Sam had an easy job, once he moved out of his small farming village to the city in search of a better life he had found one by joining the city watch. Decent pay and typical hours, granted Sam just as everybody else had some bad days. Some days he had to deal with rowdy drunks or low lifes, some days there was the occasional robbery and sequential chase down alleys and through crowds. Most days luckily were calm, today however was most certainly not one of those days.
Sam woke up on this particular morning with a sense of foreboding, that was normal considering that the Empire had been at the gates for a good week already. He was somewhat regretting his decision to move to the city now, but hindsight is twenty-twenty and there was little to be done about that now. Today Sam worked the night shift, half walking through the nearly deserted streets keeping an eye out for looters and the other half training with his company. As was becoming his new habit this week he quite literally grumbled his way out of bed mumbling about how much he hated the night shift, this week and the Empire as he got ready for another night in hell.
Today's breakfast consisted of a quarter loaf and some salted pork, some may say breakfast is in the morning, Sam would say breakfast is when he wakes up. His small home may not seem like much, but it was his only reprieve from the goings on of late. Taking a seat at the small wooden table in his kitchen he sighs heavily while looking around at what any day now could be the last he sees of his house. This has become another new morning habit of his looking at all the memories kept inside his little abode, a hand sized straw knight staring back at him on the cabinet next to his wood stove. This doll consistently being the focus of his attention reminding him of his family, this figurine holding far more emotions than its size shows. When he was young and still believed in the good in the world he and just about every kid from his village dreamed of being a knight. Back then he had gotten it on his 10th birthday as a gift from his mother, it had looked so cool that immediately after giving his mom the biggest hug of his life he went around the village showing it off to all of his friends proudly “I’m going to be a knight just like that one day!” he would say. He was no knight, people don’t just get to be knights and reality is harsh, he was however a member of the city watch and that was close he supposed.
A loud Wrapping on the door wakes him out of his day dreaming making him jump enough to nearly cause him to choke on his food. “Sam wake your ass up it’s your shift!” a voice yells outside his door, at this hour yelling outside tends to irritate the neighbors and just like yesterday one dog starts barking which causes a chain reaction from the other dogs in his neighborhood. Within seconds at least four dogs are barking up a storm and this also woke up one of the neighbors. How did he know this from inside his house? Well it was quite apparent once lars wife woke she started yelling out her window and threatening the family jewels of said dogs. Whether it was the fact that she terrifies even the dogs or pure chance the barking stopped almost immediately.
“Yeah yeah, no need to yell. My bed is 2 feet from the door for the fifth time Fred.” Responding in a low and irritated voice he finished his breakfast before stuffing himself into his grey tabard and still dirty leather armor. His spear and shield were still sitting by the door, grabbing both before taking one last second with his hand on the door, not quite wanting to go out on another day. “Sam come on its-!” With a vein bulging already he slams the door open revealing a slightly chubby man with leather armor that is just a little too small with his fist an inch from the door prepared for another round of knocking. “I swear to god Fred if you yell one more time i’m going to tell your wife about your brothel visits lately.” Fred's face turned pale before he whispered back “You wouldn’t actually right?” Sam internally smiled as he decided he wasn’t going to answer, so he started making his way to the barracks for his morning report in with his senior officer. He didn’t live in the barracks as a personal choice in a need for more privacy, this was allowed as long as you reported in on time each day. Fred followed behind him as he always does, the only difference this time was that he looked quite worried and kept saying “right?” and “Sam?” for some reason.
After checking in with the captain of the guard for the start of his day Sam left the panicked Fred to his assigned part of the city. Under normal circumstances there would be at least 2 guards together, but since the city was under siege most were stationed at the walls or disappeared once word came that the empire had pushed close to the city. This was also the reason why on his way to his section every other house alongside the poorly made cobblestone path was boarded or empty. He figured the only reason anyone stayed at all was that most people didn't have enough goods or gear to travel far enough to get to the next city over, a near month of non stop travel on foot. Unfortunately he couldn’t leave no matter how much he wanted, although he was just a town watch he was technically considered a part of the defense and leaving would get him hanged.
