Insert Snazzy Title Here Chapter 1, a green rider fanfic

I have finally (yes, it's true) put another story on here! I am so sorry about my other story, 'The Love Triangle', but I became bored with it. This fanfiction may continue if I get enough support and/or reviews. All my information for this comes from 'First Rider's Call' and my/other people's imagination. Thank you.

Rider

Finally! We have at last set sail for the New Lands. Allesandros is eager to set foot on these scarcely charted lands, and the few maps that we could lay our hands on are thought to be—and most likely are—unreliable. I am as eager as my liege and lord Allesandros to lay as many leagues of this vast ocean beneath our ship's bow.

The murky gloom of the night sky is cleared in some small spaces by a breach in the clouds. I watch the shimmering stars with the hum of the mechanicals as my only partner. This tranquility and serenity envelops the area in which the ship sails through the deep and mysterious ocean. It is hard for me to believe that just a small number of months' worth of sea-travel will have us arriving at the New Lands.

The steady throb of the mechanicals is a small reminder of our advanced culture. I walk across the deck to where I see Allesandros gazing at the stars much like I had just been doing.

"Calm night, isn't it Allesandros?" I ask, coming to a stop beside him to lean against the weathered wooden rail.

"Yes. The calm soothes me, and gives me time to think after all that has happened today."

I closed my eyes in regret as I remembered the terrible death of one of our carpenters. "Aneirin was as fine a man as any."

"Aye."

Allesandros and I stared off into the distance, each alone in our own private thoughts.

For me, I reflected upon the unbelievable stories that are told back in Arcosia. These stories mainly consisted of the barbarians that live in the New Lands, and how they will turn on a person rather than help them. Just the thought of that leaves me questioning their humanity! Such barbarians…

But what if the stories were not true? What if the people of the New Lands were actually quite civilized—if not like us civilized and advanced Arcosians—and had laws besides the popularly told law of who was able to eat who?

I sighed and wished for dry land. I had never been a sailor, having had an inland province to call my own, and had always had a horse- or servant-drawn carriage as my main transport.

Allesandros must have heard my thoughts, because he said, "Wanting to leave already, Hadriax? What happened to my brave and handsome friend who ladies swoon and faint over as he passes by?"

I shot a grin back at him. "Well, seeing as there are no ladies here on this ship, I am stuck with just being brave and handsome. How I miss the ladies…"

My comment brought me a gentle, but still hard, smack to my shoulders from my long-time friend. "Come on, Hadriax, cheer up! At the next port there will most likely be as many ladies as you want!"

I rolled my eyes with heavy sarcasm. "I just cannot wait to be stalked throughout the day and night, being lusted over by women who most likely want me for my dashing looks and social position."

We laughed cheerily into the night, our chortling drifting behind us and into the distance. As I was just starting to think that these months aboard the ship would be easier to get by with my friend, the first-mate came running up to us.

"Me Lords!" The man exclaimed with short breath as he stood at attention, his hand to his forehead and his chest heaving.

"Yes, Colwyn?" Allesandros carried an impassive, yet slightly worried, expression upon his features.

"Eurig's acting quite odd as of late, and Medic told me to hurry along to get yer!

My concentration on the way Allesandros listened to the grizzled old sailor was interrupted by his smooth, calm voice.

"Hadriax, follow me. Colwyn, lead me to the sick old chap. We shall certainly not have any sort of disease or any other malfunction running rampant among our sailors."