A New Path

by Xander Jade

  Knowing by the looks on their faces and the barrage of questions they were about to ask, I held my hand up and stated, "I'm going to need to clean these kills. You can join me if you want, but I promised Hercules there would be a cooked meal."

  I winked at them and walked over to the tree line and got our meals off my two furry friends. Hmm...That’s kind of weird to think about, but shrugged and got to work. Hercules and Reap stayed by me staring out in the woods for any danger, Cassie came over and took a knife out that I didn't know she had, and started on one of the boars. Wonder where she hid that? I shook my head getting those thoughts out of my mind. Someone cleared their throat after a few minutes of work and I looked up to a group of people staring down at me.

  "What?"

  "What? That's the first thing out of your mouth?" Shea barked her reply. "How about you tell us what went down this afternoon?"

  "Calm down Shea, he'll tell us when he's ready," Nathan advised, trying to sooth the tension again.

  "Really? He still hasn't told us about his siba. Why would he tell us what happened today?" She asked the knight with a hand on her hip.

  I looked over at Shea and she narrowed her eyes at me daring me to contradict her, then glanced around at the group to find concerned faces. Sighing, I responded to her remark, "I told you before you made it to Oakenshore I would answer your questions about that. Before we get to that, where is Sir Yells a lot?" They snickered at that and said he was on the other side of camp.

  "What's his problem?"

  "Well, first, he was an obnoxious jerk before arriving," Nathan answered my question calmly. "Now he may be worse since you stood up to him."

  "He'll be worse," Shea sighed and shook her head. "Since he is one of the commanders of Ackley's army, he thinks his word is law."

  "I could care less at the moment and didn't do anything wrong," stating as I finished cleaning the stag. Cutting up some portions and handing them to a guard to set on the fire, I picked up one of the boars and noticed Cassie was almost done with hers. Damn, she's good. I turned back to the group and started cutting.

  "He won't see it like that," Nathan said. "He sees you as a threat against him and Oakenshore."

  My mind shrugged that off and let them keep on discussing that situation. Whatever, I'm out of here tomorrow anyway, I continued on for a few minutes and was in a good mood until I heard that bastard's voice coming our way. Reap and Herc looked in his direction and growled, he stopped cold on the outskirts of our little group. I chuckled and waited for the overbearing knight to begin his rant.

  "What is the meaning of this?" He barked. "Why is there not any guards on him? He and his beasts should be watched at all times!!"

  Standing up with blood all over me, I walked over to him and sized him up. The group tensed up and his guards immediately had their hands on the hilts of the weapons they carried. Looking him over, he had that pretty boy look, about my height, blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale complexion. I didn't see any hardness or experience of being in the army. He probably got that position because of his blood line.

  I smiled and put my hand out for him to grasp knowing he wouldn't touch it. He looked at my hands and attire with disgust. "Hello sir knight, what brings you to my side of the camp?" Trying for some light commentary. He looked at me with such contempt it was almost funny.

  "You think because you are an associate of the Whitehurst caravan that I would lower myself to your level?" He sneered. "I don't socialize with commoners."

  "How is it that you know I'm a commoner?" Struggling to stay calm, but he was about to be pummeled.

  The scoffed, "By the look of your clothing, I can tell you've no noble blood. I also haven't seen you before in court. So, you are a commoner."

  "That's okay. You can think what you want. I don't have to listen to you, so by all means, tell us why you're here."

  "Not that's any of your business." He bowed and looked toward the women, "Lady Shea, Princess Corisande, Princess Estelle, I humbly invite you to my fire for dinner. We can discuss what is happening in Oakenshore for the celebration." "...Sir Nathan, you are welcome as well." He said as an afterthought. They looked at each other for a moment and it was Estelle who answered.

  "Sir John, thank you for the invitation, but we have to respectfully decline." The others nodded. He was shocked for a moment but got it under control, then he cleared his throat and asked, "Is there anything you ladies need? I would like to discuss the upcoming festivities in our lovely city." They groaned and I put them out of their misery.

