Attack

Two days later, it was the start of the second year of school.

“What do you think the new teacher will be like?” Kalin asked Lucien as they walked towards the school.

Kalin looked to have gotten a little taller after a year. Lucien, however, hadn’t grown at all except mentally.

“I’m not sure. I hope whoever it is teaches as well as Ms. Grell did.”

“You got that right. All I want to do is pass. So they better be good at teaching. I don’t want to put in any more work than I have too.”

“What do you want to do when you finish school?” Lucien asked.

“Hmm. I’ve always wanted to be knight. Honestly though, as long as I’m not a healer I’ll be happy with whatever I become.”

“You know you don’t have to study under the class the crystal ball says. It just shows which one is best suited to you.”

“Really? I feel loads better now.”

Lucien laughed as they continued to the school.

They arrived and filed into the room across the hall from their old one. Naturally, the students all avoided Kalin and Lucien, but they didn’t care.

“Alright everyone, listen up!” a short portly man with a mustache and glasses demanded. “You can call me Mr. Pinzer. I will be your teacher for this year.”

Mr. Pinzer had light brown hair and brown eyes and spoke with his chin held high.

“I will now be taking role. Please say here when I call your name. After I finish, I’ll explain the subject matter we will be covering this year.”

Only around forty students had returned for the second year. This meant that they either failed or decided not to continue.

Mr. Pinzer had finished calling all of the student’s present and continued, “This year we will be diving a bit deeper into the subjects of last year. Also, instead of writing being a separate subject, it will be incorporated into the other subjects when you answer by writing extended answers to questions that we give you in the reading and history subjects. Let’s get started, shall we?”

Mr. Pinzer started with math for the first hour, then history and reading for that last three hours until school was over.

All of the students rushed out and Kalin and Lucien followed.

“Man, this year is going to be tough. Writing paragraphs for answers? What happened to just answering yes or no? Circling a letter was great too,” Kalin complained.

“You’re just lazy,” Lucien laughed.

“I can’t help it.”

They walked the entrance of the school and saw Cletus’s sneering face at the bottom of the steps.

Kalin frowned, “Crap.”

“I forgot today was the day too.” Lucien agreed.

“What’s going on guys. I really missed you over the summer,” Cletus sneered.

It looked as if Cletus’s follower base had increased slightly. There were now around thirteen other students in his group.

This is when Lucien noticed that everyone had gotten taller over the summer as well. Everyone, except him. Lucien was now the shortest one in the class. He felt completely outclassed.

Cletus snapped his fingers, “Hold them.”

Eight of his followers rushed and tackled Lucien and Kalin to the ground before forcing them to stand back up. Lucien and Kalin flailed and struggled, but it was no use against their numbers.

“I owe you a whole summer of beat downs.” Cletus cackled as he cracked his knuckles.

He stood in front of Lucien first.

Slam!

Cletus sunk his fist into Lucien’s stomach, causing Lucien to cough uncontrollably.

Pow, pow, thud!

Cletus followed up with two shots to Lucien’s face and then kicked his crotch. Lucien’s eyes grew wide in pain and then gritted his teeth together.

Kalin wanted to say something to try and stop Cletus as he continued to deliver blow after blow, but it was no use. Cletus lived to pick on Lucien.

Cletus turned to Kalin next and sunk his fist into Kalin’s nose. Blood trickled out of his nose which was now crooked.

Cletus beat each of them, switching every two minutes or so, until both Lucien and Kalin were black and blue with a touch a red. Some towns people even stopped to watch for their own entertainment before going on about their day.

“Same time, same place tomorrow fellas.” Cletus waved as he strolled away with his followers laughing.

Both Kalin and Lucien collapsed to the ground, covered in bruises and blood. Both pushed themselves up onto their knees before picking their heads up to breath in the fresh air.

“Did you… see that?” Kalin asked.

“See what?” Lucien heaved.

“Those good for nothing towns people! They didn’t do a thing! They just watched, then kept walking like nothing was happening?” Kalin fumed with rage.

“Just ignore it.”

“This world is wrong. The rich shouldn’t be able to play with the weak like we’re toys! We have feelings too!” Kalin clenched his fists in anger.

Lucien put his hand on Kalin’s shoulder.

“Look, we can’t do anything about it now. All we can’t do is wait until we’ve grown. Then we can work to try and fix what’s wrong with our society.”

Kalin looked back at Lucien then nodded his head.

