Doomed Knight Part 2
~ This takes place roughly four years after Part 1 ~
While the doctor’s words had some truth, Scar was able to preserver despite his diagnosis. Through training and even his parents finding out what he had Cub had done (though it wasn’t like they could force them to swap back now without making fools of themselves), he pushed through, and he had completed his page training. Now the boy who was never supposed to be a knight was a squire…
A squire under one of the most feared knights in Ebbin.
“Make no mistake, while I may have chosen you for your disability, I will not be going easy on you,” Doc informed him during the very first meeting the two had together. “I did this to ensure no one else would go easy on you. You knew your diagnosis put you at a disadvantage, but you still chose to become a knight. I expect you to prove your conviction to me during your years as a squire by being just as good as any other night in your year, if not better.”
“I won’t let you down sir.” Scar nodded proudly.
“I suppose we’ll see about that.”
The call to the border came less than a week after Doc had chosen Scar as his squire. It wasn’t much of a surprise considering that Doc was practically always at the border leading the troops there, but it was still a bit nerve wracking for Scar. Getting on his horse and following his knight master to the most dangerous place in the kingdom wasn’t exactly how he expected to spend his first week as a squire.
“Sir Monstera, it is a relief to welcome you back,” Several knights greeted the duo the second they arrived at the camp that had been set up along the border to Merd, “We don’t like dumping all of this on you at once, but the our supplies are dwindling quickly, water in particular. Sir Knight and the troops from Merd moved in one night and took full control of the river. He won’t negotiate with anyone else.”
“Sir Knight, he really had his career path picked out for him didn’t he?” Scar quipped nervously. Doc just glared down at him and Scar shrunk back behind him. Doc sighed.
“Men, this is my squire, Scar of Payne,” Doc said plainly, motioning for the squire to step forward again. Scar did, making hesitant eye contact with the other knights. “He will be assisting me so do your best to stay out of his way if he needs to get something done. I will return my things to my tent and then I will seek out Sir Knight to speak to him.”
“Would you like any of us to accompany you sir?”
“That won’t be necessary. Sir Knight is a fool but he is a respectable one at that. Scar will accompany me there, no one else is needed.” Scar was tense to say the least but he followed Doc as he took his bag from the horse, and began to make his way towards his tent, the knights who had greeted them quickly moving to lead the horses away.
“Do you and Sir Knight have a history?” Scar asked, trying to liven up the silent walk back to Doc’s tent. It was the same size as the other tents arranged around it, but his tent belonged strictly to him, rather than being shared by somewhere from five to ten knights. It was also highly furnished, having an actual cot, a table and chairs, and a semi-permanent cooking setup strung up in the corner.
“A history is putting it lightly, Wels is the one who took my eye.” Doc said bluntly as he set down his bags. Scar did his best not to freeze, setting his own bag on one of the chairs.
“Oh,” Was all Scar could manage to mutter out.
“Are you scared?” Doc asked, almost teasingly.
“Not at all sir.” Scar assured him. Doc smiled.
“Good, only take your sword, if we go in armed to the nines they’ll likely perceive it as an attack, we’re just going to negotiate… for now.” Scar nodded and patted the sheathed sword at his hip. Doc sheathed a sword of his own before turning back to leave the tent. One of the knights from earlier standing outside waiting for them. “I assumed Sir Knight and his men have taken up camp by the stream in order to hold it?” Doc asked, to which the knight nodded.
“Yes sir, they’re southwest of our own camp.” Doc just nodded before silently walking off, Scar trailing behind him.
The walk to the camp was shorter than Scar would have liked, but he and Doc had arrived the the Merd knight camp in less than an hour. Noting how they seemed to be on the same side of the river as the Ebbin knight camp rather than the respectable position on the other side of the river.
Knights rushed towards them. Doc didn’t flinch, just putting a hand in front of Scar, signalling for him to keep his sword firmly sheathed. Scar didn’t dare to move.
“State your business here!” The frontmost knight ordered.
“I’ve come to speak with Sir Knight.” Doc stated bluntly.
“And who are you to demand an audience of him?”
“Tell him Sir Doc of Monstera wants to speak with him.” Upon hearing his name the head knight nodded, running back to camp to get Sir Knight while the other four knights stayed back, keeping their sword pointed at Doc and Scar.
“Doc my old friend! To what do I owe the pleasure?” The knight that returned was much shorter than Doc, but he carried himself with such a confidence that made the two equally frightening in Scar’s eyes. Sir Knight walked right up to Doc, practically putting his head to Doc’s chest without an ounce of fear or hesitation. “How’ve you been buddy?”
