This chapter is the longest as of yet being the size of the first two chapters combined. I hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

We had searched for most of the day. I wasn't even sure exactly who we were looking for. We were ready to give up for the night when some men caught my attention. They appeared to be a small group of looters. But they were keeping their eyes towards Jelkala and talking about what they would do with their share of the ransom. I didn't need much more than that.

"Ok lads were going to make this quick. Here's what I'm thinking…" I began.

"Yes that sounds like a good idea sir," Aldon was the first to speak. The others nodded in response.

"Well then let's to get to work, you all know where to be." I said as I drew my sword and unslung my shield.

I stepped out of the forest towards the bandits. The four men noticed me quickly and drew weapons. They carried falchions and butcher knives.

"Tell me lad, your money or your life," one of them said smiling.

"I'm here to find where you are keeping the merchants brother," I said trying to keep my voice level.

"How about we just kill you and be done with it. He's got a decent sword I bet hes got a few coins he can… spare," one of them said taking a step forward.

"Not one more step," I said stopping him in my tracks.

"Or what lad you're going to kill all four of us by yourself," he said with a crooked smile.

"No only three of you need to die. I'll need one of you to find where you are hiding the merchant's brother," I said smiling.

"Come on let's just have his head and get back to our job," the one up front said as he continued forward.

He took one more step before dropping backwards. Two others didn't have time to register what was happening before they dropped each with two crossbow bolts to the midsection. The last one turned to run only to get a bolt to the back of his leg. He fell forward and tried to crawl.

I walked up to him and grabbed him by the back of his shirt. I forced him to his knees and he began to whimper.

"Please don't kill me please! I'll never hurt another soul. I will leave this country side and live in peace. Just please don't kill me," at this point he was crying.

"Just tell me where you are keeping him and you are free," I said sheathing my sword.

"Oh thank you sir, thank you. We're keeping him near the town of Buvran just north of here," he was still whimpering.

My men came out of hiding and picked through the corpses. Aldon tossed down his sickle in place of one of the falchions.

"Come on men we're heading to Buvran," I said heading towards my horse.

I mounted up and watched as the ex-looter limped away. How I got from the son of a nobleman to defending villages, killing bandits and rescuing hostages is something I asked myself every day. I also wondered how I could order peoples death without feeling anything; I think that was something I never really wanted to put much thought into. I was afraid what my answer would be.

It took the rest of the day going around the large mountains in-between us and Buvran. By the time we got there the sun was almost completely down. I figured we could use some more men for my cause. The first thing I did was find the town elder. He was a man later in his years with a balding head.

"Hello, my name is Treda, and I am looking for anyone who would search for their fortune in war," the elder put some thought into it.

"Yes I can think of five men who fit what you are looking for. I'll go get them ready," he said leaving me standing there.

After a few minutes five men probably a couple of years older than me came out holding vicious looking scythes walked out, they also carried knives at their sides as backup, but nothing in terms of ranged weapons. The lads I picked up in Ruldi had crossbows everywhere to deal with the large amount of wildlife that the orchards and cattle fields brought in. Paying more attention the area around here was just huge open fields of various vegetables. The few cows they had seemed to be in a small stable in the town.

"Do you men have anything that can be used at range?" I asked hoping they might have something lying around.

"Well sir I'm not sure if you know this, but there's not much game around here to hunt, so we have no crossbows,"

"Well we could gather large rocks to throw," another piped in.

"I'll go get some bags," a third said running off.

I didn't really need to say anything more. They were picking up large stones and throwing them into small pouches that they clipped to their Clothes.

"My good man although I don't want to impose. Would you happen to have a place where we could stay the night, we won't be any trouble and will off first thing," I said turning back to the elder.

He nodded and showed us to a barn similar to the one I had slept in, in Ruldi. Hopefully I wouldn't be awoken in a similar fashion.

