Chatod Henderson

With winter finally relinquishing her cruel hold over the land, The knights of the Lionguard start to move forward. All except the one who's struggling to get back on his feet and if it’s not his weight that’s pulling him down then it’s definitely the longshield that’s on his back. He closes his eyes to muster up the strength to get back on his feet and before he knows it he’s lifted from the ground and onto his feet. He’s welcomed by a charming smile that only belongs to one man.

The Charming fellow chuckles, “Come now Drew, you can’t stand by yourself?”

The man pulls Drew up from the spot that he was stuck in and playfully wipes the snow off his shoulders. With a quiet, but delicate voice he replies

“Thanks Alexios, but do you think the others noticed?”

They both looked at the group of knights that were gathered around. The two lanky knights that were present were looking over at Alexios and Drew, laughing at them. Drew’s head sunk immediately out of embarrassment and as Alexios looked down at his disheartened friend, his face hardened. The lanky knights continued to laugh until they realized who was heading towards them, but it was too late to act proper. Alexios was already towering over them with a fire in his eyes.

“Is this how we treat our comrades?!?”

The knights look to each other and before they can respond Alexios continues

“If you utter another word to me and not to Drew then I shall knock your teeth in do you understand me?!?”

Drew, who long decided to stay out of the confrontation, hesitantly walks up to Alexios and the knights.

“Alexios, there’s really no need.”

Alexios snaps back at Drew “Oh yes there is because as long as we’re under the Lionguard banner we are equals and since we’re equals” He looks over to the knights “They shouldn’t have a problem with apologizing, right?!?”

The knights look over to Drew without  hiding the fact that they don’t want to apologize, but with Alexios breathing down their necks, they can’t do a thing, but submit. They both walk over to Drew and stand before him with their heads lowered.

 The tallest between the two speaks up first “we’re sorry for laughing at you Drew, next time we’ll try to help, but I must say” He lowers his voice, “Don’t you find it tiring riding the coattails of Alexios?”

The other knight chimes in a little too quickly as if he can’t contain his excitement  “Exactly, like  what kind of knight are you if you can’t even see your own toes.” They both snicker at the comment which Alexios notices and starts coming forward angrily.

“OI, are you doing what you're supposed to be doing?” The knights looked at Alexios and moved besides Drew smiling.

“No sir everything is fine between us, right Drew ? you understand we meant no harm don’t you?”

Alexios can tell they weren’t genuine, but yet he doesn’t act against it. Instead he waits for the victim to do something about it. Drew notices Alexios’s stare, but averts his eyes.

He then chuckled weakly “yea, I understand, it was funny that I couldn't get up.”

Knowing they’re now in the clear the knights let out a sigh of relief  “You see we’re all friends here Alexios!”

Alexios continues to stare at Drew, but finally breaks it off

“Just go”

The knights bow “As you wish, young highness”

The two knights walk away smiling in triumph over not being punished, but Drew continues to look down. Alexios moves forward and puts a hand on Drew’s shoulder.

“...Drew, you know I have your back on the battlefield and home, you're like a brother to me and you know this so why can’t you grit your teeth, pick your head up and stand up for yourself?” 

Drew doesn’t break eye contact with the snow on the ground.

“I don’t know...it’s hard for me, always has been because even though I’m friends with you, it's still hard to stand tall on my own, besides what they say is true about me you know, I can’t even see my own toes.” He lets out a weak chuckle and looks up at Alexios who didn’t find the joke funny, instead he gives him a  stern look to show him that he was serious about this situation. but why wouldn’t he, he can’t have anyone’s moral falter even if they aren’t the strongest or most useful, if they plan to survive in this forest they all must be determined, that’s the duty of a future king and what kind of king would he be if he can’t even give his best friend a moral boost.

“Drew-,before he can finish, a scout runs to Alexios.

“Sir Alexios” he yells, “we found the enemy camp and spotted him, He’s here Alexios, Oryx is here!” Drew heard the news and his face was filled with Horror upon hearing that name, the fact that he’s here is like a bad omen, everywhere Oryx goes death follows in the most brutal of ways. Even when Alexios heard the name he froze with a shocked face, but quickly composed himself.

