The Raid

*knock* *knock* *knock*

Constantine jumps up from his sleep

*knock* *knock* *knock*

He shifts his eyes towards the door and yells,

"Yes? Who is it?"

"Sir! The Turks! They have launched a raiding party towards Selymbria!" yells out a guard as he throws open the door

"The Turks? Now?! Of course they come as soon as we were to depart! Go towards the living quarters and demand our forces mobilize! We can't let them raid freely!" yells out Constantine,

"Go fetch Nepotian and ask him to come to my room immediately!"

Constantine jumps from his bed and dashes over to his wardrobe to fit on a red tunic and linen pants

As he is fitting on his shirt, the door to his room creeks open as a young man enters in

"Kephale Constantine, you asked for me?"

"Yes, come in quickly, I need you to outfit me in my armor and prepare yourself afterwards to ride out for this battle." responds the kephale

Nepotian quickly walks over and begins to lay out the armor of the Kephale. First a pair of chainmail pants with leather boots is equipped to his lower half. Then, a chainmail hauberk is then equipped to cover his upper body.

Constantine looks over to his klivanion scale armor, light shining off of each individual scale as the sun gleams through the window.

"My armor Nepotian, I am ready."

Nepotian nods and begins to carefully equip him with his scale armor, covering his neck all the way to his pelvis. He then equips the armored gloves of the Kephale and a belt with his scabbard attached for his sword to hang from.

"One last thing Kephale Constantine." Nepotian says as he picks up a red cape

Nepotian then equips a long red cape with a medallion used to hold the two pieces of the cape together. It stretched down past his knees, yet not to the floor.

"Thank you Nepotian, now equip yourself and prepare to meet me in the city square, we will be moving out soon."

12 bodyguards come to escort Constantine and they proceed to the center of the city. Around him, Constantine sees dozens of citizens running towards the markets to buy produce as they expect the worse to happen. Many others also run to the churches to pray for safety to God.

A man soon approaches him and his bodyguards and begs, "Please Kephale, protect my family, I have come to Selymbria to sell the produce from our recent harvests. Protect them please, they are all I have!"

The bodyguards unsheathe their weapons and prepare to cut down the man who dared beg in front of one of the members of the Palaiologos family, however, Constantine holds out his hand to stop them and replies,

"Your family won't face harm, we will be departing soon to stop them from raiding past Selymbria, stand up and straighten yourself, everything will be fine."

The farmer thanks him for his life and promise then proceeds to walk towards the church in the center of town

Soon, Constantine and his bodyguards arrive in the city center, where hundreds of soldiers are gathered awaiting the command of the Kephale.

Domianus, seeing Constantine, jogs up to him and whispers, "We have a problem my friend, there is a large force of Turkish cavalrymen riding towards this area. If we let them pass, they may attempt to raid into the farmlands surrounding the area, which may cause famine if not worst, we must stop them here."

"This shouldn't be too much of a problem, we've beaten the back before. How many are there? Fifty, one-hundred, two-hundred?" replies Constantine

"No, more, they have over three-hundred cavalrymen raiding the area. Although we outnumber them, they outnumber us in terms of cavalry. If we make one wrong move in the upcoming battle, we will be routed." sighs Domianus

"A force of three-hundred?!" Constantine whispers angrily, some of the men around them shift their gaze towards Constantine, murmurs begin among the crowd as they began to worry

Constantine looks up towards his men and clears his throat, he then proceeds with his speech,

"My men, my friends, my people, the Turks have raided once again into Roman territory. This is nothing new, they have done this three times already this year, however, they've come with a larger force, a force of three hundred men strong."

The conversation between the soldiers grew and people began to worry

"We've repulsed them each time they've come! This will be nothing different. If we don't stop them here, they will go onto killing and slaughtering hundreds of people and farms outside the city, maybe even attempting to raid the cities themselves if we allow them. Will we let them kill innocents? Will we let them plunder the land of Rome, the great Rome which once ruled the Mediterranean? NO! Of course not! They shall face our wrath!" yells out Constantine

'DEATH TO THE ENEMY!'

'WE WONT LET THEM TAKE OUR LAND!'

The men shout with their voices ringing across the city

"Now, my men, follow me to battle, we will meet them outside of the city along the roads to Constantinople!"