Dragged through mud and blood

Before the sight of the great city of the capital of Sweden was a boy on a big sturdy black horse, riding forth.

The city loomed in front of him, nearing every minute, not knowing what he was about to take witness to.

Three years on the road, three years of pain, pleasure, and death has stalked the boy as he was on his "quest," but two months prior, he had heard that the king had died, which made him do a sloppy finish on his latest job before he set off to towards the capital Stockholm.

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What was the reason for all this madness, he asked himself, first the baron, then the ministry of Norrbotten, then Finland, how deep did this corruption really go?

Skymmning neighs as he rode. "What do you want now? Have you not gotten your food, eh? Don't be upset. We stopped not that long ago, and you refused to eat, and now you're like this. It's your fault. I don't see why I'm being dragged down because of you."

Skymmning began to slow down his speed and eventually came to a halt.

"What the actual fuck are you doing! We need to get to Stockholm as fast as possible! THE KING HAS DIED SKYMMNING!!!!!!!! Get a hold of yourself!" The boy screamed and pleaded to his very stubborn horse.

As they stopped, he saw a moment of people on the road in front of him *sigh* "why is it always like this" He said softly before he checked his weapons to see if they were armed and ready, and it seemed that it was the case, so he went from Skymmning and led him towards the closest tree along the road, and tied him to it.

The people on the road approached him slowly, they seemed like peasants, but it would not be the first time he met highway robbers, "Halt!" he screamed at them, and they came to a stop before him.

"State your business," He said. One of the older men came forth with a slightly bowed head and said, "Our business is in the city of Vaasa. and these are my sons. We are there to seek work as carpenters." the old man said

The boy looked at him for a moment before he laid his eyes on 'his sons.' They looked uncertain and a bit apprehensive, but he knew that almost everyone did that, even if they didn't have anything to hide.

He looked at Skymmning, who was grazing in the side ditch, and then back at the old man. "One never knows where looters and highway robbers might be, so be on your watch. And the city is about two more weeks on foot down this path I came from," The boy said before, walking towards Skymmning.

The old man took a flintlock pistol from his inner robe as he turned. And aimed it at the young boy's head, cooked the lock back, and was about to fire before a loud *bang* could be heard, and the old man had a gaping wound in his stomach. Another *Bang* reverberated across the small forest road as the old man had fired his shot, but his target had already moved to his side, holding a rapier ready to lash out at him.

"Good God!" was the last words that came from the old man's mouth before his throat was cut open and his blood began to pour on his worn-out clothes.

The boy slung his musket from his shoulder into his hands and aimed towards the three men still on the road. Another *Bang* and one of them fell *Thud*. The other two had now begun to move. Their resolve is hardened to make their living through robberies and slaughter as they have lived in absolute poverty. Now they saw a soldier with his colorful clothes in front of them, so why wouldn't they sacrifice their miserable lives to earn a year of wages by killing and looting just one person.

Greed had now taken over their sense of reason as they hadn't really thought of how skillfully this soldier had killed their comrades. One took out his shiv, while the other had a big hatchet in his hand. They moved fast with their slim bodies.

The boy had unslung his musket and fixed a bayonet on top of it, *sigh*, then one of the men arched his hand upwards, exposing his whole chest for the boy's bayonet to pierce. And so it did, a quick and precise strike, and it had pierced his heart with his elongated triangular knife.

He quickly pulled it out and raised the bayonet towards the last assailant, who swung his butcher's hatchet towards the boy who had just pulled out his bayonet from his chest. Then, in one flowing movement, he had put his Musket in a sideways block to prevent the hatchet from slicing up his stomach.

The blow was rather powerful, forcing his Musket sideways while saving his poor stomach from seeing the outside world. He twisted his musket so, making the hatchet fall to the ground, unarming the brigand, and making his right-hand side fully exposed to a liver kick which the boy promptly made.

The brigand fell to his knees, holding his stomach and groaning in pain, "Hey, why can't anyone actually fight?" The boy retorted to the groaning man before he stabbed him through the man's left eye embedding the whole bayonet into his skull. *Sigh* Heaving out a defeated sigh, the boy turned to his trusty steed, which was still grazing in the nearby ditch.

After looting the robbers of the little wealth they had. He looked at the ditch for a couple of seconds. He began dragging the bloodied corpses of the men through wet mud into the ditch and left them there to rot. Then presided to walk towards Skymmning and put all the valuables, in the saddlebags which were just some few filthy copper coins. And northwards they continued to ride.