Arrow’s Flight: Tales of Dizhelim by P. E. Padilla

Author:P. E. Padilla [Padilla, P. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B0BTK5VL4V
Goodreads: 103493435
Publisher: Oliver Heber Books
Published: 2023-01-31T06:00:00+00:00

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Erent spent the next several weeks exploring the perimeter of the Grundenwald, the largest and oldest forest in the northern half of Dizhelim. During his childhood he had never gone into the forest proper, not from any direction. Not until his recent foray in escaping the fake lord’s guards.

The yearning to explore it burned in him, but he resisted. Mostly. Instead, he traveled around the edges of the forest, going north and west of Hosen.

The Grundenwald was largely wild. Even the communities on the borders of the forest dared not delve too deeply into the tangle of trees. Myths and legends abounded about what was in the foliage. Nearly ten thousand square miles, most of it choked with thick vegetation—reportedly—made for a difficult entity to explore. And that didn’t even take into account the monsters and beasts stories said lurked within. Apparently the stories of the finchoi were true.

So, though Erent dipped into the fringes of the forest, he never went more than a mile into the trees. He would have to resist the temptation and his curiosity for the time being. He had a murderer to find.

One night when he was ghosting his way through the fringes of the Grundenwald, he froze, sensing something watching him. He wasn’t sure who or what it was, but he felt its deadly intent. There was no question about it, he was being stalked.

He looked around for a suitable location in which to lose his shadow and to turn the tables. It was like the exercises Toras used to subject him to. His teacher would stalk his student with the aim of tagging him with the special paint arrows Toras had created for the games. Toras told him he didn’t invent the devices. Someone within the intelligence branch of the army first came up with the idea for scout training, he claimed, but Toras had made the ones he and Erent used, so the younger man always thought of them as Toras’s creations.

Erent was in a bunching of elm trees. They were spread apart widely enough that he couldn’t simply disappear within a tangle of them. The undergrowth was not thick, but sufficient to hinder most people. It was a good thing Erent was not most people. He moved through the bushes, ferns, and nettles without so much as making them sway in his passing. Still, he needed something else to lose his foe.

A large fallen tree was up ahead of him, to his right. Straight ahead was a small rise in the terrain. A bit further to the right, past the tree, was a jumble of rocks. On his left, a thick growth of bushes sprang up from the ground. They would only be chest-high to Erent, but they were some cover, at least.

The young hero moved like a wraith. He had to decide soon which way he would go. Right or left? His mind spun, spitting out scenarios to help him choose. Finally, he angled off to his left.

Near the bushes, Erent ran toward a tree that had grown at an angle.

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