Margus Fletch: Barbarian
By Cam
Prologue
Here I am, on the eve of battle, readying for war. If all goes well, I will conquer a mighty
fortress before dawn breaks. But then,
you must hear this story from the beginning.
Let me first introduce myself. I
am a barbarian, ruthless and untamable.
I am a general of a strong army.
I am a conquerer of kings! I am
Margus Fletch!
Chapter One
I was old. At least, too old to continue leading an army
for much longer. I was thinking I would retire soon and leave my army to my
son. But first I wanted to plan one last battle; a battle of battles, one that would make my
name go down in history. I would attack
Castle Corona. Though it was the one castle I had never been able to defeat, I felt
a change in the winds.
While I was thinking
over these things, I was on my horse, leading my army of vagabonds and
barbarians to wherever we might find our next meal. We people had no real home, but we often made
camp in the towns we had raided.
“Rutgar!!” I shouted. A tall rider in a blue cloak rode
up to me.
“Yes, Chief?” Rutgar, my second in command, replied.
“I have an idea,” I said thoughtfully. “I would like to attempt one last siege on
Castle Corona, before I get too old to fight.
What is your opinion on this?”
Rutgar rolled his eyes. “Chief, you know my opinion. I
think it is absurdly difficult, but I will be with you to the end.”
I chuckled. “A more loyal man I never knew!”
“Thank you, Chief,” Rutgar said. “But have you asked Gunt?”
“No...” I said. If
Rutgar was my right hand man, Gunt was my left. I trusted him as much as
Rutgar, if not more. “Yes, I would like
his opinion. Fetch him for me will you?”
“Yes, sir,” Rutgar replied.
I sighed. “How many times must I ask you to call me
Margus?” I asked.
“One time more,
sir,” Rutgar replied, then went off to fetch Gunt.
Gunt arrived, smiling, as usual. He was always happy, for
reasons beyond my understanding. He was
also rather short, and he had long brown hair, and a beard.
“Rutgar
said you war’ wantin’ me?” he asked. He
also had an interesting way of speaking, a more gruff dialect.
“Yes. I want to know what you think of leading one last
attack on Castle Corona, before I get too old to fight,” I said.
“Brilliant ideya!!!” Gunt exclaimed. “Umm, what is Castle
Corona ag’in?”
I sighed again.
“It is the practically unconquerable castle, with the sly
guard, and large store of gold,” I said.
“Less brilliant ideya!” Gunt said. “I think yer could do it, Margus, but t’would be hard. Yer’d ave’ta prepare first, and it’d be wise ta
steal some new armor, and perhaps hire a few mercenaries.”
“Yes, I agree with you on all counts, but hiring
mercenaries will cost money,”
I said.
“Yes, but t’would not the reward be greater than the
cost?” Gunt asked.
“Yes,” I said. “It would.”
Chapter Two
That night, I rallied our troops and told them we would
go raiding. “I want you in your best
armor. Take as many sacks as you can
find. We are going to clean this village
dry!” I shouted. My men cheered. The prospect of more food and money motivated
them. Rutgar, who was at my side, spoke
up. “You sure know how to get them
going, chief.”
“Well, that’s why I am chief, right?” I said, and then shouted one more time, “Come
on boys, we’re going raiding!”
Rutgar, Gunt, and I ran over to our horses and jumped
on. We were already in full armor, so we
started riding toward the nearest village, which is called Kajoran. It was
relatively poor as for gold and such, but it could supply the food we would
need to lay siege to Corona. I rode
fast, the fastest, because I had to stay ahead of everyone else, as the
chief. Gunt and Rutgar were beside me as
we hit the village gates. They had no idea we were coming, and I killed the
front guards with ease. The doors were
locked, but not tightly, so we were in in minutes. This had sadly given the
town guard time to rally, and they were waiting inside. I jumped off my horse,
using my momentum to bring my axe down on someone’s head. Another soldier leapt at me, also wielding
an
axe. I parried, and landed stroke
after stroke on his shield, until it broke.
