What Lies Beneath

Tristan worked tirelessly for his knight and was not a penny richer for it. Sir Reginald was one of the most famous knights of his generation. Bards sang about how he slew countless demons and rescued countless princesses and other fair maidens. All the young gentry Tristan's age had dreamed about serving him as a squire, to meet him, to learn from him, and to hopefully one day replace him as the greatest knight in the realm. Tristan thought himself blessed when Sir Reginald had selected him to be his squire but now the esteemed knight had Tristan cleaning horse shit.

The wretched smell of horse manure filled Tristan's nose as he moved a shovelful of it from the stable's floor to the wheelbarrow. Even after he got all the shit out of the stable and finished washing the floor, Reginald's dozen horse's would have emptied more of their bowels. The task was endless. Tristan came from wealth and had never had to be so involved with animals before. He knew to be a squire was demanding work, but had never expected Reginald to give him tasks so demeaning.

There was a plop of more manure hitting the floor.

"I can't do this anymore!" Tristan screamed to no one in particular. He knew that moment he was done being a squire.

Sir Reginald's prized steed was a dark brown stallion named Bucephalus. Tristan brought over a light saddle, put it on the beast, lead him out of the stable and climbed on. Bucephalus was a calm horse, unlike his namesake, and accepted Tristan without issue. With his feet in the stirrups and his hands on the reins, Tristan took off. This was theft, and Tristan knew that once Reginald discovered his crime he would gather a search party to reclaim his wayward squire and prized horse, but Tristan did not care. He wanted freedom.

Tristan tightened his legs around Bucephalus and the horse sped up to a full gallop. At the edge of Reginald's property was a short wooden fence which Tristan had always wanted to leap over on horseback but had never been allowed. Bucephalus was quicking closing the gap between them and the fence and Tristan hoped to God that the horse would know when to jump. With only a few meters between the himself and the horse, Bucephalus sprang up, clearing the four foot high fence, and landing outside of Reginald's land.

Tristan looked back and saw the estate where he had lived for the past two years. Atop rolling hills, was the stable, a large barn, and Reginald's mansion. Tristan hoped he would never see it again.

He rode for hours to put as much distance between himself and Sir Reginald as possible. Soon he was miles away from Reginald's estate and beginning to feel calm, Tristan got off Bucephalus to let him rest. Tristan needed a plan. He was a criminal now, he supposed, and just as concerning he was unemployed. Tristan needed to find work, and soon, if he wanted to go to bed tonight with food in his stomach and a roof over his head.

He hopped back onto Bucephalus and rode him to a nearby village. It was a small town with only one road and a dozen buildings on each side. Tristan hitched his horse and hollered to the nearest man.

"Is there any work here?" Tristan asked.

"Go check the board for something" replied the man gesturing towards the other side of town.

Tristan rushed over to see a great wooden board with a bunch of papers nailed to it. Most of the job requests were for domestic servants or stable hands and Tristan did not leave his old life to do much the same work he did for Reginald. At the very edge of the board, a poster stood out to him, it read:

HERO WANTED

MONSTERS HAVE INVADED OUR LANDS

REWARD FOR SLAYING

Tristan's heart leapt. Sir Reginald had gotten his start fighting monsters. Instead of working for Reginald, Tristan could become his own Reginald. This is the job he would take, the job he was born to do. But what type of monster was the poster requesting him to slay? At the bottom of the poster, there was drawn image on the creature and text that read:

Author note: this story is very new and undeveloped. What I am planning on is having different paths focused on different kinks, predominately about domination & submission and transformation. I want to give my protagonist some personality to better let me delve into the psychology and mental changes of the aforementioned kinks. All feedback is appreciated, and likes are always encouraged, especially once I start branching out, so I know what paths are most popular with the community.