Wonder

A Story by Hyton

Vek woke up in the middle of the night, drug out of a deep sleep by his regular nightmare. He had been having them for the last thirty years. At first it was hard on him to have such a strange dreams at the age of fourteen. And even harder for the local shaman to figure out what it meant, let alone why he had them. They were all essentially the same thing. It always had the ones he loved dying within it. And he always was the one to kill them or set up how they died. The reasons why he did it were also varying. The most recent one was terrifying at best. He had killed his daughter Iona for betraying him in a way that he just couldn't stand for.

Vek looked at his picture of his daughter. It was of when she was young and care free. Back then she was average height for a lass of fifteen and was also admittedly a little on the hefty side. But even back then her stark blue eyes and long golden hair would have captured any man's attention. And at the age of twenty-four he doubted that much would be different about her.

He hadn't seen her since she had left to join the kingdom's army. And that had been around eight years ago, right around the time Vek's wife had died of sickness. Vek had felt such depression that he had never felt before. In this depression, he moved to the neighboring kingdom to attempt to get away from his problems.

So much time had passed. Would he even recognize her if he
were to see her? Would she recognize her? Was she even alive? And if so, where would she be?

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Iona was late. She was supposed to have reported to her post an hour ago. If she didn't get there soon, who knows what could happen? They were at war with their neighboring country, and she was late to her post. She was going to catch hell for this for sure. When she came around the corner she saw that her commanding officer Jenkins was yelling at someone she couldn’t see. As she got closer she saw that it was her friend Arthur. Aruthur was tall with an athlete’s build with dark brown hair and eyes. While on the other hand Jenkins was a short guy with graying short hair. He was also one of those guys that have short-man syndrome. So he didn't like Iona or Arthur much, considering that they were both at least a head taller than he was.

Iona guessed Arthur must have covered her post when he noticed she wasn't there. She could start hearing what the commander was yelling. “Where is she?! If she's too lazy to watch her own post then maybe-"

"Sir, she is right behind you," commented Arthur.

Quickly looking behind himself, he saw that Arthur was right. "Miss Hearth, what a pleasure that you finally joined us," Jenkins sarcastically commented.

"Always a pleasure with you around, sir," Iona said with equal sarcasm.

"And where have you been during this time? And why has Arthur been watching your post?" he asked, clearly trying to catch her shirking her duties.

"I have the answer to that question, commander," interjected Arthur, “she was running an errand for me. You know I'm no good at sharpening my sword. And I figured that I could just watch her post while she did it for me."

Jenkins didn't seem to be buying any of it. But he didn't have proof that she wasn't doing what he said she was doing. "Alright fine, but if I catch you not at your post again, I'll send you to the block."

As Jenkins’s walked away, Iona whispered to Arthur "Thanks for covering my post. But how did you know that I wasn't here?"

"Well my morning jog takes me right by here" he replied. "And when I saw you weren't here, I figured you were doing something of interest. What were you doing by the way?"

"You remember my contact from Siric?"

“You mean that low life from the kingdom Therimis?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"What about him? And don't tell me that he gave you 'The details for Siric's defense’s again."

"No nothing like that. This time he gave me information."

"Information on what, exactly? And if this turns out to be just like last time, I'm going to ring his neck."

"He said that there was supposed to be a shipment from a company named Argast full of food, weapons, and armor from Maritasia to Ragnarrok. And it’s leaving tonight. They are normally well guarded."

"So I take it that you want to intercept it and take the shipment?"

Iona saw that Arthur had a certain light in his eyes that he only ever seemed to get when he smelled a payoff. "Of course we are! I wouldn't miss an opportunity like this for anything," she remarked. "We just have to wait till dark."

"Well alright. I'll get the rest of the group together and let them know what's going on."

"Ok, have everyone meet me here two hours after dark."

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

After Vek's nightmare, he decided against trying to sleep for the rest of the night. Instead he got dressed and headed down to the closest bar he could find. He finally just decided to head down to The Tattered Mare, the bar tender there normally knew were Vek could find a decent job. When he walked up to the bar and asked if the bartender knew of any paying jobs, the bartender replied, "I did hear that the company Argast was hiring guards for their shipment that's going out tonight. They normally pay extremely well."

"Thanks for the information," Vek said as he paid the man.

Vek had heard how well Argast paid those who did “special” jobs for them. He might as well sign up. The building was right down the road. And as soon as he entered the door the secretary took one look at him and said "I take it that your here for the guard job?" Vek nodded. "Alright, sign here."

When she handed him the clip board so he could sign it, he noticed that some of the local mercenaries’ names were on it. He signed it and handed it back to her. "Argast takes no responsibility for the loss of limbs, personal items or loss of life," she said as if she had rehearsed the lines over and over.

"I know that. I'm not some fresh meat mercenary. I know what I'm getting into," said Vek in an irritated tone. "When's the run?"

"It's tonight, so you might as stick around."

If Vek could live through this run, then it could change his life forever. Hopefully it would be for the better. But maybe fate had something else in mind.