“Where’s the location and how many do you think there is ?” asked Alexios

The scout looked nervous and looked around the camp then whispered “at least double the amount here so I say 60 at the campsite.” Alexios pulled back and mouthed 60 ? the scout shook his head in a yes motion. “The thing is they have their camp in the ruins that's quite a bit ahead, but not far enough to make us all tired except” He trails off his sentence and looks over at Drew who was still in shock from hearing Oryx's name. Alexios followed his gaze and let out a frustrated sigh.

“Look he will be fine, I trust him with my life and he would never stab me, even if I pleaded” The scout looks over at Drew and asks “what about the back ?” with an eyebrow raised.

“Not even the front” Oryx answers without a look of doubt. The scout still not convinced finally gives in  “very well, but heed my words he’s a liability, he won’t stab your back, but when the going gets tough he will break, I’m sure of it.”

Before Alexios can argue, the scout walks away to rest. He then starts to think about the situation. He’s had a lot of worries and many responsibilities to handle, but he won’t panic because he's the next in line. He breathes in, then breathes out and smiles triumphantly.

“Alright everyone gather around, as you may not know from the Scout’s scream from once he entered the camp, it appears that the mercenary group Strathmore is here with their leader Oryx.” A deadly silence filled the camp once Oryx was mentioned, Alexios lets the news sink in then continues.

“Now that I have your full attention, let’s make a plan to kill him” He goes on and explains his plans, at first no one was reacting to it, but has time went on the more he explained, the more people started getting their spirits back up and by the end of it, everyone was back to normal. As Alexios looks around satisfied with the results of the meeting, his smirk disappears to see Drew gathering his stuff quickly. Alexios jogs off to see what he’s doing. He speaks up first, 

“Haven’t seen you move this fast unless it involved a bed and something to drink” Alexios was smiling, but Drew didn’t respond, he just kept getting his stuff. Alexios face drops and starts talking softer.

“Drew what are you doing?” Drew stops midway, looks up to Alexios and in a shout, “Oryx, really Oryx?!?” he turns back around as he exclaims while packing “Hey Drew be part of the army, It will be fun and you will be partnered up with me, I’ll have your back and you’ll have mine, we’re brothers in arms now” Alexios stands quiet as he’s mocked. Drew stops packing and with venom in his words he asks,

“Let me ask you something, AlExIoS , what's the chance of survivability huh, what’s my chance of survivability.” The scout’s words of Drew reaching a breaking point enters Alexios’ mind, but he refuses the idea.

“Drew, I won’t lie to you, it’s impossible for everyone to return from this battle especially with Oryx being here you could be one of the brave knights that die...But let’s say you make it back, all those knights out there, they don’t believe in you, but I do and if you go out there with me and fight by my side and win then you’ll be known as a hero to everyone. You will be respected, so please if you stay and fight, you’ll be known as someone who isn’t a coward, but one of the bravest.” Drew thinks for a long time on what Alexios said and respects his honesty, finally with the same quiet and uncertain voice from before,

“Okay,I’ll go” Alexios smiled brightly “Alright then Sir Drew, care to kill a couple of mercs with me?” Drew manages a weak smile “of course”

Alexios walks away and thinks of the fierceness that Drew showed, he wondered if he would see that on the battlefield because if so then he knows that when push comes to shove he can rely on drew.

____________________________________________________________________________

Night falls as the Mercs of Strathmore light their torches and start their nightly patrols. One of the mercs, Edwin surveys the campsite and shakes his head. Making a camp in these ruins was a mixture of stupidity and rashness, but he dares not to question Oryx. He grabs another merc and heads to the front of the camp to grab a torch and start his patrol. As Edwin and co travel down the path he hears a snap of a twig on the right, he pulls out his shortsword. Edwin approaches the bush and pokes it with his sword. Nothing comes out or makes a sound. He rolls his eyes then turns to see his partner gone. He freezes. He calls for him once only to be responded by the bugs of the night. Edwin tenses up and stares at the entrance of the camp, he thinks to himself that he’s quite the distance away, but if he’s fast enough he can make it. He gets ready to run when he feels a sharp pain go across his neck. He tried speaking but nothing came out instead he felt something leaking from his neck down to his armor. He feels another sharp pain enter his backside as he crumples to the ground. The last thing he sees is a tall man with a dagger in his hand. Alexios checks to see if any new patrols are coming, then gives the signal. The knights while crouching pour onto the path and into the ruins. When they spotted any sleeping merc the scout would sneak over and slit their throats in a quick succession.  As they go further into the ruins, killing anyone that they find. They come across an intersection, the scout moves up and tells Alexios that the leader is up ahead. He nods and tells them to make sure no one gets passed here, he looks over to Drew

