# The Black Knight



## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

Its been a while since I posted a story. Anyhow, here's a reader's note: This is in a fantasy setting, but this story will not be some sort of huge majestic story. Anyhow, enjoy!

_The Black Knight_


Theolan and Anastasia huddled together on the front of the wagon as it moved slowly down the old road. The night, which boasted a look that was cold and menacing, instilled fear into the young siblings as they made their way towards town. Why their father sent them so late to the town was still somewhat baffling to them, for it was obvious to all that the night was not safe in these parts of the woods… especially to children. But still they did not question their patriarch’ task and continued to move slowly towards the human town, ready to sell what few goods they had.

“Why does father send us so late in the night for such a simple trade?” Anastasia asked as she gripped Theolan tightly around his arm.

“Ask not my sister, if father says it’s that important for us to go and sell what little we have then it shall be done” Theolan replied “we need the money and these humans have it.”

“But still, why so late? Does he not know that there are brigandines that haunt these woods at night? Does he not know the beasts that prowl in the darkness? What do we have to protect us from such an encounter brother if it was to happen?” Anastasia whimpered.

Theolan turned and gave his sister a hug of comfort.

“Don’t worry my sister. I feel that the spirits of the woods look upon us with mercy and the beasts and bandits are in their dens and camps, asleep after a day’s toil. We are safe for now.”

Anastasia nodded at her brother’s words and stopped whimpering but still tightly clung onto him. The two elves then became silent after that; the only soundtrack playing from then on was the creeks and moans of the cart and the clops of the horse’s hooves. But this silent journey was not to last, for in less than ten minutes after a great figure of shadow emerged from the darkness in the distance. Anastasia looked upon the figure and began to cry silently as they came closer to it, the appearance of such a thing was overwhelmingly disturbing and frightening to her. Theolan also saw the dark figure as well and with every once of courage kept a straight and brave face on, for he knew that it was his responsibility to be the last bastion of courage and safety for his sister in this cold darkness.

As they came closer their fears amplified ten fold. The shape of the shadow became clearer with every step, and it was something to be defiantly afraid of at this time of the night. It was an armored man on a large horse, holding in his right a lance and his left a shield. As they came within five paces they realized that it was not simply some lone brigandine, but a knight of deathly appearance. Too much horror of the siblings, their horse ceased to move pass the dark knight for reasons they could not tell. And to greater terror, the knight stopped right beside them. Anastasia began to bawl at this horrendous figure, the dreams of her possible death on this road becoming true right before her eyes. Theolan shook like a wimpy tree in a windstorm before this lone warrior as his courage faltered, for the sight of this figure was too much of a burden for his weak youthful courage.

The dark knight slowly looked upon the siblings with his dead gaze as like he was about to butcher them and with that the siblings shook with greater intensity. But yet he did not move at all or gave and gesture’s of violence.

“Why do you cower before me young elves?”

The two sibling’s tongues were petrified to this unexpected question, remaining shut instead.

“Why do you let your fear of me take hold of you?”

Unlike Anastasia, Theolan found his voice to be free for this moment and weakly replied.

“This night and this road has given us doubt of our safety and our ability to defend ourselves against the dark. To see you is too see the incarnation of our fears, and we have no spines to stand up against such a sight.”

The knight gave a slight laugh upon those words.

“Do not worry young elves, I have not come here to end your lives. I am simply traveling back home.” Said the Knight.

“And where is home?” Theolan thoughtlessly asked.

“Over the Agmar Mountains and pass the Kingdom of Bulgar, on the wet coast by the northern forests in a secluded slice of land. That is my home. That is were my dreams are.” The knight said, ending on a sad note.

Theolan and Anastasia paused at his words for they rang a bell of familiarity in the back of their minds. But it was not long before those words made sense to Theolan.

“Is that not the location of the Black Witch’s castle like my father and his father spoke of?”

The Knight nodded silently.

“Why is your home there at such a cursed spot? Is it not rubble? Have the armies of the Kingdom of Bulgar not raised it to the ground as the stories go? Or am I foolish of that spot’s true history thanks to my father’s father’s fabrications of his past campaigns?”

“Yes they have, but yet that is where my home is.” The Knight replied with a sadden tone. “And no, you are not foolish of the history of my home.”

While Theolan’s mind decided to not question this man any more after that foolish question, Anastasia quietly blurted out the unexpected.

“If you were from there, did you know of the Black Witch?”

“Yes, I do know of her and her demise.”

It came to them like a meteor upon soft earth once they heard those words, forever shattering what they once believed to be nothing more than a ‘legend’. This knight, this blackened warrior, was not some lonely armed soul, but the notorious champion of blood from their father’s stories. Right here, right now, stood before them the Black Knight, the right hand of the Black Witch according to lore.

This wild and horrifying conclusion came true when their eyes observed what faint details the armor and barding bore. Etched finely were scenes of the dead and the beasts of darkness assaulting the noble warriors who fought against the queen. This realization brought much terror into the siblings and with that they jumped off the wagon and hid behind it.

“Please do not hurt us oh mighty knight! We mean no offense to ye and all we ask is to spare our lives! Take what you want of us, just not our souls!” Theolan and Anastasia cried in terror.

