A Hero Comes to Town

This is some of the lore surrounding a project of mine. All and all, it's a fantasy story; Enjoy. Note: This drawing is NOT mine, it is from a deviant art user named "Wolf-Sprit14" It seemed fitting.

A Hero Comes to Town

Written by Jay Johnson

A young man, more specifically in his early twentys, walked down the dirt road with his eyes red from lack of sleep and his mind craving ale. This young man wore a dark, hooded tunic and laced pants as well as a satchel that hung on his side filled with his possessions along with some treasures he had found on his travels. As he walked the sword on his side rested peacefully in it's sheath and out of habit griped it's handle with his left hand; the young man believed that by doing so he'd scare off anyone thinking of mugging him. Around his neck was a golden necklace that according to him was lucky. It didn't take long before the young man saw a small town up ahead on the path he was walking on. Happy to know that he could finally get some rest, the young man continued onward with a smile emerging upon his weary face.

He passed a sign that said “Welcome to Trenith” and walked on into town seeing only a handful of people outside tending to their business. As the young man made his way towards the tavern, he noticed that some of the people wore armor with a similar insignia that he swore he had seen before, but due to his craving for something to drink he thought nothing of it. He walked past a woman sitting outside of her house and politely said hello, but she did not respond. A man with a goat passing by turned his head away from the young man, saying nothing. Sitting outside of the tavern was a little girl and boy sitting on the grass. The young man found it strange that he saw them simply sitting there doing nothing. Why weren’t they playing like normal children? Why did they just sit there? Still, his desire to relax overcame his curiosity as he walked inside the tavern.

The young man was a little surprised to see that there were more men wearing that exact same uniforms and insignias on there outfits. A small crowd of them were sitting over at a table with tankards, drinking and enjoying themselves. Sitting alone at a table by himself was another young man like himself with a black rag tied around his head. The young man sat down next to him at his table. A woman rushed over to him and asked what he'd like.

“I'll take two of your best ales,” the young man said cheerfully. “one for me and one for this gentleman.” the man sitting next to him seemed surprised. The woman, as if fearing the young man, took his gold coins from him with caution. She then rushed off to go fetch their drinks. The man sitting next to him still had a surprised look on his face.

“Um, thank you.” he said giving a weak smile “I'm not used to meeting anyone with your kind of hospitality.” the man looked over at the men with the insignias and grumbled.

“Your welcome,” the young man told him. “it's just nice to finally get something to drink.”

“Don't get too comfortable.” the man told him taking another look at the men with the insignias. “It's not safe here.” The young man was confused and wanted to ask what he was implying, but before he did the woman came back and set their drinks down. Before the young man could tell her thanks she again rushed off back from where she had just been. “What's your name?” the man sitting next to him asked.

“William.” the young man responded seriously. “I'm an adventurer.”

“Nice to meet you.” the man responded. He leaned close to him. “This place isn't safe. Do you see those men over there?” William looked over at the four men sitting at the table next to them with the insignias of eagles on their shirts. William nodded. “This entire town isn't safe thanks to these b******s.”

“Who are they?” William inquired quietly as the men with the eagle insignias drank and laughed. The man sitting next to him gave an angry groan.

“There some bandit group that moved in and took over our town,” the man explained with a hushed tone. “They came in one day, as bold as ever, and just-” the man stopped to look at the men once again with his face slowly turning red. “They slaughtered four men who tried to tell them to leave. They didn't even have swords, but it didn't matter to those b******s.” William hardly even drank his ale as the man explained to him about the bandits, who named themselves the Winged Crusaders. The Winged Crusaders were what William considered a rather pathetic group of marauders.

“I've dealt with these kind of bandits before.” William said in a hushed tone, remembering where he had seen that symbol before. “I had just finished dealing with some goblins that were causing a problem for a little town. I hadn't even talking two steps outside of their nasty lair to find those men with swords in my face.”

“What did you do?” the man asked him.

“Isn't it obvious?” William said with a drink of his ale and a tap on his sheathed sword.

“You mean...” William nodded.

“Yes.” he told the man. “Each and everyone of them.”

“How many were there?” the man asked him looking back at the Winged Crusaders, still enjoying themselves. William started to think about how many there were.

“Well,” he said with his ale in hand. “I believe about seven- no eight. Or was it nine?” William thought about it as a dark smile emerged from the man's face.

“You think you could take on twelve?” the man asked.

“Without a doubt.” William told him. “I'm assuming your hinting around for my help, correct?” the man gave a slow nod.

“I don't care how much you charge,” he told William. “but I promise you I'll reward you if you do this for our small village.” William smiled at the man and finished his ale.

