The Tales of Miriela: Shadowborn

Chapter 24: Edward Reed

The bright red juice of a ripe tomato trickled towards his chin. Edward Reed wiped his face clean with the back of his hand. The hunt was not a place for manners or royal gestures. The hunt was a place for men, for blood and for death, for nourishment and for life. It was where the nobles and commoners alike, came to spill blood, to take life so that they may also preserve it.

There were many hunts throughout the year, but this was the Great Hunt. It was a tradition. For years the men of Kessex all joined on a single hunt. It started many years ago, and had continued year after year. Every man of Kessex knew the tale. And each time he took to the Great Hunt, Edward Reed heard the words of that story in his mind. It was important to him, too much so to forget. So, like a prayer, he recited it with each meal he ate.

There was a time, years ago, when the people of Kessex were starving and their crops could not sustain the needs of the people. King Eldmire Reed decided that the farming people of Kessex would need to learn to hunt the beasts that roamed in the woods to the North. The people of Kessex feared the woods greatly. Tales of bears the size of three men, and birds as large as a horse, had kept the commoners from venturing near the wood. They kept to farming the fields instead.

But King Eldmire knew that the rains had stopped, and his people would not live from their crops alone. So, he called every man able and lead them North into the wood. They searched the wood, but saw no sign of any game at all. For two days they continued the search East towards the coast of the Farsea.

They came upon the marshy lands of a swamp, where they learned the stories, they feared were indeed true. Many men were killed by the swamp's beats, but they did what had to be done, in order to keep their people alive. They hunted the bears from the trees and shot down the birds in flight. Though many men were lost in their efforts.

From one hunt, they brought back enough meat to feed their people for an entire winter. And every year after the people returned, led by their King for the Great Hunt, in the Eldwood, at the Bearlund Swamp.

Edward's mind returned to his meal as conversation ensued.

"It won't be long until Briggston will join us. His eighteenth nameday is not far off, is it? I suppose that next year's Great Hunt he'll join us in the Eldwood," Said Lord Egelman. He sat at a table with Ingram Histan, head of House Histan, and Edward Reed, former King of Kessex. They ate breakfast, in their tent, as they prepared for the hunt at Bearlund Swamp. It was early morning as the men readied themselves.

"Indeed, he will," Edward said, somewhat surprised. To him, Briggston was still a young boy, he could hardly believe that his son was already soon to join the hunt as a man.

Being in the Eldwood reminded Edward of the Great War, when the Great Hunt had stopped. The Estern Army occupied the woods, giving it the name of Canstein, named after an Estern Commander. While this was how the rest of Miriela now referred to the woods, Kessex would never forget King Eldmire. The sacred Eldwood would never be given the name of a foreign commander.

"Is he ready?" Lord Histan asked.

"He better be, Ingram. Boy is eighteen, you and I were splitting skulls by that age. Surely, we can teach him to take down a bear or two," Lord Egelman said, as he ate. His voice was as rough as the brown beard that covered his face.

"He'll be fine. We haven't lost a man on a hunt in years. If there's anything the men of Kessex know, it's how to kill a bear. Briggston is no warrior, but he will be a hunter, it's in his blood." Edward took shoved a small piece of bread into his mouth and washed it down with a strong gulp of red wine.

"Our children have grown before our eyes, and we just keep getting older," Said Ingram.

"It's true. Our days of fighting great battles may be over. It seems that now we're the old men who die in them," Jonathan Egelman said.