I could've said no, Lyam thought as he looked up at the sunlight bleeding through the leaves. The edge of the forest was abuzz with the distant sound of birds and the whispering wind. From where he stood, it looked almost peaceful.

“Mamie Alda says the woods are haunted.” Lyam idly kicked a stone.

“Don't listen to your mamie,” Theo said. He was leaning against a pine tree, laidback and confident as ever. His wooden lance was snug on his hip belt. “She is going insane from cutting up dead animals.”

“I agree,” Benoit called out. He was crouched on the ground with his own lance next to him, observing a caterpillar as it lumbered by. “My uncle was a butcher too. He used to talk to the chickens he slaughtered.”

Lyam glared at them. “My mamie is not insane.”

The other boys just shrugged. Lyam shook his head and looked away. A herd of lambs stood grazing on a patch of green. But their shepherd was nowhere to be seen. There were no houses this far out of their village. All the sounds of civilization were as distant as the sounds of birds. The silence was grating on Lyam's nerves.

Theo rolled his eyes and looked at Ben. “Are you certain you told Julie and Hugo to come to the forest by evening?”

“Why do you think I didn't?”

“Because you have a reputation for forgetting things.”

“I told them. But Julie is a girl. And girls are always slow.”

Theo scoffed. “Would you say that to Julie's face?”

“Of course not.” Ben snorted. “I don't have a death wish.”

“We don't have to go there, you know.” Lyam crossed his arms across his chest.

“Because the woods are haunted?” Ben called out, still crouching on the ground.

“Because other children have wandered in there. And some of them didn't make it back, remember?” Lyam said.

Theo scoffed again. “William still made it back. Don't know what you are talking about.”

“Yes, William made it back, but have you ever asked him what he saw in the woods? Have you seen how he answers?” Lyam said.

Ben finally rose from his spot. “Why? What does he say?”

“He says nothing.” Lyam looked at them gravely. “His eyes go blank and his mouth quivers ever so slightly as if he wants to speak but something is stopping him. That’s all you get whenever you ask him what he saw.”

Theo hugged himself and shivered mockingly. “Ooh, isn't that scary, Ben?”

The boy giggled. “William was probably kissed by a witch. I’ve heard your lips get heavy when that happens.”

Theo laughed. “Hey Lyam, did your mamie ever tell you not to kiss a witch?”

“Stop it!” Lyam snapped. “It's not funny.”

The boys only laughed harder.

That's when Hugo and Julie arrived. Hugo had a bindle on his shoulder.

“What are you all laughing at?” Julie said.

“Lyam is scared of the woods because the witch might kiss him,” Ben said, still giggling.

“He said he is jealous of William.”

“I never said any of that!” the boy swung at Theo who just side-stepped and kicked his ankle. Lyam tumbled forward.

There was more laughter. Even Julie and Hugo were laughing now. Lyam glared at them all. It didn't have much of an effect on them.

“Let's head into the woods now,” Theo said after the laughter died down. “I want to be back home before dinner.”

###

Lyam walked with his back slumped and the bindle weighing heavy on his shoulder. He couldn't help feeling a bit dejected as he eyed the party waving around their fancy wooden lances. All of those had been carved and handed out by Theo. So it hadn't been a surprise to anyone when Theo stepped up with his lance to be their leader and everyone just accepted it without a complaint.

Lyam had been late to the feast, however. All the weapons had already been taken. When he'd requested Theo if he'd make him an extra one, Benoit had interjected and said, “You are never quick to show up Lyam, you slow us all down with your constant whining. You don't deserve a weapon.”

“Right,” Julie had said with a nod. “And your arms are slender as a pitchfork. You won't be able to wield a lance anyway. Even if the lance was wooden.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I say, it's time we weeded out the weakling from the group.” Hugo touched the blunt tip of his own lance which was smaller than Theo's.

That's when Theo said, “No, Lyam is dedicated to be with us. Even though he shows up late, he shows up no matter what. I have something else for him.” The leader had smiled at him.

“Really?” Lyam said hopefully.

“I'm offering you a job in our party.”

“Really? I-I'm so hono–”

“From this day on, you'll be the party's trusty porter!”

I could've said no, Lyam thought again but he hadn't done it. Because saying no would've meant working at Mamie's butcher-shop longer than he already did.

He found it better to deal with his friends’ wisecracks than be surrounded by animal carcasses all day. And in hindsight, it hadn't been all that bad. Even though he was just their porter, it was fun to follow them in their adventures against imaginary cultists and monsters. They'd even given their party a heroic little name: The Valiant Lances.

Lyam looked at their toy weapons again. Yes, being with them was better than spending all day at the butcher shop but that feeling of being left behind was almost perpetual. Idly, he reached behind his back and touched the slingshot that he had hid under his shirt. The envy towards his friends waving their wooden lances had pushed Lyam to make something for himself. So he'd carved the frame of the slingshot from an oaken slab, made the band of the sling with hemp and the pad with a piece of leather. His wood carving wasn't as good as Theo's but it was passable.

