Jominac, Chapter 8—Thieves

Written by Dronin Gammerson

I stopped and put my ear against the ground. Sure enough I could hear the sound of a shovel digging below us.
I nodded to Kilimor and we both hid behind a box that was next to where the tunnel was going to come out.
The wait time before a fight is always worse than the actual fight. We both knew that this was most likely going to be a fight. Of course we were going to offer them surrender but very few would accept that.
The digging was almost directly below us.
I pulled my sword from its sheath, and spotted Kilimor doing the same. The dirt bulged upward as someone tried to break through it.
I tensed ready to spring. The dirt slowly bulged as a shovel broke through and pulled a chunk off of the remaining dirt. Whoever it was with the shovel was digging the hole carefully so that the minimal amount of sound was made.
The shovel kept popping out and pulling more and more dirt into the hole. It was a slow process and my foot fell asleep while they were digging. I shifted to another position to relieve the stress on my leg earning an angry glance from Kilimor. I ignored him and stayed in my new more comfortable position.
After what seemed like an hour the thieves decided that the tunnel was good enough for them to crawl through and came out of the tunnel. This was the first time I had a chance to see who we were dealing with. I did not recognize the man who came out.
He had a short beard that was carefully trimmed, there were flecks of dirt all over his body from the tunnel he just dug. He was wearing long brown pants and a tan shirt with strings on the neck. His boots came half a foot up his shin, and had laces all along it.
We were about to jump in and apprehend the man when we heard a voice in the tunnel.
“What do you see up there Eric?” Asked the voice. We settled down again. Beforehand we had agreed that we would only capture them once all of the men were out of the tunnel.
“A whole lot of crates, looks like our man was correct,” Eric told the voice.
Kilimor and I exchanged a glance. The mole had told them about this.
“That's good,” The voice said, “I'm coming up.” The man popped his head out of the hole and his body quickly followed suit. This man was dressed in much the same fashion as Eric but had no beard, and his shirt was white. This man was also carrying a hand-cannon.
I looked at Kilimor and he nodded. We quickly rose from our hiding places and attacked. Me fighting Eric Kilimor fighting the white shirted man. I saw Kilimor quickly dodge the hand-cannon shot before my focus was diverted to the man I was facing.
I thrust my sword at his stomach intending to wound but not kill. Quick as a cat, he sidestepped and pulled out his own sword. We eyed each other, circling. This time he attacked first. He lunged forward with a blinding display of swordsmanship attacking from one side then quickly switching to the other. I was hard pressed to block them, but block them I did. I noticed a stutter in his incessant barrage. That is when I went on the offensive.
It was my turn to display my own skill. The attacks came at him with just as much speed if not more than the ones he had previously shown. The man named Eric was having great difficulty blocking my attacks and he suffered a half deflected slash on his side, and because he had no armor that cut was deep and very painful. I renewed my attacks on Eric and I could tell he was tiring. Eventually I knocked his sword aside and stabbed him in the right side of his gut. He doubled over in pain. I looked over to where Kilimor was and frowned as I saw him over the man he was fighting knocked out on the ground and Kilimor sitting on a box watching me.
“You could have helped,” I said angrily.
“That would be unfair, two against one is not a fight I would be proud to win,” Kilmor responded, “Anyway you were handling it quite well.”
I harrumphed and grabbed a rope to tie up the unconscious man. “You should probably get a doctor for the injured one here,” I said to Kilimor.
“That might be a good idea,” Kilimor pursed his lips, “But are you sure you can handle this guy?” He gestured to the man writhing in pain on the ground.
I glared at him, “Just get the doctor.”
Kilimor smiled and jogged away.
“What's going on up there?” A voice asked from the tunnel.
I bit my lip from saying something very unsavory.
“Eric is everything alright?” The voice asked again.