Beginnings of war

A Chapter by Missy

The title says it all

“Wake up missy!” An older woman with a high pitched voice yelled while rubbing Josslyn’s arms. The woman was born here as a maid to this household. She had practically raised the man who was in charge now which is why he kept her on as a maid. The room was dark as there was only a little ray of sunshine piercing the room. There was about eight beds lined up, four on each side all made with the same material of straw and all given the same sheets. The floor was wood that needed to be redone because it was beginning to squeak at every step. The room was busy as daylight had just dawned so the servants needed to be up and ready for the call. “Wake up.” She said again this time closer to Josslyn’s ear.

“I’m up. I’m up.” Josslyn’s tired voice said while she removed the dark grey sheets from her upper body and got into a seating position. The older woman had already gone to making up Josslyn’s bed as she got up to standing. The woman had a head full of grey hair and tired eyes that watched Josslyn like a hawk throughout the day. Josslyn was wearing her white linen gown that loosely fit over her frame and stretched all the way down to her feet. She helped the older woman finish pulling the sheets over the top of her straw bed. Then she stalked over to the one bathroom the servant’s quarters had access to while rubbing her tired eyes.

“Sire, the preparations are ready.” A soldier spoke while the king was busy chewing on a chicken leg. He awaited his next instructions while the king kept chewing he was afraid to keep staring so he turned his head to stare at the other part of the long table. The table was long enough to fit around twenty guest. It was rectangular and a glossy brown color. In every third section of the table could be seen a three piece candle holder. The candle holder appeared to be all gold and each had the symbol of the king. All plate setting were at each chair even though there were no other people sitting. The plate settings were all white with red lining on the edges and in the center of each plate was the kings symbol just like on the candles, on the flags that hung on every home and shop, and all the soldiers armor. The kings symbol, was the one his father before him created, the symbol consisted of the shape of a shield with a sword upside down diagonally facing the left corner. The shield was divided into four sections with four letters: L, F, K and D. The symbol was meant for the enemies of the king the letters stand for; live free and kill all those who oppose you. The last two letters were the kings signage of his name. The soldier turned around to walk out when he saw the king's son approaching.

The man walked toward him and passed him as if he didn’t exist. The man was no more than twenty five and he was all dressed up in his chainmail. He had strong brown eyes and a baby face that led many of his father’s soldiers to believe that he wasn’t strong enough.

“Father-King,” the man said once he approached his father’s seat at the table.

This time the king did look up to see who was speaking to him. “Cane, I suspect the preparations are ready.” The king started to rise from his seated position. Once standing he grabbed a hold to a white linen towel that was folded beneath his plate and put it to his lips and rubbed it in a swooshing motion left to right and threw it on the table.

“Yes, sir everything is ready. I have your horse by the door. We are all ready to ride.” Cane pointed towards the white doors of the bright dining room because it led to multi colored hallway that led to the huge wooden main doors. He was ready for them to be on their way. To his father he had been a disappointment all his life and he was eager for this war so he could prove himself. He didn’t care if he was going to have to kill at this moment he could kill thousands if it got his father to say he loved him.

The king walked towards his son in a fast moving pace he was now ready for the task ahead of them. He didn’t stop where his son had stayed instead he kept walking even past the soldier who had first told him the news. The look on his sons face was a little heartbroken he would’ve liked to walk side by side with him to go meet the men. The king opened the doors and walked into the hallway with his son and the soldier following behind. The hallway was multi colored mostly with a sort of brownish red near the top with the ceiling and the bottom half of the walls white separated only by a thick strip of wood. The king didn’t speak as they walked to the end of the hall passing a few doors on the way. He finally came to his doors which were guarded by two guards who immediately released the two latches from the door. One that was located above where the handle was and one directly below where the handle was. The king pushed both of the wooden doors open and walked out. He started walking down his steps when he saw that his land was covered in a maze of lines of men on horses, carriages that carried supplies, and those men who were taking turns walking and riding. He smiled when he saw them and they all cheered when they saw him.

The king didn’t say much to them. He just held up his right arm to the men and they cheered even more. He descended down the stone steps of his castle and to his black horse that awaited him. He stopped before he climbed on his horse as one of his soldiers came over with his chainmail and put it over his head. He then held out his arms to the side so the soldier could fasten on the shoulder guards. The soldier then backed away and watched as the king got on his horse and in a fast pace walked away towards the maze of the line of horses and carriages.

“Ya Ya.” The king yelled as he pulled on the horse’s reins and then the horse clamped its feet on the stone ground and within a few seconds went from a brisk walk to a full on run with the horses behind him following suit. Within a span of thirty minutes to an hour the maze that surrounded the kings land by his castle had now covered the streets of his land and were on their way out.

