This blog is for you readers. Here you can hear about future titles in The Riders of the Krazar series, while enjoying short, stand-alone tales of Ebrics, Yeknod and the Goy-yock Clan of Barbarians. They, (your hosts) will ever strive to please themselves with their lives. I hope you find their adventures as fun as I do.

 

To read about the book: The Riders of the Krazar, click the link to the left.

 

 

 

Morning

The sun starts to rise, shining its warmth and light over a large clearing in an old woods. Here in this clearing lay the Goy-yock Clan village, neatly sprawled, and full of life.

   There on one of the far ends of the village, far from the noise and everyday bustle, and even farther from the hunting parties returning with their trophies, the village-wide songs and dances, tucked carefully into a quiet, and completely un-Goy-yock, peace filled spot, where only the warmth of the sun and Yeknod can find: lies Ebrics’ agreeable Lodge.

   Here the Goy-yock Clan scribe Ebrics, quills his work pleasurably after his un-Goy-yockly light breakfast, of a handful of berries in a bowl half full of milk.

   Here Ebrics takes up his quill and reaches across the table for a large book which is titled, The Rights of Ebrics, and The Wrongs of Yeknod; the wrongs taking up the far greater portion of the book.

   Here Ebrics opens to a blank page, in The Rights of Ebrics, and begins to ink his day’s ‘rights’ in a very orderly fashion. Taking his time to make sure each and every letter is of the most beautiful, and legible quality. The slow, soothing sound of the quill scratching across the well-crafted parchment, fills the large interior of the lodge.

   Ebrics’ tongue slowly creeps from his mouth to his clean-shaven lip as he focuses on a particular turn in the next letter he is finishing. He then lets a smile of satisfaction spread across his face, being pleased with himself and his accomplishments already today.

   So far this morning, I have woke earlier, and eaten less than any in my village. I have washed myself, my dishes, and of course, my clothes and bedding. My small garden is well watered with the ten buckets of water I fetched myself from the river, upstream of course from the rest of my village.

   At this time, the interior volume of Ebrics’ peaceful and tranquil home  was shattered by non-other than Yeknod, the sole friend of Ebrics, often to Ebrics’ displeasure.

   The door to Ebrics’ parchment filled lodge slammed open, sending three large piles of Ebrics’ organized parchment floating all over the room. Ebrics hung his head and grabbed his face.

    “You should really clean this place up Ebrics.” Yeknod informed his comrade, as the parchment started to fill the once clear floor.

    “Why are we still friends?” Ebrics questioned, still holding his face only now adding the shake of his head.

   Yeknod stepped into the lodge’s interior with his muddy boots minding not to step on all of his friend’s work, though not avoiding all either. Yeknod, with parchment stuck to his muddy boots walks up to the table and throws there on, a score of rabbits gutted and tied together by their hind feet.

    “No, no, nooo!” Ebrics yells in protest to Yeknod’s placement of his trophies. “Please, I am trying to work and trying to keep a somewhat clean home, if you please or not get these rodents off my table now!” He commanded.

   Yeknod scooped the score of rabbits off the table and threw them over his shoulder. Ebrics proceeded to rush and brush the bit of dirt and blood off his parchment and books on the table. Yeknod walked off for the kitchen, with parchment still firmly stuck to the soles of his boots. Ebrics returned to his writing, turning to the larger portion of his book he searched for a blank page on where to write The Wrongs of Yeknod. Finding a page in this biography of wrongs was an easy task, an empty page was a harder find. Ebrics with a smile of pleasure quilled:

Knocking over three large piles of my neatly stacked work. Trailing mud into my lodge while collecting a sum of my work with said mud to the bottoms of his boots. Dropping blood and dirt on my work at the table…

    “Hey Ebrics, I placed the rabbits in your washtub, it already had water and something in it, I’ll just let them soak a bit.”                  

Placing a score of rabbits in clothes washing basin that I was soaking my under garments in.

   Yeknod walked back into the main room where Ebrics still sat scratching away at the book in front of him.

    “Well Ebrics, I did as you suggested and took that bath that I have been putting off for the last month. I did just like you said and scrubbed until my skin changed from a darker color to a lighter color, and you’re almost right, it does smell if not feel better.”

   Ebrics looked up straight to the front. “When and where did you take this much needed bath?”

