The night lights shone on the floor of the clearing, and a breeze wafted softly carrying the scents of the woods to the running man. As he approached, he rustled the leaves of the underbrush softly, then he stepped slowly to the center of the clearing, lowered his burden and kneeled down to breathe. He had accomplished his mission thus far, now is the time to prepare for the next part of his quest.
All he had to do now was wait, as the others would soon join him to decide on their next step of the endeavor awaiting them.
He sat down on the lush green grass that permeated the clearing, and started to meditate to regulate his body functions, as the minutes passed, he had regained a lot of the energy lost to the race, and his heart beats ebbed to an inaudible level.
The ferns parted to reveal another man entering the clearing in a run, also carrying a bundle on his shoulder, the man sitting on the grass waited for the newcomer to manage his breathing before starting to debrief him.
The newcomer lowered down his bundle and accidentally dropped it off the last ten inches to the ground, a soft moan could be heard from within the folds of the cloth wrapping the bundle.
He sat facing the first man and started his own meditation to regulate his breathing, and as he did this, the first man brought out another object, that appeared to be some kind of dull metal tiny teapot, and he approached the teapot to the bundle and its content that was starting to move, in another moment, the bundle was as silent as before the second man dropped it to the ground.
The second man finally turned to the first, “I see that you have acquired your target,” the first man nodded and said, “as you did yours.”
The first and second man sat silently and patiently, without any further discussions running forth between them, the night was still young, and they still had to wait.
Some minutes later, yet another man stumbled through the clearing, and promptly he fell to his knees, as he fell, the two men jumped to his aid. He spitted blood and coughed violently as the two held him in place for the cough fit to pass. Eventually, he calmed down and started to breathe in a labored yet firm manner.
The second looked from their obviously injured colleague to the first man, who followed his eyes that fell on the shoulders of the last man to join them, and even in this dim light, it was evident that he lacked the bundle the other two had raced to this spot with.
After the last comer regained some of his composure, the first asked him, “did you fail to bring the target along?” The last comer took a long breath and started, “I didn’t, I procured the target at the precise time and location.”
The second man rushed to question him, “then where is he?” Before the last comer could utter a single word, he looked in surprise at his chest as a spot of fresh blood bloomed on it, then his head jerked up as an arrow penetrated his neck, yet even before his head settled back on his chest, the two other men bolted up, grabbed the bundles and started to run.
They were found out, of this much they were certain, even though they didn’t know how the pursuers could see past the shrouding ferns of the clearing as they were supposed to block the vision of any who didn’t know of its existence. Right after the assault on the third man, the pursuers abandoned their silent approach, as their ululations filled the night air with shrill cries of blood-thirst.
The race was on.
From Book 1 The Green boy