Gone But Not Forgotten

Danny now faces the father of his dead friend and helps to provide closure for not only the man but also himself.

Gone But Not Forgotten

 

My eyes were still wet when I stepped over the threshold and into the small cottage that had once been my one and only friend’s home. The room I had entered was bare, apart from the fireplace in the corner, only a table with three chairs stood in the centre of the room. It was simple and yet all you would ever need, just like Piers.

“Take a seat Danny,” the man said motioning towards the table. “And you” he nodded at Martyn, “Can pull up a chair from the kitchen”

Martyn did as the old man bid him and I took a seat at the small round table opposite Piers’ father. He didn’t say anything at first. At first I decided that he must have been waiting for Martyn before. It was more likely though, that like me he needed time to prepare himself before he could speak without bursting into tears. Eventually I broke the silence.

“How did you know my name?” I blurted out. It was blunt, and probably not the best way to start a conversation, but it was the best I could manage at the time.

“Before he…” he stopped and took a deep breath, by ‘he’, he obviously meant Piers, “He used to send us letters to let us know how he was doing, you know just to let us know he was enjoying his time on the road and all that”

I nodded. “And Piers mentioned me?”

“Piers?” he laughed. “I suppose that name is as good as any”

Smiling and pretended to scratch at the corner of his eye, he wiped away the beginnings of fresh tears. I didn’t bother, it was impossible to fight it at times like this, and sometimes crying really did help.

“He more than mentioned you actually, the last three letters before we stopped hearing form him were almost entirely about you, it seems you made quite an impression on the boy.”

I couldn’t help but let myself smile when he said that, maybe I had meant as much to the kid as he had meant to me after all.

“And what exactly did he have to say about me?” I enquired, my curiosity peaked by these letters.

“Well the first letter was just to tell us that he had met you, Daniel le Pelletier, he thought the name sounded noble from the moment he heard it, and also said that after seeing you in battle he had no doubt that you were anything less than a great lord of some kind, I’ve always wondered since that first letter though, are you in fact some kind of nobility?”

The man’s eyes seemed to widen and he entered into a state of awe when asking his question. It was the exact same way Piers had been when first mentioning his dream of becoming a knight to me.

“Technically, the answer to your question, is yes” I replied. “However, it’s only my blood that’s truly noble, or at least I guess that’s the best way to put it, I ran away from home a long time a go, and never went back there, and honestly I don’t plan to either.”

That wasn’t entirely true, I had though of returning home many times and I probably would eventually. After all, it was my father who had ultimately caused all of this.

Our conversation was interrupted when the sound of chatter and I chair bumping into things came from what I could only assume was the kitchen. Following the sound was the emergence of Martyn alongside a rather short and slightly round woman in a green dress. She was roughly the same age as Piers’ father and was quite obviously his mother.

“Oh, there’s two of you is there now? I’ll go and get you all something to drink.” the woman said in a delightful tone as Martyn took a seat next to me.

“Thankyou,” I said graciously, trying my best to be polite. She smiled and exited back into the kitchen, the green of her skirt fluttering by as she went.

“Now, where were we Danny?”

“The second letter,” I answered shortly. “What was that one about?”

“Yes, yes that’s it,” he said, scratching at the back of his head. “The second letter was quite the treat indeed, I could practically feel the excitement leaping out of the paper at me when I read that one,” he shut his eyes and let out a small chuckle, reminiscing about his son. After all, these memories were all he had left of his son now.

 “The second letter was written after you finally agreed to teach the lad how to handle himself properly in a fight, he was rather excited at the prospect, I mean sure at school he had been a force to be reckoned with, but as I’m sure you know, a battle of blades is quite different to a fight of fists.”

At this moment an earthen cup made of clay was placed in front of me by the round woman before she too took a seat, and I nodded my thanks to her. I took a sip. The liquid inside was sweet and granted a feeling of warmth and security, I was certain that I could taste honey and also a hint of cherry.

“Piers used to get into fights at school?” I asked, worried for a second that my compatriot had in fact, just been a schoolyard bully.

“Now I know what you’re thinking Danny, and no, my boy was not the kind of kid who would intentionally hurt other people for fun or because he enjoyed it,” I almost laughed, I was all of those things that Piers was not, maybe opposites really did attract after all.

“Why did he used to get into fights then?”

“Well,” he said taking a sip from his own cup and raising it towards his wife in gratitude. “Piers as you seem to like calling my boy, didn’t really have an awful lot of friends, but one boy who he was good friends with was… well I forget his name but that’s not important, anyway, so this friend of his wasn’t the most popular of kids right so one day, he gets mad at one of the older kids and they get into a fight, now he’s not doing so well and my boy sees this, so he jumps in to back up his friend, now up until this point he’s never been in a fight in his life, but,” now the man stopped and cocked his head at me. “After spending years hunting with me, his reflexes are lightning quick,” he smiled and started to click rapidly, moving his hand from side to side as if to demonstrate how fast Piers’ reflexes were. “So Piers, he was only about thirteen mind you, I remember because it was the year before he left, gives about four of these guys a black eye and sends them home crying without even getting scratched!” He brought his hand down hard on the table creating a loud crack and shaking everyone’s cup.

