Training & Adventures

They where standing in Captain Roy´s backyard, which was more of a training venue than a traditional backyard, weapons, shields, bows and arrows everywhere. Right then and there Cassius realized that Roy had nothing but his skills and nothing else. He had stayed with him for two weeks, recovering from his injuries, which where inflicted by Roy, where he realized he had no one, no wife, no kids, nothing to bear the legacy of Captain Roy Collymore, former captain of a legendary platoon in the Cormyrite army, the only thing he had, was his knowledge of warfare.
“ Ready yourself boyo ” Roy said while he removed the spiked ball from his flail, only to replace it with a “ training ball,” one only meant to hurt, not to kill.
Cassius had already donned his chainshirt and dastanas, he picked up the axe and braced himself into battle position on the sparring ring.
“Ye´ve got to be jokin´ ?” The captain spoke quite distasted.
Cassius looked like a big question mark from that remark.
“What?” he replied. “Don´t ye want a shield? Or another weapon in yer other hand?”
Cassius looked down at his hands, still looking like a question mark, then returned his look to Roy. “Why?” he replied, not understanding why he couldn´t use just the axe. “Why?” Roy blustered. “because, if ye are goin´to fight like that, you got to be able to take hits, alot of them, and im sure i can´t convince ye out of that armour into a heavyer one! ” Roy walked up to him and continued. “ An´ ontop of that, ye have to be very strong for it to be effective!
Yer small! ”
Cassius´s only reply was his glare, the glare which said “ This is how i fight! ”
Roy looked at him disapointed, and started to walk to his end of the sparring ring, picking up his shield. “ Have it your way boyo, but don´t say i didn´t warn ya! ” As he released the last word he slammed the flail into his shield in a provoking manner.
“ C´mon boyo, show me what ye got! ”
Roy Shouted. Cassius charged at him, with axe in both hands, axe low first, but as he came closer he raised it overhead, with a powerful downward thrust, as the axe was halfway to it´s destination (Roy´s head) Roy lashed out with his flail, at the axe, ball and chain wrapping itself arround the handle, then Roy jerked it back, disarming Cassius, but he did not leave it at that, because Cassius´s momentum was at full speed, so Roy used the opportunity bash him with his shield, right at his face.
Cassius´s speed and that awesome blow caused fall backwards, with a heavy thud, for he didn´t just fall to the ground, he was bashed into the ground, rebreaking his nose.
But he refused to look broken again infront of this man, for this was not the only embarrasing spectacle where Captain Roy Collymore was playing with him at the bar, showing how much a a superior fighter he was, so Cassius rose back up, with a small wince, not from the nose,
for some of his ribs where broken, and he still had glass in his body after being thrown into dozens of bottles, yet he rose again, defiance ruling all the way.
Cassius returned to his side of the ring, eyeing Roy, trying to figure out how to hit him, he wasn´t afraid of if he would actually make a successful hit, it wouldn´t hurt for he wore a thick plated armour.
He charged again, starting his move exactly like before, but this time, right before he came into Roy´s threat range, he started a fast pivot, to gain more power into his blow, (on top of that, it was more stylish) but exactly same thing happened, Roy disarmed him launching the axe way back, this time slamming Cassius in the back, making him turn, and receiving the ball of the flail, into his face, falling back to the ground.
“No no no no no no!” Roy spatted as he shook his head. “Let´s try it again.”
Cassius was spatting every curse known to man from agony, his nose was so broken he couldn´t breath through it, but he would not give up, not to him, never again. This routine continued several times, being disarmed and being beaten endlessly, at the end Roy snapped and started to shout. “ No no no no no! ” tramping at the mud angrily. “ I would´ve thought you would´ve figured out what to do! ”
Cassius stared at him, short for breath, some of his ribs had re-broken, earlier he took a heavy blow to the knee, so it was very painful for him to stand, but he wouldn´t give up, not to him, not to anybody.
