Almost reaching deadline, but think I made it on time! Here goes my story for this week's card: the Silvershield Knight!
Flavour text:
In shining armor we stand, our shields as bright as light. Be humble, be fair, come in peace... or else be ready to fight.
The rise of the Silvershield Knight
Woke up with a splash of water down my head and the sound of laughs.
“Rise and shine, rookie! Time to move out!”
I stood up cursing, but looking at the smiling faces of the men around, couldn't help but smile too.
A Silvershield Knight.
Still felt like a dream.
Since my 12th birthday, when I was accepted as an apprentice, I trained hard. So hard. Being the youngest of 5 brothers probably helped in surviving the “bullying” of the first year, when most of the aprentices quitted; but after that, came years and years of sacrifice and study, learning the ways of knights, how to fight, changing the way to think, as the strick code of honour became a part of me too. And then, only one month ago... the ceremony. 6 long years, but I could finally call myself a Silvershield Knight.
Or a rookie, as I was called by the older knights; I heard it frequently, as frequently as the water buckets at sunrise, the serpents hidden in the boots and all the other mischiefs that I knew I would probably endure for the first year. “You need to toughen up, rookie!”, I heard. But I didn't mind. I wanted to be part of the Silvershield brotherhood since I could remember, and the dream finally came true.
We were thirteen in the raiding party. 4 “rookies”, two older knights for each of us, and the commander. My first mission! But I knew we were only there because this was almost a routine raid, and a good way to start gaining some experience. Cattle was misteriously disappearing from one of the villages, and we were ordered to investigate.
We had arrived at nightfall at the village, so the commander decided to rest and start early in the morning. “Bah. Some drunk villager left the gates opened, for sure. Or a pack of hungry wolves had lunch.” I heard my comrades say, as we were getting ready to leave.
We rode our horses to the nearby fields, where the disappearances took place. Nothing unusual there. A small herd still stood there, but in an odd maner: all the animals were close together.
“Strange. The animal do seem frightened. That's not normal, with all the space around they should be grazing.” Said the commander. “Ok, lets split in three groups and have a look around.” “Thomas, James, Patrick, you take Alan and go west; Julian, Aleister, Ronnie, you take John and go east. The rest of you, with me. We gather here in two hours.”
I rode with the commander and the other three older knights.
“What do you reckon, Commander?” I asked “No idea. Could be nothing, a wild animal around... let's see what we will find.”
After riding for a little more than an hour... we heard some noise in a nearby clearing. We approached carefully. And as we entered the clearing, there they were.
Three calves, staring at us.
“Ah, what did I told you?” Said Mitchell, one of the older knights “Drunk peasants for sure! They lost the damn cows! Ah ah”.
“There were a lot more lost than these three, for what I've been told.” The commander replied “Oh well, we head back and take these three, lets see what the others found. We are already running late.”
It took us almost two hours to go back. “Eh, I bet the other ones are already having lunch!”, Mitchell was joking as we were getting closer.
But as soon as we arrived, we knew something was wrong. The four man waiting us had a concerned look on their faces.
“Why those faces? And where are the others? They should be here more than an hour ago.” I could notice the tension in the commander's face; he knew something was happening.
“No sign of them yet, commander. And...” Thomas hesitated “... we found some of the missing cows... or at least part of them. I have never seen something like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Their bodies were ripped apart, and were scattered everywhere. And some of the pieces had marks I had never seen.”
The commander frowned. For a few seconds, everyone was silent. Then he spoke.
“Everyone on their horses, and shields in place. We go together, we need to find our brothers FAST!”
We all mounted our horses and headed on the direction the missing group had took.
I had been able to keep my calm so far, but as we rode out horses, my fear grew. What I thought was an easy ride as a knight, a way to get to know my brothers better, turned into a completely different experience. What could have done that to the animals? Were the other knights ok? What if something happened to them?
The look on my face probably showed my thoughts. Mitchell's horse approached mine. “Fear not Arthur. It's allright to be scared, but don't let it dominate you. You are a Silvershield Knight, remember your training. I bet we will f...”
Thomas's words died in his mouth when we heard the scream up ahead.
“Hurry! Up ahead!” The commander said, as it rushed his horse straight front.
And only after one minute, we found out the origin of the scream.
The green beast was standing in the middle of the road. It was almost three meters high, the huge muscles clearly seen on his naked torso and arms. But above all that, it was the eyes that got our attention. The huge evil yellow eyes, looking contemplty at our commander, while grabbing one of the knights by the neck with only one arm , his feet off the ground, breathing heavily.
He seemed to wait for all of us to gather, as he started talking in a guttural voice:
“Shhhilllverknighthsssss.... was thissss yuuu loooking fooooorhhhh?”
And then he closed the hand. We heard the snapping sound. And the breathing from our comrade stopped.
The commander shooked his head, a raging pain on his eyes. “You will pay for this, Orc.”
With a loud roar... the Orc charged, and we charged as well! The adrenaline of the battle rushed in, making me forget how scared I was. Only close to 100 meters between us and the beast. This should be quick, I thought. But midway through the charge, a loud roar to the left.
“Ammmmbu...”
And Patrick didn't had time to finish the word, as a massive green shadow jumped from the trees and lunged at him, sending knight and horse to the ground.
There were two of them!
I jumped off my horse as quickly as I could, since I was the one closest. Two other knights rushed in too, while the rest continued the charged. The Orc was about to grab Patrick, when I landed on the ground midway between the two, the sword in my hand and the shiny shield on the other one. But he didn't seemed impressed at all. He quicly faced me, and with a swift movement sent his massive arm in my direction. I only had time to lift the shield as his hand punched.
And I flew a few meters back.
Never in my life had I took a blow like that. I felt dizzy, and for what it seemed like an eternity, slowly tried to lift myself off the ground. I saw by the corner of the eye the first Orc disappearing in the woods with the commander and the other knights, wounded.
But as I looked back to the place where I was moments ago, only one of the knights was standing, swinging his sword against his foe; and as his sword slashed one of the Orc's leg, a blow in the head sent James to the ground, where he stood motionless.
The Orc turned his eyes to me. A small grin in his face.
“Shilllverknighhht... you''lll shuffeerrr nowww”.
And then he came.
All sorts of thoughts came to my mind in those brief seconds. Could this be the end? We live as knights, we die as knights, those were the words I heard over and over again. I wouldn't go down without a fight.
I raised my shield to the beast in the battle stance, waiting for a miracle to happen... and then I saw the light reflected from the shield in the Orc's chest.
It was the only chance I had. I waited until the last second... and when he was about to reach me, I changed the shield position, and the light reflected right in his eyes. And in the split second that the Orc was blind, my sword flew to his throat. He stared at me while life abandoned his body, disbelief in his eyes.
I was alive.
I heard a moan, coming from where Patrick had landed earlier. He is still alive!
As I arrived to help Patrick, the commander and two others appeared from the trees; bruised, but alive.
We had won... but the price was too high. Thirteen we were... only five were breathing.
The commander called me later that night.
“You did well, Arthur. Not many knights can fight an Orc and live to tell the tale. Now it's time to mourn our fallen brothers. And tomorrow, to prepare ourselves... because dark days aproach. You made me proud today.”
And from that day, never was I called a rookie again.