Tales Of Roshandere

“Surrender yourself. You have nowhere to run.” The chief in red cloak yelled with his sword pointed at the warrior who has fallen on his knee and using his sword to uphold himself.

About thirty men surrounded the fallen warrior who was very injured. Blood oozed from all his injuries that his plain gray cloak looked like it has patterns in red. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to surrender and continued to plan to fight the men until his last breath.

“Never will I surrender to you,” He gets up and staggers a little. He points the sword at the chief to indicate he is ready to fight till death.

“You have too much attitude even when you are minutes away from death.” The general wearing a brown fur coat sneered. The warrior swallowed, not saying anything, and glared fiercely at everyone. Getting irritated by the minute at his silence, the general gestured one of his men to attack.

The warrior handled the soldier rather skillfully during the times their swords clashed despite his diminishing power from injuries. The warrior felt dizzy and swayed a little when the soldier seized the opportunity and pushed him against a tree with his sword. With both the swords dangerously looming near his neck, the warrior mustered all the force and pushed the soldier away. He saw the soldier run forward to attack again and tilted his sword to counterattack when an arrow with a bluish-white aura came out of nowhere.

Six years before

An arrow with a bluish-white light slightly missed the aimed apple.

“Hey, Mark. You missed to shoot down that apple again. We already have the six apples Hunt shot down. So let’s leave before we get caught.” Jerrad, who was assigned the task of catching the apples shot down, shouted at the top of his voice.

“Don’t shout, you idiot. The owner will come just listening to you yell.” Hunter shouted back and looked to his right at Mark, who lowered down his bow with a sad face. ’Ah! You three. Stop right there.” All three of them turned to look at the apple farm owner and his men coming and escaped from there.

“Didn’t I already warn you about this? We should have left long when you failed to shoot down that apple for the sixteenth time.” Jerrad said as he gasped for air as they walked through the market. “If that owner didn’t come, I would have been able to shoot the apple in the next shot.” Mark huffed and walked ahead. “Don’t worry too much about it. You are getting better at it. It took you thirty trials to shoot down the tangerine last month while it is twenty-eight this month.” Hunter and Jerrad laughed as Mark walked in front of them, angry at their snickering. Jerrad passed both of them each an apple from the bag he carried, trying to calm down Mark with the usual bait - food. “This apple tastes so good. Thank heavens, you were able to shoot them down”, Mark exclaimed, forgetting that he was still mad at Hunter and Jerrad.

“I am still hungry after eating the apples. Let’s stop by at the Aigua Haven and get some good food.” Hunter said, taking the last bite of his apple.

“There they are” They heard the apple farm owner and turned to look at him with his men near the end of the lane. The owner waved his hand and sent a powerful spell aimed at three. Mark moved promptly and took Hunter’s sword from its hilt and slashed it in the air to block the attack with his magic.

“You! How dare you?” The owner became red with anger and yelled upon seeing his attack blocked by a guy wearing a blue coral bracelet.

“What do you think we should do?” Jerrad whispered as three glared back at the owner. “What we usually do. On the count of three. One. Two. Three.” Mark whispered and, at the count of three, all of them turned around and ran as fast as they could with the owner’s men following close behind.

Mark and Hunter threw some items which they could get their hands on from the shops in the market, aiming at the men following them. Jerrad started to throw the apples in the bag, but without aim, which hit some passerby, who also started to run wanting to capture them.

“You idiot. Stop throwing those apples and run.” Hunter said. After running for quite some time, they were somehow able to evade the men chasing them and arrived at the gates of Aigua Palace.

The Aigua Palace, in short, is considered to be one of the most beautiful palaces one can stay at in Roshandere. It had lush gardens surrounding each building and also a thick forest near the south gate. There are around a dozen water streams and many hot springs within the premise. The scenery at Aigua Palace provides peace and serenity to all those who stay here.

“Thank heavens. We managed to evade them.” Hunt said as he gasped for air. “Yeah. But we are in more trouble now because Jerrad wanted to help, ” Mark smirked and gave a side glance at Jerrad.

Jerrad wanted to refute Mark’s remarks but was interrupted by the arrival of a palace guard. “Young master. Your teacher has arrived at your study and has been waiting for you for quite some time.” The guard delivered the message and left immediately with a bow. “Ah. I forgot about the class and, if that apple farm owner also complains, I am good as dead today.” Hunter exclaimed as the three entered the mansion grounds. “Well, at least you don’t have a grumpy teacher like us who wants to put us down always. His voice is also so annoying that I can’t even sleep even if the class is boring”. As both of them laughed heartily, they looked at Mark, who was silent and walked with his back straight. He would have laughed and mocked the teacher along with them had they been outside the mansion. But now that they were inside the mansion grounds, he would be prim, stoic and, proper, unlike his usual cheerful self.

“We both are heading this side to our class. Hunt, hurry up before the teacher himself comes to fetch you”, Jerrad said, pointing to the left as they reached the mansion’s main entrance. Hunter bid goodbye to them, promising to meet them after his class.