Bird in the Night

The village of Dale became very busy in the days and weeks following the soldiers crushing defeat in the square. Rebels from all the three villages that had attended in the attack had made it into a temporary base of operations where they could get organized. They all knew they would have to leave and move on to another place sooner or later and decided not to get to comfortable. The fight would eventually have be brought to the capitol and it couldn't be fought from a small town located a couple of weeks of travel away.

But for the time being it was a good place to stay. People from nearby towns and farms had received news about the uprising and success and so they came travelling to Dale, seeking out the rebels in order to join their forces. A few even came from small villages that had been destroyed by soldiers and had nothing left and nowhere to go.

News of burning homes and murdered people elsewhere in the kingdom, made all of the rebels even more determined to fight. Torleif took use of his experience from his time as a soldier to train the villagers in the most basic use of weapons and military tactics. That way, everybody would be better equipped to face the enemy.

Matthias sighed heavily as he turned around on the bed for what felt like the hundredth time that night. His entire body ached after yet another one of Torleif's brutal training sessions. He knew they were necessary, but that didn't make his battered body hurt any less after countless of times being struck by a blunted blade or knocked to the ground.

It also didn't help that his bed was just a thin layer of straw spread out on the ground and covered by a rough sheet. The village didn't have enough rooms or beds for all of them so Matthias had ended up sharing a room with Berwald and Tino in one of the farm houses. Their room was more of a loft really, but they were lucky that they got their own place at all. Others had to sleep out in a barn or on some living room floor where they risked being stepped on by someone walking through the house when there was a change of guard or in the early morning hours when people started walking about.

At the moment, Matthias couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous of Tino, who was curled up and fast asleep in the one alcove that was available the loft. Berwald had for some reason insisted that the youngest of them should be allowed to get the bed and that the two of them could take the floor.

It was not too big a problem not sleeping in a bed. It was not like the one he had at home had consisted of a feather mattress and soft pillows. But for some reason, sleep had been eluding him for hours and the floor seemed to grow more and more uncomfortable with each passing minute. So at the moment a real mattress was something to long after.

He lay on his back, staring at the ceiling above them and counting knotholes, hoping that would lull him to sleep. But when he gave that up, he shut his eyes and started listening to the many sounds of the night instead. There was the soft, steady breathing coming from Berwald and Tino and the rustling of fabric whenever one of them shifted positions. A quick tapping from small feet above them, indicated that a mouse was making its way around in search of some late night snack. Somewhere else in the house, someone was snoring loud enough to resonate through the entire house and make the walls vibrate.

Another sharp sound, this time coming from the window made him sigh tiredly. A branch tapping on the glass was just what he needed to be without sleep for the remainder of the night. Then he realized he could not hear any sounds from wind outside and remembered that the village was protected from weather and there should not be any wind strong enough to disturb the trees.

Matthias was fully awake in an instant and spun around on his mattress to face the window. He wasn't sure of what he had thought to see, but a small, blue bird that looked very familiar was definitely not on his mental list of culprits. His mouth fell open in surprise and he stared at the creature as if he expected it to vanish in a puff of smoke.

The bird looked almost annoyed and tilted its head to the side and stared expectantly at him. Then it insistently tapped its beak against the glass a few more times and flew off in a flurry of feathers.

When the bird disappeared out of sight, Matthias finally managed to get over the surprise and make his body work again. He scrambled to his feet and rushed over to the window, barely managing to not step on Berwald in the process and wake the smith's apprentice up.

Down on the ground and draped in a heavy blue cloak stood Lukas, there was no doubt about it. Most of his face was kept in shadow by the large hood, but even from a distance it was possible for Matthias to catch a glimpse of burning blue eyes in the darkness and he could almost feel his heart skip a few beats.

Getting his shoes was no easy affair. They were at the other side of the room, by the hatch leading downstairs to the rest of the house. Every sound he made while sneaking across the room seemed ten times louder than what was normal. And every sound or movement coming from either Berwald or Tino made him freeze in his tracks, worried that they were about to wake up and catch him sneaking out.

