Quintessentially Quilly

Welcome to Three Word Thursday #44. Please join us in our weekly romp as we try to rescue lost and forgotten words from the dusty halls of antiquity.  If you enjoy reading my story, leave a comment then click on the names of the other players and go see how they used these bygone words. You’ll be entertained (and possibly educated) all at once.

The Words:

• Facinorous — extremely wicked
• Extirpate –destroy completely; wipeout; surgically remove
• hebdomadal –weekly; every seven days

previous episodes here

from episode #43

Troga lifted her snout to the breeze. “They’re coming fast,” she said. “I’ll lead them away.” She charged forward, spread her great wings and lifted effortlessly into the sky. Evaard watched with his mouth open.

“Yo!” Chevall called. “Let’s harl these bodies into the bushes and prepare our stand.”

Fencil moved to help Chevall with Ranold. Evaard and Vernal hefted Fronesk. They drug the bodies around the shack and buried them in the compost heap. “Seems fitting, don’t it?” Fencil queried. Vernal grimly shoveled manure over the bodies.

Evaard reached out and put his hand on his young page’s shoulder. “Remember, boy,” he said. “They’d have throppled the both of us without a second thought. Don’t think about taking his life. Think about saving mine.”

Vernal shifted free of Evaard’s hand and kept shoveling.

Burn It Down

Had it only been three days since he’d become a Knight?  For a moment Evaard wished he was back at the castle polishing Sir Tomlinson’s armor and hoping his aging mentor would decide to tackle something more daunting than a dinner steak.  He’d been thrust into his duties so fast he’d had no time to accustom himself to the thought.  And poor Vernal, even though the man he killed was thoroughly facinorous, he was still a human being.  The boy was too young to have to wrestle with such guilt.  How would it effect him?

Chevall signalled with his head for Evaard to follow him, and the two men moved several yards away from the shoveling boys.  “Don’t worry so,” Chevall said.  “You went through it.  I went through it.  The boy has to come to terms with this on his own.  You can’t do it for him.”

Evaard nodded.  “I know.  I have not forgotten how I felt or how long it took for the nightmares to stop.  In fact, sometimes I have them still.”

“We are fighting men,” Chevall said.  “We kill or we get killed.  We have to remember what it is we’re fighting for.  We’re protecting our country and the people we love. If we don’t extirpate the enemy, the enemy will extripate us.”

“Yes,” Evaard said.  “And right now we have a job to do.  Should we make our stand here and fight, or try to reach the castle and roust the King’s army?”

“I don’t know how long the Mage Warriors will follow Troga.  Which is more vital to them right now, procuring the dragon’s heart, or avenging Ranold’s death?” Chevall shrugged.  “If we wait here, they may not return at all.  If we leave, they may follow and catch us in the open.”

Evaard looked around the small clearing and raised his hands.  “I like my home, but it offers little in the way of a strong hold.”

His one-room cabin sat squarely in the middle of the clearing.  Behind it was the vegetable garden and the compost pile, by which they now stood.  Attached to the side of the cabin was a lean to which Evaard suddenly noticed was larger and sturdier than he remembered.   In fact, it was looking less like a lean to and more like an additional room.  The boy was obviously a talented builder, but this really wasn’t the time for thinking of such things.

Chevall greed with him.  “I guess we have to risk the journey. We have a long way to travel across the fen and we’ll find scant cover there. ”

The boys, having finished their task, approached the Knights in time to hear Chevall’s words. “But the fens are huge.  Perhaps the Mage Warriors won’t find us,” Vernal said.

Chevall answered, “They are Mage Warriors. As long as they have something that belonged to anyone of us, they will be able to track us.”

The quartet studied the house.  Evaard sighed.  “We will have to burn it,” he said.  Chevall agreed that there was no other choice.  The boys dropped the things that would not burn into the well, then caved the wall stones in on top of them.  Then the outhouse, privvy and garden shed were all put to the torch.

As the two Knights and their pages walked away from the clearing Vernal said, “Well, I guess if I survive this I’ll be sleeping in the page’s quarters at the castle after all.

“We’ll both be paying hebdomadal boarding charges,”  Evaard said.  “I’ll need a place to live, too.”

~*~

The 3WT #45 words will be:

• odynometer — n. instrument for measuring pain
• brephophagist — n. one who eats babies
• sagittipotent — adj. having great skills in archery

Got it? Good! In that case: Your story is due on: February 18th, 2010
Enjoy!