The Forgotten

Rendall awoke in a bed that seemed old, the wood was worn with cracks that made it seem like it would break in two at any time. Lying in a straw mattress, he let a small blanket’s warmth comfort him. Rendall laid there not wanting to move for a moment yet as he thought about getting up his head hurt.

“Why does it hurt so much?” Rendall whispered to himself, not wanting to talk any louder out of the fear that his head would rip in two.

Memories of the evening came back to him, he remembered drinking a couple of more ales after dinner. Even though it was watered down, it still had an effect on him. Then though the older man came to the table with an old bottle of black liquid, it was thick as he poured it looking more like a syrup than a drink, but the three of them drank the small shots in front of them. Having not drank any alcohol before that night, it certainly didn’t take him long to pass out at the table which happened after his third shot.

Eyes bleary, Rendall looked around the room, with a stall next to his bed, a small fire lit with a chair next to it where he found Lynden sleeping, the bottle of black liquid in his lap. Like him he didn’t manage to get out of his clothes though unlike Rendall, Lynden seemed to be halfway through a drink when he fell asleep as he had a small glass in his hand still half full, he was quite surprised really that the man hadn’t dropped it as he slept.

Mouth dry and still burning slightly from the poison he drank, he found a jug of water and an empty cup next to his bed. He poured the water down his throat directly from the jug. He managed to drink most of the water although not all as some of it ended up over his face and clothes which he found refreshing more than anything. He was still in need of another drink and was hungry. Rendall got himself out of bed and walked himself back down to the bar. His step was unsteady having to concentrate extremely hard to walk in a straight line and not trip over.

He made it to a table downstairs with a few more jugs of water on the table. He poured himself two cups and finished them off quickly.

“Can’t handle your liquor?” The waitress said to him softly.

Rendall grinned slightly as he replied, “It’s like my head is being crushed. Whatever we drunk last night I’m sure it could kill.”

“No doubt about it, it can. Some have thought they could drink a bottle in one, needless to stay they didn’t get up again.”

Rendall’s grin turned into shock and wide eyes as he looked back at her.

“Haha, your face! It hasn’t, I just wanted to see what you would have said. Now can I get you some bread and jam? I’ll put some extra sugar on the table too. The extra boost might wake you up.”

He looked at the lady, then said “Thank you, err.”

“Jessica.” She finished for him.

“Thank you Jessica.”

She returned five minutes later with a bowl of cut brown and white crusty bread slices with one pot of jam and a small jar of sugar. As she placed it on the table Lynden came down, not looking in a much better state then Rendall did. Walking over to the table, he sat down at the table with the boy.

“Jessica, could I trouble you for some bacon. Rendall, would you like some too?”

“No, I’m fine thank you.” He said just as he was sprinkling sugar on top of the strawberry jam-soaked bread.

As Jessica went to fetch Lynden’s order, he poured himself a glass of water, drinking it in gulps with droplets flowing down his face after drinking it too fast.

“Bread over bacon?”

“When you’ve not eaten bread for the amount of time I have, but had bacon or some other meat nearly every day ripped apart in front of you, bread is more valuable than gold.”

They smiled at one another, though moments later Lynden’s face took on a grave and serious expression.

He sighed before speaking and began, “So what is your story? I’ve heard rumours that you don’t live around here yet no one knows more than that. And those silver eyes.”

Rendall took on a puzzled expression, his face scrunched up at the mention of his eyes. He wondered why they were important.

“Silver eyes? What has that to do with anything?”

Now both looked at each other confused. This lasted several seconds before Lynden spoke up.

“Silver eyes were once the sign of the Belldar, you’ll find them in no other person. Who were your parents, the late queen?”

Rendall heard many of the stories of the ancient race as a child, though like many things before the day his life changed, he had lost his memory of so many things. He didn’t really give it much thought that he was a Belldar, they were a lost people after all.

“My parents died some years ago in an attack from bandits. They were burnt alive in there home, I couldn’t save them. I remember little of them as I jumped from a cliff into rocky water where I hit my head several times.”

He proceeded to tell the man of the faint images from his past. His parents teaching him to use the bow, the games they used to play and even the clothes they wore. He told the man about all the time he spent in the woods but didn’t mention Celer as Rendall did not want to put her life at risk.

