Chapter XI

The hut was in the middle of the aspen grove, quite close to the city, but it felt as if they lived in the middle of the dense forest. The sky was clouded, ready to rain.

“Where are they?”, Michael thought. He took the stick carved by Uriel and practiced aiming the tree. However, he soon recalled Lucius’s warning and put the stick down. Before he was fully recovered, they forbade him to move around a lot he was supposed to be in bed right now, but he could no longer bear staying in the bed and went out to breathe in some crystal clear air. Uriel had carved out the fighting cudgels for him and Lucius and promised to teach how to use them, but, because of Michael’s illness, training was put off.

That day he survived, but swimming in the icy river left him with a long-term mark. According to Lucius, Michael’s condition was the worst, that’s why most of the money they had was being spent on his recovery. Michael was already fed up with sitting in the hut doing nothing. They mostly lived on the money Uriel got by stealing, but sometimes Lucius also sold his medicine. After that night, it seemed as if some invisible wall had appeared between the two, which was slowly collapsing, although its demolition proved to be a long process, despite Michael’s multifaceted efforts.

Lucius collected plants in the woods, concocted herbal medicines, and sold them in different neighborhoods in Mondelay. The boys brought a lot of news from the city. They found out that the hordes of mysterious creatures also attacked other cities of Al-Moravid outcomes of those attacks were more brutal. Townsfolk started discussing magic and supernatural powers openly, but nobody knew who the enemies were and what they wished to achieve. At first, many people believed it was just another attempt to overthrow Al-Moravid by the neighboring kingdoms, but as they later found out, the attacks had started in several countries simultaneously. People panicked, as they no longer knew whether there was a safe place anywhere in the world. The ships no longer dared sail as they were attacked too, and no one really knew what the reason behind all of this was.

Looting became a widespread activity. People dressed in black robbed everyone, which terrified the townsfolk more, who already saw monsters lurking in every corner.

Dozens of martial arts schools were opened in Mondelay. People did not spare the last penny so that they could at least learn how to defend themselves and were getting ready for the forthcoming attacks. Refuges from Madriel killed the hope that Mondelay would not be attacked for the second time. They were attacked three times and were forced to leave the city. Whenever they reached a different destination, they only saw ruins and rubble, before they ended up in Mondelay, in the city which was not yet fully destroyed.

The rumors about the mysterious creature living in the mountains near Mondelay spread around in the city, which made the villagers nearby desert their homes. They sent the guardsmen to the mountains to find out more information, but not a single of them returned to Mondelay.

Amidst all of this, Michael had to sit at home idly. He angrily kicked the stone and went back to the hut door, limping.

“Why are you so angry?” he heard Lucius’s voice. Michael turned around quickly.

“You think there is nothing to be angry about?” he answered, angrier than intended, as his right foot toes were still hurting, ‘I have to sit at home all day while you can go out and about and have fun. Lucius just smiled in the answer that made Michael even more furious and was about to blow up, when Lucius stopped him: “I have good news for you” Michael was all ears, Lucius smiled widely, “Tonight Uriel is going to train us and from tomorrow onwards you can join us in the city.”

Michael could not believe his ears.

“But didn’t you tell me I had to stay in bed at least one more week?” he asked, whispering.

“We just wanted to see how you would take it. We were teasing you,” said Lucius, laughing.

Michael looked around to find something to throw at him. Lucius must have felt the danger and left the hut but didn’t go too far. He laughed and watched Michael swagger, although soon realized that Michael was genuinely angry and apologized. Even though these apologies were not utterly sincere, it still worked on Michael, and excitement soon replaced the feeling of anger. They were about to train in martial arts that evening. The next day they could head for the city. This news made him so happy that he totally forgot about his fury.

They decided to warm up before Uriel’s arrival. In several minutes, both of them had bruised their fingers and had several painful bumps on their heads. Laili had also woken up and was staring at them with interest. The fencers’ enthusiasm was not fading away, and they still tried to beat each other up. Michael heard a cough and as soon as he turned around, he got hit with a cudgel really hard. Bitter tears rolled down his cheeks.

“It was a good hit” Uriel praised Lucius.

“What was good about it, I was looking in your direction, when he hit me,” said Michael angrily.

“You need to be cautious during the fight. You should only think about the fight and the opponent,” answered Uriel simply.

“I coughed on purpose so that I could confuse both of you, but you paid all the attention to me,” answered Blondy. Michael did not say a word, just looked at Lucius with eyes full of envy. Lucius, however, became suddenly interested in the holes in the ceiling.

“I brought some food. I was about to have dinner, but I did not want to leave you like that when I saw you training so heartily. Let’s go out,” said Blondy and took a cudgel from the jacket.

