Balin was melting on the back of a merchant’s carriage, it was finally summer, but the rising heat was killing Balin. It doesn’t help that he still wears long clothing and gloves to hide his abnormalities. He has paid a small fee so that he would take him with him for part of the journey. Since the merchant was going to Woodquarry to restock on lumber wood he had space on his cart for travelers. There was one other guy traveling on in the cart that being an above averagely dressed middle-aged man who started a conversation with Balin to pass the time.
“So where are you going young man?”
Balin, deep in thoughts was taken by surprise by the question.
“Excuse me?”
“Where are you going young man?”
Sensing no danger Balin answered semi-honestly.
“I am traveling to Kings Hold. I’ve been told that the safest way towards there was through Woodquarry. So here I am.”
“The capital huh. I used to live there. It’s been years since I’ve been there. Maybe I should visit that place once I have the chance to. What are you hoping to do in the capital?”
“I guess you can say that I have a once in a life time opportunity there. I can’t afford to fail this.”
“Ohh so you are an ambitions young man. That is good. You should always be ambitions while you can.”
The merchant entered the conversation.
“Don’t you have to pay attention towards the road?”
Balin asked.
“Nah there isn’t a lot of traffic on country roads and Bojack is trained to not leave the road unless ordered to. Ain’t that right old boy?”
He patted his short but powerful horse and asked his other passenger.
“And where are you going?”
“I am going to stay in Woodquarry for the time being. I am supposed to help a new knight to settle down there.”
“Woodquarry gets a new knight? Why would a place like that need a knight? Isn’t it already well protected from all sides? Who is he?”
“I don’t know a lot yet. Apparently, he has had a hard time. For some reason he fell from Lord Conway’s favor and the merciful Lord Edgar offered him this low-key position as an overseer in that village. His main job will be to be a glorified judge. And as a manservant of Lord Edgars I will help him settle down and get familiar with his position.”
“How are you going to recognize him? You said that you didn’t know who he is.”
Asked Balin while leaning over the edge of the cart in boredom.
“He is already in Woodquarry. He stays in the small mansion of Lord Edgar. I will meet him there and teach him his duties and help out in the house until he gets around to hire some professional help. Shouldn’t take too long. A few months at most. Excuse me for a second!”
The well-dressed man redirected his attention towards the merchant.
“Is it still long until Woodquarry?”
“A day and a half if we continue at this pace. If it were a bit cooler, we could be a bit faster, but I don’t want to hurt Bojack here. But don’t worry soon we will reach a forest. There is a small lake where we can cool down. From there we can just follow the river upstream until we Woodquarry. So at least it will become a little more comfortable. So just sit tight and relax.”
The rest of the journey was uneventful. The only other thing that happened was that the manservant recommended Balin to take his long sleeves off to not get a heatstroke but Balin said something vague about sunburns and ended that conversation. In Woodquarry the merchant let his two passengers off at the entrance since as a merchant he had to first check in at the customs post. Balin wanted to go the inn the merchant recommended but the older man stopped him before he was able to leave.
“Maybe you should be in town tomorrow. Since now that I am here we will officially introduce the new knight and make a small show about it. You should come and watch, if you have time.”
Balin just smiled and responded out of politeness.
“Maybe, I will have to see when I can continue traveling towards Kings Hold. Depending on it I will come. If that’s all I would like to find the inn before it gets dark. So, have a nice day.”
Balin rapidly left the talkative man and checked in at the inn. At the desk he found out that there would be no carriage that would be willing to take him until in two days. Since tomorrow the carriages would be full and the day after that it was the holy rest day, and no one would leave the city on that day. So, until then Balin was stuck.
There wasn’t much for Balin to do in the coming days. He still had a nice bit of money left of his previous raids and more time then he would have liked. So, he decided to visit the market, maybe find some new gloves since there were some small scorched parts in his left one. Balin strolled the small marked place looking at some nice knifes that a blacksmith put on display, when he heard a familiar sounding voice announcing something to the whole city.
“Listen everyone, so listen! I am here to announce the arrival of your new guardian.”
It was the manservant of yesterday. It seems like Balin just so happened to be at the marketplace when the knight would be introduced.
“Here he is, the one Lord Edgar sends to protect and guide you. Here is Sir Egbert of the Rivervally.”