    “Right up by the falls, on the big rock, about two hours after sun up.”

Ebrics’ fear was made real. Ebrics slowly returned to his writing, turning back to his side of the book he slowly scratched out the words that read:  upstream of course from the rest of my village.

   “Hey are you writing in ‘The Book of Us,’ and our great achievements?” Yeknod asked.

    “Oh yes, and I have written all the achievements you have done even today.” Ebrics answered with a note of sarcastic awe in his voice.

   Yeknod then noticed his boots with the parchment stuck to them, reaching down he took the parchment stuck to his boot and used them to wipe his boots clean. Balling up the now mud-filled hard work of Ebrics, Yeknod threw it out the door, which Ebrics quickly added to The Wrongs of Yeknod.

   Yeknod then sat himself down across from his friend and threw his boots upon the table, yet another thing which Ebrics added to Yeknod’s list.

   Though Ebrics owns this lodge and could send Yeknod on his way, he is mild-mannered and Yeknod remains his only friend, sad though it may be.

    “Yeknod, did you hear about the  rogues entering our lands at the border near the river’s end?” Ebrics asked his rougher comrade as if nothing had happened.

    “No, but I have now. I will kick them off our clan’s land and be back in time for rabbit stew.” Yeknod proclaimed as he jumped to his feet and straightened his furs.

    “The river’s end is two days’ travel away, not even our warriors are going to reach there until tomorrow.” Ebrics exclaimed.

    “That’s because they will take stops to eat and rest, my body need not know of such things, I have not told my body breaks and rest exist, so shhh! Don’t even speak of it.” He said with belief in his own words.

    “If you can go remove those Toidis [Toidi is Idiot in Goy-yock] from Clan land and get back here in time for supper then I will personally fix you the best rabbit stew you have ever eaten.” Ebrics said in challenge.

    “Deal.” Yeknod said before running out the door with his Clan sword tightly sheathed around his waist.

   A great many hours passed in the time since Yeknod ran through the door, in this time Ebrics had washed the rabbits, drained his washbasin, skinned the rabbits and prepared his Famous Hare Stew. In this time he also retrieved his muddied parchment ball from outside, washed it carefully. Placing it on his stoop, he set rocks on the corners of it, to hold it down and let it dry.

   Ebrics, having cleaned his house and readied stew, once again sat down to continue his writing. He had moved on from the book of Rights and Wrongs and was working now on his other various works, among them being the tales of Raeb and Tibbar, when the door once again slammed open.

   The darkness of the outside gave no evidence to who had opened the door. Until of course, Yeknod stepped into the lighted interior of the lodge. In his hands, he carried a large sack that appeared to Ebrics to have been made of many different kinds of clothing.

    “Here Ebrics, I passed up our clan’s warriors on the trail, without allowing them to see me, put the boot to the rogues, took their clothes, and shaved their heads, here: something to write Raeb and Tibbar about. Yes sir, it will be a good score of hours before the feet-shuffling, butt-dragging, wanna-be men that call themselves Goy-yock warriors discover how late they are. And the best part is, they won’t find a scrape of hair.” Yeknod declared brightly, as if finding hair was everyone’s lot in life.

   Yeknod said as he dropped the large sack on the floor allowing Ebrics to see the content, which was about thirty to forty men’s heads worth. Colors ranging from Onyx black to sunshine gold. In the future, those brigands would do well to either go bald, or stop trespassing across the known borders of the Goy-yock Clan.

    “By the way, I like the new mud mat right outside the door, it works great.”

    “Glad it worked for you.” Ebrics says, having not listened to Yeknod’s words.

   Ebrics quickly looks up from his work, suddenly recalling the supposed ‘doormat’ and shudders at the thought of the newly cleaned piece of parchment, that he left just outside.

   The two strange friends, the two barbarians of the Goy-yock Clan, enjoyed their rabbit stew. Ebrics recorded Yeknod’s adventure with the rogues that night while it was yet fresh in his head. There wasn’t a chance in Goy-yock that Yeknod would’ve left without that being done anyway.

He recorded Yeknod’s doormat offence, what he would do with the hair, was anybody’s guess. But Ebrics was sure, (as you can be) that whatever it was, it would soon stain parchment in the big book of Rights and Wrongs.