Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1) (9 page)

Together they crossed the north bridge and headed towards White Bridge.  With the sprint to and from home, Uktesh was still able to easily out run Laurilli.  Soon she began to lag behind, so he took her axe and ran on with the extra weight.  Soon she began to falter again.  He stopped by a tree with a nice shade and together they caught their breaths.  “I think if we’re going to get the extra gold we’ll need to be smart about this.  We’ve been running for almost an hour, great job by the way!  But I judge that we are still four hours at this pace to White Bridge. So I think you should rest here, while I run as fast as I can there and back.  Once I get back, you’ll be rested and you’ll run the rest of the way back while I walk.  Plus, this way you’re not in danger by going nearer to Beletaria. Sound good?”

“I don’t like that you’ll have to do the most work, and I feel safer with you, but you’re right.  If we are to have any chance of getting the extra gold, it’ll be because we’re smart about it.  Help me up into the tree and I’ll be fine. The lowest branch is higher than any one person could get to, and if they do, I’ll have my axe.”

“Or we could go together and forget the extra gold.”

“I’ll be fine by myself,” she said.

“What would be the best attack from that position?”

“I wouldn’t be able to set my feet, or really lunge, but I think a simple-” she stopped midsentence, “wait, the best wouldn’t be to attack with my axe. If I tried the unarmed Leaf on the Wind that would be the best.”

“Well done! That’s what I think too, but if you don’t feel like you’re ready for Leaf on the Wind, just wave your axe at them, and they’ll back off.  Plus, you shouldn’t have any problems.” 

He locked his fingers together to form a step and Laurilli hugged him fiercely, but quickly stepped into his hand. Once she was situated in the tree, she said, “Stay safe!”

Uktesh handed her the axe and said, “Don’t worry about me. You have enough food and water, it’s enough for two days. But if I’m not back by sunset, run home and I’ll meet you at home in the morning.”  He looked into her fearful eyes and said, “You’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.  And tomorrow, or maybe later today, we’ll have golds to spend!”

He nodded to her and ran at a fast jog north.  He used the Beletarian quick step to keep his momentum always forward.  The trick, to the quick step was to step when his foot had not yet past his body.  A man or woman who ran this way could run for hours and only be slightly winded. He had taught the skill to Laurilli, but they hadn’t had enough time for a longer run. She had never trained before, so her muscles and heart couldn’t take the strain of a regular run for too long. With this technique, she was already able to run further. After only a few weeks, she had just run for an hour at a hard pace.

He passed a sign for White bridge that read forty eight miles. So he slowly increased his pace, until he was nearly at a full sprint.  As he passed a farm he saw the shocked look on the farmhands’ faces in the field as he passed them. 
I guess they don’t see a lot of people here training for a long run, but that’s why Beletaria’s the best. We constantly train to be better, even the grand masters are constantly training, when they’re not teaching.  Well actually, I guess it’s not “we” anymore. 
He was filled with a momentary sadness that passed as soon as he thought about Laurilli and all that he’d gained since he had left Beletaria. 

As he jogged on he smiled and remembered one of the few good memories he had from when he grew up.  It was the day, five years ago, that they learned how to use the Beletarian style of running. “Don’t worry about how you look doing it!”  Gelshaw had yelled at Belial when he complained that they looked ridiculous.  Uktesh hadn’t cared what people thought of him by this point in his life. All his friends knew that he could fight, so looking silly while he practiced a new technique didn’t worry him too much.  Uktesh started to try it as Gelshaw continued to instruct, “So now you believe that you know how to run, but do you know how to fight?” 

They’d just completed the first of many physical training months, and they all had found that they knew next to nothing about how to fight, so they didn’t speak up this time at the taunt.  Uktesh had been able to tell that his stride still caused his feet to move too far ahead of him, but he was probably doing the best out of the class.  “Belario you need to step quicker. The reason why this works is because of momentum!  If you keep kicking your feet out ahead of you, you will constantly be losing your momentum.  Uktesh!” he said and he gestured Uktesh forward. So Uktesh continued to try to jog to Gelshaw, “Punch my hand, boy!”  Uktesh knew better than to argue, so he punched Gelshaw’s hand as hard as he could. But it didn’t move at all, in fact, Uktesh was pushed backwards slightly.  “Now, can anyone explain why Uktesh was pushed backwards?”

