Dethroned

Ehh medieval setting, rescue... random. Probably boring but oh well, I'm putting it up here anyways.

 

Chapter One

 

                My name is Lloyd. I’m not sure if this is my true name or not since my parents were killed by the king’s army before I can remember. I don’t know about anything outside of this village, for I have lived here as long as I can remember, and I haven’t ventured out. Occasionally a trader will come through and I’ll hear them telling stories of other places. I spend most of my time working, and when I’m not working, I spend my free time reading some of the very few books that are within the village.

            I was taken in by the blacksmith of the village when my parents died so I do a lot of work that requires much strength. He taught me to read and write as well, since he was one of the few people in the village that learned how to read and write from his parents. While I’m only 13 I’ve built up quite a bit of muscle from helping Richard (the blacksmith) carry his ores from the mines. There aren’t many kids in the village that are close to my age. There’s me, two other boys, and one girl. I don’t interact with any of them for the most part. The boys envy me for I was allowed to make my own sword, which makes me one of the ten people in the village that has a weapon, or a means of protection against the occasional plunderers that come through the village.

            My sword is very unique. The blade is crafted from the most durable steel that was ever made in our village, and it is stronger than any other weapon that a trader or occasional soldier has been carrying when they came through. Inscribed on the side of my sword are the words “Every Death has a Purpose.” I had inscribed it so that it wouldn’t be so hard for me to kill someone if it was absolutely necessary. Most of the people in the village couldn’t read, so it didn’t mean anything to them, but it was very important to me.

            I had just finished my work when all of the sudden I heard a scream. I rushed toward the sound to see what it was. When I arrived at the place the sound had come from, I found nothing. I did see markings on the ground that indicated there was a struggle. When I ran back to the village center, I first went to find Richard. I found him at home where he was half asleep, and half listening to the busy chatter outside.

            “Richard! I think someone was taken!” I shouted as I ran in through the doorway. At this he jumped up and grabbed his sword.

            “Are you sure?” he asked sternly.

            “I heard a scream, and when I got the place where the sound came from, there was no one there, just markings of the struggle on the ground.”

            “Well then let’s go, we have to see who, if anyone, was taken.” We both ran out of the house and into the busy marketplace. The most likely people to be taken were young children so we ran to the homes of those with small children. We had asked almost everyone and didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, then, at one of the last houses was news I didn’t want to hear. It was Alex, the only girl in the village around my age, who had been taken.  We found her mother sitting in a chair crying. The only thing she would say is, “bring her back, please someone, bring her back.”

            Richard and I looked at each other and then we returned to our home.

            “You have to go and get her, Lloyd,” he said as we returned to our house.

            “I can’t go by myself; I’ve never been outside the village before.”

            “Listen Lloyd, I can’t leave the village. Someone has to stay here to protect it, and to be honest I’m getting to old to be going on any journeys. Besides, you can handle yourself, I’ve seen you practice with your sword, and you’re not a bad shot with my bow either. You have to get her and bring her back.” I wasn’t sure what to say.

            “I don’t know if I can, I don’t know where anything is outside the village.”

“You’ll do fine. Those books you’ve read have showed you how to read the land and how to keep track of the direction. You have to follow them, and bring her back. Her mother would go crazy if she didn’t come back. You have to get her back or die trying. I’m afraid I can’t allow you back into this house unless you bring her back.”

“Well, I’ll go get her then.” I said and turned for the door.

“Oh… and take this,” he handed me his bow and his quiver of 12 arrows. I took them and put them over my shoulder. “They’ll help you on your journey, I’m sure.”

“I’ll return when I get her back.” I walked out the door and toward the markings of the struggle. When I got to the place, I noticed hoof-prints from horses. I was sure it was horses because one of those books had shown a very descriptive picture of the prints from many kinds of animals. I began to notice how hot it was outside as I began following the tracks with the sun beating down on me. The hoof prints headed north so that was where I was going. I didn’t know how long it would take me to catch up or if I would in time, but I couldn’t run. I had to save energy. Even if I did exhaust myself running, I would never catch a horse on foot.

