1: Assailants

A Chapter by Karlong

The sound of clashing steel filled the small chamber as two young men fought against each other. Armed with sharp military grade rapiers, the two were very capable of gravely injuring each other. However, neither bore a mark of combat on their plain linen shirts. As the two men neared the window of the chamber, a maid burst in through the far door. The slightly shorter of the two men glanced across at the new arrival, and gave his opponent an opportunity. In a flurry of movement, the taller one swept his leg around in a horizontal windmill, kicking out his adversaries legs from under him. Caught off-guard, the man on the floor threw away his rapier and grabbed the other mans arm, pulling him down. As he fell, the taller man's sword narrowly missed embedding itself in his foe's face. Fearing bloodshed, the maid screamed and ran at the two men. Both fighters stopped immediately, gazing strangely at the maid. Pulling the men off each other, she managed to have a decent look at the two men for the first time. The shorter one had thick brown hair, which fell down his back to the nape of his collar. His deep hazel eyes looked questioningly at her, as she looked in awe at his clean uniform. Judging from the amount of sweat on their clothes, she judged they had been fighting for a good half-hour, yet their leather tunics were unblemished by blood. The taller of the two, however, had light auburn hair, which contrasted with his wide emerald eyes. The two men were both irritated and confused by the intrusion into their fencing. Despite their age (around 20, at the maids best guess), both men were taller than many of the soldiers and commoners around the streets. The taller of the two was about to say something, when the lady of the house, Cilia Harsay rushed into the room.
"What is it Claudine!" Cilia said to the maid, before she noticed the two men, swords in hand.
"Ah. You had better leave Claudine." Claudine did a quick curtesy before hurrying from the room and slamming the heavy oak door behind her. After the maid had left, Cilia turned her piercing green eyes to the two young men, a scowl on her face. The two smiled weakly back.
"Now listen you two," she began "I know that you must practice sword-fighting, but ALWAYS in the duelling rooms, and at a reasonable hour!" she continued pointing at the window behind the duellers. The two wheeled slowly around, and for the first time realised that the moon had risen far into the night sky, and only a few candles were left burning weakly as illumination. "Ancep Harsay! You should know better than this!" Cilia continued, addressing the shorter of the two before the taller. "And Rewilh Warne. I knew I shouldn't have trusted the two of you in the armoury earlier! You could have both been killed!" She shouted, whisking the two rapiers from the mens hands. Turning on her heels, Celia casually walked back to the door. Opening it she had the last word. "Oh, and by the way, you are both banned from the armoury and equipment room for a month." and she shut the door.

Rewilh let out a long sigh.
"Certainly got downed on that one, eh?" he said to his friend. The two men had been friends for almost 9 years now, with Ancep 20 and Rewilh 21. Both were only children, but Rewilh had lost both parents when he was young so he had been living with the Harsey's for many years. Despite being younger, Ancep was the strongest and fastest, normally preferring a broadsword and shield to the rapier. One of Anceps traits was his skill at gambling. When a wandering troubadour had once come to the village, he boasted of his gambling skills over many mugs of ale. Ancep challenged him and took most of the money the musician had earned that day. He was also one to enjoy adventures, and frequently travelled with Rewilh up to the old fort at the top of the nearby mountain. Despite this being illegal, many adventurers travelled up for the view of the North or to investigate the fort. Rewilh on the other hand was a leaner and smarter character, with the ability to outwit and outmanoeuvre his opponents rather than by brute force. He preferred the rapier to a heavier weapon and frequently practiced his skills with the bow. Rewilh had a passionate hate for southerners, and oft dreamed of meeting one in combat. He considered their darker skin alien and barbaric, and their weapons of Fire things that were the weapons of cowards. The two were a mismatched pair to many eyes, yet the two loved each other like brothers. Ever since an incident a few years back involving an enclosed compound and obsidian spear blades the Army had gained a passionate hate for the two. They had put this to great use, trading with the shadier parts of town in order to gain friends and weapons. The loss of two rapiers was a small loss to the men. Wandering over to the window, Ancep looked down upon the night streets of Rewood. It was a small town, with only 340 people to compliment the many workshops that lit up the night plains like fireflies in a field. Rewood sat to the far north of Erakia, almost as far as one could go without walking into the mountains or the sea. As per usual, a steady light snowfall fell upon the town and everything was covered in a blanket of white which seemed to glow softly in the moonlight. Being on the far side of town to the mountains, Ancep could see up the peaks, and to Fort Jûrr. Despite it's size and look at the peak of the mountain, the fort was deserted. It's crumbling ruins served as a reminder of the brutalities of what could happen during war.
"Yep, and I don't think she's gonna let us go in their anytime soon." Ancep replied. Rewilh wandered over to the window to stand with his friend, and they both imagined what it would be like to go into combat for the first time, and have some real adventure in their lives. A sudden gust of wind blew the window open, and as the men reached out to close it, they stopped dead still. Two stories below them, at ground level, lay the huddled form of a small girl. Closing in from the street, were two masked men, armed with knives.

The two observers watching from the window looked at each other, and understanding passed between them. They couldn't let a small innocent girl who could have done nothing wrong be attacked by the two drunks. As one they leapt out onto the exterior window sill, and grabbed the drainage pipe that ran down to the ground, making sure to keep quiet so the knife-wielders could not hear them. When they reached the snow covered street, they stood in the black shadows of their home, only metres from the girl. However, the shadows were too thick, so the assailants could not see the danger as they closed on the girl. As soon as the two men came within knife range, Ancep leaped at the nearest man, driving a small knife that he carried for protection into his chest. While the man fell, Rewilh leapt at the second one, rolling to avoid the knife thrust by the masked man. Kicking out the assailants legs from under him, Rewilh positioned his knife to go into the man's heart. But before he could drive the knife home, Ancep leapt forward and stopped his friend.
"No. He doesn't deserve to die." Ancep calmly said, then smashed the end of a discarded bottle onto the man's head knocking him unconscious. The two boys ran over to the girl, and saw that she already had a deep gash on her cheek, as well as one on her stomach. Moving to put a makeshift bandage on, Rewilh pulled off her tunic, and recoiled in shock. On the chest of the girl, lay an unmistakable brand mark - W for Witch.

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© 2013 Karlong

Author's Note

This was my first chapter written ages ago (a year or something) so I didn't know what I was doing so please excuse the bad writing. Any reveiws on improvements would be great. Thanks.