The Tale of Eiadric – Part VI

He heard them as they made their way to the top of the steep hill. Then he saw them. Two men and two hounds. They looked around and eventually saw him standing there.

With a shout they ran towards him. He readied himself, took a few deep breaths and gripped his sword firmly. He stood behind the fallen tree with his legs wide apart and raised his sword, ready to strike.

In a strange way he was actually relieved that it had come to this. This was his element. Fighting was something he knew he was good at.

The hillmen released their hounds and they dashed with incredible speed towards him. He took another deep breath and steadied his nerves as they came. Both of them leapt over the fallen tree trunk at the same time. He moved to one side to avoid one of them and thrust his sword deep into the throat of the other. It went down with a shrill shriek. He followed through and pulled out his sword turning to face the hound that had leapt past him. It landed slightly off balance and skidded to a halt and at once turned against him. It came at him without hesitation and leapt again straight at him. He managed to get his sword up and felt it punch through the beast’s ribcage and they both came tumbling down, Eiadric on his back and the lifeless beast on top of him. He tried to scramble up but before he had made it the two hillmen were there, crouching low with there blades pointing at him. Eiadric was lying down with the heavy hound over him. His sword was still in the beast and he had no means of defending himself.

The two savage men closed in, grinning. “You’ll get yours now you filthy pony boy. You think you can escape that easily? You think you can kill one of ours and get away? You won’t live now. You won’t be spared after this you miserable plain-trotter”. They’re faces were twisted with rage. They closed in even more and were prepared to strike when Eiadric heard a faint twang. A split second later an arrow was in the throat of one of the men who went down gurgling. He heard another twang and an arrow thudded in the chest of the other hillman, who fell to his knees and toppled over with a look of shock in his eyes.

Eiadric lay still and didn’t know what was going on. After a while he pushed the hound off him and scrambled to the base of the thick tree and sat there breathing heavily. Then he carefully peered around the tree in the direction of where he thought the arrows were fired. But without a sound whoever had fired the arrows had moved to just where was. Two men stood up out of the bushes and showed themselves. Clad in green and grey ,the hooded men took a few steps towards him.

“Come with us if you want to live.” They said grimly, gazing into the forest towards the top of the hill. “More may come soon.” Then they set off.

Eiadric didn’t argue. He stood up and followed them. They moved smoothly through the woods and he tried his best to keep up with them.

At length they reached a stream and halted. Eiadric stood bent and panted.

“We are clear now.” One of the men said as he leant on his long bow. “Drink if you need water”. The other man drew his hood back, squatted down and took some water in his cupped hands and drank.

As Eiadric drank he looked at the two strange men. They were tall and proud and dark haired.