He’d kept practicing with the slingshot for close to a month. He was good enough to shoot a tankard from the opposite end of his room but not good enough to shoot a pinecone off a tree.

And that is what he yearned to achieve. He wanted his friends to be awed when he finally showed off his marksmanship. So he kept his lips sealed and bore their weight. Until he was good enough to show them how proficient he was with his aim.

That feeling was enough to make him smile at night as he lay in bed. He would imagine their awestruck faces and giggle sheepishly to himself. “I might even become the hero of the Lances.”

Lyam was quickly pulled out of his daydream before he could sink any further into it. Theo was yelling from the front, “My knights, we are approaching the Shadow Castle!”

They all came to a halt.

It wasn't much of a castle anymore. Weeds were already choking its walls, the gates had fallen off and lay rusting at its entrance. Birds nested in its windows and the tall grass looked hell bent on hiding the structure behind its green curtain.

Lyam swallowed hard. “Why are we here?”

“To see if the rumors are true,” Theo said.

Lyam clutched the bindle tighter. “Why do we have to do that?”

“Because we are the Valiant Lances.” Julie scoffed. “We go where the commoners are too afraid to go.”

“Okay, you all can go inside and survey the place. I'll stand back and be the lookout.” Lyam chuckled nervously, stepping backwards.

“No,” Theo said, “You're the one who is going inside.”

Lyam froze. “M-Me? But I'm just the porter, aren't I?”

“And do you want to remain a porter forever?” Julie raised an eyebrow.

“Don't you want to have a shiny new lance like the rest of us?” Hugo poked the tip of his weapon with a finger.

“This is your chance to get promoted, Lyam,” Ben said.

“Or are you too happy being the party's mule cart?” Julie said.

Then Theo stepped up to Lyam. “Don't you know why I formed the Valiant Lances in the first place?”

“To act delusional?” Ben said.

“No.” Theo rolled his eyes. “I formed our party because someday I want us all to become wielders.”

Julie scoffed. “How do you plan on doing that? Only nobles can become wielders.”

Theo rolled his eyes again. “The kingdom army is made from commoners who were selected to become wielders too. They are only half-dust but they can still use magic. And they fight evil shapecrafters and monsters and the enemies of the kingdom.” He looked at every lancer.

Benoit whispered to Hugo, “I was right, he wanted to act delusional.”

Theo ignored him and turned back to their porter. “But we can't achieve that if one of us keeps getting left behind,” he said. “This is your chance to prove yourself, Lyam. To be like us.”

Lyam looked away, clutching the bindle tighter. Theo cocked his head. “Are you hesitating? Are you really that comfortable with being a porter?”

“N-No, I–”

Julie laughed, “I think his hesitation speaks for itself.”

Everyone except Theo started laughing. He leaned closer to Lyam, “If you want these jabs to stop then do it, Lyam. Go up to that castle window and declare yourself brave. I'll even carve you a brand new lance.”

“Wait, but I already have a–”

“Quit stalling and do it already!” Hugo pushed Lyam forward.

Before he could speak up again, the Lances were chanting, “Do it! Do it! Do–”

Lyam swallowed again and stepped gingerly towards the castle. He took one last look over his shoulder at the others. They all stared at him. He felt the weight of their gazes shoving into his back, like invisible hands nudging him forward. He made his way through the crumbling entrance of the castle and disappeared inside.

###

Broken tiles littered the floor of the ruined foyer. Spiders had woven entire walls of cobwebs in empty doorways. A lizard stared at Lyam from a dark corner.

The boy couldn’t hear the sounds of his friends as he entered the castle. It was like diving into a lake. Once you went under, everything felt distant and silent. Lyam quickly pulled out his slingshot and loaded it with a steel marble just barely bigger than a peanut. With his feet still trembling slightly, he made his way to the stairway on the far opposite end. A dead crow lay at the foot of the first step. Lyam squeaked, almost shooting the steel ball.

Then he took a deep breath. “Just a dead crow. Nothing but a dead crow.” He took a nervous step and started to ascend the stairs.

On his way up he noticed the structure of the roof. Multiple stone arches held the ceiling intact. There was a rusty hook sticking out of the keystone at the center. A chandelier must've hung from there. But only a black widow looked down from the hook now.

Lyam kept moving up. One silent footstep at a time. The stairwell was also made of stone like everything else in the castle. So it didn’t creak ominously as he climbed higher. It took him a few minutes to get to the room Theo had pointed at. He was about to look for the Valiant Lances from there but something else caught his eye instead.

A big dark cloud. Not in the sky, but rising from the ground. A dense mass of smoke hovered above the village of Vermeil. His village.

Lyam’s heart stopped beating for a moment and his breath took an abrupt halt. He just stood there, frozen, perplexed.

And then he screamed. “Vermeil is burning! Our homes are on fire!”

----------------------------------------

A little glossary:

1. "Mamie" is an affectionate term for grandmother in french.