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

“No, no, no, it can’t be.”
“What?”
“Don’t you see it? That demon coming this way.”
“No, but—“ he stopped and turned. The evil creature was still moving slowly towards him. He quickly picked up a bow and arrow from a fallen archer and shot. The arrow passed right through the creature, not even fazing him. Then Felgor did the last thing he knew to do—he ran.
The next thing he knew, he saw the whole army behind him running for their lives from some unseen monster. He heard evil laughter ringing through the valley behind him. He didn’t look back till he reached the castle gate.
***********************************
“What scared them?” asked one of the archers.
“Who knows?” replied Zeb. “Probably some horrendous nightmare, for all we know.”
“Well, men, back to camp,” called Garnock as he went past.
All the men cheered.
**********************************
Garth awoke to the sound of the birds and sunlight streaming through a high up open window. He yawned and stretched, then scrambled to his feet and plodded out to the kitchen where he could hear Skandar banging around.
“Whatcha making?” he asked, appearing in the doorway.
“Oh nothing much, just some bacon and eggs. Apparently, this place has been abandoned for a sometime, cause there was a thick layer of dust over everything. Funny thing is—the food is fresh, almost as if it was laid out to thaw this morning or last night,” said Skandar turning to Garth.
“I might go to the library or explore this castle thing till you get done.”
“Okay.”
Garth wandered into the library and took in the sight of ceiling to floor bookshelves filled with books all layered in dust. He wandered over the section labeled “Histories” and started scanning the titles. Hmm, that’s strange. This row of books looks like they’ve been used. There’s no dust on them. Garth sat them down on the table and opened the first one. It had writing till halfway through, then it looked as if the rest had been written, but then erased. The other books were the same way.   Very, very strange, he thought, but forgot about it when Skandar called him to breakfast.
***************************
“Mom,” the little boy came into the kitchen.
“What is it?” asked Mrs. McFarland, turning to her son.
“I can’t find Skylar. I wanted to show him my new car.”
“Well, I’m sure he’s sleeping right now. You know how we found him earlier. I told him he just needed to take a rest for awhile.”
“Yeah, but you told him that yesterday afternoon, and he’s still not awake.”
“How do you know?”
“I peeked into his bedroom window.”
Mrs. McFarland went over to Skylar’s house.
****************************
“Well, what do you think?” Skylar was showing off his new sword to Nikkelon. “Pretty good, huh?”
“Yeah,” replied Nikkelon, wistfully, “I just wish dad and mom would let me fight.”
“Hey, take it from me; it’s not as easy as you might think. I know that much. But when you’re fighting for your life, your fami—uh, friends, and whole tribe, you don’t think of it.”
“Can I hold it?”
“Sure, just be—“ Skylar’s words were cut short as suddenly his eyes rolled up into his head and he crashed to the ground.
“Dad, General Garnock, you’d better come quick. Something happened to Skylar,” yelled Nikkelon, panicky.
They came on the run.
*****************************
“He’s coming awake!” the little boy said excitedly when he saw Skylar, shift, roll over on his back, and open his eyes.
“You okay?” asked Mrs. McFarland, “you’ve slept for twenty-four hours.”
“Only that long? I thought it was for a few days.”
Mrs. McFarland looked at him strangely. “You sure you’re feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just a bit disoriented.”
“Okay, I guess we’ll leave you alone now.”
He laid back and sighed. Another dream. Another very real dream. What is up? He thought to himself. Finally he shook himself, stretched and rolled out of bed. He ate something, although, surprisingly, he didn’t feel hungry at all; then he went to his computer where—when he had waken before he had started typing out all of his adventures before he forgot them.
******************************
The old castle rang with the creaking of hinges as doors swung open in the old tower that hadn’t been, it appeared, used for years. Skandar and Garth explored high and low. They found that the castle was actually three sections.
The lower level was apparently used as kitchen and the part with the fire place was used as a living room/library. Along the wall, a stone staircase spiraled up to the second landing, which appeared to be the storage place. Opening doors, the two teenagers found weapons of all sorts: spears, daggers, swords, flails, and arrows, crossbows, etc. The one thing that they found, puzzled them. There were five boxes of some kind of black sand. They soon lost interest in that and went up to the third landing.
The third landing was open unlike the middle and bottom sections. Cots lined the walls. At the head of each cot was a window, which, when opened, filled the whole room with light. They saw that the stairs then led up to a trap door in the ceiling. It took them some time before they finally worked it open and came out onto the very top of the tower.
The two stood there, drinking in the breathtaking view. An ocean of green tree tops spreading as far as their eyes could see to every side. Far to the north they could see the almost invisible twinkle of a river. The birds twittered joyously in the woods, and in the distance they could hear the muted roar of a waterfall. A house wren landed on the stone wall near them, cocked her head, twittered, then took flight again before either boy could move.
“Wow,” breathed Garth. “This is like heaven on earth.”
Skandar just stood there, hardly daring to hope that this was a real place.
