The Beginning of a Journey

Of all the days of my life, the one I awaited most was the day I would be chosen for the raids.  They would only send those warriors who were qualified for the task, and to be chosen was a great honour.

This very spring, I received word that the Earl had a special task for those he thought fit.  I was among a select group who had received word, and one of even fewer who had accepted.  Some of them surely declined out of fear, for the tasks of the Earl were infamously dangerous.  Or perhaps they refused out of pride, at having to prove themselves at all. 

I was happy to prove myself.  All I had asked for, since I had begun training, was to be given that chance.

When I told my parents about the Earl’s request, they were silent at first.  To my surprise, it was my mother who spoke up first.

“My daughter, you don’t even know what the Earl is asking you to do...” she began.

“It could be a suicide mission, and for what?  Another one of the Earl’s mad quests for some ancient artefact?  For something long buried and better left forgotten?”

I felt my face flush with excitement and anger.

“You can’t tell me not to go.  I can do what I will with my own life” I stated brazenly.

My mother smiled, and I immediately felt myself begin to calm.

“I wouldn’t try.  I respect you, and I know you well enough to know you wouldn’t listen” she half-joked.  “But are you sure that this is what you want?”

I nodded.  I was absolutely certain.

“When do you leave for this ‘task’?” my mother asked.

“I head out tonight for the Earl’s keep, in order to leave at daybreak” I informed her, uncertain how she would take this last piece of news.

Before she could say anything, my father gave a heaving sigh and stood up, towering over both me and my mother.

“Well come on,” he said in his deep and husky voice, “give your mother and I a hug before you rush out then.”

I embraced them and gladly took their blessing for my journey.

Only hours later, I headed away from my home and travelled to the Earl’s keep, from which my adventure would begin.

Even as early as that night, I began to sense the same strange heaviness that the Earl’s seers had alerted him to weeks earlier, unaware that my journey would take me to the very place from which that fog of uncertainty and apprehension flowed...