Prologue
The Duke sat in his chair drinking a nice cup of wine when one of his gaurds came in. The gaurd looked paniced, but the Duke didn't care.
"What did Itell you about coming into my room at this time?" Said the Duke a bit annoyed.
"I know sir, but-"
"SILENCE! Now leave me be! I don't care that the townsfolk are complaining with their pitchforks. Just to out and kill a few like we always do." Yelled the Duke. He didn't want his wine time to be disturbed. The gaurd was shaking now, but he wasn't leaving. That meant it wasn't the townsfolk.
"But sir, theres a man in a cloak that says he wishes to speak to you."
The Duke almost laughed out loud. Then again, he was in a foul mood so he would drive off this hooligan himself.
"Fine. Give me a minute and I'll go out and see him."
The gaurd nodded and left. The duke got up and looked in his mirror. He looked at his own strong jaw, his perfect teeth, his big muscular body, his long brown hair, dark brown eyes and finally at his bent and crooked nose. He hated his nose, all it did was remind him of that fool that chalenged him. The duke sighed and put on a tunic, pants and strapped on the sword the king had given him as a sign of his position.
He walked out of his room and onto his balcony to look at the man who had ruined his peaceful wine sipping. The man was completely covered by his green cloak, the hood also completely covering his face. The only feature you could see of him was the his sword made a dent in the back of the cloak.
"Good evening my Duke!" Called the man in the cloak. He had a deep voice that sounded right next to him even though he was three stories down.
"What is your buisness here?" Asked the Duke. He had lost his playing mood. He already knew that no matter what the man said he was going to send gaurds down to kill him.
"Well, rumor has it my Duke, that you and every single person the king has appointed are abusing power in his absence." Said the clokaed man calmly. The Duke lauhed out loud.
"What nonsense! How dare you accuse me of being treacherous. Gaurds! Kill him!"
The two gaurds at the front gate drew their sword and charged him. The cloaked man drew his sword and blocked one of the gaurds slashes and punched the other one in the face. Th guard that was punched slightly losened his grip on his sword a tiny bit and suddenly it was in the cloaked mans hand. He stabbed the gaurd and spun his sword, not the gaurds, around in a circle making the remaining gaurd stumble back. He stabbed the gaurd through the stomach as he was stumbling and looked up at the Duke.
"Now that wasn't very nice. I didn't even tell you I was here to kill you yet. Oh well looks like the fun starts here." The cloaked man opened the doors and walked in. The Duke almost laughed again. No single man could take one his army. He went into his room and rang the bell of alarm. All the gaurds in his castle would soon be there to kill the cloaked man. No matter how skilled the man was with a sword, one man can't take down an entire army.
The Duke walked back to his seat and turned his chair facing away from the door as he drank his wine. Not ten minutes later he heard the doors creak open. The Duke didn't turn around and simply said to his gaurd. "So the deed is done then?"
"Oh yes, but not in the way you'd expect it." Replied the cloaked mans voice. The Duke spun around his chair and looked into the darkness on the hood.
"Impossible! You cant have beaten my entire army so fast!" Yelled the Duke.
"Oh I didn't kill all of them, some of them are moaning in pain on the floor." Said the cloaked man tauntingly. This angered the Duke and he drew his sword, the sign of his position.
"You may have been able to beat my fool gaurds, but I'm a swordsman far above any of them!" Yelled the Duke as he charged at the man. The man simply threw down the second sword he had grabbed from gaurd at the gate and easily blocked the attack from the Duke.
"So I've heard. Then again you aren't a world class swordsman as I am." Said the cloaked man, still not showing his features. The Duke pushed the cloaked man back with such force his hood fell off. It revealed a man with steel blue eyes, dark brown hair, and a cruel smile.
"Well since the hood's off might as well take the whole cloak off. All its been doing is getting in the way." Said the man as he threw off his cloak. It revealed a body about as big as his, but with a combination of perfect trained muscle and the thick slabs you get from hard physical labor. He was wearing regular brown pants, a cheap pair of brown boots and a plain white shirt. The Duke thought this man looked framilar, but he couldn't tell from where.