The students copied him and prepared their tools. Blondy bowed graciously to both of them, and when the boys did the same, they got one more bump on their heads.

That’s how they learned a new lesson that there was no time for reverences during the fight. Then Blondy asked the boys to attack him and promised he would only defend himself. The boys were quite happy with this arrangement, but attacked him carefully, as they were not sure anymore that Blondy’s fight would only mean defense; as well as this, they did not want to injure him. Gradually, though, they liked the taste of the fight and threw the punches and cudgels so mercilessly, someone observing from afar might have thought they were ready to kill each other. They wanted to hit Uriel at least once, but he defended himself so skillfully that he made boys lose every hope. He did not really move that quickly, but he still outsmarted both of them.

Michael could not tell how long their fight continued, but Lucius and he were so exhausted that they finally gave in, whereas Uriel calmly stood with the cudgel and did not seem to be tired at all.

“How do you do that?” asked Michael when he caught his breath.

“I breathe properly,” answered Blondy indifferently, “the reason I started with the training was to find out what skills you have, including breathing properly and using the cudgels, but you know even less than I expected. It’s not that bad,” he calmed them down after seeing their expressions, “I will teach you everything and you will move correctly, the worse would have been if you knew how to fight, but incorrectly.”

They dedicated the remaining time of the lesson to the correct breathing and using the cudgels. Although none of them could do any of it properly, at the end of the training, which was cut short because of the rain, the boys had made some progress. At least that’s what Blondy said. He praised Michael, as he had made pretty swift progress. He might even disclose the talent in the sword fight. If Michael was asked, this was not because of the talent, but his great desire to learn, and deep in heart he felt he was secretly competing with Lucius, that’s why he listened carefully for Uriel’s instructions so that he would have been able to repeat every action with no obvious mistakes.

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They might not have allowed Blondy to take a break if not for the rain, which made the boys extremely disappointed, but Uriel, on the contrary, looked thrilled. In the end, they had no choice but to get back home.

It was drizzling at first but soon rained torrentially. The broken roof was leaking profusely. They put the bowls in three different places so that the floor wouldn’t get wet and muddy. As the rain was heavy, they had to empty the bowls often.

Uriel warmed up the food in the fireplace, and they sat down to eat. Michael was the first to finish. He could no longer wait, took the cudgel, and started revising the movements he had just learned. Soon Lucius joined him, but in the end, he got bored and gave up. Uriel was still eating heartily and commented on Michael’s movements with his mouth full of food. Michael tried to consider his notes. Lucius woke Laili up. It was time to eat, but as it seemed, she was far more interested in what Michael was up to than in her food.

Nothing could outweigh Michael’s enthusiasm, neither the boys’ jokes nor the exhaustion he felt. He could already see the improvement, which made him even more motivated, even more than necessary, as he almost broke the window, which was already on the verge of collapsing, with his cudgel. Except for Laili, everybody asked him to stop doing whatever he was doing and rest a little. This is how Michael’s training ended that day, and he joined in the discussion about planning the next day. The key thing was who to follow to the city - Lucius or Uriel. In the first case, he would have to sell medicine in different neighborhoods, which, despite his utmost respect for medicine, attracted him less, compared to learning how to steal, that’s why his eventual choice fell on Uriel.

The sun rose sooner than Michael expected as if he did not even close his eyes. It was time to get up. He was not used to getting up early because he could sleep till midday because of his illness. He stretched lazily and turned over in his bed and only got up after having received a big poke in his side.

It was still very dark in the room. Michael left the hut, but when he bumped into the wall, he realized the door was in a different direction and when he hit himself against the wall again, swore out loud and asked where the door was. The boys were sitting and arguing about whether he was a sleepwalker, but as soon as he started talking, they sighed with relief and led him to the door.

One could feel the morning chill outside. Michael shrugged and walked towards the stream. After washing his face, shivering, he went out to pee, but after he was done, only then he realized he had followed the wrong order of the routine and went back to the stream to wash his hands. He was shivering, with his whole body on his way back. The sun had not risen yet and the forest still looked dark because of the densely–set trees. Uriel was waiting for him in the hut.

“Lucius will stay with Laili,” he told Michael.

“What are we planning to do?” Michael asked.

“We need to eat first. We might have to be hungry all day, and we won’t be able to last long unless we eat now,” Blondy replied. Lucius had already set the table. They devoured the remaining food quickly. Michael and Uriel left for the city, whereas Lucius set off to the woods.

Uriel and Michael slowly followed the meandering trail. The boys could sometimes glimpse the silhouette of the city among the trees. Fresh and sobering cold air filled Michael’s lungs and woke him up quickly. Michael was going to the city, and this was happening in reality. He did not know why, but two weeks spent in the hut and the stories retold by the boys made the city, where so many things happened, a far-away and unattainable place for him. He was finally heading for there and what else could he ask for?!

