The Travelers of the Tree

Chapter 3 - The Bully and The Hero

David and Matt had watched in silent horror as the man had whipped Tommy and thrown him into the wagon. Even at their distance they could see that the man was humongous. Neither said a word as the carriage rode off, and disappeared over a hill, leaving a cloud of dust that slowly drifted towards them. David turned and looked at Matt. Matt was still seated, and he could also tell he was afflicted with as big a headache as he himself had. David grimaced and as he shouted he could hear his own words echoing loudly in his ears. "What was that?"

Matt stared at him wide eyed. Then he shook his head.

"I don't know. This is crazy. Did you see that guy?" Matt tried to stand up. He felt that he could have, but then he stopped. He was afraid the headache would get worse. "He was five times the size of me, at least. What did he hit Tommy with?"

"It was a whip," David answered. At this, Matt glanced at him angrily.

"I'm not an idiot! I know it was a whip. But why did it make Tommy just lie there, like he was unconscious?" David threw his hands up in a calming way.

"Hey... lets not argue. I didn't know if you saw it. I don't know why it knocked him out like that. Maybe he was scared."

"Ok. Sorry.... it's this headache that is making me angry. And this place. And this... this whole crazy situation. This is just too unbelievable."

"Well, we have to believe it. And we have to deal with it. We're just lucky those guys didn't see us." Again, Matt scowled.

"Yeah, I would have liked to see that loser try to get me into that wagon."

"With the condition we're in right now, he would have taken you with one arm, and me with the other." He turned away from Matt and looked back again at where the wagon had disappeared. He knew if he could stand up, he would have a chance to see over the hill that he had last seen it going over. He rocked back and forth until he was on all fours. His head hurt. He made up his mind that he was going to ignore it. There was many a football game where he had gotten hurt. Sprained ankle. Broken finger. Head ringing from a huge hit by a defensive lineman. He had never asked out of a game before. And he wasn't going to ask out of this situation.

Those times when he had played with the most pain, he had done so by sheer will. He had convinced himself that no matter how bad the pain was, it wouldn't last forever, and that he might as well play through it, because he was going to feel it either way. He'd rather be playing feeling the pain, then sitting on the bench feeling it. After a few more minutes, he rose to his feet, the powerful pounding in his head getting harder, but he was able to stay up. He steadied himself and opened and closed his eyes rapidly. He felt as though the sun was being pointed directly at his eyes, although he was turned away from it. He looked over at the hill. Above it, he could see that the road stretched on for a long way. Halfway between where he was and the furthest point he could see, the road broke off into a right turn where the stream curved. He saw that the dust was disturbed the heaviest at this turn, and he assumed that the wagon had just reached this point. His head began to feel a little better, although it still felt really bad.

He turned to Matt, who had made no attempt to get up from his seated position.

"Hey, you should get up, man. It seems like the pounding goes away the more you move." To show that he meant it, he did a few hops in place. With each hop the pounding got momentarily harder, and then subsided almost imperceptibly. He reached out his hand to Matt.

"I'm not getting up until this headache goes away."

"That could be a long time if you stay down like that. At least try to get up. We need to find out where they took Tommy." He saw Matt's eyes widen.