„Lady Isolde, just before being exiled by her brother to Stags Rest, during her last plea for mercy. It was granted, but her crown remained in the capital city.”
Lady Isolde had opted to throw a big celebratory feast to 'celebrate the forgivefulness and rationality of the grace, her brother, king Godwin the Free' or in other words, to celebrate the hiring of the Iron Company. The feast was grand, servants and slaves walking on and off with new plates full of food -- mostly meat with dressings of lettuce and apples. They sat in the long hall which usually held the throne, but there'd been tables put over the red carpet, 5 tables in total to hold 100 warriors and servants, slaves and whomever the Iron Company found important enough to invite with them. It turned out that this was mostly whores. The Queen would excuse their unnoblemanlike behavior, the 'knights' of the Queens guard having been inaugurated mere days ago and not yet having received any proper etiquette training.
The order of the tables was mostly based on hierarchy, the Bear and Stag sitting closest to the queen. Then queen had chosen to not sit amongst the men and women of the Iron Company, distancing herself behind the royal table per custom, sitting with her relatively small circle of family and closest servants, observing the behavior of these men. And while she maintained a neat and royalty befitting composure, one was able to a slight smile on her lips, revealing that she was somewhat amused by the antics of these men whom were unlike anything she had ever seen before.
Behind the Bear and Stag sat the more calm members of the Company, eating in relative peace and enjoying some small talk, battle gloating and boasting and a few jokes. Behind them the lines of rowdy men started, bearded and all for the most part, and wenches on their laps, enjoying the change of diet. And after this, likely the change of men. And according to the grimaces on these mens' faces they were okay with that. They were mostly chewing on the remains of the last plate, the servants already running into the hall again to replace these.
At this moment something pierced the deafening laughter, music and talking. The Bear, Jorrick or otherwise known as Gnarl, had stood up and taken up position behind the row of tables, facing his men. In his hands laid a ceremonial sword, jeweled and golden plated, but useless in battle. „As you all know, we're no longer the Iron Company that we once were, but we've become knights, guards of a very important and special lady. One that we must protect at all costs, even if it costs us our life. I'm certain that this is what the Steel Man had in mind for us when he smithed the first Iron Companies soldier out of pure Iron.” The men cheered and stomped their feet on the floor, but were soon quiet when Gnarl raised his hand again. „Yet there are dangers that we cannot fight alone, my brothers and sisters of war, because these dangers lie far to the west, at the capital city. It's king Godwin the Free and his treacherous band of noblemen that think they are holier than us. Maybe they are right.” He grinned as he looked each of the newly appointed Queens Guards in their face, a grin spelling out his next words. „But here we are, as noble as they are.”
He turned around and walked up the wooden stairs, approaching the wooden table that the queen was seated on, bowing his head and lightly bending his knees as he extended the sword to her with both hands. She tilted her head slightly, surprised by Gnarls understandings of the working of these traditional oath swearing customs. She stood up straight, and took the sword from his hands. As he looked up, she gave him a slight nod, before she would sit down again and place the sword next to her, the tip on the floor and the handle leaning against the wooden chair. Gnarl bowed lightly again and she'd nod, once again, before Gnarl was on his way back down the stairs and would sit down again.
After a slight silence, the party resumed again, and the music continued playing. The tune was a famous one, as were the lyrics, describing the deeds of the Iron Company the decade before, and some of the veterans smiled with glee as they were reminded of their famous deeds. They sung along slowly but before long the entire company would join in. After that, many of the drunken men went to their barracks, wench and Queens' servants under their arms. And with them, the rest of the crowd followed, some going to the barracks to sleep, others continueing to have fun outside by a fire. Regardless of what they chose to do, they'd fall asleep soon enough.
„ALARM! Sir Jorrick, alarm!” Gnarl was rushed from his bed and some of the queens servants had even rushed over to help him get dressed. He was amongs the only ones of the entire group to have his own room in the barracks, the rest of them sharing a single large hall with beds and crates for their items. Gnarl quickly got dressed and took his sword and spear from the wall, quickly putting his belt on and sliding the sword into it's scabbard. He rushed out, waking the rest of the crew that were still asleep. „Joachim, Theodore, Guinand and Wren! Get your ass out of bed and get in gear! Rand and Astrid, that goes for you too!” He'd shout these orders as he passed through before walking past Rudolfo's bed, kicking it on one of the legs that held it up. „Get up you old bastard!” he'd yell into his ears as he hunched over to get as close as he could. Damn, Rudolfo stunk of alcohol. Finally he passed Sikarthis and Atl, the two strangest people in the entire group, both from entirely different places. „Don't make me use your foreign languages, you pieces of horsedung, get up, ya heard me! Get to the gatehouse as soon as you can.”