The boys quickly left the woods and walked down the slope of the valley, which led to the city. Michael ran down the slope and no longer paid any attention to Uriel’s warnings about not going down too quickly. He still had to wait for Blondy to reach the bottom of the valley, and they would finally go to the city known for narrow and meandering streets. He could hardly believe his eyes, noticing how much had changed. This part of the city had never been crowded, but now there were so many people there that it was difficult to move forward.

“It is the most convenient time for pick-pocketing because there are so many people around. It is time for you to learn your first lesson,” whispered Uriel and followed a man with an immense belly, who moaned with every step. Uriel did not get too close. He kept his distance. As for Michael, he was following Uriel closely, trying to grasp Uriel’s plans. Suddenly Uriel sped up and when Michael thought finally something was going to happen, Blondy walked by the target and went ahead.

Michael could not get what Blondy was up to, but as soon as things starting to fall from the stall nearby, he suddenly got the hunch and guessed what was about to happen. The fat man stopped and when he bent down, mostly because of his good manners, to take some things, Uriel picked his pocket and quickly went to Michael. He grabbed his arm and speedily ran away as fast as he could.

“What did you steal?” Michael asked, whispering as soon as they got away. Without uttering a sound, Uriel opened up his fist and Michael could see a black leather pouch on the palm of his hand. They turned into the deserted dead-end street to count the money in the pouch. It was not as much as Uriel expected, but it was still good money, so they thanked their fate, anyway. Blondy did not waste time and explained how to steal relatively safely. He clarified it was highly important to divert the attention of the person you were going to mug to something else and then quickly get to the action. The danger that someone would notice him was always there, that’s why he had to learn how to run quickly and to choose such a target that cannot run fast. For instance, overweight people, like that man.

He also explained that it was better to pick people’s pockets when they were in a hurry and not when they were yawning out of boredom, it was easier to steal in familiar streets so that he could hide easily if he needed to… After this lecture in the theory; it was time to do some practice. Michael tried to pick Blondy’s pocket several times, but he was so unsuccessful that he had to endure Uriel laugh at him for half an hour.

It was first decided that Michel would try to get down to work on the same day, but looking at his clumsiness, Blondy was having second thoughts, and if not Michael’s persistent begging, Uriel would never let him try. Michael wanted to prove that he too could be of some help, and he was not as clumsy as he looked at first glance. He wanted to show that he could also be helpful, apart from eating free... That’s how they ended up in a crowded street looking for a victim. Mondelay was overcrowded with refugees and some places were so crammed, there was no place for an apple to fall. Blondy pointed at two people, but the future pickpocket turned both of the options down. One of the prospective victims had such a sad face that he could never make himself steal anything from him; the other man was smiling so warmly that it would have been a shame to do any harm to him.

After a bit of a fight and disagreement, they finally picked the proper candidate and moved on to the execution of the plan they made.

Michael followed a bald man, trying to shorten the distance between them so that he could be at his side at the right time. He was panic-stricken. The boy saw Uriel and hurried up so that he could get to the man quicker, but he was a little short of time when Blondy bumped into a man. Michael could not properly reach the man’s pocket, therefore, he could not pick the wallet. Fortunately, the man could guess nothing, as he was busy cursing Blondy, or else he would have been in big trouble.

As soon as Uriel got away from the bold one, Michael once again had to suffer through his derisive words, which made him so angry that he finished what he had started no matter what and run after the previous target. He had a crazy idea; he was not sure it would work, but he was fully focused on fulfilling the task and minded neither his fear, irony or urgent advice to go back and calm down. In fact, that made him even furious and triggered him to finish what he was about to do.

He almost caught up with the old one, but the right moment did not come. The man in question stopped at several stalls, looked through goods, but did not look like someone who wanted to buy anything. He never stood near any other person, let alone next to anybody. Michael had been following him for about ten minutes before the right moment came up. The man was standing at the stall looking at the peaches when a young boy and a girl passed him by. Michael grabbed one of the strawberry-like woman’s butt at exactly the time when she was standing next to the bald man and the result was amazing. The man accompanying the woman got so offended; he beat the bald man badly. Luckily for Michael, the latter did not really think about his wallet, and the boy not only got easily what he had been praying for and got away from the place as soon as he could, but the whole thing also turned into the scene that attracted many people. Michael proudly presented his first prey. Uriel praised his skills and admitted he was not that bad after all. After opening the wallet, they found out that Michael had stolen much more money than Uriel. Overjoyed, they went to the harbor and celebrate Michael’s first successful job.