“Justice is it's own reward, sir.” He slowly stood up from the table and reached into his satchel. After a few seconds of rummaging through it, he pulled out what resembled a tiny splinter. Only known to William, it was poisoned with a rare substance he was given by an old woman he helped out a while back by retrieving her cat that was lost in the woods. William placed the it on the table and reached back into the satchel. The man watched him pull out a faintly glowing piece of chalk, which was known in the country of Sehir as “Summoners Chalk” A wizard showed him how to use it years ago. The chalk had never seemed to shrink even with all the years of use.

“I hope Baive isn't in a grumpy mood today.” William whispered to himself. Finally, William reached in his bag and pulled out a his personal book of chants he had recorded while in Thaus, another country he had explored a little. He opened it up and attempted to recall the chant that he needed. Unlike Sehir, the country of Thaus' magic surrounded itself with poem-like chants. The chant he was looking for, which he called Bind Eye, he had scribbled down one night after a man he had helped told it to him as a reward for killing a failed experiment. William read the translated version of the chant in his head.

You see me now

So you see me no more

Open eyes closed

Shut as a door

William put the book away and put the chalk in his front pocket. He picked up the small, posioned prickle, placing it between his fingers. The man who was sitting by him was surprised to see William walk up to the four Winged Crusaders sitting at the other table and pat one of them on the back.

“How you boys doing?” William cheerfully asked. The men turned their heads to him and gave a frown.

“What the hell do ya want, boy?” One of them said.

“Oh,” William said “I just wanted to apologize.”

“For what?” another asked William.

“For this.” William lifted his foot and kicked one of them in the face. The other three stood up as fast as lightning, drawing swords. The one on the floor was out cold and now had an imprint of a boot on his face.. Without a warning, one of the men charged at William with his sword held high. With his swift reflexes, William smacked him across the face. The bandit stumbled backwards and for a moment was laughing. The woman in the bar who had served him shrieked him horror.

“Is that it?” the bandit mocked. William gave a smile. The poisoned prickle was stabbed into the the bandits cheek. The bandit continued to laugh, but then fell to the floor. The two other bandits still standing stood there for a moment not sure what to do. William drew his sword and took up his stance.

“Well,” William said as cocky as ever. “I'm waiting.” One of the bandits charged at him and swung his sword with a yell. William ducked away from the swing with ease and hardly any effort at all. “Is that all?” William laughed. With another swing, the bandit missed horribly as William moved out of the way as if not even trying. “You have to do better then that.” he told the bandit who was now swinging like a mad man. Swing after swing of his sword the man missed. Finally being serious, William swung his sword across the chest of the bandit, killing him. He fell to the floor as the last remaining bandit stood there dumbstruck. William shook his sword at him followed by the bandit sprinting out of the tavern in fear.

William quickly knelt down onto the floor and took out the piece of chalk, drawing a large circle. The man wearing the black rag and the woman were watching as William frantically drew symbols with the chalk. About ten seconds later he stood up. A glow had taken place on the chalk. A strong, white light formed around the circle and made it's way inward turning the hollow circle with symbols now into a filled one. A flash of blinding light came followed by a huge black wolf appearing before him.

“Ah,” the wolf said. “I see you've summoned me. Again.”

“Please,” William smirked. “you enjoy my company and you know it.”

“That as it may be,” the wolf told him. “I was in the middle of sleeping.”

The woman in the tavern fainted as she saw the wolf. The man with the rag stood there stupefied, watching the two of them talk to each other.

“If it's beauty sleep your trying to obtain, don't bother.” William joked. “You and I both know your looks are here to stay.”

“Charming...” the large wolf muttered. In all actuality the large wolf, Bavie as William called him, was a good friend of William's. William found Baive trapped in a cave due to some hunters and rescued him. After fighting off a large mob of enraged hunters, Baive allowed William to summon him whenever needed. During the years after his freedom, Baive had helped William a handful of times, but was summoned mostly for company when William traveled, just to have someone to talk to. Despite Baive's complaining, it meant a lot to the wolf that someone cared.

“I hate to do this to you friend,” William said with his sword in hand “but I need your help.”

“Who have you angered this time?” Baive asked him as if this sort of thing had happened before, which it did.

“Just some thugs.” William told his faithful friend. The large wolf tilted his head.

“Just thugs?” Baive asked. “I've never been called to help with simple thugs before. How many are there.”

“Enough that I need your help with, you inquisitive fluff ball.” Willaim laughed. Baive didn't find his comment so funny. Instead he just sat there and gave a huff, while the man who wore the rag stared at the wolf in awe.

William ran out of the tavern with Baive following him, who almost didn’t squeeze through the door. Outside were more of the Winged Crusaders. Four of them stood there with swords in their hands, but almost dropped them as they saw the giant wolf exit the tavern. One of them looked at another.

“Somebody needs to warn Garer!” the one said to the other.

One of them ran like the wind into a house, apparently going to warn their leader. William tossed his sword in the air, making it spin in a circle, then caught it in a fighting stance.

