Novelties & Souvenirs

It was a quiet night in the kingdom of Carther; the sky was over cast promising that rain would soon fall. Knights were stationed periodically on the battlements, some pacing back and forth, others slowly drifting off to sleep. A lone figure slipped out of the enormous castle, using a small wooden door on the side that was used only to take the slops out from the kitchen. Silently he made his way through the courtyard. His greatest fear was that someone would see him so he moved purposefully, slipping between pools of light created from torches set at intervals around the courtyard. His only protection was not to be seen. His green mottled cloak, that covered him loosely from head to toe, helped him to blend into the background as the nights shadows melded around his form.

As his body fell into the easy, reflexive movements, honed by countless hours of drills and training, his mind drifted back to several weeks before when he had received a strange note from his mentor. He had been sitting at his new home in one of the kingdoms districts; sharpening his Saxe knife; when suddenly he heard a horse galloping down the road. He walked outside and saw a courier, a messenger of the king, pull to a stop in front him. The courier handed him a single sack that was tied around his horse’s neck before riding off. Inside the sack was a silver oak leaf pin and a note. The oak leaf belonged to his mentor, but he couldn’t understand why his mentor would have sent it to him. On the note scribbled in small concise letters was the cryptic message: I will not be returning to finish my duties. All of my findings are waiting for you. Return to my home, look for the black box. It will give you the answer to everything that has been happening. He was unsure of what the message meant but it wasn’t long until he found out.

His mentor had been sent on an urgent mission to one of the outer domains of the kingdom. The mission was to scout out and decide how much of a threat a Rebel group was, that was hiding along the outer boarder of the kingdom and causing mayhem; burning houses, pillaging villages, taking hostages, and even threatening to seize control of several villages that were important for outside trade. He was supposed to return in a fort-night but when he didn’t, an uneasy suspicion began to circle around the castle.

A search party was sent out to find him, but unfortunately it was too late. His body was found in a river close to the last town he had been known to be in. A couple of young boys had been playing in a river by the town when they had seen his body floating towards them so they had pulled him out. Long arrows were sticking out of his back and there were deep wounds on his chest; most likely from being stabbed continually with a dagger. He had obviously put up a fight because there were bruise marks on his hands and there were also bruises on the tips of his fingers from him pulling the string of his bow back too sharply.

The thought of what had happened to his mentor made the mysterious rider shudder in his dark cloak. He shook his head and continued his slow, quiet retreat through the courtyard.

He made his way to the stables and entered. It was considerably darker in here due to the fact that the moon couldn’t reach inside; so the man slipped to the side of the door so as not to be silhouetted against the light of the doorway and waited for his eyes to adjust before he could move deeper inside. As he waited he used his keenly sharp hearing to check and make sure no one else was in the stables with him. As he passed down the row of slumbering horses he thought he heard the sound of someone approaching and froze. When there was no more noise he continued. At the very end of the stable was a short, black horse that was quietly sleeping. It looked up as the figure approached and made a low nickering noise. The figure lifted up his hand gesturing for the horse to be still. The horse quickly fell silent, sensing the urgency in the person’s manner.

The mysterious man opened up the stall door and slipped inside. He quickly harnessed and saddled the horse and then led it into the aisle. He took it to the front of the stable to leave but as he was leading the horse out of the stable a stable hand saw him.

They stood there for what seemed like an eternity, the stable hand staring up at his shadowed face in fear and the man gripping the reign to his horse tightly.

“H-h-hello,” the stable hand managed to stutter out. “You do know that the stables are closed this late at night. O-only knights are allowed in here at this time, incase they have a special assignment.”

The man knew he had to think of something and fast or he would be caught. “I was told to get my things and leave the castle,” the man said in an easy voice. He was grateful that he had been trained to be able to lie without detection but the boy nodded and the man could see in the boy’s eyes a flicker of enlightenment.

“I’m going to have to verify that with one of the generals,” the boy said. He was turning to leave when the man panicked and grabbed the back of the boy’s shirt and pulled him backwards.

The boy screamed and the man quickly let go of him. He couldn’t believe that he had let his fear get the better of him and now he had no doubt that he wouldn’t make it out of the castle gates.

The boy quickly ran towards the castle screaming and shouting. The man cursed at himself for being so careless and not checking more thoroughly for anyone out in the courtyard before he had entered the stables. A pang of longing flashed through the mans heart, and he strongly wished his mentor was with him. He would never have acted to rationally.

The man leaned near his horse’s ear and urgently whispered, “Escape!” The small horse recognized the command to run away and started to move forward. The man put his arm out in front of the horse’s neck and used its momentum to swing himself up into the saddle. It wasn’t too long before a group of guardsmen came out of the barracks near the castle. Seeing a cloaked figure galloping towards the bridge, they scrambled for their weapons and quickly began firing crossbow bolts at the fleeing rider.

The rider grabbed the reins and urged his horse to move quicker, not caring about the many darts that were whizzing past him and clattering off the cobbles. Hearing a lot of grating noise in front of him, the rider looked forward and saw the bridge to the castle starting to rise. Fear nipped at his sinking heart as he began to think he wouldn’t make it in time but he quickly pushed it away.

