Jane, Warrior of Decura Chapter 12

Tale of the Deadly Marshal Brothers

A few days later, Jane once again found herself on the  receiving end of another of William's harsh lessons. After getting clobbered over the head for the fifth time today, Jane backed away from the unimpressed old knight. “Come on miss Jane” William grumbled. “You need to work on your defense now or someday it'll be the death of you.”

“This 'training' will be the death of her, and me” Nate grumbled, sitting nearby nursing recently acquired bruises.

“I don't mind...” Jane mutter while trying to recover her breath. “Let's keep going Will.”

“Hold on miss Jane” William said before pointing at her stick, causing Jane to look down and notice her tight grip had crushed the branch to the brink of breaking. “Looks like you've broken your weapon, again. Let's take five minutes to rest, you've earned it.”

“Oh thank god...” Jane muttered to herself before flopping down next to Nate, who seemed to focused on rifling through the arrows in his quiver to notice. “Is something the matter Nate?” Jane asked.

“Something weird is going on” Nate answered while scratching his head. “I've been keeping an eye on the number of arrows I have and each night, that number seems to get smaller.”

Jane shrugged. “Could you be shooting them away in your sleep?” she asked before sticking her tongue out when Nate turned his aggravated expression toward her.

“This is serious Jane” Nate growled before breathing a sigh of relief when he noticed his father's arrow was still in his quiver. “Somebody must be taking them... But who?”

Suddenly Emina, with a handful of pink flowers, sat in between Jane and Nate. “Hello!” she cheered before showing her friends what she'd just finished collecting. “Aren't these pretty? They match Emi's hair!”

“Yes they do” Jane said with a warm smile before putting one of the flowers in Emina's hair. “There we go... Now you look even prettier. If only we had a mirror...”

“Does Emi really look pretty?” Emina asked, her joy rapidly increasing when Jane smiled and nodded. “Nate, do you like Emi's flower?”

“Yeah, it's great...” Nate mumbled without taking his eyes off his quiver. When Jane gave his arm a light thump, Nate looked up at Emina. “It's very eye-catching Emina” he muttered, clearly disinterested. “I'll be sure to take a long hard look at it later. Right now, I need to figure out what keeps happening to my arrows...”

Suddenly, Emina leaped to her feet and darted away, almost knocking William over as she passed him. “Emi didn't do it!” she cried while peeking out from behind a small boulder.

Jane and Nate gave each other perplexed looks before turning them back to their golem friend. “Emina... What did you do?” Nate asked after standing.

“Nothing...” Emina replied while twiddling her fingers and ducking down.

“Emi, don't hide” Jane said after sighing. “Come over here and tell us the truth.”

Emina slowly shuffled over in shame, unable to look Nate in the eye. “Ok big sis...” she mumbled after sitting next to Jane.

Nate crossed his arms. “So, where are my arrows?” he asked.

“Can Emi have one?” Emina asked after holding out her hand. “Emi will just show you. It'll be quicker.” After being handed an arrow by the curious Nate, Emina immediately bit down on the arrow's steel head and broke it in half.

“What the?” was all either Jane or Nate could say as they watched Emina completely devour the arrow head, tossing the rest of the arrow aside when she was done.

After about a minute of getting confused stares, Emina held out her hand again. “Do you want Emi to demonstrate again?” she asked.

“No!” Nate growled while shielding his quiver, causing Emina to hide behind Jane. “Have you seriously been eating my arrows Emina?!?”

“I had no idea golems needed to eat” a surprised Jane mumbled to herself.

“Mr. Welkin said only Emi needs to do this” Emina whimpered. “He said Emi must eat metals and stone to keep up her strength.”

“Wait, you can eat rocks too?” Nate asked before pointing to the rocky wall nearby. “Then why don't you just eat the rocks all around us?!? Why did you have to steal my arrows?!?”

“Rocks taste yucky...” Emina muttered while looking like she was about to cry. “Emi saw you have a lot of arrows and didn't think you'd miss a few. Emi is sorry...”

Jane sighed. “Emi... You need to ask before doing things like that” she said. “Nate works really hard assembling those arrows.”

“Emi is sorry” Emina repeated, looking even sadder than before. “Emi wanted to ask but she knew Nate would say no...”

“Well at least you said you're sorry” Jane said before smiling. “Just don't do it again, ok little sis?”

“Ok big sis” Emina replied with a smile. “Emi won't.”

