Piers

Second Chapter of "Cloudburst" The story of James Nathaniel Piers

Piers

 

I had joined up with a caravan somewhere between Silvermouth and the mountains which I had every intention of crossing. In that caravan is where I met James. We sat around the campfire in silence for a while on the first night staring at each other. He had curly brown hair and an infectious smile that could have made a man on death row happy.

“Well if you’re not going to introduce yourself then I will, I’m Piers, James Nathaniel Piers, and your name would be?” that name would forever be engraved into my memory.

He was the first person, after Rowan who I ever told my name, and by my name I mean my full name, which sadly, I can no longer remember, he never used it anyway though. He only ever referred to me as “sir”, it was stupid really. We talked about meaningless crap for a long time before we got to really talking.

“What brings you this way sir?” he said in a respectful tone of voice that he always used when addressing me.

“Nothing particularly interesting” I said shaking my head, “and what’s with calling me sir?” I added.

“It’s good practice”

“Practice for what exactly Piers?”

“For when I become a knight of course!” his face lit up right as he mentioned the word knight.

He looked to be only a young teen to me, he was far too young to become a knight. I knew from past experience though that looks could be deceiving and so I remember asking him how old he was.

“I left home and came this way after my fourteenth winter, my fifteenth birthday was last month, sir”

He reminded me a lot of myself, I’d left home at about the same age, although not for as noble a reason as him. I couldn’t remember exactly how old I was at that point, I wasn’t great with time but knew I was around twenty or so. Even so, I felt as if I was in my late thirties, and people often treated me like I was a decrepit old man. And by that I don’t mean they were courteous to me, what I mean is that they thought I was worthless and despised me.

“What’s it like where you’re from Piers?” I asked.

“My parents and I live in a small house in the woods, me and my father go out hunting and my mother gathers fruits and berries for us to eat, the winters are cold and rainy and most of the time we’re forced to stay inside making use of what provisions we have. But in the spring…” he paused for a moment and his eyes started to shine wildly “in the spring when the cherry trees blossom, it’s beautiful, it really is, there’s no place quite like home eh?” he had a look of amazement on his face the entire time he spoke.

I wished that my memories of home could be as fond as his and that my father had been as loving as his. For a second the rain threatened to engulf me, but then I remembered. I had a beautiful home much like his, on the farm, with my true father, Rowan.

“If its as good as you say then I’ll have to visit someday in the spring, how’s that sound?”

“It would be an honour, sir”

“In any case the sun will be up soon and our watch ended an hour or so a go, we should try and get some shut eye before the caravan leaves” honestly I just couldn’t think of anything else to say to him.

“Good idea, goodnight sir”

I nodded and walked off towards where I had left Pandora tied up to a tree. I only realised then just how real my conversation with Piers had been, usually I had to force what I said but that night I had been genuine. And it felt good.

 

Later, the day after, and after hours of walking and persistence on Piers behalf, I agreed to spar with him. It was one of the easiest fights of my life, it wasn’t that he was a bad fighter, he was just terrible at fighting. He claimed that he was just a little rusty and his memory needed refreshing and insisted I would have to teach him.

“I’m not teaching you Piers, so stop asking” I tried to sound harsh but he never seemed to notice the tone of my voice anyway.

“Come on sir! It’ll be like I’m your squire and you can’t expect to defend everyone by yourself if we get attacked somewhere along the way”

I hated to admit it but he had a point, out of everyone in the caravan, beside myself there were only two other men who could fight. Even so neither of them had proper swords, it puzzled me why a caravan wouldn’t have its own protection sometimes. Likely because they didn’t mind paying a toll to any bandits they came across if they had to. Bandits only ever took people’s coin anyway, lugging around foodstuffs to sell was too much of a trouble. Another thing that I hated to admit was that I cared for the kid, everyone else I was starting to slightly resent. This meant if I wanted to truly protect him I would have to teach him how to fight. I sighed and looked into his shining eyes.

“We start tomorrow Piers, early, before the caravans set off and we have to go”

He let out a yelp of excitement and did a kind of dance in excitement.

