A Criminals Respite, an Officers Solace

Chapter 1 - Rude Awakening

A/N: Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Narrator PoV

The bright sun showed through the mostly curtain covered window of the small keep, disgruntling one of the few Champions from his slumber. This earned a groan of annoyance as he pulled his pillow over his face to try and ease back into slumber. The world had other plans however.

Without warning the door to the room was slammed open as a Conqueror came into his room, already fully equipped in his battlegarb which consisted of a white dyed gambeson coat held together at the waist with a thick white belt made of leather. Attached to his belt was a mace on his right hip and a makeshift circle mail made of silver covering his left hip. On his shoulders sat silver pauldrons that had a small stop-rib attached each. In his left hand he held a gold trimmed shield along with every Conqueror's weapon of choice; the flail. Finally, on his head sat a silver bucket helm with a layer of ringmail and leather going down the back of the helm, protecting the back of his head.

The man in question was highly experienced Conqueror, Nearing in on his 12th year of fighting for and serving the Devotion of Conquerors. His name is Jonathan Cobbler, the current head of outpost Scutage. All of this meant he was a pain in the ass for new recruits as he not only gave one on ones frequently, but also oversaw the training of all Conquerors who came through outpost Scutage.

"Get your ass up, Shawn! We have rules to uphold, we're not petty thieves anymore!" He bellowed, walking up to Shawn and pulling his blankets off of the resting Conqueror and walking to the window to pull the curtains to the side. All Conquerors come from the same walk of life, he knew how to get them up.

"I'd rather be a petty thief again if it meant I got to sleep in more" Shawn half mumbled half groaned from under his pillow. True enough Shawn has been living this life for just under two years now, but he'll never get used to it. It just wasn't in the nature of a 'reformed' criminal like himself to follow a rigid and strict schedule like all of the other Devotions had.

Shawn was part of the most recent wave of recruits, originally totaling 12, now only two through trials and tribulations.  He was nearing his second year of training and official release from outpost Scutage to go and become a part of a new keep or outpost that needed semi-permanent Champions to reside at.

The Conqueror gave another annoyed groan before sitting up. "There you go!" The Jonathan said with a smile. "Now, meet me downstairs at the dueling anchor once you've donned your armor, I have news and orders for you." He stood around for a second to make sure that Shawn was getting out of bed before he turned and walked away from the room, intent on preparing other things around the keep as he waited for Shawn and Darin to meet him at the anchor.

It took Shawn another minute or two of sitting around before he finally swung his feet off to the side of his bed, shooting an annoyed glare at the now curtainless window for letting in all the light it had so early in the morning. Reluctantly standing up and stretching, Shawn walked to a basket that held his clothes for the day and reached in for a pair of clothing to get him through the day. Shawn dawned the two randomly picked assortment of shirts and pants before looking over to his armor stand and making his way over.

He started with his lightly padded blue trousers. Once he had secured them to his waist Shawn grabbed his boots and pulled them onto his feat. Next he wrapped a padded linen tassel over both of his legs, of which had a gray coloration along the top half, and the remaining lower half dyed a dirty white. With his tassels secured to his body Shawn moved on to his undershirt for comfort's sake before he pulled on his arming doublet. The doublet had chainmail starting coming from the cuff of the sleeve, and going all the way up the arm, only stopping at the edge of the breast, shoulder blade, and covering down to his underarm.

With his arming doublet in place he laced the front together before pulling a short tunic over his upper body. The tunic was split down the middle color wise with the right half being the same gray as on the tassels, as well as the white being the same dirty white, and securing the tunic with a metal plated battle belt. With his final piece of padded clothing in place he began dawning the various pieces of metal armor that he had been given by his devotion for completions of orders.

He donned his knee pads, a bevor, two shoulder pads with stop-ribs, and a kettle style helmet with a pointed face mask on the front and a leather made scale mail covering his neck and the back of his head. The metal of his armor has been blacked by his devotion to denote his class ranking. Of his class of two, Shawn is the designated leader, having been there since his class had formed.

Shawn held his helmet in his right hand as he slid his left arm into the first loop of his heater shield before grasping the handle. With a firm grasp he lifted his shield from its stand before grabbing a hold of the brim on his helmet with his left hand. And finally he reached towards the stand one last time as he grabbed his flail. It was a polished weapon, unlike the rest of his armor which had minor rusting on due to the mistreatment it's endured over the past two years the armors had with its current owner.

With chain and handle in hand he headed for his door, already knowing where he was supposed to meet his sparring partner along with his mentor, just like he had the past 720 some-odd days prior. "I wonder what news he has in store for Darin and I." Shawn mused as he made his way to the sparring arena.

A/N: Ill admit, this chapter is shorter than i would habe liked it to be, but i just had no idea in which direction to really take this story in, nor the pacing. hopefully in the next chapter ill have better pacing and a better direction to work in. And let me know if youd like me to post pictures with a character for a better description.

With that let me know what you think, ill see you guys next chapter!