My 8 E-books written over the years by Alina Udrea - HTML preview

Chapter 12: Carrow

After a few days of walking in the sun in the blazing heat Alyss finally

recognized the walls surrounding Carrow, the mining colony she had escaped from a few years ago. She wasn’t sure what she felt at seeing them. She had mixed feelings, she was glad she wasn’t inside those walls anymore but on the other hand she wished her friends were with her, too. Maybe now she really stood a chance of freeing them with the help of her new friends. She was prepared to die trying at least. But of course she hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

-Look, those are the walls surrounding Carrow! That is where my friends are. So how do you want to proceed? Try to smuggle them out or try to liberate the whole colony of slaves by killing the two boggan leaders? Asked Alyss with a shrinking heart. Deep inside she wished they' d choose to free the whole colony, not just her friends.

- Why do things only half way? Said Ulo. I say kill the two bastards and free everyone. Mean, Harry, Bratty, what do you think?

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- I couldn’t agree more, said Mongo. Ulo, you will go and scout, see if you can find any useful information so we can make up a plan. I will try to blend in among the slaves and try to find where the two leaders are.- You will need my help, said Alyss. I know the place. We will both blend in and Ulo, Mean, Bratty and Harry will wait for our signal to attack. I will kill one of the leaders and you Mongo will kill the other. Then we signal for the rest of the team to attack from the front gates. With the leaders dead and a strong frontal attack, the other boggans will flee, trust me. Then we can find my friends and also the rest will be free. How is this for a plan?- Sounds good in my opinion. Finally, I will get to break some skulls and see what these boggans look like. It will be the first time my axe shall crack some boggan heads. Ready when you are, my dears, said Harry who always liked a good fight, especially when he had his friends to watch his back.-Then you wait here for our signal. It will be a fire arrow shot straight up towards the sky. When you see the fire arrow, give all you’ve got and kill as many boggans as you can. Come Mongo, I know a way in, just follow me. And Alyss took the lead, fearless. Here Mongo, we will climb this wall and then jump on the other side. There should be a barrack on the other side. We will land on that and from there descend easily to the ground. It should be empty at this time of the day as the boggans usually eat now. They only come here at night to sleep, the rest of the day they supervise the slaves making sure they don' t take breaks from work or steal the gems they mine.- Then let' s do this! Said Mongo eager to finish the job and liberate the colony and implicitly Alyss' friends.

He was watching her, admiring her every move and her confidence and loyalty to her friends. She was kind of pretty for an elf…- This is it, climb Mongo!

- Nah, ladies first. After you, my lady!

- Ha-ha, are you afraid of heights?

- Now where did you come up with that? Was just trying to be a gentleman! And Mongo laughed.

- Oh, always a gentleman! So be it then, I shall climb first. But you jump first so we are even.

- Fair enough. I will catch you when I land.

- Yeah, always a gentleman, but no need, I can land without hurting myself.- I didn’t say you couldn’t! Oh what the hell, never mind, just climb and let' s kill us some ugly boggan leaders. Where are they usually at this time?

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- They should be dividing the food to the slaves. Up on a high platform, throwing them their bread and bottles of water. Which is why they will be an easy target for my arrows. They won’t even know what hit them.- You kill one and I will kill the other. Look, those must be them. And Mongo pointed to the far end of the large enclosure to a high platform where he saw two huge creatures which he guessed were the boggans he had been warned about. I will blend among the slaves and I will stab the large one from behind. Then you will shoot the other and they will be both dead before they know it.

- Alright, I will be up on the branches of that large oak behind the platform. I will have a clear shot from there. They have to die at the same time or they will enrage and go berserk killing everything in their way, even the innocent slaves.

So finally the time for Hrung and Mordris has come, Alyss thought with

joy. She would soon kill Hrung, as Mongo had chosen the large boggan which was Mordris. It didn’t really matter which one she would kill as long as they both ended up dead till the end of the day.- Ok, got that. Then pay attention and kill your target as soon as I kill mine. Now let' s split up and do this. And Mongo blended among the crowd.- Pardon me, excuse me. And Mongo advanced slowly but surely towards his target. Hrung and Mordris were mocking the slaves again throwing them their leftovers and watching them fight. Even better, thought Mongo to himself. They will be paying attention to the mobs and it will be easier for me to get close enough to stab him. Then we shall see how deadly are Alyss' arrows. We' ll see if they can find their mark. Thinking that he didn’t even notice that he was already behind his mark, Mordris. He put his foot up on the platform and waved discreetly to Alyss. Then he stabbed Mordris with a strike as quick as lightning . The next moment Hrung was also down, shot right between his eyes. Both fell at the same time with a thud. The crowd stopped fighting for the leftovers and watched in disbelief. The two ferocious boggan leaders were dead, killed before their eyes. Nobody gave a damn about the leftovers anymore. Something great had just happened and the mob was starting to realize the facts. They could be free. Then chaos took over. All the boggans ran amock. Now it was the right time for Alyss aka Deadly Arrows to shoot the fire arrow which was the signal for the others to barge in and attack the disoriented boggans. She shot the arrow high into the air. Then she started shooting the boggans which were

