Forsaken Forecast

The morning after we arrived in the city, I was feeling right at home. Having grown up with a pair of sisters, I knew of the trouble that came to be expected with getting ready for one’s day .

Mira had repeatedly shaken our bunkbed throughout the early morning as she made frequent trips to the restroom out in the hall. The shaking of the bed had been just enough to jolt me out of my dreams but not enough to whisk away my drowsiness.

During one such trip of Mira’s that woke me up, I heard Alice making rustling noises and watched as she made both her bed and her sister’s bed, seemingly, Alice was not one to leave even the simplest of tasks for the housekeepers of the inn.

Perhaps that was why Zoe had enjoyed tailoring my clothes so much the other day, her lady refused to be idle when it came to chores meant for her servants.

As for the other Wallace sister, I could feel a light lump breathing against me. Kat was currently napping with her head on my chest. She had actually been the first to wake-up earlier, choosing to make sure we all knew it by going around pulling away all of our blankets, opening our eyelids, and jumping on her bed until Alice couldn’t take it anymore.

After a soft scolding from Alice, Kat had chosen to go back to sleep but, since Alice had already been making both their beds, Kat decided that the best course of action was to slither her way over to me and take half of my blanket for herself. Eventually Mira came back from her tenth trip to the bathroom, laughing at me as I was still in a daze of what to do with the sleeping little lady. Mira laughed so hard that it caused Alice to notice and pull Kat off of me and out of her dreams.

“But sis, he was so comfortable.”

Those of us who stayed in the inn had the luxury of taking baths in the communal bathing areas, separated by gender, on the first floor of the inn. Zoe explained to us that the layout of the baths were filled with a number of stalls that one could use to wash themselves, while any water used would slowly trickle towards the center of the room where a massive drain was installed. Apparently the drained water would just sit in a pit under the baths until the end of the month which it would then be disposed of by a cleaning service the inn hired to remove all of the inn’s waste.

“You all have two options for washing yourselves,” Zoe continued. “You can either ask those in the bath who can use Torius to help you or you can ask the inn for a bucket and go fetch water for yourselves from an outside water-pump.”

“I’ll wash myself and Kat,” Alice said which made Kat smile at her. “Zoe, could I ask you to help Mira out?”

“Of course,” Zoe said with a slight bow. Alice thanked her before taking Kat by the hand and heading towards the women’s bath.

Mira smiled bashfully at Zoe as she rubbed the back of her head. “I’ll be in your care then.”

“Wait, what about us?” Chris asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

“You’ll just have to go get a bucket,” Caleb laughed.

Zoe let out an exasperated sigh. “Sir Caleb, I believe you have served by Sir Nathan’s side for a few years now, correct?” Caleb’s face slightly darkened as he nodded to Zoe’s question. “As such being the case, I believe that you should be at least proficient in the basic usage of magic when it comes to the four elements.”

“Erm… well I, suppose?”

Zoe plastered a smile on her face as she gripped Caleb’s shoulder tightly, she stood on the tips of her feet in order to reach his shoulder. “Then you will aid my Lady’s friends in their baths.”

“All of them?” Caleb asked, his voice cracking as he spoke.

“All of them,” Zoe affirmed as she took Mira by the arm and followed after Alice.

By the time Caleb finished helping us all wash ourselves, the man himself was left exhausted as he weakly sat in one of the bathing stalls. It seemed that even using simple magic for an extended time took its toll on one’s body. Chris, Luke, and I all decided to return the favor and went out and fetched a bucket full of pumped water and left it by his side. I could have sworn I heard Caleb ask for help for his own wash but we all quickly left after dropping off the bucket without giving his request a second thought.

Once everyone finished, with a tired Caleb joining us last, we were all fetched by Sir Nathan and led to a nearby tavern that was discounted for guests of the inn we had stayed at. We had a pleasantly light breakfast at the tavern, mostly just scrambled eggs and an exceedingly high amount of bread loaves.

It was after the first round of eggs were served that Chris and Luke decided they were going to have a little egg eating challenge, much to the dismay of Sir Nathan’s wallet. By the eight egg both of the so-called "heroes" were dealing with stomach aches that they could only really blame themselves for. Kat had tried to join them but Alice had stepped in to disuade her. She convinced Kat by claiming that Mira asked if Kat could demonstrate to her how a true and proper Lady ate eggs for breakfast. At the cost of making Mira look like a weirdo who had never seen an egg before in her life, she had managed to limit the amount of people involved in idiotic antics at our table to just the two eggheads that were fighting for their lives to keep the food down.