I grinned. I was in battle, and
for a soldier like me, there was no better place to be. I jumped up and rammed into the soldier whose
shield I’d broken. He had recovered, and was circling me. He feinted, jumping at me, swung around, and
rammed his axe into my side. I was
wearing chain mail armor, so the blow only caused me to bleed, but this was
still a great inconvenience on the battlefield. I sent a series of blows at his
head, and then moved to his leg, back to his head, pretended to go for his leg
again, but then chopped off his head while he was waiting to protect his
leg. I swung around, stuck my dagger in
another person trying to kill me, and charged through ranks of men to find Gunt
and Rutgar. I found Gunt fighting two
men at once, as usual. I snuck around
the men he was fighting, but then someone came at me! I parried his thrust, but
he grazed my leg. He hurt me badly, but gave me room to bash his head in. I swung around killing the man Gunt was
fighting, he having already killed the first man. Rutgar thankfully found us, and I said, “You
two, go rally the men, and steal as much food as you can find, and as many men
who will fight for us. I’ll go get the
gold with a group of four men.”
“Yes,
sir,” they said, then rushed off. I found only three men, but was happy enough
with them to go raid the town hall.
There was no one there. They had all run off to either escape with the gold, or join the
fighting. I was able to find the vault
rather quickly, but it was locked tight.
“Bash it open with a hammer,” I said. None of the men had
a hammer, which was an oversight on my part.
“Oh, well,” I grunted. “Just take it with you.” The three men and I got back just as Rutgar
returned with the food.
“Chief, we probably have enough food to last us a month
or two now. The horses also have some good grain to last two weeks, but they
can also eat grass. Our best plan of
action is to get to Castle Corona as quickly as possible, then attack.”
I nodded then said,
“While that was helpful information, it would be nicer if you would help us
find somewhere to put this safe.” Rutgar
had just seemed to realize we were holding a safe. He helped us put it down in a wagon, then
continued.
“Gunt found ten retired mercenaries willing to fight, but
they will need to be paid. Also there are about five young men, just begging us
for a share in the action; they will not need much payment. Other than that, there are just some random
thugs, and a few men in need of a job.
Altogether, it tallies up to 33 men.”
“Not bad!” I said, stretching out my arms. Then hopping
onto my horse, added,
“Tonight, we will camp
here, and tomorrow, we ride!”I
\_/\_/
The next day, we started out early, and rode fast. I
wanted to make sure we were within a mile of Castle Corona so we could build
siege engines in peace, but still be close enough as not to have to walk far
with them. My plan was to put a lot of
trees down in the forest next to Castle Corona to make a lot of siege towers
with which to attack it. I was unsure
what we would do if this attack failed, but I was sure it would work. We did make it to the forest before night,
and I held a meeting with Rutgar, Gunt, and a few of my other men on strategy
for the next day, as well as my plan.
“It is a good plan, and I’ll get a group of men gathering
wood, tomorrow,” General Reap said. Gunt
nodded and added, “I’ll build ter things if Rutgar’ll chop da wood.” Rutgar
nodded. “And I’ll oversee you all, and
draw up the plans,” I said. “So now that
that is settled, the meeting is adjourned.”
I went out of the tent, the others following me, and then we each went
off to our own tents.
Chapter
Three
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of wood being
chopped, went outside, and saw that everyone had already started. I quickly
walked over to where Gunt appeared to be making a catapult .
“What time is it?” I questioned.
“In ter eighth hour, Chief!” Gunt replied, “Yer slept in.”
“Well why didn‘t you wake me?” I exploded. “Who’s been overseeing everything, and how
did you know what to build!?”
“Well, A: Isn’t it the most obvious thing? I mern, it’s a
catapult!” Gunt said. “We always use catapults!
And B: We stole your notes.”
I had calmed down somewhat by then. “I suppose it would
have been a better idea simply to tell you what to do last night, eh?” I
said.
“That it would chief,” Gunt said solemnly. “That it
would.”
