The Slave

I was probably 12 at the time.

Full of life but at the same time convinced that the world is ending at the next turn of the seasons.

There can only be so much to do when you are herding sheep and if this is all there is to life, then I do not look forward to getting old at all.

I don't wanna be like gramps.

He has spent his whole waking hours counting sheep that I wondered,

"Gramps, what do you count when you wanna go to sleep?"

The drowsy old man jerked his walking stick and looked at me suspiciously.

"Huh?"

"Never mind…" I looked at the camp fire or what's left of it. Neither wanted to get more wood to get it going. I guess this is going to be one of those cold nights.

I wrapped my blanket closer to me and prepared to go to sleep.

I looked up and saw that the stars are particularly bright tonight.

The night sky fascinated me.

I was never one to be inside a tent if I can help it. The stars provided me with delight none of my family understood.

Tigers chased rabbits and monkeys across the night theater. Dragons raced with phoenixes. Bears stalked their prey and archers shot their fiery arrows into the darkness.

It suddenly grew dark and I rolled away.

I half stood; my dagger pointed at the very large poncho flapping in the wind.

It removed its gigantic sombrero and grinned at me.

"Sorry if I frightened you, young one…" he said in a rumbling voice that totally matched his gigantic figure.

"Who's there?" gramps asked in a quavering voice. He struggled to rise.

"Merely a passerby, sir", answered the visitor totally ignoring me while I tried to act menacing with my puny dagger in hand.

"Sir, indeed", chuckled the old man and sat down.

"Get some more wood, boy", he nodded vaguely at the empty darkness.

I grumbled my protest but still went to get some more fuel for the fire.

"Good lad"' I heard the stranger say as I went by him. It made me feel a bit better.

They were talking animatedly when I got back. Like some old friends that happened to meet again in the middle of this barren wasteland.

I noticed that the stranger is not a giant after all. He seemed to be scarcely bigger than me in the fire light.

Just more muscular…

No. Chiseled would be the right word. Like some reddish hardwood.

I tried to look at his eyes but I do not seem to see them very well. He didn't try to avoid my gaze, though.

All the same, I couldn't make out what his eyes looked like.

It bothered me a little but very soon, his melodious voice captured my attention and his eyes were the least of my worries.

"The boy seems to take interest in you, my good man", gramps winked at me.

"Aye?" the stranger turned to me and while he did that, he seemed to flicker out of my vision that I thought he vanished.

"Still here", he seemed to read my mind and I shuddered involuntarily.

My hand wanted to reach for my dagger but a voice is warning me not to do it.

"Perhaps it will do him some good to hear a different voice", my gramps said enigmatically.

"I'm sure it will", the stranger confidently replied as he added some wood to the fire.

Soon, the drowsy flame became a roaring fire. As it crackled and sent tiny glowing embers in the air, the stranger turned to me.

"Maybe you will remember me more kindly if I paid my intrusion with a story", he said.

"That won't be necessary, sir" I said but my posture betrayed me. I was already preparing to be more comfortable as I unconsciously waited eagerly.

"Alright", I said grudgingly but my mind is already captured by the promise of a good story.

Anything to break this monotony, I guess.

"What kind of story do you like?" he asked me.

"Not the kiddie kind", I said.

There was amusement in his voice but he never hesitated.

"There is one story that I know would interest you."

"Is it about fairies and dragons?" I sarcastically cut what he was about to say. I was beginning to feel anxious.

"No, it was about a knight and his battles with an evil horde that threatened the world", his voice changed as he said it.

The night seemed to have muffled all sound except his voice.

I was almost impressed.

"Were you the knight, in the story?" I insolently asked.

"Hush…but to answer your question, No."

"Were you there, at all? Or did you just hear it from somebody?" I couldn't help myself.

"I was there…as a slave to the hero of the story"

"A slave?" I was incredulous. There was nothing in his demeanor to indicate he was subservient but what do I know?

I was 12.

I entered into a contract with Edward's family long before he was born. It was a contract that can only end with death. Mine, or theirs. So it can be said that I was practically their slave. Although not the sort that they send to do errands. My job was much harder.

It involved murder.

Not the petty kind.

WAR.

There were at least five that I was part of. And on those five, Edward fought in three so you can say that among their family, he was the one I grew closer with.

You can say he was my friend.

The first war, I fought alongside his great grandfather. The two of us were responsible for more than half of the carnage.

It was necessary bloodshed. He was establishing a kingdom, afterall.

"Wait…Edward's grandfather was a king? I thought he was a knight?" I interrupted.

"Very perceptive. In those times, a king is also a knight. Not the kind that just sits on a throne. Now hush…"

The first king did not even talk to me. He just commanded me to kill his enemies. After that war, we never even saw each other again until the time he had to pass his throne to his son. It was as if he hated me. It didn't bother me. It was peaceful and it gave me time to think.

The second king was ruthless and he used me to kill in a war used to solidify their rule. I had no choice. I was bound by my oath.

After the 2nd war, I went into seclusion or rather the second king put me in seclusion. I stared at the same wall for a long, long time.

"Great guys, your friends", I really must stop interrupting.

"They were not my friends. Only one of them were…"

The 3rd king, Edward's father, was a kindly ruler. He was the one who took me from my prison and assigned me in the throne room. He was also the first one to thank me. Soon after, Edward was born and the king introduced me to my friend.

It wasn't appropriate for me to be with him in his young age so the king waited for Edward's coming of age ceremony before giving his consent for the young prince to keep me at his side.

