A sample from FROGGY WENT A-COURTIN'
Work is progressing nicely. It was kind of rocky there for a few chapters but the past handful have really come together nicely. There’s a rich backstory that I’m leaning on, more detailed than my stories usually have (or need).
This chapter, however, comes from earlier in the story. This is from Chapter four, and features our hero soon after returning his home country after visiting his sweetheart. He finds himself surrounded by royal guardsmen that had been scouting the area for potential dangers crossing into their land…
Justin kept his cool, even while the soldiers slowly advanced, lit from beneath by lanterns they had set on the ground before pouncing. “I think you have me mixed up with someone else.” the frog said, holding his hands over his head to show he was unarmed. Even while he did that, he scanned the ground around him, looking for anything he could pick up to use as a weapon.
“I think not.” the fox replied. He stood in the lead, with the other two flanking him. A leather strap hung loosely across his chest, carrying his scabbard, but it was the blue broach pinned to it that caught Justin’s eye.
“You are a member of the Royal Guard?”
“And you are an assassin.”
“I—what? No I’m not!”
“Plotting with enemies across the river and now you’ve entered our territory uninvited!”
“Close…” Justin said, “I actually entered their territory uninvited. Well, actually I was invited, but not by the people who sign the paperwork. This land is mine.”
“False.” the fox answered sharply. “This land belongs to the crown and you’re not wearing it.”
“Look, you’re with the King, right? My dad knew the King; he probably remembers seeing me when I was a baby. Let me talk to him and explain—”
“Out of the question.”
“I’m told I have a very fair face; like a baby-face, you know, he might recognize me.”
“The King is in his castle. We’ll not be bringing you there.”
“The King is in his castle, yet he sends his royal guard all the way to the River?” Justin asked, casting a skeptical eye at the trio. “I doubt that.”
“We are travelling with the crown Prince.” the fox answered tersely, annoyed at the frog’s apparent lack of nervousness at being confronted by three armed men.
“Oh? Fine then, let me talk to him instead.”
“The Prince is tending to other matters. We are here to—”
“Alone?” Justin scoffed. “And you call yourself bodyguards?”
“We are guarding him. By arresting traitors and assassins like you before you can get to him.”
“Me specifically?” Justin asked. At this point he was just stalling. He had spotted exactly what he needed but was waiting for the right moment to pounce for it. “Am I on some wanted poster and no one told me?”
“Anyone crossing into this land from Schmidt is to be arrested and interrogated.”
“Right, and as I’ve said I’ve already been arrested…over there, because I live over here. And—wait, interrogated? Since when? What happened to a two-day jail sentence?”
“The Prince has deemed the law insufficient in such dangerous times.”
Justin had no response to that. Mostly he was trying to work out what made the times more dangerous than usual. If anything, things in their part of the world had been eerily calm for the past few years.
“If you’re done asking me questions—” the fox began, but Justin interrupted.
“Just one more. Sorry, I never got your name? Unless you just want me to call you ‘fox.’”
“You may call me Captain Anthony Fox.”
“Fine. My name’s—”
“I will just call you ‘prisoner.’”
“I dunno…” Justin said, pivoting his foot in the direction of the weapon he was eyeballing on the ground. “You’re probably going to want to know my name.”
“And why is that?”
“The Prince will probably ask who it was that beat three of his royal guard with only a stick in his hand.”
Cpt. Fox opened his mouth to reply but before the words left his lips Justin pounced, snatching the tree branch from the ground and springing into the air. The soldier to Anthony’s right was closest, but he was too slow to react. The branch smacked him across the face and put him on the ground.
Anthony swung for him but sliced only through the air; Justin leapt before the blade reached him and the frog landed on the steel, bringing it down to the earth under his weight. Anthony growled in frustration, but Justin was springing away before the fox could retaliate. The third guardsman went down easily, taking a fistful of knuckles, leaving only the captain to contend with.
“Who are you?” Anthony demanded.
“See? Told you you’d want to know.” Justin lunged with his branch, dodging and parrying with the skill of a master swordsman. His father had trained him well, from the time he was old enough to hop all the way to the day of his dad’s death, some eight years earlier. There was no style of combat Justin hadn’t learned, no tactic he hadn’t practiced against, and no feign or tell he couldn’t spot before his opponent made his move.
There was also nothing he could do to stop a sharpened steel blade from hacking his stick into pieces. Cpt. Fox missed wildly a few times before finally landing a hit, blade on wood. There was a *chonk* sound and the end of Justin’s weapon fell to the ground, turning his makeshift sword into a meager dagger.
“You fought valiantly.” Anthony said, holding his weapon at the ready.
“It isn’t over yet.”
“It is.”
Before Justin could protest, the first guard he knocked out had climbed back to his feet and dove into him, wrestling him to the ground and holding him down long enough for the captain to lock in a pair of manacles around his wrists.
“No survivors was the order.” the guard said to his captain.
“You said interrogation…” Justin grumbled, struggling in vain against the shackles.
“That’s what we always say.” the guard replied with a sneer. “Usually makes people more cooperative.”
“Not this one.” Fox said. “This one has too much fight in him. We’ll take him with us to the Port.”
“Sir?”
“You heard me.” Anthony replied sharply, silencing the guard who quickly turned away to help his companion up to his feet. The fox turned to the bested frog. “All that with a stick. I’d like to see what you could do with a real weapon.”
“No you wouldn’t.” Justin answered with a sour tone.
The book is still on pace to be done sometime by the middle of next month.
Here’s to it.