Mount-Up 1: The Debt Collector's Reminder

I sighed as I stared out across the cold, dark and empty field of stone. I had done this many times, but, I just can't seem to stop doing it. Once this place was alive with fire and the smashing of hammers as scores of toned men worked metal. We made simple bronze tools for the masses and we could even work iron if the nobles wanted it.

My family once held a monopoly on manufacturing in this part of the city. The city of Unondsbur and the surrounding lands came to us for their needs. We could provide it and we were destined for greater things beyond the walls of just this place. Ideas of smaller workshops had been pondered, or, a vastly expanded one here.

But, no, it was not to be, somewhere along the line. My family got interested in animal breeding, and they believed they could work it like a nail. Yet, I could see that the arrogance of my ancestors brought nothing but ruin. Our old livelihoods have long since vanished.

I was now the last of my family, for its associated name has brought nothing but shame. It no longer meant great craftsman, it now meant unfortunate fools... And the only signs of my family's former power now rests here. In an empty, cave-like building.

It was just me and what awaited me outside. I wanted to try and make their dream work, I really did. I wanted to see their efforts define the ideas of this kingdom's riders. I wanted them to see the benefits my family could provide with their last creation.

Yet, each time I went to try such a thing, I failed. And with that failure, I was forced to sell off a bit more of my heritage each time. Now, there was nothing to sell off and more humiliating routes had to be taken. But, I kept the means to try and honour my family's dream.

I still had the spear that a rider would thrust as he charged forth. I still had a sacred cloth for me to rest on as I rode. That was it, unfortunately, a lot of the gear was lost over the years. Loans were just not being given to me anymore and I was left even more desperate.

It did not matter if I was poor and could not even afford a loaf of burnt bread. I could just hunt a pest in the streets or wander the plains for a farm's edge. None of it mattered so long as I could just pass one test... The test that the greatest riders of the kingdom set up each year before the Month of War.

If you had a mount, you could join up, and, to what must have been to their amusement. There were no rules dictating what you had to bring with you so long as you had an animal. I suppose they felt everyone would just bring a juperse as they all used. After all, what kind of fool did not use such a fast and agile creature as a rider?

Well, I knew one such fool, and he was sat on an old pot, wondering so many things. He wondered what it would be like to have a warm bed again. Hot food would fill his stomach again and his worries would be gone. For joining a brotherhood of riders meant surrendering your past life.

Crimes would be forgotten, debts forcibly ended and your family would become distant. In a way, luckily, I did not have the worries others had. My family was long gone and I was its last loyal son. Not that it mattered when our legacy was a single, restless animal that ate pebbles...

"Go away!" I snap when a loud series of bangs and knocks filled my ears. Initially, I kept still, just to try and frustrate those at my door out of spite. Yet, I could not keep it up for my own safety. So I picked myself up and went to the chained-up door.

Gripping my spear tightly as I made the brief journey before I pulled out the key. Muttering to myself as I roughly handled the rusty lock until it clicked loud and clear. Then, as I stepped back, I let it slip down to the ground. Glaring at those who forced open the doors and cast aside the fallen loops.

"Ah, Yhrrarda the Smithless, I was wondering where you were." my family's greatest parasite let out verminously. The greed in his eyes and the malicious willingness to satiate it angered me. And that was not lost on him or his pack of thugs. But, even then, none were willing to step too close to me while I held this spear.

"You're not supposed to be here, the deadline is three nights from now!" I nearly shout as I angle my speartip downwards. Not in such a way as to make it clear I was about to attack, but to remind them of the pointy end. Like it or not as well, this was an iron tip, their leathers and cloth would not keep it back.

Especially if I made a point of gripping the handle at the very base of the shaft...

"And in those three nights you will not find the money to pay us back, so where is it?" he asked me with a curious glint in his eyes as he tried to occupy my attention. Although he seemed to forget something, my failure to join a brotherhood did not mean I was ignorant. I kept my eyes on those who tried to flank me and I steadily backed up.

Though to him, he probably thought he had me scared, "Get out." I tell him.

"When we have our compensation." he reminds me with a cocky smug before he swiped an arm forward. And, somehow, I found myself blindsided by one of his thugs. My spear was lost in an instant and I was struck down by a thickly-gloved fist. Groaning once I recovered from the second impact I had against the stone floor.

