It dawned upon the warriors to gaze upwards toward the trees where they suspected Miles may be hiding, but as they did so, they did not see Miles alone, but rather, accompanied by something extraordinary. It was out of this world scary!
Kingdom of Largo
Chapter 18
Warriors In Black
After bidding farewell to Theo and his pet, Belinda, Miles mounted his brown horse and left. He put most of his belongings in the small wagon that was attached to the back. There wasn't much, as many of his belongings were still in the little cabin in the forest which he had built by himself. He thought about that little cabin and felt himself already beginning to miss his serene lifestyle.
As his brown horse Sadie trotted along the path, they came upon a small forest where there was a stream running down from the mountain. He decided to make a stop to refresh himself. Besides, Sadie may need a rest too. Sadie was a female horse that was brought to him by King Aylard and Samuel on the day he was received into the palace. She had been with him ever since. King Aylard had suggested to him that should he ever need to exchange Sadie for another horse he could do that by going to Stanley's stable which was next to the Lambert's and Son's Playhouse where he could personally pick one for himself. However, Miles had grown attached to Sadie already and he was satisfied with Sadie's performance, she was one tough little lady! He was thankful that he was gifted a horse with a wagon by the king. He had decided to keep both.
Miles noticed that Sadie seemed tired today. He had never seen her looking so fatigued. He wondered if Sadie was not feeling well. It was only a little past noon, and, usually, she would be in good spirits.
"Hey, Sadie girl! What's the matter? Are you not feeling well?" Miles petted gently on her neck and asked her. Now he wondered if Sadie had eaten her breakfast in the morning. He thought perhaps he might have taken her out too early this morning before she had anything to eat. But then he suddenly remembered seeing one of the hired hands come by to feed her just as he was looking out the window this morning, but he had not stayed by the window to watch if Sadie had really eaten the food. He hoped she did eat something anyway.
Perhaps she is thirsty and she needs water. He thought.
Miles led Sadie down to the stream where she could quench her thirst. Sadie took a few mouthfuls of the water from the babbling brook and Miles could see that already, she seemed to have regained her energy. He took out some food for himself from the wagon and decided to stay there to eat his lunch as well.
Suddenly, he had a feeling that he was being watched. Although he could not see anyone, his ears never failed him - he could hear well even from a distance. He felt at least several people were watching him from behind some bushes. This sudden awareness of being observed perked him right up. He had been at the southern border before as well and he knew the area was full of bandits. They would rob and kill passersby at no mercy. Miles was now on high alert but managed to remain calm.
He sat there and pretended that he did not know anything and was not aware of any noise. He was ready for any strikes at any moment. He pressed his hand to the side and felt his sword was on the ground laid right beside him. He also had his arch bow and arrows as well strapped to his back. He was more than ready.
He continued talking with Sadie, comforting her, sharing with her some of the fruits that he had brought along for lunch.
After lunch, he packed up and mounted Sadie again, and began the rest of his journey towards the southern border. He looked up to the sky to calculate how much more sunlight he would have along the path before it would get dark. He assumed that it might take him at least the rest of the daylight to reach his destination if Sadie would speed up and not slow down, but he felt something was off with Sadie today. She seemed to be lacking in energy. He wondered if Sadie was sick. He thought about the people in the palace who didn't seem to like him being there, he began to suspect perhaps someone had put poison or put some sleeping agent into Sadie's food. But for what purpose? That would only hurt Sadie, not him!
He tried to get Sadie to go faster, but it seemed Sadie was slowing down, much slower than she had been before they stopped at the stream. After a while, Sadie surrendered to her weariness and collapsed. The poor girl was near death! Miles noticed she was foaming around the edges of her mouth.
She's been poisoned! That was the first thing it came to Miles's mind. He was heartbroken!
Who would do a cruel thing like this to hurt a horse?
"Sadie! What's wrong, girl? I'm so sorry you have to go through this just because of me! I love you so much, girl! You know I do!"
Sadie was non-responsive. She could not move a muscle. Now, more traces of white foam were pouring from her mouth. She watched as Miles cried over her, the tears flowing freely from his eyes. Sadie seemed to understand that it would soon be the end of herself.
Now, Miles was certain, for sure, that Sadie had been poisoned! Someone in the palace did not want him to reach the destination. But why? He has yet to find out who, and now - what would happen next? What was all that noise that had been coming from behind the bushes?
