Nest of the Paladins

As the quiet nestled into the village, Johnan lay on a strange bed. His mind was blurry, as if he had arrived while sleepwalking. This trait of his was extremely frowned upon in his little community, so he always rushed to erase all traces of it when it happened.

            So his fear was explainable, especially that he didn't have any idea of where he was lying. As he was starting to look around a bit, he began to notice some similarities with the brand new building he had visited the day before, the exact place where the famous diplomats were housed. Suddenly, he heard footsteps, so, to avoid being detected, he raced to the nearest bed and swathed himself with the thick blanket and hoped he wouldn't be discovered by whoever was coming there.

            Then, to his surprise, the person who came in suddenly fell to the floor, hitting his head hard. His cry for help bellowed through the empty hallway, terrifying Johnan. His voice reverberated multiple times on the walls, which made Johnan concerned that someone might come too. So he raced to the nearest window, jumped out and landed in the bushes below, and ran through the yard towards the gate, but accidentally bumped into a mysterious figure and fell down.

            He looked in horror at the figure he'd bumped into. He saw a crinkly face with clusters of dark greyish hair. He eyed the man for a few terrifying seconds, and then quickly rolled away and got back on his feet in an instant, trying to adjust himself in a defensive position in case the man was fond of fighting strangers.

            When he saw that the man had been lying on the ground, barely moving, he eased up and smugly let his guard down. Had he waited, he wouldn't have got hurt, as the man jumped up with chilling, almost superhuman speed, like a wild cat hurdling at its prey.

            Johnan was so stunned that he couldn't fathom how the man had got up so quickly, and how he was able to lunge at him, in the matter of seconds. He was even more stunned by the man's face, because he was convinced he had seen an octogenarian lying on the ground, yet the man moved like an assassin straight out of a fantasy book. He couldn't even form a question in his head before he realized he had been tied up and pinned down on the ground by the man.

                                                                                                                        Lakatos  Áron   IX. R