  "Let me give you something to discuss, Your Lordship." Walking away to look in a sack I put by Reap to make sure it was the right one, I grabbed the bag, walked over to Sir John and dropped it at his feet. He picked it up warily and looked in it. It didn't take long before he screamed like a girl, and dropped it on the ground. The sack opened and the orc head I cut off for show and tell rolled on the ground, coming to a stop near Sir Nathan's feet. I smiled as everyone tensed and said, "Now that I have everyone's attention. I would like to know how orcs are this close to your lovely city."

  "Wh-where did you get that? John stammered.

  "Well, we commoners were out hunting for food and came to a clearing where the lovely Lady Cassie over there was unconscious. The rest of the story is on a need to know basis and you at the moment, don't need to know." I swear his face went from pale to red in a couple of seconds. It was glorious!!

  "You will tell me what I want to know right now!!" He bellowed in anger.

  I looked at him trying to keep a straight face but couldn’t. Smiling, I walked away calling out over my shoulder, "Sorry Sir Yells a Lot, I don’t have to tell you anything." Everyone around snickered at my comment, and he just got angrier.

  "Halt in the name of Duke Ackley!!! You will tell me this instant or I will place you in custody for your insolence," he spat out, spittle going everywhere.

  Stopping and slowly turning back around to face the cretin, I coldly responded, "I want to make it very clear that you will not touch me, sir knight. I don’t know what your problem is with me, but I don’t answer to you and haven’t done anything wrong. Although, I did clear out orcs in your territory that your men are responsible for. Here’s an idea, instead of discussing topics like celebrations in your lovely city, you should be discussing the orc problem you have." I took a few breaths trying to calm down and advised the group, "I’ll make it easy for you though, I’m out." I walked to where Reaper, Hercules, and Cassie were. We started gathering up our stuff to go.

  "Wait Maximus, where are you going?" Cori asked hurriedly.

  "Away from here; obviously I’m invading someone’s space."

  "Maximus, hold just a moment," Sir Nathan gestured for me to stop, then turned to the Oakenshore Commander and stated with an uncompromising voice, "Sir John, you have no authority in this camp. Please refrain your threats so we can find out what happened."

  "Sir Nathan, I apologize for my outbursts. The insolence of this commoner has brought out my anger," John sneered.

  "Let me stop you right there, it was you who started this whole debacle. Now stand down and listen. You may not have been here, but if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be here. If you so much as look at him wrongly, I will tell Duke Ackley and King William myself what has transpired here. Do I make myself clear?" Shea stated with authority. Hmm…she must have some pull with the king then, I thought to myself. At this point I didn’t care. I just wanted to go home.

  "At this point Sir John, it would be best if you went to your own camp for the time being until we get this sorted out," Sir Nathan suggested. John nodded and walked away, his guards in tow.

  I went back to finish my work and to get it on the fire; hoping I would be left alone, but they wouldn’t leave me be. "Tell us what happened while you were out in the woods." I looked around to who said that and saw it was Cori. They were all sternly looking at me for some reason, raising my brow at that demand.

  "What would you like to know
, milady?"

  "Don’t give us that crap; head in bag," Shea points at the head on the ground, "explain, now!"

  "Let me clean up first."

  I was done with the boars and handed the meat to one of the guards to start cooking them for our local beasts. He took it to the fire while I went to the stream to clean up. After cleaning up as best I could, we gathered around the fire for my explanation on the head I brought back.

  "Before we start, let me introduce you to Lady Cassie," I started explaining. They went around the fire and made their introductions. "It all started when I came upon a herd of deer…….." I told them everything that happened except the crazy stuff that Cassie said to me. After the recollection of my day, they sat in silence, then asked Cassie questions. We finished our discussion at about the time the food was done. I got up and took the two boars off of the spit, went over and tossed them to Reaper and Hercules. They growled out there enthusiasm. As they were eating there meal, I went back to grab mine and found they were still discussing my scuffle today. Chowing down on my meal Nathan said, "We have to tell Sir John what Maximus found out about in the woods. There may be more people being taken." I had to agree with that assumption, but why were they being taken? I’ll let them figure it out as I ate in silence.

