Once upon a time (Section 17 The End.)

[theFrey]

Section 17 Conclusion

As soon they had fled the castle it became apparent that flight was going to be no easy matter. Stanley could hear cries going up from the battlement, and signal mirrors began flashing from hill top to hill top. Panting heavily as he ran, he lamented their lack of horses. He wondered what chores Jayne would have in store for the boys who *weren’t* beside the stables with their horses as they had been told to be. If he hadn’t been so winded, he would have sighed in regret. But Kai had judged that saddling horses would take too long, even if it could have been done without raising more of an alarm.

Shouting at them to hurry, Kai had them dive behind a small out cropping just seconds before a large troop of guards came pelting down the track.

Panting, Xev watched the guards disappear around the bend. But in response to a hurried whisper from Kai, she and Stanley remained where they were.

“Wait,” Kai hissed. “Stanley, be ready to come assist me when I call you.”

And then Kai scrambled over the outcrop to clamber into the foliage of a small tree by the road.

“Here Xev, take this,” Stan said thrusting 790 at her. As he handed the growling robot head over, he became aware of the heavy gold chain wrapped tightly around his fist. “Take this too,” he told her dropping the very heavy chain into her out stretched hands. “Wrap 790 in our bundle and stick this in with him, we don’t want to loose it. If Prince does manage to get a hold of us again, he might be a bit pissed if we don’t have it to return to him.”

Xev wrapped the protesting 790 with their clothes she tucked the chain securely into the bundle while Stan turned his attention to Kai.

After several moments another detachment of troops could be heard thundering towards them. Apparently this some what smaller troop was exactly what Kai was waiting for. Waiting until the first few horse men had passed, Kai shot his brace across the track latching it onto a small sapling on the other side of the road. He then quickly pulled out a bit more slack and looped around the upper trunk of the tree he was perched in. He managed to get it tight, just as the last few stragglers raced towards his position.

Kai grunted as he strained to hold the cable tight while it swept the last four riders off their horses.

After releasing and recalling the brace, Kai leapt down to the road.
“Stanley, come quickly!” he called as he kicked one of the fallen riders in the back and then snatched up the man’s sword. Before they could recover and untangle from their horses, Kai whirled through their mist, using the pommel of the sword to render them unconscious. He was able to snatch the bridle of one of the tangled horses, and used his brace to trip up another.

“Here Stan, hold this,” he called thrusting the bridle at Stan and then dashing over to where the fallen house was floundering to regain its footing. He had just grabbed the side of its bridle when the horse reared, dragging the Brunen-g high into the air.

Stanley gasped as he watched Kai being tossed about, but then his attention was taken up by the horse he was holding. He managed to hold the horse tightly and even gain some control over it by the time Kai came running up the road followed by the wild eyed horse he was leading.

“Quick Xev,” Kai called. “Those two horses that escaped will have alerted the riders in the front that there is a problem.”

Panting, and only a little wild eyed himself, Stanley managed to hold the horse steady enough to enable Xev to scramble up on it. Stanley grabbed the pommel and stepped into Kai’s cupped hands and was boosted up behind Xev.

“Kai!” Stan yelled, “I don’t know how to drive one of these things!”

“Both of you hang on!” Kai called back, mounting his own horse. “I have the reins.”

And hang on they did, as Kai managed to get both horses turned around and running down the track away from the castle.

As he had expected, they were met only a few minutes later, by the front riders, who had turned to find out what had happened to the rest of the unit.

Kai’s brace managed to slice the reins of one of the two horses, and then the saddle strap on the other. This gave the guards something else to worry about. Plowing into the thick of the remaining riders, Kai used his brace to disarm two of the other riders, but it was Xev who really put them to rout. Apparently the already upset horses, did not like the keening of a Cluster Lizard, and they swerved away from her and Stanley.

“Watch it Xev!” Stan screamed as their own horse tried to rear. Both of them nearly fell off the horse as Kai jerked the reins and they continued pressing their way thru to the clear road ahead.

Once clear of the guards, Kai called for them to hang on as he whipped his horse to greater speed. When they passed an area where the banks of the road rose too high to let the following horse men spread out, he turned in his saddle using his brace to lop off a large overhanging branch behind them. He did this several times, where the road had sharp bends with high banks.

“Kai!” Xev called, “Where are we going!”

“The Forest road!”

Stan looked behind them; occasionally he would catch glimpses of the guards following them. While there did seem to be less of them, they were still following them.

Thundering down the track they grew closer and closer to the forest. Unfortunately, the guards also grew closer and closer, and the horse carrying Xev and Stanley was starting to falter.

Kai pulled their horse level with his and shouted, “Stan, take the reins, follow this road and don’t, don’t go into the forest! Just wait for me outside of it, I will be along soon!”

