Chapter 1: Unlikely Allies
The large man thundered down the dark passageway cursing quietly to himself as he ran. Alarm gongs were sounding and it wouldn’t be long before the entire manor was awake and bearing down on him. Already the sounds of doors opening and padded feet scuffling in his direction were reaching his keen ears—ears which had been raised in the wild Western Plateaus, where sharp ears and a good nose could save you from many an unseen danger. How different, yet the same it was here in this civilized place. He had not long ago traded the vast empty canyons for this cramped, fog-bound rat’s nest that was Bhundock City. But he intended to conquer this place and bend it to his will, that is if he made it through this night alive. If he could make it out before they rallied their guard he had a chance, but just barely. He smiled grimly to himself, and leaned forward into his headlong charge down the passageway.
Preoccupied with his thoughts of escape he barely noticed when the passageway he ran through joined with another in a Y-shaped intersection and carried on into a grand hall that appeared to be a large library. As he passed its threshold, he instinctively looked to the right and left to be sure no one lurked there to stab him in the back. To his astonishment another man, one who barely came to his chest, ran stride for stride with him to his right.
“Gah,” exclaimed the big man as he flinched to his left in surprise, barreling through and crushing several sets of expensive looking armor, though surprisingly not slowing his stride. The smaller man for his part had uttered a small “Eep,” for he had been equally surprised by the large man’s appearance and had himself flinched to the right.
Kicking through a crystal lamp, he vaulted on to one of the many tables in the room, then somersaulted to the shelves deftly scaling them where he continued to run at an equal pace to the larger man. Neither slowing, they righted themselves in their parallel courses through the hall, the large man returning to the center aisleway, the small man running lightly across the tops of the book cases.
They assessed each other, evaluating the threat the other posed. The small man, dressed in various shades of blue, wore a many pouched belt with a silver moon-shaped buckle. His gloved hands rested lightly on the two curving blades he wore at his waist. The tattooed skin on his wiry well-muscled arms was dark and olive, and his build was that of an acrobat. His face, what could be seen from beneath the hood of the dark blue cloak that trailed out behind him as he ran, bore a wicked devil-may-care smile and flashing green eyes.
The large man cut a very different figure. His thickly muscled frame tightly filled his leather-trimmed shirt, stitched leggings and brown fur-capped boots. Ice blue eyes looked out from warmly tanned skin and bore an easy confidence and intelligence that belied his brutish proportions. His left arm bore a buckler shield of a strange design which, like his wide belt and the sizeable broadsword that hung from it, was emblazoned with sun-shaped motifs.
These details and more each man took in about the other in the space of a heart beat. They also sensed within the other something neither had encountered before—a kindred spirit. With a quick nod, they simultaneously came to the unspoken agreement to join forces and together win free of their present predicament. As they reached the end of the great hall the small man, again without breaking stride, dropped lightly down from atop the book cases and took up his previous place to the large man’s right.
“Greetings and salutations, oh man of the western wilds,” the small man said with the clipped bright tone of the wandering desert tribes. “Am I correct in surmising that you too have chosen this night to burgle the Guild of Thieves?”
“Indeed!” The large man barked a short laugh, “I also hope to escape. Care to join me?”
“Lead on, oh daring one,” the smaller man said smiling wolfishly as together they raced onward into the darkened passages beyond.
© Tucker Johnson 2020