Assassination! Someone wants me dead! Miles was certain of that!
"Whoever is there, show yourself now! I know you've been following me! C'mon out and get it all over with!" Miles spoke with ferocious determination.
Suddenly, out from behind the bushes jumped several warriors. They were all dressed in black clothing. They wore black clothing from head to toes, black scarfs which covered most of their faces. The only thing Miles could see was their eyes. He noticed that they were armed with swords.
"Listen, I'm not rich! I'm just a poor passerby. You can take whatever I have in the wagon, you might as well take the wagon too if you like. That is all I can offer to you," Miles told them.
"Is your name Miles?" asked one of the warriors who seemed to be in charge.
"Yes, how do you know my name?"
"We don't want anything else from you. You are going to die today. We only want your life!"
Miles remained calm, "My life? Who wants it? Who sent you?"
"Never mind who sent us! Today is your last day in this world! So take this!" The warrior lunged forward with his sword, and as he did all the rest of the warriors jumped out as well from behind the bushes. There must have been about thirty of them in similar clothing - all dressed in black. Miles wondered if these warriors belonged to a certain unknown tribe.
Miles was quick to dodge the oncoming attacks which seemed to have come from all directions. He knew he had to act fast.
Miles immediately sprung into action, he jumped high and low among the trees in the forest. In some instances he hid just out of the line of sight of those warriors who were unprepared for an opponent with such skills, leaving them confused. One moment they could see Miles standing there, and another moment as they set out to strike at him Miles would disappear into thin air. The two warriors would end up striking at each other, accidentally hacking themselves to death.
Then, at another location, Miles would elevate himself off the ground and hopped onto the highest trees, and hid there. He would then strike each of the warriors one by one. He repeated the same disappearing act, hopping from tree to tree, and one by one the warriors fell dead, until only five remained.
Of the surviving warriors, Miles wanted to allow at least one to live so that he would go back to whoever had sent them, to deliver the message that the plan had failed and Miles was still alive. Yes, that would be satisfying indeed – not only to let the person in charge know that their plan had failed, that Miles was not someone whom anyone could easily mess with.
He hid on one of those high trees and looked down upon the five remaining warriors, who were now tiptoeing, searching for him. The warriors probably thought Miles was dead because Miles kept himself very quiet. He had played this game of death many times before back in his forest where he lived in the cabin.
He took out his arch bow and quietly removed each remaining arrow in his quiver, pointed, and shot. He wanted to kill them one by one.
It dawned upon the warriors to gaze upwards toward the trees where they suspected Miles may be hiding, but as they did so, they did not see Miles alone, but rather, accompanied by something extraordinary. It was out of this world scary! They suddenly saw something non-human. It was an animal head that looked like a large snake. it had a large triangular-shaped head, a pair of gigantic fiery red eyes. It hissed loudly at them. It stretched its head forward from behind the tree where Miles was standing and lunged towards the warriors with its mouth wide open. It thrust itself further toward the group and flapped its tail around, slapping the warriors, sending them flying in mid-air in all directions. Then, the creature's tail came crashing down, slamming hard on the ground where the warriors were lying, flattening them. The warriors died instantly. Then, just as quickly as the creature had appeared, it disappeared. It came and went like a bolt of lightning.
As for Miles, the creature took him by surprise, he lost his balance and fell from the tree. Luckily, he landed on some bushes which had saved his life. He became unconscious. When he came to, he found all the warriors were not in sight, gone was the creature as well.
Miles wondered if what he saw was from a dream when he fell into unconsciousness, but if so, how did he fall to the ground? The last thing he remembered was holding his bow and arrow as he aimed at one of the warriors. What just happened had never happened to him before. He wondered where the rest of the warriors were now.
He got up and scanned the area where the last five warriors were standing and found nothing. He looked further and found their corpses elsewhere, where they seemed to have been trampled upon and were flattened by some kind of mysterious force. They were all dead! He found four corpses: one was killed by his arrow, the other three were flattened by force. There were five of them remaining as he could remember, so where was the fifth corpse?
What had happened? What monster or animal had come upon this earth? Why was his life spared? Why didn't the monster attack him too? Where has that monster gone to now? Miles kept wondering, but could not understand why his life was spared. He considered himself lucky that the creature didn't see him there lying among the bushes. He looked around and tried listening to any more noise or evidence of anything or anyone who had survived the attack, but found everywhere was quiet. He assumed that he must be the only survivor from the attack.
