The Bard of Faith Part 2

The laughter in the Traven was a welcome change to the crashing thunder outside and the endless tap of the rain against the window. All three of them quickly found each other worth talking to about their lives. It was as if the laughter among the three of them was a needed medicine for the loneliness of their travels.

                Lacey explained to them she was a traveling Bard like most Bards were in the Realm, but she had gained a quest to find out what was going in the dead town of Ghost Stones. A town destroyed during the Arcane war but unlike most of the towns destroy during that time, it was never rebuilt. A few families tried to rebuild the town, but stories of phantoms started to come from the dead town to the point no one would go there again.

                The town was dead, and those who died in it was doomed to walk the earth forever.

                Lacey was on her way to the town to set all the dead free.

                “Why?” Ariana asked.

                “Because it was asked of me,” Lacey said.

                “By whom?” Raven asked.

                Lacey glanced away from him and wouldn’t look either one of them in the eyes as she said, “By the AllFather.”

                “What? Really?” Raven asked a little shock at her answer.

                “You talk to the AllFather?” Ariana asked. “I have somethings I need you to ask him.”

                Lacey giggled and said, “I don’t talk to him that way, but He asked me to set his children free. He sent one of His angels to me in a dream.”

                “Then how do you know it was the AllFather?” Raven asked. “Not just a dream?”

                “Because,” Lacey said making herself stare right into his eyes, “I have the faith it was Him.”

                For a moment and it could have been a trick of the light, Raven believed Lacey with more convention then the chair under him. She believed in her quest more than Raven had ever believed in anything, and for that moment, it was awe-inspiring and terrifying all at once.

                “I know how it sounds,” Lacey said looking over at Ariana. “I know what it makes you think of me, but that means little to me. I was given a quest, and it is a quest I will carry out.”

                “By all means,” Ariana said, “we are not trying to stop you.”

                “Right, I know that,” Lacey said looking back at the table.

                “I hope it goes well for you,” Raven said with a worried smile.

                “It will I have the Lord walking with me,” Lacey said believing every word of it.

                “That is always a good squirrel to have with you,” Ariana joked hoping they could get back to laughing and with a moment of silence they did get back to having a good time. A few more hours passed but Raven couldn’t get the idea of Lacey quest out of his mind even as they all said good night and went to their rooms.

                Ariana and Raven this time around got their own rooms to sleep in for the night. The Knight with his armor beside the door and his sword close to him, laid in the dark staring up at the ceiling watching the lightning light up the darkness.

                “A quest from the AllFather,” he said to himself, “wonder what that feels like.” He sure he had the quest all Knights are given to them when they join the Knighthood, protected the Realm from enemies without and within. The Knights sole duty was to protect the squirrels living in the Realm even if that means putting an end to the Emperor. If the Emperor became mad or went out of his way to hurt the Realm than the Knights by divide right could remove the threat. The duty still holds true to this day even after the few wars it has caused over the history of the Realm. Many Emperors woke up dead by the paws of the Knights because the Knights felt the Emperor was causing the Realm harm.

                It was a threat always hanging over the Emperor’s head and literally because the Knight Academy sits above the Imperial Palace on the Great Oak tree.

                But it was a quest Raven never felt was really pawed down to him by the AllFather. The Masters of the Academy said it was, but Raven didn’t feel it in his bones like Lacey did with her quest.

                He wondered how great a calling that must feel like to have and it a heavy burden to wear.

                He glanced over at his armor to find his body feeling the weight of the steel even without wearing it. He remembers when he was given the steel being told it was a burden wore by all Knights in their duty to carry out the will of the AllFather. Somedays the armor felt like a cross while on most days it felt like his second skin.

                He sighed wishing sleep would find him and closed his eyes wanting it to take him slowly and all at once. His sleep was short being woken up by a heavy dream only to find Lacey knocking at his door. He stumbled from his bed rubbing his eyes not sure if the dream was real, but when he opens the door to find the black chipmunk staring up at him.

                “You had the dream,” she said.

                Raven stepping back from the door letting the awaken world wash over him.

                “Didn’t you?” Lacey asked him, coming into the room. “It’s why I was sent here.”

                “Wait, wait,” Raven said holding his paws out. “You were sent here?”

                “I was,” Lacey said with a hard nod. “And you had the dream.”

                Raven let his mind breathe only to find when everything became calm the emotion, no, emotion was too weak of a word, but a holy feeling laid on his mind. A command pushed deep into his souls telling him, “To go with Lacey.”

                “Ariana is not going to believe this,” Raven mumble to himself.