Treacherous- a short story lead in

“Jebidiah Dalton, you crazy rascal, you!” Daniel Hudlow swung an empty fist round the boy’s side, connecting with his hip, and knocking him to the ground. “Got you now you little whelp!” Jebidiah tumbled to his side, narrowly missing the pendulum of the large man’s steel-toed boot. Jebidiah leapt to his feet, and slurred a quick remark:

            “If I’m a whelp of a boy, that’d make you king cur: of the mongrel blooded peasants!” Jebidiah ducked, dodging another manual attack. He swooped back down to the dirt road and picked up a stick about the size of a pocketknife. The boy turned back facing the man, and pantomimed as if he were jousting with a rapier. “Be on guard foolish being; king cur, mongrel of mongrels, you bastard son of bastard parents!” The man shot forward, and with a mastery of agility, the boy bounced to the side, and counteracted with a jab of his rapier into the victim’s abdomen.

            The man fell to the ground, shrieking in pain, “Your mighty sword has found its scabbard in my body!” Hudlow closed his eyes and lazily plopped his tongue out.

            “Ah hah! I have felled the wicked troll; malevolent and balefully he has fallen to the tombs of hell, where Kronos shall find thy troll, his servant of misery. ” The boy mounted Dan Hudlow with his victorious boot and he gave a grunt, “Any spiteful last words from beyond the dead?”

            “You shan’t forget my face, o’ honorable knight, for I will be back, and naught shall stop me!”

            “How piteous are those fools who reckon they are apt to return from Tartarus, deepest of all pits, you shall be banished from our world and sentenced to an eternity of moving boulders. Now be gone! Thy maiden is summoning me to supper.”

            “Come on Jebidiah, your pigeon is getting cold!” Jebidiah’s mother poked her head from their house, “Oh, Mr. Hudlow! I didn’t see you there, you are very welcome to join us for dinner.” Daniel Hudlow turned his head slightly and peeked from small slits in his eyelids, then stage-whispered back,

            “Sorry ma’am, but I do not know the word dih-nur,” Daniel grunted, imitating the fantastical creature, “for I am the infamous Troll, Boghdar, and your king has smitten me with his sword-“ then back to Jebidiah, “what’s your sword’s name, master?”

            “Firebolt”

            “He has smitten me with Firebolt-what kind of a name is that for a sword, Jebidiah? Oh, however- I am now dead.”

            “Then I shall use a potion of bring-back-to-life!”

“Mother, you can’t use that unless you went down to the land of the undead!” the boy shrieked.

            “Then I will do so, if Mother wants a guest to stay for dinner, then Mother will do whatever it takes, now come on, dinner is getting cold.” Sally Dalton beckoned the two to enter.

            “How’d I do, Dan?” asked Jeb, removing his foot from Dan’s chest.
            “Help me up, would’ja?” Jeb gave him a hand. “You did mighty fine, my good pupil. You kept light on your feet and with a clear mind.”

            “Thanks Dan!” Jeb paused for a second, thinking, “What’dya think’d be a good, solid name for a sword?”

            Dan rubbed his neck scruff, “Well, it usually depends on how you got it, what you use it for most often,” he paused again, and added, “or the first actual battle you’ve fought.”

            “Hmm. Do you think I’ll ever get a sword like yours?” Jeb reached for the scabbard that swung at his side. Dan swatted his hand away.

            Jeb’s good friend smiled, “Of course,” he said and rested a hand on his shoulder, “in fact, I’m positive you’ll have one twice, nay, three or four times better than my sword!”

            “Woah, really?” the boy was amazed, and his eyes lit up with excitement.

            “I repeat: of course! Now let’s sup, I’m sure your mother has something great prepared for us.”

The two entered the Dalton household, where Sally had their dinner lain out, prepared on three separate plates.

            Daniel thought about this for a second, “Wait now, Mizz Sally, if you didn’t know I’d be here for dinner, then who’d you lay out the third plate for?” A smile crept from her lips, and Daniel’s did the same.

            Sally pointed to the side of her nose.

            “Hey maw, din looks really good!” Daniel pulled out his chair and stabbed his fork into the pigeon’s side. The grown-ups followed his actions.

            “Thanks hon, it took quite a while to prepare.”

            “Well I’m sure it’ll be worth it Sally.” Dan winked.

            “Hey maw, if I finish early, can I go down to the clearing with Captain Daniel?” His mother said he could, ruffling his hair, and when the boy finished, he went out and played sword with the army captain. The dew had fallen the night before and as Jebidiah wrestled in the grass, he created a memory that the both of them would never forget. Especially when Daniel Hudlow, captain of the Riftden army had gone missing for two years, and thus proclaimed dead.