5th Moon of the fifth, 34 HT – The Road South of Reinchurch

I was in the armoury, looking through the handful of weapons in there. Grabbing one of the bows and attaching it around my back, then buckling the arrows around my waist. As I looked around, I picked up one of the few swords and slid it into my belt. It was so blunt that it didn’t do any damage to my belt, I knew then that this weapon wouldn’t be useful, however I took it anyway.

Suddenly the door opened and the sunlight burst in. As my eyes adjusted I saw Joel’s long, black hair as he walked in.

“Ready?” He asked me, his voice course and showing that he was still in pain after the other night.

“I think so,” I replied, “Are you?”

Joel already had a sword in his belt and bow and arrows with him. There were only the two of us, but I was grateful it was him. His body pretty my dwarfed mine and I knew if I had any hope it was with him.

“Yeah, let’s go.” He said.

When he turned around I saw him grab his side and limp out of the armoury. When I joined him outside I let out a sigh when is saw my parents running over.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” My mother shouted.

Her voice called attention of a few villagers who turned to stare.

“We’re going to get my sister back.” Joel answered for me.

“Is that a joke?” My father scoffed, “You can barely walk and Jaymie, you haven’t held a sword before, never mind be in a fight.”

“Father….” I went to argue but Joel interrupted.

“It’s better than sitting around and acting like nothing happened! Two people were killed and my sister was taken and everyone is walking with their heads in the clouds.” He shouted at them.

“Then you go!” My mother shouted back, “But leave my son!”

“Mother!” I finally rose my voice, “I am going, I cannot just sit here and wait to hear about Joel and Sammy’s death.”

“But you’ll die!” She said to me.

“Well at least I tried.” I said to her, set on my decision.

“Son,” My father said in a hushed tone and walked in close to me, “This isn’t those fairy tales that you read, this is real life. The hero doesn’t always win, you can and most likely you will die. Then that’s it, there’s no coming back.”

“I know, father.” I said to him and looked him in the eyes, “I’m doing this, I have to.”

He looked at me for a few seconds, I wondered if he could see the drive in my eyes.

“Come on, let’s get going while we have the daylight on our side.” Joel said to me.

“Goodbye.” I said to my mother and father, then I turned to walk away with Joel.

“Tell him to stay!” My mother argued to my father.

I wanted to look back at them, but I didn’t. I kept walking with Joel, into the unknown.

It was just over an hour into the walk, sweat was already pouring off of me as the cloudless sky let the sun burn into me.

That was when I spotted the split oak tree on the side of the road. This tree had been there for as long as I could remember, split straight down the middle. It was rumoured that a lightening bolt had struck it, but who knew the truth.

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“What are you doing?” Joel asked me when he realised that I stopped to look at the tree.

“This is the furthest I have ever gone from the village,” I told him, “Eighteen years and I have never stepped foot this far from my home.”

It seemed to hit me then, my life, it had been so… boring. A few miles of farmland, that was all I ever knew. But now, I was marching off to the unknown to fight a beast that can cut men in half with a flick of its wrist.

Although I was frightened I felt a strange sense of calm, like I was finally living.

Then, I took the next step. The furthest I had ever gone in my life.

“We don’t have all bloody day, lets go!” Joel said bringing me back to reality.

“Sorry.” I replied and carried on walking.

For another hour or so we walked in silence, I had never actually had a conversation with Joel before. I was always sort of frightened of him.

“So why are you doing this?” He suddenly asked me.

“What do you mean?” I replied.

I looked at him, sweat was soaking through his brown, tattered clothes and I could tell that each step was hurting his insides.

“Why are you risking your life to save Sammy? In love with her?” He asked me bluntly.

“I… I don’t think so.” I replied. I had thought that I was doing this because it was the right thing to do, but when I really thought about it, maybe I was only doing it because it was Sammy. Would I have done it for anyone else.

“Well most of the men in the village are stupidly in love with her,” Joel told me, “Nearly every day I have men asking for my permission to marry her. Fools the lot of them.”

“Why?” I asked, sensing that this annoyed him.

“Because they look at her and only see her beauty, every one of them tell me how she is the most beautiful, gorgeous women in the world,” He grunted, “None of them comment on her intellect, her kindness or her heart, just her exterior.”

It’s true, I too found Sammy beautiful, yet I knew of her kindness. From the few conversations we had I knew we got along very well and that our personalities matched.

“Either way,” Joel then said, “You’re the only one brave enough to help rescue her.”

“If you asked my parents they would say dumb enough.” I laughed back and Joel let out a heavy chuckle and a cough of pain.

“True, but hey, if we somehow get Sammy back and we all return alive. And of course if Sammy allows it, you have my blessing to be with her.” Joel told me.

Even though I was fairly confident we were walking to our deaths, this sentiment forced a little smile from my mouth.

I didn’t reply to that, not wanting to ruin the moment.

For the rest of the sunlight we walked, only stopping to piss on the side of the road. The world outside of Reinchurch was surprisingly similar. All I had seen was fields and trees. I didn’t really know what to expect, something different I guessed.

“We should make a fire before it gets too dark.” Joel recommended.

“Good idea.” I replied, trying to act as though I had any clue to what I was doing.

“You’ll have to get the wood, I can’t lift much in this state.” He told me.

“No problem, are you going to stay here?” I asked him.

“Yeah, I’ll try and make a little comfortable spot.” He said.

I walked off the road and towards the trees. It took me a while but I managed to get my arms filled with twigs and part of a log I managed to snap off from a broken tree.

When I returned to the spot on the side of the road that Joel had set up for us it was nearly night fall.

I was surprised when Joel knew how to start a fire but grateful at the same time because as soon as night came it went very cold.

“How did you learn all of this?” I asked him.

“Learn what?” He replied.

I stared into the fire, the sky was pitched black now and he handed me half a loaf of bread he took before leaving the village.

“You know, starting a fire, tracking this beast, fighting, everything.” I said.

“My father.” He replied bluntly.

I didn’t know a lot about their father, only that he had died many years ago.

“He was a soldier in the Murgilian army, he was a general if what I was told was true,” Joel explained, “Then he stumbled upon Reinchurch, met my mother and never left.”

I knew that our farm was in the Murgilian kingdom, however other than that I knew very little about the world. We didn’t exactly get taught a lot of the world when we were younger. Just that the king was called Keon and that as far as I was aware we weren’t in any wars.

“So, you’ve never held a sword before?” He asked me.

“N-no.” I replied, almost embarrassed.

“Stand up and take your weapon, I’ll try and tell you a few things.” Joel said.

Doing as I was told, I jumped to my feet and gripped my sword, pulling it to the air.

“Okay, strongest foot goes to the back.” He told me, “When you swing, use your body weight, it will help with the attack.”

I processed what he said for a few seconds and then took a swing, using my entire body weight and strength.

With nothing to hit my body ended up just spinning around because I swung to hard.

“Not bad,” Joel said and laughed at my attempt, “Don’t swing too hard unless you know it’s going to be a good hit, otherwise you will lose your footing and then… well then you’re dead.”

“Oh, okay.” I replied.

For half an hour or so I kept practicing my swing with Joel giving me some tips. After a while he said we should get to sleep, planning to get up early to carry on our walk.