The Knight of Chivalry

Chapter 5

It is now two months on since then, autumn was setting in, the harvest had all been brought in and there were plenty of apples on the trees, some of the leaves was now turning colour in the woods and Simon liked to just look at them for they had a beauty to it. The weather was also turning colder but also wetter as it rained more often and a lot of people grumbled about it as it didn’t help them do work but he never minded the rain, quite enjoyed it actually and he would be out doing stuff in the rain whilst others hid inside. His training had gone well these last two months passing all the points and learning a lot, the lord was very pleased with his progress and how sensible Simon was. The other squires still picked on him but this still did not face him at all as he had pretty much learned all the lesson of being a squire and now he just served the lord as best he could. He now looked the part of a medieval man and squire as his beard had been fully grown out now and his hair was shoulder length, it had grown longer but he went to the barber to keep it trimmed to that length and he wore their clothes properly now and they were most comfortable. He was also to their practice of hardly washing though he tried to do it more than they did as he was used to washing but didn’t do it so often as to raise suspicion but he still did it every so often. He was also used to the food and drink served at meals and quite enjoyed them and he had some friends in the town now which he sat with and talked to and joked around with at these meals and in his free time.

            The lord decided to go on a hunting trip now for he knew the deer were in a rut and the stags will have impressive antlers which would look mighty fine on his wall and so he got Simon to prepare his horse for him, some of the others knights would accompany him into the forest and there would be men who had dogs to pick up the scent of their quarry. Simon would be going to and he liked to hunt they had been a couple of times since he had been here and he was more used to using the bow now, he had been practicing with a bow in the last two months and he was now used to drawing it back which took a lot of effort and making the arrow go where he wanted to, he had listened to an archer who had been at the practice range teaching others and found his tips quite useful. Some of the other lords had started using crossbows which were easier to fire and a lot more powerful but weren’t as quick and didn’t have the range as the bow did. They left the town by mid-morning and it took a full day’s ride for them to reach the forest where the lord wanted to hunt this time and so they came to a hunting lodge of his and stayed there the night. There was about ten men in their party and they were all excited to get some hunting done and so they were drinking that ale and bragging that they would be the first to bring down a deer tomorrow in the hunt and some of them made bets on it but Simon did not he just listened to their talk and served his lord as there were no servants out here to do it. Soon it was dark and the lord told his men to sleep for they needed rest and to be ready for the hunt tomorrow and sleep they did.

            At dawn they were awoken by the calls of birds and soon they prepared a breakfast which they ate quickly and then they were on the hunt through the forest, they were quiet listening to noise and the dogs were off ahead, their noses to the ground sniffing for the trail. At around mid- morning they spooked some partridges to fly up and Simon got a lucky shot, as did another man and the birds plummeted to the ground to be guarded by the dogs till their masters picked up the birds and put them in sacks. The other men cheer at this feet and slapped Simon and the other man on the back for these skilled kills but there was bigger game to be had they knew it. A few hours later they stopped for lunch still not having found any deer yet and they quenched their thirst and their hunger on bread and cheese they were slightly disappointed with the hunt so far but they would still go at it. It was in the afternoon that their luck fared better as the dogs picked up a sent and this led them to a herd of deer which had males near it too with impressive racks fighting each other for the honour of reproducing with the roe deer that were grazing. The men were happy at that sight and got off their horses and crept round to come at the deer from where the wind was blowing to so they didn’t pick up the scent. The lord went after the bucks and Simon went with him to back him up and so they came to the fighting bucks, they were as quiet as they could be and snuck up pretty close to these bucks. The lord took the first shot and it was good and he hit one of the bucks and he fired a few more as the buck jolted away, Simon managed to another of the bucks a few seconds after the lords arrow hit the first and so it didn’t have time to react and he certainly hurt it and so they had to go after these deer to finish them off. They went after the lords deer first and he certainly was the more injured of the deer and he didn’t get very far and so the lord slit its throat with his hunting knife and got one of the men leading the dogs over to take the deer away as Simon followed the blood trail to find his deer. It had got a lot further but it soon succumbed to its wound and but was still on its feet resting so he shot again and this time hit its neck not its back quarters like he did with the first shot it still managed to run off but didn’t get very far and this time it lay in a heap but he still approached it carefully as he knew it could still be dangerous as it was still twitching but like the lord he got to its throat and slit it with his knife and then heaved it onto he shoulders and took it back to the clearing where the other hunter were, the other dear had run off but Simon saw that two of the other hunters had brought down two deer, they all cheer when they saw him even the lord who’s buck was now strapped to the back of his horse and Simon did the same with his. They then rode back to the lodge where they stayed the night, they feasted on the partridges and one of the deer they shot and prepared the others for transport as they would go back to town with their prizes and Simon could have bragging rights this hunt with two kills to his belt one of them a good sized buck and so he drank and joked with the other hunters all that night. The next morning they rode back to the town and were in very high spirits, that night they feasted on the deer and Simon had the rack from his buck in his room whereas the lord had his hung up in his hall and everyone slapped him on his back and cheered for them both and complimented them on how good hunters they were. Simon was happy with his life and talked to many people that evening including Anabella who was a new friend of his and she was very smart and funny though he knew that she was destined to marry some lords son and so was she but they could enjoy each other’s company, though she may look like Felecia Day she acted nothing like her though she did like to read she wasn’t overly nerdy but he guessed that was because she lived in the time before nerds.