Thu Feb 03, 2011 5:23 am by XanderCove
For anyone interested, this is the full story I wrote (not necessarily the submission due to this contest). After some research I discovered this was far too long for this competition but I enjoyed writing it. Enjoy.
I woke from a fitful sleep by the call of someone from the head of the caravan. We had been traveling for too many days to count. Most of the time we stopped only to pass through an alliance blockade to pay a tribute or to rest for the evening. The sun was growing low over the hills ahead of us, but there was still plenty of time before camp. We hadn’t encountered an alliance post for days and I was beginning to believe we had left civilization behind altogether. I lifted my body over the wagon driver’s shoulder, past his horses, and looked out high over the hill ahead of us. That’s when the breeze, cool and salty, collided with my senses. It was like nothing I had ever smelled or felt before. I blinked away the sand, and my eyes grew wide.
“By my father’s name. It’s true. It was all true.”
“What’s that?” asked the driver. He was an old crab, but he talked little and in the last few days of homesickness that was welcome. But now he was the only one I had to proclaim my excitement to.
I turned to him and exclaimed, “The ocean! It’s so big!”
He looked up over the top of the hill himself and, unimpressed, he said, “Ay,” and continued on the path as ifthere wasn’t a marvel of God laid before them.
Never mind him, I thought. It was all true.
Staring out into the flat blue, wider and larger than any plain, I thought back to how I got here. I had tried not to dwell on it during my travels, but by my father’s name it was all well and true, and I found myself back at that day.
I was running as fast as my legs could carry me through the city. In minutes I would be at its edge at the old farm, and I was terrified I would be too late. The news traveled fast, but I was sure it would not be fast enough. My father’s hunt had returned. Old Wolf was back, but the news was bad. The hunt did not yield any treasures of merit, and the men had run low on food. They were easy pickings for a traveling band of cutthroats from a rival alliance in the East. The hunt returned with less than a hundred cavalry. And my father, who I had always just thought of as Old Wolf because of his rough beard, piercing eyes and aggressive instincts, was reported to be close to death.
With mother gone during the last war, and no brothers or sisters left alive for similar reasons, I was all that my father had left, and he was all I could count as family. He was important to the Baron as head of the cavalry unit. He would have healers attending to him at the farm. Old Wolf would not pass on this night.
At least that is what I told myself as the farm came into view. My lungs were crying out in strangled heaves when I reached the door, but I ignored them. There would be time for rest once I helped the healers attend to father.
But when I opened the door, I saw only one servant leaning over his bed and patting his sweated brow.
“Where are the Baron’s healers?” I demanded.
Without looking over her shoulder, the attendant said, “Not coming. The Baron took heavy losses during an attack to one of his cities in the north and they are tendering to the men at the wall of the city.”
I would not accept what I was hearing. Between breaths I cried, “My father… had brought much prestige to the Baron! He would… not leave him to die!”
Slowly, the servant turned to look back at me. Her eyes were brimmed wet and I could tell she was affected by the loss as well. Heavily, the old woman said, “Who are you preaching to boy?”
I wanted to respond. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, if they did not burn so fiercely. But what good would it do? For that matter, what good was it to harass the one person at the moment trying to help my father.
His rasping voice broke my resolve.
“Enough. You have done what you can. I thank thee. Please leave me to my child.”
She looked as though she was about to argue her needed presence, but then thought better of it. She placed a wet rag against my father’s temple and nodded her head. She stood and left the room, squeezing my arm with as much reassurance as she could muster on her way out.
When we were alone, my father weakly beckoned me forward. As if someone else were controlling my muscles, I made my way to his bed and kneeled before him, head low. He would not wish to see me cry, and I held the tears back as best I could.
He surprised me by smiling up at my anguished visage.
“You remember those old stories I used to tell you about the place where the land ends?”
I thought about it a moment, then could not help but smile, “You mean the lakes so large no man could see the end of them?”
“An ocean it’s called,” he corrected me.
“A myth, father. I remember. A place where ports lie at the water’s edge and progress and invention have allowed men to conquer the sea both above and below its depths. Fairy tales.”
He began to reply, but stopped himself with a cough. I winced, but he held his hand up to show he would continue with our without my consent. “I do not wish you to follow the path that your family has before you, for I believe it will lead to the same end.”
“I cannot leave the alliance, father. I would have no place to go. And I won’t leave you.”
“My path is not yours, my child. I will not have you rushing off fighting for some baron’s honor, or finding tokens in the ruins so that he may gain prestige to grow his vassals. I will not have my bloodline end by the whims of someone who will treat you like a pet, directing you to hunt or fight or die for their own gain.”
“It has not ever been my wish to either, father. But I am now of age, and they will soon come for me for training.”
Reaching behind him, my father revealed a hidden package wrapped in canvas. Handing it to me he said, “And they will find an empty house.”
I took it and was startled by its weight. Confused I unwrapped the covering, and soon my confusion turned to shock, then to fear. In my lap sat a crown. A treasure unlike any I have ever seen. A relic like this could buy a kingdom.
“How is this possible?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. “But I was told there was nothing found in the hunt.”
Old Wolf looked up to me with those piercing eyes and said, “They must not find it here when they come for you. With me gone, and their need for men at arms, it might happen soon. Perhaps even tonight.”
“What are you saying father? What do you wish me to do with this?”
“My wishes are no longer important in this world. It is you who must break the cycle. Be free. Make your own path. Find the place where the land ends and start a better chapter in our family’s history. But listen well. Do notfollow anyone, child. You shall be a leader of men. In this way you will give my spirit pride and give honor to my name. Use the crown. Buy yourself a ship. Hire a crew, and build your own fortune. Most of all, my child… be free.”
It was the last words he ever spoke. And only then did I finally cry.
I took what provisions I could and started across the country on my father’s horse that evening. It was either fortune or fate that brought be to the bar after a month’s travel. There I met a man with an unfamiliar accent telling stories of waters at the end of the world. I bribed him with mead, and soon he agreed to take me with him when his trading caravan continued their travels the next day.
On the way, he taught me the ways of the seafarers and the dangers they faced. He also told me of the glory and riches that could be found for those bold enough to search for them.
We traveled for so long, I soon began to believe it was all still a rouse; a continuation of the stories my father told me as a child. But there now, staring at the blue-gold horizon as the sun melted into the sea, I again began to feel the tears on my cheeks. I cradled the canvas wrapped package that never left my grasp tight to my chest.
I heard a long distant howl, and I turned my head in time to see the shadow of a wolf on a high hill in the distance. And then it was gone.
“I will be free, father,” I whispered. “I will be bold, and I will bring honor to your name. I will be a leader of men. This I promise.”
“Ehh?” asked the driver next to me. “What was that?”
“Nothing for you to concern yourself,” I said laughing. “Drive on.”
