In the weapon room for the Knights, Paladins, and other type of fighters that were housed in Edonia, Commander Wilton finished putting on his suit of armor and strapping his sword hilt to his waist and walking through the hall filled with his men. His eyes went from man to man, smiling at the team of well trained soldiers he had before him.
“Let’s go men.” he called out. “The king won’t like it if his trusted team is late for this mission.”
The men then rushed out the front door, Commander Wilton smiled at them with enthusiasm before turning to see Mikal sitting with his head down and a wide smile on his face. He walked over to his new member and sat next to him, facing in the opposite direction.
“Everyone else has already left for this mission, Angelheart.” he softly announced, turning to see Mikal lifting his head. “I say we go join them.”
Mikal smiled at his commander’s words. He stood up and and sheathed his sword and turned to him with a face full of determination.
“Let’s go, Commander.”
*****
Riding through the main walkway to the gates that separated Kremvor from the outer lands, Wilton and his men slowly came to the gates and waited for them to be opened. Around them, a large group of the townsfolk stood and watched as the soldiers stood in silence. Mikal, looked around at the ground. He wasn’t the one for being the center of attention, but this time felt more special to him. He took an oath to protect the people and smiled confidently patted his sword once. His eyes then found one person amongst the crowd that looked back at him with adorning eyes. Lilian stared at her husband in a suit of armor and pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. She blew a kiss his way to which he held his hand out and grabbed it and held it towards his chest. With the sound of gears turning and metal creaking, Mikal moved his head forward and watched as the gateway to his new life begins to slowly open.
“Alright men, this is the start of our new mission in a long time. Let’s go out and begin our adventure for our king.”
A roar of cheering and excitement came from the crowd and the team of fighters as the gate fully opened and the horses were released with the men on top of them. They went into the unknown and headed straight for Helmlond.
In the Blackwood Forest, Commander Wilton’s team slowed the horses down a bit as their destination was closing in. Wilton told them all that first they had to find a sorceress by the name of Natashi Aomi who has supplied soldiers with potions of healing and other helpful mixtures. Once they found the small hut in the woods, they all stopped and in front of the house and got off the horses. The hut was a soft brown color with bricks on the roof and one window in front where three different sizes of bottles could be found sitting in the window seal. After tying his horse reins to a nearby tree, Wilton walked over to Mikal and patted his shoulder.
“Hey, I’m gonna need your help.” he said.
“Sure Commander, what do you need?”
“Ms. Aomi will create a couple of health potions for us and she tends to make more than needed. Gonna need another pair of hands to carry them.”
They both began walking towards the front of the sorceress’ home before Wilton knocked on the door and waiting for his good friend to answer.
“How much she tends to make?” Mikal questioned.
“Well, there’s a dozen men here,” he took a while before answering again. “About two to three dozen.”
Mikal’s eyes were wide open before Natashi opened the door slowly opened. Standing in front of the two men was a middle aged looking woman with deep red hair that flowed over her shoulders and yellow colored eyes. She wore a green colored dress that was blended with golden specks embedded in the dress that led all the way down to black frills that ended near her purple colored heels. Her tanned brown skin was untouched except for a rose mark was drawn on her left cheek on her face.
“Hello, Ms. Aomi.” Wilton greeted, taking his helmet off and holding it at his hips.
“Well, if it isn’t my good friend Wilton Morrison.” Natashi smiled and walked up to him, taking his hand and rubbing it softly. “To what is the honor of your visit?”
“King Windor is back to assigning missions for his men to go into Mejor. Our first assigning is in Helmlond to look into a bunch of events that might be gang related.”
Natashi smiled and nodded, moving aside to let them in and closing the door as she went over to a giant bowl of red liquid and another bowl of green liquid and a smaller one of blue liquid. Mikal looked around the small house that seemed to have a lot of essentials that Natashi needed. He saw spell books, a basket full of unknown crystals, and many other ingredients that seemed needed for what she would do in this hut. While Mikal looked around, Wilton and Natashi helped each other put the potions in the bottles and place them all in a sack to carry out.
“So, who is the new Knight?” Natashi asked, setting her eyes on Mikal who turned to see her.
“That is the newest addition to my ranks, his name is Mikal Angelheart, a natural born fighter.” Wilton introduced the dark skinned knight. Natashi eyes narrowed as she suddenly teleported right in front of him, causing him to jump a bit from her actions. Wilton chuckled a bit and continued bagging the left over potions and then tying the sack up.
