Post by hakiko on Aug 25, 2004 20:37:56 GMT -5
Obviously holding down the fort includes patrolling the woods outside of town to look out for danger. Sure Pelnor had needed a little convincing of this but once we got started he was enjoying it too.
“Grant, this is stupid.”<br> He always had trouble expressing his emotions.
“No Pelnor think of it. There could be anything out here. Who knows what could be sneaking up on the town with all the men gone?”<br> Actually that idea did not sit well with me at all. It was after dinner and getting dark. Pelnor and I had been walking along the path in the woods for about an hour and it was getting hard to see very far into the brush. Anything could be out there. I could hear some rustling in the distance.
“Well squirrels for one Grant. Maybe even a badger.”<br> I was only listening with one ear at this point. There was something moving out there and it was bigger than a squirrel. Peering into the gloom I strained my eyes hoping to see what was out there.
“Shhh! I think I see something. Over there to the right.”<br> I could just make out a hunched over figure moving through the trees. Its arms hung low like the apes I would see years later on The Isle Karrakas. It seemed to be paralleling our course. The shadowy form of its head swung our way and I could make out two yellow eyes. Then it was gone, lost in the underbrush.
“Did you see it Pelnor? What was it?”<br> It took a long time for Pelnor to answer.
“I’m not sure what I saw, probably just a raccoon. All your ghost stories just have my imagination worked up that’s all.”<br> “That was no raccoon and you know it! It was evil.”<br> “We should be getting back it’s late.”<br> Despite all his protests of raccoons he ran all the way home too. I swear I could feel beady yellow eyes boring into my back the whole way.
***
“You see Grant, wood chopping. That’s what we get,” Pelnor said.
I finished splitting my log. “Well, we will patrol right after supper; at least we have that to look forward to.”<br> Pelnor sighed and leaned his axe against our not so sizable wood pile. “Really, no one said anything about patrolling the woods. I thought we could play rings tonight.”<br> “But what about what we saw the last night? What about the monster?”<br> “Grant,” sigh. “There was no monster, just a raccoon or something.”<br> “That was no raccoon and you know it. It could be out there watching us right now, plotting which one to eat first.”<br> “One more reason not to go traipsing around the woods.”<br> “Where is your sense of adventure?”<br> The patrols had been a point of dispute for the last few days. Pelnor could not see that patrolling was clearly part of holding down the fort. This was a sacred trust that we would uphold to the letter and beyond if necessary.
“If patrolling is so important, why don’t our dads ever do it when they are here? Besides the only other person who patrols with us is Mattie. And I don’t think I can stand another evening with her.”<br> Mattie, the baker’s daughter, was the bane of our short existence. For our whole childhood she had been quick to run back to adults with less than flattering accounts of our exploits. She was bossy. She had the nerve to be taller than Pelnor and I, and worse, she was days away from her thirteenth birthday.
“Grant, if I have to hear her prattle on about how cute Will is one more time I’ll scream.”<br> “Fine then. I’ll arrange the patrols so you are on the other side of town.”<br> I knelt down in the dirt and began sketching a map of the town and the surrounding woods. In my years out in the world I have been called on to draw many maps. How many times in the last forty years have I knelt down in the dirt to scratch out battle plans for my troops? But none had ever conveyed more excitement, more imagination, or more of a feel for the spirit of the land, than those maps I drew in the dirt as a young general. Compared to those maps, all the maps that came after were just....accurate.
But with all my troops, consisting of Pelnor, being from an identical background, they conveyed the idea of what I wanted. After all who knows the woods outside of town better than the children who live there?
“Mattie and I will swing East around town...”<br> “I believe you are tracing West on the map.”<br> “No, East is towards the sun.”<br> “Not after dinner, then it’s West.”<br> “Fine, we will swing West around town, starting at the old mill, then down through the fields and back to the new mill.”<br> “Your mom doesn’t want you cutting through Old Man Potter’s field anymore, you never mind the wheat. You’ll have to go up the ridge around Mud Mountain.”<br> Climbing Mud Mountain was a rite of passage for the young men in the town. It stood fifty or sixty feet high and its surface was coated with slimy red clay. Pelnor and I had not yet conquered this fearsome peak; fortunately there was a gentler, but longer, path around the ridge.
“Fine! You will follow the river around the other side of town and meet us at the mill, and secure that flank.”<br> “Grant, are you sure you can use flank that way?”<br> I can still remember the feeling of satisfaction I got at this point. I had him for once. “Yes, I checked with Marcus Wilcox after you asked me yesterday. He said that flank can mean a side and that generals use it all the time.”<br> There was no disputing Marcus Wilcox in Westfarthing. He was from a city and had moved here some time before we were born. He pulled double duty as a doctor and teacher to the children. If Marcus Wilcox said it, it was true. I was ready to lord my intellectual superiority over Pelnor, when the inevitable happened.
