*** Dream ***

Robbie woke up to the sound of banging on the door to his house.

Loud shouts could be heard from downstairs.

Climbing out of his bed Robbie tip-toed downstairs only to see his mother and father arguing with a man in knight’s armor.

Robbie had never seen a knight before and therefore was wondering what one was doing at his door.

“Madam, all men are required to join the military above the age of 10 without exception,” said the knight.

His father grimaced slightly but said nothing.

“You can’t take my son! Please, he's just a little boy!” begged his mother.

Robbie, wondering what was going on, called out.

“Mom, what’s going on?”

At the sound of his voice, everyone in the room turned to look at him.

His mother gazed at him with despair.

His father had his head bowed not looking at Robbie.

The knight looked at him silently as if evaluating him.

“Please my son is only 12, spare him I beg of you!” begged his mother, turning her head to the knight.

“I’m sorry,” said the knight.

“No..” his mother collapsed onto her knees sobbing.

His father, knowing he couldn’t disobey the knight, walked over to Robbie.

“Son..” he said slowly as he put his hands on Robbie’s shoulders.

“Remember I told you that when men grow up, they have to fight for their country?” he said.

“Yeah,” said Robbie, nodding his head.

“Well today is that day, his majesty has ordered for all men above the age of 10 to join his war efforts. So you and I will go join his knights and fight for our country ok?” he said.

“Okay!” said Robbie excitedly, not knowing anything was wrong, however, he couldn’t wait to become one of the legendary knights.

***

As Robbie and his father were outfitted for armor, he noticed a man in armor so black it looked like your soul would be sucked in if you stared at it for so long.

That man was walking between the recruits and talking to them, giving them words of encouragement.

Once the man approached him he crouched down and looked at Robbie.

“What’s your name kid?” he asked.

“Robbie, sir!” assuming the man was some noble due to his armor.

“Well Robbie, how old are you now?”

“12,” Robbie said cheerfully as he finished putting on his armor.

The man smiled at Robbie’s excitement.

“Do you miss your parents?” he asked softly.

“I miss my mommy but my daddy is here with me,” Robbie said, frowning slightly.

“Well don’t worry, you’ll see your mommy and daddy soon, I promise.” said the man standing up.

He ruffled Robbie’s hair slightly before moving on.

Robbie, excited for his first battle, sensed nothing amiss and believed the man’s words firmly.

***

Standing in the third row of the formation Robbie waited for the horn to be blown signaling the start of combat.

Looking over to his left, he saw his father standing in the second row looking scared.

Robbie really wanted to reassure his father that everything would be alright, after all the man promised that everything would be fine so there was no need to be scared.

As the horn blew the front line began advancing in a trot, as they jogged through the uneven land, the mud splashed on Robbie’s legs and the breeze ruffled his hair. It had begun to rain and the drops ran down his face.

Glancing at the enemy knights Robbie noticed that the men at the front all wore grim expressions. They all looked like they came from poorer backgrounds as their armor was simple and dirty.

As the front line connected with the enemy, the battlefield turned chaotic.

Mud splashed everywhere coating people from head to toe.

One man pulled out his sword and shoved it through the gorget of an enemy.

As the eyes of the enemy faded out, his killer was knocked off his feet and sent tumbling into the mud. Crawling in the mud in order to get up the man was trampled on by his fellow soldiers. Failing to get up in time an enemy stepped on his head before shoving a dagger through his throat.

As some of the soldiers lost their weapons they had begun to fight with their fists.

One man began beating on an enemy soldier who held a dagger. He punched his face repeatedly sending him tumbling into the mud. Getting on top of him the man grabbed the enemy’s helmet and tore it off. Grabbing the man’s head he forced it down into the mud stopping his airflow. As the enemy felt the mud clogging up his through his eyes bugged out. All he could do was thrash around wondering ‘Why me?’

As the enemy’s consciousness faded away his opponent grabbed the dagger and slit his throat ending his misery.

When Robbie finally reached the front line he heard a voice yell behind him “ARCHERS!”

As soon as that was said it was as if night had fallen. The sky was covered in black as the arrows from both sides began landing on the soldiers.

Because the front line was made of the lower class citizens they weren’t given any shields and therefore could not defend against the arrows. As the arrows rained down on them some soldiers began screaming as they knocked into each other trying to get away from the arrows only to be impaled by another soldier.

Some soldiers tried to crawl on the ground in the hopes of avoiding the arrows but were trampled on. One of them who had his face trampled on by multiple people was unrecognizable, his body was twisted into odd angles which would terrify any man.

Robbie, having glimpsed his father, began squeezing through the bodies of the battling soldiers in hopes of reaching him. His father who had also noticed Robbie stared at him wide-eyed as he was hit by a falling arrow stabbing through his shoulder. As his father collapsed Robbie lost sight of him and was knocked over by another soldier stabbing his knife into the chest of another.

