(Pic is Mare except her mane and tail are thicker :) Isn't she so pretty?)
Sylvia's POV.
"Look out!" I screeched shoving a guy over as he tried sending a dagger piercing through Corny's back. I wrestled with him for a moment as we both attempted to grab the knife, but I was more agile and quickly gained control of it pushing the knife through his chest. Picking myself up onto my palms and knees with ragged breathing I glanced towards Cornelius, hair falling in front of my face, only to see him kneeling down to pick something up,
"Ooo, a penny!" He enthusiastically picked it up, carefully shining it with his clothes like I had watched him do so many times with so many rocks... My head sagged in the dirt in defeat before I leaped up onto my feet,
"Ehhh," My face scrunched up in disgust as I noticed the blood on the sleeves of my sweater, I doubted that was going to come out anytime soon. Shaking my head as if it could clear the fact that I was with a dimwit I yanked the knife out of the already smelly body wiping it off in the dirt before placing it on my belt. I glanced around to assert my situation to see there were three more guys, I'd already killed two, and they all seemed wary of me, yet not quite ready to back down. In the corner of my eye, I also saw Simba grab Corny by his sleeves and drag him away from the squabbling people. I almost burst out laughing at the sight, that dog hasn't ceased to amaze me yet. Turning my attention back to the three fuming men around me, who in my opinion, looked more like angry children than men actually capable of defending themselves, I pulled out my bow which I had slung on my back with my arrows. I had grabbed them before leaving Maple on the outskirts of town just in case something like this happened, I knew it would be useless to bring Maple as an escape option because I wasn't going to just leave Corny and Maple was too loaded to carry the both of us. Clearing my mind once more, I nocked an arrow aiming it at the men who were circling around me,
"I wouldn't move any closer if I were you, boys," I said casually flicking my hair back with a twist of my head and aiming my bow at one of the guys' heads.
"Is that so?" One of them, with dark golden yellow hair, questioned, obviously not realizing my capability after watching two of his comrades die by my hand,
"Why, yes, it is," I said spinning on my heel and releasing an arrow into another guy's foot as he stepped forward, in a second I had another one nocked and ready to fire. The guy I'd hit, with tanned skin, brown eyes, and hair, knelt on the ground clutching his ankle as to not further aggravate his badly hurt foot and spitting through his clenched teeth as he tried furiously not to scream,
"Eh, eh, eh..." I warned, clicking my tongue on the top of my mouth as one of them tried going over to help their buddy,
"I gave a simple instruction, so now if you don't want an arrow... Say in your knee or, arm? Why don't you just stay right there," I grinned wickedly as they all stopped moving, how I loved when I held all the dominance in a room; or clearing? Technically we weren't in a room... But still, you get the point,
"Now, we can do this the painful way.... And all of you die a miserable death, because, well, death by arrows can be very slow." I grinned even brighter as they shuffled nervously from foot to foot, "Or..." I started slowly, "You could be on your merry way, leave one of your horses that I'm certain you have, and pretend like this never happened... Oh and you'd get to rescue your buddy over there from bleeding to death," I noticed the guy who I shot in the foot's breathing increased. It was quite valid that they were all worried for their lives, which only gave me more confidence.
"I-I suppose..." One of the men said glancing from me to his injured buddy, "That we wouldn't need Mare anymore... Since, since Jon and Graham won't need em'..."
"Yeah... I- I think that might be the best course of action," The other standing man nodded to his accomplice in agreement while adding to his statement,
"Looks like we're all in agreement... And a good one at that I really didn't want to get any more blood on my clothes," I said trying to dust myself off. Both of the men scowled at me before the one with gold hair told his companion to go and get the horses. I leaned against one of the houses waiting and keeping a calm look about me, but you know what was actually going on in my head? CORNY! That's who! I fricken wanted to see where that guy was and teach at least something better to do when we come across people who want to fight instead of just trying to get himself killed! I breathed out raggedly trying to keep myself calm and smiled brightly at the golden head who was watching me closely while tending to the brown head's foot. Just when I thought it couldn't take any longer the other guy with black hair walked up to them with three horses behind him. He came over to me throwing the reins of a mare, a female horse if you didn't know, towards me still scowling,
"There's your horse," He said, venom lasing his voice. I just snickered picking up the reins, they were all just sad because a girl beat them. Smiling to myself I walked around, looking for Cornelius, and found him around a corner petting Simba patiently. I sighed waving for him to follow me,
"We'll pick up a couple of things, then we'll be on our way and out of yours," I said to the heaving men as they helped their buddy up onto a horse. I shook my head before walking towards the houses,
"What were you trying to do back there?" I asked opening up a box only to find old dusty rags,
"Looking for things," He replied happily searching through the room with me,
"Well, can you promise me to at least stay out of the way, and out of harm's way as well, when people are trying to kill us? Unless you plan on helping..." I added more under my breath but I knew he heard it all,
"I'm not too good at fighting I don't think, or at least that's what my father's general said... So, I guess I'll just stay out of the way?" He said picking up a toy before flicking it away broadly, I guess toys weren't in his section of keeping and shining,
"Yeah, unless I teach you how to fight of course..." I said distractedly as I found a can of beans on a shelf. Though I heard Corny exclaim behind me,
"You could do that!? Oh, I would love for you to teach me!!" He said like a person who had just found a jackpot of food,
"Of course, I'm sure I'll have time to on our way to Widow's Cove," I picked up another can of beans placing it in the bag I'd put on Corny's back. For the rest of the time, Corny was trying to do fighting moves and it was thee funniest thing to watch, but sadly we didn't get much more luck than finding some old bread and a bottle of wine, which I grabbed... And a long sword that I think was a Samurai sword, or it looked like one at least from the books I've read with pictures. I'd asked Corny if he wanted it for his weapon, he had eagerly agreed and now was carrying it with him everywhere. For the rest of the day, we traversed through the hot sage hills slowly coming closer and closer to Jason. With the extra horse, I was able to take some of the load off of Maple and onto Mare which made traveling much faster since Corny didn't have to walk. Mare, which was what we were calling her now, was a black and white horse with a long mane and tail, she was beautiful really, and well built.