“Well, how’s it going?” I asked.
“It’s going pretty well,” Gunt replied. “But see for
yourself.” Gunt handed me a map, crudely
drawn, of what appeared to be the areas where the building, chopping, and
cutting down were happening.
“Thanks,” I said, then jogged off to see how everyone
else was doing. The catapult seemed to
be working fine by itself, but it was off balance. I saw that it was fixed personally, then
headed over to where men were chopping down trees. This was the easiest job and was going very
well. The log splitting was going very
well too, and all the uneven logs were being thrown away anyway. All was calm for almost the rest of the day,
except for a few minor mishaps in building.
In two days, everything was done.
Towards the end of the second day,
Rutgar ran up to me and said, “Chief, come quickly! I’ll explain on the way!”
After starting to pull me across the yard, he continued, “We captured a rider
who had gotten to close to our base. It
turned out that he is a guard from
Castle Corona!”
“Well, good for you!” I said, slowing down. “I don’t really want to see him now, as I was
just about to go eat.”
Rutgar shook his head exasperatedly. “No, no, no,” he
said. “They will surely know that he is missing before tomorrow. We attempted
to interrogate him, and he said so. Do
you know what this means?”
“No...” I said, still not understanding.
“It means they will send a search party, and we will be
found!” I frowned, then smiled. I knew the perfect way to turn this to my
advantage. “Let them come,” I said. “We
will take them out one by one.”
Chapter
Four
The afternoon of the next day, the search party came,
just as Rutgar said it would. I saw them
coming while I was hiding in a bush, along with ten other men on the ground,
and five archers in the trees. If the search party got past me, then Gunt had a
ten-man party waiting over the crest of a hill. Rutgar was with me.
“Three, two, one, Go!” I whispered. Rutgar’s hand went up signaling the archers
to draw, then down, signaling them to fire.
As I heard the arrows whistling through the air, I jumped out of the
bushes whooping and yelling! This was
the signal for all my men to charge out with me, taking the search party by
surprise. I had already informed our men to spill as little blood as possible,
and to take hostages, but no doubt to the search party, we were a terrible
sight. I ran up to one of the men and
swung my sword at him, but he parried, and was better than I had expected. I
quickly ran at him, frightening him, then lunged at his legs, coming up on the
other side of him, (which was a risky move, but effective) and knocked him out
with the hilt of my sword. I heard a
blade coming at me, and swung around just in time to block it. I stabbed him in the belly, hoping I hadn’t
killed him, pushed him to the ground, and knocked him out with my boot.
I felt a sudden pain in my side, and swung around to see
a seemingly young, inexperienced soldier, who had apparently hit me somewhere
in the side. I could now feel nausea
welling up from the depths of my gut.
Swallowing it back down, I was able to knock him out successfully, with
the hilt of my sword. I turned back with
some difficulty to see that the battle was over, and then fainted.
When I woke up Rutgar was standing over me. “You lost a lot of blood,” He said. “It was
all over you on the battlefield, and that wound was pouring until we got a
bandage on it. It soaked through three
bandages before it finally stopped.”
“I’m not worried about me,” I said. “How many men did we
lose?”
“On our side, none,” Rutgar said. “But their side lost
three out of their fifteen.”
I grunted, impressed.
“Not bad,” I said. “And the only reason I was wounded was because some
youngling got a lucky shot.” I tried to
sit up, and although it hurt a bit, I was successful.
“How long have I been out?” I questioned.
“It is the tenth hour of the day after the battle, so in
other words, not too long,” Rutgar replied.
“You have recovered very well.”
“And while that is good, it should have been better.” I
said. “I intend to speed up our plans.
We go to war today!”
“But sir, your condition is unfit for war!” Rutgar
protested.
“Yes, it is,” I replied, “but I’ll recover. Rutgar, I ask
that you and Gunt lead the first charge in my stead. I will lead a second,
later charge to scale the walls on the other side, using our siege ladders, and one of the siege
towers.”
