Holden was burying something by the road. After he was done, he got up and drag his left foot across the road, leaving a line across the dirt tracks. after that, he then tied a yellow cloth on a branch of a shrub that could be easily spotted from the road. Then he walks east for a bit before going north off the road. Waiting until the sunset, Tex made his way to the spot where Holden buries something. After finding the right place, he dug up a small piece of soft leather that had a drawing of a crude map of the area using charcoal. Showing the battlefield nearby, fifteen farms around the area, showing several wells and a symbol that looks like food, the possibility of food supplies for an army.
The language was strange, looking like writing he saw on stone tablets at a museum, it had the word sand in it or something to that effect to describe the language. After a few moments, the words he was looking for was Sanskrit. After looking at the words and what looks like numbers at first not understanding them, the words and meaning flow into his mind and impose itself until he can understand it. Tex still can write and speak English while understanding Farlin, which is the language of trading. Joseph had some learning in writing the language and some math skills but not much, only just enough for him to get by when dealing with merchants selling his furs. What more he knows a few words that he can understand in the elven language that he learn from an old trader in Jandel, a town to the northeast in another duchy. There are thirty-six languages spoken in the Kingdom of Ir and five nonhuman languages. Two dwarven languages using runes to write. The elven language is considered too beautiful to speak and read, which only the rich and powerful know-how. Even then, only a few of them would be able to speak, let alone can read. The goblins tongue is known by orcs, and goblins mostly gruntle sound and no written language.
The map shows his baron's military camp, which is ten miles to the east with nine hundred serfs, thirty knights, and eighteen archers wrote on it. Also marked on the map are trails leading to small villages to the north that was a silver mine, and it is seventeen miles from here. Looking it over, he can see that the three duchies in this area all border by the swamp with it in the center. Beyond that is the frontier that has not been map due to bandits, monsters, and strange occurrences. Still, the large swamp is several hundreds of square miles of swampland that get flood by the Blood river that goes along the border of the Duchy of Troth. The river is always muddy with a deep red look to it. Large catfish and suckers have been known to be pulled out of the Blood river that flows out of the Drake Stone Mountains that is inhabited by dwarves and drakes. Drakes are a land dragon that can be twice as long as a crocodile on longer legs and tail that roam the mountains and the land beyond. Out of the three duchies, Troth is the most stable with its river commerce, sea access, and trade with the dwarves. It is envy by all of the brothers, yet its defenses are the strongest. It also has three twelve largest cities in the Kingdom of Ir.
Realizing the two men are spies, he folded up the map and went back to the road and took the cloth down from the bush. He heard whispers farther east on the road. Ducking into the weeds as the light of the first moon reveals four men on the road, two of them being the spies. The other two are from his village that Joseph grew up with. Harry was like just like Joseph, a trapper standing about five feet ten inches tall with sandy hair that grew to his shoulders. He was twice the size as Tex, and none of it was fat. Harry does have three one inch long scars on his right cheek from a Coon like creature that leaps out of a tree and claw his face. He was able to kill the beast, and his family ate the meat, and they sold the fur. Harry is the only son in their family. And his younger sister is only ten and currently hiding with his family at an abandoned farm five miles outside of the village. Harry would come across each him in the woods and point out what he saw to Tex in his travel, even resetting traps and snares that got triggered to help out the other when they can. Harry's father was severely injured a decade ago from a boar and could not walk far without a cane. It did not stop him from teaching his skills to his son and Joseph. If not for both of him and Harry, the village would have starved by now. The other man was a farmer's son, and they planted food near the stream. They were usually the earliest ones to harvest crops even in dry weather, but the downside they lost a lot of grain to rabbits, mice, and deer. Last few years they have been racking their brains on how to irrigate the farm fields. The spring and its water run below the field. The Spring is about a tenth of a mile from the field. Currently, everyone has been carrying buckets of water. Both of them are dependable, so the question is, why are those two with those jackasses. Seeing both of the boys in torn clothes and looking dirty and exhausted while the two brothers look rested and cleaner. Tossing a pebble and hitting Jack on his back, forcing him to turn around and pushing Harry. “Careful! You asshole!” he hisses.
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Moving over near them quietly, Tex whisper, “Any louder, you are going to bring the sentries down on your back.”
“Joseph?” Harry whispers back. Everyone drew a weapon.
Tex moves up beside them. “Quiet, there are sentries in the woods ahead of us.” whispering as quietly as he can. “Follow me,” pulling Harry with him back east to a ditch as the rest of them follow.
Once they were all there, he turns to Harry pointing east. “Our camp is somewhere to the east, to the west is held by Baron Scoon's men,” Tex said.
Harry look east then west in thought, knowing none of them could see far in the dark, and the night already was dark and getting chilly. “We are going to rescue the Hanson girls and our mothers that were cooking in our camp if they were not killed,” Harry comment back, looking to the West.
Hanson girls were both strong girls even I would not want to wrestle one for fear I might lose. The oldest girl, Karla, can farm better than most guys. Her problem is no one will listen to her because of the fact she a girl. Same with Dotty, give her a bow, and she can outshoot anyone, again she was born without a dick, and women must be protected at all cost. Well, other than Halley, the woman in the Army Scouts on Earth, I had no problem with a woman saving me. It was Halley, a former scout in our unit saves me and our unit several times. She ended married a nice guy and had three kids, two boys, and a girl. Her husband got her through quite a few mental patches over the years, sorry I not going to be there to pay back the lives I owe her.
Seeing them all looking determine, “Let me get them out of the camp, and you guys can lead them to a safe spot.”
“Joseph, how are you going to do that you can't even fight! You're a coward that runs from danger!” Holden pushes Tex back with both hands while sneering. Then the other was trying to quiet down Holden as Tex shook his head in annoyance.
“I know how to hunt and trap. Sneaking up on the sentry should be as easy as sneaking up on a deer,” telling Holden quietly, hoping his explanation would work. He spotted a coyote staring behind him with its hackle raise.
Crap! Lost track of the other guy! Using the warning, he grabs Holden by the shirt and swinging him around as a shield just as Holden's brother slams a knife into Holden's back. Pushing Holden back into Jack, knocking them both to the ground. Pulling the hatchet out, he leaps at the fallen men trying to hit Jack with the hatchet only to miss. Both Harry and Jimmy stood in shock to what was happening in front of them in the moonlight.