The track in the woods was a wide causeway to the two boys strolling down it. Both were so dirty with thick, black mud as to be almost unrecognisable as human. The taller of the two had blue eyes that seemed unnaturally bright against the cracking, itching mud that plastered him.
‘We’re going to be killed for this, Marcus,’ he said, grinning. In his hand, a sling spun lazily, held taut with the weight of a smooth river pebble.
‘Your fault, Gaius, for pushing me in. I told you the river bed wasn’t dry all the way.’
As he spoke, the shorter boy laughed and shoved his friend into the bushes that lined the path. He whooped and ran as Gaius scrambled out and set off in pursuit, sling whirring in a disc.
‘Battle!’ he shouted in his high, unbroken voice.
The beating they would get at home for ruining their tunics was far away and both boys knew every trick to get out of trouble – all that mattered was charging through the woodland paths at high speed, scaring birds. Both boys were barefoot, already with calluses developing, despite not having seen more than eight summers.
‘This time, I’ll catch him,’ Gaius panted to himself as he ran. It was a mystery to him how Marcus, who had the same number of legs and arms, could yet somehow make them move faster than he could. In fact, as he was shorter, his stride should have been a little less, surely?
The leaves whipped by him, stinging his bare arms. He could hear Marcus taunting him up ahead, close. Gaius showed his teeth as his lungs began to hurt.
Without warning, he broke into a clearing at full pelt and skidded to a sudden, shocked stop. Marcus was lying on the ground, trying to sit up and holding his head in his right hand. Three men – no, older boys – were standing there, carrying walking staffs.
Gaius groaned as he took in his surroundings. The chase had carried the two boys off his father’s small estate and into their neighbours’ part of the woods. He should have recognised the track that marked the boundary, but he’d been too caught up in catching Marcus for once.
‘What do we have here? A couple of little mudfish, crawled up out of the river!’
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