The Duke also took this time to nice he was wearing gloves that had pieces of metal the were fitted around his knuckles. The gloves had the top cut off revealing the bare skin of half of his fingers. He moved on from the gloves to the his sword. The mans sword had a hilt with a grip made of white leather, the base had a ruby about the size of one of the dukes rings, that went up to a dark red colored blade. He thought he had heard some rumors about a red sworded warrior elsehwhere, but he couldn't remember them. The man stared him down while he was taking it in.
"Recognize me yet? Some people call me the Damian, others call me Jaques, but most call me the Holy Dread Knight." Said the man.
The Duke almost foze once heard that. The Holy Dread Knight? Impossible! Thought the Duke to himself. The man wasted no time and moved what seemed to be faster than humanly possible and stabbed the Duke in the stomach. The Duke fell and his sword was flung from his reach. Damian walked up to him and said quitely,
"Your judgement has been passed." Damian cut off the Dukes head, walked over to the Duke's sword and picked it up. Then walked out of the castle and left to go back to his hut untill he had enough information to kill everyone the king had appointed in his absence. All 15 of them were corrupt and abusing their power, and he would not stop untill they were all dead.
The Story Begins
Lennart had finally arrived at his home town. It had been nearly ten years when he left to become a great swordsman. His father, the Duke, wasn't always a nice person, but when Lennart was there he had always been able to make sure the Duke did things for the townfolk. It seemed in Lennarts absence the Duke had gone back to completely ignoring the people. The town had gone from being semi-neat looking and prosperous town to a raggedy, poor looking town. The castle too had seemed to become more distant and sinister looking.
Lennart walked into town and went straight to the town pub. The pubmaster didn't seem to recognize him and looked at him like he was looking at the first meal in a long time. The pubmaster was about 5'11". Je used to have the strong muscle that came from pysical labor, he used to be a farmer before a pubmaster, but almost all of it seemed to be gone now and it looked as though he hadn't had a decent meal in over a year. His once dark brown hair had silver patches in it, his once powerfully strong brown eyes had dwindled and withered.
"Why hello the adventurer, you seem to be lost. How about you stay here at my inn for the night, only 15 silver coins." Said the pubmaster optimistically.
"Renalt don't you recognize me? It's me, Lennart." Said Lennart with a bit of triumph in his voice. He had told everyone in the town, but no one in the castle, that he would come home when he had mastered swordsmanship. The truimph that Lennart had was shattered when a grim look came over Renalt's face.
"My, you've grown. Lennart, theres something we have to discuss. Follow me into the back." Renalt opened the door behind the counter and left it open for Lennart to follow. Lennart hopped over the counter and followed him in. The room was small, only having barely enough space for the two to fit in with all the stuff Renalt had crammed in there. This was essentially his storage room, he only brought people in here to discuss things he wanted no one else to hear. Renalt closed the door behind Lennart and stared him in the eyes, a serious look over taking them.
"Lennart, this towen has gone down to the pits, The day after you left the Duke shut himself in his castle with his gaurds. Sometimes the town would go up and try to get him to come and help us with our problems, but he would send out his gaurds to come drive us back home."
"What!? Thats madness, I must talk to him right away." Said Lennart concerned for the town he loved.
"Wait!" Said Renalt grabbing onto Lennart's arm making him stop.
"Thats not all there is to the story. Over time we were forced to rebel, many were killed, but thats not why I summoned you back here." Said Renalt his gaze getting more and more grave with each word.
"If thats not it then what else could there be?" Said Lennart almost yelling.
"What i dragged you into this musty old room to tell you, my dear friend, is that last week a swordmans came to town. He said he would help us with our problem with the Duke so we gladly gave him shelter for the night. The next day he went up to the castle, not two hours after he went up he came back down and said our Duke problems were over. We gathered a group of the strongest remaining people to go up, myself included. We went up only to see that every gaurd in the castle had been slaughtered. We ran up to the Duke's room to see that he had been deheaded, probably by the warrior we gladly let into our town." Lennart almost froze when he heard it. My father .... Is dead? He couldn't imagine a life with out his father. It didn't matter that his father was a cruel person, he was still his father.
"But thats not the worst part, my lord." Added Renalt.
"What could be worse than the news that my own fatrher is dead?" Said Lennart in whisper.
"The sword that you would inherit as a title to you position, is missing. The warrior probably took it after beheading your father." Said Renalt.
