For King and Country

Grand Adventures

Enjoy guys! I had a really good time writing this chapter. (Sorry for torturing you with not answering that cliff hanger lol. It's coming next I swear!) Micah's back everyone, and he's not happy with Cora. And this is what long haired, newly scarred Micah looks like. And yes that is a picture from Star Wars, my fav movie series. 

Chapter 16: Micah

Cora always had grand ideas about the adventures she would have one day. She was going to see the world, to stop pirates and robbers, and climb the tallest peaks. I'd laugh at her and plan for her to be my wife. I'd pictured it a thousand times in my head. She'd walk down the village green in a delicate white dress, with a long white veil and the little tear drop necklace I'd gotten her around her neck. She would smile, and her eyes would be the same haunting color of blue and green and grey, as if there was a storm brewing just below the surface.

I don't know if she ever realized I had grand ideas for us too. I'd build us a little house just outside the walls with a small stone wall separating our little yard from the fields. I could picture her reading by a trellis and chasing our children around the garden, telling them stories of far off lands and adventures they would take. She was everything for me. And all at once, she began to give me everything, her heart, her love, and then she snatched it all away. 

I saw her every where. I saw her running along the logs that lined the path to her, laughing as her hair flew in the wind, I saw her in the scolding glares her mother gave her sisters whenever they misbehaved in town, I saw her in the village green, twirling in that pretty off white dress and sitting the corner stoop. But every image of my Cora, the sarcastic witty girl was tinged with the Cora whose face twisted in anger as she drove a sword through a man's gut to protect a soldier. The Cora who sobbed so adamantly at her sin, but accepted it as her fate. The Cora who got on a horse with a man she barely knew. The one who claimed she didn't love me. The one who ran away and ruined our adventures. 

She'd been gone a week, and I was so angry, I was so sick of seeing her that I enlisted. I joined the first militia I could find, and after a week of training, I was assigned to the eighth unit of the King's Royal Guard, and I'd been there ever since. My mother wrote me letters, my father sent my favorite treats that he traded for, but the only one that mattered was the little crinkled paper that Cora had sent to me a year ago. It was pointless, and silly, but it was her curly handwriting, the familiar curves of her name, and it was comforting to know that she did love me once. I read it every day over the past three weeks. She would be coronated soon, I was sure, but I didn't think of that Cora, I just thought of mine. 

"Thornbury," A voice snapped as the flaps of the tent swung open, I sat up from where I was reading the worn letter. "Oh not that thing again!" It was Joseph, my bunk mate and partner. He was the man I ended up beside during the first combat I'd witnessed. He shot a man in the back before the man shot me. We'd became fast friends after that. I'd told him about Cora, well not about the complicated parts, just the the part where she left me heartbroken. He'd snorted, and in an alcoholic daze, he claimed that no woman was worth losing your mind over, and that he would never ever love that way. 

"Shut it Joseph." I snapped, folding it carefully, "What do you want?" He just grinned, his face becoming far more babyish. He was from the North, and he'd joined the army to help his family. His bright red hair was continually slathered in mud to prevent the enemy from spotting the color. Mine was constantly muddied too, the blonde sticking out like a sore on the landscape. 

"Cap wants us, Jovi, Lorn, Cap and Sarg to go on a foreign scouting mission. There's been some movement on the eastern front. Towards Mythos." I nodded. I'd yet to see the city, but rumor was the people were starving and the Rasholdian army was closing in every day. All available troops were traveling towards the city, our unit included.

"I'm on my way." 

We traveled from the base camp, moving silently through the woods towards what Cap said was the disturbance. Joseph whispered jokes about the flappy, round faced man. I laughed to myself until the Sergeant shot us a look. I don't know how far we walked, at least two miles, until the woods began to thin. Cap motioned for us to get our weapons at the ready, then, I heard the screams. 

And then, I saw it. People were running in every direction, children were screaming and crying, and buildings were burning to the ground. Then I saw them, the Rasholdian group, who was laughing as they killed. I don't know why I did it, but I sprung into action, running towards a man who raised his sword towards the head of a child. 

The unit followed behind me, I think, but I wasn't thinking. I was killing them, the people who'd caused me to meet Cora, the people who'd taken her away from her, the people who'd turned her into a killer, and the men who'd turned me into one too. It lasted for what seemed like days, the slashing and cutting, and one by one they fell at my feet. Then, I felt the piercing pain in my stomach, but I cut his throat before I could fall. 

I stood, staggering under the pain, looking up to see Joseph. He was staring at me with wide eyes, a pile of corpse throughout the town centers. Through the red haze of battle and the ringing in our ears, I saw the shaking red face of the Captain no doubt screaming at me. I smiled slightly, and then I fell, the entire world going black as Cora's face flashed behind my eyes. Maybe she'd hear of this, and maybe she'd love me finally. 

                         *****************************************************************************

I don't know when I woke. But I recognized the thick canvas material of an army tent. I tried to sit up, but a hand pushed me down. 

"Don't get up, you'll bust your stitches." I recognized Joseph's voice. "Captain was ready to kill you. But Sarg pulled rank, he reported you to the Crown." 

"What?" My voice was cracked and dry and Joseph's face was swimming. He quickly reached for his canteen, raising it my lips. 

"He reported your valor to the Crown, the entire unit is traveling towards the capital city as we speak. You're in for a medal, maybe me too. We've been asked to report to the war counsel about the atrocities we saw in that village." I said. 

"I... I hardly remembered what I saw. I just..."

"Turned into a maniac. Don't get up, you're in a cart, you'd fall over. Well, I'm going to get back to marching with the boys. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," He clapped my shoulder, making me hiss as my body jostled with the wheels of the cart. He laughed, but headed to the exit of the slow moving tent. 

"Your hair," I said, leaning my head up. "It looks like a tomato." He grinned.

"That's what happens when I'm not at war." He laughed. "Get some rest, the capital is like nothing you've ever seen before. Plus ladies will go crazy for that scar."