Morning Snack

 

Another arrow thudded into Ritter's shield.

"That one close," Orok called from the thick tree cover. He knew too well that his orcish mass was an easy target for Yunni archers.

"This is all your fault," Ritter growled back.

"You like orcs. I like orcs. Why little Yunni hate orcs?"

An arrow whistled over Ritter's head and splintered on a pine tree.

"Don't worry, Orok is safe."

"They are not shooting at you," Ritter said, trying to hide his tender flesh behind his shield.

"Hey, little Yunni," Orok called. "You go home and we go home too."

"You know we're about to get surrounded," Ritter said. "You need to give it back."

"But Orok like it." He patted the small clay figure he found on a stump by the river. It was painted blue. "Looks like mommy."

"It's part of their shrine protecting the river," Ritter said. Another arrow landed in front of him. The angle let him know they were trying to circle to the left. Yunni were usually the best archers he had ever seen. If they were hitting this far off target, they must still be far away. Maybe.

"Orok is sad. Orok will put it back." He yelled, "Orok give it back to little Yunni. Yunni be happy now."

The arrows stopped for a moment. The moment stretched out. Maybe the Yunni were waiting for them to relax.

Orok trotted back to the river down the slope behind them. He returned quickly, as silent as an ox in a shop full of wind chimes.

"Orok be friends again," he called to the invisible Yunni. "Orok put back little blue mommy."

Ritter stayed behind his shield. No more arrows came.

///

From a high tree blind, Snowcap watched the two Big Folk carefully withdraw back the way they had come. When they were gone, she climbed down and whistled like a Blackbird to gather her students.

"That was fun," a youngling said, his smiled revealed a gap from his first missing baby tooth. Snowcap smiled in return. She remembered her first time learning the bow on border patrol.

"You all did very well," she said. "The strangers were lucky this was only for training."

"I could have hit the orc-man a dozen times," a youngling with a black feather in her cap said proudly.

"But you controlled yourselves like I asked," Snowcap said, nodding. "It is important to follow directions. Now, let's go have a snack."

Snowcap and her band of children flowed silently back to the village for their morning snack and nap time.

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Original image by Chrysander Mandragora (Instagram @mandragora_media).

For more, visit Alliance Atlanta LARP. 

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