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The returning of the ways.
Part 1 : Dawn of a new day.
As the sun rose over the mountain tops the growing city burst into life and began it’s daily routines. The miners had already started their trek up the mountain side, the bakers had the first of the days breads ready for sale to the women of the city, the morning patrol made their way to their posts to relieve the night guard. Life had been simple for the last few years. The new Lord had made sure that his people had no trouble with the Kagonesti, it was said he had managed to reason with them, however many didn’t believe that reason was something that was achieved with 500 heavy troops. When it came to it though they hadn’t been attacked for almost 3 years now and they’d managed to repair the wooden palisades completely, and construct various outer watch towers. The Northern fringe, next to the mountain was currently being cleared of woodlands making the possibility of the miners being ambushed minimal. With this security the town started to grow quickly, soon becoming close to city status. Even traders had started to make their way to the city, bringing in rare luxuries from distant lands. However the mercenary army had started to grow complacent, and turned their eyes and lusts towards the inside of the city gates. Soon enough the civilians of the city demanded that the mercenaries be disbanded, they complained of theft, bullying and even rape. The lord knew that he needed the army in case of a renewed Kagonesti threat, however the people would pull the city apart if he did not disband them. After much consideration he decided that he needed a city militia, thus asked those loyal mercenaries to stay under city law but the rest to leave. The militia kept the peace as well as they could but with the main bulk of the army gone they found it difficult to patrol the city’s perimeter. Recently less and less caravans had been coming to the city. No one knew why, crops had become infected with weeds, and trees seemed to be pushing back the boundaries, reclaiming the cleared lands. Concern had started to spread through the farmers, when this news was told to Lord Armen he simple said that it would pass, maybe it was due to the heavy rain of recent. Even with his words rumours were spreading that the Kagonesti were responsible, using black magics to starve the people.
Callum sat in the east gate tower, the sun just breaking the morning mist now. He could see the greens and browns of the of the near by fields, he blinked his eyes as in the distance he could see a shape, around the size of a bear but stood upright, it danced through the mist falling in and out of his vision. He watched it for a minute or two, until it stopped turned and looked straight at him. Even though it was so far away he could feel it’s eyes focus and study him. He felt his heart miss a beat and his mouth dry. He took a step back in fear, turned to run, he started to call for the gate captain.
Baraka the gate captain was woken by one of his men. “Sir. Sorry to disturb you sir, but there has been an accident Sir.” “What?” came the yawning reply. “Callum’s fallen from the tower, And he’s rambling like a idiot. Sir” “Oh dear lord… Is it like Cory, and Franks?” “Sounds like it Sir. This is getting strange. I mean when it was just Cory we could just dismiss it, but now with two others it’s starting to point to the idea that there is something out there.” “Seems like it. I think this should be brought to Lord Armen’s attention. I’ll go speak with him.”
Baraka came out of the wooden council hall, looked to the new stone building, which was almost complete, it would be a grand building and a vast improvement compared to the old building which was partly rotten now. With the wealth that was coming into the area Lord Armen had hired some foreign craftsmen to design and build this, the first fully stone building. He then looked to Dester, his right hand man, “Get the stable boys to get the horses ready. I want to ride out with 10 men within the hour. Get me some troops as well.” “Can I ask what we are to ride out for sir?” Asked Dester. “We ride out to hunt for ghosts.” He replied. “Ghosts sir? We hunt these people who dress as bears, and walking wolves then? If they are real sir then they are probably tricks of the Kagonesti.” “I know old friend, but the Lord has heard the ghost stories as well, and he believes that the people want to see that there is nothing to fear, or people will stop going into the woods.” “So we go to hunt down these elves, but mainly just as a display to show the people that we are safe?” “It would seem so. What ever the reasons it could prove to be a bit of fun.”
Part II : Ghosts in the mist. Coming soon. |
