Battle for Peruna by Josiah Boss (book club suggestions TXT) 📕

across the clearing arms outstretched, clad in armor, looking older and wiser than when he'd last seen him. The two embraced, tears flowing freely down each other's backs.
Skylar and Skandar had stopped fighting when they had heard Garnock shout. Now they stared at they spectacle. “This is your dad?” Skandar asked Garth at the same exact time that Skylar asked Garnock, “This is your son?”
Nikkelon ran over to them. “You bet their son and father. Garth disappeared just over two years ago when the fighting with Mardoc started and he's been missing ever since.”
Skylar turned to Skandar, “So, what's your name?”
“Skandar.”
“Don't tell me that you're...”
“Wait a minute...” Nikkelon broke in. “If you're Skandar and this is Skylar. You don't mean that....no, it's not possible.”
“You're Skylar?” asked Skandar turning to Skylar.
“That's what they call me.” quipped Skylar. “Then that means, that you must be my cousin that disappeared several years ago. Actually about twelve years ago. Don't you remember?”
Skandar looked at him strangely. “No, all I remember is being here. Even if I did come from another world as you're implying, I don't have any memory of it. Nor do I quite believe your claim that you're my cousin.”
“What?!” asked Skylar incredulously.
“Look, I mean, anybody could come up to me claiming to be my cousin from another world that they'd lost several years ago. Everybody knows that there is only one world. So how could you possibly come from another world?”
Skylar had been looking forward to meeting his long lost cousin for years, but now Skandar didn't believe that was even related much less that he came from another world. He'd been in Peruna to long. There was no way he was even going to want to go back to the real world. Speaking of which, which was the real world? Maybe this was the real world, and he had just dreamed of the other one with all it's computers and fancy technology and stuff. No, he had to keep on remembering that this was the dream world. That's probably what happened to Skandar, he quit believing that there was another world and henceforth all memory of that world was erased. It seemed impossible but it could be true.
He just shook his head in answer to Skandar's question, sad and almost feeling dejected. All his dreams of the day when he met Skandar again shattered.
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After the bell had stopped ringing, the Witch had stayed frozen for what seemed like an eternity than had disappeared into the forest. In the same direction that all her evil creatures had taken when Zebulon had touched the light. Avelignese had been all for chasing after her and killing her before she had any chance to do any evil, but Zebulon, with the help of Avelignese's generals, was able to convince him otherwise.
For the next several days they had wandered around not really going anywhere in particular but just kind of wandering around hoping to get some excitement. Within a few days, they got excitement. One day they stumbled upon a squadron of Mardoc's soldiers. They were just as surprised as the soldiers were and a short skirmish followed in which no one really won. Just that a dozen or so soldiers were mowed down before Zebulon, much to Avelignese's disappointment, pulled them back and let them go.
“Why didn't you let us finish them off?” demanded Avelignese.
“You don't know those guys like I know them. Your specialty is fighting minotaurs, not humans. With these guys, if they can't get you by swords, they'll pull out their bows and start shooting. And that, I can tell you, is not a very fun thing.” explained Zebulon patiently.
Avelignese grumped and moped about for awhile, then put it aside and didn't say anything about. That evening Leon brought a deer into camp which, he claimed, he had ran down than broken it's neck with his bare hands. He was strong enough to be capable of killing it with his bare hands but whether he ran it down or not was a different story. At any rate, they feasted on venison that night.
The next morning as they were traveling along, they were jumped by a squad of Mardoc's army. This particular squad had five hundred men in it. Even though they had taken the centaurs by surprise it didn't help them any and they soon were in a disorderly retreat with less than one hundred left that hadn't been touched, and another hundred or so wounded. The rest of their days were pretty much uneventful.
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That night Garnock and his company had to make camp as it was night and they would catch up with the rest of the band tomorrow. The boys, who were in the same tent, sneaked out for a midnight stroll. Suddenly, they came upon a camp. In the middle, the biggest tent was lit up. They stole cautiously into the camp towards the big camp. Garth and Nikkelon stayed hidden in the shadows of a nearby tent while Skandar and Skylar crept up to the tent on hands and knees. They could hear a conversation being taken place.
“How many of them were there?” a booming voice demanded.
“I don't know, I just know that there were a bunch of them and within fifteen minutes had sent us fleeing with everything we had in us leaving at least fifty if not more dying on the field of battle and another three fifty or so killed, slaughtered, whatever you want to call it.”
They heard a fist slam a table top...hard. “Those stupid idiots.” they heard the first voice mutter under his breath not to quietly. Skandar and Skylar sneaked up to opposite sides of the door and peered in. There was a tall and thin man standing in front of a desk where a big man, built like a bull, sat. It was he who was the first voice they had heard.