Gnarl rushed ahead among with the guards captain, who'd been the one to wake him. In the heat of the moment Gnarl hadn't realised, but now that he saw more clearly he could attempt to get a grip on what was going on. „Captain, what is going on?” The captain continued his stern walk and reached the stone stairs, walking up them with two steps at a time. He must be in a hurry. „We've spotted three scouts on white horses, whom all had the kings' emblem emblazoned on their capes. We fear an attack, sir, but we haven't had any reports that would indicate that they'd been moving here!” It was all nonsense until Gnarl could get to the gatehouse and observe the surroundings from there himself, because the captain didn't seem to know what was going on. All that he could really tell Gnarl is that he had vomited onto his tabard the night before and that there were three scouts. God, this guys puke stunk.
As Gnarl reached the top of the gatehouse he looked over the edge, peering into the treeline ahead where he could see faint movement of horses galloping away. It'd been too late and likely the crew he had called upon would be pissed about having to wake up for no reason. Gnarl gritted his teeth as he thought of a 'mission' for them to keep them from complaining. Training? That was too boring for these guys, especially after a feast. Perhaps they'd be able to go to the local inn at the village near Stags Rest, which was also property of the queen and ask around if they'd seen or heard anything about troop movements. Yeah, that sounded alright. Get a feel for the local populace while Gnarl and the Queen decided on how to deal with these threats. Gnarl would even let them go by horseback if they wished, because he doubted the company felt like marching after such a nice night.
Joachim was floating through the sky, atop a golden dragon. Ahead of him lay a castle in the clouds, a tower white as the Queens hair. As he flew the dragon towards the tower, another dragon appeared. „Raaagh! To battle, my steed!” Joachim shouted, pointing his sharp blade of steel, gold and copper at the other dragon. As they closed in he swung back his sword and got rudely awoken by Gnarl. He awoke with his arm drawn back as if he was about to strike, but it looked awkward and uncomfortable in bed. Joachim turned around and decided to go back to sleep as he processed the message in his brain. Once he completed that, he'd realize he was a fool if he were to stay in bed and go back to sleep. He switched from passive to active and swung his feet out of bed, and starting to dress himself. Once that was done he'd wait at the door for Astrid, in an attempt to make up for some stupid things he said last night.
As he'd walk alongside Astrid, whether she wanted or not, he'd talk to her. „A-Astrid, look, I wish to apologize for saying that your hair smells of blood. That wasn't very kind of me and I realize now that it was wrong of me to say it, regardless of whether or not it's true. Actually, um, I guess it's kind of true since you're a fierce warrior and all. So maybe it's a compliment.. I don't know, look, I'm just sorry I said it okay?” His words came out uncertain and as if he didn't know whether she was angry or not. Then again, he wasn't quite sure if saying that someones hair smells like blood is offensive at all.. it would certainly not stand if it was said to a nobleman, but Astrid was by no means a nobleman.
He slowed down once he'd said his lines and waited for Wren to catch up to him, someone who he was sure he'd be more comfortable with. They were from mixed backgrounds and as such were an unlikely friendship, but never the less they 'made it work' somewhat. Joachim hadn't known her father, however it didn't seem to matter much. Also, on that notice.. making it work with Wren was more about 'don't annoy the shit out of Wren and you'll survive' rather than being actual friends. He'd walk alongside her quietly, wondering if Astrid was actually angry at him or not. Normally it wouldn't bother him much, but Astrid was a woman, and women made him uncomfortable sometimes because they were so unpredictable in their emotions. And everyone knew that noble or royal women were much, much different from commoners like Astrid and Wren, who often openly displayed their emotions, or played into them. Not something that Joachim was used to at all, as he was used to the scene where women were to shut their mouths and listen to the head of the family, keeping their emotions to themselves and the chambermaid. He sighed as they started walking up the stone stairs to the wall, wondering what Gnarl had them get up for this early in the morning anyway.
