Swoosh, crack. The sounds repeated themselves as I slashed another dummy, and then another. After I had succeeded in tiring myself, I walk outside and look off into the distance.
The weather today is great. The sun is shining, the sky is full of puffy white clouds, and the grass is a perfect spring green. I breathed in. It even smelled good outside. Then I started off. "Oof"
A group of girls, and Cal, not surprisingly, had run into me as they were walking their horses by. Cal was an old friend, and was a bit younger than me. He had black hair, and wore the ragged clothes of a peasant.

It looked like the same group of girls that had tried to join the 43rd legion; my legion. I am not sure what gave them the idea that they could join an army of me, especially when we were fighting the Calbritti. The original rulers of the land that some worshiped for their strength in battle. Well it didn’t matter I suppose. I had rejected them from the army, and would gladly do it again. Just then I noticed Cal waving over the group of girls, and I sighed.
"Hey, Keenus," Cal shouted over the clicking of the horses hooves, and the muttering of the girls. "What have you been up to?"
"Oh, just the usual, Slicing up dummies," I replied, jabbing the hilt of my sword into his side.
"Ouch, that ain't cool dude. Anyway I have a letter for you. Virg told me to give it to you, but I am not sure who it is from," he said, giving me the letter. I took it and pocketed it.
Then Cal's continued it's walked on. I saw my chance and stuck out my foot, tripping the group of girls, causing a sort of domino effect. Watching them fall induced a chuckle and I began my walk home.
Suddenly out of nowhere, a surprisingly strong force pushed me into the mud, face first. Anger coursed through me, and I propelled myself up, and swung around. They were laughing at my fall. I quickly looked for the closest person. It was a black haired woman, and I swung my hand at her. The slap against her face quieted the group. Then I began walking again.
On my way home I ran into Virgil. Virgil is a tall brown haired man who always wears formal clothes. Being the town owner, formal was his thing.
"Hello, Keen. Did Cal get that letter to you," he asked, looking me in the eyes as he always does.
"Yeah, Cal gave me it earlier, but I haven't read it yet. I'll give it a look when I get home, and sit down," I told him.
"Okay, Keen. Be careful now. I'll talk to you later,"
"See you later," I said as he walked on to town, and I went to my house.
As soon as I walked inside, my Mother bombarded me with requests. "Can you sweep the path Son? Oh, we are having a painter come over to paint us a family picture. Can you be there?"
"Really? I have other things to do. Just have him paint it without me," I said.
"We all need to be there when he paints it so it's a family photo. So be here, or you aren't leaving the yard the rest of the month,"
"Ugh, fine," I said, sighing at my Mother's selfishness.
After a quick drink I sat down and tore open the letter. I first looked for a signature of some sort, but found none so I read on. The letter itself was really short. It read, --Dear, Keenus. I would like to talk to you. Please meet me near lake Klieser. I'll be there the next few evenings. See you there.--
After going over the letter several times I could not pinpoint the handwriting. I suppose Cal could have had someone I don't know write it, but I wasn't sure. I decided I'd have to go if I wanted to know for sure.
The rest of the day went by quite slowly, in anticipation of the upcoming events, so I decided to go talk to Virgil about the letter. After all he had given Cal the letter. I just wondered who had given it to him. Luckily I planned on finding out sooner rather than later.

I started off down the trail towards the Lord’s house. Virgil’s house was the nicest house in Alathar, and I was looking forward to finally seeing inside. After about 30 minutes of walking I reached the house. His yard had a relatively basic setup, consisting of a few trees, some nicely trimmed bushes, and a couple fountains, one on each side.

After my examination of his yard, I took the steps up to the front door. I glance quickly to the left, and then to the right, and then I knocked. No one answered the door, but it squeaked open. I attempted to close it, but it only came open again with a louder squeak. I sighed and opened the door completely.

Inside the building was vastly different from the outside, or perhaps it was similar. The walls were covered in vines as well as other plants, and the house was dark and badly lit, with no sign of a light switch.

“Virgil,” I called not surprised to receive no answer, but I had to make sure. After confirming the house was empty, I started searching drawers, but came up with nothing of use, so I began searching for a bedroom, but found none on the first floor. I quickly found a spiral staircase leading up, and started my climb. The steps were rather large, but a large step got me over them. One at a time I went up, and eventually I reached the last step. This one was strangely larger and I had to jump onto it, so I crouched and jumped up, landing easily on the step, but the force of my landing shook the stairs and the final step began to fall. Quickly I jumped to level floor as the step fell and shattered and I rested for a bit.

Just then the door downstairs burst open and Virgil walked in. With a sudden surge of fear, I rushed to the nearest room, and hid under the nearest object. It was a bed, and probably the only piece of furniture in the house. After getting into a decent position I noticed a picture. It was an older picture of a younger Virgil holding an oddly familiar young child.

Suddenly stomping started, getting closer each stomp. Virgil was coming up the stairs, but he came to a sudden stop. He must have reached the last step. I took my chance and made for the window. It brought a bit of trouble, but with some force it squeaked open and I made it outside onto the roof. I started a run, and jumped off the building, landing in a perfect roll. After landing I started my run to the lake, passing people who gave me strange looks. When I reached the lake I sat down and rested.

After ten minutes I noticed the sun was setting, and no one had arrived yet. Maybe it had just been Cal pulling a prank.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a man walked out from the shadows. They wore armor so that I could not see their face. They drew their sword and took a fighting stance. Then I drew mine.

I’m not really quite sure how the fighting began it happened so fast. I think it started with the man jumping at me and knocking me back with the force of their sword. Once I had recovered from the blow the man was back with more, striking at me again and again. Luckily I wasn’t bad with a sword, and was able to deflect the swings. They took one extra strong slice and my deflection threw the person off balance. I came in for a slice, and hit their leg. Their armor reduced the damage, and the man was not damaged.

They quickly came in for more hits, one after the other. They cut my arm a bit, but it wasn’t bad. Then they did the mistake of coming in for a stronger attack again. I easily deflected it, and it threw them off balance again. At least I thought. I came in with the hope of this being a fatal blow, however, they had expected that and launched at me, sending my sword clattering to the ground, and me to my back. They quickly directed their sword to my neck, and held it just inches away. I took a chance, and kicked them in the face, sending their helmet rolling. They then looked me in the eye, and I was shocked. I had been fighting a woman. The woman just smiled, and brought her sword back to my neck.
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Today, the 43rd legion had won the last battle with the Calbritti. Woman and man combined had defeated the once rulers of the land. I had won. No, we had won. I don’t think I could have done it without the help of the woman who had almost killed me, or of course, Cal, who had come to my side and was looking over our newly acquired land. Then I realized the sun was setting. Oh the memories I thought.