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Of Valor in Men

Chapter Four: Walls

BerryBuckle I had always remembered as being quiet, narrow cobbled streets all following the dip and rise of the land that was their foundation. Stone homes and buildings with wood tiled roofs, most coated with a film of sleet or some sort of frost. Though arriving to see a tall log wall of strong redwood being built around the towns boundaries did elicit concern somewhere deep within me. The town was preparing for an attack, fortifying for war, evident by the swathy gaunt faced workers and soldiers clad in the colors of Dragonholme, lime green, silver and black.

The smoke billowing from the fire far to the south could still be seen in the skies, though much less thick now as they bled into heavy rain clouds. Marching up to the yet to be built gates of the encompassing wall I did breath a sigh of relief though, there was a detachment of soldiers and even knights reading to head out, hopefully for the Crossroads. By the time id made it up to the lip of the hill the town was built upon it had started to rain, swiftly turning the frosted dirt into freezing mud. The wagons struggled to climb the incline as I stood there waiting, but my focus was on the approaching regiment and the knight that led it.

“Ah, if it isn't Roderic the Black, and to what do we owe the pleasure"? The knight asked, he was one of the knights I had trained alongside at the Moore Keep.

“Tanis… I see you're just as friendly as always" I muttered as the sunken eyed man sauntered up beside me, the soldiers following him marching onward slowly.

“Come to lend a hand have you, we could use all the good fighters we can get to fortify the Crossroads, and MerryMire, but let me guess, you've got something more important to do yes"? He said in his usual sarcastic, jaded tone of voice, the same one that had irritated me for years during my youth, he'd always been jaded, his father abusive, racist, his mother distant and yet here he was, a knight.

“I'm tracking a murderer, a serial murderer...I can't let him slip through my...The Churches hands once more…" I could feel my fists clenching up as the wagons id escorted finally trudged through the opening, my squire waving his friend goodbye before coming to stand by my side, Tanis's brow raising as he did.

“Murderer huh, hell, I could take a murderer right now, the more hands the better, guess I'll just save Niyla myself then...hmm. What about you little lizard, you want to follow this old man or come save lives"? Tanis said, his tone bland, emotionless, his gaze falling upon my squire, quite frankly I prayed the lizard would accept, he was only a weight to me.

“...To be honest I'd much rather go home…" my squire responded, his sight shifting from me to Tanis, his tone irked me quite some, he sounded like a tomboy, some less than feminine farmhand or some such.

“Dragging others from their homes now, aye Roderic, you really do run a unique trail of woe don't you…" Tanis replied, stepping forward toward the squire I hadn't asked for, whom quickly retreated a step or two in response.

“He's my squire Tanis, leave it be…" I growled, my fist clenching around my pommel tighter and tighter, me and Tanis had never liked each other.

“Please, you, mentoring an Ezala Khal, an unarmed one to at that"? He said, leaning in, speaking low, his tone flat, we had once been friends back in childhood, we would play games in the fields with the Velkenfolk kids, but time changes things.

“He was appointed to me by the Church, it was not my decision, we didn't have time to fit arms or armour for him before leaving on this assignment." I responded, turning away to spare myself from those hollow mossy green eyes, that pungent breath of his that smelt of his favorite meal, mixed onion stew.

“You're supposed to be in Rigel Roderic, protecting you're 'Squire', just like you, always doing whatever you want, never following rules, never caring for anyone but yourself…" Tanis said, accusing, starting, of course the Church would reach out to the Knights of Solitude.

“I will not let him slip through my fingers Tanis… he is mine and mine alone…" I muttered through gritted teeth and clench fists.

“Save it for Ulmnii, and get out of my sight I have a fort to secure...people to save, go fritter about hunting your personal vendetta." he said, turning up his lip, his tone gaining some feeling to it, though nothing pleasant as he made past me, toward the road east. With an entire regiment of soldiers, and a pair of knights, as well as Niyla, the Crossroads would be safe, it'd take a small army to take it with that many reinforcements. Though still, I worried, even though me and Tanis didn't get along I still had to ask.

