The Arrow of Fate

Chapter III

The next morning Sorcha had woken up before the sun had completely risen. She had dreamed that night, that she had very good vision, like a bird of prey. She was looking at the retreating form of the man she had seen in the forest. He was wearing a bronze and silver crown atop a pale golden head. If she had dreamt anything else, she could not remember it.
Around noon the young man who was supposed to buy their cow came over. She heard the beat of hooves from a long distance off. Both she and Aurnia ran around the house to see him. They wondered what a man who could afford to spend three silver coins on baskets of turnips would look like. Sorcha thought he would be handsomely dressed, as her father described. Aurnia thought he would be handsome. He was both.
       The man rode a decent looking horse, nothing too out of the ordinary, but his saddle was made out of material neither girl had seen before. It looked well made. The man- whom Sorcha thought to look more like a boy as he still had baby fat on his cheeks- wore a green tunic with no designs on it, with plain matching black pants. They looked as if they were newly bought and made by a very skilled hand, the shirt having been made out of a material Sorcha thought might be sateen. She had never seen it before, only heard it's description. He had on a small cap, underneath which wavy brown hair hung down around his face. From the distance they could only tell that his eyes were dark.
When the young man dismounted and their father exchanged greetings with him, Aurnia leaned over and whispered to Sorcha "You don't have to ask him about the crimes of nearby communities. It wouldn't be fair to ask of you something I could not do."
Sorcha turned to face her sister. "Why wouldn't you be able to talk to him?" Her sister had never been shy before.
The younger girl blushed and said nothing, but in her scarlet cheeks Sorcha got an answer. She smiled slyly and went back around the house.
"Where are you going?" her sister loudly whispered after her.
"I have no use making eyes at a man I won't be needing to talk to. Come on," she waved her sister over.
        Aurnia followed but then brushed past her sister to get to the stable. It was Sorcha's turn to ask where she was going.
"There's animals in here to be tended to is there not?"
Yes, and a cow to be sold to a handsome young man. Sorcha thought, but followed her sister anyways. There wasn't much excitement their lives, they might as well enjoy this.
"Did you catch is name?" Aurnia asked.
"I couldn't hear anything over all your heavy breathing." She was going to get as much teasing out of this situation as she could. They had reached the sheep pen, where they kept their three recently acquired rams. Despite their massively curled horns the creatures were quite gentle.
        Aurnia didn't pay attention to the comment. "It sounded like it ended with "wyn" but I couldn't hear the beginning. I hope his name fits his looks, it's always terrible when names don't fit people. A tall, muscled man with brown hair and eyes must have a strong sounding name."
       Sorcha lead the rams out the back stable door. "How could you tell they were brown? He was too far off."
       "You could see that his eyes were dark."
       "Dark eyes don't mean brown. You and I should know that." Their gazes met each other, Aurnia's dark gray like a storm cloud, and Sorcha's dark blue and gray.
Before either could speak again, the two men walked in the barn. Aurnia jumped into the rams' pen, blocking herself from the handsome stranger's view.
"I should have worn my embroidered apron," she whispered. A funny sight she made, skirts tangled in the wood of the enclosure while she half squatted half leaned on the fence.
The handsome stranger spoke. "Mister, you did a disservice to this cow. She is almost twice the size you described. I will pay you almost double our original deal."
       Now that she could hear his voice, Sorcha could tell that he must be a traveler. His voice had a lilt to it that she had heard in the village when travelers from the southern moors came through.
"Get up," she told her sister in a low voice. She might want to tease her sister but she didn't want to draw the attention of the traveler to her in this embarrassing moment.
       As her sister managed to pull herself up, their father called Sorcha over. "Help Sir Durwyn take the cow to his horse while I tend to the calf."
       Sir? she thought. And before she could think,  "You're a knight!"
       Durwyn gave a hearty laugh at her shock and awe and replied, "Not quite. I'm to be knighted in a week, if all goes well. But 'Sir' is as proper of a title as any for me."
       A real life knight! Well she could die tomorrow with one of her greatest wishes fulfilled. There were never any knights that came to the village. She wanted to ask him a hundred questions but decided against it. No wonder he was overpaying for everything. He must not know what to do with all his new money.
       They walked in silence to his horse, Sorcha not having to do much as Sir Durwyn was strong enough to steer their cow on his own. But she tied her to his horse anyways. As he began to swing himself onto his saddle she decided against her better judgement to ask one question. "Which lord do you work for?"
       "The one in charge of all." He said and smiled.
       It took a second for Sorcha to understand his meaning. "The king?"
       Sir Durwyn nodded then changed the subject. "Are there any other male relatives, any relatives at all really, that you could ask to stay with? I've been hearing of strange things happening in neighboring towns."
       So that man in the forest was a robber!
       "Like bands of raiders?"
       "Unusual things. Raiders would make me feel better, I could handle those." He smiled to himself a bit smugly this time. "Stay away from the woods. And keep your father and sister nearby." He kicked and the horse went off.
      Aurnia approached her as she watched the knight ride off into the distance. "A real life knight. I can't believe it." Her sister sighed.  But Sorcha's mind was less occupied with what the man was and more with what he had said.
       "I more gallantly knight might not have left so abruptly." Was all she said. She debated on whether or not to tell her sister of his warning. What could possibly concern a knight that wasn't afraid of multiple robbers?

AN: thanks for reading! I know this is a really late update but I had lost inspiration towards the end of this chapter and well...you know. I don't know if I'll be continuing the story but at least have this.