table of contents – (spoilers)
Pinch, Hardmod, and Osgar were waiting at the north gate with the two men posted to guard it. All the men besides Pinch goggled in shock at Reece when he shuffled up to them in his shredded pissy pants.
“Spearman Reece has decided that he’s well enough to come out with us on night ambush!” Peep proclaimed cheerfully. “On account that Stron saw fit to heal him of his wound. Isn’t that right, Reece?”
“What? Oh, yeah. That’s right, miss.”
“Yup! Praise Stron!”
“Praise Stron,” Reece said morosely.
“See? He knows what side his bread is buttered on. What’s the matter with the rest of ye? Praise Stron, I said!” Peep barked.
“Praise Stron.”
“Good. Now, we’re going out on a night ambush to a place in the bush nearby called Big Rock. We’re gonna set up there and sit on the spot all night. See if we can’t catch someone creeping around. Or something,” Peep said. She then turned to the two men on guard duty: “When we head out, ye lock that gate behind us. If ye hear the sergeant’s horn, ye ring the alarm bell. Ye rouse the men and sit tight. Ye got that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, then. Let’s head out. There’s just enough light left to get us there without the lanterns and shit. We go out and cut left onto that trail heading down the hump to the west, down to the Cowslip. It aint far. We go single file. Pinch: yar on point. Then Hardmod. Osgar next. Then Reece. I’ll take up the rear. No noise. No talking. Any questions?”
Of course there were none, so the night ambush squad filed out the gate in the order Peep had specified. There was only just a little light left in the sky and the woods were dark, but all of them were experienced enough to manage it. With Pinch out in front, they slowly worked their way down the trail. With her shortbow in hand at the rear, Peep followed close on Reece’s heels to be sure that he and Osgar could not speak to each other without her overhearing.
Both Reece and Osgar were armed with their roundshields and spears, as well as their personal knives. Hardmod had his spear and shield, as well as his sling and pouch of rocks. Hardmod was carrying both the lanterns and the fire-starting kit. Osgar had the five, pitch-soaked torches tied in a bundle slung over his back.
By the time they reached Big Rock it was full night. However, as Peep had anticipated, there was just enough of a moon to give them a tiny bit of light through the forest’s canopy. At Big Rock there was something of a clearing that provided some open sky above them. They could make out a little more of their surroundings.
“Hunker down here, now. Up to the rock,” Peep whispered.
The five of them crept up the little rise to the large erratic boulder for which the site was named. The grass of the rise should have been longer, but it had been grazed by livestock and trampled down by folk using the site as a meeting place. When they were all squatted down by the rock overlooking the intersection of trails, Peep spoke again, still in a whisper:
“Okay, now. Hardmod: turn into the rock here and light up them lamps. Shutter them as soon as they’re lit. Reece and Osgar: get behind him and get your shields up to block the light.”
The men all did as she had ordered. Even with the precautions, the flare of the flint and steel was painfully bright starting up one of the inflammable fire starters: a frayed wick treated with rendered wax, fat, and tree pitch. With it, Hardmod soon had the two lanterns lit and hooded. There were just a few tiny cracks of light from the lanterns’ seams to betray their existence in the dark.
With this done, Peep issued her next orders:
“Good. Now, Osgar: bust out them torches. You and Reece get one each. Hardmod, ye keep the other three. Pinch, yar gonna have one lantern, and I’ll have the other. Now, Hardmod: if me or Pinch signal with the alarm bird call, ye get a torch lit right away. So be ready with that fire starter. Then, ye use that torch to light Osgar and Reece’s. So you three stay together right here and be set for that. Got it?”
The three men murmured that they did.
“Good. Me and Pinch are gonna move just a bit out to each side. If something shows up and we decide to jack it, we’ll give the signal. We’ll light it up with our lanterns and get on our bows. Reece and Osgar: when that happens ye keep yar back to the rock and raise up yar torches high. Ye stay behind me and Pinch. So’s we don’t get fire blind. Hardmod: ye can put yar torch up there on the boulder behind ye and get going on yar sling from between Reece and Osgar. Ye all understand that?”
Again, the men all indicated quietly that they did.
“Good. Alright, then. That’s that. Let’s hope it’s just a boring night out here,” Peep finished.
