Patreon or PayPal Me keeps this site and its author alive. Thank you. |
Stories from the Verse
A Dozen Verses
Chapter 43: Slade 265
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 86
“M’lord, I don’t remember you ever going hunting.”
Slade laughed at Shella’s comment.
“What?” she asked.
He smiled. “I feel like this is an old man story, because it begins ‘before you were born’. But indeed, it was before you were born, I was visiting your uncle Filp, and one night we told the guard that we were going out hunting. That’s about as close to hunting as I’ve ever gotten.”
“I gather you didn’t.”
“No, it was a ruse to get us outside the castle so he could teach me and we could practice and test the guard. We circled back, scaled the wall, and snuck down to the treasure room to take a few things, and then returned to the battlements. We were caught before we could make our escape, but we learned a lot about castle security. That was why all the doors at Slade Manor had those tinkly windchime-like things to make noise when they were opened, and we had that brass lining across the battlements to clang if someone tried to grapple it. But you’re right. I have never been hunting. But hey, I’ve hunted and killed men; how tough can animals be?”
She didn’t seem to have an answer to that, and soon they had reached the woods. They hardly seemed worthy of the name, comprised of sickly scrub pine and similar stunted trees that were not much taller than Slade himself. Also, the ground sloped down steeply, so he could easily see over most of the trees. He thought there must be a watercourse at the bottom, and although it wasn’t that deep it also wasn’t that big a river.
Drawing his blaster, he proceeded slowly. If nothing else, hunting required stealth, the ability to move silently. He had practiced that a bit, long ago, but always inside castles, such as Filp’s, and his own, and Prince Acquivar’s. Moving silently outside was a new challenge, but he thought he could do it.
Moving through the thin wood he soon spotted an animal, something like a small pig. This should be easy, he thought, and raised his blaster to point at it.
Suddenly and inexplicably he couldn’t figure out how to fire it. He stared at the pig, which was by now staring at him, perhaps assessing his threat level. It charged his direction.
The blaster was not going to help. He tossed it in the air and drew his sword as he caught the blaster with his left hand. He met the pig’s charge, and brought it down with a single thrust against its momentum. It kicked a few times, and he delivered a finishing blow before wiping his sword on its coat and sheathing his weapons.
“What happened?” Shella asked.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure. But you know how sometimes some of your magic doesn’t work in some worlds, because of what Lauren called ‘bias’?” He watched for her acknowledgement before continuing. “I think that in this world, my blaster doesn’t work, because it’s above the bias for technology. Does that make sense?”
She shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”
“It does put a different color on things,” he said. “Anyway, I’m glad I found out before I was relying on it.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” he said. “Maybe I should have learned some of that telekinetic stuff the others were using, but I just don’t see myself as some kind of mentalist.”
Shella stared at the beast for a moment, then said, “I think it must be too heavy for me to move telekinetically.”
“I thought size didn’t matter.”
“I think you can learn to move anything, such that size doesn’t matter, but what I learned really only lets me move things I could lift with one hand--or maybe things you could lift with one hand. This pig is bigger than that.”
Slade nodded. They would have to come up with some idea for dragging the carcass back to the farm. For the moment, he was not sure how to do that.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
