Fable - Ask Defending the Farm

[Arn]

Cortos - Aldren Ranch

"I dunno, I don't think this is so bad." Arn said with a wide smile as he patted the pony on the cheek. The young, former farmhand, practically beaming as he pulled himself away from the fence and regarded some of the other Guardsmen that had been left behind.

Most of them looked as glum as could be, but Arn didn't seem to care. "It's just like being back home!"

Except the Aldren Ranch was about twenty times the size of the farm his family had owned for generations. Not that it mattered much. There was still cattle, there were still horses, fields that needed to be tended, and stables that needed cleaning. All jobs that Arn was more than happy to take care of, though not why he and the others had been left behind.

The Aldren family were, and had been, loyal to Vel Anir for nearly a generation. For years they had been feeding information to the Vigilite, providing everything from the movement of troops to statistics on how much feed the local Radiant Church was buying. Valuable intelligence that the Western Army had used in a dozen different means.

Trouble was, the Aldren family had been found out.

The Solar Choire did not take too kindly to traitors, and the retribution was to be a hard one.

So it was that Vel Anir had ordered the Aldren Family to evacuate. The Republic deciding that it would take care of those who had sought to take care of them. Now the Aldren Ranch lay empty, or nearly, save for the small complement of Guardsmen that had been left behind. Their orders? Simple, keep the farm going until the rest of the Guard could come and evacuate the last of the animals and possessions the family had left behind.

Simple really, and Arn was sure there wouldn't be any trouble.

"Who wants to help me with the stables?" The Farmboy asked chirpily.

 

[Hellen]

Dull eyes fell on Arn's enthusiasm.
"No thanks."
Helen's voice had the most remarkable quality of sounding hoarse no matter how tired she seemed to be.
She found herself a spot by the fire and began to tend it, heaping logs until it roared up the great spout. Then she sat and looked into it.
Her addition was recent but that did not stop her from getting very comfortable with the others and by that of course it was answering every question with blunt honesty, sometimes brutally so.
Her longsword she leaned against the wall as she removed her gloves and flexed her fingers.
"Anything left to eat around here?"
She asked without looking up from the fire.

Arn

 

[Landon]

Storms, were the guard taking kids these days or was he just getting older? He'd been away from the guard on leave for awhile. It wasn't until recently, he'd been asked back. He had suspicions they were dragging him back to be a mentor to the next generation. He didn't mind as long as Tal and Zana didn't need him. At least he wasn't having objects thrown at his head via magic. Talus and Zana's twins were little monsters. Little monsters he would defend with his life, just like his friends.

At least they were cute.

"Private Hellen," Landon barked. "I'd worry less about your stomach and more about keeping watch. You've got the first one. To the rest of you, set up a perimeter." Fingers rubbed at his beard as he looked at some of their downcast expressions. At least the Arn lad seemed to be in better spirits. And perhaps it was kindling that would catch to the rest of the group.

At least he wasn't the only one with a farming background in with this lot.

How he found himself released from babysitting duty only to step into it again was beyond Landon. He just hoped he could get away for a bit and light up a dragonspice stick. If this was vacation, he wanted his coin back.

 

[Tariq]

Tariq slapped a hand down on Arn's shoulder in a friendly manner.

"I'll help, my horse is adding to the shit so it's only fair," he chuckled at his own joke. The army had not left many horses behind for the Guardsmen to use, but Tariq was the bannerman and one of the more unglamorous tasks of banner bearing was also playing messenger boy. If for any reason they needed to send a message to the main army or any other outpost, Tariq would be the one to go.

Throwing an arm about the other lad's shoulders, he steered him off towards the stables before they could get stuck standing on a rock looking for trouble like poor Hellen.

"Do you miss it? Home?" he asked.

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

Rhory was glad someone else had volunteered to help Arn with the stables. There had been few occasions that she had gone off with Arn, and usually Owain, before something were to happen. It started with the Dreadlord prisoners and those goblins. Then that werewolf mystery.

She couldn't pin their bad luck in Cortosi land on him entirety...

"I'll take the north side." Rhory picked up her spear, even if her sword had been strapped to her side, she was far more skilled in wielding a spear. It served her well in Vel Cirak, home and where her many brothers had pestered her enough she learned how to keep them at bay.

 

[Arn]

Arn snapped off a quick salute to their temporary commanding officer before quickly falling into ease at Tariq's side.

The others could take up watch while the two of them set about taking care of the animals that needed taking care of. It wasn't too much of a hard task, and the Farmboy certainly didn't mind getting back to his roots for a little while. "Miss my 'Ma and 'Pa, and my sisters."

He admitted readily, not feeling an ounce of shame for that truth.

"Home though?" The Farmboy shrugged as the two went wandering over towards the stables. The huge wooden building already mostly empty, the Aldren family having taken most of their prized horses with them in their initial flight. "I dunno, Viret was always something, but man the world is big."

