It had been a week since I was first brought to the castle and I had yet to see any of the Lordships. It was not unusual for the family to be away, and from what I understood both his lordship and the young lady were to travel to a nearby kingdom soon. As such, most of my time was spent patrolling the inner walls of the castle, enjoying the view of the land spanning across miles of farmland, forest and the mountains in the east. The view was astounding and I would often find my gaze caught on the horizon beyond what my eyes could perceive.
Though one would chastise me if they caught me dreaming, it was due to my far away look that I caught some unusual movements by the very edge of the oak forest, south west of the castle. A cloaked figure was hastily making their way towards the forest and as the castle was facing the opposite way towards the town, there was no other optional path that the figure could have emerged from but the castle itself. Realising this, I began to run after the figure, quickly ascending from the nearest guard tower and onto the open plains leading to the forest. By the time I had reached the edge of the forest I realised I had not alerted the nearby guards, but deciding it was a matter of great urgency I felt it was more important to catch whomever this person was than to run back and raise the alarm. If it was later revealed I had made a mistake it would cost me my new position.
Having spent years both as a soldier scouting for enemies in far away lands in many different seasons and landscapes, I had honed the skills of a master tracker. I couldn’t help but immediately notice that the figure was sloppy, leaving behind obvious signs of where they were travelling through the thick vegetation. Broken branches and footprints in wet mud made me quickly catch up to the hooded figure within minutes after first entering the forest. This person was either completely oblivious to their surroundings or the worst assassin I had ever come across. I swiftly stalked them as they traversed between the trees, never looking behind them and seemingly becoming more and more relaxed as they went further into the woods. At times the figure would stop and kneel to pick things off of the ground or collect plants. I stayed quiet, wanting to see what they were up to before confronting them. My hand reflexively went to my sword the moment rustling could be heard from a nearby bush. A small creature emerged from the foliage, short and humanoid yet far too small in stature to be human.
- What brings you here, human?The figure being a witch was not nearly as shocking as it being the voice of a man coming from the hooded figure, soft and delicate but undeniably male. From the little that I knew about witches, I had been under the assumption there were no male witches.
- Thank you. I will make sure to continue to nurture and protect your forest.If I had blinked I would have missed the small creature as it seemingly merged back into the lush greens and browns of the forest's foliage. One moment he was clear as day, the next the cloaked figure was once again alone to keep collecting his herbs and plants.
A witch. Any other guard would have broken through the trees to cut his head clean off. The man was lucky it was me who had found him and stumbled upon his secret. I simply watched in silence as he spent a while cutting and collecting from the forest, putting things in leather pouches and glass vials. After a while the man let out a deep sigh, before closing his bag and turning to walk back towards the direction of the castle. Finally, I caught a glimpse of his face.
He was a man around my own age, hair dark as a raven with slim delicate features. He looked tired and though there was some distance between us, I could easily make out the dark circles under his eyes. Before leaving the area I could hear his voice mutter in a foreign tongue, the air around him charged, reminiscent of the feeling right before lightning strikes. Blink and you’d miss the lush light on the nearby plants, berries and herbs sprung back from where they had been cut or harvested, and as if he had never even set foot in the area, it once again looked completely untouched.
I couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder, a small smile crossing my lips before I began to follow him back towards the castle. A lesser man, a more ignorant man would let his throat meet the edge of a blade for what had just transpired in these woods. Life had made me rough around the edges, but from the many years of travels across many lands and kingdoms, magic and witchcraft had never been one of my troubles. Rather, it had aided me more than once before, seeing the man wasn’t hurting anyone. I did not see any reason to let our paths naturally cross and separate once more. Perhaps the universe would award me good fortune, or perhaps it was simply an equal exchange from my earlier life. Whatever it might be, I found myself not needing to know. Once the figure made its way back to the edge of the forest, I watched him duck under a mound and disappear, likely he had other ways of traversing this world than I would ever know and so I began a calm trek back towards my post. Like any other day, I let my eyes once more get caught on the horizon. My mind wandered, not so much towards the same daydreams as before, but on black hair and fair skin.
Perhaps it was not intended for me to know the truth of the world around me. And as a simple knight, I couldn’t help but feel content with the notion of never knowing.
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