Short Story Chapter 1

(Hats), and this went on until all of the gear and clothing was picked up and neatly organized in the recruits footlocker, war bag, and sea bags. We now vaguely

"Push forward, PUSH FORWARD!" He bellowed his voice hoarse from all the smoke. His men tired and sore from being pushed to near breaking scrambled to fill the gap left by their imposing leader. The men sunk gratefully to the ground, with the retreat sounded, their leader had ordered them back to the main encampment for some well earned rest. The leader shrunk to the ground a little way off from his men,

She looked for her brothers, one of the guests pointed and she saw Ned swaying and knew that meant Eb was already down. Nodding, she turned

Ten and a half days into our trip a terrible storm hit us with such fury my head's still spinning. Gusts of fast wind blew icy hail into our path, forcing us to find shelter. We covered our animals with blankets to try and keep the hail from hitting them, and we hid with them as well. The only thing we could do was to wait out the storm. When the storm had finally stopped we were forced to see the damage that was bestowed on us. Tears ran through the wagon’s tarp in many places. One of our flour sacks was soaked through, forcing us to make pancakes for the entire wagon train. Trees were uprooted on the trail ahead. One of our cows had managed to run off during the storm, I can only hope we can find her later on. The others’ wagons looked the same as ours, but with our decision to leave behind most of our books and pictures we did not need to deal with tossing them out and getting all of the small broken glass pieces out of the wagon. We camped there for the remainder of that day despite the urges made by Sam to keep moving on. It is true that we could have gotten to Fort Kearney if we had left that second, but after a draining and scary day everyone-except Sam-was ready to camp for the

She threw herself onto it. bad idea, jail beds are as hard as fucking stone. a hiss of frustration came out of her throat as the burning pain from backache forced her to sit.

She edged her body along the wall trying to keep from frightening it further and eased downstairs to open

I want that horse, She half-breathed, half-snarled. Plans were already forming in her labyrinthian mind, daring ideas of thievery and debauchery, of trickery and lies, for she hadn’t brought much to trade with. Above all else her goal here had been to ensure the relative safety of those already ensconced within the Salsolan branch of Freetown and to escort those who had never been before.

He topped the rise to find Drogan already seated on his black Theracan stallion, Zed. The pair of ponies pulling the harpers' small wagon, contentedly nibbled on the neberil dried scruff and tender new shoots of grass.

She looked around for a weapon to protect herself and settled for a fireplace fork before tiptoeing towards the kitchen. She held it tightly, ready for any sort of attack on herself. She peeped into the kitchen and her eyes came across a man that just had a towel wrapped around his waist, his upper body bare. It had to be the sexiest body that she had ever seen.

At the barn, the horses neighed as Cole shoved the door back and waited for her to enter. In a hurry, she found the lantern and lit the

Now, sitting up straight in bed, she clutched her chest and gasped for air. Moving to one side of the bed, she placed her feet squarely down upon the shaggy throw rug that held her slippers. Although she had shaken off the murky nightmare, for her, the experience was disturbing and all-too real; however, the harrowing event wasn't the first occurrence of its kind.

The soldier’s shallow breathing soon stops, and she places a sheet over his body. This was the worst part of the job. She hated losing a patient, but she knew it was bound to. These men were shooting guns at each other; someone was bound to get killed by a bullet. She turns to another nurse, and asks for a small break. They were so close to the enemy’s territory that many nurses didn’t step outside of the tent. Horror stories of nurses getting attacked or stolen were floating around the camps.

protect their camp from danger. The fire had destroyed their tents but fortunately, most of

“No the tent goes on this side of the fire pit! I want it on this side.” “Who cares! Just set it up on this side!” Bree covered her ears and ran back onto the path to sit quietly on a rock. “Don't go too far!” Her mother yelled breaking away from the argument. Bree sat and stared out to the trees. She sighed and wished for a peaceful life like them. She felt envious. How long had she been sitting there? Should she get back? Someone screamed. Her head whirled around. There was shouting, then a moment of silence. She frantically slid off the rock and sprinted back to the camp. Only, no one was there. It was completely empty. “Mommy? Daddy?” Her voice quivered. Where were they? She thought she hadn't taken that long. She was scared. Her tears started to flow. Then by the grassy area, she saw something. It was a shoe. Mommy's shoe! She ran to the spot and brushed the grass away. Bree gasped and fell backward. Her mother had scratches bleeding all over, her head had a large gash, and she could see all the whites in her eyes. She cried. But where was her father? She went around camp searching. Hoping, praying. She couldn't find him. He was gone. Just like that. He just had disappeared into thin air. Sniffling she ran. Water streaming down her face, blurring her sight. She ran. Right into a giant… What exactly was it? She looked up. A man stared down at her. “Are you ok?” He looked down at her worriedly with huge eyes. “Where’s your campground?” “Whaa~?” She felt dazed and fell into a pit of darkness. Bree could hear distant shouting that she couldn’t quite reach. Did someone say hair? Too much she thought and closed her

Elcarien knocked an arrow to his bow but did not pull it back. He looked down to the northern wall of the bandit camp, and saw Lydia waiting for an opening. Almost as if Lydia could tell Elcarien was looking at her, she pointed up, gesturing for him to take the guard positioned on top of the rock beside the eastern entrance.