"But that means that I can't right all the things my father has done wrong." He shouted.
"I've got to go after this warrior. Whatwas his name?" Said Lennart determinedly.
"He didn't give us a name, but please Lennart, stay here for the night. If you still want to go after him in the morning, I'll tell you everything I know." Said Renalt with a little bit of worry in his voice. Lennart stared him down for a second, but soon gave up.
"Fine ..... I'll be staying in my usual room." He said softly. He opened the door, hopped the counter and walked up to his usual room before he left. He layed down his bag and layed on the bed. I can't believe my father is dead. He said in his head. He sat up on his bed and looked at himself in the mirror. He was wearing regular farmers clothes, with a sword nelt around his waist. He looked deep into his dark blue eyes. He had gotten them from his mother. She had died nearly 25 years ago, when he was five. That was the beginning of his father becoming cold and heartless. His gave went around his face showing that he looked much like his father, except he was unshaven and his nose wasn't broken. His hair was as dark brown as his fathers.
He took off his sword belt and laid it down next to his bed. He stared at the roof and thought. I'm going to get this man, not for revenge, but to get the sword. I'm going to get that sword and repair what damage has been done to this town. Was his last thought before he fell asleep.
***
Lennart woke early the next morning shaking and sweating. He couldn't even remember the dream anymore, but he knew it had scared him witless. He took a few minutes to realize his sword was on its belt next to the bed and he was under the covers. Renalt must have snuck in after I went to sleep. He thought. He got up and put on his sword. There was nothing special about his sword. He had intended to wear the one the king gave his father when it was his time to lead. He went down and saw the Renalt had put the breakfast on the dining table for him. He sat down and ate it. He almost let out a moan of how good it was. Lennart hadn't eaten a homecooked meal since he set off for swordsmanship training.
"Your up earlier than i thought you would be." Commented Renalt as he passed by with his own plate in hand.
"I had a nightmare. I don'tremember it though." Said Lennart. He finished his meal and waited for Renalt to finish eating too.
"So what's your answer?" Asked Renalt.
"I'm going to go after him." Lennart said confidently. Renalt had let out a deep sigh at the way Lennart had said it.
"Alright. The town doesn't really know much about the warrior. He locked his door when he stayed here for a night. All we could tell you is that he had a dark red sword." Said Renalt calmly. Lennart had heard stories about the red sworded warrior. He was called the Holy Dread Knight. He got this name by doing things for both sides. He would start out doing things that would benefit the people, but then end up backstabbing them or vice versa.
"I packed you a bag. It's by the door. Its got enough food to last you about three weeks, in case you don't visit a town by then." Said Renalt.
"Thank you, Renalt. If I'm not back in ten years elect someone else to be in control." Said Lennart as he stood up and walked out grabbing the bag on the way out. He walked untill he was out of the town slowly going up the large hill infront of town. He looked at the tree he had stood at just yesterday feeling happy to finally be home. He noticed that there was a figure under the tree. As he got closer he heard music coming from the figure he soon cam to recognize as human. He walked up to the tree seeing the man. He had long blonde hair the flowed over one of his eyes and was partly covered in a brown hat with a single white feather in it. He was wearing a shirt that was tannish in one half of it, but reddish in the other half. At his waist there was a sword belt. He had two brown gloves on but on his left hand the tips of the gloves were cut off, showing his fingers, so he could play his guitar. The mysterious man kept playing his guitar, which was shaped in a heart with two knecks at the end of each hump of the heart, but only one of the knecks had strings that went over a hole. The man looked up at Lennart showing his bright green eyes.
"Leaving already? But you just got back." Said the man casually. Lennart looked at the man in confusion.
"Who are you? And who are you to judge my desicions?" Asked Lennart almost angrily.
"Names are of no importance, just call me The Minstrel. To answer your question, don' you think your town needs you more than you need that sword to prove who you are?" Said the Minstrel casually. How does he know about the sword? Whats with this guy? Lennart thought furiously.
"No! WIth out the sword I can't help this town! Don't you see that!" He almost yelled at him. The Minstrel simply shrugged and stood up.
"Whatever you say, my young Duke." The Minstrel the turned and walked into town. Lennart wanted to run after him and ask questions, but he had no time for that. He did stare as he walked away, but soon turned around and walked into the sun rise.