“It’s cause he’s weak!”

“He didn’t set his feet!”

“You pushed back on his fist!” 

The answers came fast, but through it all Gelshaw only shook his head.  “The reason is that every time you push on an object it pushes back on you just as much.  So when you jog and you stick your foot way out in front of your body, you’re breaking your momentum. Instead we jog by constantly pushing in the direction we want to go, you will find that it takes far less energy to continue moving forward.”  They had practiced all the rest of that week until everyone could do it.

Uktesh continued to run and stopped his daydream only long enough to read a sign that read; White Bridge twelve miles.  He was surprised that he’d been able to jog this whole way so quickly, it felt like he’d only been on the road for another few minutes, rather than the hours he knew it would take to cover that much distance.  His mind wandered back to Laurilli and he hoped that she would be safe. He envisioned her being attacked, and he picked up his pace to just under his fastest jog speed.  The people that he envisioned attacking Laurilli were Baloce and Dekan. “Where’s your boyfriend?” Dekan would ask.

Without contradicting Dekan’s boyfriend comment she responded, “He’s around, and will be back soon.”

“I don’t think that he’s nearby at all. I think you’re up in a tree because he left you alone, which is good for us. Finally, you’ll get what’s coming to you.”

As Uktesh imagined them attacking her, he saw her try to fight them off, first with the axe, then with Leaf on the Wind. As he had suspected, it was too soon for her to try. As he imagined her slipping from the tree and falling, he realized that he was at a full sprint with his head fully tilted forward.  He didn’t remember how long he’d been at it full tilt, but now he was winded and his muscles had started to hurt.  He slowed down to a slow jog, and realized that a walled town was near.
It was just a worry, she’s not really in danger.
He thought to himself. But he couldn’t shake the worry, as he slowed to a fast walk.  Uktesh entered through the south gate and saw a similar gate across the way. He had intended to just walk through this town and keep on towards White Bridge when he saw a cart with a broken wheel,
Maybe they were able to come a bit further south before the wheel broke.  
 He walked to the cart and saw that there was a ream of expensive looking cloth in the back under a tarp.  “Hey you!  Kid!  What do you think you’re doing?”

Uktesh turned and glared his most menacing glare, brought his hand up to the hilt of his sword over his right shoulder and growled, “My name’s Uktesh. I was hired by Tylor to bring his goods to Manori. Are these his?”

The man halted in his tracks at his glare and tone, “I didn’t mean to offend, bounty hunter, it’s just that this one ream of cloth is worth a year’s wage for me.”  Uktesh released his sword, but tucked his thumbs in his belt.  He allowed the man to see his two knives and eased up on his glare.

“Here is the letter of intent signed by Tylor. The rest of his merchandise, you can bring once the wheel is fixed. I’ve been hired, as you can see, to bring back the cloth.”

“I can’t read. How am I to know what that says?” the man whined.

“If you can’t read, blame your parents or yourself for your ignorance. As for me, I’m taking this ream. It’s worth a gold more if I return with it before sun down.”

The man looked up, “sunset’s only ten hours away. You’ll never make it back by walking. Is your plan to take the ferry to the north?”

“No, I’ll run back. But that’s my issue, yours is to hand over the merchandise.”

“I need a witness. I’ll get the mayor.”

“This town has a mayor?  I thought the nearest one was in White Bridge.”

As he walked off, he shouted over his shoulder, “Where do you think you are?”

Uktesh thought about it,
I couldn’t have run the whole way by now, last I checked I was twelve miles away!  That’s at least another hour of running, most likely an hour and a half. But since I saw that sign, only a half hour has passed. 
He thought about it some more,
maybe the sign was incorrect.
He nodded to himself,
That must be it. 

The man returned with four people, and again Uktesh fell into the persona that other’s mistook as mercenary.  “This is the mayor.” He said and pointed at the portly man on his right, “These other three are his scribe, son, and daughters’ husband.  They can all read, so if you would be kind enough to hand the paper to them.”  Uktesh handed them the paper. They each read it and each took their time. Finally they nodded to each other and grinned momentarily when their eyes met.

