Page 88 of Steel & Thunder
He’s fast but I’m faster, and I gain a good amount of ground on him before he notices I’m following him. Once he looks back though, we lock eyes and I see him panic again and start moving faster. Of course, he won’t make this easy. Why couldn’t this have happened next week after I had the chance to break in these boots? My feet will be killing me later.
Thankfully, the streets here are mostly empty so it’s not like I’ll lose him. He makes a sudden turn down an alley on our right, but I’m right on his tail. It’s devoid of people, but I have to jump over a few crates Thog knocks into my path. When we emerge on the other side, the roads are significantly busier. He goes left and darts into the crowd, or at least tries to while bumping into and knocking over a lot of people.
“Sorry!” I shout behind me after leaping over a prone body on the ground. I think he did that on purpose.
He makes another turn at the next road, leading us right into the middle of a street market, possibly the same one I went to on my first full day here. Even more people and new obstacles. I have to actually focus on keeping him in my sight now, though the chorus of unhappy grunts and yells does some of the work for me. The crowd makes it next to impossible to gain any ground, at least unless I start knocking people over myself. If I don’t figure something out soon, I will lose him. I spot a fruit cart in the middle of the road ahead of me and get an idea.
“Sorry!” I apologize again, this time to the owner of the cart whose wheel I step onto, using the leverage to leap over a small section of booths and closing some distance between us. Thanks to all the people, I don’t think he notices me catching up on him.
Until he looks back, sees me, and slows down to sideswipe me. He’s not as big as Khazak, but he’s still got plenty of muscle on me, and when he slams into my side, it’s enough to throw me off balance. I stumble and thanks to my speed, I’m still moving forward, about to crash face-first into a fabrics stall. Wonderful.
“Excuse me!” At the last second, I turn my fall into a slide and slip right under the stall’s table. I roll and jump back up once I’m on the other side, still running.
I need to end this chase already, and I think I see my chance coming up ahead. There’s a big enough gap in the crowd that I might be able to bring him down if I hit him hard enough. But how? I weave left and right as I scan around for an idea. Then I spot one propped up against a wall next to a weapons booth.
“I’ll bring this back! I promise!” I hear the dwarf working his weapon’s stall shout something at me angrily when I grab one of his staves as I run past. Hopefully Sir can explain for me later. I really have to learn Atasi if I’m gonna pull shit like this.
I ready myself as we approach the clearing in the crowd. Just as he reaches the edge, I plant my pole in the ground in front of me, jumping and pushing off to propel me forward and onto Thog’s back. I land with a loud thud, staff still in one hand as I wrap my free arm around his neck. It doesn’t take much more to send us both tumbling to the ground. I roll free of his body as we hit the dirt, landing much more gracefully than he does.
He’s up in seconds, glaring at me for daring to try and stop him. He roars with anger and leaps at me, ready for a fight. I’m too slow, and he knocks me into the stone wall of the building behind me. Fuck, that hurt. I manage not to fall this time, push myself off the wall, and strike his left flank before stabbing the staff into his stomach and pushing him back.
I knock the wind out of him, but it doesn’t keep him at bay for long, and he charges at me. Dad always said you should never fight dirty, but honestly I always thought that was a stupid rule. If you’re in a fight, like a real I-will-be-in-serious-danger-if-I-lose-this fight, then you should use every fucking trick at your disposal. Which is why my next hit is directly to his groin followed by a firm kick to the stomach. He doubles over, though he is still standing, and I’m honestly a little impressed by his resilience. Just when I ready myself for him to come at me again, he’s tackled to the ground by a green and brown blur.
Takes a sec, but it registers that the forest-colored blur is Khazak when I see him wrestling Thog to the ground. He manages to pull both of Thog’s arms behind his back and slaps on a pair of manacles just as Ragnar steps up on my right holding the book I basically threw at him earlier. Glad they didn’t forget that.
“Should we be helping?” I indicate to the two men struggling in the dirt. Khazak is saying something to Thog I can’t really make out.
“No, he’s got it,” Ragnar assures me. “Good job catching him.”
“Thanks.” I realize I’m still holding the stolen staff in my hands. “I, uh, kinda grabbed this without asking. Can you help me give it back?” I point at the weapon stall several yards down, complete with unhappy weapon seller glaring daggers in our direction.
“Sure.” He chuckles and takes the staff from me as we both walk over to the stall. Ragnar greets the unhappy owner, apologizing for and explaining my behavior. At least I hope that’s what he’s saying. The face on the shop owner does soften somewhat, though I won’t say he’s exactly happy by the time we leave to return to Khazak and Thog.
“That was dangerous, David.” He’s frowning at me. “You should have listened to me when I told you to stop.”
“Oh come on. You can’t be mad at me for catching the guy.” My shoulders sink and I roll my eyes.
“You could have been hurt.” He looks concerned.
“But I wasn’t.” Other than a few scratches and bruises, I’m fine.
“What if he had a weapon?” He scowls.
Okay, why is he acting like my mom?
“He didn’t.” Are we just playing a big “what if” game now? “And if he did, I would have handled it, or do you not remember how I took you and that big-ass longsword down?”
“That is not the point,” he grumbles. “You disobeyed an order.”
“Well it was a stupid order.” I cross my arms. “Punish me if you want, but I’m not gonna feel bad about catching the bad guy.” I’m getting frustrated. All I’ve done since yesterday is stand around, read, and dig through trash. “Why did you bring me if you weren’t going to let me do anything? Did you just want me to stand around and look pretty?”
“No, David but—”
“Then maybe trust me a little more. At least when it comes to stuff like this.” I nod my head at the bound Thog who has been pointedly silent this entire conversation. “You’ve seen me in action. You know that I’m more than capable of chasing down this idiot. Other than handing me a book and telling me to learn a new language, you haven’t given me anything to do. Forgive me for taking some initiative.”
He cocks an eyebrow at my last comment. Probably could’ve said that a little nicer, but the rest still stands!
“I thought it was pretty impressive, David,” Ragnar injects, ignoring Khazak’s look of exasperation as we start the walk back with Thog in tow. “All the jumping and diving, using the staff. Where’d you learn to do all that?”