Lucien stood up and then offered his hand which Kalin took and hoisted him up.

“Time to get you to work, right?” Kalin asked.

“Right.”

…

After Lucien had finished work at The Tavern, he headed for home.

The first thing he did was when he got home was pick up his new bow and arrow and practiced aiming and shooting. He was already pretty accurate, therefore, he focused on speeding up his aim with the arrow already notched on the bowstring. He did this for a while until his mother called him in for dinner.

The school year passed slowly from the warmth of summer, to the cool of fall, and into the frigid temperatures of winter. This year was particularly harsh on the Verglas. The ice excavation team forced Lucien’s father to work more and more since they couldn’t excavate the ice if it got too thick. This meant less firewood and cold temperatures inside the cabin.

“Well, I’ll start chopping more wood.” Lucien’s father sighed after finishing his dinner. Lucien’s father looked paler than usual because of all the hours he was working on top of trying to keep up with firewood.

“Father, I can do it. You need your strength more than I do.” offered Lucien.

“No, you need to focus on school, besides you are always practicing with the bow and arrow. You’re doing enough son.”

“Lucien’s expression hardened, “No father. You need to keep working. You’re are only supply of money. If you get sick or get into an accident because you didn’t get proper rest, we will be at a standstill here. We wouldn’t make it through the winter! We are tight on funds as it is. Don’ think I don’t notice our money supply!”

His parents had very surprised expressions upon their faces. They looked at each other.

“He makes a very valid argument.” His mother pointed out.

Lucien’s father sighed, “Your right. However, if I notice you becoming overly tired or you get sick, you’re done, got it?”

“Yes father.”

Lucien grabbed the ax that was propped up on the wall next to the door then headed outside.

Outside, there was an oil lamp that was hung on the cabin wall that lit the area for Lucien.

Lucien looked at the tree segments that were about a foot in diameter that his father had dragged over from the forest. He decided to start by cutting them down so they would fit in the fireplace.

Lucien started hacking away at the tree sections. It took about fifteen minutes just to cut one piece off of one of the segments. It didn’t help that the ax was too heavy for Lucien, but he didn’t complain. He continued to hack away no matter how tired his arms became.

It wasn’t until very late and his mother called him inside that he stopped. He had cut twelve logs from the tree sections in three hours. He leaned the ax against the cabin and looked down at the palms of his hands where massive blisters had formed.

He ignored the pain and picked up the logs and made trips back and forth until he had brought all the logs in and set them near the fireplace.

Lucien, tired and hungry, went to bed.

The next day, Lucien woke up late and rushed to finish his breakfast and make it to school on time.

“Hey man, you were almost late. You ok?” Kalin whispered to Lucien while Mr. Pinzer taught.

“I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“If you say so.”

After school and work, not to mention Cletus’s beatings, Lucien would practice with his bow and arrow out in the cold until he was called for dinner. He would then go back outside and cut the tree segments into logs.

The blisters began to rub into raw spots, and then his skin started to break open and bleed. His hands hurt more and more with every swing of the ax, not to mention how weak his body felt from sleep deprivation.

His mother called him in.

“Oh sweetie, your hands!” she exclaimed. She rushed to cover his hands in bandages to try to stop the bleeding. “Honey, maybe you should stop.”

“No, I can do this. I’ll make it through the winter,” Lucien promised.

His mother gave him a concerned look before sending him off to bed.

The next night Lucien had finished all the tree segments.

He looked at the small pile of logs he had accumulated.

‘It’s not enough.’

He looked at the cabin and wondered if he should go in and wake his father.

‘No, he needs his sleep.’

He took hold of the ax and began to walk towards the woods. Thankfully, the moon and stars lit the night so that Lucien could see where he was going.

He arrived at the edge of the forest and gazed into its dark depths. He heard a high-pitched howl pierce the night that made the hairs on the back of Lucien’s neck stand on end.

‘I’ll stay near the edge.’

He began to scan the edge of the forest for a tree that looked to be about the same diameter as the tree his father had cut down.

‘There!’

He walked over to the tree and followed the tree up to its top with his eyes, then stared at the trunk of the tree.

‘I’d better get started.’

He began to hack away at the trunk. This was much more difficult for Lucien as he was used to cutting down, where gravity had aided him. Now, he was swinging sideways and had to utilize more of his core muscles to actually make decent strikes.