“You won’t regret it sir, one day when I’m the greatest knight in the world maybe I’ll remember you, and give you a loaf of bread or something” he laughed and winked at me.

From then on we would get up early before everyone else and I would teach him in the same way that Rowan had taught me. Occasionally Piers would also drag me out of bed at night and force me to force him to train. At the time, I thought I hated it, but now I realise that the rain wasn’t so heavy then.

 

 

During one of our little training exercises once, Piers decided that instead of being taught by me, that he would teach me. Our caravan had stopped in a town for a few days so that the merchants could sell their wares. It was a rather remote, and relatively small place, bordered by a forest in which we trained. This forest was also rich in wildlife which Piers decided would be good for us to hunt. First though, he would have to teach me how to use a bow.

“You need to be far gentler” Piers said, demonstrating how softly he wielded his bow “it’s not just a piece of wood, like you taught me with a sword, it’s an extension of your body”

“You already said that” I glared at him happily and smiled “twice actually”

He had had a habit of repeating himself, I don’t think that it ever annoyed me though. It was more the kind of thing you would remember someone by in his case, it was a part of him.

“Well you didn’t listen the first two times, did you now?” he poked his tongue out at me, as a four year old would.

We had been practicing shooting arrows at a tree stump for at least few hours. I had hit it once, the rest of my shots had all either fallen short or just missed entirely. Piers shots, on the other hand, had all hit, save for one which had missed when his leg had slipped into my foot. He was an excellent marksman.

“I think it’s time we went and actually hunted something”, I was getting tired of practice.

“No” Piers sounded more serious than ever, “when you can hit that stump five times without missing, then and only then will we go hunting”

I was slightly puzzled, and I couldn’t quite understand his reasoning, “why? I mean, so what if I miss? You told me that making arrows is easy, and if anything, hunting will be less of a strain to your bow than this”

“That’s not it, it’s just…” he trailed-off mid sentence before picking up again “I just don’t like causing unnecessary pain, dead should be dead, things, animals and people too, should at least have the dignity of dying painlessly… I don’t know, it’s stupid really…”

“No, I understand” I said, looking all around me and properly taking in our surroundings.

We were in a small clearing of the forest, above us was blue sky, but in every other direction was dense foliage. The trees weren’t extremely high but they were thick, progressing through them to where we were now had been an effort in itself. That being said it was only me who had made slow progress, Piers had easily traversed the trees.

I had no idea how I would be able to hunt in a place like this, I was far too unwieldy in the trees. I was slightly jealous of Piers’ in that way, the skills he had developed over the years with his father allowed him to glide through the forest.

“What on earth are you waiting for?” he looked at me mischievously and I sighed, “shoot already!”

I nocked an arrow and drew back on the bow slowly, and gently, taking aim at the tree stump. The wood was smooth, and seemed to slow between my fingertips with a life of its own. I tightened my grip slightly to ensure that I wouldn’t drop the weapon, and then let fly the arrow. It sailed through the air and impaled itself upon the left side of the tree stump.

I smiled, one down and four to go. I once again drew the bow, this time slightly faster, and fired an arrow at my target. This time the arrow didn’t stick into the wood, it still made contact though and scaped along the side of the stump.

“That still counts by the way Piers” I called out to him, he had moved away and was watching me from the branch of a tree. He laughed quietly and nodded, almost losing his balance.

“And you’re still a s**t shot sir”

I swivelled and aimed my third shot at him “you willing to bet your life on that fact Piers?” I said, challenging him. If I only pulled back a little the arrow would barely even make the distance, that and, I had already taken off the barb, so I could hit him without hurting him.

“Go ahead” Piers opened up his shirt revealing tanned skin underneath “right here in the chest”

His tone was quiet and reserved, but his jovial smile suggested he knew I was only playing, I would never really risk his life.

“If you hit me then we go hunting sir”

“You’ve got yourself a deal soldier” I said mockingly.

I took my sweet time aiming, hunting would be fun, and as such I very much needed this shot to hit him. I let go and the arrow flew directly into his chest, toppling him head over heels and into the ground below. He let out a loud pain filled scream and started cursing between moans of pain.

“Piers!” I sprinted over to where he lay on his back. It almost started to rain.

