The Boys of Lionshire (Part Four)

The Boys of Lionshire (Part Four)

A Story by B.J. Mills
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Ian finds himself and stands up to the bullies that have been making his life miserable.

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              Bastion slapped me in the side of my face as I slept, taking me away from the sanctuary of my dreams.  I was still naked as I sat up in my hooch and searched for Sara.  She was nowhere to be found.  The storm from the previous night had dissipated and a cloudless blue sky greeted me.  I could smell the dew on the green grass and felt a warm breeze on my bare, naked chest.

            “Where’s, Sara?” I asked as I used my hand to shield my eyes from the blinding light of the sun.

            Bastion ignored my question and flung my damp boxer’s in to my face.  “Get dressed”, he snorted, “The Lionshire counsel is going to decide how to handle our new arrival.”

            I hardly heard what he said as I continued to scan the camp with my eyes in search of Sara.  I didn’t see her but I noticed all of the other boys hanging around the new arrival throne eating a breakfast of berries and dried wild boar.  My heart began to race as I thought about all of the possibilities of her disappearance.

            “Where is she?” I demanded as I slipped my boxers on under the covers.  “And what does the counsel have to do with our new arrival?”

            “She can’t stay here, Ian.  We must decide how to handle the situation properly”, he said, handing me my pants.

            “Why can’t she stay?” I questioned him.  “She doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”

            “You know why she can’t stay; she has no place here.”

            “She didn’t choose to come here, same as the rest of us”, I pleaded.  “The Gatekeepers must have brought her here for a reason.”

            “We’ll discuss her fate with the counsel”, he said while brushing away a sugar bee.

            I got out of the blankets and put on my wet pants and shirt.  The wound on the back of my head was throbbing intensely and seared with pain as I pulled my shirt on.  I reach up to massage it gently and felt a knot completely surrounding it.  As I massaged it, I noticed the wound was hot to the touch and still slightly bleeding.

            “I won’t have any part of it”, I said wiping the blood from my hand on my pants, “I’ve never been on the counsel before and I don’t intend to start now. 

            “You don’t have a choice”, he yelled.  “Just because you shared a bed with her naked doesn’t mean you won’t participate in the counsel discussion!”

            My cheeks instantly flushed and my face got hot.  “It was raining and I got wet”, I said wringing some of the water from shirt.  “The fire burned out and I didn’t have any other way to get warm.”

            “I don’t care what you two were up to.  The bottom line is that she has to go.  Period”, he said motioning for Freddy and Alexander over.  “Make it easy on yourself and be part of the group for once.”

            “I’ll go if you tell me where she is”, I said, standing my ground.

            “No.  You’ll go because I said you would.  Freddy, Alexander, escort Ian to the Lionshire council meeting.  We have too much to discuss to waste time on his insubordination.”

            Freddy and Alexander didn’t say a word as they stepped towards me.  I felt a rage taking hold of me as my palms began to sweat and my heart pounded away in my chest.  My mouth instantly dried up and I tried to suck some of the moisture from my tongue with no success.  I’d finally had enough and decided that I would fight my way out of this if necessary.

            “Don’t touch me”, I warned both Freddy and Alexander, “I’ve had enough of your bullying.”

            Freddy was the first to make a move and quickly grabbed my left arm and tried to throw me on the ground.  He was smaller and weaker than me so I easily pulled my arm from his grasp and stepped back towards my hooch.  My blood boiled as the trio laughed at me.  Freddy came towards me again but I was ready for his advance this time.  I reared back and stepped forward in to the punch, putting every ounce of my body weight in to it.  My punch caught Freddy square in his nose and I could feel his face collapse under the heft of my swing.  To my surprise and delight, he crumbled to the ground as blood gushed between the fingers of the hand he was holding his nose with.

            “You broke my nose!” he squealed with pain.

            Before I could celebrate my victory, Alexander was upon me.  He wasn’t particularly bigger than me, but what he lacked in height, he made up for in in weight.  He easily got me in to a headlock and began choking me, fully constricting my throat so I couldn’t breathe.  As the air staled in my lungs, I felt the blood drain from my face and I began to get lightheaded.  I had to act quickly.

            His bare feet sat exposed on the rocky ground as I struggled to free myself from his death hold.  It was useless, and just when I decided to give up, an epiphany overcame me.  I lifted my foot until my knee touched my chest and thrust it down with all of my might on Alexander foot.  I felt the bones crack as I simultaneously elbowed the boy in his diaphragm, knocking all the air out of his body.  As he bent over gasping for air, I kneed him in face, knocking him on the ground next to his companion.

            I couldn’t believe what was happening.  I felt like a champion as the adrenaline surged through my veins, lighting all of the sensory nerves in my body up like a Christmas tree.  I wasn’t done yet though, and kicked Alexander in the side of the head for good measure.  The boys groaned in pain as I stood over them like a predator stands over its prey.  It felt good.  In fact, it felt way too good to last long.

            In the midst of my glory, I had completely forgotten about Bastion, the strongest and biggest boy in Lionshire.  He fumed behind me at the systematic defeat of his henchmen and lunged at me, taking me completely by surprise.  His shoulder crashed loudly in to my back, whipping my head back and stunning me.  As we crashed in to the ground, he mounted me, pinning my arms to my sides.  I strained against his weight and tried to buck him off of my chest.

            “Get off of me!” I screamed.  “I can’t breathe!”

            “You could have gone the easy way, Ian”, he said as a mischievous smile spread across his face.  “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

            The universe exploded and stars entered my field of vision as the first punch landed on my eye.  I was paralyzed with pain as the frenzy of blows landed over and over again, smashing my head in to the earth below me.  I couldn’t talk or think.  I couldn’t breathe or move.  Within moments, everything went dark as I slipped from a painful consciousness.

© 2017 B.J. Mills


Author's Note

B.J. Mills
Please critique! If you enjoyed this story, please read the rest of the Lionshire series! Thanks for reading!

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Added on December 13, 2017
Last Updated on December 13, 2017
Tags: action, adventure, romance, survival