He urged his horse forward; into a flat out run. The time to escape was now or never.

The castle bridge continued to rise as the man drew closer. He needed more time and he needed to do something fast. He could hear the sound of cranking from the winching wheel up above the bridge gateway. The rider reached down and pulled a small object from his boots. The weapon was circular with sharpened blades aligning the outside of it.

He flung the weapon upward at the guards operating the winching wheel, hitting his target with deadly accuracy. It stuck in the man’s flesh above his elbow, causing a number of events to happen in rapid succession. First the man let go of the winching wheel and stumbled back on the battlements, holding his arm and cursing. The other man struggled to hold the bridge in place; he was grunting and calling out to the other knights on the battlements for help. Finally, some of the knights abandoned shooting at the rider and ran to help the struggling man at the wheel but there was no time to make a second shot before the mysterious rider passed through the gate.

The rider heard the hollow thumping as the horses hooves finally pounded onto the bridge and headed to the tip that was already eighteen men high off the ground with a widened gap full of water separating it from the other side.

The guards who had been firing at him had all ceased because he was too far away but the men on the wall began a new round of firing as the figure made it to the bridge. Fear circled their hearts at the thought of him getting away and their fear made them grow frantic and careless with their aim. Arrows were flying every where; some casting off far in front of him.

The horse reached the end of the bridge and jumped. The rider felt his stomach sink into his boots as his horse leapt out into space; afraid they wouldn’t make it. It was risky for his small horse to take such a large jump. His horse had never been the best at jumping; but he had taken the shot anyway. Suddenly the horse’s hooves touched solid ground and the impact jarred the rider, almost throwing him off. The rider quickly reached forward and grabbed the pommel of the horse’s saddle and luckily kept himself from falling off as the horse continued to gallop on.

Sharp bugle blasts began pealing off the rampart walls as the rider slipped into the safety of the surrounding shadows. He knew he had to move quickly or he would be caught. The bugle blasts were used to arouse the rest of the knights in the barracks and depending on how long it was between each blast would determine how dangerous the situation was. The rider slowly counted the distance between the next bugle blast and reached ten. Ten seconds between each blast meant that a traitor was on the loose and also told him that by the time the tenth bugle rang out the knights would be armed, mounted and after him. Another blast sounded but it was farther away as horse and rider continued their retreat from the castle.

It wasn’t long until they had reached the edge of a forest. The rider pulled his horse down to a quick walk as they entered the thick foliage. He pulled out a bow that had been strapped to his horse and strung it; then he grabbed an arrow and knocked it into place. It was dark and the only light the rider could see was small spots of moonlight that shone through gaps in the forest treetop. It didn’t matter to the rider if there was moonlight or not, he knew where he was going. He had been here thousands of times and had learned to memorize the trail he would have to take.

The rider kept his quick, sharp eyes peeled for any tell tale movement and the horse’s ears twitched back and forth also listening for anything that might be a threat to itself and its rider. The rider’s fingers absent mindedly stroked the knocked arrow feathers as he rested his bow at the ready across the saddle horn, and felt a twinge of sadness deep in his gut.

When his mentor had been found, all of his weapons were missing except his bow that was found farther down the river broken in half. People gossiped that it was the group of rebels he had been sent to spy on that had killed him; but no one could ever be sure unless the murderer was found.

The rider had become so sucked up with everything that was happening; the funeral, signing papers, trying to pass his days in the castle; that he had totally forgotten about the note his mentor had sent him. It wasn’t until he had been rummaging through his pack of things he had brought to the castle that he found the note again. He reread what was written on it and that’s when he knew he had to escape from the castle and find the mysterious box.

He came back to the present as they entered a small clearing in the trees. A tiny cabin was in the center of the clearing. It was made entirely out of wood and the rider could see where years of weathering had worn the wood into a smooth surface. There was also a stable by the edge of the clearing that was covered in branches and leaves and blended in with the forestry; only those who had well trained eyes would be able to pick it out at first glance. The rider came up to the stable, and quickly dismounted; signaling for the horse to stay. It felt strange telling his horse what to do when he knew that it would never even relax unless he told it to. His horse was specially trained when it was younger to stay near its master incase he needed a quick escape.

The man turned from his horse and walked to the house. He stopped in shock once he had entered the establishment. Everything in the house was destroyed. Books had been flung from their shelves, tables and chairs were tipped over, glass items lay broken and scattered on the floor. Everything was different from the last time he had been here. He remembered how his mentor had kept everything clean and neatly organized; nothing had ever been left out of its place. Only the dust in the room was the same. His mentor had believed it was the best way to know if someone had been sneaking around your home.

Someone had been here looking for something, and the rider had a good guess that it had to do with the box and its mysterious contents. Someone must have been trying to destroy whatever the box held, but who?

The rider thought back to who could have known about the box, other than himself and his mentor, and his heart filled with dread. The courier could have easily read the letter and told anyone who would pay the most money about it. But the only person who would want to know such information would be a double agent working for the rebels, which also meant that a true traitor was hidden somewhere behind castle walls.