He looked up to the sky and found nothing there, but he knew he was late for arriving at his destination. He must explain what had just happened to Commander Sergio whom he was ordered to report to.
He got up and went over to see Sadie but found the dear girl was long gone. He dug a hole on the ground to give the dear girl of a horse a proper burial and respect. The wagon was broken now. He tried fixing it the best way he could and just left it where he buried Sadie. Sadie should not be without a wagon where she may be going in her next life, she was such a dear girl - a fine horse!
Miles stood up, got ahold of what was left of his meagre "possession", patted the dust off from himself, and he was soon on his journey again. Now, he had become a warrior on foot.
XXXXX
Unbeknownst to Miles, at about the same time as the incident in the forest, Theo also had a very scary moment with Belinda back in the palace.
Theo had just finished his lunch and taken both Sparky and Belinda out for a walk in the garden and was now resting in his chamber. He had yet to go to the stable to check on Ethan, although he knew may not have the time to ride him on this particular day. He needed to reschedule his time for everything. He also had yet to read some of the court documents that his father had brought over. He felt his days were now filled with chores of “things to do”. He wondered if he was up to the task of being the future king. There were several of the court documents here which needed his opinions on the rulings. He felt he couldn't do them fast enough for his father. He always wished his father would accept him for the person he was, rather than continually insisting upon him to do better. In his mind, he was already doing his best. He was just in the middle of all that when the strangest thing happened.
A loud noise had suddenly occurred which startled Theo. It was so loud it made him jump up from his chair, and immediately he wanted to investigate the origin of the noise.
Who's here? he asked himself. As far as he knew, there was only himself in his own chamber. His warriors were outside, awaiting his next command of the day. He looked outside, several palace guards, as well as his warriors, were standing, and some were walking about, and some others were resting. There was no commotion outside in the courtyard. Then who could have made such a loud noise?
He came back to his desk to continue reading the court documents. Suddenly, another loud noise had occurred again, and it continued. It seemed to have come from the backroom of his chamber.
He went around to his back chamber to investigate. When he came upon Belinda, he found the whole crate was shaking. The noise had come from Belinda's cage. He looked over from the top and peeked into the crate. He found Belinda to be very unsettled inside her cage. She moved around as though she was upset at something, slamming her body along the side of the crate, seemingly trying to break through it. It seemed She wanted to be let out again.
"No, Belinda!" said Theo. Belinda looked up, but would not stop slamming herself against the crate's wall. Theo was afraid that Belinda could end up hurting herself.
"Dear girl, you have just been out and back. Now I must tend to the things I need to do next. You just have to settle down in there for a while, at least. I shouldn't let you out again! Let's wait 'til later in the day, okay?" Theo was reasoning with her.
Belinda did not respond well to Theo. She kept banging and slamming herself on the sides of the crate. She seemed to not care at all that she could cause herself injury. She was determined to be let out again. Her restlessness caused the crate to shake and make loud banging noises on the floor.
"Belinda! What's wrong, dear girl? Please listen to me, please!" Theo felt helpless. He was begging Belinda to be quiet.
What if I let her out, and she's gone and would not come back? How would I answer to Miles when he comes back? Theo had decided to just keep Belinda in her cage.
By this time Sparky heard the commotion and he came along too. Belinda was freaking him out, so Sparky would not stop barking.
"Eeee-rooo... Rolf!!!... Rolf!!!... Rolf!!!..." Sparky started barking at Belinda, "Rolf!!!... Rolf!!!... Rolf!!!"
"Sparky! Shhh!!!... Stop barking!!! It's okay. Belinda is just having a bad day because Miles is not around," Sparky looked towards the shaking crate. He was afraid for Theo, not so much as afraid for himself. He felt he needed to protect his master from Belinda.
Theo tried all he could to keep everything under control. He needed to calm both Sparky and Belinda down before Samuel would come around and find out that he was caring for Belinda. For some reason, he felt he was doing something wrong, even though he was doing this for a good cause.
He peeked through from the top of the crate down at Belinda again. Belinda was still very unsettled. She looked as though she had a mission to do something and she must be let out of her confinement. Theo thought perhaps she was just missing Miles and was upset that Miles was not here to take her home. She continued to bang and slam herself, hurting herself inside the crate.