Then, a noise echoed throughout the empty forge. My family's prized creation had made itself known willingly or unknowingly... Either or, it did not matter to him, and he had me roughly picked up. And I was dragged out to meet the jolly bastard as his perverse gaze looked over my family's creation...

"I think we can have this work a field, do you think so?" he asked one of his thugs with a grin.

"It's a farm animal pretending it isn't, what else will you do with it?" the thug cackled, filling me with anger as they mocked my family's efforts. Regardless of if it was successful or not, I would not have them dishonour their efforts like this!

"You bastard, stay away from him!" I let out as I struggled against two sturdy men. Only to be met with a fist to my gut for the trouble.

"It's a farm animal, boy." he mocked before he spat on me and clearly headed over to the pen's gate.

"Should we find something to neck it with?" one of the thugs asked before a series of knocks echoed from behind us.

"Go away, this is a legally private affair." that greedy bastard said as he stepped away from my beast to go see who had come to make things worse.

"Last I checked, the word of the law was that you were not to enter here for another three nights." my saviour declared as the sound of his armour filled the empty building.

"W-Well..." the greedy creature struggled to let out as I was suddenly released. Smiling cockily at him after I briefly acknowledged the armoured warrior before us.

"Out, the lot of you. Before I head back and rally the Red-Feathers to chase you down!" he snaps at them before he seemingly escorts them the rest of the way. Yet, it became clear he had only gone out to bring in his finely kept juperse. And while it wasn't armoured for war, it was still showing off the prestige of its rider and his wealth.

"I didn't need your help, Attandallan..." I remark to him with wounded pride as I moved about to collect the last two things I owned of note. My spear and my rider's cloth.

"I do believe I caught sight of a smirk when I came by." he huffed confidently before he hoisted himself cleanly onto his juperse.

"Just go away..." I tell him as I move to the pen's to check up on my beast.

"Not without you."

"Oh, how noble." I sarcastically comment.

"Indeed, now for the sake of your family, place your trust in me and follow me out of the city." he tells me as he brought his juperse around. And for a little while, I watched that animal enviously as it was a well-established beast of war. The rider's chosen animal to break armies and defend their king...

And all I had was this thing... "Stop that." I tell it before I jabbed it with my spear's butt.

"Mrahpop!" it let out again and again in response as it brought up its strange head. Casting me a wayward glace before it fiddled with a stone again.

"Move..." I ordered it once I opened up the pen. And, slowly, the beast came out, only to start pecking at the floor. It was also clear from within the pen that it had tried to sneak its beak under the fencing to eat my floors...

"I'll give you one thing, Yhrrarda, your family has made an entertaining creature!"

"Oh, it is laughable alright..." I remark bitterly before I placed the cloth on its back. Slotting my spear into the appropriate place before I brought out something to seal its mouth. But, it took quite a bit more effort than it really needed to put the muzzle onto it. And I was left swatting a sore hand about before I wiped the thin build-up of blood away.

"You should ride it, you know."

"Damn thing is hard enough to lead, I don't need to make this harder." I tell him as I started to pull the beast after me. But, when I reached the doors to this place, it was me that stopped and became an issue.

"This really is your last chance, isn't it?" Attandallan asked me as he observed my sudden stillness.

"It is." I quietly answer before I led my beast out of the building. Silently bidding farewell to my family's multi-generational home and business. For a moment as well, I even had the lead before he overtook me. But there was no contest about it, he was the one who knew the way after all.

"So I suppose you have taken my advice to heart?"

"What advice?"

"From the last time you entered the tryouts?" he clarified.

"Oh, certainly. Between finding mouldy bread for myself and loose stones for this, I have had plenty of time to enact your request." I snort out quickly, making it clear if it wasn't already that I was not in a pleasant mood.

"Not too worry, I am allowed by charter to give you a preliminary exam."

"Great, a broken arm before I fail once more." I let out with a defeatist tone as I moved behind him as we entered the busier streets. And while he received looks of admiration and envy. I just got stares and the odd chuckle as they looked back at my careless beast.

"It would be appreciated if you tried to keep a positive attitude." he tells me.

"You aren't the one being hounded by slimey pricks because the idiots who led to your birth made the most stupid decision imaginable! So, forgive me if I am having trouble staying positive!" I snap up at him, drawing the ire of the respecting crowd.

"How dare you talk to a sworn rider like that!" let out one woman as she held something.