“That's not good enough!” Nate snapped while shaking his fists in the air. “And what's all this little sis and big sis talk?!? Do you think because you call yourself Jane's sister that I'll let you get away with-” Nate's ranting was quickly cut short when Jane gave him a tender kiss.

“How about we just forgive her this time, ok?” Jane asked, causing the dazed Nate to smile and stumble away muttering 'Sure...' over and over.

“Thank you big sis” Emina said before giving Jane a hug. “You're the best sis I've ever had.”

“You're the best sis I've ever had too Emi” Jane said while returning the hug. “To be fair, you're also the only sis I've ever had.”

Emina let out a cheer before looking toward William. “Do you have a sister too Mr. William?” she asked. “Or maybe a brother? Emi hopes so.”

Jane, knowing William's brother was a sensitive subject to the old knight, quickly covered Emina's mouth. William however, simply sighed and motioned Jane to approach him. “It's alright miss Jane, I did promise to tell you this tale awhile ago” he said before raising the small branch in his hands and pointing it at Jane. “However, your break just ended miss Jane. So I'll have to tell the story while we train.”

“That sounds good to me” Jane said before leaping to her feet and slamming her fists together. “But you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to Will.”

William smirked and raised an eyebrow. “I know you're curious miss Jane” he said. “You have been ever since you first heard about it back in Four Corners.”

“That obvious huh?” Jane asked before chuckling nervously.

After nodding, William rushed forward and tried to strike Jane's head, only for her to block the attack with one of her gauntlets. “Alright, you keep up that defense and I'll keep talking” he said before unleashing three more blows that Jane was barely able to defend against. “But I'm stopping the second an attack gets through.”

As William continued his offensive, Emina sat on the small boulder she had previously hid behind.

William's wooden weapon only lasted two more strikes before breaking on Jane's iron gauntlets. “You might not believe this miss Jane, but I wasn't always a knight for the Pennynook guild” he said while retrieving another stick from atop the party's carriage. “Before that I was a mercenary... But you could more accurately call what I was a bandit.”

“A bandit?” Jane gasped while watching William compare two sticks. “Were you part of a huge gang?”

“No, back then it was just me and my brother, Sedrick” William answered before suddenly charging toward Jane and unleashing a flurry of attacks with both sticks. “We were known as the Deadly Marshal Brothers and we'd take any job if the pay was right.” William ceased his attack and leaped back. “Despite our skill, we were barely scraping by. Sedrick had a bad habit of spending most of our pay on women and booze.”

Jane looked at William's face and could see his hesitation to continue the story. She was about to say something to console him but William suddenly rushed forward to attack her again.

“With our impressive record, my brother and I gained quite a reputation” William grunted when Jane blocked his downward strike. “Well one day, we took a job to assassinate the leader of a new guild. We were offered so much gold we'd be fools to turn it down. Unfortunately, that much coin and Sedrick's recklessness made for a deadly combination. We didn't realize it was a trap until it was too late. Turns out the target found out about us getting hired and ambushed us the second we stepped inside his castle.”

“Did you get captured?” Jane asked while being forced by William's assault to step back.

“Within minutes” William replied. “Sedrick was badly injured and we were both thrown in a cell.” Suddenly, one of William's sticks broke against Jane's gauntlet and he jumped back before beginning to circle the tall girl. “I thought that was going to be the end for us. Surprisingly, instead of the rope, we were given a choice by the guild master who had defeated us; Swear loyalty to him within the hour or face the axe.” William lunged forward and tried to jab Jane's stomach, but Jane was able to catch the stick and pull it from his hands. “Not bad miss Jane.”

“Thanks Will” Jane replied with a smile after breathing a sigh of relief. “So I take it you both took the offer and joined the guild master?”

“Well... I accepted for us both” William answered before catching a new stick thrown to him by Patti. “Sedrick didn't regain consciousness for a few days, so I had no choice but to say he'd do it. An hour later, the guild master informed me we'd become his guardians.”

“So you both went from bandits to bodyguards of a guild master” Jane said.

“Well actually, we were assigned to his two young children” William explained. “Sedrick was the guard his daughter Alesia and I was the guard his son... Albert.”

Jane's eyes widened as Albert's smiling face flashed in her mind. “Is there anything you want to talk about?” Jane remembered him asking her while she was enormous and sitting outside of Scavania. “I've been told I'm an excellent listener.”

