The Boy in the Grass

Not everyone in the town of Harthpoint had attended the speech of the black-robed rider. A few miles up the very same road that the rider had come down, past the town’s limits and amongst many of the small farms that littered around the town, a boy lay in the grass just off the cobbled road, covered from the view of the road by the crops that were almost ready to be harvested.

This was a usual occurrence for William Sharp. He had taken great care in selecting his current location. Far enough away from the town so that his Guardians couldn’t find him in any sort of hurry, thus getting bored quickly and deciding to leave him alone for the night, day, or sometimes even week whenever he had dared that sort of time. Whilst also being close enough to some form of civilisation that he wasn’t in any real danger. Just in case of the minimal chance that at worst a raid from the dreaded Southrons came up the south sea known as The Dagger. Or even rarer, the chance of Spiderling attack from the western woods. But neither was likely to happen other than in the stories that the old men told in The Black Sheep late at night. Nothing though would come to kill them here, in this most boring part of the world.

He was a small boy that had the unfortunate problem of his limbs growing a lot faster than the rest of his body, resulting in him looking both lanky, and short at the same time. His face, long and thin did nothing to help his untidy look with messy, brown hair and sapphire eyes. His attire was as messy as his hair, broken clothes hung off his shoulders and only just managed to cover his chest. And his trousers were equally tacky, and ended a good couple of inches above his knobbly ankles.

The only item of value that he wore was a silver necklace, that hung around his neck. It was the only item of value he had. His stepparents had told him that it had been left with him. And that surprised Will. Not that it had been left with him, he guessed that he had a family somewhere. But the fact that the Shepards had not tried to sell it at the first opportunity.

He re-focussed, trying to return to the previous night’s dream. He’d been on a dragon, blue, the same colour as his eyes. And he’d flown into Harthpoint and burned his stepparents alive in that ratty, little inn they called a home.

But the more he tried to picture the dream, the harder it became to remember. There was something else that he was missing. But Will couldn’t for the life of him think what. It had something to do with him not being alone. But he couldn’t see their faces.

He guessed that the reason was the continuing ringing coming from Harthpoint and distracting him as he rested.

Returning to the nagging problem of the racket coming from the town, Will forced himself to open his eyes. He would have been more than happy to ignore the bells that were sounding off in the distance and ruining a perfectly good nap. But he was prevented from his continuous blissful sleep by the equally annoying kicking of his right knee.

“What is it, Oscar?” Will asked after finally giving up on his nap. He knew who had been kicking his leg, one of his only two friends in his hometown. Oscar Burcy and Alice Harth. They had been friends for as long as Will could remember. And he hoped that at some point in the near future, that Alice Harth would become more than just a friend.

Not that that would ever happen, she was the Mayor’s kid. And even Will knew how unpopular he was the higher ups in the town. He was very much the dark sheep of the town. But that didn’t stop him dreaming.

Both his friends were standing above him now, casting his small frame into shadow. They were both taller than him, not that that was saying much.

“Didn’t you hear the bells, Will?” Oscar asked, always the rule follower of the trio, he was splitting his gaze between his friend, and the distant noise of the still clanging bells.

“Sure. Why d’you think I’m out here?” Will responded; wondering why Oscar, who had been with him all his life, would need to ask that question. Anyway, what was the point, it would only be their great Mayor blabbering on about something meaningless. The last time the bells had been rung, it had been for a speech about the increase in the cost of some food, Will couldn’t remember exactly what, as he had snuck away halfway through, annoyed that he had been convinced to attend the boring meeting in the first place.

Despite this fact, Oscar continued to glance back at the loud clanging once more. He was almost a year older than Will, having celebrated his fourteenth birthday only a few days prior, and also being head taller than him with a lot more muscles than Will thought he’d ever have. But looking at him right now. The way he was biting his lower lip and nervously stroking the faint hairs that had started to sprout on his chin the past year. All made him look a lot younger.

“Osc’s right Will.” Alice said sounding a lot more serious than she usually did. Normally Will could have counted on her support, she was the one who was constantly trying to get them to break the rules. But now she seemed different.

“You guys can go. I ain’t stopping you.” Will replied. It was the truth, he wasn’t stopping them from going.

“I can’t keep my Da off your back forever, Will.” Alice said and taking all of Will’s attention. “He starting to think you’re challenging his authority when you repeatedly fail to attend his announcements.” She then puffed out her face and began doing a very accurate, but mocking impression of her mayoral father. “That orphan of yours is treading on thin ice, young Lady. I am the Mayor of Harthpoint, yet he thinks himself important enough to be absent from my presence.”