I had been walking for what seemed like hours when I came to the edge of a forest. The hoof prints continued on a path that had obviously been well traveled over time. I had heard many stories of forests from the traders who came to the village. Most of them were stores of terrible things that happened in the forest: Stories of bandits attacking and killing or kidnapping people. I wasn’t in any position to turn back though so I decided to press on.

It was kind of hard to see the tracks on the ground because the trees blocked out most of the sunlight. However, this did make it significantly cooler than the open plains were. I had to get close to the ground on numerous occasions to make sure the tracks were still there. I continued walking on for a long time and I could never make out the end of the trees, so I decided I would climb a tree to see how far the edge of the forest was. I looked around for a tree to climb and after about five minutes I found a relatively tall tree that looked easy enough to climb. I went to the tree and started to climb it. It was somewhat more difficult than I thought it would be because my bow and quiver kept getting caught on the branches. After five or ten minutes I had finally made it to the top of the tree where I could see a long ways. Even from that height I couldn’t see the edge of the forest. I did see a stream that appeared to go through the middle of the forest.

I climbed down the tree and started to walk towards the place where I had seen the stream because I was feeling thirsty. On the way I encountered some animals. I found a deer, some squirrels, and a couple rabbits. After about twenty minutes I finally made it to the stream. I sat down and drank from it.

At this time the sun was starting to set which turned the sky a beautiful red color. I decided I would sleep there for the night. I had to stay hidden in case any bandits came through during the night so I went behind a pretty wide tree and cleared out a spot at the base. I laid down my weapons next to me as I lied down at the base of the tree.

I woke up the next morning and the sun was barely starting to come up. It was a very uncomfortable night because of all the rocks that were on the ground where I slept. I put my sword back around my waist and the bow and quiver back around my shoulder. I sat and waited about twenty minutes so that I could see the tracks again. I was about to start walking when I heard the sound of twigs braking behind me. I unsheathed my sword and started to move towards where I had heard the sound. Just then a man emerged from some bushes about ten feet away. This man had a beard with twigs entangled and dirt caked to his face. I approached him slowly examining him for any sort of weapons. He noticed me and then he froze.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“My name is James. I got lost out here looking for my wife. I fear she was taken by bandits.” He answered somewhat hesitantly.

“Well I see you’re not carrying any weapons so I suppose I don’t have too much to worry about. I’m following a group of bandits right now. They took a girl from my village.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, maybe I can help you.” After some thought I agreed to let him accompany me on my journey. If nothing else it would give me someone to talk to so the journey wasn’t so boring. “My house is on the side of the forest where you are trying to go. I have a sword there and some food, I can assist you even more.”

We started to walk and after several hours we came to the end of the forest, and I looked and made sure the tracks still continued on in this direction and they did. It wasn’t much longer until I could see a faint outline of a village ahead. It took us another hour to actually reach the village, and once there, the only thing I could think about was food. There were still a few preparations that had to be made before the journey could continue on any further.

 

*This writing is not complete; I am currently still working on it. Please be patient.*

Author's Note

Something I wrote a couple years ago... I've made through and made a couple changes but it's still pretty much the same.

Reviews

[E. A. Fielder]

hey I can finally edit your work!!! yaya! Ok first I believe you need more scenery... hardcore! I mean go all out on the full description of the village and the forest. Also you need more description on your characters. Why were Loyd's parents killed by the kings army? If he doesn't know you need to write that. Also, why did the black smith take him in? Also you need to have more of a build between your main character and the black smith. If her was Loyd's only father figure, how did he treat him. Does Loyd look up to him? I say you need to add loads more and then split this up. It could easily be made into maybe 4 chapters probably more. Once you add the descriptions and the character build then you can get to the action. Right now it seems too sudden and there needs to be more meat on this bone. One last thing, you need to make the kidnapping more dramatic with the dialogue. For instance the man could say "I fear they will ravish her and then cut her open and leave her for dead." I know you've had writers block for a long time but I bet if you start adding things to this your writers block will crumble like a little b***h. lol keep writing!