The Purple Jade Palace: The Hummingbird's Plan

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The race was on.

The soldiers were athletic and strong, but Ladet was young and had a head start. He sprinted across the camp, leaving the tents behind knowing that it would be impossible to hide from all five soldiers. There was only one other place Ladet could think of and he ran for it.

There it was, perfectly in view. Ladet drew out the distance between the soldiers and himself, letting his long legs take up more ground. He had always been a good runner.

He lunged for the branch that was hanging down at his head level, his hands landed with a good grip and he kicked his legs up and over. There would only be a few seconds before the soldiers reached him. When he was upright again, he swung his leg over and then, pushed himself up onto the next branch until he was climbing higher and higher into the tree.

The soldiers arrived and immediately started heckling from under the branches. One tried to pull himself up onto the branch Ladet had used, but he was unable to get a good grip. After another attempt, he started to hoist himself up, and Ladet let another arrow fly. It landed in the soldier's eye. Dead, the soldier fell to the ground flat on his back.

The remaining soldiers cursed, and one even lifted a rock and threw it in Ladet's direction. He dodged it, but it didn't stop the soldier from searching for another rock to throw.

"How many arrows you left boy?" one soldier yelled, laughing. "Can't be many."

"About ten," yelled Ladet. "Who wants one in their eye as well."

"You little brat!" another soldier spat. He picked up a large rock and aimed it towards Ladet and as he did, Ladet started to aim an arrow towards him.

"The devils in the underworlds! It's not worth it," the man cursed, dropping his rock in disgust.

The other men started to agree.

"We'll be waiting for you over by the tents, boy," one soldier said. "You'll get hungry soon enough, or cold enough."

Ladet watched the soldiers leave and started to worry. The men were right. He wasn't hungry right now. He had not long broken his fast, but he was already feeling cold. He had been washing dishes so he hadn't put on his thick coat.

Now he was in a tree in the freezing weather. At least his hands had held up well despite their swollen state. It was good to know he could still control his bow with swollen fingers. He looked out to the pass and wondered how long it would be before Jale and Brelen returned and restored order to the camp. Then he could come down.

A half hour passed, and Ladet remained in the tree, his legs drawn close to his body as he sat in the fork of two branches. Jale had not returned and neither had anyone who had traveled up to the entrance of the pass. That couldn't be good. He had no idea what could have kept them so long.

He looked towards the soldiers and found that they had moved even further away, obviously bored. Instead, they were now continuing their search of the tents to ensure that no one remained hiding. Ladet tried to prevent his eyes from falling to the pile of dead bodies they had started to gather together.

After a little while longer, he started to doze off, the cold setting in, his body shivering and nose running. He jolted awake, afraid he would fall. A small stone suddenly hit him in the back which was then followed by another. Strange since he was sitting facing the camp to ensure none of the soldiers snuck up on him again.

He looked down, and his hopes lifted. There below him with a finger over his mouth to indicate for him to remain quiet, was a mountain clansman.

Ladet quickly looked back at the camp and spying that no one was paying him any more attention, he started to climb down. By now, his fingers and feet were numb. His body half slipped and half climbed down the tree until the last branch where the large mountain clansman held out his arms and caught Ladet as he fell.