The Beginning Of War

“What?!?!?” The 2 young boys were shocked hearing this, the duke smirked more visible than the sun at the distance upon hearing and seeing their respond.

“Why are you smirking, sir?” One of the 2 boys, Ady, gathered his courage and asked the duke that have 2his hands lying on the table right now.

“Oh am I?” He asked back with a sarcastic tone, that was the last time he talked before his smirk disappear into thin air and he began placing his serious face and placed his hand below his chin.

“Ady of Hamsville, the noble son of the current ruler of Hamsville and Arden from the commoners, I’m making the 2 of you my squire”

“What?!? This friend of mine is actually a noble? Why is he useless and doesn’t have any other friends?” He gave the respond with jokes in it that result on the duke’s seriousness disappearing.

The young Ady were embarrassed and slaps his best friend on the back, “Hey, don’t be like that…”

A few seconds later, the Duke gave a loud, “Mhm” before saying to them.

“Here,” He placed his hand on the pocket and then took out 8 Aurens from his pocket before giving it to the young boys and continue his words.

“Use this money to get some equipment, you know what stuff I’m talking about. This is the money I will give for this month, be wise with this” The 2 boys looked at each other before nodding.

They then proceed to take 4 Aurens each for their selves and went out of the room. (Author note: Let me explain how money works, 1 Auren is like 10 Rens and 1 Ren is like 10 Ens. Which meant that 1 Auren is 100 Ens)

…

3 Minutes later, they found their selves on the streets of the Town of Alran, surrounding the Castle of Lania that is in the middle and some patch of green grassland in the middle.

Upon seeing this, Arden began having thoughts about the design, ‘Pretty weird design for a castle of a Duke’

That’s what he thought while looking at the medium sized castle before Ady interrupted him, “Hey? Hello? Arden?”

He began waving his hand in front of Arden’s face and he quickly notice about Ady’s hand and quickly responded with a hurried tone, “Uh, Yes? Yes?’”

Ady sighed and then said to them, “Where were your mind when I was calling you? On the beautiful young maids or what?”

“Ah, no, I was focused on something else. Why do you call me again?” Ady sighed once again and face palmed in front of Arden.

“What’s with that expression?” Arden asked with a confused look on his face waiting for the respond.

“We should really get going now, it’s going to be night in a few minutes” Ady expression turned back to normal after he said this and the 2 boys get going.

They walk and walk on the streets before reaching the market where most of the store or stalls stood there. That’s when Ady suggest something smart, “We should split up, 15 minutes, and we will meet each other here” 

That is the first mistake, thinking there were not much time. Arden rushed to the store that looked the best and didn’t even bothered to bargain for the items there.

He was finished way early, like 10 minutes left on the timer or something. But all the money he have left is only 1 Auren and 50 Rens.

When Ady returned back from his shoping spree, he bought much better quality stuff like bows armour and weapons. He face palmed seeing the rusty chainmail Arden bought and the almost broken weapons.

He walk up to him, place both of his hand on his shoulder and face him right in the eye, “You are so stupid, do you even know how to bargain?”

Arden looked at him like the type of person that his just realized his mistake but soon explain, “Of course I know! I was in a hurry because you said we only have 15 minutes”

Ady sighed and facepalmed once again but soon let it go, “The rice have become porridge, we can’t do anything about it. Let’s go to the nearest stable now, I’m sure you can at least got a horse”

He nodded and soon the 2 boys found their selves on the smelly and stinky stable and the two of them looked each other before agreeing on the same thing, ‘The smell is worse than a 100 years old eggs’

“Hey kid, if you don’t have money, don’t come here” There is a sound of the person out of nowhere.

They both looked around and didn’t see the person that originates that sound. Ady then tried to scare his friend, “Hey Arden, I heard there is a ghost here!!”

Klang klang

The sound of something made out of metal falling to the ground scares the 2 boys. They soon run to the exit while Arden said to him, “Look what you’ve done, there is a real ghost”

“Hey! Boys! Are you going to buy horses or no?” It was the same voice like before. The 2 young boys stopped and stayed in that running pose like an idiot.

They looked at each other and nod before slowly turning around and facing the person. It was a man in his 20 with a bucket full of horse’s food.

They both looked at each other ONCE AGAIN and approaches the man before giving them the money, “Here, this is all I have”

Arden gave his 1 Auren and 50 Rens while Ady gave the man what it seems to be 2 Aurens. The man examined the money for a while before placing it in his pocket.

Beside him was a pitchfork made out of metal and is lying on the ground. He picked it up and place it against the wall before going to one of the room for horses in the back.

While he was doing that, the two young boys surrounds and look at the pitchfork while thinking about the same thing, ‘so this is the reason…’

Arden slapped Ady at his back and shouted to him, “You lied to me!”

“Shut up” There were a louder respond from the what it seems to be the stableman. Not a few minutes after this, he came back with 2 horses.

The difference is like heaven and earth, one is quite healthy and the other is skinny. Even the bones could be seen at the surface on the body of the skinny horse.

You already know which horses is which, Arden got the skinny horse that is barely able to ride and Ady got a quite healthy horse that he could ride.

…

They got to the castle, placed their horses and went to their place to sleep that is still in the barrack. The next day, they were woken up by the hurried sounds of the other soldiers.

Arden yawned and wiped his yes before a soldier approaches him while wearing his weapon, “Hey boy, be fast, the commander is waiting for us in the field”

He quickly got up, uses his normal training armour and hurry to the field like most other soldiers. Once all the people gathered there, the command walked in front of the 1000 men army.

With a loud vice, loud enough for the men there to hear, “As you all know, we are going to war against the Kingdom of Bisvirb! Tomorrow, we shall ride for the fortress of Castro, prepare yourself until then”

He turned to the side and took a step before stopping and turned his head to the direction of the soldiers, “Don’t forget to say goodbye to your family… and ready yourself to lose your friend…”

That’s was his last words before leaving the field and gone to nowhere. The people there began preparing for tomorrow, sharpening their weapon, going back home and etc.

…

…

Tomorrow has come, the soldiers have lined their selves on the grasslands with their family watching on the side. Some waves, some tried to hug their family member for the last before he goes to war.

Needless to say, they all gave their goodbye to their family except of a handful of people and the 2 young boys. They were too focused on the talking, riding their horse behind the commanders as the squire.

Then, the army make their way toward the fortress of Castro that is almost 2 days away. They make their way toward rain, thunderstorm and muddy roads even when some of the soldiers were getting disease.

…

2 days after they take off from the Castle of Lania and toward the fortress, they reached the grassland before the western mountains that became a border between the Kingdom of Bisvirb and Kingdom of Avalon.

And there, right above the middle of the mountains, stand the stone walls of the fortress and a way leading to the front gate of the fortress.

Above the castle, fly the flag of Kingdom of Bisvirb, the mighty white banner of the golden lion.