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dropping dead like flies. Mongo was throwing daggers at them, pinning them to the ground. Then Ulo also joined Mongo in throwing daggers. Mean and Bratty were using their magic, ice and fire to kill whatever boggans they could. It was a real battleground. Soon there were no more boggans left. They were all lying dead. None had escaped. It was perfect as they couldn’t warn the other mining colonies. Now that Carrow was free they could go and look for Alyss' s friends.

The crowd started cheering with joy thanking our heroes for their

freedom. Dee was among the slaves in the front row. She saw everything, she saw Hrung fall and then Mordris. The arrow was still between Hrung’s eyes, so Dee looked up from where the arrow had been shot and to her great astonishment she saw her friend Alyss. Alyss had promised she would come back for them one day and it looked like that day had come. She had come to free them, as she had promised. She went to look for Al and the kids, Fakey and Rexxa. She found Al still in shock in the far end of the settlement. The kids were nowhere in sight.

-Al, we have to find Fakey and Rexxa. Have you seen them? Asked Dee worried sick as she had no idea where they were.-No, I haven’t seen them since morning when they left for work. They should have been here for the lunch break, but maybe they saw the chaos this turned out to be and they hid somewhere. Let' s find them. All grown- ups in the mining colonies had to dig for the precious gems while the kids had to clean and polish them in a barrack under the supervision of a few boggans. Then the gems were transported to Gelebron’ s tower by a caravan of heavily armed boggans. But at lunch break they all gathered, grown- ups as well as kids in the courtyard to have their lunch. Then everybody went back to work again. So as neither Fakey nor Rexxa were in sight and Al hadn’t seen them at all at lunch break, his only guess was that they must have got frightened and hid somewhere.-Any idea where to start looking for them? Asked Dee while her mind was already searching every possibility, every nook they could have gone to hide.

- First of all, let' s stick together. I don’t want to lose you too in this chaos. Let' s search for them in the barrack. Perhaps they are still there. They both ran towards the barracks, pushing people aside, making their way through the crowd. They pushed the doors slowly, not sure what to expect from the other side of the doors, thinking that maybe the boggans

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assigned with the supervision of the kids working in there were still inside. Dee peeked in and she was in awe: Fakey and Rexxa were gathering the other kids, instructing them how to use the weapons they had taken from the dead boggans which were lying on the floor.

-What happened here? Dee asked them almost babbling with emotion.- We saw that finally somebody had the guts to start a riot outside, killing our enslavers so Rexxa and I decided we could also help by taking down these ones. After I stabbed one with a dagger I had made out of a knife long ago and which I was carrying in the hope I would someday get the chance to use on a boggan, then Rexxa attacked another one with the bow and arrows she snatched from the one I killed. They attacked us but to our surprise the other boys in here started attacking the boggans to help us; they surely saw the opportunity and were just as fed up with these filthy boggans as we were. So we were all waiting to see if we would be attacked by more boggans from the outside when you two popped in. We are so glad to see you! And both Fakey and Rexxa hugged their parents, glad that everybody was safe.

- Thank God we are all safe! Now let' s go and find Alyss. I saw her earlier, she started all this. Said Dee. There she is, she seems to have made some new friends. Let' s greet them!

And they went straight for the group of friends to thank them for liberating the mining colony, for giving everyone hope.- Dee, Al, Fakey, Rexxa, you are all safe! I am so glad to see you! I missed you! I told you I would come back for you sooner or later. Sorry it was later and not sooner, ha- ha!

- Ha-ha! Thank you and your friends. If it wasn’t for you we would still be mining for these boggans! What do you plan to do next, Alyss? Asked Dee.- I was hoping you would join us in saving Miiah, the queen of Donn. But as I see it know, this place needs to be rebuilt. And you have been working too much for too long, you are not in shape to fight with us. You had better stay here and help to rebuild Carrow. And heal the wounded Dee, Carrow needs you. I will go with my new friends and help them save their queen and I will visit you after Miiah is free. Fakey can train the boys, make worthy soldiers out of them to be able to defend Carrow in case of an attack. Rexxa can also train them with bows and arrows and Al will supervise everything. Make sure you stay a free settlement, don’t let anyone conquer this oasis.- It will never happen! Now that we are free we won’t ever be slaves again!

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- Amen to that! Said Al, agreeing with his wife.

After bidding farewell from her friends, Alyss and the others left Carrow very pleased with themselves. Now they would have to save Miiah from Gelebron' s claws. If it only were as simple as it had been in Carrow….