Sterling Silver

Prologue

Bloody, bruised and beaten, all he could hear is the scraping of silver metal upon the tile floor. Everywhere he looked, he could see the decaying bodies of fellow soldiers. He grimaced as he continued onward towards the throne room. Many were lost on this day, thousands of families and friends in what seemed like two hours. Two hours, and the castle was reduced to rubble. He groaned as he clutched his side. As experienced as he was, he was careless and dropped his guard. Vision blurring, he dropped to his knees, and fainted.

When he came to, he found himself in a bright room. Flinching slightly because of the bright light, he turned his head to look at his surroundings. He was in the castle infirmary, settled nicely in a medium sized bed. Groaning slightly, he tried to sit up, only to have hands gently push down him down. 

"Don't move quite yet, Sir Ryker of Valburn." a gentle voice chided. Ryker looked up and found himself face to face with the head nurse of Castle Brightcrest, Mira Dowdall. The woman's long auburn hair fell neatly on her back while her hazel eyes shone with concern. 

"Sir Ryker," Mira chided again, "please do not move. Your wounds are quite severe and-"

Ryker cut her off as he hastily retrieved his sword leaning against the wall. Ignoring the pains in his arm, he began to storm out the door. "Sir Ryker!" Mira yelled after him. "You are not yet well! Your injuries-!"

"Are of no concern." the knight cut off. He paused at the doorway and looked behind at her. 

"Where is the king?" he inquired. Mira looked dumbfounded at him. 

"Have you no concern for yourself? If your wounds open and you begin to bleed heavily, then I cannot help you because there are limited supplies here! There weren't enough supplies to tend to you!" Mira took a deep breath. "So please, Sir Ryker, rest for a moment before seeing the king. He would not like to see his best knight still bleeding." 

Ryker stood there, staring intensely at her with his grey-blue eyes. Slowly, he made his way back to the bed.

"Very well then Mira." Ryker huffed. Mira looked relieved as she looked more relaxed. 

"Thank you." She smiled gently at him. "You will be incarcerated here for a half a day at most. So please use this time to rest."

Mira bustled away once she settled Ryker on the bed once again. She left, most likely to take care of what little survivors the castle still had. Ryker sighed and opted to look out the large glass window beside him. The outside world was beautiful, as if the attack never happened. The sky was bright and clear, while the grass outside was clean and unburned. It should not look like this. Nothing outside should even be real. Ryker grit his teeth. Nothing else to do, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

When Ryker came to again, Mira was standing over him, changing the bandages on his chest and arms. 

"Good morning, Sir Ryker." Mira greeted. "I am pleased to see that you have taken my advice and rested for half a day. So much so that it is already the next day." She smiled knowingly. "You must be hungry, then. Here." She finished wrapping the bandages and placed a wooden tray on his lap. It had small pieces of bread and fruit. "Eat up, and then you can meet the king. Make sure you dress nicely. There is a mirror beside you on that table over there. " Mira left a change of clothes and walked away again, leaving Ryker alone to reluctantly eat in peace.

Once Ryker finished eating, he closed the curtains and changed in the clothes Mira had left for him. Moments later, he emerged wearing dark cotton pants and matching tunic, which was accented with silver. He wore leather boots and bracers. He wore is dark ankle length cloak with silver trimmings, which signified his status of a knight, and circular silver clasps and chains to secure them on his shoulders. He tied his long platinum blond hair in a ponytail with a dark ribbon. From the sunlight, his skin was fair, in contrast of the bloody man he was the previous day. Mira hummed her approval when she saw him.