THE GOLDEN HILT 5 | THE TWO COMRADES | MEDIEVAL SERIES

ADVENTUROUS MEDIEVAL SHORT STORY SERIES

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THE GOLDEN HILT

He woke up with his hands numb from being tied he didn’t know how long. He heard one of his captors say,” aww little baby is waky waky, you want shomfing little baby.” He looked at them, there were three now, the other two must have left to find someone else. “Shut up, malko you will scare our noble guest.” Said the one that had attacked Lakmeer.

Lakmeer looked at him with disgust and spat at him, of which he said nothing, but the one that was called malko, who was the dirtiest fellow Lakmeer had ever seen, he was wearing pieces of torn clothing which he must have stolen from someone else, he looked at Lakmeer and said,” He aint no noble Mefnic, whot is noble mean, anyways.” The one that defeated Lakmeer was looking at his sword with the scabbard in the other one’s hand who hadn’t said a word yet. Mefnic, as he was called, kept looking at the sword and said,” shut that mouth of yours, or I will tell beast to take that tongue of yours out, since he doesn’t like people who talk a lot because he can’t do it himself.”  Mefnic seemed to be the leader here, while the one called beast was his executioner and the other three were the ones who were the fools here and the soldiers.

They became silent now and Mefnic kept looking at the sword. They had tied Lakmeer to a tree and so tight that he couldn’t feel his legs. Mefnic got up as lazily as ever, with Lakmeer’s sword honor in his hands, he came close to Lakmeer that Lakmeer could hear him breathing, he looked at Lakmeer with interest and said,” So pretty boy, tell me. Are you pink or red?” Lakmeer didn’t know what he meant by it but he said,” I am none of these.” Mefnic smiled at this and said,” So, you are one of the democratic.” Lakmeer didn’t know what he meant by that either and said,” I am not that either, you have the wrong person.” Mefnic laughed at this, it was a long disgusting laugh. After a long laugh Mefnic and his friends became silent and Mefnic said,” You are nothing if not funny, my little friend you are not the wrong person, you are just the right person. You have the best horse I have ever seen and your sword is the sharpest if I have ever seen one.”

“So, what are you going to do with me?” Lakmeer said.” We are going to kill you and leave you for the crows.” Mefnic replied.  Lakmeer gave a shout of help but nobody would ever hear him in these deserted woods. Mefnic only said,” Anyone who hears you and comes to help you would be a fool like you.” And left. Lakmeer shouted, but nobody came.

He got tired and his throat dry so he stayed silent helplessly. And silence fell again, but this time silence was disturbed by the crunch of leaves under someone’s heavy feet, Lakmeer looked up at the person who was coming. He was a very tall man, and he knew by his height that it was not one of his captors, because the two who were not here were dwarves compared to him. When this unknown figure came into a spot where sun’s rays fell on him. He could see his face; he was not a handsome person. He could be death himself, maybe Lakmeer’s death and only he could see him, he even had a sack maybe to take his soul and put it in the sack. But this idea was changed when the three captors stood up alarmingly, even Mefnic.

The man came face to face to his captors and said,” Oh, don’t mind me please sit down, I am just here to take the boy.” And after a slight pause and a mocking smile he said,” After I kill you three, of course.” Lakmeer felt really happy at this point, finally someone came to save him, but still his savior did not have much chance of winning, he was five against one.

Mefnic kept looking at him and didn’t answer, he had Lakmeer’s sword in his hand, unsheathed. While Mefnic’s friend Malko spoke,” Those two idiots, what were they doing, they were s,posed to be on guard duty.” The man laughed and emptied the sack in his hands and said,” You mean these two?” Two bloodied heads fell out of the sack, Lakmeer nearly let out a scream but stopped himself. Malko stepped back and stood behind Mefnic, while the one called beast began to growl like an angry dog, while Mefnic kept staring at the man.

Without saying a word Mefnic stepped forward and the stranger unsheathed his sword. They kept walking in circles and their eyes were on one another. Lakmeer had never seen a duel to death, he had seen his villagers fight duels, with real swords but they were only duel till first blood, this on the other hand was totally different. Those two kept walking in circles for a long time, until the stranger stepped forward and gave the fastest and hardest blow Lakmeer had ever seen, he knew that if Mefnic had his own sword, which was not such high quality steel, it would have broken if not the first blow but for the second for sure. With this blow the real battle began, steel met steel in midair and the clang of steel rang through the forest.

This was the most intense fight Lakmeer had ever seen. Both of the fighters were giving blows after blows and Mefnic had given the stranger a long cut from one corner of his face to the other, while this new stranger was not bad as well. He had given Mefnic a cut on the back of his right leg that was making it hard for him to move as swiftly as he was before. While the cut on his left eye, which might as well have gone blind due to the cut, was making it hard for him to see. The stranger was the best swordsman he had ever seen, he was both fast and strong, and one man could fight one of these at a time. Now he was giving Mefnic one cut after the other, and when Mefnic grew so weak that he went into a kneeling position he cut his head clean off.

