Gray Knight

Chapter 4

She was tracing her fingers across the cold, metal plate. She slipped the white linen shirt over her head and pulled up the leather pants, and boots.

Crossing the entrance to the training grounds Amy regarded the men gathered outside. Some armored, others not. The armory on the sidelines, weaponry consisting of swords, daggers, flanged mace, battle axes, war hammers, etc. They were preparing to battle to the death. War was rimming near the edge. The Red Rose Kingdom was planning something.

"Hey!" A booming voice came, and a man shouldered Amy to the floor, racing towards a group of knights scanning their swords, and crouching to clean their corked shoes. He leaned on his knees and panted, catching his breath. "I...I saw...red knights...stealing food out of Griseo..."

"Really?" A knight in only pants perked up. "Well, I'll be damned. Those scoundrels are surely getting cockier," He spat.

"They keep leaning closer and closer to our borders, sneaking in and stealing our goods! We are seen as weak as this. Why hasn't the king made a move? Our men can fend them off!"

Amy sighed, raking the dirt off her tan trousers. As she sat upright, she was greeted with a charming smile. "Alan, is it?" Mat extended a hand to her, and she hesitantly accepted it. He lifted her off her feet with ease. Either he was strong enough to do so, or she weighed nothing. His eyes lingered on hers, as the men around them started bickering on the situation.

"We should go and stop it!" One man suggested, raising a piercing sword under the sun's glow.

Another man disagreed and said, "We should wait for the order, I'm not a traitor."

"They won't know. We can go now and fight." A third declared.

"Yeah, I'm bored, and itching for a fight..." A deep voice came from behind Amy. She followed the voice, turning slowly around to face the owner of the voice, and it was Axel Branor. His two piercing blue eyes stared back, and his hand tightened around the clasp of his sword. The man had a determined glint in his eyes as if nothing would stop him.

"Hey, bud you're kidding, right?" Mat's reasonable voice came through.

Axel shook his head to say this was no joke and took off galloping in that direction outside the entrance to the castle, he proceeded to climb his horse, and satchel up. The horse neighs in response to the boot and storms out of there faster than any man.

Mat Woods' expression says it all, truly. He spits on the ground kicking dirt, and paces back and forth. "Stupid. Stupid. He's so darn stupid!"

Amy's hand hovers over him, but she retreats. No time to comfort him, that wouldn't be manly of her. Instead, she grips her sword, and races in the same direction as Axel and hollers "Come on we are wasting daylight here, no man is left to fend for himself!" She hops on her horse, and the wind shakes her hard, blowing pieces of red hair in her face. Mat is not far behind her.

She had no clue as to what she was doing, nor did she have a plan.

"You've got balls of steel?" Mat smirks at his jet-black horse matching her speed. "No man I've seen as brave as Axel or dumb, but you," He chuckled.

Amy took it as a compliment. At least no one suspected her yet. Disguised as her dead brother, she'd have to improve her act for it was now her life. She walked on a darker and thinner line than she imagined. The wind was cold on her smooth skin, brushing past her ears, and whistling loudly like a warrior's cry for help.

They rode on horseback. Mat was on the left, Philip on the right, he was another knight with brown long curly hair and dull brown eyes. A few other knights either brave or dumb tagged along with them most in training much like herself. Axel was leading them ahead, finally catching up to his speed Amy could almost make out his back, and half of his face. They were inching closer and closer to the front of Griseo, a village Amy knew all too well.

They're lined with tall ancient oaks, pines greener than the witches' ambers, dark red dirt matching the coat of a knight's blood, and small huts full of poor families. Axel was the first to hop off his horse and tie the lovely creature to a tree post. Readying his sword and approaching the village taking stealthy steps forward, Amy mimicked his movements and was immersed in the act so much so that when he halted so did, she, and a man grunted from behind her crashing into her.

"Ouch, why'd you stop?" Mat asked.

"Get off." Amy groaned. Mat slid off her back and laughed. "You're weirdly soft, almost like a woman..." He pondered for a moment, Amy swallowed spit and bit on her lip.

"Erm, well-"

Axel interjected, "He's the youngest, let him be. And shut up will you." Mat followed his gaze and noticed red rose knights in red shiny armor at the villagers' huts, setting them aflame, and beating on women and children. One red knight picked a woman by her neck and threw her fiercely to the ground, in response she screamed out in agony. A small boy crumpled to his knees crying Mommy. In one quick movement, he slit her throat, and blood soaked the ground, splattering on the poor boy's face.

Red went everywhere.

Axel set his jaw, clenching his fists so tight around the sword his knuckles turned white. "They're killing innocents..." Amy trailed off, meeting his unwavering gaze.

"King Gray is weak for our kingdom, powerless to the Red Rose kingdom." Axel sighed, exasperated. Amy in a split second pushed past Axel, and the rest of the men and charged straight for the man who slaughtered the young boy's mother. The red knight was reaching for the boy, when she intervened, clashing the swords, knocking the man's sword free from his dirty clutches. He stared in shock, mouth agape, surprised. "Y-you gray knight," He seethed, cowering without a weapon. "I'll fight you with my bare hand!"

Amy recalled a few moves from Axel, thrusting her sword forward the knight dodged, she slashed his shoulder the second time when he crawled on the ground to retrieve his lost weapon, Amy took this chance to pierce him in the chest, and blood spilled out from his gaping mouth, and he fell to the floor dead.

"Nice one," Philip came from behind and patted her shoulder. She jerked his arm off shocked, frozen in the same spot, looking at what she did.

Her first kill.

The red knight had gray eyes like her brothers. He looked like a human, but what he did was not human. Killing that boy's mother right in front of him was cruel. But somehow that didn't justify it enough. Her hands were covered in his blood, the sword bloodied. Amy's hands began to tremble, gripping the weapon, the blade was sharp on the skin, burning her.

"That was your first kill, wasn't it?" Axel asked, touching her hands and holding onto them suddenly. The warmth of his hands brought her comfort and eased her soul. The trembling slowly ceased.

Philip stared at them suspiciously then walked off.

Mat was helping the boy up on his two feet while the rest of the gray knights followed protocol, checking each burning house and finding any survivors. When they showed up most of the people were dead, the huts were burnt, fire tearing down the village, and the Red Rose knights vanished after the job was done.

There were a couple of elves mixed with the humans' survivors, but no vamps luckily. Most of the creatures stayed on their territory. However, the Red Rose kingdom was known for using them for power and holding wolves, elves, warlocks, witches, demons, and vampires for their abilities.

"We came too late," Axel said, on horseback. They cleared Griseo, finding the few survivors out of the hundreds. Only twenty survived the attack. The survivors would be taken care of on different land, among the gray villages. They'd start anew on Albus, another village within the Gray Kingdom in between the South and North border.

To be continued...