Lynden looked at the boy, not sure how to approach the information he had just gained. There were always attacks on the road and it was unfortunately true that they would raid small hamlets or houses at times so this he could believe. He struggled to accept how the boy was able to live in the woods all this time, no matter how talented even the best of rangers would struggle to live that long in the wild.

Lynden still was convinced there was more to the boy and said, “How old are you?”

“I don’t know for sure, when I lost my parents I was fourteen I believe. Since then three winters have past which makes me around seventeen now.”

Before Lynden could probe any further, three men were walking over. They were all of middle height, one held a rake with hay stuck in the spikes at the end. He had dry sweat on his head that left a white stain. The middle gentleman was a larger man wearing a leather apron with a large pouch on the front. It contained two heavy looking gloves that were burned black in areas, a blacksmith Rendall thought. The last man was the master archer at the range who was overseeing the masses testing their skills.

“Good day my boy, we saw you sat with Lynden here and thought we’ll give you company. We know he’s not the most exciting of sorts.” The blacksmith said as they all pulled up chairs around the large circular table they had.

The man continued, “Plus we must congratulate you on besting Sir Reemal, I’ve not seen many best him. And well you could probably beat anyone I’ve ever seen. Have you seen anyone better Dyle?”

Dyle, the master archer, looked in slight wonder at the boy, he had never seen him or heard of someone so good with a bow.

“No, I can’t say I have. Who taught you boy?”

Rendall was getting uncomfortable. While it was nice to be recognised for being good with a bow, he didn’t like the barrage of questions from everyone he met. Placing his hands on his shaking legs, Rendall quickly rose, grabbing his quiver and bow that he had placed by the table when he came down.

“I’m sorry I must be going. Having too many drinks last night has caused me to get a late start in the day and I must get home to get back to work.” He gave them a forced smile as he quickly left, not giving a chance for the men to reply.

On the way out he left the rest of his coppers on the counter to cover his room and food. It was more than required, but he had no use for the money. He walked outside to the bright rays of sunshine with the shouts of sellers and townsfolk walking around. Still quite hungover he was forced to squint his eyes nearly shut and cover his ears to suppress the loud noises.

Walking, stumbling and jogging when he could in an attempt to leave this place as quickly as possible, some traders grabbed his arm in an attempt to draw them into their goods. He tore his arm free though, looking onto the people that did it with each of them taking a step back from him.

Finally, he made it past the market into a quieter part of town, he could finally remove his hands from his ears, and his eyes were now adjusted to the bright gaze of the morning sun although he still had a horrible headache. He walked out slowly, having no intention of coming back to the town, it was a nice visit. He got some new clothing and a quiver which was priceless to him, but the people were never leaving him alone, or at the very least giving him a chance not to answer a thousand questions about himself.

It wasn’t too long until the boy passed the final watchtower of the town where two guards looked at him in curiosity, their gazes were fixed on him. Strange Rendall thought that the guards had moved their hands to the pommels of their swords. Not wanting to aggravate them, he walked on and didn’t share another glance with them. He guessed that they must have heard of his skill with a bow so felt threatened by the boy.

He left the dust-covered road not too far from the final watchtower and walked through a field with long grass that many had walked through already, as the disturbance of the grass left a faint path. The woman must have come this way, or perhaps the farmers of the land, it certainly wasn’t any wildlife although if it had been, they wouldn’t be alive anymore.

Rendall wasn’t really interested in spending hours making his way home so he started a light jog through the field. A light jog for Rendall, the equivalent of a normal man’s hard run, but for Rendall it was steady and something he could easily sustain for hours without much effort. However, today with his bleary eyes and banging headache what would normally be easy was a little harder. Alcohol wasn’t a great life choice for him.

Mile after mile passed and soon Rendall found himself near the river close to his home. In fact, it was the river at the bottom of the cliff that he jumped off all those years ago. The water was not so deep and the shape rocks were showing themselves as far as the eye could see. He was lucky to be alive.

Rendall found a small rock pool near the river where the water would flow into, without any current and enough depth to reach his shoulders. He took off his bow and quiver and placed them on the edge, followed by his clothes that reeked of alcohol from the night before. He dunked the clothes in the water several times, before hanging them to dry over a nearby tree.

