Call of Ring(Compleled)

8 Street Fight

Blake followed silently behind the lead of Dorkus and Gaius, wondering what would come next. They found themselves in the narrow corridor of the dirt path surrounded by the thick green evenly trimmed hedges. As they walked, he observed more about his new host family.

Gaius was a short woman. She wasn’t exactly slender, but also could not be considered fat. She had long grey hair that was braided in the back. The aging of her face seemed to indicate that a pleasant kindness had been on display throughout her years. She had a mole on the right side of her face, beside her ear just below her eye. Her eyes were hazel which seemed to distinguish her in a good way. Dorkus, on the other hand, was lanky, tall, and slim. Blake assumed he wasn’t very strong, but for some reason, he seemed to walk with wisdom. He also had grey hair with matching grey-blue eyes. He had fewer smile wrinkles than his partner, but he still seemed like a man of pleasant demeanor. She was dressed in white. He was dressed in brown, but Blake noticed a brown belt of cloth tied around his waist. It appeared that women didn’t wear belts of any kind. Younger women’s gowns of white were shorter extending not quite to the knee, whereas older women like Gaius wore gowns that were longer in length. Hers reached down to the calf muscle.  

Having traveled far beyond the view of the castle, they now seemed closer to the marketplace.

Someone from an undisclosed location shouted out.

“There he is! The man from the stretcher has been released.”

Before Blake could even discern from where the voice was coming from, he was struck hard on the back of the head. Stunned by the blow, Blake stumbled but still managed to turn quickly to face his attacker. A smaller man of the medium build was holding a wooden stick that he had used as a weapon to strike Blake. The man was red in the face, outwardly displaying his anger.

To Blake’s surprise, Dorkus and Gaius had stepped back as if to watch a performance in a nonchalant sort of way.

“Maybe fights in the street were as common as having two ladies bathe you? But weren’t they supposed to be his new host family? Maybe that didn’t involve protection.” 

 With no time to contemplate further any of these things, nor the reason for this attack, Blake responded.

He scanned the ground around him for anything that could be fashioned into a makeshift weapon, but the only thing he noticed was warm wetness on the back of his head.

“I’m bleeding!” he determined inwardly.

But with no time to worry about his injury, he concluded that he would simply have to defend himself unarmed.

The attacker came at him again, this time swinging the stick at his midsection. Blake sidestepped the blow, surprising himself with his own reflexes. But seeing the weapon more clearly now, he realized that the stick had a sharpened tip. His head began to throb, but adrenaline pushed him forward. Realizing now that he was quicker in reflex than his assailant, he looked around him and slowly backed up to position himself in front of a huge stack of hay. The stalky fellow came at him again, this time with an attempt to stab him by an uppercut to the chest. He was clearly aiming for the heart. Blake used this move to his advantage and dodged him once again. The man’s weapon got stuck in the hay, causing him to lose grip of it. And the blunt force of running into the stack of hay unexpectedly caused him to fall to the ground. Blake removed the assailant’s weapon from the hay. He took it in his hand and swung down hard toward the back of the man who lay there stunned. But as he swung the weapon downward, the stick splintered against an armor of wood that had suddenly formed around the body of his assailant.

Blake flashed a quick look of bewilderment over toward Dorkus and Gaius. It was almost a silent cry for help in the midst of all this confusion, but the couple stood just as they were before almost frozen in time, seemingly entertained by all the commotion.

As a reaction to his confusion, Blake took a step back. And as he did so, his assailant stumbled to his feet. He was now displaying a full set of wooden armor including a breastplate, helmet, and shield. Blake once again scanned his immediate surroundings. Noticing a large mug made of pottery, he grabbed it. It was time for him to go on the offensive. Smashing it against a wooden post behind him, he picked up a large piece of the shard. Knowing it was sharp enough to do some damage, he lunged at his enemy’s knees. The sheer blow of Blake’s physical weight hitting the target’s right knee, forced him to drop to his left. Blake then stabbed the left foot that was due to this ‘everyone is barefoot phenomenon’ with the piece of broken pottery. With his assailant writhing in pain, he disposed him of his wooden shield and swung it like a frisbee into his neck. Blood spewed everywhere. Blake could hardly assess the damage he had inflicted because he couldn’t see through the blood that had spattered onto his own face. But as he wiped his eyes clear of the blood, he realized he had delivered a fatal blow. The head was not quite severed, but it was close enough to it.

Taking a deep breath, Blake looked around. People had gathered to watch, but one by one, they turned around and went back to their normal business.

Dorkus and Gaius motioned for Blake to join them as if nothing at all had just occurred. Satisfied that the enemy was a lone wolf attacker, Blake followed his host family. In less than five minutes, the group of three arrive at a modest shack of a home. Blake followed them in.

The house was constructed of wood with a roof of thatched straw. Inside there were three rooms with a door at the leading to a rear exit of the home. The main room in which they stood was the largest room. In the center of the area in which they stood, there was a large skin carpet on the ground from an animal previously hunted. A few feet away stood a metal fire stove with enough surface space to hold a few pots on top. Four small wooden chairs were scattered about in no particular order. Blake was shown one of the smaller rooms and instructed that he would stay there. The only thing in it was a small straw mattress and a single blanket. He assumed the other room was theirs. They exited the rear door together and outside there was a small well with a bucket on the ledge, rope attached. A stack of firewood was neatly organized at the back of the make-shift yard.

Dorkus motioned for Blake to come closer. Beyond the well, was a flat piece of wood measuring about four feet squared lying on the ground. Looking in both directions first, Dorkus nudged the piece of wood with his foot. As she moved the wood carefully, a deep opening in the ground appeared. Gaius had lit a lamp and handed it to Dorkus. The three of them descended into the pit. Stairs were dug out, fashioned into the ground, and they appeared to descend about 10 feet deep into the earth. Gaius was the last one in. He used a handle on the bottom of the wood to replace the cover. The light dispelled any darkness and soon Blake’s eyes took in a large room more than twenty feet squared.

Bookshelves had been built into the sides of the space, and every wall was covered from top to bottom, save a foot from the ceiling and floor. Blake guessed that there must be thousands of books in this hidden cave. Dorkus reached for a book, almost as if she had planned this occasion in advance. Blake received the book with gratitude and sat on the floor to peruse it. As he looked at the book’s cover, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. His hosts were no longer watching him. Each of them has already selected another book. They were both seated and reading.

Blake opened the book randomly, noticing that it had many painted pictures with descriptions. A book of antiques it appeared to his eye, anyway.

A picture of a ring captured his attention straight away.

“Why did this look so familiar?”

“Where was he? Who were his hosts? Why the sudden kindness from the King? Would he ever see Sadie again? What happened with that crazy battle where a complete stranger attacked him? How did he grow wooden armor instantaneously as if a reflex for survival? Who had seen him kill that stranger? Was his life still in danger?”

Blake decided to leave these questions aside and read carefully the description of this ring.