A Tale of Courage and Hope

A Story by Chris Needham

This is the first chapter of my children's novel that I wrote last year. If anyone would like to read any more then I hope you can help me publish it!

Chapter One

Hello there, stop me if you’ve heard this one; courageous young fellow sets off on a quest to save a kidnapped young maiden. Really? Are you sure you’ve heard that one before? I don’t think you’ve heard this story though. Trust me on that. I’ve a few twists and more than enough adventures to keep your attention. I had pushed open the door to the tavern and settled down on my usual table by the fire. A few friends quickly gathered round me, along with a few new faces. Hey! Hey! Don’t you dare shut this book on me. I promise it will be good, I promise. We’re going to get started at the best place of all to start a story. The beginning. So here we go…

On the edge of a small forest there stood a farm. The farm had been lovingly tended for tens of years, all by the same family. It consisted of a barn and farm house for its residents and a good spread of fields around it. Running softly a little way from the farm house was a stream. It was surrounded by reeds but kept a constant supply of fresh and clean water flowing past the farm house. On one of the fields was a young man carefully turning the soil. He was wearing simple and practical clothes. His boots were worn but well looked after. He was of average height but with a muscular build, mostly from the very physical nature of his working life. His brown hair hung down over his neck, his forehead and just covered the tips of his ears. His skin was tanned from long days in the fields. His blue eyes blinked and stared at the field below him. He mopped his brow with the back of his right hand, sighed, took a deep breath in and carried on turning the soil before him.

Jacob had worked on the farm ever since a young age, having inherited it from his deceased mother and father. They had died when he was still only a teenager but years of hard work and graft had built his strong body and an eager mind. Jacob lived on the farm with his sweetheart Eliza. They had been together only a few short years yet their love knew no bounds and continued to grow each and every day. Eliza emerged from the farm house and carefully carried over a small tankard of water to Jacob as he worked. She was a little shorter than Jacob and with long chestnut hair that hung below her shoulders. It was held back with a simple knitted hair band from her face. She had emerald green eyes that sparkled in the dying sunlight of the day. Her skin was soft and glowed with a warmth of love for Jacob and the outdoors. She wore a red dress that hung just below her ankles that she had lifted and carried in her free hand as she made her way across the field. Jacob paused from his work and drank deeply from the refreshing tankard.

“Thank you Eliza, how is it you always know when I need a break?” Jacob asked, looking lovingly at the pretty young woman standing in front of him.

“Because I actually know you better than you know yourself,” laughed Eliza, taking back the tankard and setting it on the tray she had been carrying. “Another hour and then come in, it’s lonely in there cooking all day.” Eliza looked back at the farm house, smoke chugged from the chimney showing a fire was lit in the hearth.

“Aye, Eliza, you do know me well and I shall be hungry for your cooking as always,” replied Jacob. He leant over and placed a tender kiss on her cheek. Eliza smiled, lifted her ruby red dress above her ankles and made her way back to the farm house delicately avoiding the soil that had already been worked. Jacob watched as she left and then returned to work, carefully shifting the soil ready for the next season’s planting. A little over an hour later and the sun began to set in the sky, dipping down toward the horizon. Jacob rested himself on his tools and stared out into the distance, beyond the forest. He could see the nearby hamlet town of Arista, where he did most of his trading and selling at the market, and beyond that the vast plains where a solitary dirt track led the way to the industrialised capital city of Veria. There the King ruled and fairly controlled his surrounding lands. Jacob had only been to Veria once but had been amazed at the advanced machinery and the general hustle and bustle of day to day life. As he gazed out Jacob felt relieved and happy with the life he had made for himself here with Eliza. Turning on his heel and collecting his tools together he made for the farm house, the windows beginning to glow in the quickening darkness from the light of the hearth and lamps inside.

