Son of Soron by Robyn Wideman

a war brought wealth and status.  It had always been the way of the Chundo. Alliances were hard to balance and shifted often.
 

 
    Chapter ten
     
    THE WARM AFTERNOON sun felt good on Nathan’s face as he sat by the creek.  Nathan, sore all over from the last few days training with his father, was glad to have gotten a reprieve today. This afternoon, his father let him quit his training early. Nathan thought he would go find Ava and head out to the pond, but his mother had other ideas. She wanted fresh fruit for their supper and since Nathan wasn’t working with his father this afternoon, he got volunteered to pick some fruit from the orchard. Not that Nathan minded terribly, it was several hours until dinner so he was having a rather enjoyable time alternating between picking fruit and stretching out in the sun. Nathan’s basking in the sun was soon interrupted by a familiar and increasing annoying voice.
    “So you ratted me out? You little shit. Ava won’t even acknowledge me now. I am going to beat the snot out of you, you arse-licking mixed-blood bastard.”
    Nathan sighed and quickly got up, despite being sore. He had been expecting to run into Tomas sooner or later, so he was not surprised by Tomas showing up.
    Warily, he corrected Tomas. “Actually she found out about it from Sharon, but that doesn’t matter, I told her what an ass you are anyways. I am not going to stop being Ava’s friend because you have designs on her. If you are stupid enough to think beating me up is going to help you get her attention, that is not my problem.”
    Nathan watched as Tomas’s face went a deep red and his fist clenched. Nathan was not going to be caught off guard this time. He squared his feet to the older boy and relaxed. He would not start a fight with Tomas over Ava. But if Tomas thought he would be beating him up easily, he would be in for a surprise.
    “Oh, so I am stupid? You are the one with a purple face. I am really going to hurt you this time.” Tomas was already swinging his fist as he yelled at Nathan. However, this time things went much differently.
    Nathan, expecting Tomas to take a punch at him, easily slipped under the wild haymaker. Nathan countered by planting a jab to Tomas’s face, causing blood to gush from his nose. Enraged, Tomas yelled and continued to throw wild punches with everything he could muster. Nathan, using his father’s lessons, kept dodging and weaving, delivering stinging jabs to the face and hooks to the kidneys.
    Tomas now had a swollen eye and a fat lip to go along with his bloody nose. Frustrated by his lack of success throwing punches, Tomas tried to tackle Nathan. Again, Nathan was well prepared for the change in tactics and was anticipating the attack. He pivoted, grabbing Tomas by the head and back of the pants. Using his momentum, he sent Tomas tumbling to the ground. Nathan followed Tomas to the ground, delivering a hard knee to the older boy’s soft belly, driving the wind out of him. Tomas was completely defeated and did not try to get up. “Don’t try it again, Tomas, or I won’t be as nice next time.” Stepping away from his fallen opponent, Nathan let out a deep sigh of relief. It gave him no pleasure to beat Tomas, but it did give him great pleasure to know he could protect himself. All the work with his father was worth every sore muscle and bruise.
    Nathan took up his bucket of fruit and headed home, leaving Tomas on the ground in a heap, trying to regain his breath. Turning back, Nathan couldn’t help but adding “and if I were you I would avoid Ava for a while. She isn’t interested in you at all.”
    After Nathan left, Tomas sat on the ground stewing over his defeat to the younger boy. Tomas hated Nathan with a passion, born from a lifetime of listening to his father Ned complain about “those damn foreigners”. Before Soron had moved into Elderwood, Ned had run a small blacksmith shop himself. His metal was cheap and poorly made, but that did