A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

The crowd broke out into angry muttering, which was only a façade to mask their unease at what they had just witnessed. The governor stood up in the royal pavilion and screamed, "Seize that man at once!"

The main doors of the arena burst open and a group of thirteen horsemen spilled into the arena. Turning to face this new threat I watched the guardsmen sweep across the arena toward me. They weren't guardsmen! I recognized Seth first and then the others. Seth broke from the bunch and reached his arm out to me. I grabbed it and using momentum I flung my body up onto the back of the horse behind him. The other riders formed a protective shell around us as we wheeled around to race toward the still open doors of the arena.

We peeled through them in a cloud of dust, as we headed into the city at large. I could hear shouts of dismay ringing out behind us, as the crowd reacted to my unexpected escape. Chaos ensued in the marketplace, as we rode down merchants and merchant's wares alike in our mad scramble to get free of the city before the street gatehouses were closed.

Approaching the eastern gate at a full gallop I saw that it was still open. The guards were still laying at ease to either side of the street. We made straight for the open gate. The hooves of our horses pounded hard on the cobble stoned street surface announcing our approach to the guards. Halfway to the guards we charged through a flock of chickens that parted before us in a flurry of feathers, as they squawked madly at our sudden disturbance of them.

The guards hesitated in the face of our head on charge toward them unsure as to what was taking place. They seemed to come to a consensus of the minds and threw themselves to the sides of the alley to avoid the hoofs of our horses as we streamed out of the street gate into the glorious freedom of the countryside. After several miles were behind us we pulled up to check for signs of pursuit. No dust clouds were visible in the shimmering heat waves of the plain. The escape had been such a complete surprise that they hadn't even yet been able to mount a chase. We rode on through the day leisurely, until we camped early that evening.

I got down from the horse and greeted my old companions warmly. The hulking form of Olaf was last to come forward. Gruffly he held up one huge hand that grasped three chickens and asked in his deep gravelly voice, "You hungry?"