The Dragon Witch's Taint- a fantasy/medieval SandersSides au

~Chapter 1~

Uh, sorry it's been a while. So,here take the chapter-

Tw: Implied past death, weapon (shortsword), let me know if I missed anything.
    ~Fourteen years later~

Sitting on a gnarled tree stump outside the small but cosy cottage he was raised in, Roman polished the blade of his short sword, admiring it as it gleamed in the morning sun above him. A boy of eight ran over to him, a piece of parchment clutched to his chest tightly, stumbling over loose stones in the rough ground. Roman smiled fondly as the boy approached, as he knew him well. The boy's name was Camden and people around the village often gave him messages written on parchment to deliver in exchange for food or coins.

Camden came to a halt in front of Roman, grinning as he handed him the parchment. Roman unrolled and read it thoroughly and then nodded, reaching into his pocket to give Camden a few coins. He took the coins eagerly, his youthful face alight with joy. "Thanks Roman! You're the best!" He exclaimed loudly.
"Tell me something I don't know!" Roman joked, ruffling Camden's hair. Quickly thanking him one more time, Camden waved goodbye and ran deeper into the village.

Once Camden was out of sight, Roman re-read the parchment.

Dear Roman,

I request your presence at the training grounds immediately so that your training may continue.

With regards, Sir Thomas

Rolling the parchment back up, Roman stood up and started walking in the direction of the training grounds - a field set up with straw dummies and targets for knights-in-training. He had dreamed of being a knight (like his Father was) since he was small; he had believed it a dream come true when a well-known knight named Sir Thomas had offered to train him.

Strolling through the village to the training grounds, he spotted the village's healer sat with some young children, most likely telling them jokes from the way both the children and the healer himself were giggling.
Roman noticed Camden sat near the back of the children and felt his heart lift at the sight of the young boy's happiness. Deciding not to interrupt the healer's jokes, he continued to walk onwards.
He soon spotted the twins, Sebastian and Drake, talking to a girl he vaguely recalled being named Martha. She seemed to be flirting with them both as both of the twins were blushing profusely and looked equally flustered. Roman waved at them but they failed to notice him, too focused on Martha. He scoffed, offended that they ignored him before holding his head up high and continuing to walk through the village.

[Time skip brought to you by the fact that I ran out of ideas of what to write here]

Once he arrived at the training grounds, Roman spotted Sir Thomas and approached him eagerly.
"Greetings Sir Thomas, I received your message so here I am!" He said, grinning.
Thomas returned the smile "And greetings to you, Roman. I have to warn you, today's task will test all of the skills I've taught you and if you are successful, will earn you plenty of respect from the rest of the village."
"This sounds intriguing! And fear not, Sir Thomas, for no matter how hard the task may be, I will do the absolute most I can to achieve it!" Roman replied, his voice dripping with enthusiasm.
"I'm glad to hear that," Sir Thomas continued "There are rumours that a criminal is living in the forest. A select few claim to have seen him slipping out of the forest at the dead of night. Rumour goes that the criminal breaks into people's houses and he steals from them as they slumber. This has led to the criminal being known as 'Sleep'. Your task Roman, is to go into the forest and look for evidence of the criminal's existence. If you find them, come straight back here and let me know so we can go back into the forest and apprehend the criminal together,"
Roman nodded. "I won't let you down, Sir Thomas!" He called as he ran off into the forest, grinning like mad.

A/N I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the next chapter is written, it just needs a lot of editing.