Jaxen I

The air was fizzy and blurry, his eyes were overwhelmed by the sparks of light that filled his view. Vague shapes of adults and children suddenly appeared before him, they looked to be besides a riverbed. Children splattered and played in the shallows, the women washing old rags while sharing casual chatter. The men oversaw them while filleting freshly caught fish, drinking and sharing friendly banter. Summer bugs and rushing water sang in the background, as if they were a group of musicians lighting up a silent court.

He was standing to the other side of the river, silently contemplating them. He couldn't look away, or maybe he didn't want to, the mere idea of doing so filled him with a dread heavier than an anvil. Suddenly, a voice could be heard approaching from behind, slowly making its way through the thick bush.

“Come on Jaxen, lets cross the river” It was his brother. “Mother is waiting for us, we have been away for far too long”

“But I don't want to stop looking, you go, tell mom I will be there in a bit” he replied without breaking his sight.

“Thats fine by me, but don't cry if there are no honey cakes left when you return” his brother playfully warned him. “I don't care, just leave me alone for once”

“Why do you always have to be such a dull idiot...” His brother murmured while walking away.

Jaxen felt sad for a minute, but quickly forgot and kept watching the other side of the shore. He watched as his brother joined their mother and ate up a platter of honey cakes as if he were a dog. The beastly spectacle amused the women who snickered and smiled at the sight of the boy.

The view made him feel warm and happy, but coldly distant at the same time. He really didn't know why he didn't want to cross the river; he surely would have more fun there than here hiding between the bushes. The shadows where cold and dark, but that gave him a weird comfort. Knowing than most of those people didn't know that he was watching gave him a sense of security, of control.

But suddenly, the laughter stopped. The silence was deafening, even the birds had stopped singing. The only thing that could be heard was the concerned whispering of the villagers, who were overlooking something behind the hill. He however, could not see what was troubling them so much, no matter how much he tried. It angered him, the feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty. He was suddenly filled with dread, so much that it felt as his heart was sinking.

Armoured figures descended from the hill, they sported green banners and silver armour. Jaxen tried to look at them but it hurt his eyes to do so, furthering his desperation. The figures suddenly pointed their lances to the villagers, who were cornered against the river. One tried to talk to the figures, but was swiftly impaled by one of them. The whole group erupted in panicked cries, some started running to the river while other pleaded desperately for help. Their cries ringed within his ears to the point that it started to hurt. He wanted to do something but the sound made it impossible, so he just kept looking.

The soldiers where silently advancing, cutting down any villager who got in reach of their lances. Quickly they mowed down most of them, with only the children and a woman left, it was his mother. She stood in between them and the soldiers, trying to protect them. The latter ignored her and started grabbing the children, while her mother screamed and punched them, although this didn't have any effect on them.

He saw that one of the kids was his brother, he was looking at him while being carried away. “Why didn't you cross Jaxen? Why didn't you help us? “His brother screamed. Those words bounced inside his head, making the ringing worse. “Why Jaxen?? Why?” the boy kept screaming. He knelt inside the bushes to hide but the ringing didn't go away. The screams of his brother got louder and louder, clouding his mind with pain and despair. “Stop, stop, stop, please, I beg you, stop!!” he yelled to no avail.

He woke up in a cold sweat, thunder loudly ranged outside. The storm was violently shaking the already weak frame of the old farmhouse they were staying on. He looked to his sides to see his comrades silently sleeping, oblivious to the elemental chaos that enveloped their frail shelter. Strange noises were coming from the other room, an intruder perhaps? Jaxen could not take any chances, as they were too far away from Rosen to receive any help. They were used to working things on their own tough, that was the reason they had been chosen for the mission in the first place. He grabbed his sword and didnt bother on putting on any armour, as stealth was his main priority.

He silently exited his bedroll and unsheathed his sword, slowly approaching the door frame of the other room. A dim light lit the common room, casting a shadow over one of the windows. For having intruded in a house in the middle of the night, this intruder was pretty careless, and it was going to cost him. Jaxen waited for a thunder to mask the sound of his entrance, ready to strike the unknown figure down, but he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

It was not the sight of a robber prying around for riches that filled his view, but of his comrade William, who sat reading silently in a worn-out chair with a candle to his side. Jaxen sighed and sheathed his sword, while looking annoyingly to his oblivious companion.

“Having trouble sleeping, Jaxy boy?” William inquired.

” I almost sliced you up like a damn chicken, you fool. You are sitting there as if you were in the grand library reading some dusty tome while picking your nose”

” Heh, since when is it a sin to enjoy some literature while we rummage the countryside?”