Now he looked at the two remaining ones, Malko was scared like a maid while beast was huffing and puffing like an angry bull. Beast came running towards him but he moved aside and cut his head like a knife cuts through tomato. Malko knew he was no match for him so he started to run away, the stranger sheathed his sword and took out his dagger and threw it at Malko and it went through his head and Malko fell down, dead.

The man laughed at the way Malko fell, like a child laughs when he has done something naughty. He walked like Lakmeer did not exist, and went to take his knife out of Malko’s head. After that he began to check each of the corpses for valuables. None of them had anything, except for Mefnic, who had a pouch full of coins. He emptied the pouch and put the coins inside his own pouch. He took Lakmeer’s scabbard from Mefnic’s corpse and picked his fallen, golden hilt sword, and sheathed it. Lakmeer could not keep quiet anymore, so he said,” That is mine.” The man looked at him but said nothing, Lakmeer tried to speak louder, with a commanding voice,” The sword, it is mine.” The man again said nothing and stood up from his place and came towards him.

Lakmeer thought that he must be coming to free him, he walked to Lakmeer and stood in front of him. Mefnic might be dead but he had left his mark in this world, on the face of his killer, it was a long cut which spread from the right eye all the way to the left chin, cutting his nose in half. He stood staring at Lakmeer and threw the sword at Lakmeer’s side and said with a rasping voice,” Take it, when you have freed yourself.” The man began walking back, but Lakmeer could not let him go, there may not come anyone else who might help him. He called out,” No, please wait. Please help me.” The man stopped and came back and unsheathed his sword and cut the rope that tied Lakmeer to the tree.

Lakmeer got himself free of the ropes and stood up,” Thank you, I am Lakmeer.” The man didn’t say anything and started to walk away from Lakmeer and said,” I don’t care” Lakmeer didn’t like his rude behavior, but Lakmeer did not want to anger this person, if he wanted he could cut Lakmeer in half before he could even blink.

The man again walked to the dead bodies and gathered them at one place. He told Lakmeer to stay where he was and walked away, coming back with two headless dead bodies. Which for sure were the owners of the two earlier heads. He gathered them and took all their clothes off, Lakmeer was confused but he knew when not to talk and who not to disturb. He castrated them and tied them to a single rope dragging them, with the heads tied to their owner’s feet, towards the road, and again telling Lakmeer to stay where he was. After a long while or maybe it felt like that, he came back without any dead bodies or heads. He gathered up his things and went towards the road.

This time he didn’t say anything so that meant Lakmeer could follow him and so he did, he took the rein of his horse and followed him. He kept walking without saying a word, after a while Lakmeer could see the road, and the dead bodies hanging from a tree and swaying with the breeze, he hanged the headless ones by tying the rope round their chest, the heads were tied to the headless bodies, not knowing which head belonged to which one. The crows were already pecking at the eyes and other soft meat. The stranger went to his horse which was tied to a tree and, began to pack everything he had taken from the bandits, and said,” Traveling from the road in these times is foolish, there are bandits everywhere who would not flinch before killing you.” Lakmeer did not say anything at first but then said,” I don’t see any other means of travel except for the road, what other way should I take to travel?” The man kept packing his stolen things and said,” You should not travel at all.”

Lakmeer was confused at his statement, as he himself was traveling and from the road,” You are traveling, and from the road as well.” The man gave a rasping laughter and said,” You saw what I did to those bandits, and what they did to you? I can cut my way through bandits but when you meet them on the road, they will cut you. And maybe even eat you if they didn’t have anything to eat for a long time.”

Thinking about this made Lakmeer want to vomit, maybe his expressions were visible on his face and the man saw them. He started to laugh, his laugh was long and annoying, when he was done Lakmeer said,” who would eat human meat.” The man climbed his horse and said, ”someone who hasn’t eaten for a long time to remember the difference between human and beef.” Saying this he began to go but Lakmeer stopped him and said,” I am going this way as well, we could be companions until we part.” The man looked at him and said,” I am not a baby sitter.” Lakmeer replied,” I don’t need babysitting, I can cook my own food and make my own fire. We will just be companions for a short time. I am going to Gordor.” The man’s face looked even more annoyed if it was possible and he said,” It’s not going to be short, it’s going to be annoyingly long. I am going to Gordor as well.” This was better for Lakmeer, now he knew how dangerous these roads can be, so it would be better to have some strong person as him around you. Lakmeer happily climbed his horse and said,” so, let’s go then.”

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