Chapter 4 Garden of Ice and Fire
Matthew
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE GONE!" Matthew roared at the quivering soldier.
"The-they le-left a-a-a n-note, G-general," the soldier replied, voice shaking horribly. Matthew strode over and swiped the note out of the soldier outstretched hand.
Matthew, it read.
We, Francais and I, need to go our own way. It is taking too long with this great army. Hopefully, by the time you are reading this, we will have traveled farther than the army has in the past few days. In addition to moving faster, two people will attract less attention than an army and General Winter will be less likely to attack us. We are now heading to Ivan's palace. Along the way, we will stop by villages and get any information we can about Ivan. We will not return until HE is ours.
With the hope you will understand and forgive,
Arthur and Francais.
Matthew growled. 'How dare they leave me with nothing but a note!' he thought. Suddenly he grinned to himself 'This means I have every right to go after them and help get HIM, Alfred. Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all.'
"Go fetch Lieutenant General Beilschmidt," Matthew said out loud. The soldier gratefully ran off to complete his orders after the standard yes, sir. A few minutes later, a young man with blond slicked back hair and hard, glacial blue eyes walked into Matthew's tent.
"Sir, I have co-" Matthew cut him off. "Ludwig, you can drop the formalities. We're friends, aren't we? Relax." The only sign that Ludwig heard was the softening of his eyes.
"Matthew, I'm here," Matthew knew this meant more than what it sounded like. Ludwig was saying both he was here and that he would be there for Matthew as long as he could.
"Thank you," replied Matthew " now let us get to business. I have something I need to do. Arthur and Francais have gone ahead. I need to follow them. Will you take over the army while I am gone?"
Ludwig looked taken aback. "Why me? Don't you have someone else better suited for the job?"
"I trust you more than anyone here. I know you will do what is right," Matthew replied
Ludwig nodded "Very well, thank you for this honor. May I take my leave?" Matthew consented and Ludwig left. Matthew moved to the other side of the tent and bent down.
"Do you feel up to a journey? An adventure?" he said to something gigantic and snowy in color. "Come on, Kumojiro, wake up. Kumajuro," he sighed" please get up." A great white head lifted up to look at Matthew. Matthew hugged the white creature around the neck. "Thank you Kumajira!" he pulled back and the great white bear tilted his head to the side as if saying 'Who are you?'
Matthew laughed and took the look as a 'yes'. He got up and started packing a large backpack and some weird looking saddle bags with all manner of provisions and equipment to survive the frozen land. Matthew left to get enough dried meat and water. Upon his return, he put the strange saddle packs and a saddle on the polar bear.
"Let's go, Kuma," Matthew started walking through the camp with his polar bear, once a cute little cub he would hold in his arms, walking beside him. Once they got beyond the camp boundary, Matthew climbed onto Kumajiro's back and they were off. Kumajiro was loping across the icy tundra faster than any dog sled could ever dream of going. After a few moments of feeling the wind, however icy, against his skin, Matthew started relaxing and, in a sudden burst of joy, threw his arms up laughing. 'However hard this journey will be, we will prevail.'
Eh? Did you like it? I think Matthew will be having a larger part than I intended. Reviews are like little rays of sun poking throught he clouds. Will anyone give me sunshine?