Lunar Flare Book 1: Crimson Moon

Chapter 6

Thedrick's song had left Beowulf burning with embarrassment under his helmet for the rest of the evening after he retook his position behind the king's chair. But that embarrassment coiling in his stomach was accompanied by a warm feeling spreading through his chest. The jester had made up a song about Beowulf to share with the king, and rather than it being overly silly, it was actually awfully sweet.

Now Beowulf found that he was even less able to pull his mind away from thoughts of the jester. Everything the little guy did was so endearing. Beowulf didn't care about the chirurgeon's warning relating to keeping Thedrick's company, even though the soldier had already ended up taking an arrow for his trouble. Beowulf wanted to see Thedrick again as soon as possible, and he struggled to sleep as his mind was consumed with thoughts of being close to him.

The next morning Beowulf spent the time before his guard duty wandering the halls of the castle, searching for the jester. He didn't even know what he was going to say once he found him, he was just acting upon the urge to. He reasoned in his mind that it was a good idea to get to know the layout of the castle more intimately anyway.

When Beowulf walked out into the courtyard, he noticed a small group of castle guards gathered around the fountain. Beowulf narrowed his eyebrows as he tried to see what they were doing while he walked towards them. He recognised at least two of the soldiers, the one in the middle of the group being the curly haired noble born Emil who had shot Beowulf with an arrow the day prior, and another was the sandy haired youth Landyn which Cassian had Beowulf fight in training.

Beowulf's eyes suddenly went wide when he saw what Emil was holding in his gloved hands. It was a small black cat, who was writhing around in his grip, yowling as it attempted to escape his grasp. Beowulf picked up the pace as he strode toward the group, and soon he was in range to make out that the other two guards were urging Emil to dunk the cat in the water.

Soon Beowulf was behind the group, his shadow falling on the soldiers. He cleared his throat, which made all the guards jump slightly, and they all slowly turned around to face him, necks craning upwards as they looked up at his helmet.

"What do you think you are doing?" Beowulf growled lowly, and the men visibly paled.

"Uh... we were just..." Emil started trying to come up with an excuse, green eyes looking around nervously.

"Give me the cat," Beowulf demanded, holding out his hands in front of him.

"Don't you know black cats are bad luck to have around?" the soldier muttered but placed the frightened feline in Beowulf's cupped gauntlets. The cat stopped struggling, and trembled instead, looking up at Beowulf nervously. Beowulf withdrew his hands, pulling the cat up against his chest and holding it there, stroking it gently with two fingers to comfort it.

"Says who?" Beowulf retorted, scowling at the man from under his helmet.

Emil shrugged. "They are apparently the familiars of evil witches and demons," he said with a frown. "There are always heaps of them hanging around that creepy chirurgeon at the infirmary, and we're all pretty sure he's cursed them or something," he finished with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest.

Beowulf noticed that the cat had calmed a little under his touch, seeming to somewhat relax in his arms. "What kind of coward tries to harm a poor defenceless animal?" Beowulf asked pointedly.

"Hey, calm down big guy, it's just a cat," Emil attempted to placate with raised hands, sounding a little anxious. "And uh, by the way, no hard feelings about yesterday, right? I mean, it was an accident, I didn't mean to hit you, but still, I'm sorry about that," the soldier explained, before offering out a gloved hand for Beowulf to shake.