The man quickly turned and made his way over to the door that would lead to the sleeping area. He was cautious and ready as he pushed open the door and entered the room just in case who ever had broken in was still hanging around. Everything in this room was in the same state as the outer room. He felt anger and sadness well up inside him as he saw how all of his mentor’s things were carelessly destroyed as if they didn’t mean anything at all.

All hopes for him finding the box shattered. He scanned his eyes over the room, thinking of who could be the traitor, when something that was engraven on the wall caught his eye. It was a giant oak leaf; the symbol of a Ranger, but that wasn’t why it had caught his attention. It was simply out of place, right in the middle of the wall with no other decorations surrounding it except the plain wood.

The man smiled; it was just like his mentor to hide something in the most plain as day spot knowing full well that no one would find it. He ran over to the wall and traced his fingers along the intricate carving, feeling for anything suspicious or out of place. He found a vertical line in the carving and as he traced it he found it curved around on itself to make a perfect square. He pulled a knife out his sheath and quickly scored the wall; following the crack.

When he was done he used his knife as leverage to pop the piece of wood out of the wall. Inside was a small black chest. He dropped the piece of wood and pulled the chest from the wall and set it on the bed. On top of the chest was also engraven an oak leaf.

The man opened the chest and saw it was crammed full of documents and letters. There was also another small chest but it was bound with melded iron straps. He didn’t have time to read any of the documents before he heard his horse’s low whinny from out front; quickly pulling all the contents out; he slammed the lid shut, shoved the box back into the wall and covered it with the wood again. Then he stuffed all the documents and the small chest into a jerkin and ran to the front room. Once there he grabbed what few provisions he could and ran from the house.

His horse had moved up closer to the cabin after it had sensed the danger coming. The man jumped onto his horse as he rushed from the home and then quickly rode of to the back of it. There, carefully obscured, was another trial. As he moved off into the trees he could clearly hear the sounds of horses coming and shouts from men from far beyond the clearing as they drew closer.

He urged his horse to a faster pace and soon the sounds of the pursuing group faded. He began weaving through the forest, taking different trails in hopes of confusing his followers.

His horse made a low whinny, so quiet; that only the rider and whoever else was close enough to him would hear. It meant it sensed a threat. The rider slowed his horse and concentrated his senses, straining to pick up what his horses sharper senses had picked up on before him. After a moment he could faintly hear the baying of dogs. Fear clutched his heart and he urged his horse faster as the baying grew closer.

He paid little attention to his surroundings as adrenaline rushed threw him; blinding his senses. His horse kept trying to veer from the trail, but the man pulled the reigns tight forcing the horse to run straight.

Suddenly his horse let out a loud whinny and the rider looked forward in time to see another horse burst through the trees off in front of him; it was at least twice the size of his own horse and it was carrying a large, heavyset man that was clad in armor. He saw now what was happening. The dogs had been used as a decoy and driven him into a trap.

The knight raised his arm and a large sword glinted threateningly in the moonlight. He grunted and then swung down. The rider pulled the reigns in on his horse and made a sharp turn; almost causing his horse to fall as it scrambled for footing in the soft ground, but the horse kept its footing and continued on. The knight’s blade barely missed and swung past the riders head as he was forced to duck. The rider pulled back the string of his bow and released it in a quick sideways snapshot.

The arrow hit its target; the leg of the knight’s horse. The horse fell down across the trail causing a momentary road block. The knight screamed out in agony as the horse pinned his leg underneath its heavy body. As the rider looked back he saw more knights rush out and trip over the horse that was laying there. Horses screamed as they fell, men were yelling in frustration and anger and there was more thudding sounds as the horses tried to stand but kept falling back down due to how soft the ground was. That would be a good barricade for the time being.

The rider took his chance and urged his horse to move faster and soon had the mayhem he had caused far behind him. He knew he still wasn’t safe and continued on his brisk flight. It wasn’t long until everything grew quiet and he finally allowed his horse to slow down.

The rider knew that he should be happy but he was upset with himself for not analyzing that the dogs could have been leading him right into a trap and for not listening to his own horse’s warnings.

He didn’t know what his mentor had written for him to find but was sure that it was the reason for his mentors death, the reason those men were chasing after him, the reason why he was told that he couldn’t leave the castle because they had to ‘question’ him about his mentor, and the reason why he had to become a traitor to the kingdom even though he had sworn never to leave the Kings Services. He knew if he went back they would take him to the Tower of Misery, where only the worst prisoners go because he was now marked as a traitor for disobeying orders straight from the king himself. He couldn’t return to the castle or to the king’s services until he fixed what he had set out to do. He had probably just injured most of the king’s best archers and knights and knew he would pay dearly for it. He would be stripped of his rank in the king’s services and he would be hunted, but he had to do this. Something wasn’t right and he had to protect the kingdom. It was his duty.

He turned his horse off the trail he was on and rode further into the forest. He had to move deeper into the uncharted parts of the land, places where no one went because they were too afraid from the folklore that circled around it.

He left without another thought at the life he was leaving or with even a hint of doubt in his mind. He knew where he was going and he was going to get there; one way or another.

It wasn’t long until the forest had consumed all traces of him and his horse, ghosted into the protective screen of the forest trees…