Afterwards we headed to the clinic, Mabel was sitting up on her cot as a healer gave her a quick health check while casting a spell called “Remeura.” She waved us over once she spotted us.

“How is she looking, doctor?” Sir Nathan asked.

“With her eyes, duh,” Caleb snorted, laughing at her own joke.

“Hey doc, instead of me, you should probably cast some healing on his head, something must be wrong in there if he thinks he’s being funny,” Mabel said.

Caleb gave her fellow knight a rather rude hand gesture which Mabel took with pride and reciprocated the same finger back at him.

“So this is how Holy Knights act,” Luke whispered.

“Of course not, these two are just that simple-minded,” Sir Nathan retorted.

“She’s doing better, but she’s still weak from all of the bloodloss,” the healer said.

“But I’m okay enough to travel.”

“Is she?” Sir Nathan asked.

“If it were just a matter of riding peacefully in the back of a wagon, I would say so but based on what you told me…”

“You’d be more of a hindrance than help,” Caleb remarked grimly.

“Caleb,” Sir Nathan scolded.

“No, captain, the town’s idiot is right.” Mabel touched the scar the cleaver-like sword had left on her face. “Plus the doc says that he should be able to fully heal this hideous mark off my face.”

“Nonsense,” Sir Nathan said as he removed her hand from her face. “That mark just shows how seriously you took our mission, the meaning behind it is something to be proud of.”

The way Sir Nathan caressed Mabel’s cheek made what was supposed to be a moment of inspiration seem more like an intimate moment that should be happening behind closed doors, and it seemed like others were in agreement.

 A smile formed on Zoe’s lips while Alice covered Kat’s eyes with her hands as the young lady started giggling. Luke and Mira looked on with sparkles in their eyes, it was the same look in the eye they got whenever we got together and binged soap operas back home. The only ones not showing much of a reaction were Caleb and Chris. Caleb was indifferent and as for Chris, the guy had a rather dejected look on his face.

I wonder if his reaction has something to do with last night. I made a mental note to ask him how his plan went later on.

Back to the two knights in front of us, they stayed lost in each other’s eyes until the sound of the healer coughing snapped them back to reality. Having their faces turn beet red, the two knights pulled away from each other in a rather awkward manner.

“Ahem, back to the matter at hand, though it would be better to have as many capable fighters with us, it would be wiser to have Mabel stay and watch over Sir Albert as she rests.”

“Right,” said a blushing Mabel.

“In that case, should we get ready to head out, Captain?” Caleb asked with a stifled yawn.

Sir Nathan nodded with a grunt.

“Wait, what about Kat?” Alice asked.

“Well, I’m coming along too.”

“No you’re not. Right, uncle?

Sir Nathan took a moment to think, playing with his little mustache as glanced between Alice’s worried eyes and Kat’s cheerful smile.

“I think it would be best if we took her with us.”

“Why?”

“Because, we still do not know who those people were or why they chased us. Their motive, though it could be as simple as wanting to destroy the future leaders of House Wallace, remains unknown.”

Kat tilted her head in confusion at Sir Nathan's words. “If that's the case, shouldn’t they be going after Liam?” Sir Nathan stayed silent for a moment.

After a few seconds passed, Sir Nathan shook his head, shutting down the inquiry brought up by his niece. “The point is this, if our pursuers are after either of you,” he said as he looked Alice in the eye, “it would be better to keep you with the larger group.”

“And by keeping Kat here,” I added, “it could just make Mabel and Father Albert a bigger and easier target.”

There was a flicker of annoyance in Alice’s eyes but she quickly snuffed it out as she shut them for a moment and took a deep breath. “I-I understand.”

With the issue of Kat solved for now, we started to take our leave.

We took turns saying our goodbyes to Mabel and Father Albert. Caleb and Sir Nathan went off on their own first, they left to fetch the wagon along with the horses that pulled as well as one of the wagonless horses, leaving the rest of us to wonder about the stall riddled street on our own.

Kat dragged Mira and Alice by the hand with Zoe following close behind them, choosing to stop at a vendor selling skewers of what looked like beef and chicken, a familiar taste of their home. As the girls tried to get Kat to spend her allowance in moderation, us fellas stayed back and watched them struggling to reign in the ten year-old little Lady.

“Lucky bastards,” Luke muttered. “You both got to sleep in the same room with beautiful girls, meanwhile I had to sleep with the most notorious snorer of this world.”

“Trust me, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses for me either.” The memory of Alice’s smile from last night suddenly flashed in the back of my mind. “Though…”

“Don’t, I don’t want to hear you brag about it.”