  "We will tell the Duke personally. I don’t want anything to get messed up in transit," Shea commanded. "I am going to send a message to the High Mage when we get to Oakenshore. Maybe he will have some insight to what we may be dealing with."

  "Good idea, and I will send a message to the King as well," Sir Nathan replied.

  "Now that we got that out of the way, Maximus, tell us about your new friends," Shea stated calmly.

  I looked at her for a moment with confusion. "Hercules and Cassie?" She nodded and I said, "Well, he was protecting the lady as I said and we helped end the skirmish. Cassie woke up and all of us came here. Don’t know about friends though, I offered him food and he came, simple as that. Cassie is a mage, so she goes where she wants."

  "Umm…you do know he wouldn’t follow you without being tied to you?" Cassie whispered to me, but scowling at that statement stopped her. The others around waited patiently for an explanation, so I took a deep breath.

  "I suppose it’s time to tell you about how I met Reaper." They all nodded and waited patiently. "It was six years ago, my friends and I went out to hunt and get some supplies for my mom. We were out there for a little while basking in freedom when we first heard the howls. Deciding to investigate, we headed that direction and came upon some timber wolves that had a siba cornered. It turned out to be a mother protecting her cub, I don’t know what came over me but I ended up in the fight. There were five of those huge wolves and three of us. My buddy had a bow and I had a dagger," the others were leaning in listening intently waiting for the outcome. "We took them on and defeated them, but I ended up bed ridden for a couple weeks and it took me a couple months to regain my strength. The mother siba died of her wounds and Reap ended up with us. He didn’t leave my side after that, been with me ever since."

  "That’s when you bonded with him, wasn’t it?" Cassie asked.

  I turned to her and nodded. Gasps were heard around the fire, but I didn’t pay attention and looked into the distant sky thinking about that day. A few moments later, I ended up saying, "Yeah, I was in my bed, Reap jumped up, and that’s when it happened." I looked around and saw stunned faces.

  "Now, that ladies and gentlemen is how Reaper came into my life," I said while looking at Reap and Herc finishing off their meals, grinning and wondering where the big guy was going to go from here. The big bear must’ve felt me watching because he looked up at me and huffed.

  "Thank you for allowing us to know your story. I'm amazed you took that risk at such a young age and survived," she glanced at me and sighed. "What will you do now?"

  I looked back at her not sure of the question and said, "I'm not sure what you mean."

  "Well, let's review what's happened in the past few days," Cori indicated by using her fingers counting the events. "We were ambushed, you saved us, help feed us, and stayed with us the rest of the journey. Today, you rescued Lady Cassie from a group of orcs."

  Shea calmly mentioned, "Also, you have bonded with a siba. We don't know what the ramifications will be with that. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but it can't be a coincidence. Oh, and to top that, you probably bonded with the kodiak behind you."

  I shook my head and said, "Hercules is his own and chooses where to go, not me."

  "Yes, and he chose you. I can see it even though you can't. He has bonded to you," Cassie stated and she went over to scratch Hercules behind the ears.

  "What do you mean you can see it?" Shea asked confused.

  "That's one of my unique talents. I can see auras," Cassie shrugged. "Hercules has attached his to Maximus here."

  "Wow, I haven't come across any mages that can do that. If that's so, what color am I then?" Shea asked and we looked at Cassie for an explanation.

  "It’s white, you're an air mage," she nonchalantly replied back to Shea.

  Shea narrowed her eyes at that remark and retorted back, "Okay, what about Lady Cori here?" Shea pointed to the lovely young woman. Cori looked uncomfortable.

  "Blue, she's a water mage, and before you ask, the other one is white like you," as Cassie pointed to Estelle, "they aren't trained though. Their auras are weak. I'm assuming someone doesn't want them in combat."