Rendall got in the water, it was cold and immediately took away any lingering aches he had from the night before. He felt the cold his skin but unlike others Rendall’s skin stayed a pale white, not shifting to red or blue.

He dunked his head underwater letting out a small pocket of air from his lungs as he did, so that he sank into the black depth. It only took a moment for Rendall to reach the bottom and when he felt the hard rocky surface beneath him, he opened his eyes and looked up at the surface. The sun reflected off the water, shimmering with dragonflies, butterflies and other insects flying above.

His heartbeat slowed, an ability he had learned which helped him stay underwater longer, and as the fourth minute passed, he gracefully pushed from the dark depths to the surface. He pierced the surface with a loud inhale of breath.

Rendall stayed in the water until his skin started to wrinkle from the long exposure. As he left by placing his hands and feet into grooves in the rocks, the warm air was a direct contrast from the water. Rendall sat on the floor atop of a handful of leaves he had picked from a neighbouring tree so that he couldn’t get dirty. Drip drying before grabbing his clothes from the tree that were surprisingly dry already and putting them on again.

“I wonder where she has got to?” Rendall muttered to himself.

Celer was her own being and certainly wasn’t Rendall’s property, yet he thought it strange when he hadn’t seen or heard her when he got back, then again it was a big place and Celer wasn’t going to be waiting on him when he came back. He thought that perhaps she felt betrayed when he went to the town. He certainly didn’t mean to hurt her.

“So is this where you have been staying all this time?”

Rendall turned though realising he didn’t have his bow on his shoulder, it was still next to the pool a few paces away. He turned slowly. Focusing he saw the figure of a man with long brown hair sporting a long sword strapped on his back but without any armour.

“Lynden?” Rendall said while straining his eyes.

The man walked into view, smirking at Rendall in front of him.

“Have you been watching me?” The boy continued, anger clearly in his voice.

“No, no. I followed your tracks several minutes after you left, I was curious where you intended on going. I must say though I don’t know how you ran like that but it took me less than a minute before I gave up. I only just got here, apologies I did not mean to startle you.” Replied Lynden.

Still not convinced about the man’s innocence Rendall pressed, “Then why on earth are you here?”

“I wanted to know where you were all these years.” He shrugged, giving no further explanation.

Rendall walked over to his bow, holstering it over his shoulder and placing his quiver over the other. He shared no further words with Lynden but just walked off, the knight following at a distance.

The boy spent the next few hours looking for Celer, he thought it strange that she was not anywhere to be seen nor had she shown up. It was warm, mid-afternoon, so it was unlikely that she was hunting though neither was she lying by the tree or patrolling the woods. He sat on a rock that rising from that ground that shot out just over the river the both of them had made. He liked to sit here letting his legs dangle, there was a sense of weightlessness to them which he enjoyed.

“You seem troubled?” Lynden said to Rendall as he walked up the river.

“Are you making a habit of following me now?” Rendall replied.

“No, just admiring this place. It is truly beautiful.”

Lynden walked up beside Rendall and sat on the grass bank.

He continued, “I’m sorry if my questioning made you uncomfortable, it isn’t every day you run into a young man like yourself who tells a tale that he has spent part of his life growing up in the woods alone. Should you wish to share, I’m happy to talk.”

All while Lynden was talking, Rendall stared into the water. He saw his own vividness staring back at him, his usually straight hair had now gone wavy from the time he spent in the water and leaving it to drip dry. The hair now went just beyond shoulder length, a sign of living in the wildness too long. Some parts were longer than others as he remembered that he would often grab handfuls of it, shearing it off with an old knife. Seeing his face also brought back memories of cuts and bruises he had gotten from encounters with other animals or simply not looking where he was going resulting in a branch often showing him a lesson.

It dawned on Rendall that while he loved Celer, without her he was truly alone, no one or nothing else would care if he existed or not. With that realisation, Rendall broke free from his thoughts.

Speaking so softly that Lynden had to lean in to hear, Rendall said “Three winters ago, my life changed forever”.

Rendall told the story of what happened that morning, the fire, the men, what he did and didn’t do. He also told the man sitting beside him of what happened after the bond that he struck with Celer and how they survived.