“ Figured what out? ” Roy returned the stare. “ what happens when you charge at me? ” Cassius shifted his position thinking about the obvious reply.
“ You disarm me, and beat me arround! ”
A condecending grin came to Roy´s face “ And that means? ”
Cassius´s face lightened up as he understood what he was talking about.
“ I don´t charge at you, i wait for you to charge at me. ”
Roy broke into full smile and said “ exactly! ”
Roy raised his shield hand, positioning his hand and shield behind his head.
“Ready boyo?”
Cassius Shifted his stance into battle stance, both hands on the axe, he was never before more ready as he nodded his head. Roy began swinging his flail in front of himself, into a “8 lying on the side” rotation and began his slow advance, Cassius watched, carefully, trying to see some openings, as Roy advanced the swinging of his flail became faster with every swing.
As Roy was five feet from him, he readied himself, and he backed five feet, and fell into a crouching stance, at the spoken moment Roy was in his face,
Cassius slammed with the flat of the blade at the flails ball, backing again, but Roy continued like nothing happened, this Cassius did again, slamming the ball, and retreating again, again Roy acted as nothing happened.
This time Cassius had something else in mind.
When Roy returned into his threat range Cassius attacked again, but he changed the angle of the axe, as the axe hit the ball, he also managed to hook into the end of the chain, he pulled it down, taking Roy´s balance, but as they went lower the axe lost the grip of the ball, also seeing Roy was almost on his knees.
Cassius pivoted arround, swinging the axe to gain momentum, completing the pivot with the overhead power attack came slashing down at Roy, but as Cassius was slamming down,
he saw that Roy had turned arround, his back facing him, his shield facing him.
It was going to fast, he couldn´t stop the axe, he saw he had made a serious mistake.
Just before the axe hit the shield he saw the flail swinging back, the axe hit with all of his power, but at the same time he felt a ball and chain arround his ankle, and someone pulling hit, very hard.
Cassius was yanked to the ground, he fell flat on his back, he moved to stand up but then the Captain jumped back, on top of Cassius, shield first, into his face, Roy was on his back, still holding the flail, he shook it to free it from his leg, then turning to face Cassius, he got to his knees, still on top of him, Cassius quite dazed from that hit from the shield,
Roy placed the edge of the shield at his throat, pressing it hard at his throat, also raising his flail, ready to strike. At that moment Cassius came back to his senses, realizing that his training just went way out of line, and that it was extremely hard to breath, also noting Roy´s position, that if he would hit him, he would surely kill him.
“ Hit me again I ain´t dead yet!! ”
Cassius yelled accusingly, Roy´s face truly showed that just now he realized that he had been too brutal.
“ Hit me again i ain´t dead yet!! ” He yelled again, following a glare that could kill someone. Captain Roy raised his shield from his throat, but at that same moment as he had lifted the shield just a few inches, Cassius raised his right hand, at the same time raising himself, pushing the shield aside, and launching a left hook in Roy´s face.



Roy sat on top of a box, his hand on his cheek, rubbing his sore cheek, from Cassius´s left hook, sitting next to him, an also battered Cassius, but far more bloodier. A broken nose beyond belief, black eyes, broken ribs and a battered knee and a countless number of lesser wound,.this was an training exercise gone wrong!
“I´m sorry boyo, i was to hard on ya.”
Cassius looked at Roy, the same face upon him the day when Captain Collymore decided to spare his life. “Well i´m sorry for punching you.” Cassius uttered almost under his breath, barely hearable. “ Nah, i deserved that! ” Roy spoke with some jest in his voice.
“A mighty blow from such a small fella!” Cassius brought forth a smile, looking at the ground. It was a mighty blow, sure Cassius caught him of guard, that alone being no small feat, but that hit had really hurt, a thing Roy would never acknowledge to anyone, by just saying that the blow was powerful hinting that he was hurt, was the most that Captain Roy Collymore could ever acknowledge.