Balin was barely paying attention until that name was said. A million thoughts flew through Balin’s head, none very clear. They ranged from. “How did he survive? Over to “I am not the only one.” Balin needed confirmation. He put the knife down and tried to get a better point of view of the knight. Balin had to stretch himself to see over the masses. That is when Balin saw him riding onto the market place. Although he lost a lot of weight and his eyes have sunken in form a lack of sleep Balin was able to recognize his uncle. Balin did not know how to react to the revelation of his uncle being alive. When Sir Egbert looked at the masses Balin quickly disappeared to not get discovered. Although he was out of sight of the knight, Balin stayed nearby. Spying the man. After the introduction Sir Egbert said some meaningless things about himself and his relationship with Lord Edgar and his past accomplishments. Mostly meaningless things meant to kill time and make himself greater then he really was. Even the crowd had trouble getting excited by the inspirational words, but after a short while a select few started to applaud and shortly after the majority clapped for their new knight. With a clearly forced smile Sir Egbert waved and left the crowd. Balin was only a bit behind them. Hiding in the masses or the shadows depending on where the knight and the manservant went, Balin was stalking his former master. Sir Egbert visited a few other places like the second well, or the great tree in the middle of the village. It wasn’t too difficult for Balin to stay undetected. The one time it became a bit more difficult was when Sir Egbert entered the soldier’s barracks to greet them, since there was no way for Balin to enter that building unnoticed. So, Balin wanted to wait near the horse so that he could follow his target when he left the building but there was a soldier cleaning there, and Balin didn’t want to appear too suspicious so he had to leave. Instead Balin went the way he assumed Sir Egbert would go the most likely. There were three ways from the barracks one that to the town entrance, one that Sir Egbert came from and another one that Balin didn’t know where it lead to. So Balin walked along the last of the three ways until he found part of a tree trunk that people used as a makeshift bench, where he sat down. Balin pulled his hood deep into his face and pretend to sleep and enjoy the sunlight while carefully paying attention to the noises and people who came through. It took about two hours but Balin’s hunch payed of. When he heard a horse nearing, he looked. As predicted it was where the knight and the manservant passing through. As they were leaving the area Balin was back on their tracks. The knight lead Balin to a rather secluded part of the town that was still paved nicely. Soon thereafter the knight arrived at a small mansion, where he left his horse in a stable while the manservant opened and entered the house with a key. Balin was watching from the nearby bushes. He had a feeling that this was the new house of Sir Egbert. Balin wasn’t sure what to do now. Should he confront the knight? And if he does, what should he say? It took Balin a few minutes to come up with what to do but he found a solution that he was happy with. So Balin knocked on the door. It took a few tries but after a short while the manservant opened it and asked the hooded Balin.
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“I am sorry, but Sir Egbert has had a long day. Would you please come back tomorrow!”
It seemed that the man didn’t recognize Balin from the ride here. But Balin didn’t really care about that.
“Tell him it’s Balin son of Brand. And tell him that I want to speak to him in private!”
Balin ordered the man in a tone reminiscent of a Nobleman ordering his servant around. The man gave an annoyed sigh and replied.
“One moment please Sir.”
The servant closed the door and Balin heard some faint steps walking away. Shortly thereafter faster steps came back, and the man was back.
“He is waiting for you in the saloon. Would you please follow me!”
Balin stepped in and followed the man into the prepared room. There on a chair sat a tired man, it was Balin’s uncle next to him was his sword on the floor, he probably put it down to sit more comfortably. Balin didn’t say a word when he entered. So, Sir Egbert started.
“Is it really you Balin?”
Balin has prepared his hood in a way, so that his face wouldn’t be shown. He didn’t answer directly. First, he turned his head towards the servant and ordered.
“I said I wanted to talk in private.”
Sir Egbert waved his hand and ordered the man to leave.
“It is you.”
He faintly answered.
“Either that or his ghost is here to haunt me.”
“I am here.”
“How? How did you survive this?”
Balin held his hand in front of him. Signaling his uncle to stop asking.
“You tell me first! And don’t lie to me! I will know if you do.”
Balin tried to do his best to send out a domineering aura, and it seems to work. The knight was clearly intimidated by the wrapped-up figure claiming to be his nephew. So, he gave in and told his story.
“When I came to see if you or Dilan wanted to flee, I had already made up my mind. There was no way we could win this. Everybody looked towards me everyday and I had to tell them: “It will be fine, help is on the way.” But it never came. It would be suicide. I tired to save them all. I send letters to convince Lord Conway to allow us to evacuate the village, but he always reassured us that it would be alright and with his men it would all work out. So, when that day came I prepared Sunrise took all the supplies I could find and tired to get my family to join me in my escape attempt. None of them was willing to leave. So, just left. No one even questioned me when they saw me. They probably all assumed that this was part of the plan. About two days after I left I met some soldiers sent by Lord Conway, who shortly after brought me to him. I lied and told him that during the fighting I split off from everybody and that I didn’t know what happened. He told me the village was destroyed and that there were no survivors. He kicked me out of his castle for my failure. So, I went to Lord Edgar who still owed me a favor. He prepared this for me. So that I could spend the rest of my days here in peace and quiet. And that’s it.”
“That’s what?”
“That’s it all. There isn’t anything more to how I survived. I thought I was alone, lost and doomed with the loneliness that I was burdened with. Now tell me! How did you get out of there?”
Balin was more than angry, he was pissed of in ways words can’t even describe. But he tried to hold back.
“How I got out of there? I did not.”
“But there was no way anyone could have survived this attack. Not with what he had.”
“I stayed, I fought. I’ve seen it all happen.”
“Then, how did you?”
Balin stopped him.
“You want to know how I am still alive? I’ve show you.”