“Do be a little more gentle won’t you?” She scolded softly, like a doting mother would her child and wiped up some liquid, which had been spilt over the table with a piece of cloth.

“Believe me, I know how good Piers’ reflexes were,” I said, smiling as wide as I possibly could. “Once when he was training me with a bow he bet me that if I could hit him in the chest with an arrow that he would take me hunting as he refused to do so until I was a good enough shot, and well it was a good shot, my arrow flew true and was going straight for his chest and then…” I sniggered and shook my head, fondly remembering that day.

“And then what Danny?” he asked, now I noticed that everyone at the table was staring at me, awaiting my answer.

I continued to shake my head and smile. “And then the damn kid caught my arrow right out of the air, oh that wasn’t all though, first he had to pretend that I’d actually hit him and scare me half to death.” Everyone laughed, including myself.

I took another sip of the brew and leaned back into my chair, relaxing for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. Piers would be happy that I had seen his beloved cherry blossoms, and he would be glad that I had come home for him.

“It would seem that you know my name but I do not know yours,” I said, realising that I had never even asked their names.

“It would seem so,” he said, eying me over the rim of his cup and raising an eyebrow conspicuously.

“Stop being silly would you,” she sighed, lightly hitting his head with the piece of cloth. “Before they start thinking you slipped some whiskey into your drink.” He winked at me as she finished talking and I had to stop myself from laughing.

“Name’s Nicolas” he said offering his hand to me across the table. “And don’t mind Isabel here, she’s often more than just a bit moody,” he whispered loudly.

I gripped his hand tightly and shook it. “I’m not sure if you remember Martyn at all? He knew Piers as a kid, that’s how we were able to find our way here.”

“Oh of course I remember Martyn!” Isabel piped up. “Back when my face wasn’t so wrinkled I remember you used to be the first to get into the freshly baked bread,” she said, attempting to smooth out the wrinkles from her face.

Martyn laughed. “I remember those days myself, I used to love the bread that had dried fruit put into the dough beforehand.”

The rest of the conversation revolved around Martyn and Isabel after that, I wanted to talk but I couldn’t keep my mind off one little thing. The third letter, Nicolas hadn’t brought it up when we were talking, and so I assumed it was one that hit him close to home, and one that would possibly mean many more tears for the both of us.

After a few hours or so of talking the conversation finally broke down and I was free to go and collect my thoughts underneath the eaves of a cherry tree. I sat and watched as the blossoms tossed and turned in the wind, a bunch would occasionally float to the ground and add to the pink and white sea. It was likely that in his time Piers had done something very similar to sitting here and watching the blossoms, and that simple fact gave me piece of mind.

“You know, he used to sit in that exact spot to help himself think whenever something was troubling him,” I looked over my shoulder to see Nicolas standing a few paces behind me. “Now what’s troubling you Danny?”

I waited for him to come and take a seat close to me before answering his question.

“The third letter,” I said simply. “What was it about?”

“That one he sent to us right before you two headed up and into the mountains with your caravan, and you don’t need to tell me, I already realised long a go that that was where my boy died,” he murmured softly.

I couldn’t think of anything to say. The one and only thing that came to mind was; ‘I’m sorry’, but I couldn’t say that, it just wasn’t good enough. It just wasn’t good enough for Piers.

He sighed deeply and I watched as tears started to form by the corners of his eyes. “How did it happen?”

“We were walking ahead of the caravan, I’d heard rumours from folk that there were bandits in the mountains but I’d been too stupid to hearken to their words, and for that, Piers paid with his life,” I said, realising that I too was about to cry.

Nicolas nodded and wiped the tears from his face with the back of his hand, which he dried on his trousers.

“They ambushed us, we were completely outnumbered and yet had I not been so stupid Piers would be right here next to me…” I bit down on my lip hard and tasted blood. “I do remember him one thing that I still don’t get though, he said to me: ‘I’m not running away, not this time’, any idea what he meant by that?”

“Well that friend of his who he used to save in fights? Sammy I think his name was… well one day my boy got fed up and refused to fight some kid who wanted to prove they could beat him, he refused and they started throwing rocks at him so he ran away, after that though this kid still wanted to prove himself so he picks a fight with Sammy, during the fight Sammy gets knocked down and hits his head on a rock and doesn’t get back up, now my boy who I’ve never seen get angry in his life finds Sammy, then he rushes home and sits right where you are now for about an hour, and then he storms off after the guy who hit Sammy.” He paused and shook his head slowly. “Needless to say he almost killed the guy and ran the family out of town, after that he was never quite the same, he said to me the day he left that he wanted to protect people like Sammy, said he wanted to stop bad things from happening to good people who didn’t deserve them, he told me that he wanted to be a knight.”