The Guardsmen said with a shake of his head. "Think I've enjoyed seeing it more than I thought I would."

He said as the two of the two of them entered the stables, Arn immediately heading for the pitchfork.

"Speaking of." Arn said chippily. "Don't rightly know where you're even from Tariq! Don't think we've had much of a chance to talk with all these weird assignments I been sent on."

As the two Guardsmen set about their work, and the others set their watch, the underbrush of the Cortosi wildlands began to shift. Figures camouflaged in beige and drab browns moving slowly along the earth. Near impossible to spot as they made their way.

 

[Hellen]

"Fine!"
Hellen sighed, lazily getting up and making the most half effort salute she could muster.
Her face held no expression except a vague sense of being tired or bored.
"I'll be on the roof of anything happens."
She carried her longsword in her hands as she ascended the stairs and the attic beyond. Her footfalls freaked the wood of the farm house floorboards.
She found it uncomfortable and cold up there and the attic was home to a few abandoned bird nests. From there she left through the window onto the tiled roof and sat watching the road.

Watch duty was boring until trouble started so she didn't mind boring one bit.

 

[Landon]

Landon's hawk-like gaze followed Hellen's retreating form, a frown of disapproval twitching on his face. Back in his day even a hint of insubordination would cause you to be sent to the frontlines. Or be assigned a dreadlord known to use soldiers as shields.

Kids these days.

With bow slung over his broad shoulder and quiver at his back, he silently stepped alongside Rhory. A fleeting glance to Arn and Tariq, feeling very much like a mother hen. A few others scrambled toward the other directions not yet covered. At least they had a modicum of respect for their elders.

"Private Grimmere," though the title was formal, light eyes found their way back to the blonde with a conversational tone. Boots carried away from their little fire and through the well-groomed fields. The harvest already come and gone except for one scraggly field in the north. Looked like some corn that had forgotten to be picked in the haste of the family's evacuation. The long stalks swayed slightly in the breeze, masking those crawling within.

"You been with this group long? Got any family back home?"

 

[Tariq]

Tariq smiled as Arn chattered on. This was one of his favourite parts about being in the army; meeting new folks. The Kingdom of Aniria was vast and never in his time over the past four years had encountered two people with the same story. It interested him endlessly and Arn was no different. So whilst others might have rolled their eyes at a simple farmboy, Tariq listened to him as he would a Prince, a General or a Maid. Once they were inside the stables he picked up a fork and chose a stall at random to begin mucking out. The horse inside nickered softly as he worked.

"Me? Oh I'm from way up North. Balkh," he said with a grin. The Northernmost point of the Aniria Kingdom it sat on grasslands on the edges of the savannah. Where lions and elephants roamed as commonly as stray dogs and cats in Vel Anir. "My Da is a Pilot - he steers elephants in the Northern armies," he added in case Arn did not know the term.

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

She quirked a brow to the Knight, but smiled as his questions were conversational and easy to answer.

"As long as Arn. We did our training together and got stationed with the Western Guard. At least a few months now being Privates." And already she had seen some wild encounters with Arn and Owain. Rhory had even miraculously killed a Dreadlord, where a red scar ran down from her chin to her neck. She didn't notice it that day, but the day after she lamented at the visible scar.

At least Everett made her feel better about it when he told her that her brothers would be proud.

"I have six brothers back home in Vel Cirak. All of them and our father are in the Guard. I think it is a blessing to serve away from home. It'd just be fighting against werewolves and other creatures lurking in the Falwood." She shrugged. As awful as her first couple of months with the 44th had been, she had made quite a few friends she thought of as brothers. It was notable that Rhory did not get along with the other female Private in their company, but no one else seemed to get through to Hellen.

Casting her brown eyes to the swaying corn, it reminded her of the grain fields they had trekked through to get to the Cortosi border some weeks ago...

"Have you always served with the 44th, Ser?"

 

[Arn]

"You're pulling my leg!" Arn declared, clearly not accusing Tariq of actually being a liar, but more mystified that he could be telling the truth. "I always thought those things were Rumors!"

The former farmhand said with a shake of his head. "Is it true they're as tall as three men standing?"

Arn had heard the stories of course, Great War Elephants that he Anirian Guard used on the edges of the Savannah. But he'd been born in a village smaller than the Ranch they were now occupying, the only Elephant he'd ever had a chance to see was a very poor drawing down by a passing gleeman.

A part of him always wanted them to be real, but that was very different than finding out they actually were!

As Tariq and Arn spoke within the stables, the figures cloaked and hooded continued forward. Their trek moving at a snails pace so that not even a single movement could be seen. It took them nearly an hour to cross the gap between the ranch and the underbrush, but as they moved they still stayed undetected. "Alu i le agavale."

One whispered to a set of the others, and three of the figures broke off from the rest of the group. They crawled as quick as they could, moving towards the stables as the rest dispatched themselves towards the main house.