“Are you ready for this ?” Drew nods his head and awaits further orders.  Alexios brings Drew, the scout and a knight to go forth with him. As they continue  down the narrow path they start to  see a light at the end. Alexios draws his blade and runs through it ready for Oryx. As they come into the clearing, Drew studies the open space, he wonders why there’s a light that shines bright in this dome-like room with a grass floor with flowers. Suddenly they hear something close behind them and the knight in the back screams, Alexios and the others turn to see a large blade dripping with blood that’s impaled in the knight from the back. The knight gets lifted by the blade then thrown off it, revealing a man as tall as Alexios, but with more muscle and has a sick grin on his face. “Welcome to your deaths” he rushes towards the frozen Drew.

“Move you fool” shouted the scout as he tackled Drew to the ground. Before Oryx could fix his position, Alexios quickly gets ahead of him readying his blade. Oryx spots the pattern on Alexios’s blade  and recognizes him. He proceeded to swing sideways, but Alexios parried and closed in on him to strike his stomach, but Oryx moved to the side, grabbed Alexios collar and threw him backwards. As Alexios struggles to regain his footing, Oryx rushes him while shouting “Hello, your majesty, what a pleasure to meet you!”

 As they clash swords, the Scout scrambles to his feet angrily.

“Stay out of this you fat pig” he pulls out his daggers and rushes Oryx from behind, but he notices this and strikes towards the scout, the scout dodges only to be kicked from the side and while he’s down, Oryx prepares the final strike only to be interrupted by Alexios’s battle cry  “There we go, Prince, show me some backbone”

Alexios gritted his teeth and kept swinging, hoping to discover an opening only to be countered on every strike. The scout got back up and started circling them in hopes of an opening to strike. For a split second he sees the left side of Oryx exposed and rushes forward.As he dashes towards the side the scout is met with a deadly smile. Oryx overpowered Alexios and while he was stunned. Oryx faced the rushing scout and raised his blade charging towards him. Unexpecting this change of events the scout had no way of knowing that Oryx was that fast and couldn’t adapt to the situation and because of this Oryx’s blade ran through his entire stomach. Oryx drives the blade further into him so he could see the scout cough out blood, once he was satisfied he slashed upward splitting him in half with blood spurting everywhere.

Oryx lets out a sadistic laugh, but unbeknownst to him with that final death awoken a fury that Alexios has never felt before and in a rage he screams,

“Damn you!” In a flash Alexios was on top of Oryx who only turned last minute and managed to counter the blade only for him to slash his own left leg, He grunts and tries to strike Alexios only to be disarmed by his counter. Alexios pulls back and proceeds to stab through Oryx clean through the chest getting up close and personal until he feels something in his stomach. He looks down to a dagger lodged in him. Alexios coughs blood and falls. The only thing that filled the air was the heavy breathing coming out of both fallen warriors and as if a statue that came to life Drew started to walk towards Alexios. As he approaches the bleeding body, Alexios looks up to see his brother in arms and chuckles weakly.

He raises his hand to Drew  “Care to help me up?”  Drew reaches down and passes Alexios’s hand,

“What are you-” Drew takes the dagger out of Alexios’s stomach slowly while letting him feel every ounce of pain as he does by twisting it around.Alexios looks at Drew with horror and in return Drew looks at Alexios with pure hatred. As Drew drives the blade into Alexios’s heart he remembers what the scout asked him if he could trust Drew in not stabbing him in the back and he remembered his response well.

‘Not even the front’

Drew waits for Alexios's life to fade from his eyes and walks over to Oryx who was still alive. Drew grabbed the handle of Alexios’s blade and drove it deeper into him, killing him. As he finishes him off the lanky knights and the others come in and see that not only is Alexios dead, but Drew avenged him. Once they returned home they mourned the death of the prince, but know that he’s resting well since his death was avenged by his dear friend Drew who is now renown by everyone as the bravest and the most strongest of all the knights in the Lionguard company.