[Mkguild] Patrol IX

[Jack Moore]

AN: Meant to send this out sooner, just too busy. I need a vacation.

May 18th, 697
It was cloudless that day, a rarity on the coast. I was sweating and
nursing bruises on my arms. Whenever I trained with a weapon the knights
were not actually allowed to strike me. But they did all the time.
If father had known he'd have had them dismissed...at best. So I decided
just to not let him know anytime someone hit me in training. I mean, I
didn't want to get anyone in trouble, even Master Ban who kept the stables
and trained me on how to ride a horse.
I may have hated that animal and hated Master Ban even more but I didn't
want them to get in trouble.
"You're dead again sir." Sir Vent said, striking my legs with the staff of
his glaive. His motion flipped me on my back. Before I could get up a blade
was pointed at my chest. "Terribly sorry about that sir."
Sir Vent didn't usually sword fight with me, in fact he wasn't even the
first back up but the second. Unlike Sir Tallis he was a bald, with a thick
neck and little beady eyes. The hot sun turned his head cherry red.
Sir Tallis was being kept late because his son was sick with some illness.
Sir Enfer I had no idea about. I missed Sir Tallis, I hoped Enfer would be
gone for a long time.
"But why can't he just call a healer to look after him?" I whined.
"Whenever me or that brat gets sick, father always calls one." Sir Vent,
one of the many legions of knights my father kept on retainer, did his best
to hide rolling his eyes. "If they can look after me, they can look after
Tallis' kid too!"
"That is true young lord." Sir Vent said. "But your father doesn't want to
call the court physician to the aide of just a knight." I lowered my
training glaive.
"Okay well then I want to call him. I'm the son of the Lord; go tell him to
see Sir Tallis." Sir Vent exchanged a knowing smile with two of the knights
standing guard. They smiled back. "What?"
"Your father has already said no such things will be done." Sir Vent said.
"Don't worry; Sir Tallis will be back as soon as he can." Most of the
knights lived in barracks on the manor grounds. Some, though, had risen
high enough in my father's estimate to warrant small cottages.
These small cottages dotted the grounds and the line of the Brummagem
forest. Sir Tallis's was on the edge of the forest, as far as it could get
from the manor. It sat on a hill that overlooked Isenport. I'd never been
inside of it but I had ridden by on horse once.
Father said it's important to know where servants lived but never to accept
an invitation in. You have to remind them of their place.
My current round of glaive training had come after a morning spent working
on penmanship, studying history and learning how to dance. Somehow being
beaten upside the head with a hard piece of wood hurt less then having to
dance.
"Vent why do I have to do this?" I whined while returning to my fighting
stance. He cocked his head.
"What do you mean sir?"
"Why do I have to learn how to fight with a glaive?" I said. "It's so
boring and I mean, when is it going to be helpful?" Sir Vent's expression
didn't change, he looked completely confused.
"Why wouldn't it be helpful sir?" I sighed.
"Never mind Vent. I guess...I just don't get it."
"You will eventually sir." Vent said in his simple way. I look back at this
thick headed man and I don't feel anger. I feel a kind of pity. Life must
be so simple when your outlook is uncomplicated. Things happen because they
happen, no need to think beyond that.
We again went through our routine of glaive fighting. I was faster then Sir
Vent and more coordinated, but he had about two hundred pounds on me. The
moment his weapon made contact with mine it went sailing out of my hands.
Every blow knocked me back on my rear.
'This is so boring.' I dodged one of Sir Vent's swings. 'Tallis would have
been talking to me. He'd make this fun. Why'd his dumb son have to go and
get sick now? Did it just to make me have a bad day.'
I hit Sir Vent as hard as I could in the leg with the staff of my glaive.
The blow sent shocks up my arm and did nothing to him. He just smiled at me
with pity. After this I gotta study tactics and strategy, what's the
difference? Why do I got to do any of this? I never wanted to be son of a
lord.
"Are you getting tired sir? If so we can head early to your grammar
lesson." I groaned.
"Can't I get some falconry time?" I asked, wringing my hands on the glaive.
"Oh I'm sorry young sir, only Sir Tallis is allowed to train you when it
comes to falconry. Your father's orders." He would do that, that's what
frightens me.
"Let's keep training." I mumbled. "I wouldn't-
"The manor is on fire!" The yell from a washwoman interrupted us. We turned
to see smoke pouring out from my father's bottom floor office. The window
was broken and papers were flying out as fast as they could.
Everything that happened next seemed to happen in slow motion. Sir Vent
dropped his glaive as I dropped mine, splashing mud all over me. Vent
turned and ran, followed by the other knights.
The serving women were also running now. For some reason I remember the
girl carrying clothing from the wash house dropping it as she ran. All of
the whites blew away and one sheet blew around my legs.
I kicked it off and walked through the thronging knights, towards the fire.
The heat and embers blew my hair back and singed at my eyebrows. For a
second I wondered if my father was in the fire. Only for a second.
The window was now consumed with columns of black smoke, with a dull glow
across the bottom. I don't know what I felt then beyond confusion. Seeing
my house on fire felt unreal. I was completely numb.
"James!" The voice broke through the numbness. "James come here!" I turned
away from the fire. The world all around me became a blur of heat, bodies
and smoke. All of them seemed to fall away from one figure in the distance.
"Sir Tallis?" He smiled at me, and beckoned me forward. "What-what are you
doing here?"
I walked past the swarming people. Despite being the second most important
person in Isenport, no one paid me any notice. One knight even bumped into
me. The chorus of voices called for people to get out and to locate my
father.
"I'm glad you're okay James" Sir Tallis said, pulling me into an embrace.
"When I saw the manor was on fire, I rushed here to get you." I nodded, not
really understanding what he was saying.
"Why are you here?" I asked. "I thought your son was sick." Nemo just kept
smiling.
"Don't worry, I'll explain later." He took my hand. "Come on, I need to get
you out of here."
"Bu-but I" I glanced back at the mansion but stumbled on along behind him.
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