The prince never went anywhere without me.

I was there when a young soldier was drunk enough to want to take his measure. I cut his head off before he could blink.

The whole army feared him at first.

Before another head could roll, they respected him.

I was there on his first war.

My third.

The lull during Edward's father's rule gave time for the more distant tribes to gain more power. It didn't take long before they gained enough false courage to try and rebel.

It was a short war. All Edward and I had to do was ride without the army. Just the two of us…and challenged the ambitious chieftain to a duel.

It was over in an instant. A chieftain's neck is no harder than anyone's.

Our time together were the best ones I had with anyone from that family. Edward, perhaps because he had no one else to talk to, poured his heart out to me. He talked incessantly on the journey back home. I learned a lot about him although I don't think he learned anything about me.

It's okay.

There will be enough time for that later.

I was also there when he had his heart broken for the first time. I wanted to skewer the pompous ass who won the girl's heart especially when he gloated to Edward on their wedding day.

Curiously, it was Edward's restraint that won me over. If this happened a few years back, that blowhard��s entrails would be pouring out right that minute.

My friend was maturing. So was I.

On his first war, he fought for order.

On his second, he fought for love.

It was a small duchy near the border of his kingdom. By that time, the old king was nearing his time and my friend is practically running the kingdom.

His advisers told him to leave it alone for the gain would not outweigh the losses.

Normally, he would listen.

Not that time.

The reason was the very lovely daughter of the duke.

The neighboring kingdom's prince wanted her for a bride so they forced a war with us and take that duchy as a ransom.

Pretty dirty way to court a lady, if you asked me.

Edward, took 50 of his best men and marched against the wishes of the council.

Of course, he had me.

Their ten thousand strong foot soldiers were no match for Edward's light cavalry. It took a week for them to realize that we have been nipping them at the edges effectively while reducing their mobility to forage for food.

Their supply line was the first thing we hit and that effectively decided the whole thing.

It just took them too long to fully realize it.

I was at their side on their wedding.

After that, I haven't seen much of Edward.

I understand.

Ah, to be young and in love.

The last time I was with my friend, it was also his third and last war.

This time, he fought for survival.

This war, he can blame on two of his mistakes.

One, he let his kindness rule him. He never finished the prince of the rival kingdom.

Yes, the bastard who started a war to get a girl.

Two, he never had any ambition of conquest. He was content to run his little kingdom while others never stopped their greed.

These two mistakes combined against him and came as a half million soldiers all blinded by mad ambition and greed.

I wanted to tell him to run away; that I wanted to see him more as a father to his small family than a king to a kingdom.

It was not my place to do that. It was not my place to tell him anything.

It was the other way around.

"This has taken a rather sad turn. I don't think I wanna hear anymore", I said and he must have heard a catch in my voice that he stopped and looked at me for a moment.

"You have a good soul, lad. You remind me of someone", he said.

"…But even if you don't want to hear, I have to tell it to the end or the story doesn't mean much. Besides, it gets better."

"Nothing that ends in death is better…" I sadly and sleepily waved for him to go on. I was almost crying.

Edward and I have been fighting for days.

The last wall before the castle was littered with the dead and the dying.

I lent him as much strength as I could but he was literally chasing his next breath.

He and the kingdom were living on borrowed time.

"Durandal, you and I had some good times, eh?" Indeed, we had.

"This horde is not human…" He finally noticed but I kept quiet. It was in my nature to sense these things and I immediately knew that the army we were facing were possessed by a supernatural hunger.

"Even with just you and I, we would have defeated them on the 3rd day", he panted while parrying a clumsy sword swing and returning with a devastating slash.

"These will not be content with mere victory. They want to devour!", he said with horror.

With that realization, he ordered the rest of the army to withdraw. He also asked them to take the royal family somewhere safe while he delayed the enemies long enough for everyone to gain safe passage.

"Old friend, let's go", he held me tight as if to borrow some more strength.

If I had more to give, I would. I wanted to tell him once more to run away.

Some other time, he might have run away.

Not then.

Especially after what happened next.

The castle behind us erupted in flames and as much as we wanted to block the screams emanating from beyond its walls, we couldn't.

The enemies discovered the secret passage and used it to go around us. We were trapped.

Doomed.

A change came over Edward. An icy calm suffused him and he began to methodically chop at the enemies around him. His swings tripled in speed and ferocity.

I can feel his fury mingled with the horror that he is now the last of his bloodline.

His family is no more.

He howled an inhuman sound as he became a mindless agent of destruction.

I can no longer feel his heart. It is going to be consumed until…

"Edward, it is over", I said as I held his arm.

HELD HIS ARM!

I am free. The contract is over.

I looked at the broken person laying before our feet.

I looked at his disbelieving and grief-stricken spirit.

I hugged my friend for the first and last time before the wind carried the last remnant of his soul.

"You are Durandal…" I said already half-asleep. I closed my eyes and dreamt of knights and wars from far away.

I woke up, first noticing the ash blown by the wind and I wondered briefly if I am still dreaming.

I sat up and looked at gramps. He was no longer there.

That was when I saw the tall sword stuck by its blade on the ground wrapped in Durandal's poncho. For a moment, I thought I saw him there but it was only the sword.

I got up and approached the sword.

On its pommel is a red gem.

I touched it and in an instant, I knew what Durandal's eyes looked like.

I looked at the distant horizon and smiled as bright clouds raced in the blues sky I have ever seen.