The Black Knight dismounted and approached the siblings behind the wagon. The siblings coward as he stood before them, terrified that this specter of darkness existed and now was before them. As they shook the Black Knight began to unbuckle the holdings of his armet. The siblings were on the verge of screaming as they expected to see the undead gaze under the helm as the knight slowly took it off. But when the armet was off, they did not see a face of a dammed, but a withered face of an old man. He was scarred greatly, but not just only with ancient wounds, but also with sorrow, as if he had seen too many inhumane atrocities in his long life.

“As I had said before young elves, I am not here to harm you in any way.”

He extended his arms out and grabbed the children by their scruffs. He then gently placed them back onto the wagon and placed the reigns back into the hands of Theolan. The siblings made no moves of resistance against this action, the fear of this scenario holding them immovable. The Black Knight then mounted his horse and turned around as to walk beside the cart back towards town. With his lance the Knight lightly prodded the horse of the cart and sent siblings forward once more.

“I shall walk beside you until you reach town, for such young souls like you and your goods need a good escort in this treacherous night.”

_To be continued soon..._


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## VixusKragov (Feb 21, 2012)

Very interesting so far! A few grammatical errors but nothing too bad. Can't wait to see it's continuation!


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## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

It was a good hour before most of the tension of the Black Knight wore off on the siblings. Like all young curious children, when it was to levels of semi comfort the curiosity of the siblings began to play out to the nature of this enigmatic dark traveler of theirs. 

“Excuse me… but… but… but are the rumors true that you have ended over ten thousand lives in the past?” Anastasia asked quietly.

The knight looked at them with a faint smile “For those who stood against me it seems that this fact rings true. But the truth is that I do not really know how many I have slain. But all you need to know is that it was not out of the emotions they claim.”

“Then what were the reasons for such actions great knight? Surely from what you are gesturing there must be another cause.” Theolan said.

“The reasons for my bloody victories can only be explained through the story of my life. However my tale is long and tiresome to the impatient.” The knight explained.

“We have a ways to go before we reach the human settlement… And to be honest I would like to hear your words. I mean, the stories of my father’s father paint a picture of a monster. But yet, here you are, not even displaying an ounce of your supposed character.” Theolan encouraged weakly.

“Yes great knight, I too would like to hear your side. Besides, I love stories!” Anastasia added.

The Black Knight sighed in gratitude as he began to organize his thoughts for them.

“You are right about the time. The night is still young and I do believe that you are open enough to here my side unlike what those who hate me speak of. My journey of who I am began when I was a young lad. I lived on a farm with my father and older sister, my mother passed away when I was merely a babe. I remember the day when the king’s men came to my door and wished to speak with me. What they said was that I was chosen to be drafted into the army, for our numbers were low against the forces of the Kingdom of Bulgar. So taking the mantle of responsibility I kissed my sister goodbye and my father farewell and set off the next day.”

“Are you speaking of the war in where my father’s father’s kingdom set off to conquer the lands of men? If so that was about two hundred years ago.” Theolan asked.

“Yes, it was that war. I thought they were to place me in the files of the other troops, expecting to join the cohorts of the spearmen or pikemen. But too much surprise I was placed with the men of the front line, the men who were responsible to lead a charge in which death was almost a certainty. Thus I was simply given a two handed great sword, a breast plate and a armet. That moment, you can say, was the beginning of my reputation as a crazed warrior.”

“How so?” Anastasia asked.

“War can do many things to one man’s view of life” the Black Knight said sadly. “Being the one to lead the assault, I saw much of my brother’s lives lost in a blink of an eye when were stormed the front of the archers. They dropped like weak trees in a midst of a godly hurricane, leaving the numbers of the assault from promising to almost nothing. Such a bond I had with them though did not discourage me to stop and morn. In fact, it did not weigh my heart down, but set it aflame with hate. Within an hour I had butchered more elves than an entire cohort of knights. I lost count after killing around two hundred of them.”

The two siblings shivered at the though of such carnage. Even though they have never seen blood spilled in such a manner, their vivid imaginations painted the perfect picture of such carnage.

“I was never the same after that first battle. An honorable man would usually morn after such an act of degrading butchery. But I instead felt that the vengeance of the deaths of my brothers in arms was yet to be satiated. So for the next few battles I did not show any mercy. Such reckless hate and bloodlust that I delivered eventually overcame my sense of who was the enemy and who was my friend. It not long before I hewed down such a number of elves that my commander exiled me from the army, claiming that my methods of dealing with the enemy were insane and dangerous to the public. It was then I realized what a monster I became.”

Theolan and Anastasia had their mouths sewn shut once the knight paused. Such a transformation from a man to a monster was something that was completely foreign to them and this revelation of such a thing brought a great and terrible fear upon them. But yet they still yearned for more of his tale.

“Ashamed for what I have done I imposed myself into exile, taking only what I was given before the war. The only place that I felt that I could dwell was the regions beyond the lands of the Kingdom of Bulgar, the black forests by the west coast. I thought that maybe there I could find some form of redemption for the madness that I caused on the battlefield. But after dwelling there for years I realized that salvation was not to be found. So the only other option that was left for me was to find a place on the west coast, a fishing village perhaps, and spend the rest of my days trying to put the pieces back together. But it was the choice to follow that path that actually proved to be my path of becoming a whole man once more.”


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