Valiant (*On Hold*)

3 Beyond - Tyne

"Faster boys, the day is fading and we've got to get these crops to market by morning."

I wiped the sweat from my brow and knelt to pluck the carrots from the earth beneath my feet. I tossed them into the basket at my side and looked up to see my two older brothers moving swiftly down their rows, plucking and tossing with a rapidity I had never been able to accomplish. I sighed and plucked another root as Villads, my eldest brother, filled another basket and laid it at the end of the row, gathering another basket and moving to the next. Uesli was not far behind him and still I had half of my row to go. I glanced over to where my father stood, bending over a plot of his own, sweat dripping down his face on this blistering day. He wore the same scowl that seemed permanently affixed to the face of a man who was never comfortable with the amount of work he had done.

"Tyne," he snapped and I realized he was watching me, eyes narrowed in the abject fury I was used to having directed my way. "You've done only a third of what your brothers have. Work harder or I'll have you mucking out the stables by evening."

I did not answer but simply turned my attention back to my work, trying harder to pull the roots from the ground as quickly as I could. There was no purpose in arguing. I had tried all of the excuses before. I was ten years old. Villads was seventeen and Uesli was fifteen, both of them bigger and stronger, each of them practically a man in their own right while I was merely a boy. Besides strength, their age also lent them experience. They had each worked in the fields five and seven years longer than I, had grown into their manhood pulling weeds and harvesting crops. They had sold our wares at the market while I had never been allowed to go. Father said it was because of my age and because someone had to work the farm while they were gone. But I knew that wasn't the case. Uesli had first gone to market when he was seven years old. I knew, as I always had, that my father did not love me. Such was the fate of a boy whose birth cost the life of his mother.

"Is that..." Uesli said suddenly and I looked up to see my older brother standing straight up in his row, hand held to his forehead to block out the blinding sun. He was looking east, in the direction of town, in the direction of Mardenall. "Smoke?"

My father turned from his work and peered off as well. My curiosity overcame my dedication and I stood as well, mimicking my brother's shielding of his eyes, to look toward the town myself. He was right. Dark, black smoke was billowing into the sky, joining the puffy white clouds before dissipating. My father dropped his hoe. Villads set down his basket. We all stood watching the rising column, wondering what it could mean.

"Why-" Villads began after a moment but he fell silent just as quickly. He had heard it as well. The same sound I had perceived just seconds before he began talking. At first, I thought it was thunder. But then the haze upon the ridge cleared and I saw them. Twenty of them. Riders on horseback wearing the strangest armor I had ever seen. Though I was a farm boy without much experience in what armor should look like, I knew, at least, that it was metal. And theirs was not.

"Inside," our father spoke so quietly that I almost could not hear him but, as muted as his words were, his tone was firm. We obeyed without hesitation. Uesli turned and headed for our modest home the moment the word left our father's mouth. I found my feet uncooperative. I stood still, watching the riders as they watched us. Their leader, a man with fiery red hair that reached past his shoulders, surveyed our lands before a hint of a smile touched his face and he made some gesture with his hand though I could not make it out from the distance. I did not get to see what that signal had meant, either, because Villads was in front of me now, blocking my view and turning me away toward the house. He gave a little shove and my feet were moving, heading for our home, tripping over the uprooted soil as I peered over my shoulder at the riders beyond. They were coming down the hill now and my father was walking out to meet them.