"Mister Berrywine! What a pleasure! We couldn't recognize you, it is quite dark. What are you doing here, in the Vale of Andrath?"
"I'm going South."
"Where?"
"You'll find out when I come back."
It was night, almost midnight, and the brigands encamped in the ruins would welcome him warmly.
"Anything we can do for you?" Asked the half-orc, who was the local chief.
"Tomorrow morning, soon after the dawn, I'll leave. I want the gate open, and two boys with horses, ready for the journey. It will be a long one." answered Ildrand, still on his own horse.
He would be wearing his armour, but without pauldrons, cuirass, bevor or gauntlets. His chainmail would ring quietly as he moved to stretch his arms, the helmet and vambraces reflecting the light of the moon.
He took all he could with himself, and he sold the rest. At his left hip, his backsword, and in front of his crotch, his dagger. His horse would be loaded with packs full of provisions, and some tools and weapons too: the man's rapier, four javelins, and a wood hatchet.
"And get me someone to get out of this steel, and a bedroll too" he added.
"As you command." said the half-orc.
A boy arrived soon, helping the aged man to get rid of his armour: he unfastened the belts that held his vambraces and couters in place, allowing Berrywine to take off his hauberk. Then, as the man took care of his helmet, the boy would bend down and free him of his cuisses, poleyns, greaves and sabatons. Ildrand stretched his arms again, his body now only covered by his padded jacket and trousers, and his boots.
The camp's chief then took the armor and escorted the man to a tent, with a bedroll ready for him.
"There we go. It looks exactly like my house" he said, chuckling. "Goodnight, and have the two boys ready, tomorrow. It will be a long journey."
"Goodnight to you, Berrywine. And I heard you the first time."
His home. He didn't sell that, but he left it to his sister. Oddly enough, soon after he finally met her, he was forced to leave the town. Yet, she wasn't the woman he knew he would miss a lot.
Annaliesa.
The mere thought of her name was enough to send a shiver down his spine.
I've been an idiot. I shouldn't have told her that. Not at this point, at least. I should either have said it much earlier, or have waited to come back... If I will come back.
If she was only good at fucking, instead of being her bold, shrewd and ambitious self, I could have brought her with me... But it is her bold, shrewd and ambitious self I love, and because of that she can't come with me. I can't risk telling Sylgmar about the 'dark' side of our job, I can't risk losing her.
Damn you, Sharkey. You'd better have a good enough reason to bring me away from Anna.
The boys were already wearing their chainmail shirts and holding their horses' reins as Ildrand arrived, again in his steel and leading his own horse.
One lean and bald, the other brown-haired and bulky.
The gate was open, as he commanded.
"Goodmorning, goodmorning everyone. Say goodbye to me and to those boys, for you might not see these men walking on the dirt ever again."
He jumped on the saddle of his horse.
"Goodbye. You two, with me. The sooner we leave, the sooner we arrive."
He might have been the best fighter in the shithole that is Bree, and he was quite sure that he wouldn't lie if he said he were, but two boys wouldn't make him any weaker.
The gates closed after the three went outside the encampment.
Goodbye, Annaliesa. May you live long and may you be happy even if I don't come back.
Goodbye, stinking lands. Be kind to my woman.
Goodbye, dirty brigands. Be bloody, bold and resolute.
"Do you know where is Dunland?" he asked.
"No, sir." answered the bald one.
"Good, Baldy. And you, Fatty?"
"Sir, me neither" he eventually said.
"It will indeed be a long journey..."
The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear,
Shall never sag with doubt, nor shake with fear.
