Rhyke

Noble

"John keep your head low, now..."

"Yes mother, I see him coming," I replied, seeing the white outline approach our location. I knew he'd be coming, and I knew one of us would pay today.

"Deloris... I can't keep my back stiff..." came a grumbling voice from besides me. My mother's long time friend, Goliad was struggling to stand up straight.

"Hide her in the wheat then!" I heard a peasant behind me shout as he approached us. I recognized his voice as Taut. He was the only reason Goliad was even alive in her current state...

"John, can't you sacrifice yourself?!" Taut asked desperately as him and my mother tried to drag Goliad to somewhere unseen. The wheat around us was short and the tall, uncut stalks were some distance away.

"Are you mad?!" Mother screamed, slapping the short man across the face.

"The boy can heal, can he not?!" he yelled slightly louder, anger consuming the fear.

"It doesn't make him a toy..." mother huffed back.

"He's almost here!" Another male peasant shouted. "Forget Goliad, wield yer sickles!"

I saw a silent tear of sadness roll down my mother's face from afar as she realized they could not hide Goliad.

I turned to face the white blur moving towards our group of 12 peasants. We all knew each other, and would work together to try and stay away from the Nobleman's blade...

The white steed parked with a puff of dust a mere feet from my tiny frame. He wore a silver set of shined battle armor that had velvet cushions around the joints. His helm piece was off, solidifying that he had come all the way out here just to speak with us, and he wasn't planning on staying long. Noblemen usually wore their helm everywhere they went.

His lightning blue eyes pierced through my hazel ones like the sword attached to his waist. He dropped from his horse and shook the very Earth with his stature.

I held not a sickle but two arms full of freshly bound wheat. I was delivering them to the wagon which sat parked near where the man has dismounted.

He took pace towards us...

"Perhaps there was a failure of understandin'," he spat in a thick accent, "but when I said I wanted the harvest complete by the top of the month I think I meant it!"

"You have to forgive us, Father, for we have been underhanded these past months..." the voice was Taut's as he approached the Nobleman, gathering distance between himself and Deloris. Mother was in front of her withered body trying to block it with the bundles of wheat around her.

"I DON'T GIVE A BLOODY DAMN IF YER ARMS ARE FALLIN' OFF!" The man shouted, pulling a long, curved blade from its holster on his waist, "what will it take to make you learn!" He approached Taut, his spotless silver boots being soiled by the dirt beneath them.

I dropped the wheat bundles and faced the Nobleman. He caught my brave gesture and turned his head slightly towards me.

"It's the work of the Lord that we are dying from Disease, Father," I muttered through the fear building up in my tiny throat. "Perhaps he is trying to..." I hesitated, and for a brief moment I caught my mother's sullen eyes burn into mine, "that... this course of violence is wrong."

He turned to face me, adjusting the sword in his right hand. He snarled at me, but hardly looked as angry as he did before.

"I didn't realize the King dubbed you a Nobleman, peasant!" He growled at me, "and I didn't realize that you were permitted to SPEAK TO ME!"

He lunged forward, and before I could even think he sent the curved blade through my chest. I attempted a yell as the metal taste of blood filled my throat and the red fluid gushed out my mouth like a river.

Something in the blade sent searing pain up and down my body... but it didn't hurt like normal pain did, at least, what my idea of normal pain was...

I collapsed as the sword was ripped from my flesh, sending droplets of crimson onto the perfect white armor of the man.

I heard my mother scream in the distance, but she didn't approach me as she knew I would be fine.

"You bloody bastards have until the marrow to harvest this wheat, and if you don't... I'll have all yer heads!" he turned on his heel, kicking dirt into my bloodied face, and made way back to his steed. I gazed up at him, and smiled weakly as I knew the blood of something evil had tarnished his suit of holiness.

He bolted off back to the castle's main gate, gone for now.

"So what now that he knows John is immortal?!" A Peasant named Cornos shouted, "we have to hide him!"

I sat up, feeling the wound in my chest close. My mother's arms wrapped around me. "Oh John... why... why," she whispered.

Taut approached my side, a look of appreciation in his eyes that I had stepped in to save him. Many of the other Peasants, including Cornos, got to work hastily bundling the loose strands of wheat on the trodden soul.

"We can't keep him with us, Deloris," Taut mumbled. Mother only sobbed harder as she heard these words.

"I can't leave him... no," she muttered. I understood what had to happen. If I stayed here the Nobleman would see me still living eventually and have all the Peasants in the lands executed for potential witchcraft...

"Deloris..." Taut began.

"WHY DID YOU MAKE HIM DO IT!" She shouted furiously, rising to face the man. He took a step back, startled.

"I did no such thing, Deloris!" He stuttered, knowing he was wrong.

"You planted the seed in his poor mind!" She sobbed, "you made him do it!"

"Mother," I said lightly, spitting the blood from my mouth into the dirt, "I'll be fine."

"No sweetie, you're far too young..." she said, sadness again running through her worn eyes.

"I'm 13, mother, I can handle myself..."

"NO!" She shouted, "STOP IT, JOHN!"

"Deloris..." everyone's head turned to see Goliad, who had limped her way over to us, "I've known that boy since he was an infant, Deloris... I know he can handle the world on his own."

Mother only looked at Goliad, tears pouring down her grief-stricken face.

"It must be done..." Taut muttered, "I'm so sorry, Deloris."

I was not afraid of journeying away from this small family I had grown to love. I was not afraid of potential death. Unlike the others I needed not food, nor drink, nor sleep to survive...

And without a fear of death, I had nothing to fear in life...

Mother was resigned. She knew there was no way I could stay...

"We will take him to the side gate tonight in the cover of dark... there he will play as a lost child needing a home. They will make him a Peasant in the Castle somewhere," Taut explained.

"I'll still be here, Mother," I reassured, feeling a sense of excitement run through me that I'd finally see what was inside that giant block of stone. I had no memory of the place, although I supposedly lived there as an infant until I was able to lift a bundle of wheat, then me and Mother were sent out to live in the fields... no I was not sad to leave, not at all.

My family of some 30 Peasants had dwindled down to 12 in the past months. A plague seemed to be taking them in their sleep. Many of them were slain by the Nobleman for not living up to his expectations...

"Come on," Tautsaid as Goliad hugged my Mother, "we have a task to finish today, lest we all die by the hand of God..."