Wandering Knight ch1

A knock on the village chief’s door resounded. Before he could answer, a soldier wearing the golden insignias of the royal family loudly opened the door.

“Greetings !” She shouted. “I am Ajax, envoy from the capital. By royal decree, you are to disclose any information you possess on any wandering knights that have happened to recently pass through your village !”

The chief was taken aback by the loud entrance, which would have been intimidating had the soldier in question not been so… tiny ?

“A royal envoy ? ‘Course, please take a seat.” he offered.

Ajax eyed him down in the most menacing way she could before plopping herself down on the chair opposite the chief.

“You’re looking for the famed Titanclad aren’t you. I’m surprised the king is interested in this knight. Though maybe not since rumors of his deeds have reached even our humble little village-” The chief stopped mid sentence.

Though it seemed like Ajax was squinting her eyes at him, she was actually glaring at him, as if to press him on.

“Right, well it just so happens that this rumored knight is in the village right now. We’ve asked him to investigate ol’ Finnias’ crops. We’re used to having our feed stolen by wolves or the like every now and again but Finnias’ field has been getting downright destroyed every other night recently.”

“And where is this field exactly ?” the woman asked, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

“South-east road leading out the village, forest’s edge.” He pointed towards the east window. “I’ll just warn you now though missy, dunno what you’re gonna tell him but don’t expect a normal response from the guy. He’s not your usual kinda fella, folks have told me he hasn’t left that field for an entire day now.”

“Thank you citizen.” Ajax stood then left the office as promptly as she entered.

—---------------------------------------

Surely enough, briskly walking down the south-east road, Ajax spotted a large armored figure in a wheat field not far off. The closer she got to it, the more imposing the figure became. The knight stood upright in a razed off part of the field, clad in his characteristic metal armor from head to toe. His sword was planted down into the dirt, both of his hands were on the handle. He was absolutely inert.

Ajax stepped through the plants until she reached the grazed area which formed an involuntary arena around the knight. Then, through practiced motions, she unfurled a large scroll and read out loud from it.

“Heed ye, Sir Knight the Titanclad. Thy deeds hath reached the ears of our Royal Majesty the King of Renegal. For having slain the eastern mountain’s Despicable Troll and ridding the town of Esternia’s necromancy problems, thou art to be knighted in service of our King Rolois the Benevolent himself. Heed this Royal Decree, thou must make your way to the royal capital posthaste whence thou shalt be welcomed as a hero.”

Ajax took a deep breath, and furled the scroll back. “I am Ajax, and I will be escorting you back to the capital. If you will please follow me, we have a long road ahead of us.”

“...”

Long seconds passed. The knight had not turned to listen to the envoy. Let alone moved at all.

Ajax took another deep breath, she circled around the figure, positioning herself to be in front of the stanced knight. She unfurled the scroll - once more, and read it in its entirety - once more.

Nevertheless, the knight did not budge.

“...”

The scroll crumpled in Ajax’ hands. “Look, can we get this charade over with ? Do you have any idea what I had to go through to find you ? I had to sleep out under the rain. I had my coin purse stolen. I had to sell my horse to keep myself from starving, and despite that I’ve eaten nothing but those weird berries that grow along forest paths recently. I’m tired, Sir wandering knight, let’s go.”

“...”

“Come on ! You’re getting officially knighted ! Isn’t that your whole gimmick ? Isn’t this goal exactly what you were striving for when you killed that troll, when you saved that town ? What more could you possibly want ?”

“...”

She threw the scroll down in frustration. “You have no choice in the matter anyway, this is a royal decree. Let’s go.” She tried to push the knight back towards the road.

Ajax was already quite small, so the contrast against the massive figure was overwhelming. The knight was easily a head taller than even the tallest men she had seen before.

It was like he was rooted into that field. She was a gentle breeze trying to move an ancient tree.

Minutes of exhausting pushing and pulling later, Ajax finally let up. “Fine. Have it your way. Slay whatever creature did this to the crops, get paid, then we leave to the capital. Deal ?”

“...”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

—---------------------------------------

The sudden loss of a back support was what woke Ajax up. She had fallen asleep, sat leaning against the knight’s leg but he had at long last shifted his stance. This meant whatever the knight had been waiting for had shown up.

Night had come and their surroundings were pitch black. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she realized the knight was looking at her, his arm extended in the direction where she came from, finger pointing for her to get away quickly.

“I might not look like much but I’m still an indirect subordinate to the king himself.” She shrugged between yawns and drew her sword “Let’s get this done”.

Despite the sudden arousal, Ajax did not see or hear anything that indicated anything had arrived. She looked in the direction the knight had turned to, but could only make out darkness.

Suddenly, he forcefully pushed her away. Ajax flew backwards. The last thing she saw before landing behind the wheat stalks, was the large, feathered beast that flew through where she was standing moments ago.

Dazed, on her back and with her view obscured from the fight, she only heard a shriek and the distinctive sound of metal cutting through air.

Then nothing.

Ajax got up. She spotted the knight. His chest plate heaved rhythmically with his breathing. He was stood upright, foot on the giant beast’s belly, greatsword lodged firmly in its chest.

Ajax lowered her eyes at the creature - “A roc bird” she muttered. The soldier was dumbfounded, this was the type of monster for which you had to assemble an entire party to slay. “-you just killed a roc bird in like five seconds”

The knight looked back, as if just noticing her. Ignoring her, he instead decided to claim his prize. In one motion, he lifted the sword back up and cleanly severed the beast’s head from the rest of the body. Sheathing his sword onto his back and grabbing the head, he started walking back to the village.

Ajax kept staring at his back. She had witnessed ranks of trained soldiers fall to this type of beast, back when her village had been attacked by one. The roc bird had stalked her hometown for three days straight, killing farmers and stealing crops wherever it could. More would have died if a passing wandering knight hadn’t aided the village’s militia-men in what was essentially a suicidal counter-attack.

And here was a single man who had not only slayed such a beast but who did so in a matter of moments without breaking a sweat.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, she glanced one last time at the beast and hurried after the knight.