"Beast, peck." I ordered with grim amusement before its head lashed out at the basket I was pointing at. It didn't listen to me at all, but I had figured out that it at least knew what that word meant. Now if only it understood the rest...

"Yhrrarda..." Attandallan said disapprovingly before he flicked a coin at the woman's destroyed basket. A coin she quickly snatched up and pocketed while I shook my head.

"Just focus on getting me out onto the plains."

"Then act the part of a citizen."

"Right..." I mutter knowingly as this behaviour would only justify him locking me up. Then for what purpose did I spend so much time trying to teach this animal.

"I'll also say again, consider mounting up. We have a long way to go." he reminds me as we reach the top of a downward slope.

"Yeah, no." I say as I carefully watch the beast as it stared down the sloped, gravel road.

"When we are beyond the limits of the houses and shops." he adds on with a hearty laugh before he took advantage of the wide opening to leap away.

"Show off." I say before I began a careful descent with the beast. Essentially hugging its front to stop it from eve building up momentum and going off on one. And now that I was doing it, an earlier memory of mine regarding Attandallan came up. Of how he and the rest of his sworn riders mocked me for having such a creature...

But, now look at him, and look at me, best of friends...

"Its flat land from he-"

"I know!" I say as I move away from the beast and return to guiding it.

"Then mount up, we shall start your preliminary here." he tells me with a grin that I know was there!

"Bastard..." I let out before I looked up at my beast. It was far larger and bulkier than his juperse, so I had to do this differently. Especially when one considered my lack of training and fluidity in regards to all of this... Thankfully, however, there was some sturdy fencing I could use. So, with the makeshift steps, I got on top of my beast.

Clutching it tightly as it acknowledged the extra weight by trying to shake it off...

"STOP!" I roar against its head angrily before I harshly slapped at what was essentially its cheek. Then, with an equally aggressive kick, I got it to move forward. Though, it travelled slowly in comparison to the athletic juperse ahead of me.

"See, now, let's go." my pseudo-teacher ordered before he started to gallop off.

"Fine, forward." I told my beast as it started to move forward with growing speed. And while it was bumpy at first, a rhythm set in that made it easier to ride set in. Though, it left me shaken each time regardless as each stretch the beast made tore up earth and trampled grass. And, well, I was glad I was able to keep ahold of my rider's cloth.

My crotch would be having issues with the thick hide of this beast, otherwise. Yet, after I locked one arm around its neck, I decided to look back at the city. Or, rather, at the mountain it was built at the base of. Though it still required me to lie down to even catch a glimpse of the peak... It was easier to take it in from this growing distance.

"And to think you'll be enjoying this sight a lot more once you swear your oath!" Attandallan remarks as he brings in his juperse suddenly in from behind.

"D-Dammit!" I let out in fright, nearly losing my grip in the process while he laughed heartedly.

"We really need to have you buy yourself some reins!" he comments as he watches with inoffensive bemusement at my troubled riding style.

"Sure, just lend me the money." I bitterly tell him as well, it was not a secret that I had no money. But even as a joke, the idea of being lent money made me furious. There was just simply too many bad thoughts associated with it. And, to what was likely to its lamentation, the God and Goddess of Balance would find a strict bias in me for it.

"When you make that oath, I'd be more than happy to rally up some funds so that you may ride with us all." he tells me with an affirming nod to which I ended up hiding an embarrassed smile. It was moments like this that made me appreciate the fact he was looking out for me. Not that I would really ever come out and say it to his face.

"So I take it that it will be all the usual?" I ask him, speaking in regards to the things I did once we got there. To the Fortress of the Sworn Brotherhood of the Red Feather.

"Yes, it'll be all the trappings that you are familiar with." he answers before he brought his juperse to a halt at one of the rare rises in the plains. However, for me, it was a need to panic that forced me to suddenly force my beast's neck to one side. And in my heart and mind, I prayed again and again that he would not hit the rise.

"I'm sure he would've plowed through it effortlessly!"

"It's not him going through it that worries me..." I sigh out as the shakiness that had overtaken me slowly leaves me. If this beast had hit that rise, I would've been crushed under it or thrown right off its back as it crashed down again!

"You need to trust him more."

"I'll trust him more when he does more than smash what he can or peck it!" I snap back to him as I bring myself back up. Caressing my arm when I could in order to ease the tension that had built up in it. But, this beast being what it was, I often found myself just having to tolerate the aches and cramps.