Will began to laugh at the impression. But stopped when he realised that he was the only one laughing.

“Really?” Will asked sitting up eagerly, the smirk was still across his face despite himself. “Well, he’s always complaining whenever you’ve brought me to your home. I just thought that he didn’t want me around permanently.”

“You know what I mean Will?” Alice said scornfully, though she too was now smirking at him. Or maybe with him, Will couldn’t tell.

“And it isn’t just for the blowfish to spout off Will.” Oscar said before turning apologetically to Alice. “Sorry.”

“Yeah. There was some man that arrived this morning. Outsider apparently.” Alice said, continuing on Oscar’s change of course, whilst ignoring the comment about her father. Will knew that she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the Mayor of Harthpoint. She’d willingly gone along with all their planned chaos throughout their childhood.

The news that it was a traveller, possibly even an adventurer had the desired effect at least. As Will almost leapt to his feet.

“Well why didn’t you start with that?” Will asked looking between his two friends. This was a much better reason to return compared to yet another one of Mayor Harth’s dreary lectures. He had spent his entire life in this little town, and he knew every one of the hundred or so residents by name. So, the prospect of someone new here was something that he had never thought to expect in their little corner of the world.

Now that his friends had managed to get some kind of response to from Will. They were now struggling to keep up with his quickening pace.

As Will continued to race down the long-cobbled path. He was finally caught as he was halfway across a narrow bridge, the last one between the forest and the ultimate destination of Harthpoint. This bridge did not however span a river, or any body of water like the others did though. Down below this one, was nothing but air, ending a hundred feet below on some sharp, point rocks.

How the ravine had come into being, nobody knew. Will had asked probably everyone in the town at this point. Some said it was a natural event, taking place thousands of years ago. But that answer was boring in Will’s opinion. He instead believed what few others did, that it had been caused by magic: a sorcerer who had tried and failed to split the peninsular that their town was located on away from the main continent.

But anytime he mentioned that theory. People would give him angry looks. Like he’d personally offended them by mentioning what many people called: the dark arts. Will though didn’t see what was wrong with them. He always wished he’d been born with magic, purely to turn his stepparents into toads or something like that. But he was just normal, nothing interesting ever happened, and he’d probably die in this runty part of the world. Never having the chance to go on an adventure.

“Who is this rider Alice?” Will asked, as he saw his two friends come to a shaky stop next to him. Oscar looked the worst of them, with him clutching a stitch in his left side. Alice though also looking winded, was able to answer the question despite this though.

“How in the name of the gods should I know?” Alice asked. “I’ve been with you guys all morning.”

“Well. Being his Mayorship’s favourite kid, I thought you might know something that we didn’t.” Oscar sputtered out.

“We don’t know. The first my Da heard about it was when the rider turned up at the walls.” Alice replied.

That wasn’t anything new. Their town was so remote that it wasn’t necessary to keep a watch on the road for newcomers. The most they got in terms of important travellers were a few Dwarven traders that were looking to sell what remained of their wares, before turning back around and returning to their own mountains.

“Do you think whoever this guy is will be looking for companions?” Will asked as he clambered onto the bridge walls and began walking along them, completely unconcerned with the hundred feet drop to his right.

“Here we go again.” Oscar said, rolling his eyes at the question.

“What?! I’m almost fourteen, that’s only a year of manhood. It’s not like last time.” Will said, he’d hoped his speech had sounded adult, that had been the intention and how it had sounded in his head. Instead, though it had come across a lot more whinny that intended; rather ruining the effect that he had hoped to have.

“Bullshit. You only turned thirteen less than a moon ago, Will.” Alice said as she watched him jump down from the bridge walls. “You’ve got about as much chance at succeeding as you did when you were seven.”

Will couldn’t argue with this, despite how much he wanted too. He had tried to enlist himself as a hired adventurer when a recruiter from The Capital had made a rare visit to Harthpoint. Twenty of the poorer townspeople had gone with the man. But when Will had attempted to sign up, he had been laughed at, both by the recruiter and by those others looking to join up. Embarrassed, he’d then gone back to The Black Sheep to face the beating of a lifetime from his stepparents. That had been that very night that he had started looking for the place that would eventually become his hideout. Maybe this new person was another recruiter, a different one. One that would see that he was basically a man now and would let him leave for adventure.