A sharp pain in his side.
"Too slow", yelled the man before dropping the wooden training sword and placing his hands on his hips cloaked in armour, "You would be dead if this were a real fight. You have really improved. You are far more agile than last time and could beat most men in the army!"
"Thank you. I have been training with the blacksmith's son Henry. Don't tell my Mother. she doesn't want me to do that!" William replied sharply, excited to hear his subsequent response, "So, did I make it in?"
"No, William, you did not make it in, and you know why! Besides, the Wintervale army doesn't need any more foot soldiers. We can not supply everyone already with basic armour or even a blunt sword."
"But Sir, please, it's so boring on the farm. I don't want to end up like my Father! I want to be of use and fight. I know we need fighters after last week's attack on that local mining town Thorpes," he replied out of desperation.
"William, don't call me Sir. Just call me Harald," he sighed. "You are most useful in your father's fields feeding our army and your home Waketown, not out there fighting men twice your size."
"I know my Mother has told you not to accept me, but I'm tired of the farm, and I hate that everyone, including you, looks down on me. Give me a chance! I'm nearly 26, and all I have done is work on the farm. I want more from life and not to end up like my Father!"
Harald glanced to the ground, deep in thought, "Next year, we are planning a counter-attack on the invaders across the sea. Ever since you were young, you have come here yearly against your Mother's wishes. Out of respect for your Mother, I cannot let you go into battle under my command to most likely die to these Guron invaders. I'll ask your Mother for permission then. You will only fight under my command."
Defeated, William reluctantly agreed and trudged back to his horse whilst Harald moved on to the next in the line waiting to enlist in the army. Swinging his leg over the horse, he saddled up and clutched his now bruised side before trotting out of the castle keep and heading towards his Father's farm just miles from the Castle Kald.
After a short trip on horseback whilst looking at the sun hiding behind the trees setting for the night, he begrudgingly did his evening duties. He marched up to the barn to find his Father, who used to look after the animals but now only used them as a location for him to drink himself into a stumbling mess. Before swinging open the barn door, William shouted for his Father and got a swift but slurred, "William, I'm here, come in!" Opening the large doors illuminated the inside of the barn, which revealed a one-legged scruffy half-closed man sprawled out across a bed of hay surrounded by underfed cows and manure. Sighing, William entered the barn and walked across, dodging the manure piles and upside-down iron pick just waiting to be stepped on. He picked up his Father, covered in manure and hay and tried to hold his weight to get him inside the house.
"Put me down, Will. I'm fine, stop. I don't want Alina to see me like this..." slurred his Father as William closed the barn doors before turning to his Father, who had sat down on an old tree stump which he had once cut down.
Picking up his Father, "You must sort yourself out and stop drinking so much. Mother needs you to help us both."
"Will, do you know what I have done for this family and town?!" barked his Father before throwing up over the front of William's shirt. "I saved this town from that attack a few years ago, and I fed this family and this town throughout the winter when every other farm failed!"
William sighed into his shoulder and began wiping off the vomit whilst his Father tried to stay upright, clutching onto William as he walked towards the house. "Just because you have done those things does not mean you can just give up now!"
"Shut up", shouted his Father, "You will never accomplish anything that I have done! You are barely a farmer. You can barely even hold a sword properly. You are nearly 19 and haven't tried to court yet, and you will never be a real man and will never support your fami..." William felt the weight of his Father slip off his shoulder and heard a loud thud hit the earth to his side.
"William!" a voice from the house called, "bring him in here!" William looked up to see his Mother, Alina, dressed in her gown in the doorway of their home.
"Yes, Mother, I'm trying. He gets heavier every time, and his stench fills my nose!"
Alina looked down at her feet and sighed as William dragged his Father through the doorway, "Put him in the kitchen. I'll make sure he is alright. You have done enough. Don't worry, my boy."
Dropping his blacked-out Father on the floor, William hugged his Mother and went to his dark room lit only by a small candle on his cabinet. William laid back on his bed and stared at the wooden beams holding the thatched roof above his head, dreaming of a future he could have as an influential leader and warrior. William heard the usual shout from his Father to his Mother and then the inevitable smack and thud on the floor. A single tear escaped his eye but was quickly wiped away when he felt the cold, wet drop slide down his freckled cheek and the knocking at his door.
The door creaked open, and his Mother, Alina, poked around the door and was welcomed in by William. She carefully sat down next to him, holding a hand to her sore cheek, with blood seeping through her hand, as she rested her head on his shoulder.
"He is asleep again. I'm sorry about your Father. he isn't like he used to be..." Alina cried.
"I should have told you before. I think it's time I tell you about your Father and why he is the way he is." William turned his head into hers.
"He fought and protected the town?" William replied, confused.
"Yes, he did that, but other things, horrific acts that only a human with his skills could do. He did save our town from that attack from the Gurons, but it was the way he did so, the anger he felt and the bloodthirst which overtook his body. He was no man. he was a monster. He saw red. When the battle was over, he came to me battered and bruised, with a trail of corpses and blood following him, haunting him. He wept in my arms for an hour before completely stopping, standing up and walking off. It was days until I saw him again.
"Was this when you told me he was travelling to another town to help fight too?" William added
"Yes, you were only young. I am sorry I lied to you."
"I forgive you, don't worry," William said as he comforted his Mother by putting his arm around her.
"When he finally came home, he was not the man who had left. He had gone to every tavern he could until your Father was kicked from everyone in the area, so he spent every day in that barn over there drinking instead. I tried to speak to him, but you know what he is like now. how dare you, I did this and that." She awkwardly shuffled, almost uncomfortably sniffling, "Since then, I have never had the same connection with your Father. It's not the same. Your Father was a great man. Now he is what he is now. This is why I don't want you to go off to fight, as I have seen what happens to people who go off to fight and come back alive if they are lucky too."