“ From now on, we´ll take it easier boyo! ”



The next few weeks went without an injury, although the current injuries were enough, the Captain wanted him to rest but Cassius wouldn´t hear of it, he wanted to train.
Roy was impressed but disapointed at the same time with Cassius Severius, he recognized that the boy was incredibly strong, dramatically for his size, he was quite limber, which matched his size normally. He had the potential, but did he have the ability?
His footing was terrible, his every blow was made of power, (which in it´s own was good) but not made of accuracy, which is dreadful for any warrior!
In those weeks his ability did increase, but nothing miraculous, but still his footwork was awful.
One morning, Cassius woke up at the roosters call, he got out of bed, it was a beautiful summers morning, but something seemed out of place. Soon he realized what was out of place, when he was putting on his clothes, they where clean, with the odour of the summer flower arround them.
He walked towards Roy´s room, expecting him to be asleep, (as he always where during this “Unholy hour” as he always put it ) but when he looked inside he saw that Roy was packing his gear. “Good mornin´ boyo, start packin´ your stuff.”
Cassius realized that Roy was very clean, the most clean in those two months he had known him.
“Don´t tell me that you washed my clothes?” Cassius asked as he tugged at his shirt.
“ By the gods hell no! ” Roy replied sounding offended. “ It´s a womans job, i got that beautiful lass next door to clean our clothes. ”
“ How much did you pay her ? ” Cassius asked in humor.
“ Just some of me sweet lovin´. ”Roy replied, leaning back, with a smile on his face.
Both of them shared a laugh, but out of the sudden Cassius´s face became very serious.
“No, really? How much?”
Roy became a little embarrased, scratching the back of his head.
“Well if ya have to know, i promised her that you would fix her roof.”
Cassius´s face became red with anger, and smoke practically streaming out of his ears.
“What ?” He said with a very serious and angry tone.
Roy´s face wen´t blank, then he broke into histerical laughter, falling even to the floor, but it was the other way arround on the otherside, Cassius was so angry that he was about to explode, he was fighting with every muscle of his body not to attack the lying man.
“ I was just jokin´ Cassius ”
Roy managed to squeak between laughs. “ The lass does it for me all the time ”
Cassius managed to calm down, he looked at this older man, still fighting for breath, lying on the floor.
“ Where are we going ?” Still with a certain degree of anger in his tone.
“We´re going to Sembia.” Roy said, very sure of himself.
Cassius´s face went sceptic, not liking the idea, for many Sembians do not like Cormyrites, and many Cormyrites do not like the Sembians, although Cassius was not a part of that group, but still just being there the could cause trouble.
“Doing what?” Cassius said with an callous tone. “ We´re doin´ a mission! ”
Roy replied as he stood up.
Cassius did not like the idea, he knew that Captain Roy was a “ War hero” by the words of Gendolar and Lemy, but no longer in the military was he, not for a long time he figured, what kind of a “ mission ” does an ex-captain in the Cormyrite military get in Sembia?
Mercenary missions?
Cassius did not like it, for he had spent the last eight years at Justitia Sanctum, the temple of Hoar, a temple who handled trials, executions, and general lawman duties in the area, that was something he was not ready to forsake.
He stared hard at the Captain, he realized as he stood up how clean he really was, he was wearing a fancy breastplate armour, so shining that you could og blind by staring at it for long,
he had cut his hair, his wyly beard was neatly trimmed, he even had an eye patch to conseal his destroyed eye, he looked like a respectful noblesman, by all account, still, he had his suspicions.
“ If this mission of yours is illegal in any way, i will have no part in it! ”
“ On the contrary boyo! ” Roy said with an encouraging tone. “ we´re goin´ to escort a former guild master to Cormyr ”
Cassius liked that better than his original thought, but still, something was fishy about this. “Why?”
“Why when what what yer full of questions aren´t ye!” Roy bluttered anoyingly.
