Steel and Mana

Chapter 6 – Shadow People

In reality, Oleg only laid on me for a brief moment before jumping up, grabbing me by the scruff, and dragging me into the forest, hiding behind one of the thick trees. With his longsword at the ready, peering out, his eyes were searching for the attacker like a hawk scans the land for prey. I wasn’t complaining; a little roughing up is not something that would kill me, and he was my bodyguard anyway. 

“It could have been a warning shot,” I said calmly, looking out, watching the improvised arrow stuck in the ground. It was something that was not the work of a blacksmith but more like something thrown together haphazardly.

“They aimed at you, My Lord… their life is forfeit!”

“I’m just saying!” I shrugged, not wanting to argue. “Oh… at ten o’clock!”

“At what?” 

“Haah… there!” I pointed it out for him, where I saw the shrubs move on the other side. “They probably retreated.”

“Nice catch… we are going back and reporting this to Lord Kalash! We are going to come back with force and find these bandits!”

“Woah, woah! Relax Oleg! Bandits? Why are we not surrounded then? Why are we not robbed yet?”

“They may have been only scouts!”

“Do bandits use twigs and stone arrows? Because if they do, I am not really afraid of them.” I shrugged, patting the authentic steel sword at my waist. 

“You want to follow them?” 

“Oh? You are sharper than I expected! Yep! I do!” I laughed, feeling excited.

“Young Lord, that is not a good idea!”

“You can go back and make your report; I am going after them while their trail is hot!”

“Damn it!” Oleg cursed as I was already striding forward, crossing the clearing and heading towards where I saw movement before.

I was in the army previously. I mean… in my original life. I wasn’t always responsible for unearthing ancient machines, no. I was part of my home country’s mobile regiment and was a combat engineer on the front lines when our forces were sent to deal with insurgency. Some still thought it was the Third World War, yet that shit ended when I was four. I am trying to say that I had live combat experience before being called back and given a safer position. It happened after proving myself and my skills with machines. And then I was killed by essentially a ‘friendly fire’ accident. Wonderful…

“Oh?” I stopped, hearing voices in the distance signaling to Oleg, who asked no questions but likewise slowed down, catching up to me. We inched forward slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible and listening in to the conversation.

“You idiot! Why did you shoot at them?! Now they know we are here!” A man shouted at another. 

“It snapped! I didn’t want to shoot!”

“I will snap you into two too! Idiot! Now they will bring people here, and we will be discovered! She will be discovered!”

“Hey…” I whispered to Oleg, “Can you disarm the two? And capture them alive?”

“Alive?” Confused, He asked, “We should chop their heads off and display them on pikes!”

“Errr… No? Then we won’t have a chance to question them! Or if you can evoke some kind of spell to speak to the dead…”

“I can’t cast magic, Young Lord.”

“See? So… can you capture them or not?”

“I think I can.”

“Good, do that for me, okay?”

The significant advantage of being the son of the region’s lord is that our subordinates do listen to our orders. Seeing my order, Oleg didn’t question it a second time and stepped forward faster than his big, bulky body would suggest.

Before the two had any reaction, he was between them, bringing down his sword and knocking the shouting one out. Its pommel landed square on the back of his head, and it was lights out at once. Next, before his panicked, surprised partner could get anything out of his belt, Oleg punched him in the gut. I could only hear grunting and gurgling, and his body collapsed.

“Weak…” He said, his voice betraying his surprise while I walked out looking at the two figures.

“Of course they are! Look at them; they are bare bones!” 

Crouching down, turning them to their backs, revealed their emaciated figures. They were grossly underweight, wearing shabby clothes that looked like what you would find on a nature-loving elf from some fantasy story. Or on a sociopath, living in the forest for forty years. I couldn’t tell their age, but I was sure they would be in their thirties… or forties? Maybe younger, but had a hard life…

“Let’s get some vines and tie them up!” I said, kicking away their ‘weapons’ that looked like tools from the Stone Age.

“Good idea!” He nodded, and they were already tied to a tree by the time one of them was in the middle of deciding whether to wake up or not.

“...!” He wanted to cry but couldn’t as the sharp pain assaulted his head from where Oleg hit him with the pommel of his sword.

“Any excuses before being dealt judgment?” Oleg asked, sneering.

