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

threw them aside. He beheld a Dark Hood, and for some odd reason he was moving. His arm was slightly dropping, and then moving a bit forward, and his head and neck turned to look at Treaf. He was lying amidst a twisted heap of dead things, and Treaf drew his sword, just in case it got up. But after a slight turn of its wrist, there was no more. Other people were silent, watching Treaf, and for a second he was puzzled, but soon he understood.
“That was just a muscle reaction. He probably truly died a few minutes ago, but had been unconscious since the battle was over.” He walked away, back to Mildo, and soon everyone else had started working again.
“So, what happened?” Mildo asked, and Treaf explained the minor shock of the day.
“It’s strange how much people overreact,” Mildo said, and Treaf silently agreed. For all they knew, someone could have died just then.
“Well, I guess it’s time to start working again,” Treaf sighed, and with that he put the lid on the water and continued digging. Mildo went over to his post also, and Treaf said, “So tell me, is it easier to pull out posts or dig, do you think?” Mildo looked thoughtful for a second and then said, “Probably pulling, if you have gloves on.” Treaf dropped his shovel and went a few feet away from Mildo, and started trying to pull out a stave. Mildo was right; after a small pause he had pulled it out, and his hands didn’t hurt a bit from it.
After that he continued with this job, and he and Mildo talked about various things, which seemed to spend time more rapidly. By the time Treaf had started getting a little tired, lunch break was called, and they all walked away from the wall, and then all went through the open gate. Treaf remembered when they had first came upon it; he had been so excited about seeing The Jaragon. Now he crossed it again, and he had done it so many times now. It was already a very normal thing.
The first thing that Treaf saw when he was on the other side of the gate were a few houses, and once they rounded a few corners, he saw before them the guest house, and nobody was grouped around it yet.
Once they were inside, Treaf saw that there was indeed someone in there, and it was the Elder. I guess he’s been working on the Magical Beings this whole time, Treaf realized, and was glad. They were making progress, but slowly.
After waving to him, Treaf and Mildo sat down and waited for their food to get there. Treaf looked outside of the window once in a while; they were ten feet elevated from the ground, and a ways from them the only thing that one could see were houses. Treaf knew that the ramparts were there, but they were momentarily out of sight until they were over by them again.
“What’re you looking at?” Mildo asked, and Treaf looked over at him. Sighing, Treaf said, “Nothing,” and rubbed his head, feeling a bit tired from lack of sleep.

Not long after, their food arrived, and Treaf ate it hungrily. He had not been in the mood to eat for a long time, and today he fully appreciated the taste of food.
“It looks like you’re hungry,” Mildo noted, and Treaf nodded, his mouth too full of food to reply. It looked like Mildo was hungry too, in fact it was only a reasonable judgment that all of them were.
After what seemed to have been a few moments, Treaf and all the others were outside again, heading for the ramparts. As they passed the raised mound that the overseer had been standing on, he said to Mildo, “I wonder where that guy is now. It would have been nice if he had helped work.” Treaf grimaced. “After all, he’s one of the only men in The Jaragon right now.” Mildo nodded, and with that they continued on, and soon Treaf looked around and saw for the first time that they really were making progress. They would have probably been done with the city clean up by then if they had been working on it that day, but they had not, and Treaf decided not to think about this fact.
Malock was one of those who were digging, and he was working with the group up towards the west of the wall. The digging was not hard work, and really he didn’t see any point in it, but he worked anyway, and right then he wasn’t thinking about anything in particular, or saying anything to anyone. The workforce was quiet besides all of the shoveling and grunts from exertion, and Malock guessed that all of the other groups were probably the same.
However, there wasn’t any sound from the city much either, and so it was like a quiet wasteland, almost ruined from a battle. Malock grunted as someone gave him water.