With that, Peep and Pinch moved away to either side, and a little down the rise, from the three men up against the boulder. They sat down in the short grass with their bows and set the hooded lanterns down on the ground next to them with the light ports ready to shine roughly in the direction of the trail intersection only about ten meters away. Then they sat still and waited.
It was only about twenty minutes before Peep could make out the faintest hush of a whisper from where Reece, Osgar, and Hardmod were sitting. Peep hissed at them.
“No talking, I said. I’ll fuckin cut ye,” she said, her voice only loud enough to carry to them.
They stayed quiet after this. An hour passed. Then another. Every half hour, or so, Peep would open the port on her lantern just a slit so that she could pass the light over the three at the boulder to check on them. Reece was usually sleeping, but Osgar elbowed him awake every time, and Peep let it pass.
Finally, in the middle of the night, when the moon had risen above the clearing to cast its light down through the opening in the canopy above, Peep rose to her feet. She did bother checking on Reece this time. She now could make out the three men leaning against the boulder. Reece had been snoring softly for at least twenty minutes.
Peep picked up her lantern and skulked over to Pinch.
“I’m gonna take a little sniff around. Ye just sit tight. I won’t go far. Don’t shoot me by mistake,” she whispered to him.
“Okay,” Pinch whispered back, his voice tight with tension.
Peep gave him a pat on the shoulder and crept down to the intersection of trails with her shortbow in her left hand and the hooded lantern in her right. She crouched down there and spent some time listening to the forest while she peered down into the gloom of the four trails leading away into the forest. Not so far to the south, the Cowslip Creek could be heard gently burbling.
After several minutes, Peep slipped off the trail to the west, heading directly away from Bristlehump. She crouched low and hugged the grass and bushes at the edge of the trail. Every twenty meters, or so, she would stop and squat right down to listen for a while. Behind her, in the light of the moon, the silhouette of the boulder could easily be made out. Crouched down in front of it as they were, the three men could not be seen. Pinch, however, was a vague blob of shadow on the grassy rise. This did not disturb Peep, since she knew he was there. For anyone that do not know, there would be no way to know it was a man sitting there and not a patch of different shrubs, a small animal burrow, or any number of other natural things.
Satisfied, Peep slipped off into the thicker bush to take a piss. When she came back to the trail, she set the hooded lantern down and bent down to hold her cloak over it. She checked that it was lit and turned up the wick. She then drew an arrow and notched it, holding it in place with just a little string tension and the index finger of her hand holding the bow. Ready now, she picked up the lantern and walked back to the trail crossing.
When she was about to reach the point on the trail where she would become visible to Pinch again, she gave their low, warbling, “all clear,” birdcall. In the center of the trail intersection, she crouched down and set the lantern on the ground out to her right, facing up the rise towards the boulder. Peep took her time with this, finding a spot on the uneven ground that would tilt the lantern upwards just so. With it in place, she flipped up the hood and stood up in one smooth motion, never once looking at the lantern as she did.
Most of the lantern light bathed the grass of the lower part of the rise. But, with her eyes fully accustomed to the dark, there was plenty of light for her to make out Osgar, Hardmod, and Reece sitting with their backs to the boulder. Reece was asleep.
As she stood up into shooting posture, Peep gave a shrill, piecing whistle. All three men startled.
“Hey! Reece! Wake up!” she shouted.
In a panic, Reece sat up straight, his eyes wild, like a startled rabbit. At a range of just over ten meters, he was an easier target than one. Peep shot him through the throat. The custom, heavy arrow sank itself to the fletching at his Adam’s apple, snapping his head down. Reece crumpled and fell into a heap with a loud, wet gurgle.
Peep notched another arrow.
“Osgar!” she called. “Stand up without yar shield or spear! Do it now!”
The big man immediately did precisely as he was told.
“Good! Now move to yar left! Down towards Pinch! That’s right! Okay! That’s enough! Stop there! Sit down! Good! Pinch: shine yar lantern on him! If he tries to get up, ye shoot him!” Peep ordered.
“Yeah. Sure. Okay,” Pinch said, sounding more tired than anything, as he opened his lantern’s hood and turned it on the ground to face Osgar sitting in the grass.
“Hardmod: ye can step away. Come down here and get this lantern. Shine it at Reece,” Peep said.
