Sam’s consciousness arose as he felt a hand gently tapping his shoulder. As he sleepily opened his eyes, he saw a dark figure standing over him. “Come on Sammy, time to get up” it said. As Sam’s eyes adjusted to the dim light coming in through his bedroom door, he realized the figure was his father. “Time to get up Sammy. We’ve got to get ready to head out” his father said as he finally began to push himself up. “Go get yourself dressed and come out for breakfast. I want to be out of the village within the hour. His father quietly walked out of the room as Sam pulled himself out of his bed and made his way over to his closet. He pulled out a couple of shirts and a couple pairs of trousers and put them into his backpack sitting on a hook in the corner of his room. This was the first time he had used the backpack for anything other than commuting back and forth to the Junior Academy in town. As he was technically the son of a noble, he had to go to the closest Academy which was in Rimour rather than the school in the village. As the Academy was on the smaller side and only attended by the sons of knights and some landless baronets it was a week on week off boarding school where he spent a week there and a week back at home and had to travel to the town and back. As this was the first time that he was traveling where he didn’t need to fill his bag with heavy books he thought about some of the extra things he could bring with him. Ultimately, he couldn’t think of anything else that he had that he could bring that would fit in the bag and decided to pack another set of clothes just in case. Once his bag was packed, he changed out of his pajamas and into his travelling clothes. He sat down on his bed and pulled out his walking boots. He had to reach a bit further under the bed as they had been pushed further under by his work boots as he hadn’t needed to wear the walking books for the last couple of weeks. He slipped the boots onto his feet and did up the laces making sure to double knot them so he wouldn’t have to constantly retie them.

  Sam slung one strap of the bag over his shoulder and left his room heading into the kitchen where his father was plating up their breakfast. As Sam sat down onto the chair at the dining table, placing his bag down at his feet, his father brought over the food. Two eggs and a slice of bread sat on the plate waiting for him. “Just a light breakfast this morning. Never good to each too much when travelling” his father advised. Sam thought two eggs and a slice of bread was not a “light breakfast” but decided not to argue the point, especially this early in the morning. After finishing the food and washing the plates they prepared to leave the house. Sam packed his bag with some food his father had prepared for the trip, putting it under his clothes to protect it from the elements. Walking over to the door Sam took the sheathed knife off the hook and slipped it onto his belt. His father also grabbed a much nicer sheathed knife as well as an axe and slipped them into slots built into his work belt. Sam opened the front door slowly to avoid making too much noise and walked into the cool dark early morning air. It was the first time in weeks he had felt a comfortable cool feeling on his skin instead of the constant sticky burning summer heat. The door was closed behind him as his father stepped out of the house and lifted the lamp, removing the shade coving the magic crystal shining inside it. The lamp was like that of a normal lamp that was lit using a candle, however instead of the candle there was a kiwi sized magic crystal that had been imbued with light magic. The light of the crystal would shine constantly after it had been imbued and only lasted about 3 months before it would run out of mana and need to be replaced. This was normally one of the chores he had when travelling between home and the academy. As he heard the click of the lock on the door fall into place his father walked past him and headed down the hill toward the centre of the village. Sam quickly followed him down the hill, a thought in mind that this marked the beginning of their trip to Rimour.

  Sam and his father walked through the village in silence with only the sound of their footsteps audible. It was kind of eerie how quiet it was this time of the morning. Normally Sam would leave for the Academy in the mid-morning arriving in the late afternoon, so he didn’t normally get to see the village in the silent darkness of night. He watched as the shadows cast by the lamp danced around in the darkness as if they were the only things moving in this silent night. They had been walking for about 10 minutes before they finally reached the outskirts of the village. Beyond the village were many fields owned by the farmers that lived in and around the village. As they walked down the main road they came upon Travis’ stables. Travis’ was the local horse breeder and stable owner. Those in the village who used horses for work could pay old Travis’ to keep them in his stables. Most of those in the village did as he was the most qualified to look after them and it was arguably cheaper than storing and caring for them themselves. Sam had been forced to work for Travis one summer as his father wanted him to be familiar with taking care of horses in the event that he ever had his own and he also wanted him to know how to ride one. He fell off the back of Carrot a lot although he believes this was because old Travis had given him the grumpiest horse he had. He doubted that he would even own a horse but supposed if his Blood skill wasn’t helpful in harvesting crops like his father’s then he might need to get some if he was to also be a farmer.

  Another hour passed and the sun had just begun to rise as they finally made it to the edge of Kait Forest located north east of Kait. Sam was glad the sun had begun to rise and that they wouldn’t be having to walk through the forest in darkness as wolves had recently been spotted by some of the hunters and he would rather not be attacked by a wolf in the dark. Not that he had much hope of defending himself against a wolf under the light of the sun, but he’d at least be able to see what was attacking him.