“I can’t drive a horse Kai!” Stan protested as he scrambled for the reins. Kai struck a sharp blow to the rump of their flagging horse, and he and Xev both yelped when the horse jumped and surged ahead.

Kai wrestled his horse around to face the track, that he had been trained in many forms of transportation, did not mean that horses necessarily approved of strange riders.

**************

Stan struggled with the galloping horse, “Xev I think something is wrong with this one, it’s blowing foam all over the place!” He wrestled ineffectively with the reins. But the horse was too excited to pay attention to such feeble attempts to control it.

“Stanley!! Stop it, stop it!” Xev screamed as the forest grew closer.

Xev screamed, Stanley cursed and 790 yelled advice that was too muffled to hear as the horse took the bit between his teeth and plunged into the overgrown forest road. Ducking low against the horses back, Stan and Xev managed to avoid being scraped off by the low branches whipping over their heads.

“790!” Xev screamed, as the horse stumbed over a encroaching tree root, regaining its footing with a hard jolt.

Stanley made a desperate lunge and managed to snag the bundle as it bounced from Xev’s arms, but the momentum of this triumphant catch was too much. He gave a wordless cry as he rolled off the horse, grazed a passing tree trunk before collapsing at the side of the road.

Xev’s last glimpse of Stan before she was whisked deeper into the forest was his arms falling away from his body as the bundle containing 790 rolled into the windblown debris that lined the road.

Jumping off of his horse Kai turned to face their pursuers. Seeing him standing in the road, the lead riders pulled their swords. The one flowing to the right attempted a head cut. Kai swayed away and then grabbed his arm, yanking him off his horse as he flew into the path of the horse on the right.

Kai ducked several other sword thrusts and used his brace to pull the other three riders off their horses as they streamed past him. He then turned to face the lone remaining guard on a horse. Jumping aside, just as the horse would have run him down, he grabbed the bridle with one hand as he jerked the surprised rider off the horse with this other.

Kai swung up on the horse, ran it into the midst of the guards who where regrouping, knocking them aside again, and then scattered their horses before him as he galloped down the road towards the forest. The horses he had been driving before him, eventually scattered into small clearings on either side of the road. Feeling that they were far enough from their riders to avoid quick recapture, he barreled back down the track towards the forest.

He noted that Xev and Stan were not waiting for him at the entrance of the forest. Since he had calculated that this might be the case, he plunged into the forest ducking low and keeping a close watch out for signs of them.

Kai hadn’t gone very far into the forest before he came upon a dusty Stanley who was backed up against a large tree trunk wielding a large tree branch.

“Geeze Kai, you startled me.”

“Stanley where is Xev?” Kai said, as he brought his horse to a stop.

“The horse wouldn’t stop, and I fell trying to keep from losing 790.”

Kai glanced at the stray leaves caught in Stan’s clothing, noted the bruise on his cheek and the bloody scratches on the backs of his hands. His attention was then drawn to the shrieking bundle at the base of Stan’s tree.

“Stanley get 790, we need to go get Xev. This forest is not safe you know.”

Tell me about it,” Stan muttered as he retrieved the bundle of their belongings that the robot was wrapped in.

“790, we need you to be quiet now,” Kai told the noisy bundle.

“Kai, Kai my beloved is that you?”

“Yes 790, it is me, and now I need to listen if we are going to escape, you need to be silent if we are going to stay free. Do you understand?”

“Oh yes my deadman of delight, what ever you say.”

Kai reached down and pulled Stanley up behind him on the horse. “Stanley, keep your eyes on the trees above us, I will search for Xev.”

“Sure Kai, but what am I looking for?”

“Something that you will not want to see Stanley.”

They rode at a steady pace for perhaps five minutes, then Kai whispered, “Stanley, be quiet, we are getting closer.”

Stan listened. Did he hear something up ahead?

Kai slipped down off of the horse, motioned Stanley to get down and then tethered the horse to a near by branch.

Slipping silently up to Stanley he whispered in his ear to take 790 and continue following the trail on foot. Quietly.

Before Stan could reply, Kai melted away into the woods.

*****

“Come on you stupid thing, turn around.” Ignoring her, as he had for most of her ride, the horse stood in the middle of the path, breathing heavily. Xev, tugged on its mane and drummed her heels against its sides. She debated letting go of the mane, to grab the sting things that Stanley had been holding, but decided against that. With her luck, that would most likely be the moment the stupid thing would break in to a run again.

Xev around. She suddenly had the feeling that she was being watched. She narrowed her eyes as a strange scent wafted past her. Abruptly, her horse began tossing its head nervously and she heard a faint rustling above her.