Of course the window had to creak even louder in complaint than the floorboards had done when he swung it open. Luckily for Matthias, the two others were still fast asleep when swung both feet over the ledge and jumped.

When he got up and brushed some dirt of his clothes from the landing, he looked around for Lukas, it seemed as is the cloaked man hadn't moved a millimeter. Matthias was about to open his mouth and make a greeting, but Lukas quickly signaled for him to remain quiet, effectively shutting him up.

"Not here" he whispered and turned away from the farm house. "There are too many people around. We should go somewhere else where it's less likely for someone to hear us talking. Follow me."

Matthias struggled to keep all the questions to himself when he had so many he wanted to get answered. Like whom Lukas was beyond that name and how he could do what he did, for it was clear that he possessed at least some level of magic. But still he obeyed and followed as Lukas swiftly led way through the streets. He chose the follow the narrowest alleys, where the pale light from the moon could not reach them. He seemed like an expert in avoiding the guards and blended perfectly with the shadows to keep them out of sight.

As they walked through the streets, Lukas kept signaling for Matthias when to move and when to wait for the coast to be clear. Matthias never saw any guards, but he figured he had to trust Lukas' instinct.

The nights had grown steadily colder over the past few weeks. In his rush to see Lukas again, Matthias had forgotten to think about dressing for the night. So now the freezing wind was biting at his skin, even through his shirt and pants and it broke out in gooseflesh and made him shiver. He almost sighed in relief when Lukas finally started to show signs of slowing down his pace, meaning they had to be close to wherever it was they were going.

It turned out that Lukas had been leading them to the village square. He had opened the door to some seemingly random house and Matthias could see one of the boulders that had smashed its way partway through one of the wall during the attack.

"Are we far enough away to talk now?" Matthias whispered impatiently. He could barely wait to ask some of the many questions he had saved up.

Lukas kept on ignoring him for another couple of moments as he moved about in the small house and drew shut all the drapes to cover the windows and block out every last remainder of moonlight. He took down a lantern that was hanging on a hook on one of the walls and held it up before his face. Matthias couldn't see exactly what the other male was doing, but with a few quietly spoken words and e gentle touch of his finger against the candle wick, the lantern was lit.

Lukas carefully placed the lantern on the table in the middle of the room and threw back the heavy hood of his cloak as he turned to face Matthias. "It should be safe enough to talk here." He spoke calmly.

Matthias had to resist an urge to reach out and touch the other male, to make sure, beyond any doubt that he was real. "Then would you please tell me who you are?" he asked, completely awestruck and desperate to learn more.

"I can't" Lukas replied firmly, without having to ponder the question for even a moment and his eyebrows creased in determination. The subject was not up for discussion. "You can't know yet. Maybe one day will be ready, but I don't think that time has come yet."

"How can you possibly say that" Matthias snapped a little bit sharper out of frustration than he had intended. "You show up out of nowhere and expect me to trust you and your information, but you won't trust me enough in return to tell me anything about yourself. How is that fair? You seem to know everything about me already and I get to know nothing."

"I never said it was fair" Lukas replied, still calm. "But if it will make you feel any better, I can promise that the next time we meet I can tell you exactly who I am and answer some of the questions you might have."

Matthias huffed loudly in disappointment and crossed his arms over his chest. "Then tell me. If you didn't come here to finally reveal who you are, can I ask what you did come here for? After all, you were the one to seek me out and not the other way around."

Lukas reached a hand in between the folds of his cloak and began searching through a pocket. He brought out a roll of paper, held together by a piece of string. "First I came to congratulate you on your no less than astonishing victory here in the town. I had never expected you to fare as well as you did. And secondly I came to give you this." He handed over the piece of paper.

Impatient and curious, Matthias tore of the band that kept the paper neatly tied together and rolled it out. He held it up against the light from the lantern so he could see better whatever was on it. There was no stopping his eyes from widening when he realized it contained a rough sketch of him.