Just then the wren came back. This time she had a little piece of paper in her beak. She hopped along the wall and dropped it in front of the two boys, then she flew off again.
Garth picked up the paper, unfolded it, and read the following words aloud:
Well done. Your next assignment is to go to the river, for there will be enemies. Take any travelers you meet, with you to the river. Find an old cave in the bank. Further instructions there.
“That’s all it says?” asked Skandar.
“Yep, that’s all,” replied Garth.
“Hmm, I guess we should do as it says.” The two boys turned and went downstairs. If they’d been on top a little longer, they’d have seen a dark hunched over figure dart away through the trees.
*******************************
“Grunwick! General!”
Grunwick jumped up, startled at the sudden intrusion on his meeting with his commanders. “What is it, Gandolf?” he demanded.
“Humans! Two of them. One’s human, the other…” he stopped and shuddered.
“Yes, yes, what is it? Who is the other one?” Grunwick demanded.
“Centaur.” Gandolf finally forced out amidst a great shudder.
The whole group was instantly quiet, shocked.
“Centaur?” Grunwick’s voice shook from fear or excitement, Gandolf couldn’t tell. “Just one? With a two-legs human? He’s probably a scout or something from a large army.” He turned to one of the commanders, “Thorn-butt.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Take twelve of your men and go watch the tower. Alert me if there is any sign of them leaving.”
“Yes, sir.” He instantly turned and strode off to gather the twelve.
“This could mean trouble. Humans and centaurs together. It’s been two hundred years since our kind was pushed into this black hole of a forest. Then just fifteen years ago a male and female centaur showed up, but disappeared after a couple of months. I don’t like this, not one little bit.”
“What does it mean, sir?” asked one of the commanders.
“I don’t know yet; it’s too early to tell.”
*********************************
The next morning found Garth and Skandar up with the sun, having eaten breakfast and were up in the armory getting fitted out with armor.
“Now let any of those hairy monsters, those alleged minotaurs, just try to win against me,” said Garth, brandishing two short swords. He had a longer sword that required two hands strapped and ready for use, alongside two more short swords strapped onto his back. He had a helmet on his head, breast plate on front, and metal lower arm guards. Under that he was wearing a maroon shirt with a brown leather vest on top, under the armor.
Skandar had a short sword strapped to either side of him along with a short dagger. He was wearing leather leggings on top of leather moccasins. He, too, was wearing a reddish shirt covered by a leather jacket with a hard stiff front. On top of that he had a chain mail jacket that went up his throat. A helmet and shield topped off his look. He polished everything off by strapping a bow and quiver of arrows to his back.
“You think this is good enough?” he asked Garth.
“Oh yeah. Anybody trying to mess with us ain’t gonna even live to regret it. Grab some black sand.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be too sure. I mean, did you see the size of that monster? He was HUGE! He was at least as tall as a full grown centaur, when he was standing.” Garth walked over to the castle door and opened it. “We still have to follow the note. No matter what happens, we still have God with us. He helped us get this far; He can help us get the rest of the way.” He walked out followed by Skandar into the woods.
********************************
“Go!” Thorn-butt slapped one of the twelve, and he took off like a shot.
A few minutes later, he smashed through the door leading into Grunwick’s office. Grunwick’s head shot up, “What is it?”
“Thorn-butt sent me to tell you that the two have left the tower, and they’re armed.”
“Armed? How so?”
“Armor, swords, the like.”
“Ah-ha, and you say they got them from where?”
“From the tower, sir.”
“Okay, you go back and tell that Thorn-butt that he and five others are to go and capture them.”
“Yes, sir.”
********************************
Garnock and Tace shook Skylar till his teeth rattled. “It’s no good. He’s out again,” sighed Garnock. Just then Skylar’s eyes fluttered open. “Finally,” said Garnock, greatly relieved, “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. It’s just…one of those things that happens sometimes.”
“I see. Well, take care of yourself.” Garnock rose and walked away with Tace. “Sometimes I’m not sure why he’s here. But he’s here, and we got to deal with it, I guess.”
“At least he’s being useful,” put in Tace.
“Yeah, I guess.”
*********************************
Skandar followed Garth through the thick underbrush through the forest. He had the feeling of being watched, and he didn’t like it. He finally asked Garth about it. “Do you have the feeling that we’re being watched?”
Garth turned and faced him, “Yeah, but don’t let on that you know that they’re following us. Keep your sword at the ready.”
“Okay.” He resumed his following but rested his hand on the sword hilt. Suddenly a blood-curdling scream sounded from off to the right and behind them, Skandar drew his sword without thinking, but saw that Garth gave no sign of having heard anything. Then Skandar got this feeling that something was wrong. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and goose bumps appeared on his arms. Then he thought of it—the woods were deathly quiet, not a sound.
Suddenly, there was a kind of grunting sound and then one of those huge, hairy monsters jumped out into their path brandishing a sword. Metal rang as Garth reared and drew his two short swords. He came down and immediately charged. Right