“ He´s going to assist the Sembian goverment to eraticate orginized crime in various cities, including the damned capital, he will do so here in Cormyr, ´cause it ain´t safe for him in Sembia. ”
Now that was more of his liking, but at the same time frightening, this could mean alot of trouble them, if attacked, which was likely.
“Why you?” Cassius asked.
“Another why out of ye and i´ll snap yer nose again!” Roy yelled, very annoyed, but then he regained his calm and continued. “ Because i know him, very well, he asked for me. ”
For some reason, Cassius was not overly surprised.
Roy closed in on Cassius, staring him in the eye.
“ Now i ask ye boyo, a very important question, a question you must anwer before we go, it´s essential that ye give me an honest answer. ”
Cassius nodded, waiting for the question.
“ In case if we run into trouble, are ye ready to take a man´s life, if needed? ”
That question stirred in Cassius, it rattled his mind, he wasn´t sure he could, even if he had it in him by any mesure, but still the answer was yes.



Two weeks they had spent travelling towards the Sembian boarder, they came through Suzail, to meet up with a few men who were supposed to ride with them, to be an additional escort.
It came as a big surprise to Cassius to see who those men where, they where
Royal Purple Dragon Knights, which was the most honourable postition that any
Cormyrite soldier could ever dream to achive. Cassius knew there was something more going on than he was being told.
They where five, all looking like the embodiment of heroism, truly knights in shining armours, literally.
Their captain, Captain Valtyr D´more, was the most impressing of them all, he had this aura of confidence, courage and loyality arround him, that alone making such a man a worthy foe to any man, besides the fact that the man towered 6,5 feet, and at least 250 pounds of pure muscle. During their travel Cassius spoke alot to Captain D´more, finding him a pleasurable company, listing kindness as one of his greatest traits, but also Cassius made one discovery, Captain D´more and Captain Collymore knew each other, but they weren´t saying it, it was more that wasn´t said, the occational glares they made at each other, from time to time, they where glares of mutual restpect, and of mutual contempt, a wierd thing to intertwine, the thing that was making the trip weirder, that they only spoke to each other when they had to.
When they reached the Sembian boarder, Captain D´more announced that the Purple Dragons do not cross the boarder, Cassius and Captain Collymore did not disagree with that, because they attracted alot of attention this band of knights, on top of that, although they where working with the Sembian goverment (which was indeed rare) the precence of
the Purple Dragon Knights in Sembia could be interpreted as a declaration of war, so Cassius and Roy passed the boarder on their horses.
Ten minutes passed the boarder Cassius was thinking about that interesting stalemate of silence of that trip, dying to know the two captains history.
“ Two hours through their wetlands, there we´ll find ´em. ” Roy said, dryly and agitated.
“ You and Captain D´more know each other? ” Cassius asked, eyeing Roy.
“ Yer curiosity is gonna kill ye one day. “ Roy replied stoically. Cassius wouldn´t back down, he was curious, maybe it would kill him one day.
“ So your saying you do know him? ”
Roy stared at Cassius, still stoical, then crept a small smile upon his face, he raised his left hand to his face, and tapping with one finger at his nose.
“Don´t ye recognize the nose?”
Then Cassius remembered that Captain D´more´s nose showed that it had been broken several times.
“You taught him ” Said Cassius, with alot of enthusiasm and a new found respect for Captain Roy, as it was alot before.
Roy just nodded and kept riding.
“ Have you trained alot of the Purple Dragons? ” Cassius asked, like he was a little child.
“More than i can count, and more than i can remember.” He replied, with a proud tone.
“ Then why arent you in the Purple Dragons ? ” Cassius asked again, still like a child.
Roy stopped immediately, with a sour face, but Cassius was so excited that he didn´t notice it, he rightfully was, he felt honoured to be in the precence of the Purple Dragons, for they where the heroes of Cormyr, every man, woman and child would be honoured to have them in their homes, but there, Cassius was in awe of the revelation that his mentor, Captain Roy Collymore, was the trainer of the Purple Dragon Knights.