He had seen his own reflection several times to know it was definitely him on the piece of paper. But the drawing seemed a bit off to him. His face on the sketch looked almost evil, it was twisted in a vicious grimace, brows knotted together in a frown and the eyes looked dead, but there was still no doubt that it was supposed to be him, for that was his features and colors, at most recognizable was his hair.

His eyes moved from the sketch and to the writing that looked carefully done and underneath it was a symbol he could easily recognize as the kings official seal. It was a mighty oak tree with several long branches that was each engraved with different symbols and above the branches, a crown floating.

"What does it say?" Matthias' voice was barely louder than a whisper. He was ashamed to admit that he had never learned how to read. Very few farming boys ever learned how to do so. They had to use their time working and didn't have time to waste on books like higher standing people did.

Lukas first reacted by narrowing his eyes as he stared at Matthias, but then he seemed to realize what the young man had been afraid to admit, and his expression seemed to soften just the slightest. For once his eyes didn't seem as cold and stern. "The king has offered a very large sum of money to anyone that can bring him your head, preferably separated from the rest of our body and served on a silver platter."

"But of all the rebels that have been gathered up to now. Why would the king have any interest in me?" Matthias wondered out loud, he could feel his heart hammering in panic. "If anyone specific is to be hunted down, than it should have been Torleif, he is the actual leader. He should be considered a much larger threat than me."

"Our beloved sovereign doesn't know that" Lukas said unemotionally. "Yours is the only face he know, he doesn't even have a name to match with that sketch. He only knows about you because one of the soldiers returned from Griven after its destruction gave a description of you. He also said that you killed at least one man when you made your escape from the village."

Matthias recalled his flight from Griven several weeks back. The soldier that had seen his face had laughed at him and told him that he could run, but not hide. The village had been burning behind him and people had been screaming desperately and the echo of the soldiers laughing as he ran to get away. The memory was enough to make his blood run cold.

Lukas cleared his throat to draw Matthias out of his thoughts. "All the king knows is that you are one of the rebels and believes that if someone is willing to turn you in for the reward then he will be able to get to the rest of your gang as well."

"What should I do now?" Matthias asked desperately.

"You have to make sure that the rest of people in the kingdom will not be willing to betray you to the soldiers for a few coins and food in their bellies." Lukas said as if it should have been obvious. "You have to prove that rebellion is the only way to improve life for everyone and that there is a real chance that you can win this battle. The soldiers are becoming more and more violent with each passing day and people are truly beginning to despise them, but they won't stand up unless they know they have a real chance of winning."

"Do you have any ideas about how I am supposed to that as well?" Matthias asked dryly and with eyes narrowing skeptically. "I'm just a farmer, not a military mastermind."

"As for how you will defeat the king's army is not up for me to decide" Lukas' lips quirked slightly upwards in what could only be interpreted as a sly smirk. "You have to figure that out on your own. But what I can tell you, is where one of the king's main forces can be found."

Matthias' mouth fell open. He couldn't figure out what to say. He was a bit insulted that Lukas just expected him to talk the rest of the group to follow another one of his 'hunches' and not give him more information than just a location. So he let Lukas continue.

"Knowing where the soldiers are can save your group a lot of time of marching. Winter will soon be upon us all and every day your people stay out on the roads without a real target will make them more likely to doubt in your choices and your cause. Because they will be cold and hungry and feel like everything is a lost cause. The king has supplies to last him and the few towns he care about throughout the winter; I cannot say the same thing about you rebels. If you want food to make it through the whole winter then you have to take it from the soldiers. If you don't then the villages will sooner or later have to turn against each other for food. It will be civil war and this rebellion will fail if it ever goes that far, because people will be busier fighting against each other to survive instead of going after the king"

Silence ensued after that long speech and Lukas took a deep breath. The man had a point; Matthias could see that clear enough. The rebels were burning quickly through the supplies in this one village, especially after they took in fugitives in addition to everybody that wanted to join the fight. The food that remained would only last them for another month, even with strict rationing.

After a while of thinking, Matthias was ready to make a choice. "Where can I find this army?" he asked with renewed determination.

