The Lowborn's Rise Ch. 04

Lowborn's Rise

Chapter 4

*** (Author's Note): As is with my other works, I'm trying to put all chapters into paper as best as I can. Still, there's still plenty of rough edges that I plan to iron out once every chapter of this story is out. Initially I just planned to pour out sex scenes set in a medieval-like fantasy world, bereft of any story or character development. Something to let my steam off. But my own nitpickings got the best of me and here we are.

This is to inform you still, no sex scene just yet. But we're headed up to that. For now, our boy Will has to learn his duties in his new station.

Thank you for taking the time and this chapter has more than 2,500 words just to give a heads up.

It had only taken a single kick to wake Will up. Which was an improvement, as he was getting used to the routines of being a soldier. He had some leeway when it came to his sleep back when he was a farmhand.

"I'm up, I'm up," Will instinctively replied to no one in particular, his eyes still bleary from sleep that he could see his own hand save for a blur of suntanned flesh. He never took off his gambeson as he slept, immediately falling to his cot once they had arrived from their five day journey, and Will slept with the spear in his grip and the axe holstered to his belt. His feet moved on their own, following the smudge of movements from the outside of their barracks, only to walk straight unto the doorframe. The feeble shack that was their barracks, shook at the impact, dust falling from the rafters and wooden posts wobbling.

The veteran merely shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Come on greenhorn! We need every able hands on this," as the older man guided him by the scruff of his gambeson, not harshly but still in a quite firm grip.

Half-awake, he held his spear in this hand, practically blind as he was guided to another task. The air was especially biting and all around them was the cover of darkness. Will pegged it sometime in the small hours of the night before morning comes.

"Uh-where you want me sir?" Will asked to the veteran soldier whilst trying to blink the blurriness from his eyes to no avail. His eyes were wide open, but all he can see of the world was a great smudge of it.

"Stick with your squadron. Look each other's back. And don't get killed."

"Wait- -what?"

It was the tone in which the veteran spoke that snapped Will fully wake. He had thought it to be another drill. As he looked about him he saw bodies moving to and fro, unable to make the finer details with his groggy eyes. Lanterns being lit and men forming up. There was a tension of the air as the men rushed out of the shaky gates of the outpost and Will stumbling in half-awake attention.

"Are...we-we aren't going for a drill are we?" Will asked his fellows, him among the front in a group of five. Two men faced the way they came and walked backwards, whilst three, Will including, face forward. All three had spears ready and hoisted. There were three paths, all diverging from the outpost towards three different entrances to the mudhut village. The other group, also numbering five and included the old, grizzled giant of a captain took the backmost entrance. Will and his group would sweep the front. Will's vision was slightly getting better by the second as he saw the bobbing lantern light diverging away from theirs, like some giant firefly, illuminating the men that held them.

"Still asleep laddie?" jested the fellow beside Will, sporting a scraggly beard and stood half a head taller than him. His eyes constantly pointed forward gazing steadily in the dark as they made slow by stable progress.

"No, we are not going for a drill. Were on patrol, greenhorn," added by another man, Will could not make out his face for he wore a skullcap and a scarf that only showed his eyes. A scar ran through one of the eyes. "Your very first night in patrol. Let's hope it not be your last," There was a tinge of humor in Skullcap's tone, eliciting a brief laughter among their group. Will took no offense, recognizing it as men easing the tension. His fingers would clench and unclench around the shaft of his spear, eyes too scanning the shadow of the night.

Skullcap's spear had a small lantern tethered to metal ring, just right below the spear head, as was Beard's.

"Listen here laddie, should things turn for the worst and any beasty come prowling out of the dark, I leave it to you to strike the killing blow," Beard instructed Will in a matter-a-fact tone.

"W-what?" Will stammered, part from the mention of beasts and part of being handed such a responsibility.

"Oh Aye, the damn things always try to go for the ones holding the light. But my spear is heavy, what with the dangling piece of metal there," Beard nodded towards the lantern, "And my joints are starting to creak. Same goes for the helmeted fellow there"

"I ain't as old as you, old man" growled Skullcap, scarred eye still scanning the path in front of them. They were near some of the houses now. So near that Will thought he could hear the people inside, shifting within and still very awake. At this time of the night?