As he tried to crawl over to his father’s position a soldier took notice of him and began running towards him.

Robbie, who was terrified of the man who was running towards him, could only watch in terror as the man swung his sword down at him.

Closing his eyes he waited for the pain, however, it never came.

Opening his eyes he noticed the man who was trying to kill him had a sword sticking through his chest.

Looking up he noticed a man, covered head to toe in blood and mud holding a trembling sword that had stabbed through the other man’s chest.

Looking down at him the man yelled while panting.

“Are you alright kid?”

As Robbie stared dumbfounded at the man.

The man suddenly turned around as he blocked a sword.

Gasping for breath the man pushed back and executed a slash which cut off the head of his opponent.

Turning back around to Robbie the man stared at him.

As Robbie began to nod that he was okay the man suddenly jolted forward.

Coughing out blood the man had an arrow protruding from his stomach. As he collapsed he had his hand stretched out towards Robbie.

Robbie stared with shocked eyes and tried to process what had just happened.

Crawling over to him he rolled the man to the side and shook him.

“Hey!, Sir are you alright?!”

However, there was no response.

“Hey listen to me, it's going to be okay! Please just answer me!” Robbie sobbed tears streaming down his face.

Upon looking at the man’s face he noticed that the man’s eyes looked dull and empty.

Realizing he was dead Robbie fell back on his butt to shocked to move.

“No... No. No!” Robbie got up and began running away.

Pushing through the fight soldiers he ran until he tripped over something and landed in the mud. Looking back at what he tripped on he realized it was a corpse.

Looking at the face Robbie realized who it was.

It was his father.

Robbie froze.

Everything around him ceased to exist.

It was as if time stopped.

“Dad?” he asked with a trembling voice as his lip quivered.

“Dad?!?” he asked again. However, there was no answer.

“DAD!!!” he screamed, crawling over to him.

Shaking him he kept screaming his name however there was no response.

Robbie cried and cried but his dad’s dull empty gaze never changed.

Holding his dad tightly he looked up at the dull gray sky as the raindrops poured down his face.

Suddenly he noticed that on the edge of his vision there were huge chunks of rock flying towards the battlefield.

‘Why?’ he wondered.

‘He promised, he promised me!’ he cried as he remembered the man in black armor who promised he would see his parents again.

Robbie kept crying as he held the corpse of his father in his arms, the last thing he saw was a boulder looming ever closer before everything turned black.

*** End Of Dream ***

Alex woke up with a start. Sweat dripped down his face, wetting the sheets.

Wiping his forehead with his arm, he climbed off the bed and headed to the bathroom.

Bending over the sink, he looked at himself in the mirror.

Bloodshot eyes stared back at him.

Quickly rinsing his face and wiping it with a towel walked over to the entrance to the room and opened the door, instructing the guard to get a maid to fill the bath. He closed the door to his room much to the confusion of his guards.

Once the bath was filled he sunk into the heavenly bliss of the hot water.

‘Why did I have another dream like that?’

‘Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, if this happens again it's going to be a pattern.’

‘What's wrong with me?’

But no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't come up with an answer.

Walking out of his room at the crack of dawn he headed to the library looking for a book on dreams.

Searching through the books in the library he couldn't find anything that would help him which in turn made his mood even worse.

Leaving the library he found Marie waiting for him outside.

“What are you doing so early?” he asked her.

Marie looked up at him from her.

“Ah, My Lord, I'm simply getting all the paperwork ready for your marriage.”

“I see, will you be able to accompany me for the day?” he asked.

“Of course, My Lord”

Quickly falling into step with him they began walking towards the training grounds, where the guards did their morning routine.

As there was no one in the hall this early Marie stopped using his title and began speaking in earnest, confused as to why they were heading there.

“I would like to see how Alice trains her knights,” he answered.

Upon arriving at the training ground Alex noticed that all the guards were assembled before Alice and her knights.

The guards were staring back at Alice and her knights with looks of defiance and arrogance as if wondering why they were standing before her.

Alex and Marie patiently stood waiting by the entrance watching the bizarre scene.

“Listen up, I have been given permission by your Lord to train you into quality soldiers befitting your rank and position!” she said.

“So from today onwards you are to follow my each and every order like your life depends on it when I train you.”

After hearing this the guards began grumbling to each other and one of them stepped out.

Bearing the insignia of a lieutenant he had an arrogant gaze and most likely came from a noble background.

“What qualification do you have to train us? I bet my men are much better than yours,” he said haughtily.

Gesturing to one of her knights to step forward Alice said.

“If you can beat one of my knights I won't bother to try training you again. Surely you aren't afraid of fighting one of my knights now are you?”

The lieutenant, noticing the knight's fearsome gaze gulped, however, he couldn't back down and therefore stepped forward.

