Chapter 5: Aftermath

26th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Fortress

Stephyn Moore... captain of the first legion of knights in the duke's Geoffry army. A man who fought for his kingdom in two big wars. The first was against the kingdom of Iriondon and the second one was against an unknown army that attacked the kingdom fifteen years ago.

After that he received the title of captain of the first legion in the duke's army. He is thirty five years old and during his fights, he saw a lot of nasty things. What he sees now is beyond that. Before him is standing a child covered in blood. His hair is dyed in red and his eyes are the same color as the hair.

‘A demon from hell’ That's what passed through Stephyn' mind.

The captain is looking behind him and see that his troops are as confused as himself. He shake his head, comes back to reality and start talking.

“Who are you ? Why are you here?”

The boy didn’t make a sound and start walking toward them.

Stephyn wants to ask again but Brodi got close to the boy and begins to talk.

“Hey, kid, Who the hell are you?”

Again, the boy doesn't respond. He stops from walking, raise his sword and prepares to slash the annoying person close to him. In the next moments Stephyn's mind it fills with terror. He jumps from his place and pushes Brodi out of the boy's path.

Zephyr stops his attack and starts speaking with a smile on his face.“You're pretty good old man.”

The man's eyes are looked on the kid. He sensed what would happen if an attack from that boy would hit Brodi or himself. Seeing him smiling was even more terrifying than before.

“We came here to capture the leader of those bandits. What were you doing in this place?” Stephun asked even if he already had a vague idea what the kid was doing.

“Just a settling of accounts. If you're looking for the leader, he is in the castle, but I don't think that it will be easy to put him back together.”

After he finished his speech, he start walking again. The army in front of him splits in two and let him pass. When everyone's come back to reality, the boy is already gone.

They started to search the fortress. There wasn't a single bandit alive. After the search of the yard and castle, they are in front of a big iron door. Two soldiers start pushing the door and the captain enters in the room. What he sees is a heap of corpses and some chunks of meat scattered all over the place. He understood what the boy told him.

“Gather all the troops, we are going back.”

***

29th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

The Narfest Woods

Three days have past since the fortress events. Zephyr just got out of the woods and started a little fire. He take some rabbit meat from his bag and put it on the fire. Because he was always going hunting with the bandits, now he knows how to catch an animal and how to butcher him.

Yesterday he stopped at a river and washed his clothes and armor. Even if the blood wasn't removed completely, it was harder to observe it.

He take the meat out of the fire and starts eating. After he finished he put out a map and started to think.

‘Where should I go now?’

‘There are three cities where I could go. Pefall, which is a harbor city. Making money to live should be simple there. In harbor are always things to do so the labor power needed is high. But is too far away. ’

‘The capital is out of discussion, because I don't want to stand out. It seems that the best option is Traford. I should be able to find some work there.’

He put his map away, laid himself on the ground and before he could realise, he was already asleep.

In the morning, he take out his sword to polish her and see that his red eyes and hair have already changed back to black. He starts packing up all his stuff and goes back on the road.

Five days later he already can see the city before him. Traford was a huge settelment surrounded by a wall of stone of at least fifteen metres height. From outside the city you could see two immense buildings.

One of them is the Castle, located in the center of the town. This is the place where the mayor is living. The other one is the biggest cathedral in the kingdom. Here the priests are instructed and trained to use magic. Is also the place where the higher bishop is activating.

Around the castle are living the nobles and in the lower part of the city are the peasants. The economy is very good, because here are the most powerful priests and for having a good healer, people pay a lot of money.

A big part of the money are going to the church and very little to the priests. The economic power of the church rose after the last two wars, and now her leaders are holding thirty percent of the political power in the kingdom.

Zephyr was approaching the city. He could only think of what he will do for money. He knew that in this town if you are not a priest is pretty hard to make some money.

He is passing through the gate and starts speaking with an warder.