The Fog of Battle

The Fog of Battle: Chapter 1

(Author's Note, Please Read Before the Story: Thank you for reading The Fog of Battle, this means a lot to me as it is my very first novel and any reads would be appreciated, on the fact that this is my first novel, this is probably going to be very rough so I would appreciate any constructive criticism on my works and what I could do in the future. Once again, thank you. This story will be updated weekly with a new chapter so it won't all be out at once.)

Geoffrey Bennett was born into the city of Lagery, France; to a pair of unmarried parents, which would not only make him illegitemite, but would also prove him to be a bastard. The winter months were bad times for children to be born, death by the cold was relatively common throughout the time; but it seemed as if luck was on the newborns side, he stayed in relatively good health throughout the entire year. His birth had been a bad omen for his father who was one of the Temple Masters, of the branch of the Knights Templar that was within his city. All Templars were forced to take a vow of celibacy and breaking it was bound to get the offender banished from the Temple. Along with the mishaps of banishment and illegitimate children, Geoffrey was born near the end of the very first Crusade, that Pope Urban II had set into motion; which would lead to a cycle of multiple other crusades.

The City of Lagery had been rather popular with Christians of the time, as Pope Urban II had been born there and did most of his biding in that city. Trees appeared to consistently sway back and forth, even when there was a lack of wind. Footsteps would regularly echo while ontop of the loose cobblestone paths of the streets of the city, stones rolling underneath the feet of children as they would run and play; but those were mainly the nobles and those of higher class. In the city square, bundles of burnt wood and ash lay in large square piles. Among the remains, if one dug around, they could find bones that had been scarred with flame, black with ash and soot. To most of the peasants, it was almost a daily occurrence for pagens, witches, and heretics to be burned at the stake for heinous crimes against the church.

The residence of Geoffrey was small even for people of the time, him living with his ex-templar father and his mother who just worked their house

The year of 1099 was very harsh for the city of Lagery, long and tireless winters and; short and arid summers. This proved tough for anyone to live in let alone a newborn child, but through caution and perseverance Geoffrey would be able to survive with only minimal help from religious practices and other extreme methods like draining the body of any of its four humorous. This included blood letting and attempting to release the body of any yellow and black bile. Sickness usually plagued children of the time and it was relentless, so when young Geoffrey had yet to catch any in his so far short and almost meaningless life, a faint hope spread between his family; it was as if God blessed him from birth to be a great man and to apparently be more appreciated than others of his time.

A man with the name of Philippe de Sablé, or as he was known within the Temple "brother," was the father of Geoffrey, his father was a well respected man within and outside of his Templar duties, him always being willing to help and protect his fellow citizens. His mother had the name of Ava Bennett and she lived a simple and content life even though her son was a bastard, and somewhat shunned from most other groups because of that. Her living situation mainly consisted of cooking and cleaning around the house, nothing majorly important. Along with those duties she would also pray and read from the Bible as often as she could; the downtime that plagued her life was completely devoted to God and her prayers, it wasn't odd for outsiders who didn't know her, to assume of her a nun.

Geoffrey had reached the fine age of 6 when he first began learning how to hunt and fire a bow that was much larger than himself. This was all done by his father, who along with teaching him how to hunt, also taught him other vital skill for being a soldier; like how to properly ride a horse, scavenge for food, and the multiple ways to build a fire whenever it is needed.