Fate

Vek knew that he had a chance he could die when he signed up to guard the shipment. He also knew that if he was going to die, that he would take some of the b******s with him. But what he didn't know was that he would have to face his own daughter on the field of battle.

~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~

Earlier that night Vek had been waiting to begin an "easy" job for the company Argast. The other "guards" or so they referred to themselves, were using that time to eat and drink like a bunch of wild men. Though calling them wild men wasn’t far from the truth. They were all sell-swords, men in arms with no moral. They would fight for the highest bidder, and if someone offered a higher price they would turn their backs on the unlucky son of a b***h that paid them before. And they were the ones that were going to be watching his back.

Vek knew that he couldn't trust any of them. He could also tell that a few of them were making plans to attack the caravan that they were supposed to protect. But he didn't have any proof to give the authority, if he were stupid enough to try and rat out the other men. At best it would only make them more aware of him. And if he was going to try and protect this shipment, he didn't need them to know he was on to them.

Waiting for two hours did nothing to better Vek's mood. If anything, it only made him more willing to stretch his legs and get moving. But one good thing that the waiting brought was some mercenaries with decent moral. These ones would stay loyal to the first buyer, and wouldn't just kill senselessly. Vek would rather have those honorable men at his back than those barbarians. And there was one of the men that he knew he would get along with. His name was Verrick. He was fairly new, but he was talented. He looked at least twenty years old, with light brown hair and brown eyes. He was abnormally tall and strong looking. He looked like he would be one of those men who should be farming instead of being a sell-sword. But amazingly he was quite graceful with his sword stroke and was fast about bringing it to his own defense. Vek knew that if he was going to get help from anyone, that it would be him.

"You seem pretty good with a sword, boy," Vek said walking up Verrick, "Would you be willing to spar with an old man?"

"If you’re sure that it won't hurt your back," Verrick said jokingly.

"Oh I'm sure that I'll be fine. Just go easy on this old man," saying Vek trying to act frail.

And it almost worked. But when Vek caught Verrick off guard and parried his attack and counter attacked, Verrick blocked it easily as if he knew what was going to happen. They both fought with all they had, but neither could get the upper hand. They would have kept fighting until they were both too tired to do their job, but Vek had a trick up his sleeve. The next time that they locked swords, Vek let go of his so that Verrick would fling it away with his. After Verrick did that the next thing he saw was Vek's fist coming at him, then nothing.

When Verrick finally came too, Vek offered him a hand to help him up. "You fight like a demon drives you with a whip, boy," Vek said with genuine appraisal.

"Thanks, you didn't do badly yourself. Though I must admit that I didn't expect you to be so fast or that strong," said Verrick while trying to stop a flow of blood from his nose, "And I didn't expect that move you did. Did you come up with that on the spot?"

"I did in fact. But I doubt I would have won if I hadn't done that. You were starting to wear me out"

Verrick grunted, "I couldn't have fought for much longer either. I think we both would have been leaning on our swords before long."

Vek nodded, "Yes I think you’re right. Maybe we should head to the mess hall and get something to eat before we have to head out."

"That sounds like a good idea." When they went to leave the sparing room they saw that everyone was looking at them with dumbfounded expressions.

 "What?" demanded Vek.

"That was amazing. You two were fighting so fast we could barely make out who was doing what," said someone within the crowd of admirers.

Vek and Verrick looked at each other. "I didn't think we were going that fast," said Verrick with a stunned look on his face.

"Well at any rate, we should probably get something to eat before they close the mess hall." replied Vek.

They decided to start getting ready after they had eaten. It wasn’t long after they left that everyone set out with the caravan. Vek was tense and on guard, just waiting for the “ barbarian” mercenaries to turn on them.

~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~

 

Iona had been waiting for an hour and a half before her contact got back to her. By then she was quite agitated, but the news he gave her made her smile. “I was able to pay off most of the men guarding the shipment,” he said, obviously feeling accomplished. “ They will be here soon.”

“Good, with most of the guards support we will certainly be able to take the rest of them out.” Iona said.

“There is something else. One of the men told me that he thinks there are two Ragers in the group of guards that I didn’t get to.”

