Crickets chirped peacefully as owls awoke, letting out their call into the dark night in the Trollshaws, where the thick evergreen coniferous trees protected the makeshift camp well. In the fur and leather bedroll, with a tent stretched over the top of them lay Hiath and Briannon – also known as the Vagabond and Skylark – as they woke up from a brief rest, though darkness was still in the sky.
"How did you get that scar?”, Skylark asked as she pointed towards the paler skin running straight down Hiath's eye.
"Let me tell you about it..”, Hiath spoke as he shuffled about to get more comfortable as he remembered, thinking back to the few years ago where he got it.
The sun was spreading its golden rays over the thick grasses of the plains of the Horse-Lords. In the sleepy village of Middlemead, carts were being gathered and packed with a large black horse to pull it along the dirt path. Along with them were three men, dressed in chain mail and armour from different parts of Middle-Earth. Helmfeld, an eorling with no home, with red hair and red beard that was braided more impressive than any that the other two had ever seen! The second was Stig, from Dale, who had lost his old name and was given Stig which he said meant wanderer; a name that suited him well. The third was Hiath, from the lands below Rohan and the youngest among the group at the age of nineteen, with brown hair and a brown beard that was nothing compared to most of the horse-lords surrounding them. Three sellswords they were, with a mission to take a cart to the large City of Edoras.
"Come now, Hiath! It is time to go, we will move with the speed of Eorl!”, Helmfeld laughed deeply and lifted the younger man up.
"And if there is trouble, we will have the accuracy of Bard in our shots!”, Stig said as he pulled back on his empty bowstring with a grin.
"Yes, yes. Let us get it over with, hm? Sooner we are gone, sooner we got our coin!”, Hiath spoke as he climbed into the back of the cart next to Stig who was now fletching his arrows.
Off they set down the dirt path, chatting and laughing away as they moved on. It was all quite for most of the journey, though once they passed Entwade, trouble started. Ruffians and brigands with clubs and bows started to run down to the cart, intent on stealing the armour and blades that rattled within. The three men jumped off the cart, swords swinging about to keep them at bay though they were outnumbered at twelve to three.
Stig and Helmfeld took a side of the cart each, while Hiath stood atop lashing out at any who came too close to try to steal anything. A hard ten minutes passed, where combat was plenty and tiring. The brigands fell slowly, and the three hard started to take injuries. Two large men were on top of the cart, swinging at Hiath in unison before another climbed on behind and plunged a dagger into his shoulder, making him lunge forward into a club that struck him across the temple harshly. Everything went blurry for a moment, dizzy and disorientated the last thing he saw clearly was the ground as he fell off the cart, followed by a large man jumping off practically onto him. A tiresome fight ensued and as Hiath pushed himself up a sword swung downwards on his forehead down over his eye.
The warm feeling of blood was the last he felt, as all sight in that eye got blurry and bloody. Even the adrenaline pumping throug his veins couldn't dull the pain, and another hit sent him to the ground.. drifting into unconciousness.
He woke up on the back of the moving cart, though not tied up as he expected himself to be, instead with an injured Helmfeld and Stig sitting next to him, with a fair blonde maiden tending to the wounds of them all. He had struggle seeing out of that eye for a while, having to wear an eyepatch that was given to him by the man whom he delivered the weapons too.
Hiath finished explaining his story to Briannon, who ran her finger gently down the whitened skin that was stuck to his skin before lying down next to him again before she spoke.
"I think you would look even more charming with an eyepatch..”, she chuckled before she stretched out, curling up into Hiath as she fell asleep with her finger still resting on his scar.
Hiath sat there, thinking what ever happened to Helmfeld and Stig.. his two friends who he left to see the world, something he didn't regret and something he never will regret.
