To Catch a Sword, Trixie Bow Style

"I knew I should have rolled over and ignored you when you said, 'Let's raid the pantry, I'm hungry'. I thought you meant Matron River's food pantry, not Stout Langley's stock pantry! Trixie? Are you listening to me?"

"Yes, I'm listening and so is everyone else, where did you think I'd get the coin to eat, huh? Now shut up and run." The two girls skidded across Barrow Greens Dock, maneuvering between dusky bronzed deck hands with acrobatic ease, and dodging barrels and boxes as they were loaded and unloaded from a maze of hemp rope rigging that carried cargo from ship to masted ship.

Hefting the bundle wrapped in linen and secured with twine to a more comfortable position in her arms, Trixie chanced a glance over her shoulder. Above a sea of heads, a man the size of a giant barreled through the crowd, shoving anyone who stepped in his way with one beefy arm. Shouts and thuds accompanied his movement, but he waded through as if he were batting gnats, not people.

"Come on Gail, he's gaining, "Trixie used her shoulder to shove the other girl in front of her, but before they could take more than a few steps they almost fell headfirst into the bay. Teetering on the rope strung up along the edge of the dock, Trixie motioned Gail to slip into the water and swim over to one of the ships waiting to be loaded with its cargo.

"Give me the sword, kid."

Trixie turned and faced the giant with a smile, "Take it, Lump."

"Big talk for such a little girl, okay, tell ya what, you give me the sword and I'll let you live. What do ya say?"

Little girl? Trixie lifted her chin, "Sorry Lump, but not everyone is blessed with as big of an ass such as yourself, and, by the way, no deal, I'm keeping the sword." With a flip, Trixie somersaulted off the dock into Glimmer Bay, the sword, still bundled in its linen wrapping, flung over her head before she left the ground. A guttural curse of surprise was cut short as she was momentarily deafened by the water rushing above her head.

Raising his hand, he slammed it onto a weathered piling of the dock and cursed again. One of his men stepped forward and with a lick of lips said, "You want us to go after her, sir? I think we can still catch 'em."

"No, no I have other plans for that one. Let's go."

dreamstime a sword in the ground