Medrith; The Origin Of House Wollstone (PREVIEW)

chapter IV; lies

"Welcome to the Royal Court." A grumpy old man sat at a rectangle table. His face stayed firm, "We are here by the disappearance of Erin Moore and trespassing of Royal grounds." Samuel stood awkwardly, under the gaze of the Judge. "Who are our witnesses?"

A farmer stood, raising two fingers. "Aye, I seen 'em enter with my own eyes." He shared glances towards Samuel and the Judge. "'Den he didn't come back out with the lass. He was bloodied." the man squinted his eyes, seemingly out of place.

"How did he come across being bloody, ser?" The Judge directly asked the old man. "He killed her!" he exclaimed, throwing his fist into the air. The crowd gasped, along with Samuel. "I would never. Liar!" Samuel screamed, clenching his fists. "That's enough. Next!" The Judge raised a hand, signalling the next witness.

Penny and her father stood up, giving a nod. "I found the lad unconscious and beat up by those poisonous needles. Seemed unable to kill someone, or even remotely move." Samuel's heart beat started to slow down, as well as his blood stopped boiling.

Samuel had no say in what they said, whether they accused him or not. He could've only told his side of the story. With his head buried down deep into the palms of his hands, he was shook back to reality by his father's hand. His head rose, with tired eyes.

"We hereby find you innocent in the disappearance of Erin Moore, but guilty of the trespassing on Royal land." he came to a pause, "We, the Royal Court, ask of you and your family to resign your citizenship." A wooden hammer was slammed onto the table, signifying the court meeting was over.

Samuel sat there, embarrassed and unable to move. Daneil sighed, looking at his wife and son. "We'll find a better life somewhere else." he assured. "What about your Guard position? They can't take that from you!" Amelie cried. "Quite frankly, the King can. He's never liked me anyway." Daneil shrugged, picking Sam up by the shoulder. He practically dragged Samuel out the door and to the city.

Daneil dropped Samuel off in the front of the Gatehouse as he entered the Guardrooms with his armor in hand. Sam wondered off into the training yard, leaning over to pick up a knife from the ground. Throwing it with massive force and anger, the knife soared through the open, nearly hitting the red target and landed on the faint yellow paint circling the bulls-eye.

"Shit." Samuel grunted, throwing another. A laugh crackled behind him, "You think Sommerguard will have hot Dwarf ladies?" Recognizing the voice, Samuel ignores the comment. "You are going to Sommerguard, right?" His fat face scrunched up.

"I don't know, Creak." Sam shrugged.

"That's shite." Creak snorted.

"Tell me about it." Sam grunted, throwing another dagger, finally, hitting the target from built up anger, frustration and the terrible images that Creak had put into his head. He smiled, finally feeling accomplished.

The two turned to start walking up and down the bridge connecting Mendwell and the surrounding towns. Leaning over to pick up a rock, Samuel tosses it into the stream. Daneil waved them down, slowing down into a jog.

"Well- we're all set." He nodded towards Sam. "How's some hunting sound? We'll need the food for tomorrows trip." He held up some arrows and bows, handing one to his son. Creak beamed at the thought, before Daneil could reply, "Father and son time I mean." He turned, patting Creak on the shoulder. Creak nodded, "Aye- uh, right. Good luck."

Creak waddled off as Daneil and Sam started nearing the edge of the Country's mines. Already, his father sights a target. He grabs his son by the arm and races towards the animal. "Ready your bow." He suggests, gripping onto his. Pulling the arrow back, and ready to fire, he squints as he focuses.

Samuel's eyes wandered, slowly reading his weapon, he lowers it. Noticing another target, he aims at that instead. Before he could shoot, the fawn trotted away. "Shit." He sighed. Besides him, Daneil let's go, the feathered arrow soared through the sky with the slight sound of cutting breeze, the sharp edges quickly started tearing into the deer.

Proud of himself, Daneil smirks, showing off his skills to his son. They push themselves off the ground and walked to the killed doe, ripping the arrow back out. Daneil started cleaning it off and reached back to place it into his quiver.

"Grab the hooves." He said, taking the neck by his hands. They began dragging the body carefully to their resting spot. Samuel grimaces, wiping his hands off. His eye quickly caught a glance of a larger figure near the trees. He signals his father to lower himself to be given the chance to take a shot. Same took out his bow and aims. One eye open and the other squinted, he focuses on the sight a yard away.

It was big to the point it had pushed back a majority of the branches, snapping them like twigs. "Father." he whispered. They both snapped their heads back, face to face with a bear-like animal standing on it's back hind legs. Dark and patchy fur that was tussled and knotted. The snout was of a wolfs', only bigger and wider.

"What is that?" Sam breathed out, feeling as if he couldn't breathe as it is. His father was loss for words, shaking his head, "We need to go." One simple movement was made, triggering the beast. It sneered, pushing it's back legs into a pounce, sprinting twice the speed of a horse. Panic rushed in, the two stumbled and rushed back to the city. The sound of loud thumping was heard behind, which had only made them run faster.

The thumping of gigantic padded feet followed behind, putting the two into full panic mode. "Fuck!" Daneil screamed, almost out of breathe, he managed to take hold of his son's sleeve and raced to the other side of the City gates; luckily being unlocked. Sam hesitated to keep running before taking a quick glimpse of the creature running towards them.

It's body slammed into the steel gates nearly denting the bars. It stood high on it's back hind legs and began to let out a ragid howl before sprinting back off into the woods. Daneil took hold of his son and dragged him behind, "C'mon!" He huffed.

Not being able to process the very moment that had just happened before them, they trample over the crowded market in a rush to the Guard Quarter's. "Watch it-!" A lady purged. Stumbling and stuttering a low, 'Sorry', Sam started to hyperventilate.

Bursting through the Quarters door, Daneil let go of his son. "I need to send a message to the King." His voice echoed, stopping everyone in their tracks. The clunking and clinking of chain mail had paused.

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A/N

This Chapter has been edited, so the comments might not add up or make sense as for they were referring to the old version of the story!