1. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    'I know, friend, I know! But we have to move!' To stay was to die. I can't fight it. Not here, not now- not ever. His arrows hadn't done much to slow the creature down. If anything, it had grown angrier in the moments since, its bestial growls full of rage and want. If we stay, it'll kill us. If...
  2. Willard

    Private Venture forth, Young Dawn

    Hooves beat their steady rhythm upon the path. Riding at the cant, Willard did his best to avoid the main roads, though even this was proving a challenge. Thick woods, and armed men that don't belong. He had tracked them for some time, now, sticking to the heights. Or else travelling in their...
  3. Willard

    Private Simple Tasks

    'From the Highlands, originally. I'm told I still possess a hint of an accent, though, I could not say for certain.' His memories of home were vague at best. He knew he hailed from a family of hunters. The longbow he carried with him had been a gift from his distant father, and he had a lock of...
  4. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    Willard stuck close to Venla as they ran. Weaving this way and that, he hurdled a moss-covered log, wary of the way the moonlight played between the trees. Silver and green and gone. Where are you? Dead leaves crunched underfoot as he ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch. Ahead or behind? Lying...
  5. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    'Venla, I hate to break this to you, but things have already gone tits-up.' Looking around, Willard let his face do the talking. He didn't have it in him to tell her the dagger wasn't for self-defence. If push came to shove, she would find its kiss much more preferable to being torn apart, limb...
  6. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    The branch snapped, the sound cutting through the air like a knife. The silence that followed was long and heavy with anticipation. Then came the footsteps, and the grating, tortured breathing. A figure loomed in the near distance, so tall and thin it could've passed for a tree, had it not been...
  7. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    The knight hummed in acknowledgement. 'No promises.' Rolling the map back up, Willard retrieved the waterproof cylinder hanging from the back of his chair. A twist was all it took to remove the cap. 'I doubt you'll be able to make it back to Arrowdale before true dark sets in,' he warned Venla...
  8. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    'Oh, really?' Willard's eyes widened so-so, the news a welcome change to the doom and gloom of yesterdays. 'I suppose congratulations are in order, auntie,' the knight laughed quietly, taking a sip of ale. It was still as bad as ever, but it felt wrong letting Venla drink alone. Talk of trouble...
  9. Willard

    Private Simple Tasks

    'Afraid not.' Willard replied, watching as Euphemia gazed heavenward. A decidedly normal gesture. 'Though, I s'pose I'd be willing to part with mine, if just until we reach Waekefield.' The Sun was a powerful adversary, easily underestimated, but a good hat was worth its weight in coin, the...
  10. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    'Maybe that would be wise.' Willard smiled reassuringly. 'You were shaking like a leaf when you first strode in here. It is hard to doubt someone whose heart has been gripped by fear as surely as yours was.' An assumption on his part, though not at all far-fetched. A warrior could recognise a...
  11. Willard

    Private Simple Tasks

    'Never hurts to make sure,' Willard replied, shading his eyes with the bridge of his hand. 'The beast-talkers have mentioned no sightings in the past month. But you know how it is. The situation can change in a heartbeat.' Taking in the scene from atop a small rise in the landscape, the dawnling...
  12. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    'A man? What did he look like?' Willard tried to pry more information out of her, to no avail. Whatever Venla had seen, she was clearly having a hard time remembering. If what she saw was even real. Again, the dawnling decided to humour her. The fear is genuine enough. Whatever the truth may be...
  13. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    She was out of the woods, but still she jumped at the barest mention of shadows. Maybe she has her reasons, thought Willard, watching the way Venla fidgeted in her chair. Her gaze never stayed still for long, he noted, and she had trouble looking him in the eye, as if it was him she feared...
  14. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    The stranger perused the map as if it belonged to her, revealing much in her haste. Arrowdale? Interesting. Rarely did his rangings take him through that neck of the woods. Settling into his seat, Willard chased the redhead's eyes with his own. He could tell the town was close to the stranger's...
  15. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    No name. No patience. Just fear and fast hands. What did she run into out there? Willard wondered, the fingers wrapped around his wrist insistent. 'We are here,' he said, pointing to an unmarked spot on the map, 'and you are safe, so calm down, and tell me what's going on.' Oath-sworn, his...
  16. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    Here comes trouble. Sighing, Willard went back to his maps as the stranger approached. Pretty, and dishevelled, she appeared to have been dragged through a hedge backwards, though it was more likely she'd charged through it willingly, if the fear in her green eyes wasn't an act. These days, you...
  17. Willard

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    The common room had emptied some since he had walked in. A dingy, stinking place, there had been a dozen occupants decorating the tables upon his arrival. Now, there were but five, and all of them strangers. This far from home, they always were. Sat alone at the back of the room, he had...
  18. Willard

    Private Simple Tasks

    'Probably why they're the Captains and we're just lowly ole Sworn,' Willard replied, sparing Euphemia a smile. The best of the best, it was their job to keep the Order whole, and the lands they protected safe. No simple task, not by any measure of the word. That they shone so brightly in Effie's...
  19. Willard

    Private Simple Tasks

    Slowing to a trot, Willard placed a reassuring hand on his mount's neck as Euphemia brought her horse in close. Almost all knights were trained in mounted warfare, except those who were either too large or too small to sit a horse. Fortunately, neither of them could be considered such. 'It's...
  20. Willard

    Private Simple Tasks

    Euphemia's trust was well placed. The order's mounts, from the horses to the war-boars to a literal wyvern in one case, were well-trained and cared for. Willard's own charger was proof enough of that. We could get lost out here, and still they would carry us home, he mused, knowing it to be the...
Back
Top Bottom