I stare the man dumbfounded, while wondering; is he lying and if he is then why? Too many questions for me to pick the truth out... I feel like I've said something similar to that earlier. But nonetheless the man keeps his gaze on me and I fear that not answering him has already made me suspicious individual. So I breathe in deep and say: "The east? You obviously came from the north. "The man, William if he so truly is named sizes me up with his gaze and says: "The north? Why I came with rising sun on my back, it's obviously east then, no?" "Oh, I see I have my directions mixed, no wonder I got lost here!" I laugh of the blame placed on me. "Doesn't explain the lack of robbery or why you're wearing nobleman's clothes, unless it was you who did the robbing." He blames me more.
"You know what, okay, I lied." I confess and continue lying: "I'm just a poor boy who saw dead noble robbed blind and dead on the side of some distant road and decided that I needed new clothes and the noble obviously wasn't needing his." Breathe in and out and keep going: "So, after stealing dead man's clothes a sudden fog made me lose my way, maybe as a divine punishment and I ended in some forest I've never seen before." Stop, breath, continue: "And then some knight, who doesn't even look like a knight found me as I found my way out of the forest." I nod my head as I finish talking.
"No farm boy I know of would confess robbing a noble, dead or alive, as they fear hanging, chances of you being a spy just keep rising." Says William. "Why would a spy confess a crime?" I ask genuinely dumbfounded. "You tell me, boy."
"In fact nothing of me makes sense as a spy, I'm eye catching by nature, or do you see giants everyday? My clothes aren't for the job, I have no weapons or food and I know nothing of surrounding land" I ignore him as I keep going. "Yeah, but you happened to be next to forest that my liege happens to be interested in, on a day when I happen to be on the watch duty, having most extraordinary presence that just adds to the whole mystery I happen to be tasked to investigate." He answers me. "Okay, makes sense, so what, are you going to kill me now, because if you are, I'm going to resist." I drop my smile as I speak.
We stare at each other for few seconds till he says: "No, just going to have to take you in the camp" I nod in agreement and he adds "But you're going to have to wear this to be trusted" while throwing iron shackles to the ground. Well it's not like they could actually restrain me so put them on obediently and he ties a rope around the chain part of the shackles and fastens it to his saddle. "Of course, we are kinda late because of your lies so we are going to make a run for it" He smiles at me and I retort "Well then don't fall behind".
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Been running for twenty minutes now, horse is not in full gallop so it actually isn't even hard to keep up, but William thinks he has me on the ropes just because my tongue is hanging out. Wait why is my tongue hanging out? And now that I think of it, how do I understand what William is saying? I mean from the name it sounds like language is similar, but is it because the possession bestowed upon me knowledge of this world? I mean I had no idea what these clothes were called back home. Wait how hasn't he noticed all this blood or my eyes and teeth? What is up with this and why do I feel like I could go for a rabbit stew?
My thinking, wait what was I thinking about? Anyway it was stopped when we stopped and he offered me bread and water. As I wolf down the food my mind suddenly clears and I decide ask him: "Aren't you going to ask about the blood?"
William looks at me and says "Why? It is obviously from a rabbit, with you having rabbit fur all around your clothes." "About my... appearance?" I keep trying to get answer while I can. "The way I see it, you're some kind of those half-breed humans and that's not my thing to know or care about." Ah, a useful nugget of knowledge, other races exist and so does half-breeds between them so I can appear completely normal as I allude to being one of them. Yes, with this I'm safe and it does seem that any type of food bury the instincts to hunt and kill. "Oh, then you should know that I need to eat more often that norm.... regular human." He stares at me for time and then nods.
More running, but this time my mind is clear and I try to get as much of the topography committed to memory as I can. With my tongue staying in my mouth William turns to me and asks: "So you really don't get tired, you just were hungry?" I just nod. He in turn keeps asking: "What did you mean when you said I don't even look like a knight?" This time I actually answer: "You aren't wearing armor." He looks at me funny and says: "We wear armor during wars and jobs, otherwise we dress like however we want" "But you're on a job" "Not on an official one. Maybe you truly are a commoner." I get my trained smug smile on and say: "Almost like I was saying from the beginning." He chuckles me an answer: "If we forget the part about being a lord's squire and a knighted knight with lucky stones, eh? John Donkey?" "Hilarious, when did they start knighting court jesters?" "When ever one gets a lucky throw with their juggling balls" "And all this could have been avoided if the knight spotting me was anybody else than Sir William the Paranoid." We kept laughing the rest of the trip.