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  Sam and his father continued through the forest occasionally stopping along the way to collect some type of herb or some other type of potion ingredient his father noticed by the side of the dirt road. His father showed him the best way to harvest the herbs and explained what they were used for and how much they tended to sell for in town. He however explained that it was better to sell the herbs in the village as they would normally get a better price for them. This wasn’t the case for their town as they didn’t have any dungeons nearby and therefore there weren’t branches of the adventurer’s guild or the divers sub guild to issue herb collecting quests to beginner adventurers. This meant that collecting herbs when travelling between the village and the town was a good way to make a bit of extra coin.

  Hours went by and they finally made it out of the forest with what was a bag full of herbs and other plants that they had collected along their path. As they finally passed the last tree, they could see the walls of Rimour in the distance. While Rimour was one of, if not, the smallest town in the Nouman Viscounty, it was still protected by high stone walls. The walls surrounded the town, which had been built around a small river that flowed down from the mountain to the north and linked the Nouman Viscounty to the capital of the Baxton Dutchy Pexicon. Pexicon was the largest city in the region and the ruling seat of the Baxton Dutchy. The Baxton Dutchy is one of the 5 Dutchies in the Kingdom forming one of the 6 regions. The Dutchies were then split up with territories owned by many different nobles who all reported to their respective duke. These dukes then reported to the king. Sam thought over what he had read in the history book last night as he pondered as to why the kingdom as still set up this way considering the multitude of attempts for some of the dutchies to break off from the kingdom or attempt a coup and take over the kingdom. He supposed it hadn’t happened in over 400 years, so it was likely not considered an issue. He snapped out of his throughs as his father yelled at him from down the road. “Come on Sam. What are you standing around for? We’ve still got at least a couple of hours before we reach the town, and I’d like to be able to find a place to stay before noon.” Sam ran down the hill to catch up to his father as they began the final leg of the trip to town.

  An hour and a half later Sam and his father finally reached the town gates where they were greeted by a guard is light chain armor. “Sam, nice to see you. Been a few weeks now that it’s summer break” “Morning Jeremy, nice to see you too.” Sam relied to the man. “What you doing in town today?” the guard questioned. This time his father replied “Here for some chores. Got to send a letter to the Viscount from Paul and picking up a few things for Sam’s birthday” he replied to the guard. Sam beamed with a smile at the thought of the gifts and his upcoming birthday. Just two more days to go he thought. “We’ll I won’t keep you any longer in that case” the guard winked. “I’ll see you around Sir Holdridge, Sam” the guard said as he stepped aside to allow them through the gate.

  As they entered the town his father took the lead and beelined toward the Inn they always stayed at when visiting town together. As they walked Sam realized it had been nearly 3 years since they last came to town together. Since Sam had started attending the academy when he turned 10 there hadn’t been many reasons for his father to come into town. When Sam travelled to town for school he would be picked up by a wagon sent by the academy and travelled with Benny, the son of Paul who was the village head and was also given the low-class knight title alongside his father during the war.

  As he finished that thought they arrived at the Inn. The Inn had a big sign on the front that read “Travelling Donkey Inn”. Sam followed his father into the inn and was immediately greeted by the thick scent of roasting meat. It smelled like the Inn was preparing for lunch, it was around that time after all. They walked up to the counter and were greeted by a middled aged woman. “Welcome to the Travelling Donkey Inn. How may I help you today”. “I’d like a room with two beds, dinner and Breakfast just for the one night” replied his father. The woman pulled out a book and turned a couple of pages running her finger over each page. She stopped and pulled out a pencil and wrote something down. “That will be Three copper and 8 small coppers” the inn keeper stated. His father put out his palm and 11 copper-colored coins appeared on it. He placed the coins down on the counter and the woman scooped them up into her hand. “Room 11, second floor right down the end on the right” the woman said as she placed a key on the counter where the coins had been. “Thank you” replied his father as he picked up the key and headed towards the stairs. They climbed the stairs and walked down the narrow corridor to the room with a crooked 11 written on it. His father put the key into the keyhole and unlocked the door and walked inside. Sam followed behind his father and entered the room. It wasn’t a bad size for the price and had two clean beds placed either side of the room with a trunk at the ends of each. Sam took the bag off his back and placed it in the trunk before sitting down on the side of the bed.

  He lay back on the bed allowing it to take his full weight as he sighed in relief as the aching in his feet began to subside. “Okay Sam. I have to go out to the docks to send this letter as well as attend to a couple of other chores. You can either stay here or walk around the town for a bit. I however want you back here an hour before dinner at 6”. Sam sat back up and replied, “Okay dad, see you later”. As the door closed Sam dropped back down to the bed and let out another tired sigh.