Runt the Brave: Bravery in the Midst of a Bully Society (Legends of Tira-Nor) by Daniel Schwabauer

Author:Daniel Schwabauer
Language: ita
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781617153914
Publisher: Living Ink Books, an imprint of AMG Publishers
Published: 2012-10-23T07:00:00+00:00

The attack came late in the afternoon.

JaRed stood sentry atop the dome of Round Top, but he did not see the first rats until they were almost upon the skirmishers.

His position left him exposed to the sky, and the temptation was to look up when his duty lay in looking out. True, there was a tree to huddle against. But mice do not like heights, and they feel vulnerable when surrounded by too much open air. Captain Blang believed such vulnerability helped his sentries to stay alert. JaRed often found himself looking over one shoulder, half expecting to meet the talons of a hawk.

He focused his gaze on the western horizon, the direction from which any attack would surely come. Occasionally he glanced north or south, but his attention was always drawn back to the houses of men.

Beyond the houses lay the unknown lands, about which almost nothing was known. Even in the oldest stories and songs the realms beyond were rarely mentioned. Other than TyMin, who had come to Tira-Nor from the southwest, there remained in the collective histories only hints of the forgotten things from the far world.

He stared west at the peaks of new wood gables that pierced the dusty rim of the sky. He brushed one paw against the shock of white fur at his forehead.

The earth shuddered.

Fear rose in his chest, and all at once he seemed to be falling, the same sensation that had terrified him the night GoRec slaughter Klogg and left his body on the burn pile like a broken toy.

A scene unfolded in JaRed’s mind as the sky pressed down on him, suffocating in its enormity. The air grew heavy. He felt he was drifting away and down, sinking into the dirt and clay and gravel, into the bedrock and the hot molten heart of the world. The waking vision grew stronger as he plummeted.

Away to the north and west lay a vast prairie dotted by woodlands, rivers, and lakes. A sea of homes— the houses of men—flowed in a relentless current of wood and plaster and paint toward Tira-Nor. Beneath the current ran an intricate web of sewers, and in the sewers gathered a horde of rats.

But only for a moment.

Then the vision shifted. From sky to grass he fell, tumbling, and at the same time he seemed to be rising through water, as if to catch his breath after long submersion.

He passed through a vacant lot that lay like a missing tooth between two ancient brick buildings, and stood under a sign that towered above him on iron legs bleeding rust at their bolted seams. Red letters blistered and fell away from the white surface, leaving the faded outlines of words:

The Springer Meat Processing Plant

WELCOME

The vision at last slowed, drawing JaRed closer to the earth beneath the sign. For a moment he circled the ground like water going through a drain.

Overgrown with weeds and withered bluegrass, the earth here was littered with rotting plywood and bald tires. Empty liquor bottles glittered in the afternoon sunlight.

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