It took him a full half hour just to get about halfway through the trunk. He then started to hack away at the other side of the trunk.

‘A couple more hits ought a do it.’

Lucien came to a halt as he heard a low growl coming from inside the forest. He slowly looked at the forest’s depths and saw two red beady eyes staring back at him.

Lucien dropped the ax and started running towards the small cabin. He heard the quick footsteps of whatever was chasing him speed up. He looked behind him to see a very large wolf-like creature, with light blue fur and twice the size of a normal human, snarling as it charged after him.

Lucien sprinted as hard as he could, but the wolf-like creature caught him in no time at all. The creature lunged and sunk its teeth into Lucien’s right shoulder. Lucien screamed in pain as the creature shook him violently before throwing him back towards the forest.

Lucien flew through the air and hit the soft cold snow with a thud and rolled for five feet before coming to a stop. The creature then stood on its hind legs and walked like a human towards Lucien.

‘A Siagan!’

Lucien tried to crawl away, but this proved difficult due to his shoulder wound.

The Siagan clasped Lucien’s left leg and began to drag Lucien into the forest.

“Someone, please help!” Lucien screamed. “A Siagan!”

Pew!

An arrow whistled though the air and penetrated into the Siagan’s back. The creature howled in pain and turned in the direction the arrow was fired from.

“Let my son go!” Lucien’s father was running towards the creature and Lucien with Lucien’s bow and an arrow ready to fire again.

The next arrow flew into the arm that was clasping Lucien’s leg.

The Siagan left Lucien’s leg go and howled in pain.

His father continued to charge the Siagan. He pulled out a small dagger and stabbed it into the Siagan’s stomach. The Saigan wailed in pain again, then made a large sweeping motion with its arm.

Slam!

The Siagan hit Lucien’s father with great force, sending his father rolling along the ground. The Siagan then jumped and landed on top of Lucien’s father.

“Father!” Lucien yelled with tears in his eyes.

“What are you doing! Get out of here!” his father roared while trying to hold the Siagan off of him, but the Siagan pinned both of his arms to the ground and was now snarling in his face.

“I can’t!” Lucien looked around for anything to fight with. He saw the ax and picked it up and ran towards the Siagan.

Wham!

The Siagan used its long rigid tail and smacked it into Lucien.

Lucien slowly stood up, dazed.

He then got an idea.

“Father keep him there!” Lucien screamed.

“What?”

“Trust me!”

Lucien began to hack away at the tree again, until it slowly started to crackle and fall.

His father then understood. He kicked the Siagan, wriggled loose, then rolled out of the way just in time.

Crack!

The tree came crashing down on the Siagan’s head. The Siagan fumbled around as it became dizzy. Lucien’s father then jumped on the Siagan’s back and used the dagger to slice the Siagan’s throat and then continued to stab it in the neck as the Siagan collapsed to the ground.

The Siagan laid there motionless, blood spilling into the snow, making it red.

Lucien’s father relaxed and then stood back up.

“Father!” Lucien ran into his father’s arms and buried his head in his chest. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s alright. I know you had good intentions.” His father hugged his son tight, thankful that he was alive. He then winced it pain.

“What’s wrong father?”

“I think the Siagan broke a couple of my ribs with that one hit, but never mind that. Let’s get you home.”

They both slowly limped back to the cabin.

They came into view of the cabin and noticed Lucien’s mother standing just outside the cabin. When she noticed them, she rushed over.

“Are you guys ok?” she had tears in her eyes and a frightened look upon her face.

“We made it, thankfully,” Lucien’s father answered.

Lucien’s mother scanned both of their body’s and noticed the blood oozing out of Lucien’s shoulder.

“Oh my god!” She quickly took Lucien by the arm and guided him into the cabin. His father followed behind.

She immediately took off Lucien’s shirt and inspected the holes in which the Siagan’s fangs had penetrated.

“What happened?” she questioned earnestly.

“I ran into a Siagan.” Lucien answered unwillingly as she began to clean his wounds. “I’m sorry mother, I really am.”

“If it weren’t for your mother son. You would be dead right now. She noticed that the sound of you cutting wood had stopped and looked outside but couldn’t find you. She woke me up immediately to find you.” His father explained.

His mother stopped what she was doing and looked into Lucien’s eyes, “Don’t you dare do that again. You got that? Let your father gather the trees.” She demanded.

“Yes mother.”

She finished bandaging his shoulder wound and sent him off to bed.