“I see the only way of smacking some sense into that thick skull of yours is with the handle of my longsword” Jaxen said, annoyed by the words of his heedless comrade.

William closed the book with the swift motion of his hand, then proceeded to stand to better face Jaxen. He was thin, too thin to be a knight for the taste of most. Long strains of brown hair rested atop his dark brown tunic, flanking a necklace who bore a lit gold torch as its centrepiece. His face was long, with big cheekbones and sunken cheeks. His facial hair was neatly groomed into a thin moustache and a strip that covered his chin, giving him a goat-like appearance.

“Now, now, don't need to get riled up, it seems that I caught you on your usual morning grumpiness”

“It's not that, it's just... this storm, that's all” Jaxen scoffed.

William looked unconvinced by his answer, but he just smirked. “I get you, it’s been troubling me too, and this damn shed doesn't help with its rattling and shaking”

Jaxen nodded silently and walked towards the door. He opened it slightly to observe the tempest outside. The landscape was an everlasting ocean of hills, the corpse of a once populated village laid just in front of the farmstead that they were staying at. Black clouds covered the sky, their darkness periodically interrupted by the flash of lightning. To the horizon, orange rays of sunlight cut through the black expanse.

“It will be dawn soon, and thank the lord this storm seems to be dissipating”.

“Thank the lord” William repeated whilst holding the centrepiece of his necklace and looking up in reverence.

“Yeah, I wouldn't have wanted to stall this search any longer, it feels like we have been just wandering aimlessly for the past week”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Why are you so eager to return to the citadel, exactly? If you ask me, the longer we stay away from that sad old rock, the better”

” It's not that I enjoy wasting away at Timbershield, it's just that the sooner we catch this criminal, the better”

“In that you are right, brother” William intoned, visibly lost in thought.

He was right to an extent, at the end of the day, there were supposed to deliver the justice of the lord and protect the innocent instead of parading and drilling endlessly inside their fortress. But the Grand Marshall had limited the reach of the order for a reason.

The recent famine had hit the kingdom hard, but the worst had come to the south. Littered with hills, steppes and forest, it dreamed of producing a sliver of the food that the north did. The appearance of armed gangs who terrorize villages had made the situation that much worse for the peasantry, so in the beginning, the order had gone out to help maintain peace.

But inevitably, the pride of a fat lord had to be hurt, as it seemed that the presence of what amounted to armies of thieves all over his lands had been humiliating for the Duque of Hedgefort. And the fact that the order were the ones who were maintaining peace, not him, made it all worse.

So, the lord had gone to Dachaigh and cried at the feet of the king, promising to do something about the situation, but only if he made those pesky warrior monks to stop meddling on his lands. And so, the king summoned the High Marshall and asked him to limit himself to policing Rosen and the nearing villages.

It was loathsome that they had to stop, but it was better than entering open conflict with the nobility. Since then, captain Spindall seemed resentful of the actions of the High Marshall, but ultimately understood that it was for the better. William and Harlan on the other hand, thought that they should had gone and raised the duke’s fort to the ground, for nobody stands between the lord’s help and the ones that need it.

But the order had made one exception to their promise, as they had received whispers of a conspiracy brewing up in the southern coast of Hedgefort. Rumours told of a merchant who was making underhanded deals with pagan kingdoms to the other side of the Eveneisian Sea.

The High Marshall needed a team able to work far away from supply lanes and assistance, so that when they entered the picture. There were few knights in the order who could survive days in the wilderness while living off the land, and Spindall’s team where one of those few.

The sun’s rays finally rose through the clouds, accompanied by the chirping of birds who had come out while the storm dissipated. Jaxen and William had decided to start a fire and make some rye porridge while they waited for their comrades to wake up.

The captain was the first to meet them. He had wasted no time and was already dressed with chainmail and his breastplate, longsword at his side.

“Good morrow sir, we prepared some porridge for the lads” said William while saluting.

“Morrow chaps” said the captain in his usual gruff voice. “I take it you two have been awake for a while now?”

“Unfortunately so sir, the storm troubled us” Jaxen admitted with a defeated look

“And this damn shack, it felt like it was going to fall apart at the faintest of breezes!” William added

“May the lord forgive me and the other seniors in the order for having trained such thin spined wimps” the captain ridiculed them “If you two really struggled to sleep during that little breeze, then you won't even last one night marching in a real campaign”

“Then we are lucky that the order hasn't seen one since the days of the last invasion” William exclaimed nonchalantly

“Don't get too cocky, young Will, for war comes unannounced and unexpectedly. Now pass me a bowl of that sludge, my entrails are howling like a pack of hungry wolves”

The captain was handed a bowl of grey, unseasoned, unadorned, rye porridge. The old dog still downed it as if it were his last meal. He returned the bowl with a dissatisfied look on his face.

