Encounter in the Woods

A black leather clothed horseman arrived at the clearing. He descended from the horse groaning and moaning, stayed for few seconds in the bent over position and arose finally. The sounds coming from his spine resembled shredding of paper and the man grimassed. As soon as he arrived in the vertical position, his face lit up and he sighed with pleasure.

Just in the moment he wanted to be happy about the new found place, seven masked shapes jumped off the bushes. The leader of them approached the black horseman and it became visible in the moonlight that he was wearing an axe. For clothes the man had a kind of sack on which was held togerther with a rope in the middle. His head was covered by a head sock. Without doubt this were footpads craving for his life.

"What's your name? Speak!", barked the leader.

"A-shi-mu-ka", answered the black horseman.

"An foreigner... Maybe we should spare you, so you can teach us your language."

The head sock guy laughed out loud and his gang answered with a hyen-like peal of laughter. The black horseman made a serious face and said:

"A-shi-mu-ka means: The wise one, who first poses, then negotiates and finally strikes."

The thieves watched at each other, one of them shrugged.

"Shut your mouth at last and hand over your money, or else we stop being funny!", shouted the leader in a nettled way.

After this A-shi-mu-ka stripped out of his black leather-overall and stood merely clothed by a string-tanga. He rummaged in his horsebag and got out a tube of massage oil. With few handgrips he smeared the oil all over his muscular body which now, in the moonlight, looked like a romanian statue. With great know-how A-shi-mu-ka demonstrated the crab-pose, then biceps-front, behind and at last the Schwarzenegger-pose, after which a woman among the thieves fell in unconsciousness.

The rest of the thieves remained rooted to the spot and didn't trust their eyes. One of them began clapping, but after he got malicious looks by the others he stopped it and stared to the ground.

The head sock leader was in rage and had to control himself to be able to speak at all.

"Now I've enough of it. Everybody upon him and give him the rest!"

With one quick movement of his hand he sent his subordinates on the half naked glittering guy.

A-shi-mu-ka grabbed his stuff quickwittedly and put on his clothes as fast as lightning. Additionally to his usual outfit he put steel-rimmed spectacles upon his nose and began:

"Stop! Hear my arguments first!"

Astonished by the incident, the pack stopped. Even the leader lost hold of the situation and stared with open mouth at the foreigner.

"You can't go on like that", began A-shi-muka and swept his long black hair curls aside.

"As members of the lower social class you are condemned to plunder and kill. Thats what the bourgeoisie dictates you. Find yourself, then you will find your place in life as full members of society."

The footpads-chief had enough now. His face had turned colour and first signs of foam began to take shape at his lips. Hoarse and mad he cried:

"Kill the idiot! At once! Or I gonna execute you all! Kill! Immediately kill!"

The black horseman understood. It was time again. He reached out for the sheath and got out his five feet long sword. His arm muscles being on the strain he stood in the lunge position he has been teached in the fighting school. One second later he had an idea and he put the sword away again. He went around the horse and got out an object which was attached to the saddle. It was a long wooden stick in shape of a sunflower which he has tinkered up in one of his self finding courses.

A-shi-mu-ka swung the wooden sunflower and split off the first attackers head. The next one got his kneecap broken after which he fell to ground uncounscious. The rest of the thieves kept on fighting brave in the first moment but ended up with broken necks or mutilated limbs.

The raid has taken its bloody end, the footpads lie blooding and unconscious on ground. A-shi-mu-ka opened a little book with the picture of his guru and murmured:

"It's true what you teached me, my wise guru. Violence leads to nothing- it's the soft way that always succeeds. After this he washed the blood off the sunflower and went to bed.