Chapter 1, part I

Chapter 1 – Be a Knight Son....

The Kingdom of San d’Oria, a nation of regality, whose society was built around the noble Houses of proud Elvaan warriors that have sworn fealty to the Royal family. The pride of the San d’Orian military, are its two orders of Knights, the Temple Knights and Royal Knights. Temple Knights maintain peace and order within the Kingdom and the Royal Knights are more involved in missions outside the borders of the Kingdom.

“Be a Knight son, when you come of age.” were the words of his late father, Sir Ivalios. He was a proud and fiercely loyal Temple Knight. He was slain in an Orc ambush more than a decade ago, but those words echoed in his head as he laid down his broadsword with a ‘clang’ and sat on the side of his bed. After the day’s training, Elderon more bored than exhausted. Temple Knights were typically trained in the basics of martial warfare as squires, prior to imparting them the “Finer Arts of Knighthood”. He then removed his bronze armor, which he always found heavy and constricting.

“Finer Arts of Knighthood, my ass” Elderon grunted and stood up. As he donned his doublet, he inhaled deeply and glanced at a portrait of Sir Ivalios in white armor. “Sorry father, but knighthood just isn’t my thing” he said, half-speaking to the portrait. After getting dressed, Elderon made his way out onto the evening streets of Southern San d’Oria.

Southern San d’Oria, was the marketplace of the city, with the Auction House right in the middle with vendors and shops to the east and west of it. A Traveling Circus was at Victory Square, in front of the Auction House. They would pass through every now and then, but he had long outgrown his awe of the circus performances.

As he walked past a street vendor opposite the East Gate, he casually lifted a pack of Mithkabobs from a street stall which had its wares displayed out front. Phamelise, an orange-haired Elvaan Lady, who was manning the store, started shouting with a raised fist,

“Pay for that boy!”

“I did!”

Elderon shouted back, as he half-turned to face the store, teasingly waving his left hand with his back to the vendor. Only then did Phamelise notice a handful of gil where the mithkabob used to be.

That was the last of his gil, but he was hungry. He figured that he could always make some gil with a run in Valkurm Dunes. The traders in the port town of Selbina paid well for crabmeats and Pugil scales.

He began to recall the experiences he had in Squire training. He always was more nimble than his classmen, albeit of a smaller built as well. He could shoot the longbow better than any of his classmen, even better than some of his seniors. In melee training, in situations he and his classmen were taught to block using a shield and counter aggressively, Elderon, on the other hand would occasionally deftly dodge attacks completely and end up behind his opponents, leaving them vulnerable to a stab from the rear. On occasion, he may even perfectly dodge any attack, for about half a minute – much to the amusement of some of his classmen. The feat always left him winded and grasping for air though. His instructors usually have mixed reactions to that. “Training your endurance to take hits is a vital part of Kinghthood Elderon, part of mastering the Age old ability to take hits directly and remain standing.” Yeah, he’s heard that one before, of a Knight’s moment of “Invisibility”. He never liked the idea of getting hit, regardless. He shook his head and his mind was now at the present, as he strolled through the merchant district of San d’Oria.

He spotted Elanor, and old friend and an Elvaan Monk in training. She was looking over some items at the auction house. He walked up to her, as he finished the last stick of Kabobs.

"Heya Elly, looking for something?"

The white haired Elvaan looked up slightly startled "Oh, its you. Yeah, looking for some gear, mine's kinda worn out. Just got myself a pair of Metal Knuckles, I’m broke now. Everything is so expensive nowadays."

"Well yeah. Hey I'm broke too, wanna go hunt some goblins?" Elderon asked, with a grin.

"You mean pick their pockets right?"

With a shrug, Elderon replied "Well yeah, I pick their pockets while you punch their faces in. Too late to head out to the Dunes now, the Bogeys are coming out soon. Aren’t you excited to try out those knuckles?"

"Oh well, might as well. West Ronfare?"

"Nah, lets head to La Theine. The Orcs and Gobs there carry more valuable loot.” he said, smirking.

La Theine Plateau, a relatively flat, wide area of lush grassland. Grazing sheep herded by Elvaan Farmers are a common sight. Travelers and merchants between Sand d’Oria and Selbina to the south, usually steer way from the deep crevices that break the monotony of this grassland.

After about an hour of trekking, the Elvaan pair made their way slowly along the makeshift path leading down a rather steep slope. About halfway down the slope Elderon came to a halt and crouched behind some rocks, held his right hand up, signaling for Elanor to stop.

“What is it?”

“Shhh! Not so loud” Elderon whispered, putting a finger to his lips.

“What is it?” Elanor whispered.

“There, that Goblin, holding a crossbow.” Elderon pointed to a short greenish looking creature, carrying a rather large haversack on his back, and its face hidden behind a leather mask and longish ears sticking out its side.