“You two can't even cook, not even a single thing other that rye went into that, what did we bring bags of spices for?” the man barked “Now stay here and watch for the other two sleeping beauties, if they still haven't risen when the sun reaches a quarter, then give them a good shaking. I will go foraging for some wildberries to wash that horrid flavour down”

“Yes sir” said the two of them

The captain grabbed his sword and helmet, and turned to face them before leaving.

“Oh, and one more thing. I heard what you boys were talking before, about the citadel and the Marshall. I don't mind that kind of talk, but our new companion might make a report back at Rosen if he hears any of that, after all, the underhanded criticism of officials is considered a punishable offense. I wouldn't want to see you boys whipped after we are done with this, so keep the chatter down and in line with the church’s rules” the captain warned.

“We’ll try sir” Will responded to the dissatisfaction of the captain

The man then descended the hill where the farmhouse was situated and disappeared trough the dense foliage of a nearby forest. The warning was not without reason, as before leaving the citadel they had been assigned a fifth member to the team, not by the High Marshall, but by the Lord Chaplain, who answered directly to the Mag-Fidelis in Immen. His name was Cassian Slaint, who held the rank of Vitalier, only given to knights that had been sent to a great library to study under apothecaries to be well versed in the arts of healing. They usually worked behind walls to treat the wounded and rarely got send into field missions. The captain had argued that adding an extra body to the team would only further complicate things, but the Lord Chaplain insisted on his inclusion.

Having a team member who answered directly to the higher echelons of the church had made them quite uneasy, but at least they found solace in the fact that it was a temporary addition.

Shortly after the captain’s departure, Harlan and Cassian had finally woken up. The former looked untidy as usual, with what seemed to be droplets of drool that still hanged trough his bushy beard. The latter, like the captain, was already wearing his armour. His short black hair had been tiddly combed, and his chestplate gleamed of a good polish.

“Good morrow my brothers, may the lord bless us on this fine day” said the young knight.

“Morrow Cassian, grab yourself a little bit of porridge, you too Harlan” Jaxen encouraged them.

“That damn wooden floor broke my back! If it had not been rainy, I would have just laid my bedroll on the dirt, its soft as feathers in comparison” Harlan complained while grabbing a bowl “And I can see that this day won't get better, what is this supposed to be?” he said while looking at the porridge

“What it's with all the complaining about the food? It's not like we are at a convent or an inn, we are travelling for the lord’s sake!” William whined, having had enough with the complaints.

“You see, that is no excuse. It would be if we were in a desert or near the coast, but here there is a forest nearby. You could at least forage some berries or wild onions, or even use the spice bags we brought!”

“Enough with the damn spice bags! the next time we should spend some coins and stay in an inn, that way I won't have to deal with your constant whining”

“Or you could just leave the cooking to me, or to the captain, even young Cassian here probably knows more about cooking that you both”

“Well, you’ll first have to start waking earlier my friend. Like the saying goes, holy light doesn't shine upon late risers”

“Anyhow, where is the captain? The sun is rising and we have a path to follow”

“He shared your thoughts concerning the food, so he went foraging” Jaxen intervened

“See? Great minds think alike brothers. And it seems that I am destined for the officer core”

“May the lord spare us such demise” said William mockingly.

Suddenly, their attention was drawn towards sounds coming of the forest. Out of the bushes came the captain, holding a small sack filled to the brim with wildberries. He quickly ascended the hill towards the farmstead and rejoined the men. The recently awaken pair greeted their superior, who seemed to have brought more than mere berries with him.

“I encountered some hunters in the forest, locals, they told me a shortcut we can take trough a couple hills to the south, so we may be able to reach Thorin just before sunset”

“Have you some place in mind to start looking once we reach the town?” Jaxen inquired

“I am just as clueless as all of you, but the locals seem friendly enough to help, so asking around may prove to be just enough”

“Thats fine by me, should we ready ourselves?”

“Is that really a question? You should have been suited up since you woke, you fools. Now make haste, even with a shortcut we have a long way to go”

“I’ll light some incense and make a quick prayer, so the lord may guide us through this perilous path” Cassian said enthusiastically

“Good thinking brother, we do want our omens in line with the holy plan. Now hurry up, and don't leave anything behind”

The men quickly scattered, Jaxen picked up his bedroll and started to suit up. Things had been going fine for the past week, but that was just travelling. Now they were going to enter a potentially hostile town, and they were just five. He always felt a little nervous when faced with danger, but then he reminded himself of the ones he had vowed to protect, his doubts quickly went away, for as long as he was standing, he would make sure that nobody suffered as much as he did that day.