Edward {ManXMan} ✔

Nine

"You're being foolish," Tsar said as I paced the garden. Mayhaps I was being a little silly. But my nerves were on fire, not knowing was eating me alive.

It had been three days. A pigeon had flown threw with a message saying that the group was safe and resting a few miles from where King John's men were and that they should be there by daybreak tomorrow. That means by midday some men will have lost their lives. And one of those men could be Edward.

I nibbled on my lip, looking towards my best friend, trying to find some sort of solace in his words, but it was mute. My heart still raced.

"Oh, my lord, you look rather troubled." Said a voice from behind Taz, I glanced over to see Alexander, who stood with his shaggy brown hair pulled into a tight knot at the back on his head.

Alexander had been helping keep the castle in shape during the day and sleeping at the church. He had told us he was a keeper in Blaire and that he was the only person alive from his family. A wealthy family at that, but King John had taken all his fortune, and now the young man had nothing. But he wasn't opposed to working, which was nice to hear.

The night we had met him, he had told Tsar and I about his home. How he worked to help sell crops in the fields, and that his family had made good money for it. They were well known and made a good name for themselves. And unfortunately, their home was also on the cusp of the kingdom and was the first raided.

"I had run into the forest." He said, his hands tight between his thighs as he looked from Taz and I, his eyes glossing with emotions. "My father and younger brother Jeremiah were in the fields, I was back in the house with mother and Gretta, they had just finished getting milk from our cow." He shook his head with a smile. "Such a stupid cow. Gretta had named it Elsa. But come the winer' that would cow would be in our bellies." He stopped to sigh, taking a cloth from his breast pocket and dabbing his tearful eyes.

"We had heard father shout. I looked as they held Jeremiah by the neck. The boy was only ten. He did no harm to others. He cried when we killed the animals for food. He was harmless. I tried to get mother and Gretta out the backdoor, but mother had fallen, and Gretta wouldn't leave her behind. It was too late, they were knocking the door down. It took everything in me to run, but I knew if I didn't I wouldn't be able to warn the others." He stopped again, his hands balling into fists now as they sat on his thighs. "But I was on foot, and they had horses. It was no match. By the time I had reached the next home they were already leaving. I had no choice but to run."

"They raided Blaire nearly two fortnights ago," Tsar whispered, his eyes as wide as mine. "You haven't slept in a month?"

"Aye," He said, looking at us both, and now that Tsar had pointed it out, the other man looked rather ghastly, bags hung under his eyes, his hair unkempt, clothes in tatters.

He had rested well that night and had new clothes that the priest had gifted him.

"Yes, just a little distracted. We've gotten word on the men we sent forth. They will be in battle by the morning. I have close friends out there. It's unsettling." Alexander nodded, taking a seat on the bench with my father's name engraved into it.

"The unknown can be rather unsettling." He nodded in agreement, and I frowned sitting beside him.

"My apologies, I'm being insensitive. How are you feeling today? Have you slept well?" Though his first night was rested from exhaustion, the father had said he could hear Alexander speaking to himself in prayed late into the night, and that the nun who watched the halls during the night informed him of moaning from his chambers like he was in pain.

The nun had caught Alexander mid fit as he slept, and had woken him up.

"I had slept much better last night, thank you for asking my lord."