The following morning

We awoke at dawn as we planned and were off. Not before I left a small pouch of thirteen Denars at the Elder's home. Knowing that nothing was expected, and doing it anyways took the burden away from the feeling that I was losing my humanity. We broke into some bread and cheese and headed off to search the surrounding area away from the fields.

We searched for hours before we found what we were looking for. We found a small valley with a house and several men dotting the surrounding area. Creeping up to the lip we began to plan. Things went to hell quickly.

"Ok so we'll move forward killing anyone who comes in range. With some luck we will be able to crush most of the opposition without much of a fight," I said to the group. We were hiding behind some bushes. Aldon stood up a bit to peer over the top of the bush.

"Well sir from what I can see that should work perfect…" he never got to finish.

He fell backwards with an arrows sticking out of his eye socket. Looking up at the top of a hill to our right, an archer was drawing another arrow.

"Scatter quickly we have to take him out," I shouted and took cover. He loosed another arrow taking down one of the men from Buvran who fell with an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. He was still moving, a good sign.

I saw a couple of the boys loosing bolts as the man took his time. The bolts didn't make it that close hitting the middle of the hill. Looking to me left I saw that we were attracting the attention of the other bandits. If we didn't take this bastard out quickly we would easy pickings for the others. Just when I thought we were dead I saw something sail through the air. It connected to the archers head, blood sprayed. Just then one of the men from Buvran appeared running up the side of the hill. He retrieved the bow and arrows and loosed a couple of decent shots at the advancing men.

"Everyone to me!" I shouted as I drew my sword and… shield. The men ran to me and we formed a line. We began to move towards the bandits and tried to look intimidating. The Ruldi boys stopped to loose bolts. I watched one of the bandits get close only to see him get cleaved almost in two by Balda the largest of the men from Buvran. We started to pick up speed. The ground wasn't perfectly even but we kept up the pace. A looter came from side and got Balda in the side with a broken sword. He quickly drew his knife and plunged it into the man's neck; he went down blood spurting from the wound, a look of shock upon his face. We kept moving forward taking down all in our path. Bodies littered behind us. We arrived at the house. The merchant's brother wasn't in it.

I saw a small cave and we moved quickly. We were twenty feet from the mouth of the cave when two men came out. A man with nice clothes and a knife pressed to his neck along with a man in dirty clothes who was holding said knife.

"You bastards may have taken out my men, but I'm getting out of here and you bastards won't stop me. Now then drop them shiny weapons and take a step back," the man said pressing the knife tighter.

I took notice to something on the right but I complied.

"Look. Just calm down and let the man go. We won't stop you but let him live," I said getting a laugh from him.

"You think I wouldn't kill him if I didn't need that money," he said still chuckling, "This man is going to get me a nice bag of coin,"

I just prayed he wouldn't miss.

"Now then I'm going to keep walking and leave here without any funny business," was the last thing he said before losing his grip on the knife and falling, a crude looking arrow sticking out of his back. The merchant's brother collapsed shortly after breathing heavily. I walked up to him.

"Are you OK there?" I asked helping him to his feet.

"Yes thank you for rescuing me. They were talking about killing me anyways even if my brother delivered the money," he said with a shiver.

"I must be off," he said turning to leave.

"Can you wait one minute? We'll just take a minute to patch up our wounded and checking around here to… acquire any ill-gotten gains these barbarians may have stolen. I would hate to see something happen to you because you went off on your own," the man nodded but still took a couple of steps to get away from the body.

"Sir did you see that shot?" Veti, one of the Buvran men said ripping the arrow from the leaders back.

At that point we were patching up Balda and a couple of the other lads who took some nicks and scrapes.

"Yes I did. I thought that you didn't have any crossbows in Ruldi, so how did you get to be a decent shot with a bow?" I asked curiously.

"Well sir we might not have any crossbows or bows. But I've always been fascinated with bows," He said looking at the bow, "My father always preferred a bow. It is nowhere near as powerful as a crossbow, but the ability to put a lot of shots makes up for its loss in strength. My father had an old short bow that he trained me to use. I trained as much as I could when I was younger. But sadly the bow broke and my father had no way to make a new one. Sir, do you mind if I keep this," he asked close to pleadingly.

