The Vanguards of Scion part 1

So, this is why they call it the Bleeding Wood," Ivanos Jorganaut said. He gently spurred his horse trying to keep her at a slow but steady pace. "So many red leaves, even the damned grass is red as blood. It’s unnatural. I don’t like it." Trailing behind Ivanos, Jesper twirled his walking stick, dodging and whacking at imaginary foes. "Green Mother gushes with blood… painting the—no—seeding the—no wait—I got it! Green Mother gushes with blood, bathing the land with her aching crud!" Ivanos rolled his eyes and sighed, but then giggled under his breath before he said, "Give it up, boy. You’re no poet. I’m sick from your poems. That one’s as awful as the rest!" "Why?" Jesper said. “Mother gushes with blood? Sounds like moonblood!” "It is uncouth, I suppose,” Jesper said with a defeated tone. Then he perked up and said, “At least, I made you laugh!" "Not much," said Ivanos. “And that only due to the levels of absurdity you’ve reached. I’ve never heard anything so—” A screeching whistle echoed in the distance. Ivanos spoke in lower tones, "We should keep our voices down from here on out. Red caribou are said to wander even on the outskirts of the forest. It'd be nice if I nabbed one for Squire Phillip without having to spend the night in this freakish forest." "I guess. I kind of like it, though. I bet I can find a red walking stick. Anyways, why couldn't this squire hunt his own red caribou? Is he a soft hand?” "No. I do this to prove my honor and loyalty to the Red Wolf Knights," Ivanos said. The songs of the surrounding birds diminished as evening crept over the land. Insects buzzed by and flitted past them, lessening as they moved deeper into the wood. Ivanos glanced to either side of him into the trees as he rode his warhorse up a hill. After reflecting on what the boy had asked him about his mission for Squire Phillip, he said, "You still don't understand what knighthood is about. We have codes and we must prove ourselves honorable, no matter our age or rank. I'm happy to pay my dues to a squire if he can get me a meeting with his knight." "Pay your dues with joy or you might end up a toy!" Jesper sang. Ivanos sighed and flipped the visor on his steel helmet over his face, though it did little to negate the boy's chattering. He wondered if the boy was a lost cause. "I do understand some things about knighthood. I've been paying attention to your lessons about honor and codes. Like for instance. Truth. You said a noble knight always speaks truth and will die for it, even if it means he must rat out his brother. I can do that. I have no brother or sister." "I know, lad. I was there when it happened," Ivanos said. "It's good to remember that one above all. Now, remember this one. A knight is patient and sharpens his blades slowly, so the edges are true." Jesper paused and looked downward in thought before he said, "I get it. Rushing things will cause you to make more mistakes." Ivanos nodded. "Aye." He tugged on the reins of his warhorse and caressed her neck under the black mane where she liked it most. "Easy, Velvet. I smell it, too." Velvet shuffled her front hooves from side to side and her armor clanked. She snorted and whinnied. "Come on, girl," Ivanos said. "Easy. You know we gotta go up there." Velvet trotted backward a couple steps, twisting her neck trying to turn around. Ivanos reined her back and spurred her hard a couple times before he got her to head forward again up the road. The stench of death grew much stronger then. Ivanos unbuckled the strap over the hilt of his longsword. The icy wind chilled further by the cold steel vents of his helmet burned his eyes as he scanned the forest to the left and right of the road. As far as he knew, besides a few thieves' camps, there wasn't much if any settlements this far north of Red Wolf Keep. It was for hunting and as a travel route to the Caribou Valley. He could find nothing out of place in the forest to either side of him. As Velvet brought him up the hill, the stench became so unbearable Ivanos started to gag a little. Nausea waved through him. He struggled to stay in the saddle. A black figure emerged at the top of the hill and stopped to stare at him. It shifted and surged in and out of cohesive form. For split seconds when it was in focus, he could make out a long-pointed crown on its head. A coldness crept into his chest. Velvet kept trotting up the hill as if she hadn’t seen a thing. Ivanos wondered if she had, or if he was having visions. The figure turned an about-face and walked out of sight, melting tracers of inky blackness as it did. "Whoa, Velvet!" Ivanos tugged hard on the reins and Velvet stopped in her tracks. "What is it, Sir Jorganaut?" Jesper asked. He stood to the right of Velvet, flipping his walking stick in figure eights. Ivanos stared at the space where the shadowy figure had been. "Did you not see it?" Jesper peered ahead. "See what, my lord?" He walked forward a few steps, craning his neck to see. "Halt, boy!" Ivanos said. "It's not safe!" Jesper stopped and lowered into a defensive stance with his stick held