You put on the face of reluctance, then dig in your pockets for a piece of gold you had saved. You walk up to Sir Rogan, holding the piece of gold in your hand. His eyes followed the motion of your hand as he reached out to grab the tax. But right before his hand clutched your gold, you flick the piece straight into Sir Rogan's eye slit. You hear the heavy piece of gold clatter around inside the helmet. Sir Rogan clutches his face with his hand, instinctively trying to grab the piece of gold through his helmet. While he was distracted, you kick straight upwards with a flexibility you had not had for many decades, connecting with the metal helmet at full force. The impact jarred your leg, but it was much worse for the knight. Your kick sent a shockwave through his head, setting the piece of gold clattering inside once again. The piece of gold flew back out of his helmet as a result of your kick, where you caught it in your hand and shoved it in your pocket. Disoriented and stunned, Sir Rogan plummeted from his saddle straight into the river. The cold water seemed to snap him back into reality, but his heavy armor made swimming extremely difficult. Around 150 feet downstream, Sir Rogan finally pulled himself onto the bank of the river. You shout to the weary figure, "Thanks for letting me cross!" Before you climb into his horse's saddle and gallop away.
You find the name "Bento" etched into the saddle as you ride, so you begin to call the horse by that name. He was a powerful horse, but not particularly fast. He took kindly to you, most likely because you weren't wearing heavy armor. At first, riding was difficult because you hadn't done any since you were a small child, but as the countryside flew by, your ancient muscle memory took over, and you regained your previous skill. The sun had just reached noon when you came to the second intersection, the one where you must travel east to reach Traniel. You brought Bento to a stop so he could drink from the nearby river, but you also needed to investigate a crowd of commoners gathered at the intersection.
As you enter the crowd, people plead with you. "Are you somebody important?" You try to reply humbly, "Well, I am the Hero of Shaedoria... Is that what you are looking for?" The accept your andswer "Please! we must make it to the market in Traniel, But King Tybalt has ordered the road to be blocked to all except the elite. See if they will let you through, then talk some sense into the man. None of us have been able to enter, and our trading goods are bound to be attacked by bandits. Hurry!" You run back to Bento and quickly mount, galloping along the eastwardly path towards the roadblock for a few minutes when you smell smoke. You turn back and see a cloumn of ash billowing through the sky where the intersection was. You also faintly hear screams from that direction. Your sense of honor beckons you to return to the merchants who were certainly under attack. You crest a hill and see a 30-strong group of bandits, almost entirely composed of orcs, charging through the helpless crowd of merchants, burning their carts and slaughtering anybody they came across. You could not hope to fight them all at once, but perhaps you could rally the merchants and the few caravan guards that remained. Orcs were tough and strong, but not unkillable.
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Topic: You Can't Die: A Humble Hero (community story) (Read 10671 times)