"But I admit that the damn lanterns messes with the balance of the spears each time I swing or thrust. So don't fuck up greenhorn. Unless you want to end up like poor, stupid Hollard," Skullcap almost spat the name.

"W-who's Hollard?" Will asked.

Beard was about to open his mouth when the baying of hounds sounded off, in the back most path of the village. Followed by a shrill beastlike howl unlike Will had ever heard on his time on this holy earth. It sent every hair on his skin to stand on their ends.

"What the hell?!" the young levy swore, looking towards the other direction.

"Eyes forward, greenhorn! Seems it's going to be an exciting night for your first patrol! Ha!" Skullcap ordered, there was laughter in his voice but it was forced and tense. Will eagerly obeyed.

"Alright stop here, and eyes out on the crop fields laddie, those are our priority ya hear?" Will's group stopped at the mouth of the path, just five strides away from the first row of houses that lined the outer rim of the village. "The village elder and his men secures much of the village inside. While we have to make sure no beasty would mess up the outer fields and the livestock."

A few of them sat on the side of the path, backs behind one another. Eyes alert and such. Will joined Skullcap and Beard on surveying the fields and the outlying houses so close to them. Will caught whiff of something putrid, reminded him of some unwashed livestock back at the farm he grew up on. He glanced towards the roof and arched his brow. It seemed to be coming from up roofs.

As fast as it came, so too did it go. He opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and moved unto his watch.

On the others side of the village, Will could hear shouts and shrill screaming. It was odd how quiet it is on this side of their patrol. Will had to chastise himself from staring in the direction of the commotion. He cast his eyes towards the fields, the moon hidden behind thick blankets of clouds.

They were in the farther edges of the village, some houses not joined closely amongst their neighbors. These were smaller in size along with the plot of their fields and the crops in them. Will's eyes trailed this houses, then settling on the farthermost household, almost edging its backyard with the primordial forest that sloped towards mountainous land. It was a ramshackle affair of wood and dried mud and in the brief blessings of piercing moonlight he could just make out the few crops that grew in their plot of field.

Another louder baying of hounds resounded from where the other group was, snapping Will's attention away. It was faintly followed by the shouts of men.

"Close the window fool!" hissed a voice, that of a woman. Will turned to look and was surprised to see a head stick out a window of the very poor, little house he just surveyed mere moments ago. It was a woman, the unmistakable curves of her breast silhouetted from the light within their home and the shadow of long hair faintly trailing on her shoulders. It was dark and Will was farther away from their house to make any finer details than that. Curiosity it seemed, drew her to all the commotion.

"You want to be dragged and mauled into the night?" Said the same voice that attracted Will's attention, not belonging to the one near the window.

"Sorry, sister," Spoke the woman on the window, her voice seemed the younger of the two.

"Don't be sorry fool! Use that head of yours!" the voices grew muffled as the two argued inside the house and the window was closed. It was a momentary distraction for Will, wanting to ease his tension, watching that little family drama. And Will was about to turn back to his patrol when he saw it.

It was fast.

And big.

As big as a cow, if cows could move as agile and nimble as cats. It darted right into the fields, not making a sound but the visible disturbance of its presence was telling in the parting of leaves.

It was headed right in their direction.

"Uhm...Sir?" Will stepped back into ranks with his comrades.

"I see it, laddie. I see it," grumbled Beard, shoulders tensing. "Eyes up lads, we're having company all right!" The five men all faced the incoming danger, up from the fields and right in the middle of the path. All eyes expectant on the massive beast.

By the blessing of whatever deity that chose to impart some odds in their favor, a break in the clouds above poured some much needed light on their sorry lot. Illuminating the path ahead if only for just a brief instance.

Will was half right in his description. On all fours it truly was the size of a cow, covered in midnight blue fur that glimmered in the moonlight but quite invisible in the deep shadows of the night. By all rights, the ground should have thundered under the massive weight of the creature, but Will felt no such disturbance. From the size alone, its pure muscle bound flesh must've weighted five hundred stones! It prowled directly right towards the group, unafraid and unflinching. Slowly bearing its immense fangs, easily a grown man's finger long. What Will thought to have been pointed ears like that of a feline, was in actuality the curved, elongated horns that would not be out of place from a bull.

