Arthur I

Arthur I

Arthur thawed his fingers by the fire, the fireplace along with the rest of the castle he found himself in was majestic to say the least, no expense had been spared on its construction, the walls were thick and padded to contain the warmth of the interior inside, the halls were adorned with relics and trinkets of all manners - attesting to the good lord commanders wealth and affluence among the kingdoms elite. The rooms were filled with gilded furniture of fine making, busy serving girls and rotund chefs - portly from their own servings. The castle was fancier than the one Arthur had grew up in, the thought brooded in his mind like a festering cough that wouldn't go away.

"My lord, would you care for warmer attire?" A serving girl approached him with a warm smile, Arthur for a second was too shocked to speak, she DARED approach him so confidently?!

"Of course I do, or would you like me to soak my sheets from the nights snow storm?! Be quick about it and mind how you smile at me, woman!" Arthurs face reddened from his anger, the serving girls smile dropped and her eyes widened as she scurried away with a brief bow to excuse herself with. Arthur turned to look to the ebony man resting some steps behind him on the velvet lined padded seat, Arthur understood that he was of noble blood as well, surely he would share in his disgust of how informal the serving wench had been.

"Can you believe her 'Dee Nadar'? To approach me as if I were her stable boy, the master of this castle must be lacking in punishments if they are so relaxed around us." Arthur flicked back strands of his drying blond hair, the ebony lord gave the blond a queer look but said nothing as he closed his eyes with a small smile adorning his somehow even blacker lips. 'Is he mocking me?' Arthur asked himself 'Well what matters it, I hear his family lives in huts made of mud and cow dung, what would he know of self respect?' Arthur harrumph'd and directed his own smile back to burning fires.

"Lords and gentlemen." Arthur turned his attention to the back of the hall where a young man wearing fine silks stood by a closed double door, his words had also grabbed the attention of everyone else in the room who were now looking at him expectantly. "Please stand to greet the castle lord of Frostmyre; Sir Halton Hort." Upon his conclusion the young man briskly opened both double doors and allowed the giant of a man to round the corner regally, he even had to crane his neck lower to enter through the doorway. He must have stood over 7 feet tall Arthur audibly gasped at the mans features, he wasn't lithe like Brand was, he was well proportioned and as muscular as an ox. No wonder he needed both doors opened for him to enter the room, he was perhaps the biggest human being Arthur had ever seen in all his life.

"Welcome lords, welcome future soldiers, my castle and its comforts are at your disposal for the night." The large man remarked with open arms as if waiting on a hug, Arthur briefly wondered if any man could survive his hugs, looking to the others in the room he could almost imagine their thoughts taking a similar journey, their eyes wide and facial features impressed. Then his eyes fell on Brand, gods how he hated him, Brand hadn't even turned to look at him yet, he was still seated by a pillar in the room, leaning up against it with his waterlogged furs staining dirt and mud all against its once pristine marble white surface with no cares in the world. Had he no respect for the man who was currently sheltering him from the certain **** of the nights frosts?!

"Please, do make yourself at home and don't be afraid to eat your own weight in food! Jarvin tells me that tomorrow you begin your new lives at the academy, if you care about serving me well then I shan't permit you from leaving until your plates are licked clean and your belt buckles extended by several notches! Hahaha!" The man slapped his stomach as he laughed, his servants chuckled quietly around him as they carried on with their duties, Arthur couldn't believe what he was hearing. The servants of his own household had certain expectations that he had lived to understand as the norm; they were to be seen but NEVER heard. Arthur couldn't imagine that a man as fierce looking and imposing as Sir Halton Hort could permit his servants to make laughter at his own japes as if they were the ones being addressed. Arthur briefly considered protesting at being in such company as these servants but thought the better of it, he was in a strange place surrounded by strange people whose customs didn't align with his own, best not to protest and be made a fool of especially so far away from home and his fathers influences.

Soon servers began to flood the room with food, potatoes freshly harvested steamed the air hotly, vegetables of all kinds were being hustled into the room and set aside from the main plates yet to be filled, carrots, egg plants, brussel sprouts & cabbages, all steamed to a perfection and lathered in sweet smelling oils that watered even Arthurs own mouth, despite his best attempts to appear lordly and formal he found himself wiping the saliva from his mouth onto his furred sleeves like all the rest in the room. Then came in the main course, belly pork marinated in a honey mustard blend, rows of cow ribs dripping with a taut brown sauce that Arthur had never seen before, breaded chicken skins salted to an art form, it was all so extravagant and regal that Arthur couldn't help but race to a seat and dig in.

"The roads have been long and hard traveled so I think I speak for all of us when I thank you for your hospitality, Sir Halton." Jarvin said as he raised a toast that all wasted no time in joining in on. "There was even a chance encounter with a dire wolf pack that almost did us in if it weren't for our new recruits." Jarvin continued as he sat beside the castle lord at the head of the table, munching down on a chicken drum that still glistened from the grease of the fire pits. Halton meanwhile was tearing through his ribs like a man possessed, offering a thoughtful look to his right hand man he wiped the brown sauce on his exposed forearm, much to Arthurs absolute horror.

"Dire wolves, eh? They've been growing more reckless as of late, there have even been reports of caravans being chased down by packs as numerous as small hamlets on the kings road, or so the commoners say." Horton concluded briefly before returning his hunger to the task of whitening his main course.

"So the commoners say." Arthur reiterated, wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin a nearby serving girl had provided him with. "I wouldn't put much stock into the sightings of commoners my lord, they are an ignorant and superstitious breed that believe droughts and personal mishappenings are at the faults of the gods, or of lacking to adhere to some ritual or practice - my money would bet that it wasn't wolves they saw in such numbers, but rats. It's no secret that rats need a commoner like a commoner needs a bath." Arthur finished, earning himself a few chuckles from the lords present but mostly silence from the rest.

