The Headless Knight of Sleepy Trees
Draft_2
By: Chase L. Currie
(Tales of The Bat)
“Who sent you?” The Bat question him with a low growl.
“I don’t know,” he yelps. “We told to burn the house down and kill whoever was inside.”
“How were you paid?” He asked.
“I didn’t meet the squirrel who paid us,” the boy said. “They wouldn’t let me go to any meetings, but all they said we were safe after the job because the squirrel who hired us had rank.”
“How much rank?” The Bat asked. Seathan heard all of this, but he couldn’t stop looking at the armor trying to figure out who was under it. He glanced back into the house on fire looking for Artful and the staff but couldn’t see anything in the blinding light. He turns back to the Bat seeing the staff tied around him.
Seathan smiled the Bat had to be the Sword Saint Artful, it was the only way any of this would make sense. He crossed his arms wearing the smile until the boy ran off into the dark woods.
The Bat turn his red eyes to the Bard and his big smile. “What?”
“Nothing,” Seathan said. “You been wearing that armor under your clothes the whole time?”
“Just the chest plate,” Artful said removing the helmet. “I had to teleport back to a cave to get the rest of it and then come back here.You don’t mind keeping this between us, do you?”
“Not at all,” Seathan said.
“Good I would hate to have to kill you,” Artful with a flat tone and Seathan’s smile faded quickly.
“Really?”
“No, not really,” Artful laughed, “but I had you.”
“So, you are the Bat,” Seathan said.
“I am,” Artful agreed as he looked around at the dead squirrels, “but that is a tale for another time.”
“And one you must tell me,” Seathan said following his gaze.
The house behind them fell in on itself, and they both took off into the night. Someone had sent a gang of cutthroats to kill them, someone with the power which was not a good thing for either one of them. The death of a Royal Bard would bring Whispering Hoods and Knights to the town looking for the killers. The death of a Sword Saint would bring a whole army to the doorsteps of the town looking for anyone to blame for the murder. Whoever sent the killers was not thinking but reacting to them both looking into this Headless Knight.
And the better question why not send the Headless Knight after them?
“I’m sure the gang would have been used as scapegoats,” Artful said sitting in the tree above Seathan still in his armor. The armor looked heavy but Artful moved in it as if it was nothing but cloth.
“I believe you are right,” Seathan said biting on his unlit pipe. “So, this leaves us with two squirrels who could have sent them.”
“The Lord and the Head Knight,” Artful said.
“I’m afraid so,” Seathan said. “Sir Danial Riverpaw said there were six deaths and Lord Ichabod Longears said there was only four.”
“I have only heard of four,” Artful said.
“Who are the other two?” Seathan asked.
“That is a good question,” Artful added. “Grundy was a Knight of the town long before Sir Riverpaw took the rank. I wonder if that is why he died.”
“And the other three? Did they have rank in the town?”
“Matter of fact,” Artful nodded, “they did.”
“I think we should pay the Head Knight a visit,” Seathan smiled up at his new friend.
“We or the Bat?” Artful smiled back down at him.
The house was dark, and there was something nice about the stillness in the house. It was easy to think in the night with the world asleep outside, and Seathan now understood why many of his ranks were night owls. He couldn’t think of a single Bard who had a good sleep schedule. All of them stayed up far too late to work on their craft while everyone else slept. With the world sleeping, they could think. They could work in peace. It was nice, but Seathan wasn’t sitting in the dark of Sir Danial Riverpaw’s house to work on his craft. He was here to find answers.
The hero of legend called the Bat had brought him, and he still wasn’t sure he could believe the Bat was real. Real and was a Sword Saint named Artful Goldenear, a name he had to keep to himself. It would have been a great story to tell the Realm, but he must for the safety of the hero and maybe others keep his name out of the history.
It was something he hated doing but what choice did he have?
He sat in the dark in the living room of the tree house as the Bat woke up the Head Knight of this small pointless town. All he could was sit and wait, but he didn’t mind. He was already writing out letters in his mind to the Emperor and the Queen about what was going on here.
“Seathan,” the Bat yelled down to him.
He rushed up to the room not sure what he would find he got there. It was worst then he had hoped but there was a headless body against the wall. He turned from the sight as the Bat stood over the corpse studying it.
“Guess, Danial wasn’t involved,” Seathan said.
“I guess not,” the Bat said not convince at all. He bends down to see the cut and then looked over to the messy bed, but there was nothing outside of the body to say it wasn’t Danial. He could only think it was, so he stood up heading for the door.
“We have to let the Lord know,” Seathan said.
“We will,” the Bat said walking down into the house and turning into the Knight’s study. “For now, let’s see who the Head Knight was.”
“Kind of feels wrong going through a dead’s squirrels stuff,” Seathan said watching the Bat look over the few books the Knight had.
“Maybe it is,” he said, “but we must do it. I promise the AllFather will forgive us.”
“You would know,” the Bard said stepping into the room looking at the other books on the other side of the room. He scanned them, but nothing was catching his eyes until he found a journal. He pulled out the journal opening the pages to see it wasn’t Danial’s but his father’s journal. “Found something,” he said to the black and red armor squirrel.
“As did I,” he said. Seathan looked over to see a book he pulled out from a hidden spot on the bookshelf.
“You first,” the Bat said stepping up to him.
“His father’s journal. You?”
“A spell book,” he told the Bard.
“Can you read it?” Seathan asked.
“It will take me sometimes,” the Bat said, “but it looks as if some of the pages have been ripped out.”
“We should go,” Seathan said, and the Bat nodded in agreement.
“And tell the Lord his Head Knight is dead,” the Bat said.
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