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

crashed into the back of his head and everything went black.
“Mardoc!” Forester and Felgor raced over to him. “You're awake! And you probably saved our necks!”
Mardoc looked at them scoffing. “'Saved your necks?' Ha! Hardly. You could have saved your own. If you think fighting this untrained foal was hard, then you'd better go back to your mommies before the battle with the big stallions comes.”
Felgor and Forester looked at each other and gulped.
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Garnock called the search off at dark. “Anybody find anything?” he asked wearily.
“Nope,” came the answer.
“Oh, well, maybe tomorrow.” Garnet burst into sobs. Garnock continued, “So I guess tomorrow, we'll group back together here...say where's Zebulon?”
“Zebulon? He went off by himself to look, and I haven't seen him since,” said Tace.
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A dark shape of a horse flashed through the trees under the full moon lit night. I have to find him! Thought
Zebulon.
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“Let me go!” shouted Garth, violently struggling against the chains that held his arms. “Let me go this instant, or my dad will come and jail you!”
“Ha! Not by a long shot!” sneered Mardoc.
“Yeah!” jeered the other soldiers. “He wouldn't mess around with us.”
“Oh yeah?! We'll see about that!” and with these words, Garth lashed out with his back legs at the nearest soldier, catching him at waist level and sending him flying into the soldiers behind him.
“Ouch! That hurt, you know, you-you-you pig-headed horseman!”
“Pig-headed!?” Despite his situation, Garth threw back his head and roared with laughter. “If I were a pig, then, yes, you could call me pig-headed; but it looks as if you are just as pig-headed as I am.” Some of the soldiers snickered, and the offended turned crimson with rage. “By the way,” Garth continued, “I'm not a horse-man; I'm a centaur and proud of it!”
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Zebulon stopped to rest, panting for breath. What was that? It sounded like a shout—a shout from... from... Garth? He raced off in that direction.
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By now, Shiloh, Tace's wife, had come and had gone into the house with Garnet sobbing on her shoulder. An uncomfortable silence followed. Natelin, Tace's daughter, went up to Gardenia, and the two went to Gardenia's room.
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There he was! Surrounded by all those soldiers! With no time to lose, Zebulon whipped out his huge two-handed sword and charged, bucking, plunging, slashing into the midst of them.
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Audric and Audrey cringed, crying in the corner as they heard their dad roaring and yelling in his deep, bull, trumpet voice, as he viciously fought the soldiers who wanted his property.
“God, please stop it!” wailed Aura, as she buried her head in her hands at the table.
The soldiers had come demanding that Aura and Aubin give their land to their new “king” Mardoc. Aubin had refused, saying that he only had one king—God—and King Garnock under Him. That had been what started the fight.
The three fell asleep sobbing.
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After fifteen minutes, Zebulon was driven out of all the soldiers, away from Garth. He had failed and let down Garnock.
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At daybreak, Garth came to with a head-splitting headache. “Where am I?” he groaned.
“You mean,” corrected a voice from the corner, “where are we?”
“What?! Who is that? Who's there?”
“Only a centaur. What might your name be, young foal?”
“Garth, son of Garnock, king of Peruna.”
“What! Garth, son of the king!? I never thought I'd live to see the day that I'd get to see the king or his son!”
“Well, that's good and right, I'm sure. But tell me: where are we?”
“Don't you know? In Mardoc's castle dungeon.”
“Oh. Just great. Uh....I didn't catch your name?”
“I never told you, but never mind that. It's Aubin.”
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“Did they have to burn the barn and take the animals too?” Aura wailed. “Taking Aubin was bad enough!”
“Where's daddy? We're hungry. When's breakfast?” whined the twins, Audric and Audrey.
“I don't know. I guess I'll have to....Oh! Hello!”
“Hello! Don't be scared. The name's Zebulon, right hand commander of King Garnock.”
“What?! I...I...I...I...”
Zebulon grinned. “That's all right. You got any breakfast? I'm famished!”
Aura recovered. “Oh, of course. It'll be ready in a few minutes. Audrey, come and set the table; Audric, help her please.”
“Ah, do I have to?” whined Audric. “It's not every day that a famous general comes.”
“Yes, you have to,” said Aura firmly, “now come.”
“Okay.”
Zebulon grinned, thinking of when he was a little foal.
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“Zebulon, who's that with you? And where in Peruna have you been?” Garnock fairly roared.
“Now, now, now, Garnock, settle down. These centaurs are Aura and her two foals, Audric and Audrey. Aura, this is King Garnock himself, the one and only.”
“Pleased to meet you, Sire.”
“Please, call me Garnock. Everybody else does.” Now Garnock turned to Zebulon. “You haven't answered my second question.”
“Yes, yes, I was just getting to that. Actually, I'd kinda hoped you'd forgotten. I was down in the southern part of Peruna. I found Garth; he's been captured by......Mardoc.”
“Mardoc?”
“Yes, he's the pretender of a king whose soldiers chased Aura and her foals off their property and also captured her husband.”
“I see. Please continue with your report.”
“Yeah, well, anyway, I tried to get Garth; but they...they overpowered me. Then I followed them to Mardoc's castle. It's HUGE! After I left the castle, I came across Aura's place. She supplied me with breakfast, and then we've been heading back here all day, and you know the rest.”