"A pointed jape my lordling of Dame." Halton said, his mouth smiling but his eyes did not. "I'm sure your new brothers and sisters at the Academy would love to hear it told again once you arrive." Halton smiled as he peered down the long table at the blond. Arthur could feel the tension in the room and knew what his benefactor was implying, rather than letting it go by unchallenged he took a globe of red wine freshly poured in his hands and swilled it a few times to air it out a little before he spoke.

"Yes, father has already informed me of how outnumbered I will be at this academy, he guessed it would be around 1 to 10 of us being of a respectable heritage, but worry not though my Lord of Hort; it shant be friends I'll be needing at the academy, especially not of his kind." Arthur pointed towards Brand, who had apparently hardly touched any of the food on his plate. Arthur approved of this unheard, he thought it right that the low born should choose not to eat from the same foods offered to the high born.

"It's probably more like 1 out of 20 these days, what with the war raging on and all." Halton took a big bite out of a piece of steamed egg plant and chewed with humor plain on his lips. "And besides, a friend like him can be an invaluable asset if you want a good sparring partner, after all what is development without rivalry? The latter often bolsters the former, as they say." Arthur was angered by the prospect but kept a level head before his benefactor, unlike Brand he knew the importance and indeed the civility of not angering your hosts. Forcing his lips into a small smile Arthur nodded his head in acceptance.

"As you say, my lord." He was courteous, but not wanting to spur this little battle of words onwards any more than it needed to, he conceded to the older mans wisdom - at least publicly at any rate. And that was the end of it, the table went back to the merry making of before, a number of different voices could be heard murmuring around the table, but neither Arthur nor Brand was among them. Arthur found it curious that Brand would refuse to talk, he just sulked and did as he was commanded to, and what was more disconcerting for Arthur was that Brand never let him see the lower half of his face, always wrapped up in that ragged face mask. He never spoke so he couldn't take hints from the inflections in his voice, and he never showed his mouth so even when he was being shouted at, Arthur couldn't tell if he was genuinely sorry or if he was sporting a mocking smile underneath.

"Brand, what's the matter? You've barely eaten anything." Jarvin was the first to speak up on the matter. "We've a hard ride ahead of us on the morrow, you shall need your strength if you care to reach the academy in one piece." He tried to coax the quiet farmhand, Brand merely offered him a half lidded look and then resumed to pick and play at his food in an uninterested fashion. "Quit your insolence boy, the cooks have slaved away at this meal for half a day, you shall eat it and show your appreciation for the castle lords generosity!" Jarvin had grown angry now, there was only so much grief he was willing to take from the poor boy. The hall was silent now save for the sounds of Brand's fork scraping against the plates ceramic, Jarvin was about to leap out of his seat and throttle the boy when Halton laid a firm hand on his shoulder, a stern disproving look plastered across his face plain as day directed at the disobedient auburn haired man.

"I can accept any affront to my own self with some humor and willed patience, my young combatant, but I shan't have you disrespect my cooks or any other servant that works for the betterment of my castle. If you can't find it in you to respect these wishes then you will be sent to the kitchens yourself to appreciate the work that goes into the food you are currently mushing to bits." Halton motioned with his arms and with much haste, Arthur found four guards had surrounded Brand at his seat. Arthur grinned as he edged his seat gleefully in anticipation of seeing Brand hoisted to his feet and then shoved to the floor violently, but was noticeably let down when Brand instead wordlessly shoved himself and his chair back from the table and began to make his own way towards the place where the servers had kept coming back and forth from.

"My apologies for the boy, my lord, he hasn't joined under your protection by pleasant means and I fear he has no love for yours or anyone's kindness because of this. Please find it in your heart to forgive him, I can attest to his mandates value despite his lackings in manners." Jarvin spoke with a lowered head towards Sir Halton, the lord he had served dutifully for all of his life, Arthur flared up at the mention of his mandate once again, it angered him to no ends that Jarvin kept on mentioning it, on the kings roads, at camp, from town to town and all the way to this castle he had heard nothing but about Brand's mandate. What was so special about it anyway? His father had called it weak, the lords he knew at court said the same and would often question Jarvin as to his decision to bring Brand to the prestigious academy, what made that pale blue light so special anyway, damn it?! The flames had been so weak and wilting that they only served as a party trick at best. Arthur remembered his father and how he would tell him when he was younger how powerful his families mandate was, and that one day when he was ready he would awaken to his birth rite and rule over the tundra's that had been his families lands for centuries. That promise had weighed on him all of his life, the promise of power that still had not come to be, where was this special mandate of his that would ascend him to greatness, and why had Brand awakened to his mandate before him? The jealousy in his eyes flickered for only a brief moment before he reserved himself once again.

Halton sighed as he resumed his seat, Arthur couldn't tell if he was still angry or if there was a hint of sadness to him for that brief moment as the castle lord let out an extended breath. Brand had long since left the room by now and things were starting to liven back up when Halton looked back to his right hand man. "That's alright Jarvin, I trust your judgement in these matters and if it's for you, I can forgive just about anything." Halton said, Jarvin smiled as the pair resumed their ravenous consumption. Arthur wondered why someone as powerful as Sir Halton Hort would trust someone like Jarvin, who as far as Arthur was concerned had dreadfully bad judgement especially where Brand was involved. As his thoughts switched to Brand once again, he smiled to himself as he contemplated the berating Brand would be experiencing right about now; and those thoughts sweetened his meal ever the more.