"Yes you can, now if you'll excuse me I must have a look at what we have in terms of loot," I said heading off.

The cave was rather the bare. But the house, the house was full of goods. It had a small bag of Denars and some food, it also a nice supply of spare weapons; crossbows, swords and shields. We also found a small bundle of furs and a keg of ale. We cracked into the ale immediately; even the merchant's brother took a pint. He drank it eagerly. I couldn't tell if it was because they didn't give him much to drink, or if he was trying to forget almost being bled like a pig. Come to think of it I never asked.

In all of the… I hate to call it, excitement, I almost forgot about Aldon. We found him in the same place he fell. Looking into his eye, I couldn't help but feel mortal. If it had have been me to stand and survey the area, I'd be the one laying there with an arrow in my eye. I hate to admit it, but I was glad it wasn't me on the ground. Veti plucked the arrow from his socket but he didn't put it in his quiver. He put it onto Aldon's chest. We dug him a hole and buried him. I felt bad that we couldn't bring him back to his family, but we were on a mission and we were going to see it through.

It took us most of the day but we got back to Jelkala before the sun set. The merchant embraced his brother as soon as he walked through the door.

"Thank you, thank you!" the merchant said pulling out a small sack of 200 Denars and tossing it to me, "please. Take it for your troubles. Now then all I have to do is send my brother off to a nice university, perhaps in Yalen, and then if anything happens to him it won't be on my conscience," he said sitting down.

I gave each man 10 Denars for their help.

"Before you go off to do something else, could I ask one more thing of you?" the merchant asked suddenly serious.

"Yes, what is it you need help with?" I asked curiosity getting the better of me.

"Well as you found on your first visit here that we have somewhat of a bandit problem. I've been looking into the matter since you left. As it so happens, last year the captain of the watch invested into a caravan. He is no merchant and didn't put any thought into the matter. He purchased a caravan and filled it to the brim with the most expensive and exquisite items. It was of course robbed and he lost everything. It was around then that bandits started to be seemingly welcomed into the city," he stated.

"Well why not bring this to the kings attention?" I asked curiously.

"The king is currently at war with many-a-nation right now. It would boil down to my word against his, and if the king turns his eyes away from the matter, I'll end up with a knife in my back. I have reason to believe that the captain of the watch is dirty. I have gathered a large group of the townspeople. My brother spoke highly of your battle prowess. I want you to be the one to lead us to overthrow the corrupt captain, there will be money in it for you. And you know that the coin is good," he finished and began waiting for my reply.

I thought on it for quite a while. But I had been paying attention to the city since I came here. It is a beautiful place but all these bandits make this place unsafe. I also reasoned that helping the townspeople would be both the right thing to do, and it would help me gather more men to my side.

"I'll do it," I said looking out the window at the sun almost completely hidden by the mountains, "we strike at dawn,"

He just smiled and nodded. He offered to pay for our rooms at one of the local inns. Needless to say we accepted. It had been a while since I slept in an actual bed.

Lying in bed I found myself unable to sleep. In just mere hours I would be leading people in a small uprising. I was both excited and scared. I was going to be fighting against a corrupt power. What if the merchant was mistaken? What if it turns out the captain isn't corrupt. What if instead of being rewarded by the merchant with gold and silver, I am rewarded by the king with my head on a spike. I couldn't allow that to happen. I still had to get my revenge.

The path I was heading down was going to force me to do things I didn't really want to do. Through my years as a squire and even as a page, I was taught what goes on during war. Villages are burned caravans butchered and cities invaded. I was going to end up ordering the death of merchant caravans. I was going to be ordering men to cut down townspeople. The thing was I felt nothing. Where just a couple of weeks ago I would have been disgusted with the thought. Now I found myself rationalizing that it made sense. I would need money to keep the men happy, I would need food to keep them fed, and I would need weapons to keep them armed. All I could think of was those townspeople just watching my father get beheaded. I would have my revenge on Yaroglek, even if I had to take his 'empire' apart piece by piece. I found my eyes beginning to droop. I eventually let sleep overtake me.

