I Will Be the Greatest Knight

A knight's automatic response to danger was fighting, and that rang true as each knight pulled their weapons out as they turned to see Bren with a panicked expression as his horse was slowly dragged deeper into mud.

The oldest apprentice had his sword out as well, but Siverly snapped before he could slip off of his horse as he intended to.

"Do not get off!" the mage shouted. "There is undoubtedly more hiding underneath the mud and murky waters further out. Give me a moment to conjure something appropriate. Better your horse gets grabbed than you. You'll be dead the moment you are in that water."

Irene held her sword in front of her protectively but her other gloved hand brushed behind her, telling the others, as eager to fight as she was, to stay back and listen to the mage. There was no doubt he knew more of this specific situation than she did.

"I recall this lesson in Knight School," she explained to the others. "These spirit creatures can take on the shapes of dying horses so that people will come to their rescue. They're related to kelpie in the southern region. The necromancers find vengeful spirits willing to trap prey."

"What is the point of it then?" one of the other knights snapped. "Trapping the innocent for fun?"

"Why do monsters do what they do?" Irene responded with her own question, but her eyes never left the scene in front of them. "Evil needs no explanation, it merely is. That's why we fight it because it doesn't discriminate and affects even the most innocent."

However, it wasn't her words that stopped the knights from commenting further. Siverly had his bright magic circle conjured and his fingers meticulously created shapes she couldn't decipher inside. To everyone's surprise, he jumped off of his horse and onto the middle of the path they had been traveling so he wouldn't sink in the mud.

He placed one of his hands on the ground before using his free hand to push the magical circle into the ground as well. It seemed to disappear for a moment before the circle seemed to burst and expand over all of the surrounding area. In a few places, the water and mud started to bubble and when the bubbles popped, greyish smoke rose into the sky before vanishing.

Irene's heart was racing and she looked on in horror. To her, seeing smoke like that seldom meant anything good considering they fought an entire two year war regarding an unidentifiable poison that burst into the air in a similar fashion.

Siverly stood up and brushed himself off. He went back to his horse and merely directed the horse around Bren's as it still found itself half stuck in the sticky mud.

"You can get off of your horse now and rescue it before it panics and gets itself deeper," the mage directed. "The area is cleansed, but it won't be forever."

He was so nonchalant that he acted as if what he had just done didn't deserve any praise. But Irene couldn't help herself when Siverly made it to where the other knights were.

"Thank you, Siverly," she bowed her head to him. "Truly. We would have been lost without you, trying to fight off a spirit creature with blades. I'm sure we would have all had a much worse outcome."

He seemed to wave it off since his only response was a nod.

Irene and two others rushed to Bren who was trying but failing to pull his horse's reins and get the animal out of the mud. With them, Irene brought Sammy who was eager to move faster than he was able to before.

"Give me his reins," Irene directed the apprentice. "I will attach them to Sammy's saddle and try to pull your horse out. You must get out of the way so you don't fall into the mud either."

Bren seemed somewhat anxious at this and all Irene could do was silently assure him through action. It would be more beneficial than words. Meanwhile, the two other knights braced the horse underneath his front legs.

Once the saddle and reins were secure, Irene climbed on top of Sammy and angled him in a direction that wouldn't cause him to get stuck in the mud either.

"Ready?" she asked the others.

Met with nods since their helmets were off, Irene nodded in return and squeezed Sammy's sides with her armor covered knees. The horse himself had good instinct on whether or not he was moving on firm or precarious ground..

"Slow," she directed the horse.

"Almost there!" she heard from behind her. "Keep going very slowly."

Sammy's head was down and he was straining to go forward, but, at a certain moment, there was slack on the reins and he lurched forward.

The horse was forced to fall onto his knees or he was going to fall into mud himself. It caused Irene to be lurched forward but she managed to wrap her arms around his neck just in time.

For a moment, there was stillness as Irene calmed her racing heart and it seemed the others were in much of the same state as they relaxed after such a tense moment.

She finally slid off of her horse and turned to the others. To her relief, Bren's horse was out of the mud and the apprentice was crouched next to the animal as he fell into relief himself. Irene quickly rushed forward and she placed a hand on the apprentice's shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he managed to say. "You entrusted me to go on this journey but I was the one who failed first."

Even though he wasn't looking at her, Irene offered him a small smile.

"The amount of times I made mistakes as an apprentice are too high to count," she admitted. "And I wouldn't call this a failure considering you're still here and your horse is still rideable."

Silence ensued once more before Bren realized he needed to stand tall. He eventually got back up to his usual height and turned to Irene, offering a nod and silent thanks for her comforting him.

"Then we shall move forward," Irene directed to everyone once she was certain Bren was alright.

Everyone was so eager to move on. The rolling hills and fields of this area were so much easier to navigate than the couple of hours they had to slowly move through marshlands. They were still, unfortunately, the fastest path to the eastern edge of the duchy even with a hangup like this.

There was one more day of travel through hilly fields covered in grass before they found themselves going uphill and into forested areas that surrounded the township they were likely to find their Commander and the rest of their knights inside of.

Irene recalled the location of this village easily as they went directly north and around forest they couldn't see through at all. Sure enough, there was smoke in the sky that spoke of chimneys and the knights all directed their animals tomove more quickly when they saw a path that wa smore worn than what they had experienced while cutting through the center of the duchy.

Only when the path because brick-lined did Irene hold a hand up and direct them to slow.

It was such a welcome sight when they got into the edge of the township and saw that their knights were practicing with one another. Even with armor on, she recognized most of them.

Felix was the first to acknowledge them and Irene quickly dismounted her horse, pulling off her helmet as she did so. She rushed forward to the other knight.

"Irene!" Felix exclaimed. "You've arrived faster than we were expecting."

"The situation sounded serious, I figured the Commander wanted to leave as soon as he possibly could," she insisted. "Although, where is the Commander?"

It was a surprise that he wouldn't be participating in practices with the others.

"He's saying goodbye to one of his friends who lives nearby," Felix explained. "The closest house to the inn. Go retrieve him. Tell him it's time to prepare and I'll finish with these knights and return to the inn myself."

Irene nodded once before turning to the other knights.

"Get your horses in the stables and head to the inn," Irene directed. "We have quite a journey ahead of us and need to rest."

Irene returned to Sammy before she hopped onto the back of her horse and directed him in the direction Felix had indicated in the first place.

The Commander had a friend in the village, she mused. For some reason, her mind took a turn and she wondered if this friend was a woman. Perhaps she was misled by the painting of the Princess on the wall.

Was her Commander a womanizer?

Irene had to push aside these thoughts, knowing she was being unbelievably nosy about something that wasn't actually her business.

However, when the knight knocked on the door after arriving and waited a few moments, she still wasn't prepared when a woman was who answered the door in the first place.