Before she could react the horse reared, Screaming in panic. Xev’s grip on its mane enabled her to keep her seat, but she started to slide off as it slammed back down to the ground and then spun around abruptly. Tumbling to the ground, Xev rolled though the leaf mold and branch bit, trying to avoid flashing hoofs as the horse reared one more time and then fled back down the path.

A strange bird like creature descended from the tree canopy. “I told you, you were making too much noise,” it cried as it landed on the path near Xev.

Xev scrambled backwards, “I didn’t say anything,” she said in a choked voice.

The dun colored bird snapped its teeth together in irritation as it casually wrapped its long tail tightly around Xev’s left ankle. “I was not taking to you,” it said, as two similar creatures descended to perch on a thick branch above them.

“Mother, make him share,” the smaller of the two creatures on the branch begged.

The much larger, brighter, purple scaled creature made a soothing sound as it surveyed Xev. “Now, my precious hatchlings, there is no need to fight. I’m sure this man-thing will be enough for both of you. And if not, mother will go look for its horse for you.”

Stanley finished tying the blown horse loosely to a tree, before picking up 790 and continuing up the trail limping slightly. After catching the reins of Xev horse as it tried to barrel past him, he almost lost it immediately, by tripping over a tree root snaking across the path. At least I caught it, he though wondering if he should have done so. What if Kai had instructed Xev to let it loose? Shrugging, he shifted their bundle with 790 replaced inside of it and continued quietly along the path.

He had only walked another few minutes, when he heard a commotion up ahead. He broke into a lopsided run when he heard Xev’s cluster lizard scream and strange shouting voices. Stanley cursed under his breath as he hurried towards the sound. He was well on his way to complete panic, when he heard Xev’s glad cry of ‘Kai’.

“Stanley!” Xev cried as she ran to hug him. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“Are you okay?”

“A few bruises, but other than that, nothing else.”

“So, who is your scaly friend?” he asked. “And where’s Kai?.”

“Stanley, where is 790?” Kai called from up in one of the trees.

Looking up, Stan saw Kai leaning against a tree fork with the cable of his brace wrapped around the throat of the larger bird snake thing. Raising the now shrieking bundle, he pointed towards it.

“Now what?” Xev called up to Kai.

“Now we leave.” Kai said, ordering both birds out of the tree and down to the path.

A short time later, Stanley shaded his eyes and watched the birds fly back into the forest. It was a shame about those poor horses he though, but better the birds eat them as opposed to devouring him and Xev. Of course if it hadn’t been for Kai threatening to kill the mother bird-monster that is most likely what would have happened.

“But Kai, now what are we going to do?” Xev tiredly shifted the heavy swearing bundle that consisted of 790 and all that they now possessed. “We can’t go back to our cottage. Prince may return there. We have no home, no jobs and no money to live on and not even any idea of where we are. I’m not sure what we are going to do.”

Kai did not reply. For several long, long moments he regarded them.

Stanley shifted from foot to foot for a moment, and then noticed a few stalks of teasels in the weeds off to the side of the road. He went over to them broke off two and handed one to Xev. “Here,” he said taking the bundle from her and setting it down on the ground at their feet. “Fix your hair, you look a mess.”

Ignoring Xev’s confused stare, he proceeded to take his own advice and used the teasel he retained and combed his own hair neatly. Bending down to tuck his teasel in the buddle, he paused looking at Xev, who was still staring at him.

“What? Do you want to look like that as we travel?” He gestured to her wild hair that had been whipped to a frenzy by their recent wild ride on the birds. He rescued 790 from the bundle and handed the swearing sputtering robot head to Kai.

“Come on Xev. After what we’ve been through lately, this will be easy. After all this path has to go somewhere, we can get other jobs, find another home. Besides,” he reached again into the bundle and held up the large heavy gold chain and passed it to Kai. “Prince gave us plenty of money to travel on. We can break that up and sell bits of it as we need to.”

Stanley slung the bundle over his shoulder and started walking towards away from the forest. After a few steps he stopped and looked back. “Well, are you coming or what?” he demanded.

Kai and Xev looked at each other and then both started walking towards Stanley. “Yes, Stanley we coming, that sounds like an excellent plan.” Kai told him.

As the walked towards the future, Stan fell in beside Kai. “You know Kai, I’ve been thinking. Maybe this time we should try to find a small city to live in.”

“Really Stanley? Why is that?”

“Well, hunting is pretty dirty work, and with what you know as your typical Brunen-g, and what Xev and I have learned… I bet we could make more money opening a beauty parlor. ”

They walked on. The suggestions for shop names and services provided grew more and more outrageous, and amid the peals of laughter, Kai suggested gently, that perhaps there were times when Stanley and Xev should not think so much.

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