King Marius was in his study trying to rule over a new law that had been brought forth by his court. He stood up pacing back and forth with his red velvety robe sliding across the floor picking up dust. He was worried because his eyes had become worse for wear even when he wore his gold rimmed glasses he still felt that he had difficulty seeing. He stood in one spot for a moment as the rays from the sun began glaring in through the window and let the shine show through on the paper he could hardly see. It seemed to work for the moment as he stood there he could perfectly see everything and he was able to make a decision on the law. He walked back over to his desk and sat the paper down on it. He grabbed for a small red container that looked like a jewel box and opened it. Inside was nothing more than a specific kind of red ink. He tipped his left hand that had his ring on it with the castles symbol and then tipped his hand over the bottom right hand corner. He did this to all laws he had agreed to. The symbol was one that the entire kingdom would recognize. It was the symbol of a castle being surrounded by the crown. There was only one other castle besides him, but for hundreds of years his castle had been the number one that mostly everyone trusted. He was able to grab for the pin that was sitting in ink and began to sign when suddenly the door to his study burst open.

The man was younger than the king and his wide eyes looked as though they had seen a ghost. “Sire come quick there’s a man to see you. It’s urgent.” The king didn’t ask questions. It would seem that he trusted the man who barged in on him. The man immediately walked out and the king followed him in haste. They went down the short corridor. They must’ve still passed about six rooms and endless paintings on the white walls of the hall. They took a right turn to go down into another hall that seemed much like the other one. While paintings hung on the wall there were statues of famous people and animals that lined this hall and the walls were a brownish red. The man made sure he stepped aside when they arrived to their destination.

Before the king walked inside the room he knew it almost immediately. It was his throne room, the room he used for contact with some people and wondered if this was about someone having a grievance. He walked further into the room and saw one of his knights by a man and decided he’d rather be in his white throne chair before he asked any questions. He walked over quietly and quickly and sat down straightening out his royal robe before looking up towards the man his knight held.

“Sire.” The knight said while holding the man by the arm. “This man says he got news for you about King Dreyfus.”

The king nodded to his knight. “Let him speak.” He said when he turned to look toward the man whose disheveled hair was all over the place. His clothes were dirty and holy as well. The king wasn’t sure how reliable his information could be. He could just be looking to get some money.

“My king, I come with news. King Dreyfus plans to march on the city. He left his home with thousands of soldiers.” The man reached under his shirt and pulled out a paper. The knight snatched it almost immediately and looked at it then handed it towards the king. “It is true my king. See.”

The king took the paper and opened it to see. He strained his eyes in his glasses, but there was no mistaking it the paper showed the symbol of this land in flames as well as the symbol of the other kingdom with King Dreyfus ring stamp. The king threw the paper down in shock he didn’t want to think it was possible, but he knew the stamp could never be duplicated. He couldn’t believe after all of this time it was happening again. There had been peace for so many years before and now it seems Dreyfus was intent on destroying him. Dreyfus tried once before by attempting to attack the city when his wife gave birth to their daughter. It was rumored Dreyfus wanted to kill the girl, but he didn’t have much luck because she died at birth. The king knew why Dreyfus wanted to attack, except he didn’t understand why now. Dreyfus would be king over all the territory since he didn’t have an heir-he wondered if Dreyfus wanted to make certain the king didn’t get anyone else pregnant.

King Marius needed to think away from the prying eyes of the knights. “Thank you for coming forward.” He said to the man who was cowering on his knees to give distance between himself and the knight.

“My king I came forward with great risk to myself and my family. I live under King Dreyfus.” He said with such fear in his eyes.

“I see.” Marius nodded with his knight and the man gave him a few bronze coins and walked out of the throne room. Marius still sat in his throne chair still thinking. “Aramay.” He said looking across his throne room for the well dressed man who had got him from his study.

“Yes sir.” The man said from behind him he’d been standing there the whole time.

“Send riders to alert Lord Tomas, Jonathan, and Bartholomeu. Just tell them to be prepared if an attack should come.” The king said looking to the man to his right.

“My king if King Dreyfus left this morning we may be too late. We may run right into the attack.” Aramay said his grey hair swaying at the top of his head while he ran his hands down the black button down he wore.

“Under no circumstances do we fight. They mustn’t fight even if Dreyfus attacks then they are to get back here immediately.”

“Yes sir.” Aramay says and then walks out of the throne room.

He was trying to figure out which of the men he would ask to assist on this very important task when he saw three men standing by their horses. He recognized all of them immediately they were always together and always a huge pain to him. They were the fastest riders no question about that. He asks the three men if they’d like to go on a special task. They all agree if it’s for the king they would. He alerts them to go to Lord Bartholomeu, then Jonathan and then Tomas. He gives them the reason that he believes who they might attack first. The riders get on their horses which have already been brought out to the front of the castle. Aramay watches with his pants swaying with the breeze of the wind as the riders go in single column to reach the lands and give word to the people that an attack is going to happen. The three riders decide this would go much faster if they all didn’t have to stop in one place. This was all their homes so they decided that each of them would go to the three destinations alone. All three tried to warn Lord Shamis, but he wasn’t home so they decided to split up. Nigel with his short blond hair heads to Lord Tomas land to tell him while Erik goes to Lord Jonathan’s place which Zeke decides to tag along because Jonathan is on the way to Lord Bartholomeu’s.

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