Furoma Chapter 20

Read Table of Content | +Kyla Scurchio
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     Zugzwang and I stood at the entrance to Furoma; right at the gap in the enclosure of trees that surrounded the area. The wind rustled the grass and the leaves but all else remained quiet. The Pagoda stood towering over the training grounds, looking freshly built and cared for.
"It doesn’t make sense." I mumbled to Zugzwang.
"What doesn't make sense?" he asked looking over at me.
"This place, it was built years ago right? Well, if no one has inhabited it, it should be falling apart and overgrown. But look at the grounds, they are freshly cut and the hedges are trimmed and the
rock garden cared for. Even the Pagoda has had proper upkeep."
"And yet it’s suppose to be empty." Zugzwang said catching on.
"Exactly."
     "So if it's not the King's men that inhabit the area, then who?" Zugzwang asked thoughtfully.
Both of us entered the grounds slowly, keeping our eyes and ears open to any sound or movement that would give away the identity of who was caring for the place. We circled the grounds completely without a sign of anything living. We had stopped in the archery range to rest. The targets there had been used and this worried me.
     "Good shot, whoever it is." Zugzwang pointed out as he looked at one of the targets. The punctures were all dead center, or at least very close to the center. And so I knew it was not by accident that the arrow that came whizzing out of the sky missed us.
      Both Zugzwang and I quickly ducked, cursing the lack of cover the archery range gave us. Neither of us could see where the arrow had come from, but another quickly followed the first.
"Where are they coming from?" Zugzwang hissed.
      I looked around frantically. Nothing. I couldn't find a single person in the area. Zugzwang was looking left and right as well but found nothing. He slowly backed up closing the gap between us. Another arrow whistled through the air towards us, again missing us by inches.
      "There!" Zugzwang shouted pointed towards the large slab of black stone several yards away from us. I waited for the next archer to shoot his arrows at us; I wanted to see what I was dealing with. And after a few seconds the shooter popped around the stone and with quick and accurate precision, fired three arrows, one right after the other, at our feet. It didn’t take long to notice it was a mouse, though from that distance it could have easily been mistaken for man, if it weren't' for the tail. The mouse stood tall and straight firing arrows all around us threateningly.
     As we stood, trying to find a way around the firing arrows, four more mice leapt from the bushes behind us. Garbed in red battle armor, the mice stood in a tight circle around Zugzwang and I. They all had swords drawn and pointed at our throats.
"Ugly beasts are they not?" said one mouse to the other.
"Hmm, indeed." said its companion.
The first mouse left the circle and began to pace around us. We kept our eyes on him as it stopped and crouched looking into our faces.
"What brings you here hunters?" it finally said.
      Zugzwang and I just stared at each other. The mouse flicked its tail and another arrow came buzzing out of the air. The tip of it just grazed my arm. I winced, but didn’t move.
"I asked a question. The polite and peaceful thing would be to answer."
"We are here by order of the King." I told them bitterly.
"And you wizard, what brings you here?" said the mouse turning towards Zugzwang.
     "To, hunt." he said darkly. I saw his eyes dim as he began to mutter a chant under his breath. Another arrow buzzed towards his chest. He deflected it with a wave of his hand, holding his concentration perfectly. The chant intensified and I felt the earth at our feet start to rumble. The mice looked around nervously.
    "Pull back." said the mouse, panicked. And all of them took off at a run towards the Pagoda. The Archer stepped from behind the stone and, he too, followed them into the large building.
Zugzwang finished his incantation and the ground finally stopped shuddering and a spark came back to his eye. He slumped to the ground.
"That was amazing, what did you do?" I asked kneeling beside him.
"Nothing much really, just something to frighten them. But controlling the movement of the ground takes a lot of energy." he said wiping away the sweat from his eyes.
"We better both keep watch tonight." I suggested. Zugzwang nodded.
    "Plank, I know what type of mice these are. They are too organized, battle oriented. These are Tactical mice. They will be harder to deal with, and will be able to predict moves we may want to make. I'm going to need a new trap."
    "Where can we possibly get a new trap, we have all the good ones." I said annoyed.
"Plank, you don’t always have to rely on a Trapsmith. Sometimes, you have to create your own weapon. Let me think it through, and I'm sure we can come up with something."
"Right, using what supplies?"
“Plank, I thought you were smarter than that." he said laughing. “You know these pockets don’t just hold my traps?"
    He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small square box. When he opened it I gaped. The box contained a small little chess set. The box itself turned into the playing board, the checkered part flipping out to sit flat on the ground. The box had two pouches in it, one with white chess pieces and one with black.
    "My favorite game." he said noticing my stare. "Helps me think ahead of my opponent; which helps when you are hunting Tactical mice." he pulled out two of the pawns. The little pieces stood at attention and held shields and swords. He then pulled out a Rook, the piece was very basic, just a plane, dark, black castle. The last piece Zugzwang pulled from the bag was a knight. This piece showed a knight on the back of a horse holding a jousting stick at the ready.
"The knight is my favorite piece" he said looking at it with a smile on his face. He looked up at me, "Want to see me work my" he paused grinning, "magic?"
I smiled at him. "Let's see what you've got!" I challenged. Zugzwang chuckled before putting the rest of the chess set away.
"This ought to be fun." he said grinning excitedly.
    We moved off to hide in the trees away from any peering eyes that may want to find and harm us again. I stood watch as Zugzwang started to work. The sun was setting when he started his first incantation.
"You're gonna want to stand back." His face darkened and he smiled viciously.