Bringer of Winter- a M/M/M Epic Fantasy Romance

12- Games and Battles

KHIFF—

Just as the sky began to lighten into predawn gray, I was woken by loud banging on our door and a yell for us to wake. I sat up groggily and began to numbly tie my new boots onto my feet, the arm guards onto my wrists, and throw my tunic over my shoulders.

Once we were outside, Tye led Ryker and me through a series of obviously familiar morning rituals. We ate what was left over of the soup from the night before, and were forced by Tye to drink copious amounts of water— his constant repeats of, "More water, more water," said while he himself chugged it down. Then we were shuffled in a line of maybe another thirty men to the front of the manor, and led by men with heavy weapons on horses out of the gate and down the street.

We were pushed into a march through the quiet streets of a still-sleeping city for a mile before we came upon a huge stone wall. A doorway opened as we approached it, and we were herded inside and left in a dark room, with walls lined with steel and wood. I could see weapons of every shape, size, and design. There were swords, daggers, crossbows, spears, even some sickles and a farm hoe.

Despite the rest of the men taking their time, sitting on the few benches in the tightly packed room to rest, and acting as if we had plenty of time before anything was to happen, Ryker immediately gripped a heavy sword and a small dirk, and came over to me. The sword he stuck into the dirt at his feet and the dirk he held in front of him, motioning for me to kneel at his feet.

"I will cut your hair."

I nodded and knelt, letting him sheer the locks from my head without any sound. He protected me, I was his happiness and his life, and if he thought this best I would not fight him on it. When he finished and my hair only hung to my chin, I could feel him begin to braid the fallen beads back into my tangled hair, then the gryphon feather, and finally I stood and pushed him onto the empty bench near us.

"Tye said we will fight. Let's prepare as we would for a battle or a raid," I said, unbraiding and then re-braiding Ryker's light blonde hair the way he had done to mine.

"Yes," he answered, his voice gravelly and deep as my fingers massaged across his head.

Tye sat on a bench near us, a set of two daggers on his lap. He watched us, his face expressionless, studious.

"Are you afraid, Khif?" Ryker whispered, and I shrugged although he couldn't see me.

"Yes," I answered truthfully. "Mostly, I am afraid of the unknown. This is not a raid, it is not a battle. I do not know what to expect."

"We will expect the unexpected, and this way we will survive."

"Yes."

"What are you talking about?" Tye was genuinely curious, and I felt no ill-intent from him. I looked up from Ryker's hair and smiled.

"Ryker and Khif speak of... the fight. Ryker and Khif..." I paused, wracking my brain for the right word, and then sighed. My head already hurt from trying to speak Nelek so much that morning, and the sun hadn't even risen halfway through the sky. "Wonder... terenia'a hie... I think wonder right word... Ryker and Khif wonder what means fight? Fight means battle? Fight means tala?" I was at a loss to translate the word 'raid', so I didn't even try. "Ryker and Khif wonder. So ready. So fight."

"You don't have to say your names each time. It's 'we.'"

"We?"

"Yes. Ryker and Khif are 'we.' 'We wonder.'"

"We means tuo?" I held up two fingers, and Tye nodded.

"Two, or more. Yes."

"Ah. Hie, we wonder."