“But none of the other generals know! We have had no strategic planning
meetings! We have not--”
“Rutgar!” I shouted. “Did I make you second in command,
commander of my army, for nothing?
Aren’t you one of my best warriors, my best strategist? You can rally the troops! You prepare them
for war!” In a much softer voice I said,
“And meanwhile, I will take a nap. We
attack at midnight. Wake me up then. Now
get out.” Rutgar ran out of my tent, and
I rolled over to sleep.
Chapter
Five
I was shaken awake by Gunt, who said, “Margus, chief,
it’s midnight. Wake up!”
“I’m up, I’m up!”
I said, jumping out of bed. “I’ll go get my armor on.”
I rushed out of the tent, seeing many other people
running to get their armor. Rutgar must
have just sounded the ‘To arms’ horn. I had a private tent for my best armors.
I had four sets, one for special occasions, one for scouting, one for battle,
and one for heavy battle and impressing people. The last one was the one I
would wear today. I quickly put on my
armor, with the help of a servant who tightened the straps on my back. I then went to my horse, where I took a few
seconds to gain my composure. I took a
drink of water that was laced with a bitter concoction; it was supposed to make
my wound not hurt as much, as well as help calm my battle nerves. Then I saw my
men coming, and I mounted my horse.
“Follow me,” I shouted, and we started riding towards
Castle Corona. Rutgar had already gone ahead of us, and was probably already
attacking. I bypassed the front gate
where the battle was raging, and went around to the now much-less-guarded, back
gate. As planned, the siege tower was
hidden in the trees.
“You ten,” I said, “go prepare the siege tower, and get
it to the wall as quickly as possible. Ten of you, start throwing up grappling
hooks, and throw up the pull-ropes for the siege ladders, then start
climbing. About thirty of you, remain on
horseback to charge when the gates are opened.
Go, go, go!”
The siege tower arrived relatively quickly, and I had my
men start climbing it immediately. Then
some archers realized we were here, and started to attack us. Two of our men died, but we shot them down.
“ Faster!” I said, then started to climb the siege tower
myself. When I got to the top, I
realized there were even more archers, who were preventing our men from laying
down the cross-bridge. I tried to jump it, but I was continuously pushed back. Multiple
soldiers came running across the wall, and I heard Rutgar sound the retreat
horn. I was scared for a moment, then
bellowed, “Retreat!” I quickly ran down the siege tower, and was the last
person leaving, so I burned the siege tower on the way down. I jumped on my horse, desperately dodging the
hail of arrows coming at me and my troops. I rode away, shaking with anger,
knowing we had lost.
\_/\_/
When I returned to camp I was greeted with a large number
of downcast faces and sad eyes. I walked
into the meeting tent to find Rutgar and Gunt, who were conversing in low
tones.
“What went wrong?” I asked wearily.
“Weell fer starters they had boilin’ oil to pour down ter
wall, and it burnt our men, as well as made it hard to get up wif the ladders,”
Gunt said, “And the archers t’wer
sending a hail of arrows at our men.”
“Well what about the siege towers? “ I questioned in a
defeated tone. “They should have worked.”
“They would have too, but for the oil.” Rutgar explained.
“To start with, it made the horses very skittish, and they also splashed it on
the siege tower itself, and then lit it.
After that we didn't want to risk burning the others as well.” I sighed.
“Well, we will not stop!” I proclaimed, though even to
myself I sounded half-hearted.
\_/\_/
I woke up the next morning to the sound of shouting. I leapt out of bed and went outside, only to
see a massive crowd growing around Gunt and one of his lieutenants. I ran up to the crowd and shoved my way
through it.
“Hey!” I shouted, “What is going on here?” Gunt stopped
shouting, turned to see me and reddened significantly. Meanwhile the lieutenant turned to me, and
shouted right back, “Mind your own business you!”
I stepped back shocked, then regained my composure.
“Probation!” I shouted at
him, then “Take him away men. And Gunt! You should know better!”
“I-I’m sorey chief, but he was defying yer orders, and
stirring up disorder among ter ranks! He wouldn't listen to me and ended up
actually hitting me!”
