A Tale of Two Knights

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Ludo woke, he was in the same place as before. The Wardens dead body stinked to high hell, and was already getting eaten away by flies and maggots, and other vermin. The body was big enough to support an entire family of insects, so the body should be disposed of quickly. Ludo carried the body with some difficulty, and dropped it down a slope of rocks and grass all the way down to the lake far below. The pain had barely lessened at all, so Ludo needed to get a move on quickly. Despite the pain, he used his sword to cut open an aloe vera leaf in half, and used the gel to seal up his wound. The wound was fresh somehow, signaling that it has not even been a day since the Warden's death. Ludo had to find a nearby town, no matter where. The hill up top looks promising to search for a nearby town Ludo thought, and he began his journey there. Surprisingly, the land was peaceful, outside of the village that Ludo just left of course. There was no sign of pestilence or plague, and the animals and nature was quite a sight to see. The fresh green leaves of an oak tree covered the final entrance to the top of the hill. Ludo cut the branch off with his sword, and finally went up... And what he saw was extremely disappointing. There was no town or village nearby for many, many miles. All Ludo could see that was even close to a town or village was a pattern of lights in the very far off distance, but the lights were way too small for a successful bustling village. It was probably a small town with maybe a tavern, some shops and an inn, but things didn't seem to get better from there. Hmm lets see, maybe 50 miles? Ludo was thinking in his head, but it was no use, the distance was impossible to calculate.

Finally he decided to actually get a move on, and try to get to the supposed town in the far off distance. However hard that may be. The sun was already going down, and deep grey clouds started forming. Ludo started feeling a sense of dread. It's going to rain, he thought, watching helplessly at the clouds.

It hasn't even been 20 minutes until the first small drizzle of rain came. Ludo's armour was prone to getting rust, if too much rain would soak it. It was lucky that he was wearing a red cloak with a cape, so he wouldn't have to worry about the drizzle, for now. Unfortunately, the rain started getting even bigger as night-time approached. Ludo had to use his shield as a sort of makeshift umbrella. This did help, however, the shield was definitely prone to getting rust. The rain washed away some of Ludo's coat of arms, and soaked the cape thoroughly.

At night-time, Ludo could hear some muffled human-like mumbling. Curious, Ludo slid down a muddy path, which was soaked by the rain, and came across a turned-over carriage, with a child in rags, no younger than the age of 10 shivering with his mouth covered by a stained white cloth. Ludo quickly untied the child from his restraints, and pulled off the cloth from the child's mouth. "What happened?" Ludo asked, while searching for any sight of the guardians of the child. "My family, we were riding down to the mainland, until knights pulled us over and captured my family. Th-thhey left me here for an entire ddday, please helpp-p me". The child replied, stuttering with each word. "Quick, what did the knights look like? What armor did they wear?" Ludo asked, trying to pull out extra information from the child. "Tt-hey kind of looked like the ones in the war, except they had a coat of arms of a lion battling a dragon." The child said. Ludo knew exactly what they were. They were the king's personal praetorian guard, But why would the king take capture of a random family that was just travelling to the mainland? There must be an important reason. Money? No it couldn't be money, The kingdom grew extremely powerful once they had won the war against the aestinean nation. Ludo's nation has long been gone, after they suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Draven. There were 4 main superpowers of the world, Volnairia, the Aestinea, Fabril, and the Escalia. The Volnair used to be at peace with the Escalions, Until Draven interfered, and changed the king's decision to keep peace. Through the help of the Aestineans, Ludo's country, Escalia, which used to be the greatest out of the four, ended after decades of war. Now all that was left was some small establishments, and such. The Aestinieans were promised lots of land for their help, but when they were betrayed and gaven nothing, they waged war. Volnairia, through its collected power with the Escalions land and power, crushed the Aestineans in war, and another country fell. The Fabril were also on a neutral standpoint, and usually the weakest of the four. The only way to end Dravens influence on the king was to get Fabril to stop being neutral, as that would cause the fall of the last kingdom. If they fought and captured Volnairia, everything could go back to previous times, and it has been multiple decades since things were normal. The pestilence wiped out entire villages, towns a decade ago. In fact, Ludo wasn't sure the town he was trying to find was dead, dying, or safe to enter. Ludo would have to get to the mainland, but he was currently on the peninsula, and would have difficulty getting to the mainland. He would have to ride in a ship to get back there, as security on the border was extremely tough.

Ludo carried the young boy on his back, and then a loud noise came down to the ground. A thunderstorm was happening. You've got to be kidding me right now Ludo was thinking. At this point, the child was already sleeping, and Ludo had to carry him to the town. It would probably take, what, 4 more hours to get there? He thought as walking through the rain.

It was going to be hard, but he really didn't have any other choice.