  Shea was at a loss for words. I was stunned, but when I thought about it, anytime when water was needed it was found easily. Everyone looked nervous, I guess it wasn't common knowledge that the princesses were mages. Hmmm... That means that either the king or queen is a mage. Maybe both and shrugged that thought off. It's not like I'm going to meet them.

  "You are correct, Lady Cassie. Where are you from again?" Shea responded with an edge to it.

  "I never said," Cassie said staring at Shea, "and before the question is asked, you've no need to know what kind of mage I am at this time." I tensed as the air around us went cold. Their eyes changed color immediately, one white, the other had lightning crackling through hers. I jumped up, got between them, and yelled out, "Woah, stand down!" They both stared at each other for a few moments and then calmed down. Relieved but at the same time perturbed, I let them know it. "What are you two thinking? Aren't we on the same team?"

  "I'm sorry, Maximus. I got carried away," Cassie said with her head down. I nodded and looked at Shea.

  "I'm sorry too. I'm just on edge," Shea apologized.

  "Okay, let's take a deep breath and get back to our earlier conversation. Sir Nathan, ladies, anything else you need from me?"

  "What are your plans going forward?" Sir Nathan asked.

  I thought about it for a few minutes and sighed. "My immediate plans are to go home to see my family and let them know what has happened. After that, I'll just take it day by day." They looked disappointed for some reason and wondered what that's about.

  "Is there any way you can come with us?" Sir Nathan questioned without hesitation. "The duke may want to have an audience with you. I know when the king hears what happened here, he'll want to talk to you as well."

  "I'm going to have to decline. How long will you be in Oakenshore?"

  He replied, "A few weeks, there are some details to work on about territory disputes, and then it’s back to Whitehurst. The annual tournament is coming up. People from all over will compete for the title champion." I nodded thinking about my trip back home and looked over at Shea, she had conflicting emotions showing.

  "I wish you would just come with us for a couple of days to get settled in before you leave. I would like to talk more about the bonds you have," Shea said almost pleading.

  Cori let her opinion known, "Please Maximus, would you come with us? It would be wonderful if you would accompany us to the castle. You could meet the heir apparent and his brother Gordon." Shea raised her eyebrow wondering what she was doing. Princess Cori ignored
her though.

  I smiled and carefully answered, "Princess Cori, it would be a great honor to escort you to the castle, but I need to know if my family's safe. If I can make it back before your timeline is up I will." She deflated at that comment and I was confused at her demeanor. She's a princess, why would she want to be around me?

  "When will you be leaving?" Sir Nathan asked while glancing at the air mage.

  "Tomorrow, when I see you make it through the city gates. At that time I will make my way back to my home." I looked at Cassie and asked, "Lady Cassie, are you staying with the caravan or do I need to escort you someplace else?"

  "I already told you I'm going with you," she said. Cori was about to ask why but Shea stopped her with stern look.

  I got up, stretched, and yawned out, "Alright, I'm beat, so I'm going to bed."

  They watched as Maximus strolled over to his spot by a tree. Cassie was about to go too but, "Lady Cassie, would you mind staying and chatting with us? I have a few questions," Shea asked.

  Cassie took a deep breath and sighed loudly, "What is it you need, Lady Shea?"

  "Why are you traveling back with Maximus? Is he in danger?" Sir Nathan and Princess Cori perked up at the questions.

  She stared in Shea's eyes and made sure she was listening, "There is darkness coming. I don't know what or who, but very soon every being, clan, and kingdom will be picking sides in a coming war that this world hasn't seen before. It will make the war with the Dark Warlock look like child’s play." She looked over in Max's direction, concerned, "He's the key and will be the one to unite the kingdoms in the coming war."

  The group was stunned by this revelation. Everyone started questioning at once.

  "How do you know this?" Shea demanded

  "What makes you think any of what you said is true?" Nathan asked.