Theo was at a loss of what to do. He wished Emma was here too to calm down Belinda. He was now left with the chore of calming down both Sparky and Belinda. They had both become outright loud, and he knew if they would not stop, soon everyone in the palace would come over to his chamber to find out what the commotion was about.
Theo's heart was pounding. He was undecided, not knowing what to do next. He peeked inside the cage again, could not even think of any words to calm Belinda down. He tried petting the top of her head, but suddenly, as she looked up at Theo, he was surprised to see another version of Belinda.
He found a horrible angry face looking up at him. This face was of an angry cobra's face! Belinda's face had suddenly enlarged itself, ten times larger than her original head! Her whole body had grown in size as well. She now rose above the top of the crate, flipping the top over, hitting Theo on the forehead. Belinda continued to grow. She had now become a huge cobra. She was not the tiny little beautiful Belinda anymore with the long eyelashes. Her angry triangular head lunged forward with her mouth wide open. It had become so wide that it could swallow anything many times larger than its size. Belinda's beautiful eyelashes were gone, instead, there was only a pair of furious angry red eyes looking at Theo.
Theo could not believe what he was seeing, he was scared and felt dizzy after being hit on the forehead by the top of the crate. He fell onto the floor on his back. As Belinda's huge head lunged forward, he held up his hand to shield himself from the large cobra's mouth that was facing him.
Sparky made a nervous whimpy noise at first, but later was fiercely trying to protect Theo from this unknown creature. He stood in front of Theo, shielding him from Belinda and continued to bark loudly. Sparky had gone berserk, he would not stop barking.
Theo kept closing his eyes, unwilling to accept what he was witnessing. Everything seemed so unreal. He thought perhaps he was in a bad dream, he lay there for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for something awful to happen, but nothing had happened.
After a while, he sensed that everything was quiet again. He slowly opened his eyes and found there was no sound from the crate or anywhere.
What happened? Has Belinda escaped? Theo's heart was still pounding. Has she gone off by herself?
Theo slowly and quietly crawled over to the crate and peeked inside from the top again. He now found the original sweet Belinda in there. She was now lying sweetly on a comfortable spot of the crate where a cushion had been placed for her comfort.
"Hey, Belinda! Girl! Are you alright? Girl, you have scared me half to death just now. What just happened?" Theo began to gain back his confidence and talked sweetly to Belinda again.
Belinda seemed apologetic. She looked up at Theo with those beautiful eyes again. She seemed to have settled back in now to her old self, ready to have some rest.
"Okay, girl! I can see you are feeling much better now," Theo stroked the top of Belinda's little head and let out a big sigh of relief, "You just rest there and l'll see you later."
Sparky stood beside Theo, tilting his head to listen to what Theo was saying to Belinda. He did not understand what had just happened to his friend Belinda. But he, too, was relieved now to find the sweet Belinda inside her crate again.
Theo went back to the front of the chamber and found several of his warriors and General Thomas standing around.
"Your Highness! What is happening? Is everything alright?" asked General Thomas, his eyes were opened wide, fixated on the bump which now appeared on Theo's forehead.
"Nothing!" Theo explained, "It was only Belinda having a fit. The animal wanted to be let out again after she came back."
Theo told them the truth. There was no need for him to lie to his warriors. Like Sparky, they were there to protect him. He recruited General Thomas only recently for the trip he thought he was to take to the southern border for his training. General Thomas had two crews of warriors under his wings. Each crew was made of fifty warriors. According to the palace's record, General Thomas had led his warriors to some victories in wars at the border. He came highly recommended. So now, Theo's troop had grown to one hundred and fifty men.
"But she has quieted down now. There is no need for more action. She's resting there inside the crate," Theo continued to explain.
Theo was now exhausted, and too shaken by the ordeal to be doing anything else now. He felt the bump on his forehead and thought he would probably require some medical attention. He decided that he needed to stop by the nurse's station next to get some healing remedy. He kept wondering if such an episode would repeat in the future. He was afraid.
The nurse applied some ointment on his forehead and applied a wrap around the top of his head with some pins to secure it.
Hopefully, the bump will soon disappear. Theo thought.
When Emma came over in the morning, Theo couldn't wait to tell her what had happened the day before.
"That couldn't have happened. Perhaps you had a bad dream and fell over your bed," Emma was in total disbelief.
"I'm telling the truth! Why would I make up something like that? I wish Sparky could talk, he would tell you that it's the truth!"
