Rumor Abound

Leon grunts as he jumps down from a ledge. His left shoulder is bleeding due to the arrow that struck him on that spot. Blood from both him and the foe paints his armor red. Cuts and slashes mark his armor's open chinks and chips, which cascaded a crimson fluid. The rocks where he landed instantly became red. Mud and soil leave splotches of black and brown on his face. From a distance, he appears as a mix of crimson and earthly colors, almost unrecognizable as a human if not for his physique.

"This should be far enough," he leans against a tree stump under the orange sky. "I failed…"

Leon loses consciousness as the cold creeps up on him. His right-hand falls from the left shoulder, which desperately stops bleeding. The wind blows his hair, revealing a pale sullen face. At that instant, the orange sky becomes blood red. A ripple of light reflected by the clouds breaks the consistency showing the blood spilled and the chaos spread.

Meanwhile, Gianni, who barely escaped, finds himself in a sparse grove. He gazes back, fearing if anyone was in his pursuit and hoping if anyone pursued him. He catches his breath while assessing his environment. When his eyes land on the ochre-ness that is Leon, he jumps in fear thinking it was of supernatural inclination. But slowly, he approaches him and recognizes his face.

"You're that knight," Gianni runs to his aid, but he is gone. What lay in front of him is a corpse. Surrounded by red and black, Leon's face was white. Although pale and sullen, he seemed to be in a rest that gives him relief. "He's gone…how did he get here?"

"Sir Leon," a voice from a distance startles Gianni. He hides behind the tree stump spying on the source of the call. "Sir Leon."

"He's gone," Gianni reveals himself. "Leon succumbed."

"Who are you?" the startled boy draws his blade. "What do you know of Sir Leon?"

"My name is Gianni Saint-Amour. I am a physician from Gallia," Gianni extends his hand. "How do you know the knight whose name you are mentioning?"

"Sir Leon took me in when I lost my home and the only family I had," Luke replies returning the sword to its scabbard. "I owe him my life. You said he passed. Where is he?"

Gianni gestures to the corpse by his feet. Luke slowly approaches. He sees the mud-covered boots and eventually the bloody body of the man to whom he says he owes his life. Luke jumps over the tree stump and shakes Leon's cold remains.

"Sir Leon," Luke taps his shoulder. "The rest of our force were wiped out from that ambush. I saw Fairfox and Wayward escape, but I've lost contact with them on the way here."

Tears fall from Luke's eyes. He made no frown nor bitter cry of pain.

"Your armor is soiled from battle, as your squire I must clean it." One by one, Luke removes each piece of armor. He brings them to a nearby creek where he washes each one until their metallic brim returned. The clear water became ochre, and the soil smelled of blood. "You should be buried in the graveyard of the hallowed along with other knights, but I cannot perform such duty."

Luke collects dead branches and wood from the grove. The already sparse area clears up more as dead material on its floor clears up. Luke arranges them beside Leon. He creates a makeshift bed from the materials he gathered. When he placed Leon on it, Gianni understood what he was doing. Gianni gathers dead grass and fiber from nearby bushes and places them under the framework of the structure.

"Thank you," Luke retrieves a flint and steel from his pouch and sets the entire bed on fire. "Thank you, too."

The darkness gave way to the burning blaze. The entire area lights up as the smell of burning flesh wafts all throughout. With a loud shout, Luke stumbles to the ground. All the emotions he kept inside finally burned bright, as the corpse of his savior blazes in front of him. He pounds the ground with his fists until they bled. Gianni holds him still, keeping him from hurting himself.

"Let go," Luke shouts. "Let me go."

"You are hurting yourself."

"I won't," he gives Gianni a stern look. "The fire is burning out. We need more wood."

Seeing that the boy was right, Gianni releases him. Luke runs to the grove removing what's left of it. He no longer cared whether it was burnable or not. Every piece of wood he finds, he adds to the burning pile. Gianni could only watch the horrific scene of a boy cremating his savior. His heart becomes disturbed hoping that the war would end soonest.

"We must keep moving," Luke wakes him up the next day. The bags under the boy's eyes hint that he did not sleep. Only ashes remained of Leon and the once blazing pile. "You said that you're from Gallia? You must be from another army."

"I'm from Prince Julien's force," Gianni readies his stuff. "His army has fallen into disarray and has retreated back to join with the queen's grand coalition."

"The main force?"

"It should be."

"Knowing the queen, this war must be coming to an end if she has taken command."

"We must rendezvous with the main force."

"Agreed."

The two begin their journey to Basille. Despite the tumultuous turmoil that pervades the kingdom, this location has clear skies and winds whose coolness refreshes like a summer afternoon. Gianni's mind begins to wonder how the boy knew Leon.

"You said that Leon took you in when you lost your home and your family," he turns to Luke. "Did you lose your parents in the war?"

"No, it's a long story."

"We've got all day, not that I'm forcing to tell something that might be uncomfortable."

"There was this girl. Her name was Emilia, and she was the daughter of our local lord," Luke gazes at the distance. "We both fell in love at one look. It was as if we we're destined to be together. Beneath the castle is a system of tunnels. The lord does not know of the tunnels, only us at the bottom of the chain knows of it. I used it to visit her in the castle. We would hide in her room and talk about life."

"You had a relationship with a noble?" Gianni thought that it was all too familiar. "I'm sorry, do continue."

"One night I took her outside the castle through the tunnels. I showed her what it was like to be a peasant, what it was like to be one of us."

"What did she…"

"All she wanted was freedom. Freedom from the shackles of high birth and nobility. Her privileges and wealth are mere illusions. She was not a lady. She was a prisoner chained by her father and her family. I wanted to break her out. So, we agreed that we would run away together."

"When the dawn of our departure came, she was a no show. One of the guards saw us when we went back to her castle when I took her out. Her father knew and locked her in her room. Knights burned our house and killed my mother. I was about to follow her to the grave when Sir Leon saved my life. He took me in as his squire. I owe him everything, and I couldn't repay his kindness."

"I believe Leon never really considered saving you as a debt," Gianni answers. "Leon saw himself in you—someone from, as you said, 'the bottom of the chain,' who is in love with a noble."

"Sir Leon was in love with a noble?"

"He was in love with Princess Ariana."

"The Crown Prince's wife?"

"Yes…"

"Although, I've heard some rumors about Sir Leon, I never thought they were true. There's also a rumor about Prince Julien, but I must not speak ill of the prince."

"What kind of rumor?"

"I've heard from bonfire talk that Prince Julien's lover is a physician in service to the royal family, and that Princess Ariana's one true love is Sir Leon."

"Who did you hear this from?"

"Soldiers, why do you ask?"

"Those rumors," Gianni takes a gulp. "They are true."

"What? So, the prince has a lover outside his marriage?" shock paints Luke's face. "How do you know that it's true? Do you know who this woman is?"

"Prince Julien lover is not a woman. You're speaking to him."