When the first of dawnval had arrived, with its cool winds blowing across, the businessfolk made their way to the fields, ready and eager for work. The end of the Twilight Month brought forth a freshness to the world, the soil infused with life once more, and the farmers would need to begin preparing the soil for the planting of the seeds before the undead arose.
The Iyrmen had already begun their scouting that morning. Kamrot, who rubbed his freshly shaved bald head, still not used to the process, took charge as he always did. The younger Iyrmen, that was to say the Iyrmen who were anywhere between twenty and fifty, each obeyed, circling the land around, checking for tracks, speaking to the villagers across the bridge, and as one might have expected, they also hunted.
“Scouting?” Rick asked the pair as he made the rounds around the farms.
“Demi needs to stretch his legs,” Lucy replied, ruffling the back of the wolf’s head, the wolf growling with delight at Lucy’s touch. The grey skinned woman then climbed on top of her wolf, while her companion did the same, climbing on top of Mighty, before they led the other wolves out.
Rick watched as the Managers left, heading out upon their awakened wolves, and the dire wolves. He waved at Cloud, who bowed his head at the Lead, before drawing up the rear of the pack, bounding into the forest beyond the village, leaving the Iyr’s land to the Iyrmen. The Lead continued to make his rounds, checking upon those who farmed the Iyr’s land, before making his way back to the fort.
As Rick made his way to the fort, to the large walls which loomed over the land, the gates opened to reveal three figures in full plate.
“Lead Rick,” Tork grunted out, nodding his head to the man.
“Tork,” Rick replied, his eyes darting towards Jeremiah and Jeremy, or Jeremy and Remy as they preferred, scanning their plate mail. He slowly bowed his head towards the trio, and allowed them their peace, watching as they made their way out towards the village.
“Thank you again for helping with the armour,” Jeremy said, feeling how the armour pressed upon his body. ‘It’s still heavy…’
“It’s no issue,” Tork replied. “You will get used to it in time.”
“I didn’t realise full plate was so much lighter than kurabara armour,” Remy admitted, though his body was still not used to the full form of the armour pressing upon his body.
“Only mad men make armour from kurabaras,” Tork said, causing the cousins to exchange a look, each smiling slightly.
“There many kurabara up north?” Jeremy asked.
“A few. We’ve more wolves than the south, and bears, and wraiths, and dragons, drakes, wyverns, all sortsa of mean creatures.”
“Is that why northerners are so hardy?”
“Aye, an’ because it’s cold.”
“Does the cold made you hardy?”
“You don’t cool down metal to shape it,” Tork replied, grinning slightly.
Jeremy raised his brows at the point, slowly nodding his head, since the reasoning made so much sense. The trio made their way across the large stone bridge and onto the land of the Aldish, approaching the wooden walls of the village, calling out towards the figures near the gates.
“Nobby!” Remy almost exclaimed, hugging his nephew, built like an Iyrman’s dream. “Anne has been asking about you for the last week. Where’s Nobby? Can we play? Isn’t it dangerous? Why doesn’t Nobby go to school too? You could have at least come visit the business, it’s only fifty steps away.”
“It’s best not to cause trouble in the Twilight Month,” Jeremy said, elbowing Remy gently, their armour clanging lightly, causing the pair to glance towards where the sound emanated from. “Besides, it wasn’t Nobby she was most excited about.”
“Sorry,” Nobby replied in his quiet voice.
“Make sure you bring your boy too. It’d be nice to see him in the fort, walking and talking with the other children. Otherwise, Rick might get the idea that his children-,”
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“Don’t speak like that this early in the year,” Remy snapped at his cousin, reaching out to pat Nobby’s shoulder. “At least not until the first rains, eh, Nobby?”
“Yes.”
Remy flashed a smile to the young man, before taking a glance to the nearby villagers, nodding his head, before following Tork to greet Chief Merl to speak with her about her needs that month. Meanwhile, the younger Merl, Nobby’s wife, and the future Chief, watched over as their small son ate his porridge. Merry had dark hair and dark eyes, and while his father was the large young man built like an auroch, the boy was small for his age, owed due to his early birth.
“Manager Dunes has asked me ta… inform you he’ll soon come and check upon Merry,” Tork said, his voice low, gentle, doing his best to sound less like a northerner.
“Please send Manager Dunes my regards for the care,” the younger Merl replied, with a smile almost as beautiful as her. She had slimmed down the previous year, but Tork noted she had begun to gain weight again. It had been nightval recently, but Tork wondered if there was more to it.