“Man, if anything you’re the one who's got the most to brag, you got the prettiest girl in the school waiting for you back home.” Though I think Alice beats her by a mile. Ugh, clear your head doofus. I took a deep breath, now wasn’t the time to think about the girls in either Luke’s life or in my own. No, the one we needed to focus on was the guy standing, still looking very dejected, in between us.

“Want to talk about last night?” I asked Chris. Though Luke was a bit confused, he still turned with me to look at Chris.

“You were the best wingman, but it turns out that there was no sky to fly in.”

Luke turned to me, even more confused than before but he wasn’t the only one. “She wasn’t interested in you?”

“Don’t know, I never got to ask. The moment we entered the room she took the bed closest to the window and began snoring the moment her body hit the sheets.”

That wasn’t so bad in my mind, if anything the fact that she was comfortable enough to sleep that fast with just Chris with her went to show how much she trusted him… Either that or she was just a very fast and deep sleeper.

“Could have been worse,” Luke said.

“I don’t see how.”

A pained look flashed over Luke’s face. “You could have gotten a date only to-”

“Be sent to another world?” Chris finished for Luke. Luke nodded with a self-deprecating smile. “Who’d have thought that the only one making progress would be our little Noel.” Chris trapped my head around his arm, messing with my hair as I tried to escape.

“What can I say? I had some great examples and a great teacher.” Chris released me from his grasp as he and Luke turned to look at me with a proud look in their eyes. They synchronously rubbed their fingers under their noses as they loudly proclaimed, “Of course you did, it's all thanks to us.”

The girls, having finished purchasing enough skewers to feed an entire squadron of knights, returned with looks of cringe as they watched Luke and Chris holding onto each other as they celebrated their non-exsistent victory in the battlefield of love.

Soon our wagon appeared, Caleb was the one driving it with Sir Nathan on a horse trotting alongside him. They graciously took a skewer offered to them by Kat and told us to hop on.

While we managed to all pile in, especially since Chris and Luke chose to ride in the front seat with Caleb, the wagon was more cramped than before. This was due to all of the newly purchased supplies Sir Nathan had acquired which we now had to share space with. Kat sat on Mira’s lap to give us all a little more breathing room.

“Sorry you have to be squished with me,” Mira apologized. Kat shook her head, hugging Mira close.

“I love being held by you.”

A look of jealousy appeared in Alice’s eyes but her loyal maid placed her hand on her shoulder, Zoe shook her head as if to say that Alice should let the two other girls have their moment.

Though we were quite wary on our journey now as we kept following the road directions Father Albert had outlined on his map, we ended up having zero encounters with our attackers from yesterday. The trip went so smoothly that we ended up close enough to see part of the royal capital’s walls off in the distance as we crossed over a large hill at the edge of where open plains ended and a small forest began. According to Sir Nathan, the capital city was just a little beyond a stone bridge crossing overlooking a river. Despite being so close to the city that we didn’t have small stops planned, we had to come to a stop just before we got to the bridge, for a group of people stood on and in front of the bridge, blocking the road.

It was a group of rugged looking men who ordered us to come to a full stop. Only a handful of the men had any armor equipped, most of which was just made up of leather. They could have passed off as being adventures but something seemed off, the short-swords attached to their hips were stained with dark red liquid. Hopefully they had just wrapped up hunting monsters nearby, but the look in their eyes as well as the fact that they all kept their hands on their hilts was reason enough for worry and doubt to fester.

“We are just looking to pass by,” Sir Nathan said. I could tell that he was scanning our surroundings as if to confirm those in front of us were the only people near us.

“This bridge is under new ownership, the guild now owns this bridge and has the right to levy fees to those crossing it,” one of the men replied, he licked his lips as he glanced at the sword Sir Nathan had attached to his waist. “Though we also accept other items of value as compensation."

Sir Nathan waved a hand sign at Caleb, raising his palm flatly in the air, slowly squeezing his hand as he pointed at the wagon. Caleb, after seeing the signal, asked Zoe, without turning around, to pass him his sword up to the front. Zoe did as asked, placing the sheathed sword in between Caleb and Chris. Caleb grabbed it by the hilt as Zoe slowly pulled off its sheath. We all continued watching for whatever scheme these men had planned.

“That won’t be necessary, name your price friend," Sir Nathan said as he waved off his hand signal.

“Is that right? Well the fee is twenty gold coins,” the man said loudly.

“That’s just highway robbery,” Zoe whispered.

“Zoe, that's the point,” Caleb explained, “these men are almost certainly bandits.”