He started laughing and sprung to his feet instantly “what are you so worried about? You took the tip off after all”

“You little swine” I started to laugh alongside him “I thought I’d killed you… you have to admit, it was a good s**t Piers, I got you straight in the chest” I was proud of my achievement, boasting was necessary sometimes.

“It was not a bad shot, but…” he raised his hand to show the arrow to me “not the best shot either”

I wasn’t quite sure how, but he had caught the arrow before it had hit him, his reflexes must have been lightning fast.

“F**k you Piers, you know that?” I looked up into the sky, there were hardly any clouds this time of year. I missed them, I liked watching clouds.

“I guess you did hit me though sir…” he said, regaining my attention “time to go hunting”

We made our way back into the forest, Piers agilely avoided slipping over any and all obstacles, personally I wasn’t so lucky though. I tripped over the roots and rocks which Piers had easily avoided, by the time we came to a halt I was filthy. My shirt was brown and encrusted with dirt, and my legs were stained green and coated with sticky resin and sap.

Piers motioned for me to stop moving and pointed to a shape in the distance. It was a deer of some kind, fairly large, and had small antlers, it wouldn’t make for the best of meals but we were really only hunting for fun after all. Lifting the bow I lined up the tip of my arrow with the deer and readied to fire. The arrow spun as I shot it and slammed into the animals neck, bringing it down to the ground.

Drawing his weapon as he did so Piers bolted towards the animal and with one deft strike cleaved its head off, ending any potential suffering.

“Not a bad shot sir” he said, wiping the blood from his sword upon a nearby branch “aim for the eye though, kills quicker and preserves the hide better”

I simply nodded as he lifted the carcass onto his back and came over to where I was standing.

“Unless you’re willing to carry one of these yourself, which I know you’re not you lazy b*****d, then we’d best head back and get cooking” he said, shmacking his lips.

“Lets get going then” I pointed to a patch of light that could barely be made out between a gap in the trees and stepped towards it.

We stopped just a little way from the town, and built a fire upon which we could cook our kill. Together, Piers and I put the deer on a spit and roasted it over the fire slowly. Surprisingly enough I hadn’t enjoyed hunting, possibly the violence had put me off. It didn’t make it rain though.

Soon after finishing our meal we returned to the inn where our caravan had been staying. The day after that, we set off up the mountain trail.

 

 

When we arrived at the mountain I had only known the kid for a few weeks, but to me it felt like half a lifetime. That’s what made what was to come next so painful. The kid was like the younger brother I never had.

A few of the merchants mentioned to me something about the overpass, most likely a warning of sorts, but I paid them no heed. The overpass crossed over the main path of the mountain and connected two raised areas on either side. Little did I know that awaiting us on the sides of the miniature gorge were a troop of bandits.

I followed Piers into the overpass with a sense of unease but I had no real idea as to the events that were about to unfold. I remember screaming at him to get down and jumping into his back to bring down with me. We crashed to the ground as the arrow whizzed through the air where Piers head had been a moment a go.

“Hey what’s the big idea!?” he yelped as I yanked him to his feet.

“Bandits on the overpass, come on we’ve got to get back to the rest of the group” I said pulling him down behind a rock.

“But isn’t this what you’ve been training me for?” he looked almost hurt.

“Not this, we didn’t even see this coming, let’s go, Now”

I didn’t really want to leave when I said that, I wanted to fight, I just wanted to make sure Piers was fully willing to.

“No sir, I’m not running away, not this time”

His face was a total mixture of emotions, he looked happy and sad, excited and terrified, and honestly I had no idea what he meant by ‘not this time’.

“Good” I smiled “I was hoping you’d say that Piers, I really was”

I tried to formulate a plan while crouched there, I could hear more arrows being fired into the rock we hid behind. Someone was yelling something and another man was laughing wildly and swearing into the skies. My heart was starting to beat faster and I could feel it, building up in my head, my brain felt ready to explode. The thing I said next was a massive mistake.

