CHAPTER 887: WARRIOR BONDING

More than a hundred villagers had gathered at the gates, staring at the Eldritch caravan with a mixture of fearful and curious faces as most of them were seeing ’demons’ in the flesh for the very first time. Others, however, spotted a familiar figure at the head of the caravan, one they had last seen just weeks ago when Sir Carwyn faced him in single combat.

"There it is! That’s tha’ one Sir Carwyn fought fer us," one man exclaimed, pointing a shaking, trembling finger at Barsali. "It’s tha Demon Knight!"

"Holy Lord of Light," a woman nearby whispered as she fell to her knees at the sight of the imposing, serpentine figure. "Forgive me for doubting that such horrors were real. You have long protected us from evil, please do not forsake us now..."

"Papa, papa, look! It’s a bear wearin’ clothes like people," a small, childish voice cried as a young boy, little more than six years old, jumped up and down excitedly as if he was seeing jesters in costume at a summer festival.

"Get back here," another parent shouted as they snatched their young child who was attempting to rush out to hug the ’big fluffy bear-person.’ "That’s not a bear, it’s a demon! You stay away from it, or it might eat you!"

Unfortunately, not everyone had responses to their first sight of the Eldritch people as the few children who were present. A few of the young men looked like they had brought stones to throw, but Carwyn’s soldiers had formed a line to keep the villagers from getting too close to their Eldritch guests. Anyone who looked like they might cause trouble was quickly ’reminded,’ sometimes with a mailed fist, that Carwyn would harshly punish anyone who made a move against their new allies.

"Father, what happened to you?" Carwyn repeated when he reached the old knight’s side and took in the slight hesitation in his step and the way he favored his left leg as if it hurt to put much weight on.

"Nothing you need to worry about, son," Sir Rhodri said as he pulled off his helm and lowered his cowl of mail. "I’m just not as quick on my feet as I used to be," he chuckled as he pointed an accusing finger at Barsali. "I forgot about this one’s sneaky tail, and he taught me a valuable lesson," he said with a wide smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes.

"Captain Barsali says that he’s sorry," Loftur helpfully translated when the serpentine warrior took off his plumed helm and turned it to the side to point to a fresh dent. "But he was caught off guard by your father’s blow, and he struck out harder than he meant to without realizing it."

"Father!" Carwyn cried, turning to look at the old knight with a terrified look on his face. "You attacked him?"

"No, no, not like that," Rhodri said as he gestured for his son to lead the way so they could move on from the village gates. "While we were waiting, your friend Barsali asked for a lesson in how knights fight other men in heavy armor. We just got a bit... enthusiastic at one point."

In truth, Barsali had asked for more than a lesson in how knights fought. The conversation between Barsali and Rhodri had taken more than an hour, with Loftur explaining many things that went beyond the meanings of words to both men as they spoke, but in the end, it boiled down to a request that Rhodri couldn’t deny.

"Your son fought with his entire body and spirit," Barsali said. "He is a Champion who cannot yield because his heart is filled with conviction. He loves his family and his people, and he fought as one man against ten to protect his own soldiers. You are his father. You taught him these things. Please, teach me in the way you taught him," he asked, bowing deeply to the old knight.

"Why do you want to learn from me?" Rhodri asked, furrowing his white, bushy brows at the serpentine warrior. "You defeated my son. You don’t need to learn from an old man in order to defeat people like me."

"I don’t want to defeat him," Barsali explained. "I want to fight beside him. I want him to join me on the sands of the arena if I go home, and I want to fight beside him in this war to protect the people who give him so much strength. For that, I need help to understand him, or how can I be his friend in battle?"

Phrased that way, it was a request that Sir Rhodri couldn’t refuse. He might not have understood the words until Loftur translated them, but he could hear the sincere emotion in the serpentine warrior’s voice when he spoke.

There were many men who Sir Rhodri thought of as closer than brothers after fighting with them through the War of Inches, and to this day, there were a few of them that he would ride halfway across the march to defend if they called on him in time of need. To hear an Eldritch warrior desire the same kind of relationship with his son shifted the old knight’s view of the ’demons’ more than he’d ever imagined would be possible in such a brief span of time.

The lesson he gave had grown larger and larger in scope as more and more people wanted to learn from the venerable knight who had shaped one of the few humans who wasn’t a witch or a vampire that the Eldritch warriors had come to truly respect and even admire, and by the time they returned, Sir Rhodri had given lessons to almost every soldier who accompanied his son on their journey home.

"Your father is a cunning warrior," Loftur added as he continued to support the old knight while they guided the caravan across the river. "I am half his age, stronger and taller, and I could not best him even once."

"Give it time," Sir Rhodri said in a conciliatory tone as he patted the bearish translator on the shoulder. "A warhammer is four weapons in one, head, spike, butt, and haft. You focus only on the first, and the rest will do you in. Once you learn to see all the threats, you’ll overwhelm an old man like me in no time."

The more they talked, the more Carwyn realized that he’d been wrong to worry about his father accepting the Eldritch. It seemed like the old knight had found his own way of getting to know their new allies, and once they found a bit of common ground, the differences fell away.

Now, he only hoped that the rest of the village could learn from his father’s example, particularly when Acolyte Holm joined the village meeting tonight as a representative of the Church...