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Doing his routine he passed more empty stalls and houses the streets lined with braziers, once he passed through the housing and merchants district and closer to the walls was when more noise started. On top of the wall was one fourth of the defenders of Gral at almost any given time. Torches were lit all along both the bottom and top of the walls and troops passed between sections of the walls constantly, these rotations used to keep the troops awake. Small squads of knights passed by the bottom of the walls keeping an eye out for anyone who could be a saboteur. The city wouldn’t last long if it was breached from the inside, the threat of someone working on the inside was enough to require men watching both. Four hours passed before the sun was visible on the horizon, his que to start making his way to the training grounds.
The training grounds was effectively just a very large grassy area next to the barracks where most of the trainees slept. Looking at the large grey stone building reminded him of when he first started and was required to stay inside those small damp bedrooms, the thought made him unconsciously shiver. Inside the training grounds were most of the other 50 men in his company all milling about with leather armor shields and four foot long spears waiting for their company commander to arrive. Moving into his position in the square alongside the two he has gotten to know over the last couple of weeks, neither were soldiers or even guards. Every able bodied man over sixteen and under twenty five were required to do spear training once a day in the morning.
“Company salute” a booming voice yelled as soon as it was clear everyone was here and every man in the company instinctively reacted with a hand to their chest. “Todays training will be in a spear wall!” Sergeant Colliver stood in front of the group walking down the line like he did at the start of every day inspecting salutes. “Is that understood?” his voice naturally carried across every person. The sergeant was the only one in the company in a true set of armor holding a plumed helmet to his side. The last week had been specifically training in the use of a spear wall, they decided that having the less trained soldiers create spear walls down streets and alleys was the best strategy to hold as long as possible. Before he knew it they had been practicing thrusts and holding the shields up for quite some time with ten minute breaks each hour, talking wasn’t allowed during training so all the sound heard was grunts as shields locked into place with a chorus of thumps. During breaks most were too tired and sore to talk much, most words were in combinations with sighs and depressing talk about how overwhelming the numbers on the enemy side were. Once training for the day was done most of the other men who were training went home to whatever family had remained in the city. All the other people leaving to their families made Sam contemplate where his would be right now. His village had been a couple miles outside of the city and he was sure his family would have known better than to go to the city when there's an army marching on it. Most likely they went straight to the next city down with the wagon and horse in tow, yeah that's why they didn’t stop at the city before leaving.
That night he went to bed sore and tired from training, luckily since starting his training his body had gotten more used to it and he was no longer as sore in the mornings as he used to be. Laying down in his bed with his sheepskin blanket covering everything but the one leg dangling off the side of the bed he began to dream. Inside his dreamscape the city was on fire and boulders were flying into the city while he and his company charged down the alley towards the walls. When he looked up he could see a boulder flying directly at him over the walls, but when he blinked instead of a boulder it was a bell.
That's when he woke up, a bell ringing from the city square. Several times it rung Bong, Bong over and over with each ring his blood ran colder until he shot up from his bed stumbling to his gear all while hearing the yells from outside as every man in the city with a weapon started running past his little house. his last sanctuary was overridden with the sounds of hundreds of people running either to the walls or further into the city hoping that they would find shelter in one of the nobles or lords' small castles. Opening his door spear in hand the first thing that caught his eye was Fred. Fred was doing what he did every time he woke up, which was getting Sam. That was when he heard someone yelling in the crowd that Fred was shoving his way through to get to Sam, “Catapults!” at first he was confused, catapults? The city doesn’t use catapults for defence, it was at that moment that the sounds of people running were replaced with screaming. A flaming boulder the size of him crashed through the streets bulldozing numerous citizens while leaving a trail of flame in its wake. Looking to where Fred had once been, only several bodies crushed and ablaze remained. Sam stood there in his doorway staring at where his friend used to be not moving a muscle for a good thirty seconds before another of the 50.. 49 of his company spotted him and rushed over. “Come one we need to get to the gate!” he screamed at him shaking him out of his frozen state of shock, all Sam said while being pulled down the street was a whisper “He was just here”.