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

he had just been inside a gutter. He looked around for a bit, sputtering, until he saw Treaf. He looked angry, and said, “You.You!”
“Yes?” Treaf asked politely. The man looked even angrier now, just what Treaf wanted to see.
“Why did all of you stop working? That was not under my command, and I happen to be in charge!”
“It is raining outside, as I am sure you are aware. Anyway, how ever did you get so wet?” Treaf asked curiously. The man looked embarrassed; almost purple.
“I—I fell in a gutter.” Treaf almost laughed, but he decided not to make the man even angrier.
“Anyway, that is irrelevant. I am aware that it is raining outside, but that doesn’t give you any excuse to stop working.” Now he was stern.
“Well sir,” Treaf said, not so smugly, “If you want to go outside and try working, go ahead. You should see for yourself, and I don’t see anything wrong with one of the only men in the city working. Do you, sir?” He asked, meeting the man’s eyes. With the thought of working himself it looked like he had changed his mind about forcing them to work, so he made a hasty good-bye and left. Treaf was not disappointed at this, and returned upstairs.
Later that night Treaf was still reading, (he had reached chapter fifteen,) and now he was feeling weary. Letting the book drop out of his grip, he thought about all he had read. Mourgorth had stayed in Southerian only one night more, and after that he had left, taking the necklace with him. He stopped in a few more towns to gather supplies, and he found himself making his way towards the Dark Lands, and soon he was in them. He started experimenting with the necklace, and learned deeper of its values and failures. He did not add anything magical to it, for that, he had feared, could backfire and hurt him.
After a few years of studying he had fully learned everything to the necklace, and the book that Treaf was reading had explained very detail of it.
Now Treaf sighed, wondering whether he would truly know about Mourgorth much. He then looked out the window, and he saw that the sun had come out.


§


Chapter Four

The Fifth Day
The next day started as they usually did. It was sunny, there were noises outside of the house, and Treaf was in bed.
The first thing that really woke Treaf up was the sun. It came hurtling towards him, and he immediately felt its warmth. It was also very bright, and he opened his eyes.
Blinking, he tried to get the fog out of his eyes, but he failed. Getting frustrated, he took some water and put it in them, and this cured the problem. Others were already up, but a few were in the state of Treaf.
He doubted that it would get hot today, but a nagging feeling inside told him that he that he was going to be in a bad mood.
He walked downstairs with the others, and soon they had been done with breakfast and were out working. Treaf had been put in a group that was going to do the city cleanup, and he was glad that he would be doing this rather than cleaning up dead bodies. He had probably done both equally, but the city was much better.
The commander was not there that day, and Treaf was very glad of this.
When he arrived at the working spot, he saw that there really wasn’t much to do. At this certain building that’s wall was destroyed, all they would be doing is cleaning up the broken bricks and organizing them. Treaf was glad that they would not be the ones to put everything back together, for those left in the city were going to do that.
He was given a shovel, and with it he started swiping bricks into a pile nearer to the building, and this was a bit hard, but he told himself that it would be done shortly. He supposed that Mildo had gone off to work in the battlefield, and he felt a bit sorry for him. Working there was very difficult.

There was not much that happened during the next hour, but soon Treaf and tow others had finished the job by that particular building, and had started on another. The Blackwolf Spirits had luckily not had any time to destroy the whole city, and Treaf was glad of this, for that would have taken them even more time to clean up.
Even though the sun was out, the air was chilly, and that early morning Treaf had noticed that there had been frost. Not much, but when there was frost it still made things a lot colder.
It seemed to Treaf that the work was going extra fast, and after that he realized that they had already finished. There had actually not been much to do in the first place, just move a few bricks, stack them up, and leave.
By the time they were done with all of this it was not even midday yet, and they walked around the city, looking for more work, but there was none. It felt good to have one project done, since it had taken so long. We’re probably gonna go into the battlefield and help out with that, he decided, and started heading that way. He was not dreading going to the battlefield, for he estimated that probably three fourths of the work there had already been done. They would just arrive to finish it off.
When they arrived at the other side of the gate, Treaf was not depressed as he usually was when he saw that battlefield, and today it really did look better. But for some reason I doubt that we will not have any more work to do. Everyone will probably seize the chance to make us do the city’s work, and I won’t like that. He grimaced, and then tugged a cart over to the first place that he wanted to. There were a few swords, axes, and other things over there, and so he picked them up and threw them into the cart. He saw that all of the thirty survivors were there, and he was pleased to know that they would be done quicker that way. I guess it is good that not all of us died, Treaf decided, and remembered the battle just a few days before. But then a sight distracted his thoughts, and it was Mildo. But the unexpected part was that there was a sword on his hip, and it looked to be a bit bigger than Treaf’s by about six inches.
Treaf walked over to him, and Mildo noticed him immediately.
“I see you have a new sword,” Treaf said, beckoning towards it. Mildo nodded.
“I got it earlier today before we started working. I thought I should have probably had one by then.”
“I bet there was a large choice,” Treaf replied, and Mildo nodded again. Treaf did not need a new sword and did not want one. Besides, with the Elder’s little magic it probably won’t break in a while, he thought. Before Mildo broke his new sword, Treaf decided to tell him about the Elder.
“You might want the Elder to make your sword’s edges and points stronger. He did to mine, and it worked.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” Mildo asked, and Treaf shrugged. After another moment of hesitation, Mildo said, “Well, I’m off then.” He walked away towards the main gate.
“Aren’t you going to help us work?” Treaf said loudly, and he was pretty angry. Mildo looked back and waved. I can’t remember if he’s ever met the Elder before, Treaf noted. He had been around that whole time, and Mildo knew about him, but Treaf doubted that he would have talked to him before.
After a few seconds Treaf walked back to his cart and started with loading some of the heap. Well, right now I don’t care about Mildo. If we could get done with all of the work today, then I’ll be happy. But for right then all of them had no choice but to work.
Mildo walked down the street, wondering where the Elder lived. He had forgotten to ask Treaf this, but he realized that Treaf would probably not know himself. After all he had been working with all of them, and had not had any free time that Mildo could recall. I don’t think that it will be in the middle of the city. It’s too noisy there, and he would probably have a heart attack. Mildo snickered in his thoughts. He hadn’t fully realized before now, but he hadn’t seen much of the Elder’s magic, except for the time right before the battle. Then he had let the Magical Beings out of the container, or whatever—and Mildo had thought that to be pretty amazing. He hadn’t seen him with Treaf when they went to rid the city of Blackwolves, though, and he was actually pretty surprised that the two of them hadn’t died. After the sight of all the broken buildings, Mildo could guess that these spirits were pretty powerful.
At first Mildo headed towards the western side of the city, and then when he could not find him there he went to check the southern. It was difficult looking for him, because there was no one to ask where he was, and he doubted that anyone would know of him anyway. So he had to check all the houses, and this was especially awkward when he had done it a dozen times.
At last he had checked the southern houses, and moved over to the eastern side of the city.
After a few minutes of walking he arrived there, and after five houses he found the Elder. He had obviously not met Mildo before, for he asked