Just before David began his descent, he took one last hopeful look at the open area around him. A small plume of smoke caught his eye that appeared to be rising from the trees in the far distance to the west. Excited, he started back down the tree to tell Erin what he saw. As he neared the bottom of the tree, he heard Erin cry out in alarm. Panicked, he quickened his pace.
When he reached the ground, he found Erin surrounded by three soldiers, each with their swords drawn and slowly closing in on her. They must have tracked them through the night while they slept, David realized.
He rushed at the nearest soldier with a howling scream, trying to catch him off guard and tackle him to the ground. The soldier side-stepped, causing David to miss his mark and stumble to the ground. At least he had created a distraction, he thought, as he slowly got up and brushed himself off.
The soldier threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh.
“Come with us, and we promise you won’t be harmed” said one of the soldiers, apparently the leader.
“And you expect us to believe you with your swords drawn on us like that?” spat Erin.
“I don’t care what you believe, brat. I care about following my orders. And our orders are to take you alive and unharmed back to the castle for questioning.” he replied, smirking. “That is, at least, for the girl…the boy we’ve been told is a threat to the kingdom and is to be taken back to the castle, preferably dead” he added threateningly.
David gulped down the dread that now seemed to be blocking his throat. This is not good, he thought to himself. There’s no way I can take on these guys, they’re trained soldiers!
“Well that’s too bad, because you can’t have either of us, so if you want me, come and get me!” cried Erin, and she rushed into a furious attack against the soldier closest to her, catching him completely off-guard and knocking him off his feet.
She dashed into a sprint towards the other two, picking up her and David’s sword from beside their packs as she passed, before ducking into a roll between the remaining two soldiers and jumping up next to David, handing him his sword.
David was completely stunned, and so were the soldiers, but they quickly shook it off and reassessed their opponents as a more serious threat than they had first thought – now they were armed and apparently the girl was dangerous.
The other soldier, the one who had been caught off guard, joined the other two men as they set attention to their newly armed opponents, ready to fight.
The soldier on the right struck first. He rushed towards David in an attempt to push him backwards and put him on the defensive, swinging madly back and forth. David quickly threw up his sword and, much to his and the soldier’s surprise, deflected the flurry of attacks with ease. It was like his body knew just what to do, even if in his mind he was screaming bloody murder.
Encouraged after seeing David was capable of fending for himself, Erin rushed into the fight, taking on the other two soldiers. They were prepared, and the fighting that ensued was ferocious and intense. Although Erin was much smaller and younger than her opponents, she kept pace with them both, alternating skillfully between their strikes, deflecting them, and placing her own counterstrikes perfectly all in the space of seconds.
Eventually, she found an opening and struck her blade home in one of the soldier’s sides, dispatching him quickly to the ground. She was down to just one opponent, odds she felt much more confident with.
In the meantime, David was still on the defensive, not quite understanding how he was still surviving the increasing flurry of attacks from his much better trained opponent. His hands and feet danced around skillfully like a highly trained warrior, completely in sync with the incoming attacks, deflecting each and every one as if he knew where they would land before they even came.
Eventually, the soldier became frustrated and started pounding away in a series of powerful overhead strikes aimed at David’s head like a lumberjack trying to split a log. David instinctively rolled out of the way of one of the powerful strikes, causing the soldier’s sword to sink deep into the middle of a thick protruding root.
When David saw the soldier frantically trying to unstick his sword, he took the offensive and, tightly closing his eyes and grunting with the effort, swung as hard as he could towards the soldier’s neck. He could feel the blade strike home, the sick sound of steel meeting flesh, and the loud crack of bone as his sword broke the soldier’s neck and nearly cut off his head.
When he opened his eyes, the soldier had dropped to the ground in a lifeless heap.
David swiftly drew back his sword and stumbled backward against a nearby tree, breathing heavily and feeling sick to his stomach. He quickly came to his senses and frantically looked around to find Erin.
She was still in a heated battle with the remaining soldier, but after a few moments, she skillfully disarmed him and kicked his left knee with such force that David could hear the bone snap, and he buckled to the ground, grunting in pain and exhaustion.
“Erin!” David called out, running to her side.
“You’re alive! Thank the Creator!” breathed Erin, seeing David unharmed.
They both looked down at the remaining soldier, who had tears running
