“You will never amount to anything Alistair, so why even try?” “Because I will come to be something. Something great. You will one day see father, and you will look upon me with pride, and joy whether you like it or not.” My eyes opened and I half expected to see myself hurriedly walking behind my father down the castle hall to the dining area. Instead I found myself looking to the roof of my quarters, a rather large tent,
just fully awakening form another horrid childhood flashback. My father never really liked me much, not even when I became the best in all the kingdom. I was only looked upon with more scorn for drawing more attention to my parents “Bastard child” as they often referred to me. I guess not fully knowing who my farther was, the king whom I looked to as a father, or an exile cast out by him, constantly brought back memories of bad times that my parents hated me for. One of my men peeked in, one of the two currently posted door guards. “You were making a bit of commotion sir, are you okay, can I get you anything?” “No thank you I’m fine, a bad dream is all. Return to your post.” He hesitated for a moment before answering; probably trying to decipher weather or not that was a joke. He finally answered almost as leaving, “Yes sir.” I almost don’t even note people calling me sir anymore. When I was younger I couldn’t help but smile every time someone said it. It made me happy that people recognized me as prince, and looked to me with respect. Now I’m also general, so I’m referred to as sir by almost everyone. I was already sitting up on my bedroll, looking about my tent. Everything had a somewhat tanish glow about it, I almost wondered if I was still dreaming. I looked to the table, and saw my plans for the attack tomorrow. I began again thinking. No one would willingly challenge the strongest, and most well revered empire, and ever go as far as declaring war without good reason. The king my father told the men that the rival empires spoke blasphemy, and that sparked the recent attacks on our outposts. The men took his words to heart, he was there king, and they had no reason to question his word. I however had plenty of reason. I had seen the messengers coming and going in recent days, and suspected this war was of my fathers doing. I guess letting my men think the rival empires now looked down upon us did make them want to prove themselves, so I let them believe my fathers words. I sent scouts ahead a few hours after we set camp to track our enemy’s numbers. We had the largest empire, and brought only a portion of our army, twenty five thousand men. No other empire even had an army that large, and it had only been two days since war was decreed, so they didn’t have much time to mass an army. I stepped outside; most of the men were resting for tomorrow’s march, and maybe our first battle. The guards were still at there posts, and as I came out they snapped to attention. “It’s late, there’s no reason for such novelties.” “Thank you sir” The two guards spoke almost in unison. I looked up and by position of the moon guessed that I had sent off the scouts nearly six hours ago. The rival army was supposed to be two hours march away. They had plenty of time to get there, gather the information I needed, and get back. I looked back to the guard, “Have the scouts sent any word yet?” They both looked at each other almost as if asking each other a question without saying a word. Then the guard that peeked into my room earlier spoke. “One scout out of the four returned sir, and he is in critical condition, unconscious in the medical tent. He passed out as he got into the camp.” “Why didn’t anyone wake me?” “The scout was already unconscious when he entered camp, and we didn’t see fit to interrupt your rest with such bad news, not until the man either awakened or died. We thought you needed rest for tomorrow sir.” Both guards now looked to me in fear, having just departed such bad news with me.” I see. Well if there is any news on the other scouts be sure to inform me right away.” I turned to walk away and heard the guard murmur almost under his breath “Yes sir.” I again just let the words hang in the air without really acknowledging them. I went to the medical tent, hoping that maybe the scout would by some chance be awake, and have some news for me of what happened. Instead as I came in I saw Uldmar, our lead warlock in certain areas, and one of my personal counselors whom I run my strategies by. He was walking away from the scout lying on the table. I could see the man was still breathing though scarcely. “Uldmar, I hadn’t expected to see you here.” “This mans thoughts were so troubled even without consciousness that I couldn’t help but be curious, so I decided to take it upon myself to indulge my curiosity, and see what troubled him in such a way. I guessed it was the fight he was in, or maybe the sight of the other scouts being killed.” After a second or so with no words I tried to coax the conversation on. “I take it that was not what troubled this man?” “Oh no Allistair, it is oh so much worse, but we must return to your quarters before I can speak more of it.” I looked down for a moment pondering what my next step would be, and as I looked back up, before I could say a thing Uldmar responded. “Just have a guard sent for me when you have gathered all the other couslers in your quarters…is that not what you were planning?”