I grunted. I knew
why the soldiers were grumpy. I had seen
it before. They were all still sore from
losing, when they had not lost in a long while.
I was sure we would have another episode like this, so I was going to do
my best to keep my troops busy, and happy.
“Gunt, I want you to organize games and competitions for
the men,” I said.
“Give some rewards, like
rank promotions, armor, and such, so they want to do it. But at the same time, set up them in such a
way that they get some work done at the same time. For example, to enter, unless they do a
certain amount of work, they cannot participate in the contests. I myself will oversee the work schedule.”
“Why?” Gunt asked, “Why ter contests?”
“First of all to keep the troops busy, and second of all,
to get ready for our next battle. The
chores will be to build more weaponry, siege towers, and such,” I said. “Now
get moving!”
Chapter Six
When the competitions were ready, on the noon of the next
day, I had Rutgar announce it to my troops over lunch.
“We will be hosting a competitions session after noon
tomorrow,” Rutgar intoned. “The fee to get in is one chore as specified on the
chart, and the winners will be given, in order: First place, promotion, or what
you like from the armory, or anything like what is seen below; Second place; A
full new suit of armor; Third place, a full week of off jobs; Fourth and
finally, a probation-free card. Chores must be finished two hours before
competitions begin.”
I smiled. Rutgar always had been more eloquent then I.
And now we would get enough work done to attack again before the end of this
week. I sighed. I had always liked watching competitions.
\_/\_/
Our drums where banging loudly, signaling that the
contests were about to start, and there were exactly 46 contestants. I stood at the front of our arena. If you could call it an arena, that is. It was more like a bunch of chairs pulled up
around a circle dug in the dirt, with a big chair for me. “First contest!” Rutgar shouted,
“Wrestling! And as a reminder, only the
contestants who win all challenges
will be crowned champions.”
“And now, let the competitions begin!” I shouted, for
this was my duty as chief.
The first matchup was between an archer named Cody and
one of the mercenaries we had hired, whose name I did not know.
“I’ve got my money on Cody,” I whispered to Gunt. Betting was almost a rule among my troops,
and I was no exception. There was
actually a set thirty-second time to bet.
“That wimp? You’ve got ter be joking!” Gunt softly
exclaimed. “I’ll bet you twunty-five
shillin’s that Nog will win this heare match!”
“It’s a be,.” I whispered. “Now, shush, the round is about to start.”
Nog rushed forward immediately, practically jumping on
Cody. I smiled. I knew what would come next. Suddenly Cody stepped to the left, and jumped
on Nog as he hit the ground. Nog shouted
in pain, and did not get up.
“And the winner of this round is Cody! Cody will now go on to compete in the next
round of wrestling.”
“How...” Gunt mumbled, “Well I suppose I owe you now.”
At this I laughed out
loud. Then it was time for the next
competition.
“Competing in the next round are Cody, and Margus
Fletch!”
I looked to the side to see the expression on Gunt's
face, which was so comical that I burst out laughing, before I jumped into the
arena. I knew what Cody would try this
round, and I was entirely prepared. I
ran forward and leapt, just as Nog had.
Cody tried to do the same thing he had done the last time, but I had
jumped to the left as well. I landed right on top of him and pinned him to the
ground.
“Margus Fletch wins!” Rutgar exclaimed. “He will now
continue to the next round.” I won the next two rounds before losing, and it
was pretty much the same from then on.
At the end of the competitions, I went to go collect the money everyone
owed me. After this I called a meeting
at the meeting tent.
“I must thank you for your help today, and now -- I am
sorry to say -- I have to ask even more of you,” I said. There were some murmurs at this, but I
continued. “If we are to ever beat Castle Corona, we will need to find a way to
get in. Any ideas?
“Well, we could always dig!” General Reap suggested
sarcastically.
I smiled. “Yes.
Yes we could...” I began pacing and thinking, while Gunt looked bewildered.
