The Headless Knight of Sleepy Trees
Draft_2
By: Chase L. Currie
(Tales of The Bat)
Sir Danial showed Seathan to the little house he was staying in while he was in the town. It was a house with the main room where the fireplace sat, and a writing desk, beside the desk, was the door to the small bedroom. Seathan nodded and smiled thinking it could have been worst. He had slept at worst before now that he thought about it.
“Do you need anything, sir?” Danial asked.
“Is there an inn nearby?” Seathan asked.
“I’m afraid not, sir,” the Knight said. “We don’t get a lot of outsiders.”
“Very well,” Seathan said. “Is there any place to get a drink?”
“Most squirrels hang out in the shop,” Danial told him, “but to tell you the truth that is a rare thing.”
“Not very sociable here?”
“On the contrary, sir,” he said, “we normally go to other’s house to visit, and Sunday after church is the town lunch.”
“Good to know,” Seathan said. “Well, thank you for your time, but I’m sure you have a lot to do.”
“Not really.”
“Ah, well, I do,” Seathan said shutting the door to the Knight. He slowly unpacked his things until he found his journal then he spent sometimes writing what he had learned so far which wasn’t a lot.
The Knight said six squirrels had been killed, he wrote, and yet, the Town Lord said only four, so the question is who is lying and why? He underlined his inquiry listening to his stomach beg him to find something to eat. He agreed with the growling sound and headed for the small shop in town.
He stepped into the shop with an old lady tending to counter with a younger squirrel restocking the limit amount of supplies they had on the shelves. Seathan smiled walking over to the gray squirrel at the counter with reading glasses over her eyes, and a permeant frown etched on her face.
“Hello,” Seathan said.
“What do you want?” She barked.
“Straight to the point,” he said with a grin. “I like that,” and pawed her a list of things he needed.
“Give me a moment,” she hissed. “Timmy get over here.” The young brown squirrel ran over to her taking the list and heading to the back for a moment.
Seathan walked around the tiny shop for a moment stopping dead in his tracks at the squirrel sitting at the bar. A Sword Saint was there at the bar eating a bowl of soup with his staff right beside him. A staff made from a deep dark wood twisting and holding a sheath at the bottom with the strongest steel in the Realm, ulfberht steel. The crafting of ulfberht steel had been lost ages ago, and now only the warrior's monks carried them. It was odd to see a Sword Saint this far from any city in a town on no map, and yet, here he was eating here like this place was his home.
Timmy ran by, but Seathan stopped him and asked in a whisper, “How long as the Saint been here?”
“Oh, about a day before you got here,” Timmy said. “He just showed up one day,” and then Timmy was back off the gather supplies.
“Hello sir,” Seathan said sitting beside the Saint.
The Saint glance over with golden eyes and smiled. “Hi.”
“I am Seathan Coattail from the Royal Bard Guild house,” he said.
“Nice to meet you,” the Saint said sticking his paw out, so they could shake. “I am Artful Goldenears.”
Seathan took his paw shaking it and asked, “What bring you all the way out here?”
Artful grin then went back to his soup. “I hear the soup was the best in Thornwood, had to find out for myself.”
“Is it?”
He sighed looking down at the bowl. “Not really,” Artful said. “I also got wind of a Headless squirrel running away, and I had to see it with my own eyes. You know you don’t get to see that stuff every day.”
“So, you are here for the Headless Knight?”
“You can say that,” Artful said turning to face him. “And what brings a Royal Bard all the way out here?”
“I’m here for the same thing.”
“Ah,” Artful nodded, “Seeing if the Queen needs to replace the Lord, huh?”
“You seem to know a lot for a Saint,” Seathan remarked.
He smiled. “I’m good friends with a lot of squirrels.”
It was not the oddest thing Seathan noted. Many nobles and even the Emperor were close to the many Sword Saints, but he never heard of Artful. He made a note to check out this squirrel when he got back to Whispering Oaks.
“What have you found out?” Seathan asked.
“A few things here and there,” he said. “How long have you been in town?”
“Not long,” Seathan told him.
“Well,” Artful said and stood up, “Let’s meet back here a little after dark.” He walked by him heading for the door. “It’s not always safe to talk during the day,” Artful whispered to him.
(Writer’s Notes: There is a great technique Tolkien does in Lord of the Rings which is he has the characters who know the less among about the world ask the question. It works out great for the reader because it allows us to ask the same question; also, if everyone in the world should know something like who the elves are, then they speak as if we the readers know it too. I love the technique because it works so well until you run into the problem I am having right now.
How much do I tell you about the world while you are reading and keep the flow of the work the same? It is a hard question as a writer, but I believe, I’m getting a little bit of a handle on it. The part about the ulfberht steel is where I have failed a little, and yet, I knew it had to be in this part of the story because it is a defining characteristic of a Sword Saint, there was no way around it. Either way, I feel as if it works as best as it could right now.)
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