He looked back to see James trying to hold him. “Don’t be a fool, we can’t catch him!” James shouted, spewing the seawater from his mouth.“We have to! I will not leave her!”“And I won’t let you die in vain! She’s gone Alex , there’s nothing we could have done!”Alex watched the boat disappear and felt the overwhelming dread enter him. James pulled himself and his friend along the rope he’d tied to the ship until they were at the side. James pulled himself up followed by Alex .James went to the helm and steered the ship east towards the shore. He locked the wheel and went to sit with his companion who laid on the deck in agony over the loss. “There was nothing to do, he would have killed her,”“And we condemn her to a fate worse than death? To be some pirate’s slave?”James wasn’t sure what to say, he too was feeling the loss of Isabelle weigh on
The Righteous Way Chapter 14
“It seems something spooked them,” said the priest as he climbed down from the wagon, “I thank you for your help,”“You’re welcome,”“What is your name sir?”“I am Alex of the Tolbert family,”“Tolbert ? I’m not familiar,”“We are of Korryn,”“Ah, I have never been to that kingdom, though its knights are boasted of in many places. Where are you headed?”“To Doranth,”“Ah, I as well, to deliver these tithes to the storehouses there,”“Alex ! Are you mad!” James shouted as he and Scarlett ran to meet him while carrying his belongings,“Are you alright!?” Scarlett asked,“I’m well,”“My how rude I am,” said the priest, “My name is Michael,”“James ,” said James , “And this is Scarlett.”“And what brings three travelers out this way?”“We are a simple group looking for work in exchange for food and shelter,”“Ah, you should have plenty of work in Doranth. The church is always looking for volunteers,”“Then perhaps we shall see you there,” Alex said while he again strapped his shield t
The Righteous Way Chapter 15
Alex thought about it for a moment, “James , you are a wise man and I’m glad to call you friend,” he put out his hand. James clasped it with his own, “Now let’s go do as the Lord will.”The four of them went to the stables and hooked two horses to a large wagon. They took it to the storages and took a bag from each one while Michael spoke to the guards. Once they were all loaded up they took the wagon out into the night and towards the village. “Haha!” laughed Michael as his body swelled with excitement, “I’ve never done anything like this!”When they arrived at the first farm they each took a bag and placed it in the farmer’s storehouse hanging them from the ceiling to avoid mice getting to them. They quietly went back to the wagon and then went to the second farm, then the third and so on until the wagon was empty and each farm had a sufficient supply of seed.They then took the wagon back to Doranth while the sun began to rise. Michael entered his quarters and returned with three
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Feeling his back pockets, Alex told him, “Well come with me, we drops down to Bank of Montreal. I needs a bit of air, and a smoke maybe.”The door to Jimi Jak's opened, sound blowing out to the street for a moment or two and then gone, muffled inside. Alex lit his cigarette while he and Staunch went down the steps, which were now soaked in beer, streaks of blood, and littered with smoked down cigarettes butts from a successful, savage night. The Bank of Montreal only across the road from the bar, they crossed over once cars whizzed past.Nobody was inside the bank's ATM lobby. Alex passed Staunch the rest of his smoke before heading up towards the doors.“Not sure which one'll work,” Alex said thumbing through a handful of stolen debit and credit cards. “Might be a few minutes.”Alex went in to the bank machine and Staunch stood alone, drunk, in the dead of night. Occasionally, a car passed, a sound of laughter from the bar flew on the breeze, and a short time Staunch actual
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He lived on a decent cul-de-sac in Grand Falls, down near the river. Out back of the house sat a spacious garage separate by a large concrete pad, itself leading up into the long driveway. In the garage he had a nice spot for all his woodworking equipment: table saw, bench, racks of drills, hammers, handsaws, wrenches, and plenty of storage space for fresh wood and the like. At the back of the garage stood a door, behind the door, a room, and in that room were secrets. Locked away with only him and the stale air of the garage's workshop, those secrets grew, multiplied like mould in the dark, and he had a place where his wife would not disturb him; she left him to his business, and without her knowledge his rotten secrets, only coming out when he wanted her there. The man even installed a state-of-the-art security system for the entire property, including the garage, which came with intercoms; often, he would simply call his wife on the intercom to let her know it was fine to bring him
