The war of the twelve realms - Book 1 - Of squires and scholars

Chapter 1 - Tryssen

Chapter 1 - Tryssen

Tryssen Maerule drifted on the floating piece of mast that was all that remained of his parents’ ship; Gods' Speed. The seven year old sat astride the mast piece, leaning forward and resting his cheek on the hard wood beneath him. For hours he had been adrift, at first frightened, then worried for his parents, and now completely exhausted. Dozing, he just lay and rested, shivering with the cold and fear, but too tired of mind to really recognise his peril. He did know that he could not afford to fall asleep. Whatever happened, if he fell asleep then he would surely roll off his buoyancy aid and be too tired to ever remount it. He would drown if he slept.

 Tryssen had always been a restless sleeper and when he had had a home and shared his bed with his siblings, he had always been the outcast one, because they claimed that he kicked like a rabbit as he dreamed and so made him sleep at the end of the bed and as far from them as possible. Now I suppose I’m the only survivor, thought Tryssen; a terrible thought for one so young. His family had once been in the employ of a fairly well-off small trading company in the dry and dusty nation of Kaval; taking goods to and from the Northern Isle and the Southern Isle. Sometimes they would have gone into hidden coves on the coast and trade the goods there. That was Tryssen’s favourite part of the job; which was usually boring and tiring, but the men in the cove were big and scary to Tryssen, and treated his parents like dirt, without giving them fair coin for the goods –Tryssen’s father often said so.

The world began to darken and Tryssen snapped upright, scolding himself for coming so close to sleeping. He reached his hand into the sea and splashed it into his face, letting the water splash up his nose and into his eyes, stinging him so that he could stay awake for longer. “Come on, Tryssen. You have to stay awake!” he heard himself say quietly, and then his mind echoed it; Stay awake! Stay awake! Stay awake! Nonetheless, he shortly fell asleep.

He woke with seawater pouring into his mouth. Fool! You slept and now you’ll drown! He thought angrily, panic rising in him until he felt sand at his back and the surf washing up and down his body. His eyes had snapped open and were now nearly blinded by the sun that glared down on him. Blinking, Tryssen sat upright and wiped the sand and water out of his eyes. He was on a long beach, but this was cold and the sky was not the clear blue of his home, but a pale grey cloudy mass. He shivered, and realised just how cold the water around him was now. His clothing, or what was left of it, was sodden wet and his short, greasy black hair had salt residue crystals locked into it, tangling into a mess.

He stood up and nearly collapsed again out of a combination of exhaustion and sheer hunger. Stabilising himself, he stood fully and turned around, surveying his surroundings whilst trying to ignore his hunger. He was faced with a group of men, some of them with longbows half drawn, others with long swords half out of their sheaths. They were dressed in leather and chainmail, bearing the sign of a stone arch going over a blue shield on their left breasts.

 “Alright lads, stand down. He’s only a lad, and a tiddler as well.” One of them said, although Tryssen didn’t understand him. This was a foreign world to him, and everything about it was strange to him. The men’s swords were long and thin instead of the great curved scimitars of his home, and the bows were long and made of a paler wood than the short bows of Kaval. Brown and yellow hair was on the heads and faces of the men, and they had skin that was pale instead of the light brown of his own.

Tryssen’s mouth opened, and shut again, and opened again, and shut again. His finger raised and pointed weakly at the man who had spoken, “Borh, Galas?” he asked; Food, friend?

“Awh great. It’s a Kavallan piece of driftwood. I say we cut his throat and spare him the pain of starving or becoming some pillow boy in the big city.” another man said.