Rare Blood, and Old Wine

Chapter One

As usual, cats and children noticed Isla first. A young girl with chestnut hair sitting in a hut's garden doing her best to sculpt a mud pile started to scream as she fixed her tearful eyes upon the passing rider.

She raised her hand instinctively to her face, gliding it across the smooth unevenness of the scar that crossed it. It always drew too much attention. Right now it is critical that she reaches Lord Feilmann's Manor, although she couldn't pass the hay cart in front of her without eliciting some unwanted attention from the locals.

The hay cart that was a few dozen feet ahead of her eventually turned down a side road. Picking up pace, coming onto a granary and church, Isla noticed passerby stopping to turn her way. Nothing she hasn't seen before in the other towns, but it's different this time. This was Isla's home.

The memory of where she grew up has already faded from time. What little she could remember was replaced with new sights, sounds, and even smells. Her reminiscing daze was over as quick as it started. Audible shouts of an angry Lord Feilmann came from his manor a near hundred feet of Isla. Workers and villagers were starting to gather in the streets to see what was all the commotion. Reaching the manor Isla jumped down from the saddle, fixed her now loose weapon straps, and threw the reins over the wooden fence. The curious townsfolk gather around, now forming a semi circle behind Isla.

The ongoing shouts still roar out the windows. Isla brooding about the altercation she's going to have to interrupt, locks eyes with the two guards protecting the front entrance. As ready as she was to give them a battle of words worthy of the crowd behind her, they open the doors. A look of acknowledgement from them either knowing why she was there or that Lord Feilmann was expecting her.

"Never have I ever met someone so dense! Goddammit! Can't you understand how important this is?!"

Isla continued the storming pace she had into the foyer of the manor. Off to her left in the adjacent room was a stout, red faced lacky looking down to the floor in embarrassment. Lord Feilmann was pacing back and forth in front of him. On his pace towards the door the Lord's head jolts up and he freezes in motion for a moment. Putting his hands to his sides Lord Feilmann cleared his throat. "You dare barge in here girl?" As he waits for a response the Lord remembers the presence of the shamed henchman. "Enough of you! Be out of my sight until you have something that can be useful." Head down, the henchman nearly jogs out of the manor, but not before picking his head up to meet eyes with Isla. She could sense the fear he had, but not because of Lord Feilmann. Something else was troubling the poor man.

[Not Finished]