“Hand them wooden swords,” she called out to a servant.

After they were given wooden swords they began circling each other.

The first to attack was the lieutenant, after getting impatient he stepped forward with a jab towards the knight's neck.

The knight reacted to his jab as if it was in slow motion.

He batted it aside before following up with a swing to the legs.

The lieutenant sensing the attack quickly stepped backward but stumbled a bit.

The knight seeing the opening quickly stepped forward taking advantage of the lieutenant's lack of balance and sent him sprawling with a forward kick.

The lieutenant who had been kicked and was sent sprawling suddenly found a sword pointing its tip right in front of his face.

The knight stepped backward and sheathed the training sword before walking back to his spot.

The lieutenant scrambled to stand up as his face flushed in embarrassment.

“Do you understand the difference now?” asked Alice, glaring at the lieutenant.

“Yes..” he said quietly.

“Good now you are all to follow my orders from now on!”

After seeing this display of power, Alex nodded in satisfaction before returning inside.

Alice, having noticed Alex’s departure, wondered why he had come to watch her training.

Thinking that the only reason he would come to watch it was to understand more about her, she nodded happily to herself and slightly warmed up to him.

The day quickly passed uneventfully, with Alex and Marie dealing with matters regarding the wedding, and Alice was busy training the guards.

At dinner, once they sat down and the food was served Alex began talking about the wedding.

“It has been decided that the wedding will take place in 2 days. However, we will be doing a small ceremony due to the rumors circulating around the capital,” he said. Having found out today about the rumors he was quite disturbed to find out that there was a chance of war breaking out and that he would be the first line of defense.

Nodding at that Alice accepted that without a problem.

“I suggest that aside from our meals, we take a day or two every week to spend time getting to know each other so that things are not awkward between us.”

“That would be most acceptable,” said Alice, whose demeanor had slightly changed towards him.

Acknowledging her acceptance he nodded and said.

“The final thing I want to say is, as you are aware we have our marriage duties that we must perform.”

Alice watched him waiting for him to continue.

“I will not force you to do your duties while we are in my residence, however, please understand that when we are in public we must act as any normal husband and wife would.”

After he said that Alice looked slightly relieved but that was all.

Waving over a servant for some wine he said,

“Let us toast to a long and prosperous marriage,” he said, smiling slightly.

Alice returned his smile and began drinking.

Lifting the glass to his lips, Alex suddenly froze.

Everyone in the room stared at him confused.

“Alex, are you okay?” asked Alice. wondering why he had frozen.

Setting the glass on the table, Alex pointed at the guards and said.

“Grab him, and bring him to me.” Alex pointed at the servant who brought them wine.

The servant's eyes widened in shock, as he realized he was caught he tried to run but was caught by the guards and brought to Alex.

As the servant kneeled on the ground and looked up into Alex's face, he flinched away after he looked into his eyes.

Alex’s eyes had turned glassy and hollow.

The servant felt as if he was looking at a dead man.

“You poisoned my wine, didn't you?” he asked.

“Nnno milord, I wouldn't dare.” the servant stuttered looking away from him.

It was obvious to everyone around them that he was lying.

“I assume we have a dungeon, correct?” he asked, looking at a guard.

The guard noticed Alex’s eyes and flinched, answering his question he said.

“Yes, My Lord, your grandfather had one built when we faced a similar situation.”

“Bring him down there and lock him up until I check on him later,” he said in a flat emotionless voice.

“Yes, My Lord!” the guard said, even snapping off a salute as he carried the servant out of the hall.

Alex closed his eyes as his hand twitched incessantly. He really had wanted to strangle the servant but he kept himself in control. It wasn't good to bring back old habits.

Turning back around he looked at Alice who stared back at him with slightly widened eyes.

Alice stared at him intently, seemingly evaluating him all over again.

Alex, having realized his eyes were still hollow, quickly blinked and returned to normal.

“ If you'll excuse me, I have a guest to attend to,” he said getting up.

“Wait!” shouted Alice before he could exit the room.

Tilting his head in confusion, he wondered what she wanted.

“How did you know there was poison in the glass?” she asked.

“Ah.” he let out

He was quite surprised and did not have much of an answer so he simply said.

“It was a lucky guess, the wine just smelled off,” he said before walking off in the direction of the dungeon.

As Alice gazed at his back she wondered why he lied to her.

‘How did he know it was poisoned? He shouldn't have been able to tell just from the smell being off, and what was with his eyes?’

Truth is Alice had seen eyes like those before. When talking to her father and other veterans who had fought in the wars, she had sometimes seen them have eyes like that. However, why did Alex have them? From what she knew he was supposed to be an immature, arrogant, and impulsive man. However, so far he had treated her with politeness and had eyes which he shouldn't possess.

As Alice pondered this, she wondered.

‘What else are you hiding?’