The blood drained from Will's cheeks.

Sweat dripped from his back and brow like winter's breathe.

Heart threatening to break free from his ribs.

As was his very feet.

Then as if in mockery of their supposed stoicism, it did one more preposterous act that confounded and frightening poor Williber.

The looming shadow slowly unfurled and stood on its hindlegs, towering as high as a barn door. It let out a shrill roar that belonged to no natural creature of the earth, easily taking a swipe of the swinging lantern. It was by complete instinct. Not tactics whatsoever that propelled the men. Which made them indispensable, better to have brave cowards that ran forward, as opposed to the other direction. Will understood this, on his very first battle, he was and is still afraid. But that fear would be pushing him towards the enemy, weapon drawn, rather than drop, tuck and run away. Was this the reason why the overseer picked him to be here?

Will braced his ground, spear ready to lunge.

Beast and men alike could have spent an eternity like that eyeing one another.

But Will's other senses became aware of another thing. The return of that putrid stench, this time, it was fiercer.

"Do any of you smell that?"

Skullcap sniffed the air and muttered a curse.

"No...No, no. Not now," he growled.

"What is it?" Will asked.

"Fucking hellcats is what it is!" Fear and frustration glowed in his eyes taking a step forward, daring the giant beast in front of them.

"Boys, nose up!" Skullcap told the two men behind them, "There might be a- -"

"Hellcats! Watchout!" warned one of the men from the rear.

Hiiissss!!! Was all the warning they ever got, as something feel from atop the roofs of the mud huts. And the putrid odor was damn near suffocating. It was all followed by a flurry of wind and yelling at the rear. Will was about to turn and see what happened.

"Don't mind them lad! They're big boys, they can handle a pair of wee kittens, don't you boys!?" Ordered Beard eyes fixed forward.

"Aaagh!"

"By the gods, watch the quills!" came a scream from behind them. Will dare not turn lest the giant in front of them take that as his opportunity.

"Just keep your eyes forward greenhorn! The big bugger is our problem first and foremost. Now, fan out!"

Will was stuck in the middle of the path, as both veteran soldiers kept their distance, spears aimed at the creature. Will thought of nothing, senses compelled to the present. No thoughts of the past nor worries of the future.

Only to here and now.

He tried to think of any such else, as the looming shadow of death incarnate stood not ten strides away from him. Will wanted to think of a happy memory. Anything, just anything brilliant amidst the haze of his pathetic, young life only to come up with nothing, for he wanted to bring something he truly cherished when he breathes his last. Which might not be long now.

"Steady, steady now," urged Beard, now on the far left of the beast.

"Remember, greenhorn! No Heroics!" chided Skullcap, having just reached the far right, taunting the beast with his lantern.

At the back, two of their comrades were straddling with a cat from hell, trying not to be killed. Will would have laughed at the notion weeks ago if he was ever told of the situation.

Did Will truly have nothing in his life? Nothing to take beyond death? Then what was the point of his existence then? The memory of his time with Maygan was not a highlight, rather an everlasting testament to his life that he had truly had done and have none. All that was brought forth was what he lacked, having tasted the true joys of life.

It was this realization of nothingness, this clarity in him that prompted the young levy to act with such reaction.

Beard stumbled, his footing caught poor soil and suddenly hit stone. The weight of his spear addling his grip only for a brief second.

With alarming speed, the beast took this lapse in defense, away from Skullcap and unto the exposed, older soldier.

Turning its head with such ferocity and haste.

Such power.

And such an opening.

The beast saw no regard to the youngling, Will, in front of it. It went for the obvious threat of the veteran soldier. For such was death, quick and unpredictable, save for those final few seconds one sees with such clarity the moment of their death. Such was the belief of the creature. It had been so for so long. So long in fact, that it had forgotten the same applies to it.

Unheeding of the lunging spear at the hands of the Will until it was mere inches away.