A Field of Green

I remember Greenhaven in its prime. I remember when the walls were put up, I remember the Dragon Festival. Every year Ragnar would make decorative scale armor for the dancers. I watched him as he made each scale meticulously one by one. His apprentice painted each one by hand with a fine brush and Elanor would sit at the well for hours practicing the song of Valinor. Her voice filled the town with warmth and kindness. Id even say her voice was so comforting it could teach baby birds to fly. Oh how the fires would soar once night came. The Ealdorman gave his speech every year and his children always ran off from the party getting into trouble. Those were days of beauty, I knew that I needed them back.
After The Ealdorman was usurped by his daughter things were fine for a time. In fact the town thrived with Ealdorman Circi but that only lasted so long. She began demanding higher tax and she began building a larger army than was needed. Tribes of pagans and witches started coming to town and talking with her. I knew I could no longer stay in Greenhaven. So I used all of the coin I had saved for the winter to buy passage to the Southern Isles. Rumor had it the Ealdorman's son Veli had fled there. The voyage was a long and grueling one. I did not have much money so it was a very ragged ship and crew I sailed with. The sickness was the worst of it though. The healer didn't know if I would make the journey. I had not seen Veli in some time, I wasn't even sure I would recognize him. But when I walked into Alton there was no mistaking him. There he stood working away in the fields, a spitting image of his father. I announced myself to the lord and told him what I knew of his sister. He picked me up off my bended knee and shook my hand.
I was terrified. I had just pledged myself to a lord who I barley knew, one who had abandoned the town. What's more, he had aligned himself with the pagans. Night after night he would drink and fight with others for fun. These people are barbaric. Yet I never dreamed of home, I expected to miss my hovel and my bed, Elanor's sweet voice. but each night as I laid down to sleep I felt more whole than I had in four years. Veli and the people of the Isles were loud, violent, and filthy drunks, but they had life. Life that Greenhaven had lost. The same spark that used to fill the festival every year. I was where God intended me to be.
I tried to learn to fight but I never did quite master the art. One day as I was practicing the bow I missed my shot by what looked like miles. I threw the bow down in rage, I was done, I was farmer not a warrior. As I walked away the arrow I had lost came back at me and landed at my feet.
 "Alfred, where are you going?" It was Veli who had shot my arrow back. 
"I'm sorry lord I've tried and tried for months but I am no warrior. I am of better use to you in the fields my lord."
 Veli laughed at me, then his smile faded to sternness. "Alfred skill is not what makes a warrior a warrior. Courage, determination are what makes a warrior." 
I shook my head "Lord I have none of these things, I am sorry but I am of no use to you. He grasped my shoulder and looked at me with care I had not seen in him before. 
"You left your home, the only thing you have known to find and help me just because you thought it was right. Day after day you have worked to become a better fighter despite your self doubt. You are more a warrior than any man I have ever seen."
 He handed me the arrow and walked off. I spent the rest of the daylight firing at that tree until I hit it. As I walked home that night a bonfire had been lit and a council was called. I joined the council by the fire. It had been long enough, It was time to go home. We were going back to Greenhaven and we were to take it back.
The morning we left was bitter cold. I could feel my breath freeze in the air. We got up before the sun to load the boats. Then we left for home. Veli, Essus, myself and the other warriors of Alton alongside Earl Skulvar and his men and a two of his chieftains and their men. As it turns out I was still not good with the sea and grew sick very fast. But not the other men, no they were so ready, so at peace with what was to come. Veli stood with one leg on the edge of the boat and the other in it. He just closed his eyes and stood there silent. He held onto his pendant with an iron grip and just felt the waves and wind. Yet no matter how hard they blew he did not move. The others sharpened axes and drank away the time but I could not be at peace. I was supposed to be comfortable sailing with pagans to attack my own home. To kill men I've known for years. I felt as though God would surely abandoned me. I was about to forsake loyalty and his people and he would be displeased. To avoid alerting Greenhaven to our attack we sailed into the Golden Land and marched from there. As we hid in the trees mere miles away from Greenhaven the battle grew nearer. I never slept a full night those weeks. This feeling, it had flowed from my brain into my gut. It churned my liver and turned my heart into goo. One night it was so bad I left my tent and walked into the woods. I expected to find quite and comfort there but instead I found and angry snake. Essus was bashing and cutting trees and God knows what hour. He spotted me but he did not stop swinging his blade.
 "Why are you up Alfred!?" His tone always was harsh no matter what he was saying. 
"Needed some air, what of you? I would think you need sleep."
 He sighed and tossed his blade into the ground. "Destiny keeps me awake this night."
 "Destiny?" 
"Yes Alfred, Destiny. Not mine but Veli's. His destiny is Greenhaven, this I know. The Ancient one has seen it." 
The Ancient one, The Dark God. His people won't even recognize the evil they worship. This was neither the time nor place for that argument though. "Then why does it keep you awake? Lord Veli sleeps well." 
