Lowborn's Rise
Chapter 4
*** (Author's Note): As is with my other works, I'm trying to put all chapters into paper as best as I can. Still, there's still plenty of rough edges that I plan to iron out once every chapter of this story is out. Initially I just planned to pour out sex scenes set in a medieval-like fantasy world, bereft of any story or character development. Something to let my steam off. But my own nitpickings got the best of me and here we are.
This is to inform you still, no sex scene just yet. But we're headed up to that. For now, our boy Will has to learn his duties in his new station.
Thank you for taking the time and this chapter has more than 2,500 words just to give a heads up.
It had only taken a single kick to wake Will up. Which was an improvement, as he was getting used to the routines of being a soldier. He had some leeway when it came to his sleep back when he was a farmhand.
"I'm up, I'm up," Will instinctively replied to no one in particular, his eyes still bleary from sleep that he could see his own hand save for a blur of suntanned flesh. He never took off his gambeson as he slept, immediately falling to his cot once they had arrived from their five day journey, and Will slept with the spear in his grip and the axe holstered to his belt. His feet moved on their own, following the smudge of movements from the outside of their barracks, only to walk straight unto the doorframe. The feeble shack that was their barracks, shook at the impact, dust falling from the rafters and wooden posts wobbling.
The veteran merely shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Come on greenhorn! We need every able hands on this," as the older man guided him by the scruff of his gambeson, not harshly but still in a quite firm grip.
Half-awake, he held his spear in this hand, practically blind as he was guided to another task. The air was especially biting and all around them was the cover of darkness. Will pegged it sometime in the small hours of the night before morning comes.
"Uh-where you want me sir?" Will asked to the veteran soldier whilst trying to blink the blurriness from his eyes to no avail. His eyes were wide open, but all he can see of the world was a great smudge of it.
"Stick with your squadron. Look each other's back. And don't get killed."
"Wait- -what?"
It was the tone in which the veteran spoke that snapped Will fully wake. He had thought it to be another drill. As he looked about him he saw bodies moving to and fro, unable to make the finer details with his groggy eyes. Lanterns being lit and men forming up. There was a tension of the air as the men rushed out of the shaky gates of the outpost and Will stumbling in half-awake attention.
"Are...we-we aren't going for a drill are we?" Will asked his fellows, him among the front in a group of five. Two men faced the way they came and walked backwards, whilst three, Will including, face forward. All three had spears ready and hoisted. There were three paths, all diverging from the outpost towards three different entrances to the mudhut village. The other group, also numbering five and included the old, grizzled giant of a captain took the backmost entrance. Will and his group would sweep the front. Will's vision was slightly getting better by the second as he saw the bobbing lantern light diverging away from theirs, like some giant firefly, illuminating the men that held them.
"Still asleep laddie?" jested the fellow beside Will, sporting a scraggly beard and stood half a head taller than him. His eyes constantly pointed forward gazing steadily in the dark as they made slow by stable progress.
"No, we are not going for a drill. Were on patrol, greenhorn," added by another man, Will could not make out his face for he wore a skullcap and a scarf that only showed his eyes. A scar ran through one of the eyes. "Your very first night in patrol. Let's hope it not be your last," There was a tinge of humor in Skullcap's tone, eliciting a brief laughter among their group. Will took no offense, recognizing it as men easing the tension. His fingers would clench and unclench around the shaft of his spear, eyes too scanning the shadow of the night.
Skullcap's spear had a small lantern tethered to metal ring, just right below the spear head, as was Beard's.
"Listen here laddie, should things turn for the worst and any beasty come prowling out of the dark, I leave it to you to strike the killing blow," Beard instructed Will in a matter-a-fact tone.
"W-what?" Will stammered, part from the mention of beasts and part of being handed such a responsibility.
"Oh Aye, the damn things always try to go for the ones holding the light. But my spear is heavy, what with the dangling piece of metal there," Beard nodded towards the lantern, "And my joints are starting to creak. Same goes for the helmeted fellow there"
"I ain't as old as you, old man" growled Skullcap, scarred eye still scanning the path in front of them. They were near some of the houses now. So near that Will thought he could hear the people inside, shifting within and still very awake. At this time of the night?
"But I admit that the damn lanterns messes with the balance of the spears each time I swing or thrust. So don't fuck up greenhorn. Unless you want to end up like poor, stupid Hollard," Skullcap almost spat the name.
"W-who's Hollard?" Will asked.
Beard was about to open his mouth when the baying of hounds sounded off, in the back most path of the village. Followed by a shrill beastlike howl unlike Will had ever heard on his time on this holy earth. It sent every hair on his skin to stand on their ends.
"What the hell?!" the young levy swore, looking towards the other direction.
"Eyes forward, greenhorn! Seems it's going to be an exciting night for your first patrol! Ha!" Skullcap ordered, there was laughter in his voice but it was forced and tense. Will eagerly obeyed.
"Alright stop here, and eyes out on the crop fields laddie, those are our priority ya hear?" Will's group stopped at the mouth of the path, just five strides away from the first row of houses that lined the outer rim of the village. "The village elder and his men secures much of the village inside. While we have to make sure no beasty would mess up the outer fields and the livestock."
A few of them sat on the side of the path, backs behind one another. Eyes alert and such. Will joined Skullcap and Beard on surveying the fields and the outlying houses so close to them. Will caught whiff of something putrid, reminded him of some unwashed livestock back at the farm he grew up on. He glanced towards the roof and arched his brow. It seemed to be coming from up roofs.
As fast as it came, so too did it go. He opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and moved unto his watch.
On the others side of the village, Will could hear shouts and shrill screaming. It was odd how quiet it is on this side of their patrol. Will had to chastise himself from staring in the direction of the commotion. He cast his eyes towards the fields, the moon hidden behind thick blankets of clouds.
They were in the farther edges of the village, some houses not joined closely amongst their neighbors. These were smaller in size along with the plot of their fields and the crops in them. Will's eyes trailed this houses, then settling on the farthermost household, almost edging its backyard with the primordial forest that sloped towards mountainous land. It was a ramshackle affair of wood and dried mud and in the brief blessings of piercing moonlight he could just make out the few crops that grew in their plot of field.
Another louder baying of hounds resounded from where the other group was, snapping Will's attention away. It was faintly followed by the shouts of men.
"Close the window fool!" hissed a voice, that of a woman. Will turned to look and was surprised to see a head stick out a window of the very poor, little house he just surveyed mere moments ago. It was a woman, the unmistakable curves of her breast silhouetted from the light within their home and the shadow of long hair faintly trailing on her shoulders. It was dark and Will was farther away from their house to make any finer details than that. Curiosity it seemed, drew her to all the commotion.
"You want to be dragged and mauled into the night?" Said the same voice that attracted Will's attention, not belonging to the one near the window.
"Sorry, sister," Spoke the woman on the window, her voice seemed the younger of the two.
"Don't be sorry fool! Use that head of yours!" the voices grew muffled as the two argued inside the house and the window was closed. It was a momentary distraction for Will, wanting to ease his tension, watching that little family drama. And Will was about to turn back to his patrol when he saw it.
It was fast.
And big.
As big as a cow, if cows could move as agile and nimble as cats. It darted right into the fields, not making a sound but the visible disturbance of its presence was telling in the parting of leaves.
