Chapter 29: The Idea of Invasion and a Most Terrifying Encounter

As day passed and Alex's and Theodora's relationship started to normalize, and Antiochius and Moirai started to lose the suspicion they had on their friends strange comportament twoards each other, Perceus was also living his life, in case you have forgoten.

It was 3 days after the stone throwing competition, Perceus was riding on his horse, a fine black steed, it's appearence magestic as it's pose when on the trot. He was in the nearby woods, a small entourage of men, mostly squires in training, an a few servants following his lead. Two of the squires were send to scout the area for any possible danger, it was reported that no possible threat was around, and so they made camp.

-*sigh* Finally! I was so tired with the lessons and training. Could you get me wine and food, we will stay here for the night, tomorrow we hunt.

Said a young man, redish brown hair that went up to his back, a piece of cloth was used to tie the end part together so to not get in the way, his brown eyes shone in the reflection of the campfire that was set up. Sitting down on a rock he looked at the sky, the sun was to set in a few hours.

-M'lord, here is the wine and bread. The tent is ready, is there anything else you'd like?

Said one of the servants, kneeling when he spoke as to not be disrespectful.

-It's fine for now, I'll just kill time for a while... Oh! Bring me dices, that would help.

Gambling was one of the few pass times that pretty much every culture had, and in the lack of video games, the rarity and prices of books and they being in the middle of the forest, lest's just say that there were very limited things to do to kill time.

-Damn it! Almost!

-Too bad, now you owe me 5 coins!

-Double or nothing!

You could hear Perceus and the squires, wich he frequently trained with, complaining, boasting and provoking one another. But then they felt it.

-Fuck! Rain?! Right now!?

One of the squires complained as drops of water started to fall on his face. The squires, Percues and the servants hurried to the tents in look for shelter.

-It doesn't look like it will stop...

-It sure does not.

Perceus, who was in a big tent, decorated with parterns and colored with vibrant greens and blues and yellows, looking out from the clothen door. By his side was one of the squires, he was assigned to be Perceus guard for this hunting trip. Well, all the squires were but this one was the most senior and experient, trusted by both Perceus and his father.

-Petrocles, what do you wanna do then?

-What do you mean?

-Well, it sure is gonna be boring what do you want to do to kill time?

-If you ask out of nowhere it sure isn't easy to decide, haha.

-Hahaha!

Petrocles was a good friend to Perceus, he had a short dark brown hair, his eyes were black, at the moment he was using a simple tunic and cloak, his appearence was that of a androgenous but male look. In their conversation they talked in equal standing, although they both talked in informal speech, wich is more due to the two being good friends, there was actually another reason. Petrocles was a son to Peracles. Peracles between him meeting Achilles in the court of Contantine and the present also had children of his own. Although of more nobel pedigree, so to speak, and Peracles family being way, way more influential and powerful than Achilles' one village domain, the two had very friendly relations, even more so after Peracles succeded his father as lord.

In fact Petrocles' being at Baduk was in a way a diplomatic way to keep such relations. It was common one noble to send their second or younger child to train as knight in another noble's court. Many reasons for that being, securing their lively hood as a vassal to another noble (since part of the agreement of vassalage is food and shelter in return for services), mataining relations through comunications by their child, securing that that child wouldn't try to claim their brother's throne after the passing of the lord (since they would be a vassal, and thus under that noble that could stop him from trying to seize his claims.) and many other useful things like that. In fact that was the exact reason for why Peracles was in Constantines' court as a squire himself.

Perceus set down on the various pillows stacked inside his tent, those pillows had embroideries in various paterns, colored in yellow, blue and red. The pillows were soft and confortable, something most people couldn't even dare to afford. Perceus gave a signal to Petrocles, telling him to sit down on a chair.

-Come now, so how is your father? I heard many stories about him from dad.

-Father? Oh, yes, he seems to be well, but a few weeks ago he went on campain. A great insult was given to our family, so we are going to make them pay. Last I heard of him he had captured one of the fortresses by the border.

-Haha, I heard that he was a great tactician but to conquer a fort in just a few weeks? Now that is something. Dad has also been eyeing some territory. After this last winter the territory of Sir Otto has been gravely afected. They don't have enough supplies to amount a meaningful defense and merchants told us that his men are already engaging in a war two or so months away from the castle.

Perceus told Petrocles Achilles' plan. It had been a bit more than 10 years since the Balduks ascended to nobility, normally in such little time it wouldn't be possible to form as small army, much less prepare for conquest. And that was a fact, Balduk hardly had a pallisade, much less strong fortifications to defend themselves.

-Are you sure that is a good plan? We hardly have enough men to control a castle, much less after a siege.

Petrocles was quite nervous, the conquest could very much backfire. Conquering is always the easy part, controling and mantaining the conquest is what is really the challenge.

-I'm not sure either, but it seems that father will hire men to assist on it.

Perceus admited he wasn't sure either, but it seemed that Achilles had some plan that he didn't know the specifics.

-*yawn* But that is for us to think another time, it's already quite late, I'm gonna rest for tonight.

Perceus then laid his head on the bed of pillows and went to sleep. Peracles blew out some of the candles of the tent, leaving just a few for some minimal light. He then went out, it was still raining, but the other squires made a makeshift tent, they simply but for pieces of wood on the ground and placed a board to act as a roof. There were two of them, sitting on logs by the campfire, maintaining guard while trading stories and tales.

-I will have my sleep now, wake the next shift when it is time now.

Petrocles ordered the two squires who nodded and wished a good night.

At the rays of the new sun the servants woke up first and started preparing the meals and taking care of the horses and other chores. After that the squires woke up and ate their meal. Perceus left his tent stretching himself, still in his sleep clothes he went to eat the breakfast.

The group put on some light armor of gambeson, cuirass that protected their chest and a gambeson leg padding.

They had one handed swords, that looked similar to machetes, to cut the brush, a small spears of about 2 meters, and of course knifes for skinning the animals.

They went on horseback, four squires went ahead to scout for game or any good location. Perceus also had three hounds to help out, they were bred to be fast and to have a good sense of smell and trained to warn about any prey. Setting them loose the hounds ran at full speed into the forest.

Perceus, while waiting for response from the scouts or hounds got down his steed to rest a bit. He walked about, never going to far from the group.

-*HOWL*!

The hounds howled, warning about game. Perceus quickly mounted his horse, the group galloped through the forest in the direction of the sounds. The wind hitting his face and the swing of the horse going up and down the trot and going around the pine trees, excitement running through his body he hit his horse, commanding it to go faster.

The sound of the dogs led them to a small rocky hillside, there the dogs were surrounding an animal. From the distance Perceus was at he couldn't make out exactly what it was, he could make up the shape of the animal, it looked like a deer or elk. It was a jackpot he though to himself, but when he got close enough to identify the beast fear spread through his body.

One of the most dangerous animals you could find in the wild, a moose calf.