The smirk Lukas has worn grew even more evident. He had apparently guessed all along that Matthias would give in and want to pursue the soldiers. "They are moving through the north as we speak, going from village to village" he said. "They are taking what they want and after words of the rebellion started to spread they have started killing at the slightest sign of disobedience among the people."

"And you know this how?"

"I have seen it" Lukas replied grimly. His entire expression seemed to darken in an instant. Matthias didn't dare to question the man's knowledge any further when he noticed the way his eyes flashed angrily. But he did wonder how bad things had to be to cause such a reaction with the otherwise so unreadable Lukas. He had gone from smirking slyly to grim in an instant just by one single question.

They were interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps somewhere outside. Lukas looked alert as he tried to pinpoint the location of the sound more exact. "The guards are heading this way" he whispered urgently. "Something must have tipped them of that that someone was here." He rushed over to the lantern on the table and blew out the flickering flame.

Again Matthias was surrounded by nothing but darkness, his night vision had been ruined by the lantern and he wouldn't have been able to see his own hands had he held them up before his eyes.

"You never saw me" Lukas whispered sharply in his ear. Matthias hadn't realized the other had gotten that close in the first place and felt a shiver go down is back at the male's breath being so close. Instinctively he whirled around, even though he suspected that Lukas was already gone, if previous experience was anything to go by. The man had a habit of disappearing.

He could hear the guards drawing closer and was frantically trying to come up with a viable excuse for being there in the first place when he should have been back at the loft asleep. His heart was pounding like mad in his chest as he tucked the wanted poster in the lining of his pants so it would be out of sight. Then he pulled of his boots and hurled them towards a back corner of the room, hoping that the guards outside could not hear the noise.

He had no idea if his plan had any chance of working or if it would just fail miserably. It was a truly desperate move he had made, but in the short amount of time he had, it was all he had been able to come up with.

The guards were right outside the door and they were not gentle as they tore it open. Light from a torch bathed the room in what was a blinding light after the absolute darkness.

Matthias tried his best to look utterly confused as he squinted towards the door opening where three armed guards were staring at him in surprise and held up an arm to try and shield his eyes somewhat from the light.

The guards seemed astounded to find him there, hand he could definitely understand why. One of them was repeatedly opening and closing his mouth, trying to process what he was seeing before he could finally manage to get some actual words out. "Matthias!" he stuttered, unable to hide the surprise in his voice. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I think I might have been sleepwalking."Matthias stared at them with the most sheepish look he could manage; foolish grin included and scratched the back of his neck. He looked down at his now bare feet and wiggled his toes in the dirt.

The guards followed his gaze and realized he was without shoes and they knew nobody in their right mind would go outside in the cold weather without proper clothing. But still one of them didn't look totally convinced. "I could have sworn I heard voices" he grumbled, but still he lowered his sword so it was less threatening. To them Matthias was more or less second in command to Torleif and they didn't have a reason to be suspicious of him at all.

"Guess I must have talked in my sleep as well then" Matthias chuckled. "I swear I had this really crazy dream. It just seemed so real."

One of the other guards lifted a curious eyebrow at him, but then sighed heavily and shook his head. "Well, you better get back to bed. You shouldn't be lurking about at night, and especially not without proper clothes. I bet Torleif will be no kinder in his training sessions if you get sick from walking around town in the middle of night."

"I know." With another reassuring grin flashed at the guards, Matthias headed towards them and brushed past them to get outside. In the corner of his eye he could see the man with the torch hold up the flame so it gave him a better view of the room, just so he could make sure it was empty and then they all followed after Matthias so he could get back to the farmhouse. Apparently they found nothing to be out of order.

Matthias felt like he had dodged an arrow, even though he could still feel the guards' gazes boring into his back as he walked ahead of them. Now all he had to do was to get back his boots before Berwald, Tino or anyone else could find out where they were and ask questions about it. Then he had to convince Torleif to march to the north in search of an army.

It was definitely going to be a long morning.