“...Keep them safe will you Tanis… Niyla...William, Solda, please"? I said, turning slightly to watch him march away, for a second he stopped, looking over his shoulder back at me.

“No ones taking this fort from me Roderic, nor the citizens within, not while I draw breath" he replied, and that was that, I watched him march off along the north road, after his men and fellow knight. I did catch a glimpse of a Daemon flying over head as a scout, but from this far It could simply have been a crow.

I didn't have time to waste, Yoel was skittish, squirrely, I was to meet him in a tavern, there was only one in town, The Three Men. it was along one of the wider streets, one of the bigger buildings, three or four stories tall, all wood from the ground floor up. With the rain pouring down now the uneven streets would become slippery, rain washing through them in channels, pooling in ditches and dips. Finding the tavern in a town like this was difficult, finding anything in this town was hard, it was like a maze, a true maze.

I made my way down those uneven streets from the yet to be constructed gate, retracing memories to find the tavern, my Squire following quick behind, I could hear him splashing through deep puddles, snickering to himself. Eventually I found the building I sought, and just as the sun began to set behind the dark clouds. I made my way inside, the lizard slipping by me quickly and making his way to the firepit immediately to warm up. Looking around I couldn't help but breath in, gasping slightly, the building hadn't changed at all since I was a boy. I could remember coming here with my father a few times, most of those times were to buy nails or rope, and sometimes we had stopped here in the tavern to wait out rain or storms.

Though in the dim light of the tavern, I did not recognise any of the faces, for none of them were the one I sought, so I took up a seat by the nearest window and waited. My gaze became fixed on the stained glass, channels of water running down it from outside, it reminded me of a time long ago. Something from my youth, back when Yoel, Tanis and I were all young, we'd built a fort in the branches of some grand oak tree at the far end of a wheat field near our home town. We'd gotten stuck there one day due to the rain, the next day Tanis and I had scavenged for scraps of glass of cuts, to use as windows to keep the rain out if we'd ever gotten stuck there again due to it.

I remembered the time Yoel and I had stolen wooden training swords from the Crossroads and pretended to be knights, even Tanis had joined in. Sawyer often played the bad guy, and sometimes Nicky joined in to, she made quite the bandit leader. I felt sadness deep inside, I missed those days, I missed the days were I didn't have to worry about Necromancers, murderers, monsters and the like. I missed the days back when Yoel would perform up in the trees like some theatrical and drunken jester or bard. I missed the days when Tanis would search out wild mushrooms to sell for extra coin, just to buy chocolate for the three of us to share. I missed Sawyer, Nichole, Hamlet, though we all missed Hamlet.

He'd been a friend of ours years back, he and Tanis were like brothers of a sort, but Tanis's father was a racist, the sort of racist that was aggressive and violent, he didn't take well to his son befriending the likes of a Velkenfolk. The truly sadistic part however was feeding his sons best friend to him. My stomach still turned just remembering that day, we'd all arrived at Hamlets home, a cottage like den in a small patch of grass near the woodline, the sight was ghastly and that day had ruined everything.

Sawyer and Yoel they had both moved all the way to the west, to the capital city of Solitude, Tanis, he endured his abusive, drunk racist of a father for a year or so more before finally breaking, taking the bottle to his face one night. And to top it all off, my mother absconded away with me to Rigel, “bad influences, savages, freaks and monsters" she called them, my former friends.

And now here I was, back in my true home, already the memories of everyone I had once known and loved all flooding back to me. The good times, the sad times, but it always came down to one of three days, the three horrible days that ruined everything, the day that had cost me my friends, the day that had cost me my father, and the day that had cost me my childhood. If I could just go back, just to change one of those days. But that'll never happen, that's not how life worked.