Mary and I stood in silence for a bit longer before she let go and ran out the door. I guess she needed some time to herself now to deal with everything. Boy, I wish I had the time to do that myself. I needed to make sure the farm was in as best of a state that I could before leaving. No doubt the ones staying behind would make sure all the farms were managed, but that didn’t mean I got to be lazy about it. They could last a few days and if we weren’t successful then keeping the farms going would be the least of our worries. Doing that work would take up most of the time before noon. I also had to get my stuff together like my spear and armor before heading out.

Greenfield was pretty close to the border with the Badlands where the Demons live. I’ve not seen it myself but the Church says that nothing grows out there and it’s because the Demons are evil. That’s why they keep attacking us for food. It’s not like I’ve had any reason to question it. Every time I’ve seen a Demon it’s because they’ve come to steal our food and they didn’t seem too keen on trying to talk things out so I’ve got no reason to do otherwise.

Because of that, everyone in the village, man or woman, trains up to fight them and invests in a good weapon and armor just in case. As for why they only asked for the men to come, I could assume any number of reasons. Probably just wanting to keep them safe or not to have villages be so abandoned for a significant amount of time.

That being said I had never seen or heard of any female knights. Maybe the King just didn’t want women to fight?

Whatever, it wasn’t like it mattered to me. At least it gave a good reason why Mary can’t come along with me to make sure I’m safe. I could really empathize with her fears if the roles were reversed like that.

After giving my gear one last check over, I got my leather armor on and went to go back to the center of town, but after stepping outside of my house I saw Mary rushing back over carrying something. Before I could react she shoved a huge bag into my hands.

“Take it.” She demanded, stepping back and glaring up at me, hands on her hips.

“What is it?”

“Food and stuff… you know! Stuff that’ll keep well for a few days! If I have to see you go, then I’m at least going to make sure you’re eating right! You can do that for me, at least, can’t you?”

I sighed. There was no use arguing with her and having something good to eat wouldn’t be the worst thing. “Thanks, Mary.” I’d give her a goodbye hug, but I had this huge bag of food in my way and nowhere to put it. “I guess I better get going? Are you going to see me off with the others?”

Mary shook her head, “No, I think…” she clenched her fists a bit. “This is what I’d prefer our goodbye to me… but it’s not a goodbye-goodbye! You promised you’d live!”

I let out a small chuckled. “I did, and I plan to keep that promise. Will your parents be coming at least? It’s close enough for time to go that I don’t think I can swing by myself.”

“No, dad’s got his bad leg so he’s not going out with you and him and mom are working with Elder Nick and the rest of the townsfolk staying behind to make sure everything is handled with the farms.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I’ve done what I can to make it easier, but thanks again.” I paused to let the moment last a bit longer. “So I guess this is, well, not goodbye, but see you later?”

Mary nodded, “See you later, Ben.”

I didn’t leave for a just a bit longer.

Carrying my stuff, which included my spear, a bag with a tent and a bedroll on my back, and well as the huge back of food in my armor, I made it to the center of town where about a dozen man armored similarly to me had gathered around the mounted night that returned. I knew most of their names but a lot of them were at least 5 or 6 years older than me so we had never gotten more close than just the usual familiarity from helping each other out. A lot of them still saw me as just some kid, after all. I wasn’t in their peer group like I was with Mary.

I opted to not draw attention to myself and just hang out on the edge of the crowd. The knight gave a glance up to the sky to get a grasp on the placement of the sun and did a headcount. “That looks like all the ones the Elder said were coming. Let’s meet up with the others marching towards the border. Move out!”

With that I adjusted the grip of the bag in my arms and fell in a loose line. Upon seeing me, some of the others offered to help with the bag, but I waived them off. I was the youngest one here and it was my stuff. It wasn’t even that heavy, just awkward to hold. I could handle it myself.

After all, I was going out to war. That was heavier.

By the time we got to the marching line, I was regretting not asking for help with the bag. I could maneuver and fight fine in my armor, but marching was another thing. Granted, it looked the others were feeling the burn too. Farm work built stamina but not for all this walking. That took a different kind of stamina.

I stopped against a tree to take a bit of a breather. It seemed like the knights weren’t getting too worked up about how lax a bunch of drafted farmers were acting as long as we got up and started to move eventually.

I slid down the tree until I was sitting next to it and opened the bag, looking around and finding a bottle of water Mary had packed for me. I would have to thank her later. She really was thinking about this harder than I was. I opened it up and took a chug to rehydrate, exhaling deeply afterwards. I felt like I could just fall asleep here like this I was so tired, sent off to sleep by the stomps of the men marching near me. Sadly the sound of heavier metal armor clanking interrupted my lullaby.

Someone had pulled from the line and walked over to me. Looking up I saw someone about the same age as me it seemed wearing a full set of armor and leaning down over me. They had messy dirty blond hair that was a bit longer than mine and seemed to be, well, not upset but more curious.

I corked my water bottle and raised my hands up defensively. The last thing I wanted to do was to make one of the knights mad. “I’m just taking a quick break, uh, sir! I’ll be up in a moment!”

He continued to look at me for a moment before chuckling a bit and then standing up straight, “Oh no no no, I’m not… a knight, I’m another draftee like you I’ve just got a bit better armor than the others around here! Do you need some help?”

Before I could say yes or now, he extended a hand for me to grab to help me up. I took it and we pulled me to my feet. Now that I was up I could tell I was actually a bit taller than them. From this angle I could see a sizable sword on his side and a large shield on his back. “You looked like you had quite a bag there. I can smell some good food in it. Seems like you need a break carrying it. Can I help take a load off in exchange for something later?”

He stood there waiting for a reply this time expectantly, almost too eager to help, but I didn’t see any reason to turn down the offer. “I, uhh, sure.”

Without missing a beat, he grabbed the bag and tied it back up before swinging it over his shoulder and then giving me a nod. “Nice to meet ya, by the way. My name’s Alex, how about yours?”

“My name is Ben and, uh, thanks for the help.”

I didn’t have a lot of experience talking with new people so coming face to face with someone so extroverted, as well as scarily strong, was not something I was too accustomed to, but now they were holding my food so I had to go along with things for now.

“Oh, don’t mention it! That’s what we’re here to do, help each other get through this, right?” He looked over to the other ones walking and sort of got some stares before looking back to me. “They understand. Let’s get to walking again!”

Feeling a hand on my back Alex was pushing me to start walking alongside them and rejoin the line. I guess I had gotten my break and I still had my water so I could get back to marching.

It appeared that I had made a new friend, somehow. Hopefully we’d make it through this together.