“ I was, and if another question out of you for the next two hours i will snap yer nose again! ”
“ Did you ever….. ” Roy slammed his shield in Cassius´s face, snapping his nose, again.





“I´m getting tired of waiting!” One of the guards snapped, leaning at a tree, scracting his head.
“Then you will get tired of waiting! ”
Como Metorio snapped back at the guard, almost juming out of his coach, he was also tired of waiting, but he was more tired of listening to the guards compaining about their tired of waiting.
They had been waiting there for two days, and every passing minute was more boring then the last one. More than that, Como was scared, he was scared that the other guildmasters would catch him before he would make it to Cormyr, he was even more afraid that some of the guards were on the guilds payroll, they didn´t even look like guards, they looked more like ruffians and bandits.
Como sat back into his coach, in his thick fur coat, made from an Rashemi snow tiger, worth more than all of the guards fee for this trip all together,not mentioning that all of his fingers had gold rings, most decorated with emeralds, worth three times the trips fee.
He looked arround himself, again, a thing he did every minute, curling nervously at his curly brown hair, tugging at his short, fine groomed goatee, he felt as if he would die any minute.



Cassius and Roy saw the coach in the woody wetlands, they approached as obviously as they could, when they where fifty feet away the guards finally noticed them, at that moment the dozen guards lined a formation, constantly shouting frantically, an un-organized bunch they where.
“ Filthy mercenaries ” Roy spat angrily.
Cassius looked his way, still angry over his broken nose. “ Are you qualified to judge about that? ”
Roy´s face lit up like a candle, as if he had insulted him.
“Me? Boyo i´ll knock all yer teeth out if ye say somethin´ like that again! ”
Not another word came out of his mouth, he knew that Roy would do it.
When they where ten feet away from the guards they still couldn´t dicern what they where saying, but then a pompous looking figure stepped out of the coach.
“ Shut up you distusting pieces of low life son-of-an-orc brigands! ”
Como yelled with determination and power, he was more though than he looked.
Not another word came out of the guards, especially the half-orc.
“ See, you can do that without breaking my nose! ” Cassius said with sarcasm in his tone.
“Well yer right…but it´s less fun.” Roy replied with a chuckle.
“ Well isn´t it Roy Collymore! ” Como boasted. “The one and only!”
Roy replied also in a boasted manner, he jumped of his horse to salute the man, they seemed friendly towards each other, not like they where long lost friends or anything. “What happened to your young friend?”
Como asked Roy, Roy looked at Cassius, regarding his nose. “ his curosity got the best of him. ” A grin came upon Como´s face, as if he understood the joke.
Soon after, they where on their road, back to Cormyr.






Captain D´more and his four valiant men where at ease, as they where waiting for Cassius and Roy, after two hours, one of his men, Otto Benzon, the youngest in the group, was growing impatient. “ Captain, why are w even dealing with those Sembian scums? ”
Captain D´more, looked his way, not losing his stoic posture. “Because we where ordered to, thats why”.
“We should just leave that disgrace of a soldier Captain Collymore in Sembia, where men of his kind deserve to be left behind.” Otto bluttered, thinking himself a tough guy, making such statements.
The four other Purple Dragon Knights present, all faced Otto, all angry stares, Otto sure did regret saying that, just judging from the angry stares.
“ What? ” Otto said sheepishly.
“ Captain Collymore has made many mistakes in his life, but when you dare to call him a disgrace, you are calling all of us a disgrace! ” Captain D´more replied, a bit less stoic then before. “ For he was my mentor. ” Captain D´more added. “ He was also a mentor to us! ”
Reuel Fishburne, the oldest in the bunch, closing in on forty, added, referring to
Ian Creed-Miles, and Berwick Le Blanc, the other two Purple Dragons present.
Otto really didn´t want to be there.