I had nothing to say after that, I’d never realised how hurt Piers was deep down, and never known how much like me he truly was. Although where I had broken under pressure Piers had built himself up to be stronger, to be better. The kid really had been the best.

“Now that I’ve answered your question I feel it’s only fair that you finish answering mine,” he said sternly, any sign of happiness was long gone from his face now.

I nodded and brushed a blossom from my leg before continuing with my story. “After we realised we were being ambushed we simply rushed them, we were far better than them and we knew that we could easily win the battle… the only mistake I made was to not keep Piers by my side… I was about to be cleaved in two by one of the remaining bandits when a well placed arrow by Piers saved my life, after that I thought we’d won, so I relaxed, and then…” I stopped and cleared my throat. “And then I screamed, and I tried to get him to turn but it was too little too late, he should have been by my side the whole time, instead though one of the scumbags ran him through,” I sobbed. “It was my fault that he died,” I said, bowing my head in shame. “I promised him though, I promised him two things, one, that I’d come here and see these,” I brushed my fingertips over a cherry blossom and showed it to Nick. “And two that I’d bring back his sword to you, and that’s what brought me here.” I finished and wiped the tears from off my face.

He stared at me in silence for a long while, people always seemed to do that after I told them things. It always made me uncomfortable, I always felt like they were judging me, but heck, without the amount of mistakes I’d made… they had every right to.

“Danny look at me,” he said. I obeyed and found that Nick’s face and his brown eyes, much to my surprise were dry. “You can’t keep blaming yourself for things that are out of your control,” he continued. “Piers… James’ death wasn’t your fault, you did everything you could, I’m sure if we could ask him now he would say you were the greatest friend he ever had.”

I looked away from him and glanced over at the cherry blossom I had set up above the others on the root of the tree. I had come here expecting only for the rains to grow darker and even heavier. Now though, I could feel a piece of myself slotting back into place, just like when I had known Piers, the rain wasn’t quite so heavy anymore.

“I should probably be heading off soon” I said, rising to my feet.

“Nonsense!” Nick exclaimed. “You will stay the night here, then you can head off in the morning after breakfast as I’m sure there’s business that requires your attention”

“Believe me, you have no idea” I replied, just barely managing a smile whilst thinking of the task ahead of me. “And thankyou, though I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to repay you”

“You brought my boy back home to me” he said slowly. “If anything this is my way of repaying you for that, now let’s go and get a bite to eat, I’m rather hungry”

Author's Note

Like the last chapter: Cherry Blossoms, this chapter is important to the story and Danny's character, feedback is very welcome!

Reviews

[Alleyway Rover]

Overview:
Not as good as the last chapter. If this is really a major moment for the character, it’s missing two major things.

First, it’s missing change. How does this moment change Danny? Right now I don’t see how your main character is any different now from when he showed up at the door. To be an important for your character something needs to change for him and, ideally, send him in a new direction in the story. The only thing that might be different is that he has Piers’ father’s forgiveness, but I can’t see how that in and of itself changes Danny. Does that act inspire Danny to tone down the sadism a notch? Does it make him realize that his quest for revenge is flawed?

Second, it’s missing conflict. Danny shows up, has a bit of tea and a nice conversation with the father, he’s invited to stay the night and everything is hunky-dory. However if this moment is important to Danny, he needs to fight for it. There has to be some goal and something standing in his way. If his goal is to obtain forgiveness from his father, then maybe the father hates and resents him for leading his son to his death. Maybe Danny is so full of guilt that he refuses to accept the father’s forgiveness and insists that he kill him with his son’s sword. I’m just spitballing here, but bottom line there’s got to be conflict and there really is none here.

In a larger sense, I don’t know how fulfilling a promise to Piers helps Danny accomplish his mission. That’s probably the biggest obstacle for this scene right now. It needs conflict, that conflict needs to send Danny in a new direction and contribute in some way to his final goal.

Additional Notes:


“That wasn’t entirely true, I had though of returning home many times and I probably would eventually. After all, it was my father who had ultimately caused all of this.”

Not sure why he would lie to the man like this, I don’t see the motivation to do that.

On a larger note, I’m missing where his father fits into the narrative as well. I understand that Danny is on a quest to find and kill Symonds for killing a girl… who’s name I can’t recall at the moment (she’s only been brought up in one chapter I think). His father was a b*****d, but I’m missing the correlation between him and Symonds and Piers.

“Our conversation was interrupted when the sound of chatter and I chair bumping into things came from what I could only assume was the kitchen. Following the sound was the emergence of Martyn alongside a rather short and slightly round woman in a green dress.”

What was Martyn doing when this chapter started? In the last chapter he was standing outside the door with Danny. Did he just go wandering around the house? Did they leave him outside?

‘“We were walking ahead of the caravan, I’d heard rumors from folk that there were bandits in the mountains but I’d been too stupid to hearken to their words, and for that, Piers paid with his life,” I said, realizing that I too was about to cry.’

This sentence just seems awkward. Danny doesn’t talk like this and there’s no reason for him to start now.