"Yes, you're a good girl, say yeah your good girl!" Corny said in a baby voice to Mare leaning over to pat the side of her neck. I rolled my eyes, he was a dork, and I knew the smartest course of action would be to leave him... But, for once I think I'll go with the riskier root and keep him. Besides, if I left him he would most likely die the next time he found a town. Except teaching him... I wasn't looking forward to losing a finger, leg, or arm. I sat on Maple rather content with myself and watched as the sun slowly sank behind the hills, going to that town had most likely set us off by a day; we should be there or almost there by tomorrow night though... The thought sent little ripples of excitement coursing through me,
"Here, we'll stop here for tonight," I said leaping off of Maple, I'd become quite accustomed to riding him now that I'd been doing it everyday almost all day, though my legs always ached at the end of the day,
"But there's still light," Corny asked, a confused look plastered on his face,
"Yeah... And I'm going to use those last ten minutes of light to teach you a thing or two about using that," I said lifting a finger towards the sword on his belt. Instantly his face lit up and he was off the horse in a second trying to draw his sword but it took him a few seconds as it kept hooking onto things. I sighed shaking my head,
"Once you can pull that you without hurting yourself, and quickly, then we can start working on other things," I said walking around the area,
"Okay!" He instantly put it back and started trying to pull it out quickly. I was maybe a little worried he might cut himself... I'd stopped us in a little devote in the ground, the dirt was starting to look more like dirt than cracked earth, there were some rocks around us kind of like a protective shield. The shrubs were a little greener than I'd seen in a while. Overall, even the landscape was telling me I was getting close to my destination. Walking around a little more I ended up finding a long thick stick, I could use it as a walking stick and to help teach Corny how to use his sword, I was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to cut the stick, or at least for now.
"I can do it! I can do it!" I turned around to see Corny pull out his sword, he did it quickly but it took a second before the blade stopped wobbling in his hands. I laughed dragging him away from the horses towards a flat spot that didn't have too many rocks to trip on,
"Okay, get into a stance like me," I instructed spreading my legs and standing partly sideways to Corny, once his position mirrored mine I continued, "Good. Now, your goal is to hit my stick not me... Okay, I can't risk this, stay here," I added the last part as Corny tried following me back towards the horses. I came back to Corny in a few minutes with another stick similar to mine,
"Here catch," I threw him the stick and he clumsily caught it,
"What's this for?" He questioned,
"That's going to be your sword so you don't kill one of us, so put the actual blade away," His smile faltered for a moment, but then he seemed to see the sense in it and quickly sheathing his blade,
"Okay, get back into position. Good, now I'm going to try and hit you with my sword, we'll go slow at first, but all I want you to do is try and block my blows, alright?" I shifted on my feet lifting my stick and giving Corny a questioning look,
"Alright," He confirmed taking a deep breath and trying to copy my position from four feet away. I slowly swung the stick towards his legs, then his right arm. As he managed to block all of my counters I slowly increased my sweep causing him to get hit a couple of times. It was only ten minutes in when I realized I hadn't actually really learned how to sword fight before, I'd only fought with people who could and watched my mom show my brother how to when I was younger. So, perhaps I'd learn something from this as well as Corny would. We continued long into the knight, stopping once to make a fire, and then another to eat dinner, but I found that I rather enjoyed sparing with Cornelius as he wasn't hard to deal with and didn't get frustrated easily. He was a quick learner and shook it off every time he got hit and was always enthralled when he managed to hit me. We had most likely been hitting each other with sticks hours into the knight, the only light source being the firelight that we constantly had to replenish with food laying around. The whole time the horses were just calmly scratching at the dirt with their hooves and looking for shrubs around them, I had tied both of them to the stalk of a dead bush that was close by; as long as they weren't spooked into a run it should keep them there. Finally, way past dark, we both paused breathing heavily. We'd both become quite fast at moving our sticks around, though that just meant the other person had a higher chance of hitting the other, meaning both of us were littered with bruises,
"You are... The best friend... I have ever had..." Corny said breathlessly, resting one hand on his knee and the other on my shoulder,
"Same..." I panted in the same position as him. We stayed there for a while before Corny randomly punched me in the shoulder. I grinned mischievously punching him back, we both started laughing when I suddenly felt something drop on my head, then another,
"Is that..." Corny started but trailed off as we started hearing little pattering sounds all around us followed by a huge 'boom',
"Shit!"
How was that chapter for you guys? It was a little shorty than the last couple of ones... But I hope it was still good! We're getting to the climactic part though... Sylvia is so close to the Taipans! What do you thinks going to go down when she gets there? Are you excited for the next chapter? Do you think Sylvia will end up being held up by something! 😯 And as always please leave any tips, questions, or/and thoughts in the comments! I love them all and read them all... Also a big thank you to everyone who is still reading this book!! You give me encouragement to keep writing!! 😁😊
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Survival
Adventure"Where'd you come from?" I questioned aloud in a sweet voice, rubbing its neck. The dog's tail wagged as he licked my arm when suddenly the hairs on my back rose, my inner sense saying something was off... but it was too late. Someone had come up fr...
