By Chance & Misadventure

The man had attacked Lee for talking to his sister, and after trying initially to simply avoid the man's clumsy blows, Lee had eventually had to fight back and had proceeded to break the man's arm, nose and three ribs. The police investigation had of course confirmed this as self-defence. Since then people in the village had been sure to keep their distance.

Lee had arrived in the bar early yesterday evening, by which time his friends had a good few hours of drinking behind them. Lee didn't normally drink, and Sam remembered thinking how strange it was to see him in the bar, let alone ordering a pint of beer.

For a couple of hours, the four friends had been the only people in Sam's bar, until the late shift finished at the local saw mill and some of the locals had come in to wash the sawdust from their mouths. The local lads had immediately been wary of the four friends and were quite shocked to see Lee drinking and laughing, in what they considered their bar.

So, when Jon had got up to go to the toilet and proceeded to fall into their table, his intoxicated legs momentarily unable to support him. They had wasted no time in jumping up to lay about him. What had happened next had convinced Sam that these apparently loud fun seeking lads from Manchester were even more dangerous than they appeared.

As soon as the first of the locals had started to move, the remaining three friends were in motion, and moving with a quickness and purpose that shocked Sam after the amount they had drank. Matt had immediately dived towards the biggest of the local lads; a known thug called Tom. Simultaneously Pete had moved to block off the three lads to Matt's left and Lee the two to his right. Although they had not actually struck any blows they had immediately imposed themselves on the situation.

Matt had placed his left hand on Tom's chest and said simply: "Whoa there fella, where are you going in such a hurry?"

"A'm goin, ta put ma boot throu yer pal's hed!" Tom had replied; taking into account the fact that he and his cronies had at that point outnumbered Matt and his friends two to one with Jon passed out on the floor. Without further conversation Matt was in motion his right hand moved up from Tom's chest to grasp his windpipe and squeeze it making Tom gag and start to struggle.

"Move a muscle and I will close my hand and kill you now." Matt had said calmly the remaining locals had moved to help their leader but Lee and Pete had stopped them in their tracks. Lee with a hand on the chest of each man in front of him, whilst Pete had grabbed two of the men in front of him by their shirtfronts, whilst freezing the other to the spot with a maniacal glare which seemed to guarantee pain.

Tom froze on the spot. "Now, we are going to escort you and your friends outside and you are all going to go home before I lose my temper. Do you understand?" Tom nodded his agreement, with a look of fear Sam had never seen in his eyes before. At this Matt marched him by the throat to the inn's front door followed by his two friends and Tom's cronies. Once outside matt had simply used his grip to force Tom to the floor, turned around and followed by Pete and Lee returned to the inside of the bar, shutting the door behind them.