theworldofdreams.com

DESIRES OF THE MIST

~Chapter One~

In a distant town far to the west, I wake from a hard earned rest. As I fall from my bed, a thumping noise echoes in my head. After collecting myself from my morning ritual I drag myself to the kitchen to prepare myself some breakfast. Eggs were this morning’s singular choice of morning delight. They are all I could afford for the time being. As my morning banquet was preparing on the skillet and fire, I moved to the other side of my single room cottage and reached under my cot for something to wear. With my vast selection of brown rags or darker brown rags, I dressed myself and removed the eggs from the fire. I consumed my morning meal and continued on to the rest of my day.

I opened the tattered door of my mud-encrusted shanty into the cultivations of the poverty stricken neighborhood. I would smell the filth of the decay and rot if I hadn’t became so used to the revolting smell by now. The sky is hazed with filth and dust floating in the air that seems to swarm where I live. My dirt-lined skin has trouble feeling the warmth of the sun, when it manages to break through the haze. My brown grubby hair looks more like a rat’s nest than hair, and the slow winds pull it, rather than flow through it. I walk into the muddy and rocky street hoping not to step on something I can’t see in the mud, for like the other residents of this area, I can’t afford shoes.

I make my way to what would be called a job. I work for a local cattle farmer as a farm hand. Shoveling stables and feeding the cattle are about the extent of the five hours I work there. In return I am paid three coins, just enough each month to pay Sir Malthin for the house I have on his land. After I leave the farm I go to the blacksmith as an apprentice. I hope this is my way out of poverty; the skills as a blacksmith can be a well paid and rewarded. The blacksmith pays me five coins a week, which I use to pay the kings taxes and buy food.
One day, returning from the blacksmith, I heard the horrid news that reached the town a couple hours after nightfall. Peruthima had fallen, and we were going to meet the eastern kingdoms and fight the threat. The kingdom I live in, Delthu, has never had a need for war and our armies are small and weak. The king had ordered a draft for all local blacksmiths to produce vast quantities of weapons and armor. I was hoping to avoid the war with my blacksmithing, skills but I was enlisted into the Delthu army, much to my disappointment. I was to be sent a day’s travel by foot, north to the training lands for two weeks before embarking upon the war.

The next morning I woke, continued upon my normal routine and went straight from my house to the western gates of the city where we were supposed to meet that morning. Men from all different social classes of the kingdom stood together, waiting for Baron Cardabhatt to instruct us as to what to do next. When the men calmed down and talking was at a minimum, Baron Cardabhatt told us to line up in three lines and march behind him. He was a tall man, slightly thin in build, and pale in the face. He had very long silver hair that came out of a chain coif, which always hid his ears and neck.
His demanding purple eyes pierced the souls when he was angry, but cushioned it when he was soft. He led us riding on his large white steed, which he rode with pride and grace.

We traveled from sunrise, till sun fall, and late that night we arrived at the camp. We were told to rest, and tomorrow would be hard. When we woke, we were each one given a uniform, armor, weapons and a shield. We were ordered to go to the river and bathe every morning, something I had not done for some time, seeing as how the nearest river is at least a days travel from where I live. We had a daily schedule that consisted mainly of hours of exercise and weapons training. I took a fine hand to the bow myself.

After a week of training we were dived into specialized groups, based on the skills we had displayed. I was put into one of the archery squads. We would then be trained for another week on using the bow in more strategic scenarios. We would learn the assortments of using flaming arrows, and aiming in arches to rain down on our enemies, instead of at them at a horizontal plane. When training was finished we marched east.

The battles that we were trained for were going to be bloody and harsh. Baron Cardabhatt led his troupes with a great strategic mind, which gave us all hope. I don’t know exactly what to expect, but I know it isn’t going to be good. I will fight alongside my friends and allies in the depths of battle. I will fight for the seven virtues of old, to end the covetous ways of brutal hordes. Tomorrow when the battles starts, my skill will be put to the test, and the time of virtue will start.

hehe I will now add Rime to my list of great story tellers. Is this a story about your past, how the great RIme came to be?

Well done and my thanks! *smiles*

hummm, it might be... I havn't gotten that far yet, hehehe