For most people, that would be bad news. Ragers are men and women that have natural instincts to fight. When they let their instincts take over, there is very little that can stop them. But luckily Iona and Arthur are Ragers themselves.

“Ragers? They shouldn’t cause a problem. I’ll just have to make sure that Arthur and I go in first. Is that all?”

“ Yes Ma’am.”

“Then be off with you.”

As the contact walked away, Arthur was walking up. “Did I hear that right?” Arthur asked.

“That depends on what you think you heard,” Iona said playfully.

“I think I heard that sorry excuse for a human say that there were two Ragers in the group of guards we need to take out.”

“Then you heard right.”

“So you mean we get to have a real fight? Not just a slaughter?” said Arthur with a smile.

“It may still be a slaughter, and maybe it won’t be. We’ll just have to see.”

“Well I hope we get a run for our money. Hey, I think that’s them.” Arthur then pointed out towards the horizon. Iona could barely make out the indent that marks that someone is on their way.

While putting her helmet on Iona said, “Alright, get the men ready. Tell them to attack at the sound of the horn.”

“Right away, Ma’am!”

~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~

 

Vek was starting to think that he had been over reacting. Maybe the other men weren’t going to turn on them. Still, he decided that being on guard was better than being caught unaware. He put on his helmet that had been specially made for him. It was a full faced helmet made out of steel and sliver. It had horns coming out of the top of it along with tusks near the front. When he put it on people would tell him that he looked like the infamous Draken, the God of war and misery.

It was good that he had put his helmet on, because not but a minute later he heard the unmistakable sound of war songs. Before most people knew what had happened, those “barbarian” mercenaries drew their swords and slew the closest man to them. One of the unlucky ones tried it on Vek, but Vek already had his sword drawn and parried the man’s strike. He then ran the many through before he could try and strike again. Vek was in full Rage before he even encountered the next man. He killed thirteen of the traitors before he saw a group of seventy-five enemy soldiers charging into the battle. The hatred he felt for those soldiers was immense.

He ran at them, not caring that they were all on horses. He saw two soldiers on the front, obviously the two commanders of the company. He focused on the stronger looking of the two and took his horse out at the legs.

~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~

Iona saw a man charge at them on foot, seeming to think he wasn’t in any kind of danger. He was probably one of the guards’ Ragers. He was headed towards Arthur, so she decided to let Arthur handle him and go looking for the other Rager. Before she had gotten very far, she saw Arthur’s horse go down with Arthur still on its back. Iona jumped off her horse and ran to save Arthur before the Rager could strike a fatal blow.

~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~

Vek was about to strike down one of the commanders, when suddenly the other one slammed into him from the side, knocking him to the ground. He quickly got to his feet, dodged her attack and reacted with a counter attack. They quickly fell into a ritual of sorts: attack, dodge, counter attack, block, and attack. During their fight Vek quickly figured out who it was exactly that he was fighting. He had trained her since she was born, and knew her fighting style anywhere. He needed to find a way to disarm her so he could tell her who he was.

Vek preformed a quick flurry of strikes and counter-strikes. Making Iona more and more wild with her movements, until he made his final move and disarmed Iona. He then grabbed and flung her to the ground. Vek ripped off her helmet and yelled, “Iona, stop struggling! It’s me,” Vek pulled off his helmet, “Your father.”

Iona stopped struggling and sat there looking astounded. The next thing Vek knew was that he was being tackled to the ground by the nameless commander. Vek kept his grip on his sword however and swung his sword out. He felt it dig into flesh and the man stopped in his track. Vek looked up and saw that the man was fine. But what Vek saw next killed him inside. Instead of his sword killing the nameless man, his sword had killed his daughter Iona. When the man roared and attacked him, Vek did little to defend himself. Vek died instantly when the man stabbed him straight in the heart.

~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~                  ~*~

Arthur stood over the man that had claimed to be Iona’s father with hatred in his eyes that it scared his men. He looked down at Iona’s dead body and picked her up with great delicacy. He would bury her in her hometown. And he would never forget what had happened on this day.