3.6 Mylne Town: Prestige

The sound of chirping birds put together with the rustling of the curtains in the breeze woke me up early in the morning. I could tell it was early, since the sun seemed barely out. The first thing I did, after my signature big stretch, was hopping out of the couch and heading towards the bedroom. I knocked on the door and waited for a response from the other side of the wall. But none came. I knocked again and opened the door, assuming she was fast asleep.

Both the windows and curtains were open, light seeped its way into the room from every corner, but Hikari wasn’t here.

“Hikari?” I yelled out in the hall, getting no response.

I opened every door in the house, none of them with her on the other side.

I thought she must’ve headed to the town’s centre again, but I found it odd that she didn’t wake me up first.

I put the rest of my clothes on and headed out as well, only then I saw where she had actually been. Standing on the highest point of the hill, in the shadow casted by the windmill. Her dress waved in the wind until it laid still. I walked up to her and said, “Good morning.”

She seemed to have snapped out of her trance. “Oh, good morning.”

“Staring at the fields again?”

She shook her head as she walked past me down the hill, “The birds.”

I followed her lead.

To the right of the bottom of the hill was what you could call the entrance to the farm fields. A few steps in front of the fences stood a flagpole, although the flag wasn’t actually visible since it intertwined with a tree growing right beside it.

On the fields were quite a few people working. Some watering plants, others were weeding. I couldn’t really name each task going on over there, since I lack the knowledge concerning the basics of farming.

“Let us ask Igreine what our task is for the day.”

“Yeah, sounds good to me.”

We made our way towards the town hall, which is in one line of Igreine’s house, which would give us the highest odds of coming across her. Well, unless she’s already headed off to her ranch.
As we walked on the paths you could hardly call a road, next to the houses that an outsider like me could barely tell apart, we happened to run into Igreine, her husband and Dennis.

“Hey, if it ain’t the jolly two! Lead and Hickey!”

“C’mon, pops! It’s Leith and Hikari!”

“Oh, my bad, my bad.”

Igreine, with her hands on her hips, sighed out loud before greeting us, “Good morning you two.” She turned to her husband. “Dear, you need to work on rememberin’ people’s names! They’ll think of you as rude!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Anyway,” he turned to us, “what’re your plans for the day?”

“We don’t really know yet,” I said for us both. “We were looking for you, Igreine, to ask you what you wish us to do.”

“Hah! Just our luck, m’boy!” He gave his son a pat on the back. “We’re heading out to Mylne’s forest in a wee bit cos a mad load of wild boars is running riot. And we best get rid of ‘em quick, they’re known to screw like rabbits ‘n all over here…”

“Dear, please!”

“What should I say then, ‘humpin’?”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Please take these two in your care, I’m heading off to the ranch.”

“Will do, will do!”

“Dear, I was talking to Leith and Hikari.”

It was kinda amusing seeing the banter between the two. Dennis thought so too, considering his big smile.

“Well then, love, we’ll meet ya at dawn.” He said as he held out his hand along with a little bow. She slowly placed her hand in his, getting red and flustered as he kissed it.

“…Gods,” she whispered as she shyly averted her eyes.

Now it was getting embarrassing to watch. “Bleh!” Dennis thought so, too, as he stuck his tongue out.

The four of us made our way out of town, our next destination: Mylne’s forest to stop the wild boars from multiplying.

Two other men of Mylne stood at the forest’s entrance awaiting our arrival. At their feet lay three bows with twenty visible arrows, a spear, a sword and a short, sharp dagger.

“Great, ya made it, Leandre.”

“Oh, yev brought Dennis, too,” the other one noted.

He proudly pointed behind him with his thumb at Hikari and I. “And these two Prestige. Born boar killers, I’ll tell ya. Got ‘em on board since rumor ‘ave it these two killed all boars on the way from Prestige land to Mylne.”

We hadn’t told anyone about killing anything, but I suppose he’s trying to oversell our qualities so that the other two wouldn’t find it bothersome having two strangers tag along.

“Good, good. An extra hand or two is always handy, ey!”

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“Your Majesty, if I may,” Aerion interrupted the silence at the round table in the Strategist’s Undercroft.

In this room, the meetings over important causes are held before they’re presented to the senate. The fellow men orbiting the table were the king himself, Cian, two tacticians of the Fenrir Brigade and someone else from Cian’s camp.

“I’ve heard of mysterious reports over the last week. They first arose near and dear to our homes, but have allegedly spread all the way to the ends of the walls.” He looked each person in the eyes for a good second before he continued. “Purple blades.” Rocking his head back, he gulped down the last couple of sips left in his glass in one go. Right after, he smacked it across the room, shattering it to pieces bouncing off the wall.

The king looked him in the eyes, unable to calm him down.

Paired with a big slam on the table, he stood up and yelled, “We have one common enemy! One! Common! Enemy! And yet our knowledge is scattered. You know something,” he pointed at Cian, “You know something else,” he pointed at one of his fellow men of the brigade, “You know a little something, too. And you do, and Your Majesty, too.”

Cian raised his hand, trying to get a word in, but Aerion wouldn’t let him.

He continued. “Do you want to route him? Capture him? Kill him? Chase him out the land? I! Don’t! Know! Heck, all I know is that a certain kid you guys keep calling a monster is on the loose. You lot keep me in the dark, even now, when I am seated in the very Undercroft!” He held his hand to his chest, “I’ve shed blood for this country. I’ve put my life on the line for my people. I sacrifice my future for our people’s eternal peaceful present, and this is how I’m treated?”

“Aerion,” the king’s voice remained calm.

“Whaaaaaat Your Majesty?!” Aerion’s didn’t.

“You’re reckless. If we were to let you in on all the details, you would hop on your wyvern and try to seize the situation with your own two hands.”

“Then why am I here?”

“Patience, Aerion. Patience.”

Another silence fell upon them. Aerion is about as short tempered as one can be, but once he’s calmed down, you wouldn’t be able to hear him breathing. The silent wait was over once there was a knock followed by another against the heavy wooden door.

“It’s time,” Cian announced.

“I’m so sorry for being super late!” She had trouble opening the door, then struggled once more with closing it. “I’ve brought everything,” she said, looking at Cian.

“And you are?” Aerion asked.

“I am Rune—oh, grandmaster Rune.”