Scout Stories: Bruised Beginnings

Old Friends

"WAIT!" 

Cuno ran down the hill towards them, waving his hands in the air like a mad man.

He had no idea why they listened to him but they kept it open until he ran through the gap. He bent down, clutching his knees and struggling to get his breath back. The two guards finished closing the gate and turned to him.

"What you thinking?" asked one, slapping the back of Cuno's head. Cuno managed to see it coming in time. He concentrated until the guards stood back from him. Maybe he should have let them close the gate. He hated people with physical personalities.

Cuno said nothing. This guard was male, tall but didn't have much muscle about him. His voice still had that squeaky quality of the young. Although once that was gone he would have a voice like one of Cuno's teachers.

"Travelling this close to sunset. You the full bob or what?"

"You might have been stuck out there," said the other one.

She sounded less like a teacher, but still disapproving. She was shorter, but not a lot older than her companion. She didn't have any wrinkles, but a few pimples dotted across her chin. It would have been better if they were two old codgers.

Cuno put up a finger. "Technically, you weren't supposed to let me in," he said.

The young man tried to hit him again, but Cuno stepped to the side to dodge it. He was still trying to get his lungs under control, so hoped to avoid a fight. Unfortunately he was still winded enough to make talking difficult. The boss often told him that he had a silver tongue. Often followed by a reminder that tongues weren't too much effort to remove.

Not managing the slap didn't seem to bother the man. Cuno was aware of his intention and his annoyance. That, it appeared, was enough.

"Hardly going to leave a man out there," said the young man. Then he waved towards the gate. "But if you would rather step back through and sleep outside, that's fine by me. I'll even open it back up for you."

"Don't joke about that," said the woman. At least she seemed to have a bit of sense.

Cuno would guess that they were kin, or had been around each other while growing up. They didn't look all that alike, but they set their mouths in the same way when annoyed.

"You know what could be out there," she said. Then she turned to Cuno and crossed her arms. "As do you. You are old enough to know you shouldn't be travelling so late."

Cuno tried not to be too peeved at her calling him old. He doubted he was even ten years older than she was. He shrugged.

"Worse things have happened," he said. "Besides, when was the last time their was any Aed sightings around here?"

"Oh, they're around," said the female guard. She narrowed her eyes and looked towards the gate. She leaned in towards him and whispered. "Last week we found one of our outposts outside smashed up."

Cuno's interest in the conversation grew a considerable amount.

"Couldn't it have been someone with a hammer or something?" he asked. "I'd heard quite a few rumours about bandits around lately."

She shook her head. "That outpost was old. Craved out of rock."

"Rock?" asked Cuno.

"The wooden ones weren't lasting long enough. Animals got to them. Storms destroyed them. So they used an old boulder outside of town."

Cuno nodded and knealt down. "And you didn't think the wooden ones could have been detroyed?"

"No reason to," said the young man. "We haven't got much here for anyone to want."