“You can’t just kill us; we are-” The man panicked, but Oleg smacked him so hard that I saw a tooth flying out.

“You attacked the son of the Lion himself! You will be flayed alive, your skin fed to you, and then you will be tied to a pole so the animals from the other end of the mountains come and snack on you!”

“Err…” I spoke up, twitching my mouth, “You scared him a bit too much…”

“But it's true, My Lord!” He protested, “A simple beheading is not enough of a punishment!”

“Whatever! He fainted…” I shrugged with a groan, rubbing my forehead, “Next time, I will ask questions; you just stay alert, okay?”

It took me a little effort to wake up the other guy, the one who had supposedly shot the arrow at me. When he heard who I was, he fainted too. Great! I was getting annoyed, so I decided to wake them up with a splash! Of course, I won’t use water on them, that would be a waste! So I simply pissed on them until they woke up. 

“What?” I asked Oleg, who looked on, his jaw hanging close to the floor. 

“My Lord… you are pitiless!”

“Efficient. I ain’t wasting our drinking water on two idiots! Now!” I turned to the two, who were just as dazed as what had just happened. “I want to hear everything you know, or my friend here will break your legs, and we will drag you back to the city for your public execution!”

None of them fainted again this time, and I quickly learned of their predicament. They called themselves ‘Shadow People’ because they were citizens who somehow slid down to the absolute bottom and left their towns and villages, deciding to live in the forest. On paper, they didn’t even exist anymore. Their current base was at the old logging site, and their little collective numbered around a dozen men and women, led by their ‘Queen.’ It's an interesting title, to say the least!

“What is special about this Queen?” I asked, feeling the weird reverence in their voices. 

“She can-”

“Shut up!”

Now, this was interesting… suddenly they were not so keen on speaking anymore? I looked at Oleg, who slapped a few teeth out of them once again, but none budged. Now, this was most interesting… Something is so special about that woman that they grow a backbone? Huh…

“How long would it be to send a message back?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“If I run, I can return with people on horses by dawn.”

“Do it. Bring enough men so we can capture everybody! I’ll stay here, guarding these two-”

“My Lord, that is too dangerous!”

“Enough!” I put my foot down, looking up at him with a serious gaze. “Who am I?”

“Lord Leon, the young cub of the Lion of the Frontier!”

“Then do as I say! The more you dally, the longer I will remain alone!”

“Yes, Young Lord!” He saluted and sprinted away as if his life depended on it.

“Now…” I crouched down, watching their faces with a soft smile. “Won’t you tell me what is so special with your Queen?”

“No..!” They answered, but I saw in the eyes of the more submissive one that he was ready to spill the beans. 

“I see. Okay.” I pulled out my sword and knocked out the more aggressive one with another pommel strike. I think he may have brain damage now… oh well! “Let’s talk.” I looked at his comrade. “We are going to make a simple deal! Whatever the outcome is, you won’t be killed. Nor tortured!” I chuckled a little, feeling like I was playing some kind of villain in a school play. 

“You swear?!” He asked, already gulping the bait down with hook and sinker… how desperate can one be?

“On my name as the son of Kalash!”

“Our Queen is special… she can…” At that, he went mute for a little. I wasn’t hurrying him, simply watching his face, reading his emotions. He was part hesitant, part guilty about what he was about to do, “She is a mage.”

“Really?!” I asked, my voice loud, scaring some of the birds away from the treetops. “Tell me more!”

“Her name is... well, I don't know what her name is, but she was born in the capital city!”

“In our territory, or are you talking about the Empire’s capital?”

“Here!” He added quickly, “A simple commoner, My Lord! It was discovered early that she could do things… sometimes tools around her levitated when she was sleeping. That is what I heard!”

“And what is she doing in the forest with a bunch of hobos?”

“Hobo…? No matter…” He murmured, thinking it was some fancy word and it best not to ask about the language of aristocrats. “Her parents didn’t want to give her up, so they fled into the forest and have lived here ever since! We gathered around them because she can do things… heal injuries and make miracles!”

“Miracles, eh?” I scratched my chin, even more interested now, “I don’t believe in miracles, but I do believe in magic… I can’t wait to meet one who can cast it! Lucky! Ahahaha, in the end, I may just get what I was missing…” I whispered, walking up and down before the two men and couldn’t wait for Oleg to return.