Call to Arms

Phyora and Caleo had already left, their beds left a mess, Relund was waiting for me by the door as I quickly hurried to put on my uniform and attach my sword to my belt. I bolted out of the room slamming the door behind and gathered with all the squad in the meeting room. There was a sense of dread written on the Captains face, his lieutenants by his side waiting on the stage, at the far edge was a Royal Guard.

"So you all would've heard! The Emperor is dead! He was murdered early this morning along with his whole group and heir." He paused for a second before stepping aside to let a member of the Royal Guard to take over.

"You're job now is to hunt these bastard using any tactic possible, even if it means burning villages. YOU must bring our nations hatred to these criminals!"

Most of the room cheered, but you could tell there was some people keeping quiet. It was no lie to say that the Emperor wasn't loved by all, yet for me I didn't know what to think. Was it justice for their home? Was it the right way to go about this?

"You'll be assigned your groups, which will be you and your roommates along with another room. So find your roommates and form a line with each other in order of experience."

The captain spoke up behind the Royal Guard, the guard quickly nodding to the captain before running off. Everyone within the room started to find their roommates, trying to traverse the room became basically impossible for me so I stuck with Relund and kept an eye out for Phyora and Caleo. As soon as we got together we did as stated with Phyora being the most experienced leading the line.

We were quickly ushered with another group to one of the Lieutenants to receive our orders.

"Right! You lot will be roaming the North-Eastern part of the forest out of the North gate. You are to go no further than the river at its end! Got it!?" the lieutenant sternly spoke, hands clasped behind his back. After so many years of peace it felt uneasy to all of a sudden be thrust into this situation.

"Yes Sir!" We all shouted at the top of our lungs and went to put on our hauberks, I quickly pulled on my gloves and ran to catch up with my group.

We entered the forest as the sun just started creeping over the tops of the trees. We all split up into a line around 10 meters between each person. We trudged through the forest carefully, the twigs snapping under our feet, wind calmly blowing through the leaves with that odd occurrence of sunlight glinting through. It felt like any other day, yet the feeling in me soon fell to regret, my inability to say something cost more lives, and likely more will follow. I let the fear of being caught and killed by the assassins haunt me and sway my decision making, I stopped for a second the feeling that my thoughts were strangling me, forgetting how to breathe. My hand moved to my chest, a sudden pain knowing that I was a part of this, knowing that I should take this to my grave.

During my small panic attack I heard a loud scream come from my left, I was in the middle of the giant line we formed so I was closest to the other group. I quickly bolted in the direction, skipping over the strewn about logs, thorn bushes scraping against my legs as I hopped over stuff. Till I reached another lifeless corpse. The girl from the other team, who's name I didn't know, died. I stared at her lifeless body blankly, my mind yet again being filled with the same questions as before, but this time I felt no sadness. I felt uneasy, yet calm, a middle point where I felt everything yet nothing.

Her group quickly came over to the body and began to mourn their lost comrade, and all I could do for them was stand and watch. Again I became the bystander, a man that could do nothing to help someone's situation. I turned away from the body to look at a tree, as I was away to slam my head into it, I noticed that there was blood on some of the bushes. Sharply I turned to her body and looked for her sword.

"Oi, have you seen her blade?" my voice shaking slightly but trying to give off a sense of urgency.

They all quickly tried searching for it around her before looking under her. The blade was covered in her blood so I couldn't tell if she had managed to draw her sword and nick one of the assassins. I slowly moved off on my own leaving them to mourn and followed the blood on the bushes. It went all the way through the forest, till it hit the river. As I stared at the river bank I noticed footprints leading into the water, I thought about wading into the river and following them across but the possibility of picking up the trail would be near impossible.

Closer to the river I moved till I felt a hand grab my shoulder, I quickly grabbed my sword and spun around not knowing who it was. Only for it to be Caleo.

"Woah.. calm down. What are you doing at the river?" his voice giving off a bit of sarcasm at first before becoming more intrigued.

"There's footprints moving into the river." I glanced across the river pointing to the footprints next to me.

"I know." Caleo moved up to beside my shoulder and stared across the river with me.

"I saw the footprints as I arrived, no point following them across just now, but at least we know what direction they went in. So come on lets head back to the group." He tapped my shoulder and trudged off into the woods behind me.

I stood at the river for a couple more seconds before turning back and following him to the group. As we all met up you could feel the tension between us, the other group had picked up her dead body and was getting read to get back. I slowly moved beside my group before one of theirs lunged towards me, grabbing my collar and slamming me against the tree.

"Did you see anyone!?" his voice was urgent, a hint of sadness slowly seeping through. Phyora and Relund both moved to grab him off me. As they grabbed him, he struggled.

"If you had any part in the death of my sister, I'll fucking kill you." slowly breaking down. My heart sank, my eyes widened, what had I done. By not saying anything I had indirectly helped in someones death, more than once.

I stared him in his eyes, "I only found her like that, sorry, and you know that I followed a trail by myself up towards the river. I am deeply sorry for your loss though."

He stared back and nodded silently, moving off with his group and the body in hand. We slowly followed behind them with Phyora moving off to inform the lieutenant of the trail. That night I lay on my bed awake, whenever I closed my eyes I'd see images of how I thought they died, I'd hear their voices blaming me for what had happened. It was strange as I wasn't awake out of fear at this point, just regret.