"Hold on just a while longer, we are not far from a traveller's lodge." Attandallan tells me as he takes note of the injuries I have managed to build up. Be it either the swelling from earlier punches and grabs. Or, the abrasion I have had to deal with handling this beast.

"You're in for it if you are lying..." I groan through grit teeth as the cramps got particularly bad near my upper arm and shoulder.

"Alright, slow him down, now."

"Trying!" I say as I start to lash out at the beast as that was the only way I have learned to get him to slow down. However, being what it was, it meant when he did stop; I would slide right into its log-like neck. And I swore on my way down from the beast's back. Staring into one of its eyes from the side as it hesitantly watched a stone in the well-trampled road.

Just one of many poorly kept roads from the city and out towards the Great Kingdom Gate. A landmark I decided to stare at absently as Attandallan dismounted his juperse. Then, I switched over to watching how he treated his juperse. The skittish creature was like water in his hands...

And mine just tried to peck you if you so much as rubbed its scalp. Because somehow this thick-skinned brick could feel you when you did that. Yet, once my superior walked his juperse towards the stables, I did the same. And I made sure to take my spear and my rider's cloth before I locked it up with all the other animals.

Somewhat bemused by how high its head stood above them all. The beast and I then looked towards the same thing. The creature my family somehow bred him from? It was a peculiar thing to see if I was honest.

In comparison to the stabled-up farm animals, my beast was surprisingly slimmer. But, it's neck rose higher at a sharp angle while these ones kept it more in line with their spine. And although the bodies were thicker, my family's beast boasted thicker and far more coarse legs. With the front being quite exceptional displays of muscle in comparison.

Yet, for all their differences, it was clear my beast and these farm animals recognised each other. Although, in their own strange way, I was sure they did not know what they were looking at. But I am sure my beast would at least enjoy the company. He could eat rocks with the rest of his kind now.

"Alright, we're all paid for." Attandallan tells me as he leans out of the door of the surprisingly quiet establishment. However, I sort of got my answer as to why when I walked in with my stuff. Because the floors were stuffed with packed farmer's tools. It was more akin to a warehouse or some run-down shop right now!

"I thought we stopped so I could deal with these cramps?" I question once I saw him begin the process of taking off some of his armour. Something I only ever saw him do if he planned on resting for a prolonged period.

"Nothing wrong with taking it easy for the moment. Gives me plenty of time to talk your ear off." he explains then jokes.

"Right, preliminary." I comment as I got to massaging my arm while a waitress swerved up to us.

"What can I get you two fine men?" she comments with a smile, but it was clear to see she had some fantasies. But, I don't think Attandallan could say the same. So I huffed in amusement at the thought of her failed aspirations to be taken away on a galloping juperse.

"Nothing special, a filling warm meal for him and something to drink for the pair of us."

"You not going to eat?" I ask him with a curious brow raised.

"I have rations packed at all times, I'll just retrieve them in a moment." he answers with a shrug as he took the moment to polish his helmet. He even had a special little tool for pruning and brushing the large red feather coming out of its top. And, I stared, not at his actions, but at that red feather. An item that proved what he was more so than anything else.

"So how do you get these, again?" I decided to ask him as I carried on staring at the feather. Although, I asked a question about something I already knew the answer to. But I just liked to hear him explain the trial for it. It was something I dreamt about often when I could.

To walk down from the mountains that surrounded us with that red feather in my hand. And, although I would be bruised, exhausted and quite cold. I would be happy in that dream. Because now I was a sworn rider of the Red Feathers...

"Well, if you want to hear it again, sure," he laughs quietly as he starts to reminisce, "Once you have been approved by a small council following the exams. You and those who also succeeded will set out into the mountains. With the gear you arrived with, you'll then be expected to retrieve a feather from the famed bird of those mountains. The appropriately named Red-Feathered Ice Percher. Now, again, so long as it is a fresh, brightly coloured feather. It does not matter how you get it."

"So I could... Kill it or just snatch it?" I asked him with excitement all over my tone, pausing only briefly to accept my drink and my bowl of stew.

"So long as its colour is immortalised in your armour with this shade, yes. Personally, I slew the bird with my fellows when we went up into the mountains. And though it is not official, I am sure those I was with appreciated the easy-to-get feathers." he says with a growing display of smugness.