“Must you show off?” Baive asked him.

“Of course,” William replied. “it's what I always do. Why stop now?”

One of the men sprinted and swung and William, but missed as William chanted his spell. As he finished the last line of the enchantment, the bandit fell on the ground, dropping his sword, blind as a bat. He groped the earth beneath him in an attempt to regain his sight.

The two other men charged at Baive, but were stricken down with his mighty swipes of his paws, cutting into their flesh like a knife would to butter. Needless to say, they died before they hit the ground. William casually walked up to the bandit on the ground, still trying to figure out what was going on, and kicked him in the side of the head, but not hard enough to kill him, only enough to knock him unconscious.

Five men, including the one that went in from before, exited the home. The one wearing a helm was no doubt the leader. He drew a long sword from his sheath and glared at William, who in return gave a cocky smile and a wave of his hand.

“Ah,” William said “good day to you sir. I don't suppose you would be the leader of this group, would you?”

“You've got a lot of nerve, punk.” The leader said. He wore a necklace with the symbol of an eagle on it.

“Naturally,” William replied as a cool breath blew by. “I must to be able to do my job.”

The leader pointed at Bavie.

“Kill the overgrown cat.” he demanded. “I'll take care of this cocky b*****d.” William nonchalantly strolled towards the leader, who did the same. The people watching from their homes and on the side of the main road that cut into the village watched with held breath, not daring to make a single sound. The mother's shielded the eyes of their children as the fight had begun.

The leader lunged his blade for Williams chest, coming close, but missed him as he jumped backwards. William crouched and swung low at the leader's feet, but at the last second jumped above the blade. William thrust his sword at the leader with a spark flashing as their steel met each other. A few strikes similar proceeded, followed by the leader kicking dirt into the eyes of William.

The bandit stabbed for William once again, but this time hitting straight in the center of his chest. Unexpectedly, his sword bounced right back; it had hit Williams lucky necklace. William had finally cleared his eyes when yet again the leader lobbed his blade at him. William blocked not a moment too soon, just in time to save his left arm from being sliced. William returned the attack by swinging his steel at the leader's leg, barely missing.

With rage and uncontrolled anger, the leader raised his sword high in the air and swung it downward aimed at William's head. Being quick, he dove and rolled out of the way, landing with one foot on the ground in a knelt position. He struck to his side, trying to hit the leader, but yet again their swords clashed together. William got to his feet, but then had to duck to save his head from an unexpected twirling spin from the leader. In mid twirl, William put out his foot and tripped him.

The bandit leader fell on his behind and raised his sword, but it was kicked out of his hand. Unarmed, the leader of the Winged Crusaders sat there with his hands up and with William's sword up against his neck. Being civil and fair, he did not kill him. He bound his hands behind his back along with the bandit who he had left an imprint on his face and the other who he had temporarily blinded. None of the six that Baive dealt with survived.

As the men were taken by the guards in a nearby settlement, William and Baive were praised by the townsfolk and children. Many of the men shook hands with William and almost all of the children insisted on riding on Bavie's back. Baive let them as they laughed and waved to their mothers, who were more than a little worried about their well being after seeing what the large wolf could do; William insisted to them that he was harmless towards friendly folk and children alike.

Some of the women bluntly asked if William would sleep with them, but being a gentlemen he politely declined. The small town was saved and the remainder of that day they celebrated, thanking the two hero's for saving what little they had left. As the sun began to descend, William knew that it was time for Baive and him to go. The town offered what they could as a reward to William, but yet again he declined politely, repeating that justice was it's own reward.

The town waved goodbye as the hero's who had saved them continued to walk on the very same road that had led them there. Baive decided to stay with William instead of leaving. Almost in a panic, William told Baive to halt.

“Quick!” William shouted “lay down!”

“What?” Baive responded, laying down as he was told “What's wrong?”

With a giant leap, William jumped on his back, rolling over and resting his head on him.

“What are you doing?” Baive asked him.

“Resting.” he said “You're much to tall for me to get on without you laying down first.”

Realizing that he had been tricked, Baive grumbled.

“I'm not a horse!” he yelled. “Get off of me this instant.”

“Sorry, I can't hear you.” William yawned. “I'm too tired.”

“Fine.” Baive said “Only because your my friend.”

“Thank you.” William said “Wake me when we reach another town, friend.”

Baive was going to respond, but decided not to. Being called friend from William meant a lot to him.

Author's Note

Feel free to point out flaws and spelling/grammar mistakes. All criticism is welcome. Or if you enjoyed it feel free to say so. I'd love a review, but you don't have to if you don't want to or if you're just too lazy. Also note that the indentation of the Paragraphs seem to not be there due to me copy and pasting from my Open Office program.

Reviews

[unspokenguilt]

I like the playful banter between William and Baive, overall the story was very enjoyable! Nicely done!