tightly in white-knuckled fists. Corded muscles stood out in his arms, lined with healthy veins. "Anything out there is gonna get a sticking to the face!" Ivanos sighed. "Quiet! There was someone up there,” he whispered. "Was there?" Jesper whispered back. "Let's get'em! Wait, what did they look like? Was it a bandit?" Ivanos pushed his open palm out at the anxious boy and shook his head. He then cautiously dismounted Velvet and removed his sword from its scabbard and handed it to Jesper. "Stay here. Don't move unless I call out for you," he whispered. Jesper's eyes gleamed. He tossed his walking stick aside and took the blacksteel longsword from Ivanos. He made a short bow that was little more than a nod. Ivanos removed his quiver of arrows from Velvet's saddle and untied his longbow from her side and strung it. With an arrow nocked, he crept up the hill. As he crested the top, he pulled the arrow back and raised the bow to aim. He furrowed his brows, scanning over the entire landscape, but found nothing unusual. He lowered his bow and shrugged. "Sir Jorganaut? What do you see?" whispered Jesper. Ivanos stared blankly for a moment before he answered. "Nothing. I don't see anything, lad. But I know I did earlier. Ah, Bleeding Mother of Time, that stench!" He grimaced as he walked farther along the road and pointed to the ground where he stood. "Right here. A figure was standing right here." He gagged and covered his nose and face with his hand. "I swear it." "I don't doubt you, my lord. What did this figure look like?" Jesper pressed the tip of the longsword to the ground and rested his hands on the ornate ruby-encrusted pommel. Ivanos widened his eyes and bolted over to the boy and snatched the blacksteel longsword from his hands. "A hundred thousand dead knights shivered in their graves when you put this fine blade into the dirt, you fool!" Jesper stumbled a bit then knelt before Ivanos. "Apologies, my lord! I forgot and was careless." "Here, take the bow. When you master it, you may try the sword again." He handed the bow and quiver over to Jesper. "The figure I saw was all black from head to toe, and I thought I could see a black crown on its head." "Thank you! for the bow, I mean! Wearing all black, you say? Ya think it could've been a ghost or a witch? I've heard such things can followed by a smell of. . . death." "I don't know. I don’t believe in such things." "Well, that might explain why it's gone now? I mean if it were a ghost." Jesper turned to face the road that seemed to go on for miles in the forest. "Hey, look there!" he whispered and pointed down the road. "Is that one of those red caribou?" Ivanos saw it. Two grand antlers twisted up from its head and gleamed in the sunlight as it studied them both. He couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before. He pushed an open hand back at Jesper, motioning for him to hand over the bow. It was too late. Jesper had already loosed an arrow. Ivanos turned to see it had hit true into the mid-torso of the red and white-haired beast. It screeched and then bolted towards them, the back half of the arrow jutting from its side and bobbing up and down as it ran. Ivanos gritted his teeth. He didn't know whether he should panic or celebrate. What an incredible bout of luck. He might finally have a chance to redeem the mistake that had cost him the life of his King Rygon and ultimately the usurping of the entire Kingdom of Ironwood. He might be able to serve another king as a knight in an honorable kingdom. All he had to do was bring this caribou hide to the squire at Red Wolf Keep. When he gained an audience with the knights of Red Wolf, he would swear fealty to King Ingul as a loyal knight. It was all he knew; all he had ever trained to do. Jesper shot another arrow straight into the charging caribou's chest. The beast made four more strides and collapsed dead. "Yes!" Jesper raised the bow high over his head and fist-pumped it a few times. Ivanos saw something else too late. Another red caribou leaped in a blur and plowed into Jesper with its antlers and snagged him into the air. With Jesper impaled up through his chin, the caribou flung Jesper over its back and twirled him over twice. Jesper’s neck cracked, twisted and stretched. He dangled glassy-eyed from the beast's antlers. Ivanos raised his blacksteel sword and swung whilst he screamed, "NOOO!" The blade slid through the caribou's neck and its huge head wriggled through the air and crashed into the ground antlers first. The body spurted blood, sprinted off into a tree at the edge of the road and fell with its legs twitching. Ivanos stood shaking with his blood-smeared blade. He stared at the lifeless twisted body of the poor boy for several seconds, and then tossed his sword aside on the ground. He sat down where he stood and began to weep with his face in his hands. Jesper Eisenaum had annoyed him most of the time. He had chattered on about his fleeting thoughts many times above the average seventeen-year-old boy, but he had a stubborn will to improve himself. Ivanos thought that was a rare quality. It could've