“My men tell me you’ve seized control of the river.” Doc pointed out, seemingly just as unphased as Sir Knight was.
“I did, what about it?” He taunted.
“I thought we had a deal.” Doc noted, glaring at him.
“You and I have a deal, I don’t have a deal with any of your men, so when you left I figured I would take the easy win, force your troops to back off some, you know?”
“Well now that I’ve returned, will you be returning back to your side of the river?” Doc asked. Scar was taken aback by how the two interacted, neither giving the other an inch.
“I don’t know, I kinda like this side of the river. Real cozy you know? And it’s soooo hard to get horses to cross the river, I don’t really want to deal with that,” He shrugged.
“Let me rephrase that, you will be returning to your side of the river now that I have returned,” Doc ordered firmly, “Unless you would like to deal with this physically.”
“Oh Doc, surely you know better than to threaten me in my own camp. Especially when you only bought a squire with you.” Sir Knight repeated, laughing in Doc’s face.
“I’m not threatening you, I’m just holding you to your end of the bargain,” Doc pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest in a defensive manner. Scar mindlessly mimicked him.
“Well what’s in it for me? Cause right now, staying on this side of the border seems like a better deal for me.” Sir Knight smiled at Doc in a manner Scar could only describe as childishly, still, Doc didn’t bat an eye at him.
“You want leverage for leverage, yes?” Doc asked.
“You got it, can’t have you attacking us while we’re busy moving our camp back,” Doc just rolled his eyes.
“Fine, I will return with you until you move your camp back to your side of the river, and you will allow my men access to the river once again.” Doc shrugged. Scar’s blood ran cold at how calm Doc was at the prospect of being a prisoner of Merd, even if it was just while the camps were moved, “Scar,” He turned back to face his squire and Scar went ramrod straight as he looked at him, “Return to the camp and inform the men of what happened, then help them gather more water from the stream. You can stay in my tent, but do what you can to make yourself useful to them.”
“Sir send me instead, the knights need you!” Scar insisted without thinking. He had no idea what would happen to him, but he saw how the knights had faltered without Doc there to lead them, and he worried what would happen if Doc left them again, and what Sir Knight would push.
“Don’t be foolish Scar,” Doc scolded him firmly, “This is no problem I assure you, I’ll be back to help you resume your squire training in… hopefully less than a week, so long as Sir Knight here decides not to be a pain.” Sir Knight laughed.
“Actually Sir Monstera,” Sir Knight spoke up, his voice now dripping with venom that had been absent from all of the previous negotiations. “I think I’ll take the squire.”
Till the day he died, Scar never saw Doc look more pissed.
“Excuse me?” His voice taught, and full of anger.
“I said, I’ll take the squire as collateral.” Sir Knight smiled.
“How dare you suggest such…” Doc was cut off.
“Relax Doc, it’s not like he’s gonna be hurt, you know me, I’m a man of my word.” Sir Knight said with a smile. Doc just turned back to Scar and glared into his soul.
“We will be having a talk about this when you return.” Doc scolded, Scar just nodded, braced for whatever was going to happen to him. “Fine Wels, we have a deal.”
“Oh joy, come on now squire boy, you’re staying with us.” Scar nodded and walked forward, only wincing as Sir Knight clamped a hand down on his shoulder tightly, “See you in a week Doc! I’ll take good care of him, I promise.”
Doc nodded before turning away and walking off silently. Scar was forcibly turned around and forced to walk back to the Merd Knight camp. Though at some point in their walk through camp, he was released and trusted to walk on his own. The other knights who had surrounded Sir Knight all broke off to spread the news about the camp being moved once again, while Sir Knight led Scar back to his tent. A large multi person tent repurposed as an office like Doc’s.
“So kid, tell me about yourself,” Sir Knight insisted, Scar bit his lip, not knowing exactly what to do, “Come on now kid, I won’t know how to use you right if I don’t know what you can and cannot do.” Scar had never considered bringing up his diagnosis to an enemy before, but at that point it truly seemed like the best option. Perhaps Sir Knight would see him as a weakling, and Scar could pull one over on him.
“My name is Scar of Payne, Sir Doc of Monstera chose me as his squire less than a week ago, and most of that time has been consumed by travel…” He trailed off for effect, “If it is your plan to use me, I would advise against much physical labor if possible. I have brittle bones and weak joints, so if I pop something out of place I’ll be fairly useless to you.” Sure Scar knew how to pop his own joints back into place, but he wasn’t going to tell that to Sir Knight. He just nodded.
“Duly noted, I can see why Doc chose you.” He remarked.
“Really?” Scar asked, maybe a tad too genuinely.