"I think I might be better off just trying to pick one off the ground." I comment with what must've either been humility or a pathetic lack of self-faith.

"That is probably the one way that is not allowed, although it is not officially in the rules you will be given."

"Does the snow steal its colour?"

"I don't personally know, I just know that those that the bird removes itself are never to the same quality." he answers with a shrug.

"Guess I will need to hope for a sword or something..." I quietly say as I look over at my spear while I up and turned the stew to let cold air into it. That thing was not designed for close quarters despite how often I tried to use it like that. It was for use atop the back of a juperse as you rode against the enemy.

At best the most use it would probably get is being a walking stick. At worst it was just a means to get it over with if I made a fatal error. But as I did not want to linger on the bad outcomes, I just focused on my food. My simple, but filling food that I was very thankful for.

"Eat it up, you'll need all the energy you can get."

"I think I could go for another." I remark as I dropped the empty bowl a small distance onto the table. Letting the wooden utensil inside rattle about as the bowl spun til it didn't no more.

"Maybe later." he laughs before he then pulls something out from one of his pouches.

"So, anyway, you said you were going to give me advice or something along those lines...?" I decided to ask him once I started to feel awkward about the quiet we were in. Just drinking from my cup didn't help either as the drink wasn't good enough to lose myself in.

"Yes, a few little things that I need to remind you as sincerely as possible to take to heart. Forgive me if I do sound pretentious getting this across to you, but I am no mudless rider. I am a veteran of several years and I have no plans to stop riding for quite some time." he tells me as any smiles and that disappeared.

"I understand." I say with a nod before he puts a hand to his ponderous expression.

"So, first off, there are some issues with how you control your mount. But, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt in that you have been forced to strip yourself of a lot of things up til now." he starts off with. And he was most certainly right. It even made me defensive about what little I did have left... I once had nearly the full list of gear that a rider was expected to have.

Now I had a tattered cloth and an aged stick.

"Another topic of issue is how you treat your mount, it is unacceptable. You need to urgently change course and figure it out. And while I promise to help how I can with it, I am sure you can also understand why I might not be a tremendous help..."

"Then I don't know what you expect me to do, that beast is a farm animal! Reared from the backend of one and it is most certainly built like one! Time and time again its-"

"I know it's frustrating, Yhrrarda, but please bear with me. But, your words bring up another point of contention. You need to stop calling it that. Name your mount, treat it like the partner it should be."

"Name it...? Well..." I question with a huff before I got to thinking of something. Oddly enough, however, I found myself not able to think of anything on the spot. Maybe it was the contempt I had for the beast holding me back. Noble names just did not fit it.

However, something did linger in my mind. And that was how it always pecked at everything. In comparison to his likely cousins outside. My best pecked while they slowly dug through the earth forcefully.

"Peck... Peck..." I began to repeat over and over as Attandallan looked at me closer.

"How about Yeckerh?" he offered before I suddenly tried to recall who that was. I know I knew that name before.

"Who?" I found myself letting out at the end of my fruitless mental attempts.

"The man who dug all the canals for the farms. From this side, to that side of the city. From one thawing mountain to another." he recalled with admiration as I finally recalled who it was.

"The Man who Never Gave Up..." I mutter as a title of that man came to my head.

"Well? It fits the... Determined nature of your mount, no?"

"Pyeckerh." I then let out as I figured out how to make it more appropriate for my beast.

"Pyeckerh? Well, we best head out and make sure he knows, then." Attandallan says as he gets up without so much as taking any of his things.

"Have you gone mad?" I asked him as I tried to grab my things before he started to drag me outside.

"No, but you might have if you have forgotten how fast I can give chase." he chuckles before he plants me before my beast. And, it turned to look at us the moment we appeared. With its head moving forwards as I moved slightly closer at the insistence of Attandallan.

"Well, I suppose I should take this off first..." I comment quietly as I removed the muzzle I had left on its splitting mouth. And, as if it had developed a stiffness of its own, it flexed its mouth about.

"Go on, tell him the good news, me and Jadniqq will make sure you do it right." he tells me with a smile as he strokes the head of his juperse.

"Yeah, yeah... Well, you have a name now, and it's Pyeckerh." I let out as quickly as I could before I rubbed the back of my head. However, my beast reacted to it differently and it raised its head. I wanted to believe it could grasp the concept of pride, but it ruined those thoughts by squawking.

Yeah, I was not looking forward to this...