Fortunately, Jane was able to snap herself back to reality just in time to block William's next attack, stopping the branch mere inches from her face. “So the guild Will's referring too was the Pennynook guild...” Jane thought while maintaining her guard against William's barrage of attacks. “Albert's guild...”

“Everything seemed to be alright for awhile” William continued. “Sedrick and I were living easier lives and all we had to do was follow around a pair of children. However in that time, I noticed Sedrick grew more distant. We barely even spoke anymore.”

“Any idea why?” Jane asked when William finally ceased his attack.

“It was obvious Sedrick preferred the constant dangers of our previous occupation over being babysitters” William explained while circling Jane once again. “The one thing he loved more than me was a good fight and he wouldn't get it following Alesia around.” William took a deep breath through, seemingly hesitant to continue. “Well one day, a fight found us. Our guild's caravan was ambushed by bandits on the road one day. I was able to keep Albert safe, but Sedrick... Sedrick, in his battle lust, abandoned Alesia's side. When the battle was over, fifty five bandits were dead while our side had only suffered a single casualty, Alesia...”

“That's horrible” Jane gasped. “I can't even begin to imagine how Albert must have felt...”

“Nobody took it well” William said after sighing. “For his failure, my brother was given another choice; Exile or death.”

“So he was exiled just like you were?” Nate asked, having sat next to Emina several minutes ago.

William slowly shook his head. “Sedrick chose death...” he muttered, shocking everyone listening to the tale. “I was baffled by his decision. Why would somebody who loves fighting as much as my brother allow himself to be carted off to die. I begged him for hours to reconsider, but he refused and was carted off to be hung in Etin city.” William stared down at the ground. “I never saw him again...”

“Will...” Jane mumbled while lowering her arms.

“I continued to serve as Albert's guardian for the next ten years” William said. “Until that day in Scavania...”

“I'm sorry Will...” Jane muttered as a depressing mood seemed to overcome her and the rest of the party. Fortunately, it was broken when William landed a surprise strike on Jane's head. “Oww! That was cheap Will!” Jane growled while rubbing her head.

“Training over” William said with a smirk. “And there's no need to apologize miss Jane. What happened with my brother was a long time ago.” After tossing his stick aside, William turned away. “Trust me, I've moved on” he assured as a single tear rolled down his face, which he quickly wiped away when he felt Patti grab his hand.

“It's alright to let it all out William” Patti said with a warm smile, causing William to smile back. “We don't mind-”

Unfortunately for Patti, her comforting words were cut off by a weeping Lisa who suddenly tackled William seemingly out of nowhere. “Oh my gosh William!” she sobbed while burying her face in the old knight's cape. “That's the saddest story I've ever heard! Please know, I'm here for you if you need a hug-”

Now it was Patti's turn to cut Lisa's comforting off. After giving the captain's cheek a tight pinch, Patti pulled Lisa off William and down to her eye level. “Don't push your luck” Patti growled.

As Patti and Lisa quickly got into another epic battle of pinches, which William tried and failed to stop, Jane walked over and sat next to Nate and Emina.

“Poor Mr. William” Emina mumbled before leaning on Jane. “That story made Emi sad...”

“Maybe I won't be so hard on the old man from now on” Nate said before looking up at Jane and noticing the sad expression both she and Emina had. “Hey, cheer up you two. You probably did him a favor by helping him get all that off his chest.”

“I guess...” Jane muttered, unable to bring herself to smile.

Nate sighed, he knew what he had to do to dispel the frown from Jane and Emina's face. “Hey Emina, want to see something funny?” he asked, causing Emina to give him a curious nod. After preparing himself for what he was about to endure, Nate put his hand on Jane's back to comfort her before sliding it right down to her backside.

Jane's face turned a bright red and she shot to her feet. “Nate!” she roared before putting her boyfriend in a tight headlock. “Just because we're dating doesn't mean you can just grab me like that in public!”

“So... Are you saying I can grab you like that in private?” Nate grunted through his teeth before smirking, causing Jane's face to glow even brighter. “I didn't know you were ready to take our relationship to the next stage already.”

“What's the next stage?” Emina asked. Nate tried to answer but Jane quickly tightened her hold.

Meanwhile, Kiera tried to keep a sharp lookout from atop the carriage, only to find her attention constantly drawn to her six companion's antics. “These are, without a doubt, the weirdest traveling companions I've ever had” she sighed before getting comfortable to better enjoy the entertainment.

TO BE CONTINUED....