brought him to great things. Ivanos could still see the boy's face filled with determination and resolve back when he had pulled him out of the burning cottage. Jesper had gone in to save his mother and sister who had already perished in the flames. Ivanos had been following the pillar of smoke through the forest and had walked up on the incident just as Jesper kicked in the door of the cottage. Ivanos had run in after him and drug him out by the arms after the boy had passed out from smoke inhalation. Ivanos reached into the dirt next to him and dug out a rock with his fingers and chunked it at the headless carcass of the red caribou. He had lost another under his watch. He felt guilty now trying to redeem himself at the loss of others, but it seemed senseless not to continue. He had fled his own Kingdom the first time, rather than face the enemy usurper and die with honor. Jesper may not have had the makings for a great knight, but he had been trying. He’d recently lost his entire family. Sure, Ivanos had saved him from death once, but only to let the boy get involved with his own miserable existence as a washed up sellsword. Tears welled in his eyes. He glanced over at Velvet. She was ever loyal. She stood still where her master had left her and waited to serve him again. "If only I were as honorable as you, girl." He sighed. "But I'm not gonna give up. We must bury this boy. He was a good lad and deserved better. Then I'm taking not one, but two red caribou hide to the squire in Red Wolf." Ivanos stood up and went for the spade in his bedroll on Velvet's saddle. He began untying the cord that held it in place and suddenly the smell of death overwhelmed him again but stronger than ever before. The air behind him chilled and his armor was like ice on his skin. He paused. "Who's there?" Prickles lit up the back of his neck. Something rasped behind him. He slowly pivoted, the spade ready in his hand. What he saw before him was beautiful and terrifying at the same time. A pulsating hole had opened on the ground. It rippled and shimmered with inky blackness and then flickered with tiny fingers of lightning on its edges. The odor of death fumed from somewhere within the hole. He tried to focus on the forms inside it, but nothing solidified. Instead, two smoky black arms reached up, and the dark figure with the black crown pulled itself into Ivanos's world. Ivanos trembled. He had never seen any ghosts or unworldly demons, nor did he believe such things ever existed. Had he died, and this was the figure of Death itself coming to claim his soul from this world? "Are you Death?" he asked softly. "Is this... my end?" The crowned figure stood before him and stared directly into his eyes. It was faceless. Darkness churned over the surface. Its eyes sparkled like stars. "No, but I have crossed over to make use of lives in this world. Serve me and I will make you one of my champions, but it will be a difficult allegiance to bear. The rewards I give you in return will endow you with unfathomable power. You will destroy entire armies." "This can't be real. I must... I must be dreaming! Please leave me, monster! End this nightmare vision!" "I'm not a monster!" barked the dark figure, its voice a low vibrato of many that echoed in Ivanos's mind. "I'm the King of Scion, and I have come to make this world ready for the coming of my people. Will you serve?" Ivanos closed his eyes and nodded. "I’ve only ever wanted to serve. I've nothing else." The figure wrapped long cold fingers around Ivanos's chin with pointed fingernails that dug into the skin. With another wispy black hand, the figure held up a violet ball of light spiked with fissures of white. The King of Scion pulled Ivanos's mouth open and shoved the light inside. He pushed Ivanos's chin up to close his mouth. A biting cold rolled down into his chest and blossomed throughout his body. "Now you will build an army. You will conquer a country, and you will rule it in my name! You will not serve as a knight but as my vanguard! You will serve me by conquering lands and growing my kingdom to be fruitful and glorious for when I come with my people!" "But... I'm not—" Ivanos tried to say. He hunched over and vomited, holding his hand over his stomach, though it did little to comfort him through the plated cuirass. After regaining his composure, he wiped his goatee with the back of his moleskin glove and said, "I've not shown myself to be a great knight. You've chosen the wrong man. Please, spare me this burden or make my death quick. I've lost everything as it is. I've no family. I'm a wandering old nomad. I couldn't even protect this poor boy." He pointed at the corpse of Jesper, still hooked by the head of the red caribou. "You are no longer that which you believe. You now have a power that will take you to greatness beyond your comprehension. Now, go! Use it, and armies will fall at your feet." A cyclone of darkness enveloped the King of Scion and pulled him down into the rift on the ground below. A bolt of lightning twenty feet high shot up from within and then, the fissure dissipated.