Unkarra Gate (1st draft)

Chapter 31.2

The next morning, Bogrel once again returned to the main camp before the girls awoke. After sneaking so food to them, he put his new group of trainees onto a morning regimen before taking some time to coach the company men on their swordsmanship.

This ended in a conversation with Matias.

"I know you told me it would take several weeks for my force to cross the mountains and reach us, but I need to have eyes up there now. I don't wish to be caught by surprise."

Bogrel nodded. "Your men have picked up as much as I'm going to be able to teach them here and now. I need to focus on the new arrivals."

"So you said you will be training them with spears?" Bogrel nodded his response, eager to finish the conversation. "Do we have enough spears?"

Bogrel shook his head. "But there's trees. We'll have some more by the end of today."

"I've sent for more weapons to be brought and more men, so hopefully they arrive before our enemies."

"Yes, let's hope." It was sufficiently uninteresting a response that it killed their conversation, and Bogrel freed himself of Matias' company.

He set off to take the boys in search of a copse of young trees that spears could be crafted from.

By this time, Ezara and Dara had woken. Faced with the same boredom as the day before, Ezara was not about to do the same thing as the day before.

"I'm sneaking out of here," she stated.

"You're the one that doesn't want to get caught."

"I won't."

"Where are you going to go anyway?"

"Just going to see what's up."

"You're so stubborn. Just watch yourself."

Ezara stuck her tongue out in response, making an accompanying noise to ensure Dara got her meaning, and didn't miss the parting shot due to her poor sight. She wrapped her mom's scarf around her and disappeared into the the woods, leaving Dara lying all alone in the small site.

It had been some time since Ezara last traversed the forest of Geberra, but she still had no trouble getting around. Making her way to the edge of main camp, she hid behind a bunch of ferns for cover. She could see some of the company men going about their business by the few Geberran buildings. Not wishing to spy on them, or be seen herself, she slunk back into the woods again.

She circled the area for a while, smiling when she heard the familiar din of a large group of young men talking amongst themselves, away from camp, making a huge amount of noise breaking branches and rustling leaves. She enjoyed following them, being the cat, as it were, and not the mouse.

She smirked as she darted from cover to cover, even permitted herself a quiet giggle here and there. For over an hour, she followed them like this, until they stopped at a grove of young trees. She heard before she got around to seeing them begin to cut the trees down. There was the sounds of both axes chopping and saws cutting through the narrow trunks. As the first few fell, the spread out in lite groups. She had to become more careful, as they weren't all looking the other way anymore.

Taking her time, she eventually spotted who she was looking for. Bogrel was easy to spot, as all the boys moved away from him as he sent them off. Flavias. He wasn't at the edge of the group, but she could see him well enough. She found himself crouching under some drooping berry bushes as she peered over an old fallen log. The smile at the edge of her mouth grew. He held a hatchet in his lanky hands, and attacked an equally lanky sapling until it fell with a gentle crash. Ezara laughed quietly to herself, as she found it quite unimpressive, but she liked watching him work anyway. After felling the sapling, he stood up straight and rubbed his brow. His partner on the job took the hatchet and began knocking the branches off. As she continued to watch them, they spread out further among the trees. Some of them came closer to her, but she still escaped notice.

Quietly, she ducked behind the log and walked its length, and came to a small stream bed she would be able to sneak along. As she crept along this, she heard saw at work only steps away. Poking her head up a few times, she saw Flavias was now only a stone's throw away. But between them was one other person, and she smiled because it wasn't going to be hard to get past him at all.

Ezara stepped out from the bushes quietly; her footsteps so light that it wasn't until she was nearly in front of Rollo that he finally noticed her. His eyes opened wide in surprise, followed by his mouth, but all words were stifled by Ezara raising her finger to her lips. Rollo proceeded to completely freeze as he watched Ezara sneak the rest of the way to Flavias, coming up behind both him and his tree-chopping partner.

Her smile at its utmost, she timed her surprise just as Flavias had the hatchet raised for a chop.

"Hey!" She said, with a poke to the ribs.

His reaction was somewhere between and attack and an accident. He was so worked up about the battle that he suddenly though he was caught in a surprise attack, but had nowhere near the skill to control himself. He practically fell on his face, saying "wha-oops!" But the hatchet swing still made its way to her; she deftly kicked the handle and stopped Flavias' clumsy swing.

Ezara wasted no time in laughing it off while the boys were still stunned at the block of the hatchet swing.

"What are you doing here? Quiet down, someone will hear you!"

"Oh, lighten up, everyone here knows I'm here with you anyway."

"Right, Where did you come from?"

"Where do you think?" She asked, poking fun at him. "A fairy tale?"

"She snuck right past me," said Rollo, coming over. "She just appeared right in front of me."

"Thanks for the warning," Flavias deadpanned.

"So is beating up baby trees getting you ready for battle?"

"No, we're making spears," explained Flavias. "Okay, you guys, back to work. You heard Bo, we get this done fast enough we get the afternoon off."

Rollo and Flavias' partner groaned and got back to work with saw and hatchet.

"So, an afternoon off?" Asked Ezara, as she hung around Flavias. "Got any plans?"

"What plans could I have? I'm going to lie down and not work."

"Well, maybe you need some help with that. Lying around alone isn't very fun. That's all I did yesterday."

Flavias' eyes lit up as his mouth went quiet. Ezara laughed at his expression before chasing tone with him.

"I didn't get to see you yesterday."

"Did you want to?"

"I got kind of used to it. Travelling with you guys, well it was fun."

"But you were practically running for your life."

"Maybe I'm used to it."

"Well anyway, I wasn't kidding when I said I have a lot of trees to cut down. It's my turn with the hatchet," Flavias said in response to his own partner's calls.

"Well then, come find me tonight."

"Where?"

"Try Bogrel's campsite. I'll probably be watching you anyway"

"Are you going back now?"

"No, I'm going to stay and keep spying on you," she said, her smile in full force again. She made the three boys that had seen her promise not to out her to anyone else, so she could keep having her fun, took their food, and went back to slinking around the brush.

Once they had gathered enough trees - which was determined by how much they could possibly carry - they started to hike back to camp. Each tree might have been small, but they added up, and it was a gruelling March for them. They each carried a bundle between two of them. Falls and curses were coming frequently. Ezara enjoyed watching them all struggle immensely.

When they made it back, and after eating, instead of the break they were hoping for, Bogrel set them right to task on the spears; cutting them to length and sharpening them to points. Ezara grew bored of watching them, and went back to spend some time with a thoroughly bored Dara. She shared some food and joined her friend in lying around.