A Maiden's Honor

Chapter 1

     The room was well lit with fat dripping candles, mixed by the scent crafters. These particular candles were so made to give off a feeling of a freshly rained forest with a hint of sage and lavender. To the far wall, was the banner of the Cianon Tribe which was the ruling family among the Northern Kingdom. A rich green background, with intersecting black colored knotwork. Just below the bottom of the banner, in his bed lay the current reigning King of the Northern Land, Ruoch.

Ruoch was beloved of his people and had given them thirty years of peace and prosperity. The farmlands were strewn with wheat and the trees laden with fruit, said to all be the gifts of the Maiden Goddess, who with her Consort, looked over the well being of the people, having shaped the first man and woman of their people those many long years ago.

In the legends of their people, it was said that the Maiden Goddess formed the first male and female from the clear blue waters of the north sea which accounts for the average eye color and skin pale as the white snow that falls almost year around. The people do not believe you can contain their deities in walls made of stone or wood, instead there was a sacred grove north of the Cianon home that the priests of the people go to make offerings and prayers for the sake of the common people.

There lay Ruoch, his breathing labored yet the strength of his voice still able to speak clearly to the priest at his right side.

"Call Aranon, I would have words with my son." Ruoch said.

"Yes, my Lord." the Priest would nod and move quickly to the task.

After a few moments, the door was opened on the opposite side of the room and with that, Aranon made his way in and closed the door behind it. A bear cloak was about his shoulders, clasped on the hardened leather breastplate which would be on either side of his collar bone with a silver circlet. Below the waist would be brass riveted dual weave wool breeches for those cold nights the North was so well known for.

"You sent for me, Father?" came Aranon's voice, with utmost respect.

"My son, I do not believe I shall see the next full moon and our enemies grow more daring with each season. Your grandfather's sword, Norfrost, is in the hands of our sister kingdom to the south. With it, he never failed to attain victory in combat. As a final command, I will send you and two of our men to the southern Kingdom and for you to bring it back to our lands. I hear rumblings, from our patrols south of the ice wall that the middle lands look to the throat of their own people for blood and with the last remaining of their people, they shall then fix their eyes to our borders for a final offensive to see our lands defiled..."

Ruoch coughed once, then twice and the Priest at his side laid a hand on Aranon that he should take his leave. Aranon stood and gave a solemn bow of his head to his father, looked to the banner that proudly was displayed above him, then out the room and to his own quarters.

As he made his way down the hall to the main inner courtyard, he could see the boy Aedan who had only recently been given his rite of man making the week before on account of his passage to his sixteenth winter. He was now eligible to apply for a place among the working men and court a wife that he may take for himself for his seventeenth year.

"Hail to you, Aedan. How goes it with your mother, is she on the mend?" Aranon said, coming to rest a few paces in front of him.

"Hail to you, my Lord Aranon. You honor me with your words of concern for my mother. She will be up and causing trouble for me in no time, says the herbalist." Aedan said, with a hint of a grin to the corners of his lips.