The Murderer Of The Palaces

June 13th, 1253

I woke up again this morning with Rebecca drooling in my face, her calf laying on top of my straw mattress alongside me. I touched the calf's head and his eyes shot open to look at me.

"I still have to give you a name, huh buddy?" I said to the calf.

He moved to lay right next to my right leg, wanting to be pet on his head once more. "How about Raymond?"

The calf glared up at me as if to say,"no not that name."

"Okay, what about Rylan?" I asked the calf. When I said that name he hopped off of my mattress to go next to his mother. "Is that a yes?"

As if agreeing with me, Rylan's head looked as if it was nodding.

"So Rylan it is!" I said while climbing out of bed and sliding on my leather boots.

I walked into the kitchen to grab a small slice of bread for breakfast and the clan of sheep and the single goat are laying down right in front of the table where the bread was. It was as if they were blocking my path on purpose.

"I feed you guys everyday, couldn't you do the same for me?" I asked them.

After saying that it must have said something in their minds because the goat and sheep that was blocking my path stood up and walked behind me. I grabbed a small piece of bread, and I walked over to my door to begin my day. Before walking out, I put my hands behind my head to check on my fishtail braid. It felt a bit loose, so I plucked out five minutes of my day to redo it. Once I was finished with my hair I took a quick look outside of my window to see if I needed my black cloth on my head, but the day looked as good as the last. I put the cloth into my basket just incase, strapped the basket to my left hip, and pulled open the door to face the world once more.

I sure hoped that no one was being staked today, I have no patience to deal with that again. All of my animals trudged behind me so they could get their food, but it wasn't there. Their food ration of the day wasn't there. I turned around to look at the farm animals and they did not look happy.

"Don't worry guys, I'll find your food. I've just got to find Shelton first. Follow me if you'd like," I said to the farm animals as I walked back towards my cruck and over two lots down to Shelton's home.

Shelton has been the delivery boy for the fresh animal food since before I was born, and he does a damn good job at it. Every morning, the animal's food is already outside in their little day house. The animals have enough food so they can eat as much food as they want, whenever they want throughout the day. It's kind of nice actually. I get to focus on my farm work and the animals are always in the same spot, so when ever I want I can look over to the left of the field and see them all congregating for shade and/or food.

I had finally arrived at Shelton's cruck and I called out for him since he didn't really have any resemblance of a door. Well, he did if you count a big cloth as a door.

"SHELTON!" I screamed hoping to grab his attention, but I got no response. "SHELTON!" I screamed once more, but I still got no response.

Now that's strange. Usually after the second time of calling his name he is pulling back the cloth door and asking what I wanted, but today he didn't. When I turned to my right I saw the peasant farmer on the next lot over waving his hands at me. I squinted to look at him, and I started to walk over to him.

"ERROP! ERROP!" I could hear the person saying as the continued to run towards me. Once they finally reached me, the placed their hands on their knees and said,"Errop," while trying to catch their breath.

"Yes, that's my name. Now, where in God's name is Shelton?" I asked the peasant as he had regained his breath.

He looked up at me, I didn't even know his name.

"Haven't you heard the news? There's going to be a noble coming to the village tomorrow!" he said to me with as much enthusiasm as he could conjure up.

I blinked my eyes rapidly. "Why would a noble want to come to our village. Nobody ever wants to talk to a peasant," I responded to the news that he had told me.

"I don't know! But I heard that it was a really important noble too. I just can't believe it! I can't wait for tomorrow!" he spoke rapidly.
I glared at him. "Okay, cool. But, where is Shelton? I need food for my animals," I responded to him.

"Oh!!! Good ol' Shelton! Yeah, he's been going around all morning telling everybody about the noble. He hasn't really ben delivering the food. It's all still inside. Many others have just come by and taken their ration for the day."

"Wait," I began. "So, was it Shelton that started all of these rumors?" I asked the man.

"Rumors?" he said. He acted as if I was saying something incorrect. "He was picking up the animal rations for the next day and he overheard our Lord talking to his wife about a noble coming to talk to one of the peasants. He says he heard which peasant was going to be featured, but he can't remember. But, come on! This is very exciting! We are going to be able to see a real life Noble in our village in less than a few hours. What should I wear? I want to look good.." the man kept rambling on and on, and after three minutes, I just couldn't take it anymore.

"It was awesome talking to you, but.. I really need to get to my work. So, bye for now! Keep spreading the word!" I said before ducking inside of Shelton's house to grab my animals' food rations for the day.

By the time that I arrived back to my lot, I saw that all of my animals were relaxing in the day house, waiting for their food. I approached the house and poured out the food into it's respective places. All of the animals rushed to their food and started eating, acting as if they were starving.

"Wow guys," I said while grabbing my tools from the side of the day house. " I'm guessing that you really didn't miss me then?"

None of the animals turned to look at me when I said that, they just kept eating. And to be completely honest, I really didn't care. "Well, I'm off to work!" I said to animals before walking to the first row of crops on my land.

Today was going to be yet another easy day. All I needed to do was pull out any weeds that I had missed yesterday, and knead the soil around the crops, so the crops could grow to be big, strong, and healthy.

In a matter of three hours I was finished with my work, and I had the rest of the day to do whatever I wanted to do. I didn't really know what to do, so I just worked on my garden for a little bit.

I kneaded the soil and watered the herbs and plants. For a peasant garden, it was looking pretty good. All of the crops were healthy, and grew well every harvest season. I grew the majority of my food in this garden since all of my crops mostly go to my Lord for whatever he wants to do with them. He could sell them, or keep them for himself, but he will most likely sell them.

It was already nightfall when I fished working in my garden. Instead of hanging outside in the dark and not really doing anything, I went inside and warmed up some leftover stew from the night before. All of the farm animals joined me inside the cruck when I made my food since the house was warmer than the outside air.

When my food was warm enough, I pulled it off of the fire and placed it into a ceramic bowl that I had made. Afterwards, I went and sat on the dirt outside of my home to watch the stars as I ate my dinner. Even though I don't really like the night time that much because it's usually cold and, well, dark, but the stars really calm me.

I placed my bowl in the dirt to the right of me, and I noticed Rylan sitting beside me. I smiled when I noticed him and I moved to pet him on his soft little head. "Oh, Rylan. What am I going to do with the people that live around us? They're nuts."

All Rylan did was look up at me. I guess that he really didn't care that much. I don't blame the little bull, but it just felt nice to be able to say things aloud and not feel alone. Even if i was talking to a cow...

"Come on, Bud. Let's go back inside and go to sleep. It's going to be another long day tomorrow," I spoke to Rylan.

He stood up and I let him walk inside before me. When I was inside I pulled my wood door shut and blew out the candles that were lit in the main living area. I said good night to the sheeps and goat that stayed in the main living area, and I proceeded to go my bed. Rebecca was already dozing off on her straw mat that I made for her. I walked over to her, and gave her a kiss on her head. She opened her eyes and licked my cheek in a sign of love.

"Love you too, Rebecca," I said while using my sleeve to wipe off her saliva.

I sat on the edge of my mattress and took off my boots, I also unhooked my basket and put it on the floor next to my boots. Afterwards, I patted on my mattress for Rylan to come up and lay with me. He jumped up, twirled around a bit, then settled down a closed his eyes. I did the same.

I usually don't dream about anything during the night, but all I could dream about tonight was death, destruction, and blood.