He plucked his sword back out of the ground. "Because, I promised him I would make sure he got his home back. Promised I'd die for it. If I fail in this task then everything could be lost." I walked back to my tent but sleep never found me
That morning the sun peaked through my tent and warmed my face. The sound of boots stomping all across the ground woke me. A man shouted and another shouted back. I heard metal grinding against stone and the leaves shuffled as someone ran past. I stepped out and looked around. Doused campfires bellowed smoke into the air and the smell of gone breakfast graced my nose. Veli and Skulvar stood around a table pointing at a map. The Earl was loud and full of fire but Veli, he was, not cold but terrifyingly at ease. He nodded is head and the put away the map and started gathering their weapons. I needed to get ready as well but first I needed a tree to release the fear in my gut. I grabbed my axe and I joined the other men. It was the Earl who lead us to the walls. Veli was nowhere to be found. I would have thought this strange but I had other thoughts in my head. I saw the walls through the trees but there was no time to reminisce. A horn blew and footsteps surrounded us. We managed to get out of the trees and into a clearing near the front gate. Suddenly the man next to me fell, and then another and another. Arrows were being fired from the walls. Some of Circi's men met us outside the walls. "SHEILD WALL!" the Earl bellowed. We stood surrounded by them. We formed a wall in a circle surrounding us by they were closing us in. I felt each bash and push on the shield. These men I was worried about hurting, they were ready to kill me without a second thought. I couldn't hold the shield much longer like this. I swung the axe forward and It found its man. I felt it in my hand as it met with the man on the other side. I heard him fall to the ground. Dear God I had just killed a man, and God forgive me because I can't stop now, If I do I die. We regained some control and started holding the line. But that was no victory. "She is Here!" A man cried. I looked to the wall and there she stood, Circi. I'll never forget her eyes. The joy that filled them. She raised her hands up and rained lighting down from above. It hit the ground and men flew, the thunder shook our heads, they screamed and dear God they smelled horrible. The wall was broken and more of her men had arrived. As the army ran for us suddenly they were dead! A flash of green light and their stood torsos separated from legs. Essus had arrived. Circi's men were good but even they couldn't stop the Demon Snake. "NOW!" he screamed and from the trees, a tidal wave was coming. It ripped out the trees and sliced trough the rocks. We all ran out of its range. Now I knew where Veli had gone. He had left for the river to gather it's water. I had heard about his power but never had I seen it like this. He rode the wave sucking up trees and men alike. The storm met with the wall and it caved under its might. The water fell to the ground and Veli ran back out to meet us, Circi's men fleeing to defend the wall. We screamed in triumph. 
Veli grabbed his blade firm "We are an army!" 
"HRAAA!" we all screamed
"Today we are not farmers! We are not fishers, not smiths! We are not mothers and fathers! Today we are an army! Today we win or today we go to corpse hall! Today we show no mercy!"
 "NO MERCY!!!" We all yelled "NO MERCY!!!, NO MERCY!!!"
 My fear was gone and all I saw was the hole in the wall. I ran for it like I have never run before. We pushed past the men and into the town. Many fell on both sides as we pushed for the longhouse, only our men did not scream as they died. It was within our site, the longhouse. I stopped and tuned, and archer was hidden in an ally, his bow ready Veli's sight was fixed, he would never see it in time. I dropped my axe and dashed to get in front of Veli. The arrow had found its place in my leg and I was brought to the ground. Veli now saw the archer and broke him with a blast of water. 
"Alfred! get up!" 
"No lord, go! I'll be fine. finish this, for Greenhaven!"
 He grabbed my hand firmly. "For Greenhaven."
A cloud of black smoke stopped the lord before he made it to the house, from it came the demon Circi. I heard not the words the spoke but their hatred for each other screamed loud. She conjured a blade from the shadows and the siblings met each other with steel. Circi while powerful could not win. She flicked her hand forward and Veli tumbled to the ground. She incinerated her sword and let out her terrible power The town grew dark, as if someone had covered the sun. When the light came back there stood a dragon! This was not natural however, this thing, this monster was made of shadow and malice. The lord picked himself of the cobbles and met his sister with the wrath of the oceans. A whirlwind of water flinging about, breaking house walls and ripping stone from the street. He lifted himself up on a hurricane. The dragons dark black fire bashed into the crashing waves of water shooting from the hurricane. High into the sky they flew. As building burns and blood flooded the streets they climbed higher. The dragon circled the hurricane but could not close in. In a split second the hurricane broke out crashing into the dragon, then reformed in an instant. The dragon faded back into shadow and the witch fell to the ground. Veli caught her and then both landed. She screamed not like a warrior but like a little girl. She was pushed to her knees and Veli cut her head from her body. He men stood down and victory was ours, almost.
Before songs could be sung we were all surrounded by the King's army. We stood down and tossed our blades to the ground. From victory to failure within a moment. Despite our efforts the King knew of our attack and for our acts we were deemed outlaws. Our lives would be spared if we left The Vale and never came back. I was lifted onto a cart and we left the town. We were told victory or the gods, well it turns out there was a third option, and it was worse. As we walked away a breeze came in and rain sprinkled from the sky. Our spirits broken we left for Alton. The battle is done and we did not win. But I know this won't be then end. I believe Essus was right, Greenhaven is Veli's destiny, I saw that, I felt it, and like Essus it is a cause I would die for.