Emma looked at Sparky, and to her, Sparky seemed normal. He didn't seem to have displayed any fear towards Belinda.
"Okay, perhaps she was missing Miles and was wondering where could he be?" Emma explained with a question that seemed logical, "I shall watch her closely this morning. Don't worry!"
"Yes, please watch her closely for me. If anything, you can send a guard to let me know. Make sure she doesn't go off by herself," Theo said, "I knew it! I knew there would be a problem when she misses him. I told Miles about that even before he left."
"She'll get used to us soon. Don't worry about it!" Emma said again confidently, "Now, you must go for your sword practice. You have already missed yesterday's session."
"Yes, my dear Emma! And now you too, Belinda," He looked inside the crate and said, "you must behave yourself this morning. I shall see you both when I come back around noon."
Theo then went off to join Sir Godwin for his sword session.
XXXXX
Sometime later on the same day, at a location further down in the forest where Baldwin and his crew were stationed, everyone was getting ready to get some rest after the night's meeting.
Suddenly, they heard someone from behind the bushes.
"Who is there?" Baldwin hollered.
"C'mon out, whoever you are!" he continued.
No one answered, Baldwin and his crew looked at each other with caution.
Robbers, perhaps? We're not worried. There are fifty of us here! Thought Baldwin.
Suddenly, someone came wobbling out from behind the bushes. He came stumbling forward.
"Help! Help me please! I'm hurt!" he begged.
The man in black came wobbling and stumbling towards Baldwin and the crew. He was hurt, bloodied from head to toes. He came and fell forward to the ground.
Baldwin immediately went over to hold him and elevated his head above his torso so the warrior would not choke on his own blood.
"B...Ba...Baldwin?" asked the wounded warrior.
"Yes! How do you know my name?" asked Baldwin. He was confused.
"N...ne...never mind...who I am... pl..please tell Samuel that all have failed. All...all..th..the warriors... d... de... dead."
"Why? What was it that you had to do?" Baldwin needed to understand what was going on. He wanted to know before the man died. His investigative mind was heightened to its highest alert.
"Tell me! What was it that you had to do?"
"Ta.. ta..te...tell him... it's not human... it... it's a mo... mon... monster," said the warrior in black.
“What? Please tell me! What is not human? Who is not human? C'mon, tell me who!”
"C'mon! Say it! Tell me!" Baldwin tried hard to listen to the warrior, he pressed his ear close to the warrior's mouth to listen.
The warrior suddenly stared blankly into the sky and drew his last breath.
"Tell me! Tell me!" Baldwin urged the wounded man.
"I think the man is dead," said one of his warriors.
"What was that all about?" asked another.
"I don't know! He didn't have enough time to tell me," Baldwin told the crew. He laid the man down, brushing his hand over his eyelids to close his eyes. In the back of his mind, he was busy trying to figure out what was the stranger meant.
What could these people be doing for Samuel? Why have not Samuel told me anything about this? Baldwin felt as though Samuel had cheated him out of a good juicy case to work on.
He must get to the bottom of this. Samuel should not hold any secrets from him. After all, he was his top detective. Samuel should let him work on all the top cases.
Thank you, Joyce, and everyone! I'm so happy you have taken the time to read and comment on this story! The next chapter will be up very soon. Sorry, it has been delayed due to one of my kitties has been sick. I was under tremendous stress because she would not eat but pooping diarrhea all over the place and none of the medications seems helping. We suspect she may have cancer but we need to give her an ultrasound in her tummy to find out. She is now taking 4 types of medications around the clock. I'm very stressed indeed over her.
I shall write chapter 19 soon. Yes, there's going to be more happenstance to this story. Please stay tuned!
WELL WRITTEN AND VERY MUCH ENJOYED. A FINE WORK...YOU HAVE CAPTURED MY INTEREST AND I AM BACK TO READING 'KINGDOM OF LARGO'...AT LEAST FOR NOW AND I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT MY PERSONAL DILEMMA WILL ALLOW ME TO CONTINUE. THANK YOU FOR SHARING, SANDIE. LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH...HIS+INSPIRATIONS
A very intriguing chapter! You have created three scenarios in which each hold its captivating value to this reader. The story is so well-told. With the narrator's thoughts process, I feel as though I was in the story with your characters. I also like the picture you have created for the story! Well-done, Sandie!
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