“We’re gonna have to split up to cover the two sides” I should’ve kept him by my side…

“we run straight up through the middle and under the overpass so that we can get up top” …then maybe…

“hopefully these guys aren’t to good a shot otherwise we might not make it, but when we do get up their we split, you come back down the left and I’ll come down the right” …then maybe I would have been able to keep him safe.

“Sounds simple enough sir” he said, sounding as eager as ever.

I drew my sword and waited for him to do the same before diving behind another rock on the other side of the path.

“On my call Piers”, he nodded.

“Go go go!” I screamed launching myself over the rock in front of me narrowly avoiding being shot several times.

We weren’t on too much of a slope but I could feel the strain on my legs straight away. I tried to count how many of them there were which was difficult between jumping over obstacles and trying not to die. I estimated at least four or so on each side and decided that Piers would be fine dealing with that number. Another mistake. We sped our way to the top and as predicted were unscathed due to the bandits poor marksmanship. I turned on heel and curved around onto my side only looking behind me to check that Piers too was charging.

I increased my pace as I charged at the first archer whose arrow narrowly missed my chest and sped off into the distance. He dropped his bow after the first shot and fumbled at his side for a small dagger. I reached out and swung my sword slicing his throat before he even had time to draw it and continued towards the others. Next two men charged me, one with a knife and one with a wooden cudgel. I jumped into the air and dropkicked the man with the cudgel in the face. A definitive cracking sound could be heard as the man’s neck snapped and he tumbled down onto the pathway.

The other man howled in rage at the death of his friend and forcefully thrust his knife at me. He was slow and I managed to roll out of the way leaving only the dry earth for his blade to pierce. After his failed thrust he was lift off balance and I batted the flat of my sword against his face to bring him down to my level. Again I rolled, but this time onto the bandit pinning his arms with my knees. I then raised my sword high and plunged it into his chest where I believed his heart to be. I could have easily slashed or stabbed at him from on the ground but I didn’t much like maiming my opponents, if possible I would always kill with one strike.

I tried to stand and pull my sword from the corpse beneath me but was knocked back down by a blinding pain in the back of my head. I rolled onto my back to see the last bandit from my side standing over me with an axe. The knock to my head reminded me of father, whether it was due to the fact that he had hit me like that many times or because the attack had dazed me I didn’t know for sure. For a moment I could’ve sworn that the man before me was in fact my father, with that crazed drunken look in his eyes. It wasn’t though.

I feebly raised my sword arm to defend and had my weapon almost knocked from my grasp when he parried my attack. After that I didn’t have the time nor the willpower to try anything, my entire body felt wet with the rain. Looking up I saw flocks of birds, vultures I realised, already circling over me. I moved my gaze back to the man who was about to kill me, I hadn’t quite accepted death but I wasn’t about to reject it either. What happened next I hadn’t expected.

An arrow simply appeared in the man’s arm like a ghost, and then another in his leg. At first I couldn’t quite understand what was happening but then I realised that it was Piers. Years of hunting with his father had finally come in handy. I slowly picked myself up and rose to my feet despite the buzzing pain in the back of my head. I looked over the divide to see Piers, raising a bow over head in triumph, I owed him my life.

“We did it sir!” he yelled dropping the bow and pumping his fist in the air, “although you might want to finish that one off” he added.

“We’ll make a knight of you yet Piers!” I called out in reply.

I returned my attention to the man who now lay where I had been but a moment a go. He coughed and angrily met me gaze, defiant even in the face of death, I wish the same could’ve been said for me. He next smiled up at me, despite his position.

“What are you smiling about? You’ve lost” now it was my turn to smile, sadistic yes, but I didn’t care.

He twisted onto his side and started laughing for a short time before pointing over in the direction of the overpass.

“Yes, you may have beaten us” his voice was quiet, barely a whisper, “but at what cost?” his laugh grew and became like the howl of a rabid dog.

I spun to see two people coming over the ‘bridge’, the first was Piers, walking towards me with a smile on his face. The other man running after him, sword at the ready, the distance between them was frighteningly small.

“PIERS!” I screamed out his name at the top of my lungs and waved my sword at him.

