A Tale of Two Knights

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The plan was carefully planned out and executed. Ludo would disguise as a guard and bring Sully to the caravan. There wouldn't be a problem.

Sully stayed at an arch tree, the smell of it repulsing Sully, who kept knowing that their plan would fail if he were to be spotted.

Ludo, on the other hand, tried to seek out guards and patrolmen he would stealthily take out.

A guard with a helmet mask that took the form of a warrior stepped out from the shadows. His mask was silvery in color, and he wore a multi- colored gambeson. His legs were protected by metal shin armor, and he kept a sword on a sheath, which was strapped on his side. His helmet, aside from the mask, had a conical protection for the top of the head, which was also silver in color.

The guard held a lantern at the dark forest beyond him, as were all the other guards were doing as well. Each guard or patrolman looked the exact same as each other, with the gambeson that had the exact same design; three colors split on the gambeson itself. Green, yellow and red. Their arms were protected by gauntlets that reached to their elbows.

The guard shone out his light at the dark, arch tree infested forest beyond him, looking for any escapees. On his side, he had strapped a brass horn without any valves. The sole purpose of that is to alert everyone in the base. Ludo thought. He knew that if he was not fast enough, the guard would surely blow the horn and alert all the others. Very few of the guards had these special horns.

Ludo bent his knees and stealthily approached the guard. The smell of the dead trees was extremely sensitive to his nose, the smell made his eyes water as if he was smelling onions, except these trees were even stronger.

Of course they had to set up camp in the middle of dead arch trees! Ludo thought, as he walked without any sound on the bark beneath his feet. The entire landmass that they were standing on was mostly just a forest, with only about thirty percent of the trees being arch trees, and an even smaller percentage of dead arch trees, however, they were in the middle of an arch tree forest, plenty alive and dead alike.

Ludo suddenly looked up at the caravan. Let's see... Two tarragons, seven laufs, five chifs, eight goblins and maybe twenty or so patrolmen... Ludo thought, his hair standing on end. The air was cold, his entire body was numb. He had no opportunities to mess up this. He would fail Sully, and ultimately fail himself too. He had failed Alphonse the worthy. He had messed up before.

He wasn't about to mess up again.

Ludo swiftly grabbed the guard silently by his neck, immediately grabbed his sword and took it out of his sheath. The guard was not expecting the attack at the least, and Ludo heard the guards screaming, however it was silenced by his mask, which must have had properties to prevent screaming. The guard reacted quickly, pulling himself away from Ludo, however he was one step behind.

Ludo dropped the guard onto the floor, huffing from the amount of energy he had lost. The guard rolled onto his back, and the line of red was visible on his exposed neck. A second later, the blood spilled out quickly, and poured out of the guard's body, and onto the wet grass.

Ludo quickly undressed the guard and took off his helmet. He hid the body behind a dead arch tree, hoping that the smell would disguise the body.

Ludo put on the gameson, hiding his cape in the process. He then broke the mask off from the helmet, and strapped it to his own armet. His shin armor and gauntlets were vaguely similar to the guards armor, so he didn't bother with that.

...

Sully felt the chill of the air brush past his sensitive skin, the tips of his pointy ears red as an apple.

When is Ludo coming back? He thought, standing still against the arch tree. He is not here, and it's been ten minutes already!

Sullivan had his hood on, his green cloak covering his whole body, savoring what little heat he had left.

The plan was extremely simple, disguise as a guard, and get out, however such a simple job wouldn't take ten minutes, would it not?

Sullivan took a peek at the valley below him, and examined the tarragons that were on the top of the caravan. The green one larger than the purple one, both with blood red eyes. Suddenly, the larger of the two, the green tarragon, roared loudly, exposing its maw in the process. Blood and guts could be seen in between some of the beast's teeth.

The sight sickened Sullivan, and he finally moved away from the elder tree and from the sight of the tarragon roaring, and finally caught his breath for once.

From the corner of his eye, he saw a guard, silver mask, three colored gambeson, and the look of surprise overtook him. He was pure white.

Has he just been discovered?

The guard ran up to him and Sullivan almost yelled.

"Calm down. It's just me." The guard said in his deep voice, thus reminding Sullivan that it was just Ludo.

"Alright. I'm ready." Sullivan said,

Ludo took shackles out of his pocket, he discovered that by rummaging through the guards' clothing. He quickly shackled Sully by his wrists, and pushed him ahead.

"What was that for?" Sullivan asked in confusion.

"If I'm going to disguise myself as a guard, I might as well act like one." Ludo responded back.

Sullivan rolled his eyes at his explanation as to why , but didn't say anything against it.

The two slowly walked down the grassy hill, as all the patrolmen, the goblins, and chifs that were inside the caravan watched and examined them carefully.

Ludo approached a guard that had a red mask instead of a silver one, and explained the situation.

"Sir, I've found an escapee. Young elf, can't be any older than thirteen."

The guard looked at Ludo puzzled as to why he was telling him about it.

"Sir, the red mask symbolizes that I'm a new one, chosen by the lich. Why are you asking me? You're a silver one. Go ask the commanding officer.

Ludo stood quiet for a moment, until he responded to the trainee.

"Oh, yes I had forgotten, ha. Must've been too much beer!"

Ludo himself frowned at his sentence beneath the mask.

"Sire, I don't think we're allowed to drink any concoction other than plain water. Beer is exclusively for the commanders only." The red masked trainee said.

... I gotta think of another thing! Ludo thought, looking at the ground. At this moment, everyone was looking at him, some staring in suspicion while doing so.

Gosh, this isn't going so well right now. Ludo thought, clenching his fists, and gritting his teeth. His words made the rest of the crew stare at him.

Ludo left the trainee and took Sullivan, and put him into the caravan, then he

turned back, only to hear the conversation between the commanders of the caravan...