Balin pulled his mantle angrily of. He threw his gloves at the floor. Showing someone for the first time the monster he’d become. Sir Egbert couldn’t comprehend what happened to Balin and was left speechless. Balin was getting angrier than ever before and loud.
“I was dying, bleeding out on a battlefield that smelled like death. I made a deal with a demon or something, I don’t even know, and he turned me into this. I won’t ever be able to show my body to people, and I lost the ability to feel things in those brown parts. Luckily the demon also gave me the power to avenge our people.”
Balin was interrupted by the servant.
“Excuse me what is going on?”
“Shut your mouth and leave! We are talking.”
Balin yelled at the man scaring him enough that he left. Balin turned back to his uncle and continued his rant.
“I’ve spent the last few months tracking down every single person who had a responsibility to save and protect us and making them pay. I thought I was alone, that no one was left and now when I finally find someone who should know my pain, I find you. A knight who left his village behind. The man whose main responsibility it was to protect his people and what does he do? He leaves everyone left to die and just goes somewhere else and does it all again.”
“You aren’t the only one who is being tormented. I am seeing them every night, I can’t sleep or eat out of guilt. I”
But he gets interrupted by Balin.
“Oh, you can’t sleep. That is cute. The man who left his family to die feels bad about the fact that they are dead.”
“It was a hopeless scenario. It was the only way I could have survived. You know who bad it was, no help was there.”
“Then you should have died there, fulfilling your duty and dying for your people. But that doesn’t matter anymore. I will serve them justice.”
Despite not yelling anymore it was obvious that Balin was beyond any reasonable measure of anger right now. Balin rolled his right hand into a fist and threadedly closed the distance to his uncle. Sir Egbert recognized the danger he was in and picked up his sword from the floor, drawing it in a single swift and trained movement. Sir Egbert now held the steel blade between him and his ex-squire.
“Please, it doesn’t have to be that way.”
“Oh, now you are ready to stand up and fight? That is great. You can tell Dilan how brave you’ve become since he died.”
In a last attempt to get his nephew to calm down Sir Egbert ordered.
“Balin, put your fist down now. What happened in the past gone. We can both settle down here and begin anew. Everything will be good this time.”
“You should have taken your own life so that you could have died with at least a tiny bit of dignity!”
That insult was the last straw for the tortured knight.
“That’s enough. If you come one step closer, then I Sir Egbert of the Rivervally will strike you down.”
“Just die!”
There was nothing left to talk about between the two. Balin jumped his former mentor to strike him down with his bare fists. Sir Egbert in return turned himself around his chair and kicked it towards Balin in an attempt to get him to fall. Balin was hit by the back of the chair in the stomach. While the knight jumped further back standing in a clearly defensive stand. What Sir Egbert didn’t anticipate was the inhuman strength his former discipline possessed in his demon arm. So Balin threw the chair right back at his former master. Sir Egbert was knocked down by the projectile but that didn’t stop the experienced knight. He quickly jumped back on his feet and as Balin was rapidly approaching him he attempted to stab him in his right shoulder as he was trained to do. Sadly, the blade just slides of the hard arm doing no damage to his assailant. He quickly pulled his weapon back but Balin was able to catch the blade and broke the front third off. Realizing that Balin’s earthlike parts are impenetrable, he jumped towards Balins left side since there were less rocky parts. Balin tried to swing at him but he was to slow, Sir Egbert dodged toward Balin’s left to stab him in the lung, but he missed and only scratched Balin’s side. Balin tried to turn and reposition himself with his rock arm in front of him but Sir Egbert turned with him so that he could attempt another stab. This time the stab with the broken weapon connected and hit the area around the heart. In pain Balin turned around his left, leading the broken weapon to slash across his chest leaving a deep wound. Sir Egbert expected that this his would be enough to put Balin down, but he underestimated his foe’s anger. Balin tackled the knight despite the pain he was in and knocked him over. Balin climbed onto his uncle’s chest, while locking the older man’s movement with his legs. Now leaning above Sir Egbert Balin looked down at his victim, who was out of breath. Sir Egbert was aware of what his nephew was about to do and despite the unnatural parts that were already on Balin’s body Sir Egbert was able to see the wounds he inflicted already healing and being filled up with the earthlike substance. Balin put his hands onto Sir Egbert’s throat and begun strangling his victim. Sir Egbert was desperately coughing and struggled for any air to enter his lungs. Tired of those noises of pain Balin decided to end it once for all and relocated his hands on his uncle’s head and with a single powerful movement he snapped the mans neck by snapping his victims head by over 180 degrees. Sir Egbert of the Rivervally was dead. Balin stood up and put his mantle back on. Without even looking he left the building but on his way out he found the servant cowering in fear. Balin didn’t want to leave any survivors so he slowly walked towards the man then he grabbed the man’s head and smashed it hard enough against the wall to kill him instantly. Balin tried to control his rage but it would not vanish unlike his previous kills, where he got calmer after the kill . So, he would hide it, hopefully good enough that he could finish his vengeance.