Great!  They’re planning to rob me!  Wasting time was a way for their men to get set up. 
“Is all in order?”

“Yes, young man. All seems well.” The mayor said.  “If you will allow us to wrap the cloth to protect it, you can be on your way.”

“That’s fine so long as I watch the wrapping.” Uktesh saw a flicker of disappointment, but the mayor nodded.  It was quickly wrapped and soon Uktesh was left alone in the middle of the square. The five men just stood around as they pretended to talk, though Uktesh knew that they just wanted to watch him. When Uktesh started to walk north, he heard a shout, “Son!”  The mayor shouted, “You may be turned around, but Manori is that way, to the south.”

Uktesh nodded, “So it is. But I’m going to go north and get a hire on the ferry to take me south. The ten minutes north will be made up by the quick trip south.  It’ll be close, but I suspect that the ferry’s my best option.”

“I thought you said you were going to run, young legs like yours will be able to do it!”

“So I thought, but your witnesses took too long for me to run back.” 
Stupid old fools! Let’s see if you enjoy feeling that you took so long setting up the ambush that it caused me to change my mind.
But Uktesh was sure to keep the joy off his face.

The five men looked stunned, “Well I still better hurry.” Uktesh saw that there was a tube that the cloth wrapped around, so he slid his unstrung bow through it and hitched the ream of cloth and bow over his shoulder. He quickly jogged towards to the north gate, and once out of site, jogged around the wall to the east. He waited in the shadows, as he saw a rider gallop out of the town.  Less than a minute later, he saw eight men sprint to follow the horse, which Uktesh realized was the mayor’s son’s horse. 
Eight men!  They weren’t taking any chances.  Maybe my mercenary act was too good.

Uktesh shrugged, happy to have avoided the conflict all together and fast jogged back towards Manori.  He knew that his trick would be caught in, at the most, ten minutes, when they reached the ferry and realized that he wasn’t there.  He hoped that by that time, they would’ve lost interest in him.  The weight over his shoulder suddenly felt heavier,
Nope, this cloth is far too expensive to give up on that easily.
  He took a deep breath and fell into a balanced form called Bull Rushes Down, the only balanced form that required a bit of distance to run towards the enemy. 

He took off like an arrow as he Rushed. The wind howled, as he Rushed down the road, and he felt like he was flying.  He then thought about how foolish it was to use Rushing as a form of travel, and then about how he again was forced by circumstances to use a skill in a way that it was never meant to be used.  He knew his speed would be impressive. As he Rushed on, he saw the sign that indicated that White Bridge was twelve miles away. He knew it had to be off by a few miles, that even Rushing as he was, he couldn’t have travelled twelve miles in forty minutes.  Finally, after another ten minutes, he reverted back to the Beletarian jogging, and continued on.

After another hour of his fast pace jog, he slowed down a little more because his injury from the saber rabbit, that had not been an issue for nearly a week, had started to become irritated by the run,
 And probably mostly because of the Rushing. 
He paused for a moment to stretch out his tightened thigh. Then he started to jog again, this time a much slower jog, as he hoped to conserve his ability to sprint, should he need it.  He jogged on for an hour more and had to switch the ream of cloth on his shoulder twice.  As he paused again to switch the ream he noticed a cloud of dust back towards White Bridge.

Great, they have lots of horses,
he thought as he considered the odds that someone else would push their horses that hard.  He came to the conclusion that most likely the mayor and his group had continued to chase after him.  He started to jog again and picked up the pace, because, as it was he was going to be able to make it back to Manori with some time to spare. But if he had to deal with the mayor’s men, it would be too close, unless he sped up some more.  After another half hour of a fast jog, he found that his leg was fine at the speed he’d been going.  So he readjusted the ream and started to jog faster.  It only took a few more minutes of the jog before he could see the horses in the distance.  When their riders saw him, they started to whip their horses to faster speeds.  Uktesh was forced to jog at his fastest jog and knew that it would become an endurance test now.  Who could run longer: himself or the horses that must have been at a full gallop for hours.  He smiled. He knew who could run longer, but the combination of speed and endurance would make this race interesting.