The following morning

The sun was just rising over the horizon when I walked out the door with only my sword hidden beneath my cloak. I saw the townspeople wandering around with barely concealed knifes and clubs. The group of obvious conspirators wandered almost aimlessly. I was surprised that the bandits hadn't noticed anything. I was near one of the bandits. I threw down my cloak and drawing my sword.

"Come on everyone the time is now!" I shouted stabbing the bandit throw the chest.

The streets went from the bustle of morning activity to a melee. The fight had been going on for a few minutes. I was shouting orders and slashing any bandits that got to close. I heard shouting from behind me and then the world went black.

I awoke in an unfamiliar place. I was lying on a mattress on the floor. My head felt horrible and the room was spinning slightly.

The merchant walked into the room.

"Hello there Treda, you took quite a blow to the head there," he stated handing me a wet rag.

"Well I don't mind a blow taken in good cause. So what happened?" I asked.

"We won, we killed most of them, we ran some off and captured the rest. We also have the captain of the watch with a knife to his throat in the back right now," he said as he produced a rather large bag. He tossed to my side as my hands were busy holding the cool rag to the back of my head.

"Five hundred Denars," he said with a nod, "you've earned every gold piece. Most men would've just walked out but you helped me by rescuing my brother and stoping the corrupt man we have in the back room. Now if you will excuse me we lost a few people and have twice that in wounded. After tending to that I'm going to escort the captain and the bandits to the king's court. You will know how things turn out if you see my head mounted on a spike atop the castle," he said walking out.

I laid back down carefully. I rested for a while before gathering up my money and heading back to the inn. The men deserved another small cut and then we would head to the tavern.

I had elven men under my command and over a thousand Denars in my purse. This was just the beginning. The plan was to spend the rest of the day in Jelkala and await to hear from the merchant. He said it might take until morning to hear from him.

Drinking in the tavern I noticed a lovely blonde girl sitting in the corner. She wore merchants clothes and was all by herself. I grabbed a second ale headed her way.

"Hello there, care for a drink?" I offered.

She took the mug and took a long swig.

"Sure have a seat," she said motioning for me to sit.

"You appear to be a merchant but you're hanging around a pretty low end tavern," I pointed out.

"Well you see good sir my father is a rather well-known merchant here, wanting to try to reap the benefits of marrying me to another well-off merchant to increase his own monopoly. The thing was the man was well into his thirties. My father refused my pleas to call it off and I ran off as a result. Now I'm not sure what I'm going to do," she said sighing.

"Well I'm Treda; I run a small band of soldiers. I have some big plans for the near future. Do you have an skills that we could use," I asked.

"Well Treda, my name is Ymira, I am not much use in a fight, but my father taught me everything he knows about the merchant trade. So I can help you get better prices when you're buying and selling things in the market. I also have some contacts throughout Caldaria that I can get a hold of and find out where the best prices are for goods," she said finishing her mug.

"That sounds perfect. So would you be interested in joining me?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes I would be, I'm ready to leave when you are," she said cheerfully.

"We're heading out early tomorrow," I said finishing my own mug, "care for another round?" I asked her.

"Sure this rounds on me," she said motioning to the bar tender.

Now I had eleven men and a lovely merchant under my banner. First thing tomorrow we would buy some supplies maybe even some more horses and a wagon. I felt kind of stupid for selling my cart without a seconds thought. We would then be off in search of more men for my cause.

Well that is the third chapter. I had finished sooner than I thought I would. I haven't got any reviews for this as of yet. But maybe now that I'm putting out more than just a couple of pages we can change that. Constructive criticism welcome.