A short pause followed, as Garnock thought. Then, all of a sudden, Garnock reared up, drew his two shorter swords, held them over his head, and roared at his generals, “Gather all troops and prepare for battle! We lay siege on the castle tomorrow night!”
“Aye, aye, sir!” All the generals and Skylar turned and raced off into the gathering darkness.
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The next morning half of the troops, five thousand in all, had come to gather on the plain before Garnock's summer house.
“Stations!” bellowed Garnock. “Forward! March!”
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“You two, Mardoc wants you in the throne room immediately,” commanded one of the two soldiers.
“What?” asked Garth incredulously, “you mean right as we get our 'fit-for-a-king' supper?” He gestured to the plate of hard bread and mug of water on the floor. “You got to be kidding!” Aubin had been drinking some water; and when he snorted with laughter at Garth's ridiculous statement, water sprayed all over the soldiers, who stepped back angrily.
“Stop fooling around and come!”
“All right, all right, but there's no hurry.”
They started off down the hall. When they got to the main floor, they saw the courtyard door was open, and Forester and Felgor were entering.
At that instant, Aubin reared, jerking the chain out of the guard's hands and thundered at top speed down the hall for the open door.
“It's okay,” Forester said to Felgor. “Horses never hit a living being on purpose, unless it's a snake or predatory animal.”
“Yes!” screamed Felgor, “horses may stop, but you forgot—centaurs DON'T!” With that he dove out of the way, dragging Forester with him.
“Yes! Go, Aubin! The door! Hurry!” Garth shouted encouragement, as Aubin raced down the hallway, out the door, across the drawbridge, and into the woods to safety.
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Foxes dove for cover. Deer raced into the woods. Squirrels peeked out from the safety of their holes as the seemingly endless stream of centaurs rushed past at a terrific pace.
Garnock led them with Zebulon on his right leading the way. Skylar was beside Zebulon. On Garnock's left was Tace, with Atherton beside him.
Garnock called a halt. “How much farther, Zebulon?”
“Oh, about two or three more miles,” Zebulon answered casually answered.
“Okay, let's get moving!”
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Run, run, always run, panted Aubin. He'd gone about two miles at least by now. What was that? An endless stream of mounted horsemen appeared in front of him. Wait! They weren't humans on horses; they were centaurs like him!
“Stop!” he shouted, not knowing if he'd been heard above their hooves. The stream slowed, then stopped.
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“What's up? Why the hold up?” asked Garnock.
“Sire, there's some centaur that just appeared out of the woods, and he wants to talk to you.”
Garnock growled with frustration at the hold up, then sighed and said, “Take me to him—if you must.”
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“There he comes now,” said one of the soldiers, “our leader and king Garnock.”
“What!? It can't be!”
“What can't be?” growled Garnock, coming up and towering a full foot over the smaller intruder.
“You can't be, because I just...”
“Why can't I, and what did you just?”
“I just saw your son.”
Now it was Garnock's turn to be surprised. “What!? Where is he? If you've done something with him...”
“No, no, I haven't done anything with him. He's in the castle dungeon. Me and him were both in the same cell.”
“How come did you get out and not him?” demanded Garnock, a little peeved.
“Because we were being taken to the throne room; and I reared up pulling the chain, that you can see around my arms, free. I then bolted and got out, but Garth was more closely guarded because he's the king's son.”
“About face! Towards the castle! Move, at once!” The whole assembly moved off again.
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“What do you want with me?” whined Garth.
“You know very well what we want. Information about your people: where they live, their market days, what roads they travel most, etc,” said Mardoc airily.
Garth's voice changed from whining to cold as steel. “And you think you're going to get that out of me? Ha! Think again. I'd rather die than rat.”
Mardoc kept his cool. “I see you're quite the patriot. Well, we'll see how soon you'll rat...under torture.” Mardoc's face twisted into an ugly sneer.
“Oh yeah? Try me. If I were a better, I'd bet that I'd die from torture before I'd rat, and I'd win.” Garth glared at Mardoc. “Besides, I think you have some visitors outside.”
“What?!”
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Mardoc sure enough had visitors, five thousand of them to be exact, and they weren't there to chat or trade. Well, take that last one back. They were here to trade all right—blow for blow, death for death if unavoidable.
Garnock and his generals, swords flashing, fought violently with hooves flying. Skylar, his face white as paper, was the only one who had a shield, and he was using that more than his sword.
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“Ha! Checkmate! Gotcha again!” Forester roared with laughter.
“You cheating, heaving...I don't know what. How do you do that?” roared Felgor, thoroughly frustrated. He slammed his fist on the table so hard that the pieces jumped off the board and rolled off the table.
Just then Mardoc burst into the room, scaring them. “What do you brainless fools think you're doing? There's fighting out there!” He jerked his thumb over his right shoulder. “You two are supposed to be leading the fight like generals are supposed to instead of sitting in here like only the biggest fools do. Now GET OUT THERE!”
“Yes, sir!” They jumped up so fast their chairs tipped over.
“Oh yeah,” Mardoc yelled after them, “send a hundred archers to me. We're going to make short work of this rabble.”
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Garth restlessly paced the cell floor. He shouldn't have alerted Mardoc, he thought disgustedly. He might be out of here by now. He could hear the roar of battle raging above him. He angrily slammed a hoof on the ground. Why couldn't he do anything right?
After he had alerted Mardoc, he had been immediately sent back down to the dungeon, his door triple locked, and the guard sent up to fight.
He finally settled down and started to think about home. He