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Back over under the Canopy and its branchy cover, Tommy and Brian stopped in an inlet of trees and alder bush. They were scared. Still, the boys were beyond determined to be done with the whole situation. Only trouble was neither of them, with all their heart, wanted to relinquish their hold on the money, those pieces of jewelry, all of that. Even as all the trouble of the world might perilously be wavering only inches above their heads, like one of those cartoons were an anvil hangs on a thread about the coyote's head, all Brian or Tom managed to see were the endless possibilities the contents of that bag could provide them; the images of a future path different than their own dominated them, overthrew those young and impressionable minds.“We could just toss the duffel bag in the woods someplace,” Brian remarked; half sure of himself, half kidding himself.The look gave his friend spoke enough on its own.“This is fucked up.”“We can't just get rid of it – not now,” Tom told him.“Y
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Then, Staunch saw the wide birch shooting up near the lake's edge. His heart pumped in short bursts, rapid, and then short, slow again; a combination of nervous fear and the traces of meth still beating around in his brain. Alex stepped ahead of Staunch, who straddled behind wanting to stay but needing to follow. The hole sat only feet away now, closer with each and every stumble. Any minute now they would be right upon it. Stopped for a breath, frozen even in the pulsing rays of daylight, Staunch collected his emotions, his swollen and frayed nerves like wounded and exposed electrical wires, and he caught up to Alex . The two men stepped in around the birch alongside one another, with its hollowed middle, and Alex knelt, no words, at the edge of a roughly bore hole in the muggy earth; a hole where once they deposited all their stolen goods, a hole now empty, void.“Why'd you push me in the fuckin' trees like that?”“I just told ya,” Brian said, “there were people comin' and I di
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The car parked a few lengths away from them. Two men got out of the driver and passenger sides; they looked normal mostly. One man – tall, tattooed and fairly muscular, the type who spends his free time lifting weights and self-obsessing over the tone of their muscles, bronzed and starved to death – went to the trunk, as the other – smaller, not much, than the other, and with the look of still being in high school due to his teenage way of dressing, but donning a cane in one hand, limping considerably and aching from an obvious back injury – looked to be moving slowly towards Alex and Staunch. They both walked towards the waiting Firebird.Staunch and Alex each got out and greeted the men.The smaller one extended a hand. “You Alex ?” He shook Alex 's hand. Turning to Staunch he asked, “And that must make you – what's it – Stench?”Alex cackled a dry couching laugh. “It's Staunch, actually.”“Shit, sorry.”Staunch looked calm, but underneath a volcano boiled, bubbled fierce in
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Brian understood. He knew now, and along really, what Tommy felt wasn't a mental illness, a real delusion making him paranoid and insane; they both felt it, in different ways. It was the yearning for a new and different life instead of the shit existence they'd both experience up until now. While Brian and Tommy tried to create their own identities and shape the future of their lives, no matter how savagely they fought to do so, they were and always would be inhibited by the families which gave them life, shackled to a dirty destiny. Their parents each were destructive and heartless people; more concerned with their own lives and failed expectations and schemes than bothering to worry about the tiny, lonely humans they created from thin air, leaving them to grow into ungardened plants with no discernible paths ahead of them aside from anguish, despair, torment, and days on this wretched earth long and hard as the road to Hell.This gauntlet of living is what truly made Tommy lie and c
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Brian decided it best to save his breath for the walk out from the station, especially considering Tommy planned to dig in three different places all around the area. He kept seeing more money, enough to dive into like Scrooge McDuck, and the thought made everything else fade away.But Brian's conscience, the well of his soul, wouldn't let him rest comfortably. He knew letting Tommy's delusion go on was risky; for days on days now, near a week, Tom has talked of nothing aside from the treasure, pirates, and all the like, and it slowly consumed his sanity, each day that passed. He kept on letting Tom pursue the dream of a legend that most likely was not true, in the slightest, and his spying conscience eyed him, judging, and made him feel as if his entire body were slowly being torn into quarters, drawn by horses, his every fibre wrenched in pain. Yet nothing stopped Brian. He certainly made no real efforts to curb Tommy's lust for treasure hunting.He went on watching Tom, who took hi
