Chapter 7: Battle at Home

The crowd went wild with the promise of 2000 gold! That wasn’t merely a fine reward. That was life changing. These mere commoners could buy land with such money, manage to get a title, start a house of their own. The eagerness was palpable as everyone started to make their way out of the castle, plenty bumping into the person who would provide all that reward for them.

“We should probably do the same.” Said Guinefort.

Sharon nodded. She stared one last dagger at Lord Lethe who had completely forgotten about the annoying squire.

Both started turning when a familiar voice called out.

“Dang nabbit! It’s you!”

Sharon and Guinefort turned to face none other than the Brigand leader! His hand still in wraps after that arrow shot from her skeleton.

“Yeah! It is you! I’d recognize that smarmy smirk anywhere!”

He approached the two, not paying any mind to the little ‘boy’ at his side.

“Oh, it’s you. Uh, how have you been holding up?” asked Guinefort.

“Holding up? How have I been holding up!? How dang nabbit well do you THINK I’ve been holding up!? My crew was either killed or scared off, my loot looted, and NOW I have to play ‘hero’ to get some funds again!”

The brigand was up against Guinefort now, face to face, staring him down.

“W-well, good to see you turning over a new leaf!”

“Oh, I am. It was either this or back to that weird prison camp in the forest! What would you choose?!”

Sharon pulled on Guinefort’s sleeve and the two began to back away.

“What, you got another little kid following you around? What are you, some kind of pervert?” the brigand yelled as he pulled on Sharon’s hat, pulling it loose and revealing her golden locks. Despite being set up in a bun, there was no confusing this hair with anyone else’s.

“Dang nabbit! It’s you! Hey everyone! She’s here!”

While a few had managed to leave already, the amount created a bottleneck at the gate so a large crowd of dangerous men remained. All turned around and the one’s closest to the duo verified what had been said.

“I think he’s right!”

“She looks noble born!”

“No commoner could have skin and hair such as this!”

Blades were drawn, ropes were pulled and eyes watching gold in human form were focused on Sharon.

“Get them!”

Man after man, warrior after warrior leaped on top of the two, as if scared that someone else might grab her before they could.

A pile was made of heavy fortune seekers, only for said pile to tremble and shucked off, landing on others, creating a small clearing in the middle of the crowd.

Guinefort stood there with his sword drawn, held two handed. Sharon had her ceremonial dagger out, held out with both hands, inexperienced but steady. And out of the rucksack of Guinefort was a skeleton armed with a hand axe and short sword, gripping them tightly after having just flung these mercenaries off of his ward.

All three faced off against a different direction but had their backs turned towards each other. Literally for Guinefort and the skeleton while Sharon had her back to their shared side.

“Oh lord, it’s true!”

“She’s got a skeleton!”

“It really is her!”

The men surrounding the trio were wary of the skeleton but plenty felt comfortable trying to grab Sharon and get their big reward. As one would dart forward to grab her arm, the trio rotated allowing Guinefort to cut at his arm, drawing blood and scaring him off.

There was no coordination, as each man was an individual, and the promise of the money meant no one wanted to share it.

The brigand leader managed to grab onto Sharon’s leg, holding her tightly.

“Got you girleeaahahhAAAAAHH!!!”

His eager smile was broken by her stabbing his hand with her knife, making him let go, leaving a mark of blood on her as he pulled back, now having ruined his second hand in a short while.

“Dang nabbit! She got my other hand!!!”

“We can’t keep this up Sharon!” warned Guinefort, blocking a sword strike and kicking the warrior back.

Sharon agreed. Even with her skeleton Bjorn’s infinite stamina, they’d be eventually overwhelmed.

“RAISE THE DRAWBRIDGE!!!”

Lord Lethe yelled the order and the Lethe soldiers ran towards the winches to start pulling it up.

“We’re going to get locked in, little girl!” warned Guinefort as he punched in a man’s nose.

In all the mayhem she did notice the messenger on his horse. He was stuck over by the edge of the stage still, the crowd making it difficult to get to the exit.

“If we can get that horse we’d be able to get out of here!” said Sharon as she dodged another hand and sliced at it.

“And how did you think we’d get ourselves over there?” asked Guinefort, rolling his eyes before smacking a mercenary’s axe out of his hand.

Sharon grinned.

“BEHOLD! USING MY NECROMANCER POWERS I WILL NOW TURN ALL OF YOU WITHIN MY IMMEDIATE VICINITY INTO SKELETONS!!!”

Sharon held her dagger up theatrically, laughing as maniacally as she could. Suddenly all the men trying to get at them took several steps back, giving all three immense room to move.

“I don’t want to be a skeleton!”

“She’ll make us her slaves!”

“I don’t want people to see I’m big boned!”

The dispersement even led a general path to the messenger and his horse.

“Get me on that horse Bjorn!”

The skeleton pops out of the rucksack now, its pieces that were rearranged to fit reassembling before landing. He then picked up Sharon and darted towards the horse. The mob was still wary of Sharon turning them into skeletons, moving away as they ran through the crowd.

The messenger held up his hands in surrender as Bjorn just pushed him off and placed Sharon on the saddle instead and then joined her, riding towards Guinefort.

Bjorn picks up the would be hero in motion, seated behind the skeleton and all three gallop towards the rising drawbridge, which was about a quarter of the way up.

The crowd slowly realized that no necromancy was happening and courage returned, with some trying to grab any of the riders. They were getting close to the drawbridge now but they were soon to be blocked off.

Bjorn took the initiative.

He leaped off of the horse and struck away the brave greedy men before them before hunching over allowing the horse to naturally jump over him before galloping over the still rising drawbridge.

“BJORN!”

Sharon called out, turned to reach for him but Guinefort grabbed onto her waist to keep her steady as the horse finally reached the end of the wood and jumped past the moat and to freedom.

“LOWER THE DRAWBRIDGE!” ordered Lord Lethe.

The guards were just about to let go of their respective winches when Bjorn ran towards them, pushing them away before placing a spear he had picked up from a defeated warrior and jamming it into the contraption. The drawbridge was now stuck in a position too elevated for anyone to truly climb out of.

Meanwhile Sharon and Guinefort rode towards the guards outside, with Guinefort knocking them out before untying and chasing away the tied up horses.

“Bjorn…” murmured Sharon as she looked back towards her castle, hearing the fighting going on behind there before it suddenly stopped.