“You can’t be serious, Chief!” Rutgar exclaimed. “It
doesn't seem possible! We have never
even tried it before!”
By now I was liking this idea very much, and even though
Reap had said this simply in jest, I really thought it might work.
“Gunt, get some men to chop some of the siege ladders in
half. Turn them into pillars, and also some beams and plates to hold it
up. Rutgar, get some men on digging, as
close to the castle as possible without being seen. And finally, General Reap and others,
assemble about three quarters of our army to attack as soon as we are done with
the tunnels. I myself will lead the
other quarter through the tunnels, to open the gates from the other side. Gentlemen, I have a plan!” Everyone looked
skeptical, so I tried to explain better.
“What we will try to do is create a tunnel under the
castle wall, and the team I lead will open the gates from the inside, and
otherwise wreak havoc. When the doors
are open, we will charge with the rest of the group. The tunnels will be held up by dual beams,
with platforms on the top and bottom, creating a box. Every time we dig, we
will set one of these boxes so the tunnel will not collapse. Now, I will assume you all agree, and I will
see you in the morning.
Chapter Seven
I woke up at exactly the fifth hour
since midnight, and jumped out of bed. I
had wanted to start very early, and I was quick about getting dressed and going
to wake everyone up. I first went to Gunt’s chambers to wake him.
“Gunt, wake up!” I said
quietly. Gunt rolled over, then fell
back to sleep. I groaned quietly, then had an idea. I
set off to the supply wagon, where there was a large horn that was used to call
meetings, announce lunch, and that sort of thing. I jumped into the wagon, and
found the horn, before blowing loudly on it.
I cringed as I did so, for even I thought this was loud, and I expected
that was what the large, thick woolen hat hanging on it was for. I distantly heard sounds of some men getting
up, and others of them complaining. I
quickly jumped out of the cart, and ran to the center of the camp, where I
stood and waited for everyone to come out.
When they were all there in front of me I began speaking.
“I have called all of you here today
so that we may begin preparation for what should be the final attack on Castle Corona.”
Some cheers erupted from my men, then I continued. “I must ask very much of you
in the next day and a half, and for this I am sorry, but as a good man once
said, ‘t’would not the reward be greater than the cost?’!”
More cheers, and I
was sure I heard Gunt’s gruff chuckle in the crowd. “And, now, would all of you
please follow, General Reap, Gunt, Rutgar and me to the digging area.”
The crowd slowly
dispersed, and I ran over to my horse, Jasher, and rode off to a densely wooded
area right near a road leading to town, where I had thought was a prime area to
start digging. I marked where to dig, and prepared till my men got there, and
then I showed them where to start digging.
Next I rode back to prepare all the horses, armor, and other
preparations. Then I sat down, and waited. I waited there for hours, seeing to
every possible detail that needed to be attended to. Then, at exactly the
seventh hour, my band of troops arrived.
“Now, quickly, put your armor on,
and get on your horses.” I said. “Is the
tunnel ready?”
“Yes, Chief, and they are waiting
for you.”
“Well what are we waiting for?” I
half growled, frustrated. “Go go go!”
Chapter Eight
I went about exploring the castle that day. It was as wonderful, if not more so, than I
had anticipated. They had amassed an
even larger treasury since the last time I had attacked. I was in awe of the architecture, and the
main hall was huge! I walked around for
a bit, just thinking about what I could do with this place. I spent an
especially long time in the treasure room, where the king had seemed to run out
of chests, so they just piled the gold on the floor. I was in a daze, still not
sure what had happened. Then, to bring me back to reality, Rutgar said, “Sir,
We have rounded up the prisoners, and found the King, Queen, and the Captain of
the Guard.”
“I’m not worried about the King,” I replied happily.
“What could they do? We have the practically unbeatable castle, which we have
conquered! How could anyone defeat us? But just for extra measure, have them
taken off far away, and stripped of anything valuable. And Gunt, Rutgar, I must
thank you for all the help you have given me, to find the place where I could
finally be at peace.”
The
End
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