“If you need of our assistance, please,” Tork said, bowing his head lightly, doing what Manager Dunes had asked of him.
“How is Father Mork?” Merl asked, and the pair continued to share pleasantries, until Tork excused himself, the others leaving the woman alone with her son.
“I don’t know how you did it, lad, but you’re living the dream,” Tork said, chuckling towards the younger Nobby.
“Our Nobby here wooed her by winning a tournament, and being almost as strong as Executive Jurot, it’s not hard,” Remy said.
“I keep hearing you’re strong, haven’t had the chance ta see it,” Tork said, eyeing up the young man. “Say, it’s early in the day. The Iyr’s scanning the nearby land for problems. Your, our Managers, are riding with their wolves. You need ta stretch?” Tork’s eyes gleamed with a playful joy.
“Okay,” Nobby replied.
The group made their way towards the forest, not too far away from the village, and Tork and Nobby began their small clash. While Nobby wielded his magical items, Tork also wielded a magical blade, lent to him through the business. Jeremy and Remy watched as the pair engaged in a battle, Tork in his full plate, Nobby with his shield and axe.
“One gold on Nobby,” Remy said.
“I was going to bet on Nobby.”
“You don’t believe in Tork?”
“No, you?”
Remy shook his head. “He might have a nice weapon from the business, but our Nobby has a nice axe and a nice shield.”
Jeremy nodded, letting out a noise of appreciation. “Full plate.”
“Full plate,” Remy replied, still not believing it, even though he was wearing it. Something like full plate was for knights, nobles, members of various Orders, not a pair of porters.
“Six years, eh?” Jeremy said.
“Aye. Six years. So much has changed.”
“My purse is full of gold. I’ve got full plate. A magical blade. You think we’ll get a flaming weapon like that?”
“Lent to us, aye. Given? I don’t think we’ve earned it.”
“We’ve worked hard.”
“Aye, and our families will know the boon of the United Kindom. Boon’s the word, isn’t it?”
“I think so. Might have to ask Rick.”
“Lead Rick,” Remy corrected, while the clash between Nobby and Tork began to ring out further, each of them pushing themselves to their limits in the bout. The cousins remained silent as Tork began to push Nobby back, something they had thought impossible.
“Reavers are coming.”
“They say they’re like demons?”
“I don’t know. Demons don’t seem so bad…” The words came out a whisper.
Remy thought of the Managers who were most likely riding their wolves, scouting the lands. “Aye. Not so bad at all.”
“I think they’ll led us something magical. Might enchant our armour so we can fight proper like.”
“You want to fight in the front?”
“Hannah’ll be behind me, so I’ll have to.”
Remy’s eyes darted to the side for a moment, before his lips formed a small smile. “Suppose I’ll have to as well, what with Erin behind me.”
“I wouldn’t mind one of the blades,” Jeremy admitted, his eyes glued to the magical longsword within Tork’s hand, the very same which was glowing red as it pushed Nobby back, forging the young man into a greater warrior.
“Alright, alright!” Tork huffed, glaring at the young man, trying to catch his breath. He exhaled and Nobby relaxed, before the horc grinned wide. “You’re not so bad, Nobby.” ‘I’d have killed a normal fellow twice over, even if he was Bronze.’
“Thank you,” Nobby replied.
“It’s scarier that you don’t talk much,” Tork admitted, before stretching out his body. Even with his magical blade, that which struck with a fiery might, he was unable to defeat Nobby, when he surely would have defeated the likes of other Rage Dancers. He had struck true several times, but the wall known as Nobby stood ever tall. ‘He learnt the same way as the Mad Dog? Divine take me.’
It was on that day that Nobby gained the respect he deserved from the northerners, and the northerners from the business.
Jeremy was annoyed, for when Tork had stepped back from the fight, he had wanted to make a bet with his cousin, that they would receive a magical item that year, and not even that year, but during the season of dawnval. It was just a single gold, but that single gold would have been worth more than the other, for he earned it with his wisdom. Losing it to the bad luck of forgetting was bad, but the feeling of the shield within his grasp made it go away, because he hadn’t expected a Greater shield.
He glanced aside to Remy, who stared down at his Greater shield. With full plate, they were hard to go down, but with full plate and a Greater shield, they would have been hard for all but the greatest of creatures to maim. Though the shields were merely lent to them, the fact that these shields, worth thousands of gold, had been lent to them meant more than just thousands of gold.
It also meant there was a threat that required them to wield such shields.