By the time it was time for break, Treaf was looking up at the clouds. They were dark; in fact the whole day was dark. This was how it had been on the first day of the battle, and then the Blackwolf Spirits had come out of the clouds. Looks like a perfect day for Spirits, Treaf noted, but he doubted that any of them would come down and cause more havoc on them.
“I wonder if we’re gonna run into any more enemy once we leave here,” Mildo said, who was beside Treaf. Treaf did not reply, but grimaced. If they did, Treaf would make sure to try and find the maker and controller of the Blackwolf Spirits, then they would most likely be wiped from the face of the earth, and they wouldn’t have any more trouble with a very powerful enemy.
Treaf was of course aware that the Dark Hoods were powerful also, so he held his tongue. Grouped together, the Blackwolves, Grewls, Drewmorocks, Trial Dogs, and Dark Hoods were a very powerful enemy.
“I guess we’ll have to play things as we go along,” Treaf finally replied. Mildo nodded, looking slightly unsure. Well, whether you like it or not, it’s the truth, Treaf thought, and then was startled when he felt something wet hit his nose. He immediately thought that it was rain, but when no more came he shoved the idea aside, and reluctantly started working again.
Then after a few more minutes he felt another moist drop, and then another. After that he was truly getting wet, and he realized that it was raining pretty hard. He walked back into the shed, and wondered if they would keep working through it all.
He looked around a bit, and saw that no one was out working, so he sat there and waited for instructions. When none came however, he decided that if no one else called off the work he might have to. Where’s the beloved commander now? Treaf asked himself smugly, and he thought that he was probably inside the King’s palace somewhere, drinking warm tea and eating sweats, while saying something to the King that would make him like the man. He was probably one of those people that gave people compliments and flattered them out of comprehension so that he could get the better end of the deal.
Before Treaf could say anything about calling the work off, he saw the western group start walking towards Treaf, Mildo, and everyone else. This meant that they were coming towards the gate, and that, (Treaf was sure,) meant that they were going to quite.
Treaf then stuck his hand outside of the small shack and he felt his skin being pelted with rain. It was not easing up, which he was definitely glad of. If it continued like that all day, they wouldn’t have to work. But then after a small pause Treaf reminded himself that the sooner they got the work done, the sooner they would be aloud to leave.
Presently the other group arrived by them, and Malock was at the front. They did not pause to say anything, and instead walked strait out of the gate quickly. The others in the shack followed, and soon they were inside the city as well.
Putting his hood back up, Treaf wondered what they would be doing next, and he thought that they would probably go back to guest house, for that was the general direction that they were heading in.
They were soon upon the threshold, and the small porch was getting pattered with rain, causing a loud racket. They were soon inside, though, and Treaf was glad, for it was warm, or definitely warmer than outside.
Most of them headed towards the upstairs, and Treaf followed. They were soon at the top in the sleeping quarters, and Treaf decided that he would read again. This took a long time, as the book was quite thick, and Treaf seriously doubted that he would be able to ever finish it.
That day he was reading about the certain powers of the necklace, and it turned out that it had the power to create intelligence of dead things, like a Necromancer. So Mourgorth could be the one behind the Blackwolf Spirits, Treaf thought with interest, and then read on. The necklace also had power to make longer life, which explained how Mourgorth was still alive after decades of his journeying and other plots. Things are starting to make more sense, Treaf thought, and fully appreciated having this certain book. It would probably help all of them out a lot, but Treaf was personally planning not to tell anyone about the book until he had read it. Otherwise things would be much more of a hassle, and soon enough he would find out that it had been stolen. He wanted to find out everything he could as fast as he could anyway, so he just stuck to reading, while everyone else made jokes or did other such things.
Treaf could not tell how much time had passed, hut he decided to take a small break from reading, His neck hurt, and he decided to walk around a bit.
He was soon at the bottom of the stairs, and he decided to check and see if it was still raining. He was not disappointed that it was, and he looked out of the window for a while more until he heard loud footsteps on the entrance, and then the door opened to reveal the ‘commander.’ He was quite a sight, completely drenched in rainwater, looking like