Jacob pushed open the door of the farm house and stepped inside. The warm air hit him and soothed his aching muscles and immediately Eliza was there with a hot tea. Jacob wrapped his arm around her and took the tea with the other. The couple walked slowly to the dining table where the broth Eliza had been cooking had been ladled into two bowls. The pair sat down, Jacob smiled and Eliza’s brilliant green eyes twinkled back. They both tucked into the broth; sharing a freshly cooked loaf of bread from the centre of the table.

“I left the tools in the barn for tonight and locked up the animals. It was a long day but coming in to this makes it all worthwhile, you know?” Jacob pushed back his tousled brown hair and mopped his brow with a nearby cloth. His simple clothes fitted snugly around him. Jacob had never been the biggest but working on a farm had toughened him and he could certainly handle himself when rustlers tried to steal cattle or crops.

“This farm doesn’t run itself you know, we put in the hard work and it pays us back. It’s always been like that.” Eliza delicately wiped her mouth, set down her spoon and added more broth to her bowl. Jacob tore off some more bread and ate hungrily.

“I don’t know, I just always feel like we’ve both been meant for more in life. Not that I don’t enjoy working the farm and keeping things running, we’ve a good life here, but lately, my feet, they’ve just been itching. I was looking towards Veria again tonight…” Jacob’s words drifted off as he remembered the sunset.

“Hey dreamer, don’t forget I’m here!” Eliza threw her spoon and it bounced off Jacob’s head, throwing little droplets of broth into the air and bringing Jacob crashing back to earth.

“I know, I know, just silly dreams.” Jacob rubbed his head gingerly and smiled. “I love you Eliza, I don’t need anything more from life than what we have here.”

“We can itch those feet together you know. Soon. I promise. Your dreams are my dreams too you know” Eliza said, collecting up the bowls and picking up her thrown spoon from the floor. She kissed Jacob on the forehead as she passed by him. She walked over towards the hearth to clean up. Jacob stared out of the window and smiled. The dark night began to set in.

Now I know what you’re thinking; slow start. Yeah, it is a little. But things are about to pick up, and I mean really pick up, quite literally in a way. You’ll see. I left some little things in there to tease you, but left out a really big point that comes back later on in a big way. What’s that? I’ve actually got your interest? Oh go on then, I’ll carry on, another round barkeep…?

The night had quickly set in and the cold with it. Jacob and Eliza lay fast asleep in bed covered in a thick knitted quilt. Outside the farmhouse something stirred. Something crept towards the barn and precisely picked the lock, opening it up. The animals inside slept soundly and the something moved with such intent that not a creature stirred. That was until a lit torch was thrown onto a bundle of hay and quickly caught light. The nimble hands which had picked the lock quickly left the barn on light feet and the cloaked figure crept around the side of the farm house ready for what would surely come next. From inside the barn animals woke and began to create a racket loud enough to wake even the dead. A horse galloped from the barn and around the farm house. It didn’t see the cloaked figure pressed closely against the side of the farm house’s stonework and continued to neigh and whinny in distress. From inside the farm house a lamp lit. Jacob rushed out of the farm house door and stared at the barn. His heart sank,

“Fire! Fire! The barn’s on fire Eliza!” He hurriedly swept up a nearby bucket and dashed to the stream to fill it with water. He didn’t notice the cloaked figure slip into the farm house behind him.

Jacob continued to throw water from the bucket over the fire but it was all a waste. The fire was spreading quicker than he could put it out. He turned, eyes wide and quickly filling with tears, both from sadness and the thick smoke now rising into the night sky. “I can’t douse it, nothing’s working.” He ran back to the stream, bucket in hand. The cloaked figure emerged from the farm house just as Jacob was turning back towards the burning barn. Jacob squinted his eyes, not quite believing what he was seeing in the darkness in front of him. Lit by the fire of the barn and standing in the open doorway to the farm house was the cloaked figure that had started the fire. Over the cloaked figure’s shoulders was slung Eliza, her arms swinging loosely in front of her and her legs dangling behind. The figure saw Jacob looking and immediately set off in a dash around the farm house. Jacob screamed as he gave chase, “Hey, hey you! Stop, that’s my…that’s my Eliza!” Jacob rounded the corner of the farm house and felt a heavy thud on the back of his head. As he dropped to the ground, eyes rolling round into his head he saw the cloaked figure standing before him, Eliza still hanging from its shoulders.