“Yeah, but rest assured I won’t have you doing any hard work, Doc would have my head if I tried to bring you back in less than pristine condition,” He noted, “For this next week you are to be a personal butler of sorts. You will do whatever I ask of you, fetching me tea and food, delivering messages, and the like. Sounds doable?” He asked.
“Very doable sir,” Scar said, bowing out of habit.
“Good, then I’ll tell you a bit about me. I am Sir Wels of Knight, and my preference for tea is…”
Scar had sold himself short on purpose, but gods he had never imagined how demanding it would be, running around like a servant. By the third day of the camp being moved he was already counting down the days until he could return to Doc. He didn’t even care if Doc broke him for his insolence, that’s what he signed up for when he chose to be a knight, not this. This was the exact thing he ran away from when he and Cub switched schools as children.
“Aww come on don’t move that fast, I’m going to miss having a personal servant like this when we’re back across the river.” Sir Knight shouted to the rest of the knights as Scar brought him a glass of water. His tent was the last one to be moved across the river, and by the end of the day Scar would be back in Ebbin, back as Doc’s squire. “The post should be coming today, go meet the runner at the edge of the camp and bring me back any mail that was sent for me, take the rest to one of the other tents and tell them to deal with it.” Scar nodded firmly before walking off, thankful to be doing something other than fetching water.
“Who are you?” The runner asked as he met them at the edge of the camp. Scar gritted his teeth and sighed.
“Sir Knight’s assistant, he sent me to collect the mail.” Oddly enough he wasn’t questioned after that, the runner just passed Scar a stack of precariously balanced letters before kicking off on his horse and riding back to Merd. Scar absentmindedly flipped through the letters looking for any marked for Sir Knight, when he came across one that he hadn’t expected to see that made him come to a dead stop.
A letter from Cidagor.
Why in the world would he be getting letters from Cidagor? Scar thought nervously. Sure Ebbin wasn’t on good terms with either kingdom but as far as he was aware they were just neutral towards each other. Was this them teaming up?
Scar slipped the letter under the leather plates or the armor Wels had given to him when he confiscated his metal armor and his sword. It wasn’t the brightest idea by any means, but he had suffered for so long, at that point he was willing to take a few risks. After all, he was almost back to Doc.
“Just this sir.” Scar sighed as he tossed a letter onto Wels’s desk. It seemed to be a letter from his family based on the crest stamped into the wax seal, so Scar didn’t bother hiding that one from him, “I’m going to deliver these letters to the rest of the knights.” Wels just nodded absentmindedly.
“Good, then come back, the last of my tent is being moved now so I assume Doc will want you back immediately.” Scar couldn’t have run out of there faster if he tried, dashing to a tent, not caring it was empty, and dropping the letters on the ground before running back to Wels. “That eager to get back to Doc huh? That’s a shame, I enjoyed your company.”
Wels gave him back his armor and his sword, and led him back to the river, where Doc was pointedly waiting.
“See, pristine condition, like promised.” He assured Doc.
“Still less than pleased Wels.” Doc sighed as he watched his squire wade his way back through the water. “Try not to step out of line again any time soon, or you will find things a lot more tense than they were before.” Wels may have rolled his eyes, but he knew Doc was dead serious. The knight master clamped a hand down on Scar’s shoulder as soon as he was by his side, but it actually felt gentle and reassuring.
“See you later, Monstera!” Wels sighed, waving to Doc before walking back to his own camp. Doc didn’t bother waving back, just leading Scar back to the Ebbin camp.
“That was very reckless of you,” He scolded tensely.
“I figured it was better me than you,” Scar shrugged.
“You would do best to restrain yourself from taking risks like that again,” Doc stated firmly, Scar nodded.
“Understood sir… I got this for you.” He awkwardly reached a hand under the leather armor, and pulled out the scroll, “He sent me to get the mail so I kinda just nabbed this. It was sent for Sir Knight, from Cidagor.” Doc’s eyes went wide as he took the sealed scroll from Scar.
“And you’re sure no one saw you?” He asked.
“Not a soul sir, I had them all convinced my bones would crumble into dust if they made me do any kind of physical labor, so Sir Knight just used me as a butler. Apparently I listened well enough that he trusted me to get things completely unattended.” Doc actually smiled at Scar, reaching down a hand to ruffle his squire’s hair.
“Maybe there’s hope for you yet, Scar.” He said proudly, “But in the meantime, you should get yourself cleaned up.”
“Would you mind if I trained a bit first sir? What Sir Knight had me doing was painfully boring, and I’m itching to stretch my arms and legs again.” Doc chuckled.
“Only if you're willing to spar against me.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal!”