This embarrassing moment did pass, still Otto looked like he wanted to find himself a cliff to jump off.
Roughly two hours passed, long and dull hours, and the scenery didn´t help, they where south of the thunder peak mountains, a forsaken swampland, neither the Cormyrites or the Sembians wanted anything to do with this derelict waste lands.
Soon past their four hours in wait, a stage coach, a dozen men, two horses and only one rider came out of the forest, Captain D´more and his mean feared the worst, but what they didn´t know that Roy was inside the coach, keeping Como Metorio safe from everyone and anything. As the coach had crossed the boarder, D´more and his men rode hard towards them, seeing the dirty dozen, flanking the coach, and Cassius, riding next to the coach, it´s windows draped, his nose broken, and Roy´s horse next to him.
“ What happened? ” Captain Valtyr D´more asked with an puzzled grit upon his face. At that moment, he saw someone lifting up on of the drapes in the coach, and an old gritty face popped out. “ He put his nose where it didn´t belong! ” was followed by laughter from Roy, and the Purple Dragons, except for Otto, he was in no mood for laughing.



Only after minutes of travel the the strife between the rivaling countries began to show, indirect insults where thrown back and fourth, and both sides where equally guilty, especially Otto.
Cassius and Roy had no part of those arguments, for Cassius was so young, also being raised at the Justitia Sanctum, where he was sheltered from such strifes.
There where very diffirent reasons why Roy didn´t, for starters, he was inside the stage coach almost the whole time, and for seconds, he wasn´t even from Cormyr, he moved to Cormyr from The Savage Frontier when he was eight years old, The Savage Frontier is as harsh, cruel and dangerous land, danger looming from every corner, besieged by orcs, goblins and many other unsavory races.
But it was like that always for Captain Roy, for when he was young man he joined the military, trouble seemed to hunt this man, though he almost always came on top.
It took some time to get the coach out of the wetlands, for it was made for solid roads, not swamps, but they made it eventually, taking full two days, which did not improve the morale of the pestering guards.
Tension rose with the following days, Roy was grateful to the gods that they only had to escort him to Marsember, which was relatively close to the border, although they where not using the common roads, which infact they where avoiding.
At the fourth day, it was raining as if all the gods where crying, morale was low, really low.
“ Anymore of this i will go insane and i will kill someone! ”
One of the guards yelled at the coach, eyeing the coach, thinking about that pompus prick, Como Metorio, who was all dry and warm, inside the coach.
“ Find yourself a cow for that, because that is the only thing you can kill! ” Otto Benzon repied angrily, also agitated.
“ You Purple Kobolts sure have a big mouth don´t ya! ” the guard shot back, with every intent to insult, bringing laughter to the guards.. All of the Purple Dragons dismounted, except for Captain D´More, Otto walked into the guards face, eyeing him intimidatingly, with the other three besides him, despite of Captains D´more´s direct order to stand down.
“ You do have a death wish don´t you? ” Otto said without breaking the threatinging eye contact.
“ No less than you Pink Kobolt Women!” The guard spat back, literally, in his eye, Otto dried the spit out of his eye, and then punched the guard in the face, knocking him down.
At that moment the place turned into a brawl.
Captain D´more dismounted the second the first punch landed, then he moved into the rumbling chaos which was twelve guards, against four elite Purple Dragons, where he was trying to stop the fight, little did it do, nothing more but joinging the fight involuntarily, Cassius dismounted, reaching the inside of his coat, handiling the shaft of his axe, not knowing what to do.
After a minute of fighting, Roy jumped out of the coach with his shield, not to help the Purple Dragons, but to stop the fight, for the guards where taking a serious beating.
“ Stop fightin´ ye mindless donkeys ” Roy shouted as he moved towards the fight, he walked passed Cassius, which was standing next to the coach, to the fighting mob, his shout had no impact on the men, Captain Roy entered the fighing area, with his shield raised as some men tried to punch him, at that moment one of the guards stepped behind Roy, drawing a knife, Cassius saw it.
