The Pass by Zion Kistler (top 100 novels txt) 📕

who he was.
“Treaf suggested that I have you protect my new blade with magic,” Mildo said, and the Elder nodded. Since after that he went inside, Mildo knew that he should probably follow, and once he had passed the threshold he realized that the little house was quite cluttered with furniture, paperwork, and who-knows what.
Soon Mildo had been seated on a small round table.
“So you are pleased with your knew sword?” Mildo nodded.
“And my I ask what happened to your old one?”
“It broke during the battle. I was fighting a bunch of Drewmorocks.” The Elder did not reply, and then asked Mildo for the sword. He gave it to him, and after that the Elder began moving his hands alongside the edges, muttering something. This did not take as long as Mildo had expected it to. There came to ear a very soft ringing, as if Mildo had been drawing it this whole time.
Then something odd happened. Originally the sheath had been a very dark green, almost black. Now it turned a very dark red, and the bottom of it, (which was a piece of metal fashioned like some kind of odd leaf,) turned to gold, along with the bracers in the middle, top, and higher bottom. The elder then changed the sword’s leather handle wrap into red also, and turned the hilt and pommel into gold as well.
“Is that real gold?” Mildo asked, and the Elder shook his head while he continued his work.
“No, it is a copper-iron alloy.” Mildo nodded, not really knowing what the Elder was talking about. But soon after he kept watching him he asked, “Why exactly did you turn everything a different color?” The Elder smiled and said, “Why, do you not like it?”
“No, it’s not that, but….” The Elder nodded again, before replying, “I understand. I didn’t think you looked like someone who would care about color.” Actually Mildo did care about the color; he would not want it to go pink or anything. But he doubted this, and continued watching the Elder.
After about thirty seconds the Elder had finished, and Mildo was soon in possession of his rather new blade. He tested the edge with his fingernail, and he was pleased to see that it was plenty sharp. The Elder had done an excellent job anyway, and Mildo had forgotten by then that it had ever been a different color.
After saying good-bye and thank you, Mildo walked down the street, feeling the sword’s comfortable weight against his hip.
He considered the fact for a moment of asking Treaf for a duel the next day, and thought that this would probably be reasonable, since tomorrow they would hopefully be packing up and leaving. They could squeeze a duel into the morning; that was the best time anyway.
Mildo had to make his way around the whole city before he arrived at the gates. They were open, and when he peered into the open field he was startled to see that no one was there. Once he had looked around a bit, he also quickly realized that there was nothing to clean up. Like I’ve thought before, I think of it to be really weird for an army to clean up a city. And we’re the only ones doing it. He smiled, and then walked to the guest house.
All of the work was done.

Treaf was in bottom floor of the guest house, enjoying a cup of coffee that had been set before him. There were also sweets in front of him, and he had already eaten half of them.
He sighed, feeling extremely content, warm, and pleased. The work was done! Now he would pampered by everyone.
There were other people around him also, and they probably felt the same way that he did. I gonna be really sick, Treaf thought as another waitress came with a plate of good-tasting things. He ate some of those, and crumbs were falling of and out of his mouth when he heard a door slam and Mildo walk in. He was looking pretty happy, and Treaf didn’t blame him.
“Enjoy!” Treaf said as he came to sit on the opposite of Treaf. He immediately began eating, and he asked for some coffee too.
“I was thinking that we could have a duel tomorrow morning,” he said, and Treaf nodded.
“To test out your new blade, right? Sounds good.” After eating a bit more, Treaf asked, “Can I see it?” Mildo UN strapped the sword from his hip and handed it to Treaf. It was not heavy, but it was not too light, so Treaf didn’t really know what to say.
“So the Elder changed the color, did he? He did the same with mine. Treaf showed Mildo his, and he actually looked surprised when he received it.
“It used to be pretty gold, right? And mine was blackish.” Treaf nodded. “Now we have the opposites.” Mildo nodded, and they both handed the swords back to each other.
After that they kept eating and drinking, until dinner was held, and Treaf was surprised that they were even going to have dinner that night.
People were talking loudly, and everyone from The Jaragon looked surprised that the army would want to leave so quickly. Treaf was surprised with his own feelings right then, though, and he seriously looked forward to the next day. However, right then he was seriously enjoying eating too, which came a bit of a shock.
There were many things to eat as usual, like ham, potatoes, kabobs, crab, fish, and other things that Treaf gorged himself with. Mildo seemed to think that he would have to eat more food than Treaf so that he would look impressive, and Treaf seemed to be able to eat and eat.
“I think the King was too cowardly to come to dinner tonight,” Treaf said after looking around a bit. He had not been in sight, though it was a bit difficult to see through all the hubbub and noises, besides steam from the kitchens. People felt free to walk around, for not many were confined to tables. Treaf was actually feeling like he would die if he did stand up, so he was wise and remained seated.
“I think you’re right,” Mildo replied, taking a sip from some kind of sweet, creamy drink that Treaf was having too.
“Or the commander was discharged and he is having a lecture with the King right now,” he joked, sitting up a bit. Mildo nodded, and then looked over at everyone else. There were only thirty people in the room right been, (plus cooks, waitresses, and ECT.), but all of them were grouped together, and Treaf personally didn’t know who would want to sit separately.
After a while Treaf saw the Elder, and said “Hi,” to him, which he doubted the Elder heard. Even so it did not matter, for he had seen Treaf too, and they both acknowledged each other.
Treaf, however, could not spot Malock, but didn’t really care anyway. He would be seeing plenty of him later; tomorrow seemed irrelevant right then, and in a way it was. Someday it would come, and it didn’t really matter when, but Treaf guessed that tomorrow he would feel like the time between then had gone very quickly.

It was a very long night, and by the time Treaf came to reality it had already become eleven o’clock. He was feeling extremely heavy, and Mildo looked like he hardly had eyes since he was squinting so much. This was not due to brightness, however, but tiredness.
Treaf normally would not be that tired that early, but since he had stuffed himself to the edge of explosion, he felt, well….different. Not average. Actually quite irregular.
After a few more minutes there came a few signs of difference. Things seemed to be quieter, and a few were head back up the stairs.
“I guess it’s time to retire,” Treaf said in a murky voice. Mildo nodded and replied, “Permanently.” Treaf laughed a bit, and then grimaced when he saw that Mildo had tried to stand up but couldn’t. Actually Treaf was seriously considering sleeping down on floor at the exact place, but he decided not to. He would probably be charged with “indecency” and sent to a prison. He doubted this, but it was entertaining for the meantime. He forced himself up, and then burped, and it was the loudest noise in the room at the time.
After waiting for a few seconds Treaf started walking towards the stairs, and he was aware that Mildo was too.
After what seemed to have been hours, both of them arrived at the summit, and after that the only thing that he could remember was a thump as he landed on his bead, and a few other sounds that were irrelevant.


Chapter Five

A Second Departure

The next day came very quickly, for Treaf realized that the night had seemed very short. But he awoke very energetic, and the sun was glaring in his eyes, which he did not like.
Before he knew it Mildo had been the one to wake him up, and he jumped off of his bed, for the previous night he had just dropped down upon it because he had been so tired. Today, however, he realized finally that they would be leaving The Jaragon, and he thought that the day would probably not get any better, even if Mildo beat him in the training that they would be doing that