 

[Hellen]

The night played tricks on you. Messed with your head. If you ever wanted to know wether humans should stick to daylight or night time then all you had to do was stay awake until the sun went down completely. The world felt wrong after that.
Hellen had grown comfortable in that space of wrongness over the years. Most prisons did not let many see steady daylight and often it was long into the night when the mind had finally exhausted itself into the fragile peace of sleep.
So when something caught her sharp eyes she did not ignore it, no matter how small it seemed.
At first she thought it was a gust of wind through tall grass and hedge. She watched it, widening her perception to get a look at the entire yard.
It was probably nothing, a field mouse out scavenging or disturbed by the presence of Arn and Tariq in the barn, only it looked to her and she was no tracker that the motion was going towards the barn.

It was probably nothing but you only allowed yourself to get ambushed in prison once, then you learned to be sure. To make certain when it's nothing.
Hellen kept watching.

Arn
Tariq
Rhory Grimmere
Landon

 

[Landon]

"Vel Cirak," a long, low whistle. "Hell, that's quite a place to grow-up. Was stationed there once with Talus Morid. Lost a bunch of good men and women from an undead army."

A kindling of respect shown in his eyes as he looked down at Rhory.

His light eyes went toward the house then back to her. A quick shake of his head. "No, was helping out some friends before this. And before that I was in the North Army for a time, then stationed all over. I was asked to come back on a temporary basis, to this group."

His chin motioned toward the house, eyes lingering on the corn fields before sweeping the other direction. "This direction looks clear. What do you say we head to the house and start tagging items to be packed up?" Shifting the bow on his shoulder, his long strides began cutting back across the field, toward the house with the massive porch wrapped around the front. Long-abandoned rocking-chairs sat unused and creaking in the small breeze.

They'd have to tag which items deemed most valuable so the rest of the guard coming could transport those items first. Ah, the more glamorous side of guard life, that even a Knight had to do. And for a moment, he had to wonder if Zana had ever had to do something so ordinary.

 

[Tariq]

Tariq's laugh no doubt carried across most of the farm. It was an infectious, great thing that could not be contained by mere walls. Of course, unknowingly to him, it probably aided the skulking figures draw closer.

"I'd have said at least five men, standing on one another's shoulder," he winked. Not many from the Southern lands had heard of elephants much less seen them. As such, whenever anyone discovered he was not only from the city from which they hailed but that his father had reared many from calves with Tariq's help, they peppered him with questions. Tariq was more than happy to oblige and fan their wonder into a great flame.

"Their tusks are easily as long as this shovel when they're only a few years old, thick as a grown mans arm. But they're gentle beasts, wouldn't hurt a mouse if they could help it."

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

Rhory had wandered a little ways ahead, turning to look back to see the Knight before nodding and turning to follow towards the house.

There was some ribbon given to them for the task of marking out the finer pieces meant to be recovered and transported, and Rhory had begun work on this. She had decided to start on the more tedious task of assessing the bookshelves, sorting things into piles of history, keepsakes, and journals.

Leafing through a copy of one of the journals, she arched a brow when she realised this was a first account of many skirmishes against the Cortosi. "Interesting reads some of these..." She closed it with a light snap, placing it into a pile. "I suppose it is best they take the smaller things first. What do you think, Ser?"

 

[Arn]

A long whistle escaped Arn's lips, and a part of him still couldn't help but wonder if the other Guardsmen was pulling his leg.

Elephants!

Imagine a crazy thing like that! Edith would never believe that they were real. He'd have to go and see them for himself before heading back home. Maybe he could get Tariq to do a drawing of one? At least that would help Edith believe it. "Kress! That sounds amazing."

"They did tell me I'd see things I couldn't believe." Arn grinned as he shook his head and threw another shovel of shit. "I thought they meant Dreadlo-"

As Arn continued to speak. The figures skulking within the underbrush suddenly burst out from the ground.

More than a dozen of them seemed to simply 'appear'. Jumping from the earth with blades already drawn all over the farm, some springing to attack the varying Guardsmen, while others pulled out strange bottles and threw them at nearby buildings, stacks of hay, and anything else that they could reach.

 

[Hellen]

The surprise was not that the ground spat out a dozen or so armed arsonists. It was that she was right to be suspicious in the first place.
So it took her a half second to react but then she was up and hollering.
"ATTACK, ARSON, SABOTAGE!"
With the warning heard loud and clear she hoped to deny those still inside of what surprise was gained by the attackers.
Not bothering to take the route she had come she vaulted down from the roof landing with a less that graceful "Unf!" before drawing her longsword and rushing the nearest arsonist. The blademen were a rouse from what she could tell. The attack was not meant to kill them, but ruin the supplies.

Unfortunately they threw a firebomb before she could hack his leg at the thigh. Breaking bone and cutting meat, the man fell crying out on the ground but the fire was already working it's way through the farmhouse.

In a moment the night was alive with violence.