Cassius charged ahead, bringing forth his marvelous axe, running as fast as he can at the knife holding guard, which was uncomfortably close to Roy´s neck with the knife.
Cassius plowed passed two guards, running them over, reaching the guard with knife in hand.
Still in full flight, he brought up the axe, and whipped the axe sidelong into the guards back.
The sound of his ribs crackling from that mighty blow, and the airless howl from the guard, for his lung was collapsed, stopped the fight, turning heads at Cassius.
The guard was still standing, but started to collapse to the ground, releasing the axe´s hold of him, Cassius was frozen, he didn´t belive he did that, he didn´t belive he just took someones life.
The only sound was silence, the guards nor the Purple Dragons belived what happened, though they saw the knife in his hands before he fell.
“ This is what happens when we fight, now pants up, take the body and lets keep goin´! ”
Roy said, hoping to break the tension, which was culminating, they went into motion, collecting their dead comrade, reading to travel again.
Roy stepped back into the draped coach, sitting down next to Como.
“ Where did you get these brigands Como? ”
Roy said with distaste in his voice, looking over to Como.
Como didn´t answer, because instead of a throat there was a bloody hole.
Roy jumped back in his seat, giving a yell of surprise and alarm, he jumped back out,everyone looking at him, wondering what was going on.
“ Search and comb the perimiter, Mr.Metorio is dead, Sembian guards inner perimiter two groups, Purple Dragons outer perimiter go go! ” Roy yelled with authority, ordering everyone arround, the Purple Dragons bursted into motion, mounting and moving out, but the guards where like they didn´t know what to do, Roy looked to Cassius with a face which he had never seen before, this wasn´t Roy, this was Captain Collymore, the seasoned war veteran.
“Ye take six and move south, i´ll take the rest.”
Captain Collymore mounted his horse, as did Cassius, he repeated the same sentance to the guards, and they rode the seperate ways.
Cassius wasn´t to sure what to do, he had never before commanded men before, and he reckoned that the guards he was commanding where more seasoned than he was.
They moved into the forest, which was just next to the road, it was very dark in there, and further they went into the forest, the darker it became, Cassius ordered them to spread out, forming a line lesser then thirty feet from each other, and not turning on their torches, for that would give away their position.
Cassius rode ahead, back and forth, side to side, trying to cover as much ground as he can, but hardly seeing anything came as an great disadvantage.
They had been out there for an hour, the place getting darker by the minute, also not helping was the heavy rain, Cassius took another scouting patrol, then moving back to the guards, as he got closer, he heard heavy thumps.
He moved closer, trying to see in this darkened forest, he continued to move, then he felt as the horse stepped on something.
He moved to see what it was, dismounting, bending over, trying to adjust to the darkness, all of the sudden he realized what it was, it was one of the guards, he was dead.
It came as a shock to Cassius, he jumped back, for he was startled, two dead people in one night, it was too much for him, he turned arround to mount, but then he saw it, a dark form of a man, at least he thought, with cat eyes, just standing there, looking at him.
Cassius froze at his feet, especially when he noticed the other guards, dead at his feet.
The cat eyed man continued to stare, a dead eye stare from these devious looking green/yellow cat eyes.
“ You have a chance boy, i came here only to kill one, but now i have killed seven, you can be the eight if you want, but being this is such a beautiful night, you can live, if you go back. ”
Cassius still stood frozen, petrified, then he scrambled to his horse.
“ If i ever see you again, i will kill you! ”
Cassius was so afraid, he rode away as fast this old horse could muster.
Riding in the dark thick woods, raindrops stinging his eyes, no visability, this young petrified boy was lost beyond his senses, riding in full flight in the woods, but all of the sudden he felt as he was falling, he was, the horse collapsed.
He flew of the horse, into a giant oak tree, bouncing of it, into a thick grove, unconscious.

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