“How did he get in your ranks, Mr. Morrison?” Natashi asked while eyeing the knight up and down.
“By the report of another commander,” he hoisted the bag over his shoulder and walked over to them. “He slayed three Orcs by himself during an invasion. I couldn’t believe my ears, but during practice a few days back, i believed it was true. The boy is outstanding in sword fighting.”
“Thank you for the compliments, Commander Wilton.” Mikal smiled in reaction to those words. His eyes were then filled with the sorceress before him as she stood on her toes, closer to his face.
“Well then, maybe i have to keep you around. I could use a strong guard for a little amusement around here.” she said with a knowingly smile.
“Amusement?” Mikal questioned before looking over at Morrison. “What does she mean by that?”
“Well, in some instances, a couple of bandits would raid solo potion sellers. They would raid her hut when she’s away and swipe all of her goods.” he said sorrowfully.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” Mikal spoke apologetically.
“Commander,” a man came in, saluting to Wilton. “The horses are all rested up and we are ready to start moving again.”
“Good, tell the men to get ready to move out again.”
Wilton and the other knight walked out while Mikal stayed with the woman and gave her a friendly smile before going over to the door with her.
“You’re going to be stationed in Helmlond, right?” Natashi asked hopefully.
“Yeah, how come?” Mikal asked, turning around.
“Could you come and check up on me from time to time?” Mikal looked at her as her hands fidgeted. “I haven’t had protection in a long time, so i rarely go out because of all my essentials being stolen.”
Mikal smiled and put his helmet on. Climbing on his brown stallion, he walked over to her and looked at through his helmet visor to which she looked back as well.
“You can count on it.”
He then took off and behind his colleagues quickly as they left for Helmlond, leaving Natashi standing and smiling the words of her new protector.
“You’re taking that oath pretty seriously Mikal.”
Mikal looked over to a Paladin. He couldn’t tell of his features, but by the sound of his voice, he could that he was a bit younger than Mikal was.
“Yes i do. This is my new life now, so I have to take this oath seriously and show what i stand for.”
“Well, you sure sound confident.” the paladin held his hand out. “The name is Lukas Shieldhart, I can tell it’s gonna be fun and exciting fighting alongside you Mikal.”
The two shook hands they came towards a large wooden gate and two guards on either end. Both was in chain link armor and held a spear. One of them walked up and held his hand out to stop the approaching team.
“Halt! Where do you come from?” he demanded.
“We come from Kremvor, under his majesty King Hiyadus Windor to help with the problems in Helmlond.”
Both of the guards nod and push the gates open as they advance forward. They eye each knight and paladin as well as the commander as they enter the city and gain a good amount of eyes looking at them. Coming up to the town circle, a red-headed woman with a toothy grin and heavier armor than that of a knight stood with a dozen helpers behind her.
“Hey, over here!” she called out, waving to the group as they came up and stopped with everyone getting off their horses and walking up. “Welcome to Helmlond. I was actually getting tired of waiting.”
“Sorry, had to stop by somewhere.” Wilton spoke to the lady with fiery orange hair.
“Sure you brought enough men?” she asked, pointing to the number of men that looked around at themselves and then cut off by her laughter. “Whatever, the more the merrier. Come, I’ll show you all to your quarters.”
And with that Wilton and his men followed behind her with the rest of the men taking their horses to nearby stable.
Reaching a large brick and cobblestone building, the leading woman presented them to a room with a long square table that was centered in the middle. Four men stood on both sides of it while one single young lady wearing noble looking robes stood at the far end. Her hair was a solid black with grey colored eyes and white colored skin.
“This is Lady Sitau, the mayor that overlooks Helmlond.” the lady said, walking the team in.
“I suspect you are from the graces of King Windor?” Sitau asked.
“Yes we are, Ma’am.” Wilton said, and bowed respectfully.
“Oh, and this is my greatest fighter I have in all of Helmlond, Althia Mayflower.”
“At your service.” she proudly saluted.
“Now, down to business. I had a few foot soldiers from Althia’s team and had them search around. They found out it was from a notorious group of people that have given me problems ever since i founded Helmlond.” Sitau said with anger through gritted teeth.
“Who?” Mikal asked.
“The Smoke Dagger Clan.”