My mother called us to dinner.
“Grant, this is stupid.”<br> He always had trouble expressing his emotions.
“No Pelnor think of it. There could be anything out here. Who knows what could be sneaking up on the town with all the men gone?”<br> Actually that idea did not sit well with me at all. It was after dinner and getting dark. Pelnor and I had been walking along the path in the woods for about an hour and it was getting hard to see very far into the brush. Anything could be out there. I could hear some rustling in the distance.
“Well squirrels for one Grant. Maybe even a badger.”<br> I was only listening with one ear at this point. There was something moving out there and it was bigger than a squirrel. Peering into the gloom I strained my eyes hoping to see what was out there.
“Shhh! I think I see something. Over there to the right.”<br> I could just make out a hunched over figure moving through the trees. Its arms hung low like the apes I would see years later on The Isle Karrakas. It seemed to be paralleling our course. The shadowy form of its head swung our way and I could make out two yellow eyes. Then it was gone, lost in the underbrush.
“Did you see it Pelnor? What was it?”<br> It took a long time for Pelnor to answer.
“I’m not sure what I saw, probably just a raccoon. All your ghost stories just have my imagination worked up that’s all.”<br> “That was no raccoon and you know it! It was evil.”<br> “We should be getting back it’s late.”<br> Despite all his protests of raccoons he ran all the way home too. I swear I could feel beady yellow eyes boring into my back the whole way.
***
“You see Grant, wood chopping. That’s what we get,” Pelnor said.
I finished splitting my log. “Well, we will patrol right after supper; at least we have that to look forward to.”<br> Pelnor sighed and leaned his axe against our not so sizable wood pile. “Really, no one said anything about patrolling the woods. I thought we could play rings tonight.”<br> “But what about what we saw the last night? What about the monster?”<br> “Grant,” sigh. “There was no monster, just a raccoon or something.”<br> “That was no raccoon and you know it. It could be out there watching us right now, plotting which one to eat first.”<br> “One more reason not to go traipsing around the woods.”<br> “Where is your sense of adventure?”<br> The patrols had been a point of dispute for the last few days. Pelnor could not see that patrolling was clearly part of holding down the fort. This was a sacred trust that we would uphold to the letter and beyond if necessary.
“If patrolling is so important, why don’t our dads ever do it when they are here? Besides the only other person who patrols with us is Mattie. And I don’t think I can stand another evening with her.”<br> Mattie, the baker’s daughter, was the bane of our short existence. For our whole childhood she had been quick to run back to adults with less than flattering accounts of our exploits. She was bossy. She had the nerve to be taller than Pelnor and I, and worse, she was days away from her thirteenth birthday.
“Grant, if I have to hear her prattle on about how cute Will is one more time I’ll scream.”<br> “Fine then. I’ll arrange the patrols so you are on the other side of town.”<br> I knelt down in the dirt and began sketching a map of the town and the surrounding woods. In my years out in the world I have been called on to draw many maps. How many times in the last forty years have I knelt down in the dirt to scratch out battle plans for my troops? But none had ever conveyed more excitement, more imagination, or more of a feel for the spirit of the land, than those maps I drew in the dirt as a young general. Compared to those maps, all the maps that came after were just....accurate.
But with all my troops, consisting of Pelnor, being from an identical background, they conveyed the idea of what I wanted. After all who knows the woods outside of town better than the children who live there?
“Mattie and I will swing East around town...”<br> “I believe you are tracing West on the map.”<br> “No, East is towards the sun.”<br> “Not after dinner, then it’s West.”<br> “Fine, we will swing West around town, starting at the old mill, then down through the fields and back to the new mill.”<br> “Your mom doesn’t want you cutting through Old Man Potter’s field anymore, you never mind the wheat. You’ll have to go up the ridge around Mud Mountain.”<br> Climbing Mud Mountain was a rite of passage for the young men in the town. It stood fifty or sixty feet high and its surface was coated with slimy red clay. Pelnor and I had not yet conquered this fearsome peak; fortunately there was a gentler, but longer, path around the ridge.
“Fine! You will follow the river around the other side of town and meet us at the mill, and secure that flank.”<br> “Grant, are you sure you can use flank that way?”<br> I can still remember the feeling of satisfaction I got at this point. I had him for once. “Yes, I checked with Marcus Wilcox after you asked me yesterday. He said that flank can mean a side and that generals use it all the time.”<br> There was no disputing Marcus Wilcox in Westfarthing. He was from a city and had moved here some time before we were born. He pulled double duty as a doctor and teacher to the children. If Marcus Wilcox said it, it was true. I was ready to lord my intellectual superiority over Pelnor, when the inevitable happened.
My mother called us to dinner.