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

for all of them there, and people would have more of an in-depth view on him, not just the murky image of some monster, known to them as the enemy.
He decided that the first person he would probably tell after he read it would be Mildo, for he was around him the most. It would be Malock’s right to know, too, so he would tell him; and then one of them would make a speech in front of all the other army.
Lunch was actually quite short, so Treaf felt like he had been back to reading in no time. But after reading a few more chapters he realized that he was curious who the author was. The person would probably have had to been a traveler or something else of the sort and Treaf really wondered how anyone would be able to get so much information on Mourgorth.
After flipping to the back cover of the book, Treaf read that in fact the information from that book had been transferred from someone else, who Treaf had never heard of before. So this is a copy, Treaf thought, and he was slightly disappointed that he was not going to be able to find out about the travels and who the real author really was.
After this Treaf got back into reading, and this took him a few hours before he realized that the time was steadily moving more to night. Pretty soon everyone’s gonna be coming in, Treaf thought, and for some reason he dreaded that time. Even though he didn’t have anything else to do, he thought that the interference of other people would somehow come to his end. I guess I’m just really tired of The Jaragon, he decided, and settled for that.
After another five minutes Treaf heard a great thumping and banging, and at first he could not identify with the sound. Then he realized that everyone from the outside had come back up. Of course. Just another day to pass, Treaf thought, and with that he decided to fall asleep.

In the middle of the night Treaf for some reason woke up, and with that he could not fall asleep for a long time. He tried to get comfortable, but he could not, and with that he was having a miserable night.

About three hours later he started hearing a few hints that people were up, like a cart rolling down the road below. Treaf felt very drowsy and a bit sick, and his head boiled with heaviness. Why the heck couldn’t I fall asleep? Treaf wondered, as he put his shirt on. It was still pretty dark, but some of the others were getting up too. There was a little bit of snoring, and at first Treaf recognized it to be Malock, but then he saw that he was a bit away from Treaf, buckling on his cloak. Of course. How would the great Malock Eidfrn be one of the last to get up? Treaf snickered, and with that he buckled on his bracers, his pauldrons, and his cloak. After that he was heading down the stairs.
After he went down a few steps the others were close behind, and they were all talking about something else.
Once they were a few steps nearer to the kitchen they could hear a great hustle and other clanking noises even greater than theirs.
During breakfast Treaf fell to talking about the battle with Jur Thwain, and Sloyd, along with Hibned and Adrain. Treaf had actually partially been wondering what there opinion of the battle had been, and actually he couldn’t remember ever seeing any of them fight. Apart from Treaf, they had fought a lot too, and Treaf noted that he would have fought more if he had not had the stupid injury.
They actually hadn’t heard about Treaf’s two savings of the city, the one where he had braced the gate, and when he had fought off the Blackwolf Spirits. He was more than happy to gloat about these two feats. (Actually Treaf wouldn’t have had any of it done if he hadn’t had the Elder and the other twenty men with him at the time.)
Apart from the conversation, Treaf was very glad that the weather was dark that day. He hoped that it would stay relatively cold, so that when they worked the sun would not make all of them miserable.
There was a moment of silence, and Treaf sighed, drinking some of his coffee. He now fully realized that winter was soon to come, and that he had better prepare for it. If they were going to cross The Pass in snowy weather, Treaf didn’t know what to think.
In a few minute’s time they had left there seats and Treaf was making his way towards the large front door when Mildo caught up with him.
“Hi,” Treaf said, not turning to look at him. Mildo did not reply, but walked alongside Treaf, looking ahead of him. After a few more moments Treaf said, “Did you get a new sword?”
“Nope,” Mildo replied, and Treaf didn’t know why he hadn’t gotten one yet.
Once they were out the door Treaf immediately felt a chilly breeze. He pulled his cloak hood on, and put his hands in his pockets. Mildo did the same, and Treaf saw that the other people around him were too. I wonder what we’ll be doing today…? Treaf wondered, until he saw a man on a raised mound of dirt with a board on top. He was the same man that had assigned them to their spots when they had prepared for the battle, and personally, Treaf did not like the person at all.
“Attention, my young workers! Welcome to commander me!” Nobody laughed, and the man looked pink in the face, and he shuffled his feet, before continuing, “I would like to tell you that we are doing something different today. We are going to bury the trench, and take all of the staves out. If you do not have a shovel, they are supplied over in that storage house,” he pointed with a gloved hand, “and there are also gloves that will come in handy when pulling out the staves and taller ones.” Why the hell are we burying the trench? Treaf wondered, and felt very angry. This was completely unnecessary, and Treaf said loudly, “Why do we have to that? You’ll just have to prepare more for future battles!” The man looked into the small crowd, and it looked tough for him. Finally he saw Treaf, the smallest of the lot.
When he found him, he said, “It is the king’s orders, and if you are not pleased with them go and talk to the King.” He said this smugly, and he looked pleased with himself. Treaf knew that if he would have been one of those working, he would not be so smug, but now he was in command and seemingly powerful. ....if you are not pleased with them go and talk to the King yourself....Treaf heard him say, and he half considered it, but then thought better. The King would just shunt him, and he probably wouldn’t even know that these were his orders, for Treaf noted that kings tended to have very short memories, especially when it came to contracts.
“….As I’m sure you know,” the manager continued, “we will still need to do other city cleanups tomorrow and probably the next day.” And with that he smiled, and then shooed them off.
The first thing that Treaf did was when and got a shovel, for he did not need gloves. Today he was wearing his armor, but this was few, so it did not drag him down.
Mildo followed him, and Treaf was already too angry with the man to get mad at Mildo.
“I don’t know about you, but I would like to ring his neck.” Treaf smiled and said, “Exactly my thoughts. But then we would get in trouble from the King, and we would never leave this place.” I can’t wait to get all of this work done, Treaf thought. Then they would be able to leave The Jaragon and not deal with any more towns for a very long time.
Once Treaf got a shovel he walked over to the trenches and looked down on them. They were about ten feet from the wall, and about four feet deep. Inside were a few staves, but most of them were a bit before the trenches, for extra protection. This had worked quite well for the enemy; only a few times had they jumped the trench somehow and put ladders up. Or maybe they had made a leaning ladder system and put it at the base before the trench. At those times Treaf had not been paying attention to these things, and with no further thought he started shoveling the dirt around him into the long trench. Mildo was a few feet in front of him, helping to pull out staves. Treaf had not wanted this job because he doubted it be very easy to pull a large, sharpened peace of would out of the ground.
As he dug, Treaf thought of it to be a waist to cut down a lot of timber and then pull it out of ground just after the battle was done. He was personally hoping that the Jaragon would be attacked again after they left, so that the people in it, (especially the King, who was in charge of everything,) would learn the hard way about some things.
Treaf grunted, and then continued on. There were only a few people working beside him, probably only about ten. There was another ten working along the wall a ways down from them, and another one a ways up from them. They were in the middle.
After about a half hour it began getting a bit warmer, but not overly so. It was still cool outside, and Treaf was glad of it.
He and Mildo were drinking some water when they heard ahead some startled cries. Treaf quickly got up, and walked over to the commotion, which was a little bit more towards the battlefield. Treaf couldn’t understand why anybody was out there in the first place, but he soon arrived there anyway.
There were a few people grouped around something, and Treaf quickly