"It is alright, don't worry about me. I am not like my Father. I won't turn into what he is like. I'll be fine. I want to do something else with my life."
"I know, William. I don't want you to go off to fight those barbarians. Look what it did to your Father. It changed him completely. he is no longer the helpful man I married or the skilled fighter who protected our town all those years before you were born. That is why I chose that your Father should not train you with the sword, nor should anyone..."
"I'm sorry, Mother, I... I have been learning to fight with a sword." whimpered William looking at the ground, ashamed, "I have been learning w-"
"With Henry, the blacksmith's son, I know I have seen you both practising most mornings." shocking William.
"You have known. Why have you not stopped me yet?" questioned William, obviously confused.
"Because you remind me of your Father before, well, you know... You also seem to have fun and enjoy learning, and it's obvious you are good. You have your Father's skills."
"Do you want me to stop learning?"
Alina stood before William and lifted his head to meet hers by his chin.
"As long as it is just training, you can, but I don't want you to go to fight..." William heard a whimper and felt a tear fall onto his hand, "I don't want to lose you too."
"Thank you, Mother, you won't lose me ever, I won't die, I won't ever leave you, I promise."
"See you in the morning, my boy. I'll make you breakfast in the morning", she sniffled whilst wiping away tears streaming down her face. "I love you."
She closed the door before she could hear his response.
"I love you too. Sleep well, Mother", William whispered before falling back onto his bed, brushing his long hair off his face and falling into a deep sleep.
The rumbling began. The windows started to shudder violently. The bed beneath William began to shake uncontrollably. A thunderstorm raged outside, violently waking up William. He stumbled out of his room and met his Mother in the doorway to the house. William noticed a look of fear in his Mother's eyes. He moved to open the door and reached for the handle. He twisted the handle and swung open the door. The thunder grew nearer as William looked out upon the farm to see a sea of men armed with axes rushing towards the house, trailing his Father and other civilians running desperately from Thorpes.
As soon as he registered what was happening, William quickly dodged a flying axe as it luckily hit a wall behind him. Behind William, his Mother screamed at the sight.
"Mother, we need to leave now!" he backed up, reaching for his Father's sword, which was hung on the wall. "I'll make sure they don't get to us!" He watched his Father stumble and rush towards the door as innocent civilians behind him were axed, tackled to the ground, and brutally executed. The thunder grew more substantial, the thunder of an army. As his Father got closer, William saw his face drop. He began to cry before noticing he had been hit in the back by a throwing axe from one of the many soldiers. As he watched his drunken Father hit the ground, he watched as, with his last breath, he pointed towards William. Crying, he looked towards his chest, wondering if he had been hit. He had not. A wave of shock and horror smacked William harder than any axe could.
"Mother?"
No reply.
"Mother?" he whimpered again
No reply.
William turned away from his dead Father's body, now being trampled by the oncoming army, to look behind him. The axe that flew past him had not hit him but his Mother. Pushed up against the wall, Alina had the axe through her face and dug into the wall behind, holding her body up limb on the wall. William let out a scream of anger and hate. With tears flowing down his face, he clutched his Father's sword and turned to the army outside.
Standing at the doorway with a stare that could burrow through bone, he held his Father's sword. He heard an intangible language from what seemed to be the leader shout a command. The army stopped just shy of a few paces from the doorway. A man with short blonde hair and ocean blue eyes got off his horse and marched up to William while his hand began to bleed from his grip on the sword.
William lunged at the man wildly, swinging his sword, just missing the man. The man brandished his axe and quickly slashed Williams's leg, making him fall to one knee screaming in pain. Managing to stumble back up, he swung his sword again at the man, only for the man to catch his arm and lift him into the air. William feels a sharp pain in the left side of his stomach as he looks down to see a sword through his stomach. Feeling cold and the life disappearing from his body,
"I know your face, I swear one day", Willaim gasped as blood began to fill his lungs, "and I will kill you-" began but trailed off as his throat clogged up with blood and sick. He felt the sword be pulled out from his stomach and dropped into the dirt. The last thing William heard was the man who killed shout to his face in his language,
"At least you gave more of a fight than my son would..."
It all went black.
"Halfdan" someone shouted.
"Halfdan, where are you????!" someone shouted again, this time it was more recognisably a woman's voice with a strange accent. His eyes fluttered open as he quickly grabbed to his stomach where he had been stabbed—no blood or wound.
"Halfdan, where have you gone? You are scaring me!"
A sudden feeling of cold washed over him as he felt the cold bite through his skin and to the bone as he realised he was knee-deep in snow. Scared and shocked, he jolted up, poking his head out of the snow to be hit by a blast of cold wind assaulting his face.
"Halfan, there you are! Where did you go?! If I had lost you, my master would have killed me!" the woman shouted as she rushed over to him.
"Halfdan?" he says, confused, "my name is William."
"Did you hit your head when you fell over," she gasps as she lifts him out of the snow to see if there were any solid objects he had fallen on, "Your name isn't William. It's Halfdan..."
"Wh- that's not true! Where am I?"
"We are in Dalhurst Castle! You must have done something. What's the last thing you remembered?" the woman questioned.
"The last thing I remember..." a wave of horror fell upon him, "I told a man that I would kill him..."
"Halfdan, the last thing you were doing was running from the folk from the village!"
"Where are Mother and Father?"
"Your Mother is at the castle in her room awaiting your arrival, and your Father, you know this, is off raiding in Wintervale across the sea. They left about a few weeks ago. Don't you tell me you regret not going? You were the one who refused your Father's orders and promised to train for next year's raid instead!"