Sir Nathan nodded at the bandit in charge. He pulled out a bag from his horse's satchel. He tossed the bag at the bandit, not bothering to check the amount inside.

“Twenty gold coins?”

“A little less than double that, for your troubles of course.”

While the bandit did lick his lips, his eyes were still focused on Sir Nathan’s sword. But instead of pressing us for more, the bandit gave Sir Nathan a small bow and then ordered his men to make way.

“Chris,” Caleb whispered, “take over for me. Zoe take my spot.” The two of them nodded. Caleb, while the bandits were focused on their leader and Sir Nathan, took the opportunity to sneak into the back of the wagon. Alice and I helped him move the wagon’s supplies around, making sure Caleb had a way to jump out while staying hidden until the moment we hope never came arrived.

“This way,” the bandit leader said, urging for Sir Nathan to follow. Sir Nathan followed making sure that he didn’t stray too far from the wagon. As we started making our way over the bridge, the other bandits began making crude faces and remarks as they saw we had the girls with us.

Kat hid herself in Mira’s arms. “It’s okay Kat, I’ll keep you safe.”

As Alice and I finished moving the supplies around, the wagon itself came to a sudden halt. In front of our path, past Sir Nathan and the bandit leader, there was a small herd of armed men. They had begun appearing out from the forest and onto opposite sides of the road just past the remaining amount of bridge in front of is. The men we had already passed began surrounding the back of the wagon.

“What’s this?” Sir Nathan asked. “Another toll fee from the adventures’ guild?”

The bandit leader shook his head. “Afraid not. We’ll be taking full possession of your things.” The bandit leader peeked behind Sir Nathan, glancing over at Zoe with a terrible look in his eyes. “We’ll also need to take some of you with us for questioning.”

“This is quite the shakedown from the guild, I wonder how I’ll explain this to the King.”

The bandit was so engrossed with his gaze on Zoe that he didn’t register the fact that Sir Nathan had already drawn his sword. 

“To who-”

Sir Nathan had already cut the bandit down, gravity just hadn’t caught up with the bandit's body as his severed head fell to the ground and watched as the rest of him crumpled. In the aftershock of having witnessed their boss being destroyed with a single movement of the blade, the bandits surrounding the wagon could only watch in shock as Caleb jumped out and went after them.

“Constra,” Caleb chanted, prison shackles of rock connected firmly to the earth wrapped themselves around the bandits closeby, locking them to their fate as Caleb swung a wide slash at their throats. In a single motion, a fourth of the bandits had been eliminated.

The bandits furthest from us began retreating into the dense forest of trees while some jumped in the river trying to swim away. Those unlucky to have been too far from land were given a helping hand as Sir Nathan raised his blade and swung a huge gale force at them, sending the remaining bandits still on the bridge flying in all directions.

Once the only bandits left on the bridge were nothing but corpses and Sir Nathan reclaimed his bag of gold coins, we continued our journey.

“Why were there bandits so close to the capital?” Luke asked.

“I’m not sure myself,” Caleb said. “If I had to guess, maybe the influx of people visiting around this time made those bandits get bolder with their tactics.”

“Still,” Zoe said, “this is far too close to the capital for them to have gone unchecked by knight patrols.”

It wasn’t until we rode much further up the road and down another hill that we got a true inkling as to why the bandits had gone unnoticed.

Sir Nathan stopped us in front of a burnt wreck. A dozen or so knights were scattered throughout our path, most of their bodies had become nothing but ash, leaving nothing but melted pieces of armor that had become stuck to the earth.

“Only blue flames could have melted armor that badly,” Sir Nathan said.

“Oh gods,” Caleb said. He turned to Sir Nathan who dismounted his horse and knelt down to inspect them. “You’re saying that this was done by those cleaver-swordsmen?”

Sir Nathan nodded. He traced the collar of one of the suits of armor with his finger. “They’re from squadron six.”

Caleb lowered his head. “That means these were the guys I used to go on patrol with before you transferred me over to your command.” Caleb solemnly turned to those of us in the wagon. “If he hadn’t taken a liking to me, that could have been me there with them.”

Sir Nathan shook his head. “Don’t dwell on it. All we can do is get to the capital quickly and report their status to the order.” Sir Nathan went around to the front of the wagon, gazing up at the crestfallen Caleb. “We’ll make sure they get a proper burial after we finish our mission.” Caleb nodded solemnly.

Sir Nathan returned to his horse. The sky overhead had become a dark grey. Soon after, as if the heavens above were grieving over Sir Nathan’s and Caleb’s fellow knights, it started raining.