Hours had passed by the time his story had finished, the woodlands were getting dark with an orange glow of the sunset just resting on the horizon. They sat there in complete silence for several moments before either one of them made a sound.

“I’m sorry. I know it isn’t much but for everything that has happened, I really am.” Lynden said, staring into the woodland beyond. Deep in thought about what the boy had said.

“Actions mean more though. I know we have only known one another for less than a day but why don’t you join me. I have an estate, you can live there.”

“I have no need for a house or new things, I have everything here.” Thinking back to the bandits and the guards in the street the day before robbing that man, “Tell me though, you were a general. Why are innocent people attacked and robbed by the guards who are meant to be protecting them?”

“There is a long story behind that, longer than yours. For now, I’ll tell you I left the king’s service because of corruption and abuse of power which I powerless to stop.”

After a few moments’ silence between them, Lynden then continued, “Rendall, come back with me to town tonight. Jessica will cook us up something nice and we can share a few laughs with some of the other scoundrels before heading to bed.”

Rendall looked at him with desire in his eyes but said, “I can’t”.

“I know you’re waiting for her, perhaps we can leave a message?”

Rendall thought for a moment. It isn’t something they had ever done as for all these years, they had barely been out of one another’s sight.

“Do you have any dried meat on you Lynden?”

Putting his hand on his pouch and replied, “Yes, take it.”

Handing Rendall four slices of dried meat, the smell of spices hit the boy’s nose. They smelt warm and of summer. The boy placed them on the rock where he was just sitting. Knowing that Celer would be the only animal in the area that would eat the meat as every other creature lived off the plants and water. Hopefully, she would know it was him.

Saying nothing more the two got up and walked away from the forest. It was getting late as by the time they reached the watchtower once more it was in complete darkness, the only sign they knew they were walking in the right direction was because of the flickering firelight from townspeoples’ homes.

As they approached the guards they were halted by the guards in black, swords raised all the while gazing at Lynden.

“Gates closed to you, traitor.” One guard shouted while taking a step forward.

“We both know I’ve not broken any law, now let us pass,” Lynden said in a calm yet firm voice.

Two more guards came out of the door behind, one brandishing a halberd while the other a longsword with a silver hilt and a wooden handle. Another was at the top of the tower, this one holding what seemed to be a crossbow though from Rendall’s view in the darkness he could not be sure.

Rendall and Lynden were outnumbered but perhaps not outclassed. Lynden wasn’t wearing his armour, but had a longsword at his back that he could certainly be dangerous with. And Rendall had his bow, which he had already shown his skill with to the people of this town.

The guard holding the halberd shouted in slurred words, “You abandoned your brethren, the men you swore to protect when you left. Do you know what happened when you left?”

He took a swig of something from a flask that seemed to appear out of nowhere from his tunic.

“That idiot Luken took charge. It took him less than a week for him to find some enemy. He made us march nonstop for three days to the raiders’ camp to the east, their numbers were endless. Without a break, he told us to march in and slaughter them. We didn’t stand a chance, tired and without a leader, as he stood and watched from a hill, our friends and brothers died. If it wasn’t for you, they’d still be here now.”

With guilt in his tone, Lynden replied, “Words cannot begin to express my sorrow at such bad news. Each and every one of them was a good man. I understand your hatred towards me, I will not fight back.”

The knight sighed and moved his hand away from the hilt of his sword.

“I only ask for one thing, let the boy pass unharmed, he hasn’t got anything to do with my actions then or now.”

With a gesture to Rendall to walk on, the boy said nothing but hesitated as he placed his hand on his bow and began to take it off his shoulder.

“No Rendall, now go.” The man’s eyes bore into Rendall with deadly intensity an expression that told him not to argue.

The young archer let go of his bow and with slow footing he walked past the guards into town.

He turned when he got twenty meters away. The guards had not killed Lynden, at least not yet. The guard with the halberd was still drinking from the bottle, his stance seemed to have become reliant on the weapon to keep him upright. The two other guards, one still gripping the hilt of his sword, gestured for the warrior to go indoors with them, no doubt to cover up his crimes. However, before Rendall could change his mind to go help Lynden once again, his eyes hit him with the same gaze that forced him away in the first instance.