Hardmod hurried down to Peep’s side to do as she said. Once he had, Peep strode up the rise to where Reece was crumpled against the boulder. The heavy arrow had exploded out the back of his neck through the spine, killing him almost instantly. Peep rolled him over onto his back with her boot.
“Stupid motherfucker,” she said.
Peep walked down to stand overtop of Osgar, who was sitting cross-legged with his hands gripping his knees, staring at the ground in front of him. To his credit, he was showing little emotion.
“So, what just happened, big man?” Peep asked Osgar.
“I dunno, sir. You tell me,” he answered.
“Good man. I will tell ye. I overheard what Reece was saying to ye. About how he wanted to cut our throats for the Outfit bounty. Me and Pinch here. Two gold a head. That’s what he was saying to ye, wasn’t it?”
“No, sir.”
“No? Ye mean ye two haven’t had talks along those lines out on watch at night? Silly me! Maybe I’m hearing things. Or, maybe, ye don’t hear so good, on account of whatever the fuck. I think that’s probably it, right? He was talking his shit to ye, and yar ears are just plugged up tonight. That’s why ye didn’t answer him. And it aint no harm nor foul on yar part, what he was saying, on account of ye couldn’t make it out. Isn’t that right, Osgar?” Peep asked, her tone conversational.
“Okay, sir. I guess that’s right. I couldn’t make out what he was saying,” Osgar said.
“That’s right. Good man,” Peep said, her voice a smile in the dark. “And how about you, Hardmod? Ye couldn’t make out what Reece was saying, could ye? He was whispering too low. I’m next to certain ye didn’t hear what he was saying, right?”
“Me? No… don’t reckon I did. Unless…” Hardmod’s voice drifted off expectantly.
“No. That’s right. Ye didn’t. Yar out of it. So it was just me that heard him say it. And that’s just fine. Because that’s all I need,” Peep’s voice got hard with her last sentence. She waited a long moment before continuing:
“I heard what I heard. I felt what I felt. And I did what I did. And there aint no one… No one! in this world that’s gonna contradict me on that. We’re all crystal-fuckin-clear on that, right?”
“Yes, sir,” both Osgar and Hardmod said.
“Yeah, no shit,” muttered Pinch.
“Good!” Peep said, her voice bright and cheery again. “Because we don’t want no one thinking this had anything to do with what happened earlier. Ye know, with Reece slipping and puncturing himself on a twig and all. Totally unrelated, these two things. Right?”
“That’s right, sir,” Osgar said.
“Yes, sir,” Hardmod seconded.
“Good. And that means that young Rabbit is the furthest thing from our minds. No connection whatsoever with the ill shit that Reece tried to hatch tonight. Isn’t that right, Osgar?” Peep asked, her voice getting hard again.
“Yes, sir.”
“Yeah. Because Rabbit is our friend. Look at me, Osgar.” Peep crouched down right in front of the big man, her bow with its notched arrow still in hand. Osgar raised his gaze from the ground in front of him and met her eye.
“Rabbit is our friend. We’re clear on that, now, right?” Peep asked him quietly.
“Yeah. Yes, sir,” Osgar said, his voice finally cracking just a little.
“That’s right. Spread the word. Make sure everyone understands it. I’m making you personally responsible for it. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Reece was a stupid, sick man. And he had some fucked-up ideas that got him killed. And that’s the end of all that. Right?”
“That’s right, sir,” Osgar said.
“Excellent. I’m glad we understand each other,” Peep said.
She stood up and put her arrow back in its quiver and twirled her shortbow back into its case on her back.
“Okay, Hardmod: give me some light here,” Peep said, moving back to Reece’s corpse as she drew her shortsword.
As with Butters, the blade made short work of the decapitation. Peep wiped it clean on Reece’s tunic and stood up holding his head by its hair.
“Okay, that’s enough night ambush for tonight. We’re going back to town. Good job, everybody! That’s how we do it!” Peep exclaimed. “Osgar: grab both Reece and yar shields and spears. Yar on point. Pinch, yar right behind him with yar lantern. I’ll go next with this,” she raised up Reece’s head just a little. “Hardmod, ye got the rear with that lantern. We’ll leave the torches and this shit here until tomorrow.”
Peep gestured with her sword point towards Reece’s corpse at the word, “shit.”
Muse Vassal 