home. He searched through several closets with this in mind and discovered a sturdy malinthander from a work closet and snapped it onto his magnetic belt. The weapon was simply a curved handle with three dense metal spheres dangling from thin ropes attached to it.
“Just in case,” he told himself. “Yes, as a preparatory measure against the unexpected, as it were, as in another resource to protect myself in bad situations that may or may not arise, hopefully the latter,” he muttered.
Movement in front of one of Yeel’s detached eye pods caught his attention. In the room upstairs, Jymoor rolled in her sleep uncomfortably.
“Ah! My guest! I should be thinking of her as well!”
***
Jymoor awoke refreshed. She sat up in the luxurious bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. A second later she bolted out of bed, remembering where she was: the lair of the mighty Yeel!
The traveler walked around the room, drinking in its grandeur again. When she grabbed her worn tunic and pulled it on, she realized something had changed. The garment had been stained and smelly when she arrived, yet now it looked clean. She could tell it had been worn before, but all traces of dirt and sweat had been removed.
“Thank you, my lord,” Jymoor said uncertainly. She looked on the floor and found her boots in similar condition. She slipped her feet into the heavy footwear and paced the room, wondering what to do next.
Suddenly Yeel burst into the room. Jymoor jumped, her heart hammering in response to the shock.
“Greetings to you, my good friend Jymoor! I sensed that you were ready. I have made some basic preparations. Follow me!” Yeel rattled off.
Jymoor shook her head and fell in behind her towering host. She noted that the mysterious man still wore the same outfit as last night. She wondered if the legendary Yeel had need of a change of clothes as mere mortals sometimes did. She nervously looked down at her own attire, painfully aware that the travel clothes did not befit a servant of the mighty Yeel.
They moved to the kitchen. Jymoor wondered how the man knew where to go this time. Something wasn’t quite right about Yeel. Jymoor expected that such a legendary figure might be eccentric, or even beyond understanding, but Jymoor felt that the man might be deceiving her somehow. Perhaps he wasn’t the Great Yeel after all. Would anyone dare usurp the position in Yeel’s own house?
“Please sit and rest your lower limbs, my good friend Jymoor,” Yeel said. “Please partake of these refreshments which I have prepared and tell me of the manner in which your people make war upon one another.”
“Er, ah, thank you, my lord,” Jymoor said, her eyes roaming over the array of food cubes on the table. “The barbarians make use of the most simple of weapons and techniques. Their siege craft is primitive to be sure. They use ladders to scale the walls, create turtles to approach and attempt to sap the walls. Only occasionally will any of them employ a mobile tower or catapult.”
“Right. Of course. What? Oh, let’s be more specific, please. Let’s start at the beginning. What equipment does the average, ah, barbarian, as you say, as you labeled them, good enough for now, yes, what equipment do they bring to the, ah, field of battle, or shall we say, the theater of war?”
Jymoor blinked her eyes and tried one of the white squares of food. She hoped that it would prove to be cheese, but instead it tasted like a rubbery sort of meat like squid or crab.
“They usually wield only axes or clubs, sometimes swords. Most have wooden shields, although others may have plundered a metal shield or a breastplate.”
Jymoor saw that Yeel had been listening with an unusual intensity. The man’s eyes were open wide, fixed directly upon her.
“So…” Yeel began, blinking at last and losing the gaze. “The general mechanics of war involve, what, walking up to each other and attempting to…use these tools in an effort to remove each other’s limbs, rendering the opponent immobile and thus helpless?”
Jymoor nodded. “Sort of…they also usually try to stab the swords into each other’s vitals. Since they defeated the king’s army on the field, though, we’ve been doing more hiding behind our fortress walls, trying to slow down their incursion by forcing them to lay siege to our cities one by one.”
“Ah yes, siege, of course. No doubt they then attempt to abrade away the stone of your