He stopped dead where he was, and drew his sword attempting to turn and face the man behind him. But it was too little to late. Before he even managed to turn around the man reached him and I watched, helpless, as the bandit drove his sword through Piers chest. Time stood still for a second and I stood for what felt like an eternity as the image of my one and only friend being murdered was branded upon my soul. Piers fell silently onto his hands and knees, and from there he collapsed into a heap on the ground.

“PIERS!” I screamed his name out again, this time in a mixture of rage and disbelief.

Ignoring the pain in the back of my head I raised my sword and charged across the overpass at the murderer. Wiping his sword of blood the man ran towards me in the same way he had chased Piers. I stopped my run several meters from him and stalked towards him, I had every intention of making this hurt.

I struck out with all the strength I had as he came into range, he blocked the strike but fell back a step. I took this opportunity to kick him square in the chest knocking him onto his back and causing him to lose his sword. I lifted his sword from the floor and in the same motion drove it down through his leg and into the ground. Ignoring his screams for mercy I pushed down even harder on the sword forcing it is deep as I could. He hadn’t been merciful to Piers, he had stabbed him in the back, and he hadn’t killed him in the heat of battle, he had murdered him. I raised my leg and started to kick the man’s head but stopped when I remembered why I didn’t like to maim people.

Piers had told me soon after I started to train him that he only wanted to learn how to kill, and not how to harm his opponent. He had been the one who had shown me a better way, he would’ve been disappointed in me. Lifting my sword I finished the man with one last stroke and moved towards Piers. He had started trying to crawl towards me and left a trail of blood behind him.

My sword clattered noisily to the ground and I dropped to my knees at his side. I didn’t know what to say to him, I wished I could’ve told him it was going to be alright, but we both knew that wasn’t true. He still held his sword and offered it to me, speaking between ragged breaths for air.

“This is my father’s, sometime, maybe in the spring when the cherry trees are blooming, can you bring it back to him for me?” he coughed up a large amount of blood onto me but I didn’t flinch.

I could feel my eyes starting to get wet.

“You have my word… James, sir” I tried not to, but I couldn’t help myself from starting to cry.

“Sorry to say I probably won’t be able to show you around the place” he tried to laugh but it came out as a cough of yet more blood.

“Piers, you would’ve made an excellent knight” he smiled as I said this although his eyes seemed to become distant too.

He didn’t reply this time. I stayed there with him cradling his head in my arms and crying until the sun set. Then I picked up and carried him away to a secluded area where I was certain no one would disturb him. I buried him alongside my sword, a knights burial as it were.

When the sun rose in the morning I took Pandora and rode away from the mountains abandoning the caravan. I was chased by the rain no matter how far away I got. Worse though, was the feeling in my chest, that came from knowing his death was my fault. Unlike the hole my father had made, this was a pain that nothing would ever be able to fix. 

Reviews

[Alleyway Rover]

I think I see what you are trying to do here. I like Piers’ character and the conflicts he presents to your main character. Not just the tension that results from his death, but the moral struggles that he now struggles with as a result. It all gives your main character some added depth that I like.

However, the overall presentation here needs a little work. For one, it’s just too much backstory to dump on the reader at this point. You have just started telling the story that you want to tell in this book and this chapter pulls us away from that conflict to a certain degree. The story is just starting to gain momentum and I feel like you hit the brakes pretty hard if you pull us away from it now.

Also I feel like you are missing an oppertunity to build tension and suspense here. Consider taking this chapter, dividing it up into it’s individual stories and pepper them throughout the novel in a way leaves some mystery and suspense for the reader. For example you might start talking about him in a way that makes the reader wonder what eventually happens to Piers to make his memory so painful. Or, in contrast, you could start with his death and work backward leaving the reader to wonder why this person had such an effect on a main character that seems to shun human relationships.

Either way, breaking this up does three things. First, it breaks down a chapter filled with tons of ideas and themes into a form that lets the reader digest it easier. Second, it keeps your main story chugging along while letting this develop as a kind of sub plot. Finally, it allows you to spend more time over the course of your story developing your main character.

Like I said, I do like a lot of the ideas you bring up. The story about your main character learning to hunt struck me as especially important as it introduces a source of his moral code that I feel is going to lead to some fantastic conflicts as the story develops.

Cheers