Philippe of Morgarath

Episode Thirteen

Every step that Nay moved him away from the castle, made Philippe more confident and enthusiastic. He had looked back a couple of times, seeing the contours of the building become smaller and smaller. By now, the castle had been long gone.

No one in the company had said a word so far. They were either too busy with their thoughts, or too occupied by not thinking at all.

They had not reached unknown grounds yet. In the past Philippe had taken Nay for strolls through the countless miles of meadows near the castle grounds in Maconia, but this time it would not be just a stroll. It would be a much longer journey.

Davon sped up his horse, to the point where he was linear to Philippe. ‘It’s strange’, he broke the silence. ‘We do not know anyone truly.’ It was obvious that he meant the other three. ‘Can they be trusted?’

Philippe shrugged. ‘I can stand in for Reagon’, he said simply. ‘I have known him for months, and I trust him- as far as you can trust someone you’ve known for such a short time.’ He looked back at the other two, who were riding their horses a bit more back. Both of them were staring in the distance, but sometimes they smiled at each other at exactly the same time.

They must have known each other very well, because it felt like they read each other’s body language. It almost seemed like they were having a conversation.

Philippe took the time to look at them. The man was really tall. He was not sure if he ever met a man that tall. But he was also not sure if the fact that he was so thin, made him look taller than he truly was. His hair was straight, with a light grey colour. His entire face seemed mysterious.

But it was Merya who truly took his breath away. He loved looking at her. It was not that she was an obvious beauty, but she had something genuine in her face. Her dark hair made her green eyes stand out. They were really bright, and big. Her lips were thick, and dark of colour.

The thing was just that every time he took a chance to look at her, their eyes met. She instantly knew when he was observing her, and he saw that she did not like being looked at.

‘Long story short’, he told his cousin. ‘I do not know if we can trust anyone, no. But what would they do? Leave us?’ he shrugged again. ‘We have not discovered anything secret yet. So there’s little they can do.’

Davon nodded. ‘Fair point’, he agreed with his older cousin. He smiled, and Philippe answered with one too. ‘Thank you for taking me’, he told the youngest Morgarath.

Phil raised his shoulder slightly. ‘No need.’

The day went by slowly. What started as excitement, quickly became boredom. Philippe was happy that when he offered to make camp, while the sun was setting, everyone agreed. It did not take them long to find enough wood to start a fire.

He was staring in the flames, and felt hypnotized. His sword was resting on his crossed legs. Sleep was trying to take control of him, but he was fighting it with all he could. The others had decided that he could take the first shift of keeping watch. He felt his eyelids drop… and was up within a heartbeat, when he recognized a strange sound.

His eyes were fully opened, he had gotten up on his legs and his sword was in his hand. With full focus he looked around. The others were all asleep – or pretending to be- and no one was making strange movements. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary… but he could have sworn…

For a while he stood there, with full focus. But nothing happened.

Sleep did not come to him anymore, until he woke up Reagon to take over the watch.

A hard kick woke him up. Within two seconds he was up on both feet, with his sword drawn. Three laughing people calmed him down. He brought his free hand to his face and rubbed his eyes. ‘Was that really necessary?’ he tried to defend himself.

Reagon, who was standing in front of them, only a bit away from the edge of Philippe’s sword, had a grin on his face. ‘You need to at least try to fight off an attacker’, the big man said, looking at the sword. ‘You missed me by an arm’s length.’

Philippe shrugged, and took back his sword. ‘Next time I’ll try to cut you, alright?’ he said.

‘I thought you were friends’, he heard Merya say. He looked up at her, and tried to push down a smile when he saw her face. Even in the morning, she was beautiful.

‘I would like to go’, she continued. ‘The sun is almost fully up.’ Everyone agreed. The campfire was covered with sand, the stuff was bound back on horseback, and they continued their travel.

It only took them a few hours before they reached one of the many harbour towns of Maconia, the island on which both the Kwarth and the Morgarath houses were established. The goal of this day, was finding a ship that would take them to the next island, the island where they would find the house of Puddlyon, with the Delelia family ruling it. Philippe was hoping to get some support from them. They might give him some extra men, or horses, to help with their quest. Something his own father had refused.

‘I am not sure if I should say anything’, he heard Davon say. ‘But during my watch I felt like I heard something. I did not see anything, but it was just some... strange presence.’

Philippe frowned. ‘I had the same’, he told his cousin.

Reagon on the other hand, snorted. ‘You probably heard a bunny’, he said monotone. ‘Your watches were not even consecutively. I was in the middle, and I did not hear a thing.’

Philippe shrugged. ‘It’s still better that Davon spoke up, than that he remained silent.’ His cousin smiled grateful.

After a while they reached the harbour town. Philippe hated to admit that he did not even know the name of this little town. He agreed to himself that he was a horrible regent’s son.

The town let them enter without any trouble, and after lodging their horses, they took a stroll to observe where they were.

The scents of fresh fruit and fish filled the marketplace. At the harbour they quickly found a ship, that for way too many coins agreed to take them to the island of Puddlyon.

That same evening Philippe made sure the innkeeper would send the four other horses back to the house of Morgarath. Nay would accompany them on the ship.

When they climbed aboard, Philippe felt it really hit him. Their journey had now really started.