As Jacob slept, he dreamed. He dreamt of that day fetching water from the stream. He dreamt of finding something in the bottom of his bucket. A necklace. A golden metal necklace that glinted in the water and immediately drew his eye. He lifted it from the water and was all at once drawn to the pendant hanging from it. A round, green, oval reflective stone, no bigger than an acorn, set in a simple golden frame. The stone was translucent and captured and held his reflection. As it hung from his hand the necklace twisted slightly. Jacob was transfixed by the stone as it twisted, holding his reflection and his attention. Suddenly the stone twisted enough to catch the sun’s rays that bounced into Jacob’s eyes, freeing him from his trance. Jacob rubbed his eyes and lowered the necklace from sight. He shook his head and looked into the bucket. There was nothing else in there except the water he had been collecting from the stream. Slipping the necklace into his pocket he continued collecting water.

Jacob dreamed of that evening, when he had sat down with Eliza again to read tales of years gone by and felt the necklace still there in his pocket. He dreamt of removing it and showing it to Eliza who had at first been captivated by it in the same manner as he had.

“It matches your eyes,” he had said, undoing the clasp and placing it around her neck. It had fitted her perfectly. Jacob dreamt of how Eliza had thanked him, how she had kissed him lovingly and how they had continued reading the book together. In the story a valiant knight was fighting an evil dragon to save the soul of a princess who had been left for sacrifice. It was just an old story but Jacob and Eliza had loved reading it together. So innocent and so pure. So brave and so charming. So dangerous yet so brave. Jacob had looked up from the book and toward Eliza, who appeared to be glowing. Eliza smiled at him and reached out her hand toward him, her mouth opening into a silent scream. Jacob dreamt of a cloaked figure emerging from behind Eliza that night, even though there hadn’t been one there. The cloaked figure enveloped Eliza and drew her into the darkness, and no matter how much Jacob reached for her, she was still drawn away from him. Jacob dreamt of a bump to the head and then of rushing water and a slow lapping sound, like the waves on the beach…

Jacob awoke and groaned. His cheek was wet and his head was sore. The sun had risen and lit the farm. Well the sore head is obvious, Jacob thought, remembering the strike from the mysterious and unseen assailant the night before. The wet cheek not so…Esroh leaned down and licked him again. The large brown and white horse was stood over Jacob trying to raise him up. It snorted quietly and blew Jacob’s hair with its breath. Jacob raised a hand, patting the horse on the side of its head and then held onto Esroh’s bridle as it lifted him to his feet.

“Thanks old friend, thanks.” Jacob patted Esroh again on the side. The horse sighed and snorted again, tipping its head towards the barn. “Oh yeah, the barn.” Jacob turned and looked at the burnt out husk of the building that had stood there for years until just last night. The sheep grazed lazily in the surrounding field. Jacob rubbed his tender head again and faltered on his feet. Esroh bent down quickly and Jacob slung his arm over the horse’s strong neck.

“Thanks again friend,” Jacob added, steadying himself on his feet. “Oh Esroh, what are we…” Jacob’s mind skipped back to the night before and he remembered the cloaked figure that had stood before him. The cloaked figure that had been carrying Eliza’s unconscious body. “Esroh, where’s Eliza?” The horse humphed sadly. “Oh, oh no. They took her didn’t they, they took my Eliza.” This time Jacob fell to his knees and Esroh let him. Jacob wept and scrunched his hands into fists. Esroh trotted off towards the still standing farm house, the open door swinging in a gentle breeze. Jacob cried for a while longer and then suddenly halted. His fists tightened and he looked up at the farm house. He stood with a steely determination and strode towards the farm house.

“Be ready Esroh, there’s a few things I need to get but then you must be ready,” Jacob said stroking his friend’s neck.

“We’re going to get my Eliza back.”