Young Men Dead

A lonely knight was asleep in the saddle. Above him only stars and swaying trees greeted him as his horse strode forward slowly, the breeze messing up his hair as he slept. But, not far off in the brush… a band of highwaymen laid in wait for unsuspecting travelers. One of them sprang.The man in the saddle stirred just in time to deflect the bandit’s first blow with his short sword… only to be knocked in the back of the head by unseen enemy. 

The strike knocked the young knight from his horse, after which he remembered no more. For what seemed like an eternity, he sunk into the mire of his mind, not knowing if he was awake or asleep. 

All he could make out, all he could see, feel or touch, was a distant memory, now playing on an eternal loop in his brain. Of a cobblestone road, trees swaying in a summer breeze, a cottage, a family, and a young girl with red hair holding a pale of water. She was 12 years old. Suddenly she drops the bucket and runs away. 

He neither fully comprehended nor attempted to make sense of these images. They simply were there, repeating themselves, again, and again, and again. He tried speaking to her once, but his words were unintelligible. The scene never changed or updated in plot. Until one day the girl was not there. She was no where. Fear seized him as he looked frantically.

When Alister awoke, he felt as though he had aged a million years in his sleep. Blood filled his mouth, his eyes could not open, and he had no idea where, or when he was. He could barely move one arm, the rest of his body seemed buried under a great amount of earth. Immovable from fingertips to toes. 

He attempted to open his eyes. Blurred shapes greeted him as he turned his head to take in his surroundings. He saw colors and little else, green, yellow, and brown was all he could make out. Making a fist, he scooped up some earth and  brought it close to his face. Mud. Sloppy, thick, mud, that chokes even the most resilient plants and animals.  It was a far cry from the shallow puddles and streams Alister remembered dipping his feet into as a child, and the river Serni flowing peacefully beside his home. This was a bog. His strength failing him, his consciousness faded. 

He had loved someone once. Still thought of her everyday in the saddle. The scene at the cottage returned, this time the trees had no leaves on them, the sky had transformed from pale blue to a burnt orange. The house was abandoned, and there was no sign of any girl. 

Whether it was a shadow of the past or a vision of a near future, Alister could not say. As he stared he saw men in black approaching from the bad lands to the east.

He awoke. His eyes adjusted to the darkness surrounding him. Finally, after some effort, he could see where he was. He was covered in hardened mud up to his neck, with only his right arm completely free from the dirt. Above him tall trees swayed in an evening breeze. His horse had long since abandoned him, and now he lay motionless in the muck, the weight of his armor coupled with immense fatigue trapping him in silt. 

He remembered now, he was in the land of Andrath, and he carried an urgent message. All that now all that seemed trivial and meaningless. The message, like every other event in his seemingly meaningless existence, would go unsung and unheard. Alister remembered the promise he had made to himself, to search for her, to make amends, to find the happiness that had eluded him his entire life.

“You filth… you’re lower than the pond scum you now lie in”

The trees seemed to sneer at him as he sunk deeper into mud and misery. He wanted to cover his face with hands and weep but he couldn’t even manage that in this state, so the tears fell into the earth. Suddenly the air grew chill, fear trickled into his heart and mixed with the despair that was already there. A dark figure was approaching him on foot from beyond the trees. Tall hooded, and carrying a sword, the other worldly looking thing seemed ripped out of the stuff of nightmares, of old ghost stories his nan would scare him with. Alister’s breath fogged out into tiny ghosts in the chill air. A cold sweat seized him.

He knew it was presumptuous, but he felt certain that this being was the perpetrator that had left him in this state… or was somehow connected. His movement was surprisingly fast, swaying between trees and shrubs, all the while walking closer and closer towards where he lay. 

The hooded man was now only a few yards away. His demise seemingly imminent. Alister closed his eyes and through caked on dirt and blood, simply mouthed the words

“Help me” 

Blue light burst from the trees, the dark figure shrieked, dropped its sword, and fled into the woods, its shape seeming to vanish like a shadow subjected to sunlight. Warmth encompassed Alister where before there had only been cold. Footsteps. Dry twigs snapped and from beyond the trees emerged a man, clad all in blue, with a Snow White beard. In one hand he held a wooden staff, and in the other a long pipe. 

His eyes rested on the knight. They were old eyes, bright and full of wisdom. He breathed in and blew out a smoke ring. 

“My, my but aren’t you in a spot of trouble” 

His voice sounded a great deal younger than the figure it echoed out from. He strode forward, put his pipe in his mouth, and with one hand and a stunning amount of strength pulled Alister out of the mud. He let go, letting Alister collapse to the ground beside the mud. The young knight coughed and drew in heavy breathes. 

“Not quite the best day you’ve been having now eh?”

Alister just stared at him. 

“Silence is sometimes the best option eh?”

The old man sat on a stone across from him, took a long inhale from his pipe and blew out a glorious pink smoke ring that shimmered in the evening light and hung there indefinitely. Once again he spoke.

“You are a man of decidedly stubborn willpower Alister…. “

The knight blinked at him in disbelief.

“Yes I know your name… don’t bother asking why… just consider me your life advisor”

He blew out another smoke ring, this time bright orange. 

“You’ve managed to stay angry at your parents for six years… sleeping under the hedge, living by the sword… and you almost died by the sword just now, had I not intervened on your behalf”

He smoked and looked off hard into the distance. 

“Your father is dying… he can now count his life in months. I think you’d best make haste to his bedside” 

He stood up, gathered up his walking stick, and began moving back into the wilderness where he had come from. As he was almost out of view though, he turned and said 

“Ah yes… and she’ll be there too. I think you’ll find the years have been kind to her”

And with that the old man disappeared into the brush. Alister had said nothing during the whole exchange. He merely laid in the dirt, freed from his prison but startled, confused, and more than a little uneasy. 

The Stranger in blue had known far too many details about his life. He was wonderful and terrible at the same time, and Alister quickly realized that without his help, he surely would have died at the hands of his mysterious attacker. What had been that foul creature’s goal? Alister knew nothing… and more importantly he wanted to keep it that way. 

He felt a soft wetness on his cheek. He turned to find his horse suddenly beside him. So it hadn’t abandoned him after all…

He used the animal to pull himself up and steady himself. With that he departed into the brush. He never told anyone of the strange man in the woods but he never did forget him. At his fathers bedside, after having been reinstated to his household, he thanked the old man in his heart. 

He continued silently thanking him the day he married the young red headed girl, and he thanked him the day he died, old, grey, and satisfied. He never did find out the old man’s purpose or what had brought him to his side… but one thing he was certain of–he was not of this world.