“Yeah, I see him, Ambushers they are called, I think” Elanor affirmed.

“He’s walking this way, wait for him to pass, then we jump him.”

Elanor nodded once.

The pair of budding adventurers waited as the goblin took his time, and walking pass the rock they were hiding behind, passing the pair, from left to right. The setting sun helped to conceal their presence from the Goblin. When the goblin was about thirty feet off to the right, Elanor ran off to the left and shouted at the creature to get his attention.

“Hey! Barf-bag!!”

The goblin turned around and let out a low growl as he lifted his crossbow and took aim and fired off a shot, the bolt grazing the young Monk on her right arm.

“Ow! Bugger!” she cursed, as the goblin started charging towards her, and reloading the crossbow at the same time.

“You want a piece of me? Co’mon then!!” she taunted, attempting to provoke the creature further.

The monk then fell into a fighting stance, left foot forward, arms slightly raised with fists at shoulder level and the spikes of the metal knuckles pointed towards the oncoming goblin. The creature fired another round but missed Elanor. The Goblin Ambusher continued his charge, pulling out a dagger as he closed in on the monk. When the goblin got within striking range, he threw a stab at the monk, who evaded with ease. He tried to stab her again, this time Elanor sidestepped to her right, the Goblin overcommitted and his torso was wide open. In one motion, Elanor raised her fully bent left leg and tucking her hands in. Elderon watched and knew what was coming next as this wasn’t their first time hunting beastmen. Elanor’s left foot shot out like a coiled spring being released, towards the chest of the goblin. Her heel connected with the creature with a loud crack. Elderon winced as he knew instinctively that the goblin definitely broke something. The goblin groaned and staggered a few steps backward. The next thing the goblin felt were Elanor’s brand new armored spiked fists connecting once on each side of his head, shattering the fiber-glass lenses of the Goblin’s leather mask. The disoriented creature started growling and swinging its blade wildly, hoping to hit something. Elanor backed off, to avoid the wild slashing. The goblin ceased his aimless slashing after several seconds. The creature dropped his dagger on the ground and pulled out a device resembling a black sphere, from the side of his haversack.

"Bomb!" Elderon warned, as he rushed towards the fight, with the back of the goblin facing him.

Elanor recognised the threat and crouched low for a split second and then sprang forward towards the Goblin, ramming the beastman with her shoulder. The bomb dropped to the ground harmlessly, with its owner thrown three feet backwards, landing on his back. The Goblin got up groaning and reached for another bomb.

The last thing the creature felt was a cold blade entering the back of its neck, loosing all sensation to his limbs and body and everything going dark.

“Nice 3 hit combo Elly, we make a good team.” Elderon commented with a smirk, as he knelt over the fallen goblin, and swiped his dagger a few times on its tunic to get the blood off.

“Not too bad yourself. I thought Squires and knights used Longswords?” teased Elanor, knowing Elderon’s detest of his warrior training into Knighthood.

“Bah! I’m not going back there.”

“So you’re leaving the Academy? For good?”

“Yup, I’m not going back there.”

Elderon then started to rummage through the belongings of the Goblin. He examined the crossbow carefully and fastened it to his belt. He threw everything out of the haversack that wasn’t of value and then carried it on his back. He padded across the tunic of the Goblin, felt a slight bulge in one of the pockets. He then pulled out a small bag of coins.

“Elly!”

“What?”

“Beastcoins Elly!”

“Well I’d never….”

“Hah!” Elderon elated. “This should last me a while!”

“Half is mine, remember?”

“Yes, yes of course. Let go back up the slope first”

The two young adventurers then made their way back up the slope they came down from. Once at the top Elderon passed some of the loot to his monk friend, to split the load. Elanor put the loot in the small sack she carried, slung across her back. The two Elvaan then started trekking north back to Ronfare.

“Isn’t that like a cardinal sin or something?” Elanor asked during their trek.

“What is?”

“Leaving the Academy”

“Oh that, well I won’t be the first and I don’t care really.” Eldeorn said with a shrug.

“Oh? There was another?”

“Well yeah, there was this other fella, think Winnd was his name. Supposedly he is fierce in a fight and deadly with a War-Axe. He didn’t think much of being a tight arsed Paladin either, at least that what I heard. Happened several years ago I think, no one talks about it much at the academy.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. Oh and no offence about the ‘tight arsed Paladin’ thing. I know you sister Elanie was one of them.”

“Yeah, she’s long gone tho, haven’t heard from her for a long time.”

“She’ll be fine I’m sure. And we better pick up the pace, we don’t want to run into an….”

Elderon was interrupted by several loud growls and a warcry from behind him.

“…. Orc patrol”

[To be continued....]