Live Magazine February Issue February 2014 | Page 79

His weariness is glaringly obvious,
his stance is slouched, his clothes
crinkled from a long day. He steps
with heavy feet, the sun beating
down against his back. I can almost
see the dread and frustration washing over him as he turns around to
walk back to where he was. I count
to twenty slowly under my breath
before I begin creeping through the
crops towards the center of the plantation. I see a bell tower just to my
right and another straight ahead in
the distance. If I have any hope of
getting away with this without alerting the guards these will have to be
dealt with swiftly and silently.
I see the warehouse up ahead by the
second bell tower, the two wooden
towers from before are placed in
prime positions to detect thieves. In
order to proceed I will need to disable the closest bell and the guards
around it. I sneak closer towards the
edge of the crops, the bell tower is
close to me. Close enough to reach
out and touch but the guards must
be dealt with first.
The bell is in front of what appears to
be a shed, insignificant if not for the
cover it provides. There is a bale of
hay just off to the right of the bell and
shed with some more crops far to the
right of that. A guard is standing at
the right entrance to the plantation;
another is patrolling between some-

thing behind the barn and the bale of
hay. The third and last guard patrolling this area is now standing close
in-between the bell tower and me.
Looking around and seeing no one
else in hearing distance I let out a
short whistle to draw his attention my
way. He looks around indicating he
has heard me and after a few more
whistles he has rather foolishly come
my way. I wait until he is at the edge
of the crops before reaching out
and pulling him backwards into the
darkness. Before in my earlier years
I would not have thought twice of
plunging my blade through his neck.
However, now I see that there are
ways to stay quiet without taking the
life of an innocent man. So instead of
a blade, a fist to the temple is what
greets the guard.
Once I am sure that the man is hidden from site, I look around to check
if there are any more guards in the
vicinity. The guard that was patrolling by the hay has gone and in my
youth I would have gone straight for
the bell. However I have learnt caution with the passing of time and instead I make a dash for the bale of
hay. As I reach the hay I dive in just
as the guard turns and makes his
way towards it.
He too looks weary, however his
steps are not as heavy and he is
more alert. As he reaches the hay

I keep quiet, waiting for him to turn
his back to it and hoping he doesn’t
send his sword through me. As he
reaches the hay and turns around I
reach out and pull him back disposing of him, in much the same way I
had with the other. I take a moment
to catch my breath and then race
towards the bell quickly cutting the
rope. Simply by chance I glance upwards at the guard atop the closest
wooden tower. He is starring down
straight at me and I quickly pull out
my blow pipe with a sleeping dart
inside and hit him in the shoulder.
He goes down swiftly but I now only
have a minute or two to get up there
before he awakens and alerts everyone. I look around quickly there is the
first guard I saw still patrolling and a
couple littered around. My best bet
is to use the crops to get to the ladder so before anyone else can see
me I move towards them. The crops
thankfully are thick enough to hide
me and go all the way to the tower.
I race towards the ladder pulling myself up swiftly however half way up I
hear the voice of a guard below me.
I take a gamble and keep climbing
hoping the man will follow me apposed to calling for help. As I reach
the top I quickly move towards the
guard on the ground and knock him
out. I hear the sound of the man from
before making his way up the ladder. I have two choices, stay where