“Fine then,” said the man seated at the desk. Then he scooted back his chair stood up and walked out the back door an obvious sign for the tall thin man that he was dismissed. Skandar and Skylar rocked back on their heels and hugged the tent walls as the tall thin man walked past muttering something under his breath.
Then they went back to Nikkelon and Garth and related all they had heard. They in turn quickly returned back to camp and could hardly sleep because of hardly being able to wait to tell Garnock the next morning.
The next morning when they told Garnock about it. He looked at them kind of strange. Like he was trying to decide whether to chew over what they said or whether to scold them for sneaking out last night. He finally just thanked them and let them off without scolding them. Then went to talk to Tace about it.
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Garnet and Shiloh noticed how quiet it was without Nikkelon around to bother Gardenia and Natelin. The girls almost seemed like they missed having Nikkelon there to pick on them.
“Where do you think Garnock and Tace rushed off to in such a hurry last evening?” Garnet asked Shiloh.
“I'm sure I don't know.” answered Shiloh. “But it's bound to be somewhere important for them to rush off like that and just leave us with hardly a farewell.”
“That's for sure. Garnock just suddenly came up to me and said, “Gotta go,” then was off just like that. I suppose it was somewhere important for him to do that.”
“Same here. Oh well, at least the girls have their much longed for peace and quiet with Skylar and Nikkelon gone.”
“Yeah, but now they're probably wishing he was here to lift their burden of boredom. Knowing them.”
Garnet started to say something, but just then a scout rushed up. He hastily saluted them then breathlessly rattled off what sounded like gibberish.
“Mardocandhisarmyarejusttoppingthehillbehinduswegottahurry.where'sgarnock?andhisgenerals?” The two ladies stared at him.
“What did you say, Ichihiro?” asked Shiloh.
He took a deep breath and started again, “Mardoc and his army are just topping the hill behind us so we gotta hurry and send out someone to protect our rear, maybe hold them off till the rest of us get far enough ahead. Where's Garnock and his generals?”
“Garnock and Tace took off in a huge hurry yesterday, and didn't say where they were going. I don't know where his generals are they're probably having some conference somewhere.” said Garnet and with that Ichihiro wheeled around and took off to search for them.
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Garnock and crew at that time had just hit the trail, unknowingly behind Mardoc and his army. And were traveling faster than usual to catch up with the main body of centaurs. The five boys had gone on ahead and were talking about who knew what. Probably getting an earful from Garth and Skandar about their travels. Yasahiro and Chance were telling him all about what had happened to them and Leigha and Skye were bringing up the rear.
Just then a dust cloud appeared on the horizon of the trail. Emerging from it came the five boys, Skandar and Skylar urging their horses on to keep up with Nikkelon and Garth.
“Dad!” shouted Garth when they got within hearing distance.
The three men glanced at each other and rode to meet the five boys. “What is it?”
“There's an army of humans up there. They look like they are trying to track something.”
“That'd be Mardoc and his bunch of no-gooders. And...they're probably following our band.”
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When the other generals heard the news from Yasahiro, they quickly gathered all the soldiers. As soon as they were all gathered together, Atherton and Aubin, the only two generals left, quickly rehearsed what Ichihiro had told them. That had sent a stir through the army. They were eager to fight after having been dormant for so long. When Atherton asked them if they thought they could hold them off for an hour while Ichihiro and Aubin got all the women and children farther up the trail to safety, their was a unanimous yes shouted.
With that Aubin took Ichihiro and five other men with him and went to hurry the women and children along. Atherton split up the remaining into three divisions appointing a leader over each. “We'll do our three part attack. Me and my crew will come in from the front, the crew on my right will attack a little bit after I have attacked. The crew on the left will attack a little while after they hear the right crew attacking. Got it!” and with the loud yell that followed. “Then let's get going!” he yelled and with a loud rousing yell they split up.
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While Garnock was trying to figure out what to do, they suddenly heard a loud roar from up ahead. The closer they got the more they recognized the sound of swords clashing against swords, metal against metal, and every now and then a cry of pain. Suddenly the volume rose a little.
“They probably sent in the right or left wings now.” said Garnock. Suddenly he had an idea. “Okay guys, here's what we'll do. We'll stop here and as soon as we here the left wing attack, we'll come up on the rear as fast as we can and attack there. Actually, it might almost be better if we wait. They'll be expecting an attack from the rear soon after the left flank which just attacked right now. When an attack doesn't come, they'll turn back to the main battle. That's when we'll attack.”
The others agreed and they sneaked up to where they could see the army. Sure enough there were guys watching for an attack on the rear. Several minutes passed and no attack came. Just as Garnock