The peaceful town of Hill's Summit was known for it's gardens, and bubbling streams that ran through it. Located next to the royal capital and on atop a small hill, it had a large population, and played a key role in producing a large amount of the Kingdom's crops. This was the town where Luke had stayed in for the past few months. Before that he had been hunting escaped criminals. Luke had been a kind, playful child and, was raised by his father to be the best archer in the Kingdom. When he was twenty five when he left the village his family lived in, and went to explore the world. When he came back home two years later, and entered the house, he found his parents dead on the floor in pools of blood. Above them stood an escaped criminal with a bloody knife in his hand. Luke flew into a rage, and had unslung his bow from his shoulder, pulled out an arrow, and shot the man point blank in the heart. He ran away then. He was scared, the King would no doubt place a bounty on his head for killing three people. He was sure that's what it had looked like. So he made a decision, he would escape from his home, and from then on he would stop all the murderers, escaped criminals, and make sure no one would have to go through what he did ever again. That had been his life, but since he moved to Hill's Summit he had been at peace. Until a few days ago he had been walking alone though the town when he saw a couple men bothering a old lady. He swung up to a tree branch to get a better view of what was happening, he was about a hundred meters away from them, and saw one of the men grab at the lady's coin pouch and the other drew a long, thin, twisted dagger from his belt. Memories of that dreadful night flashed through his head. The bodies of his parents, the pools of blood, and the man with the knife standing above their lifeless bodies. Out of instinct he drew his bow that he concealed underneath his cloak and fired two shots. Both found their mark, and went through he men's arms and into their hearts. The old lady looked up at the tree in surprise, she was sure she was done for, but then the men fell over and didn't move, just then she saw a young man with sandy-brown hair and a longbow, hop out of the tree and disappear down a alley. Only then did she notice the feathered ends of the arrows going inside through the arm and the tips protruding out of the other arm. She screamed.
Outside of the small cabin in the woods to the south of Hill's Summit, Luke had been outside hunting for meat, to dry for his trip. He was leaving Hill's Summit, he knew once someone saw him that the King's soldiers would follow. It was too bad he thought, as he field dressed the young doe he had managed to bring down, he liked Hill's Summit, it was a nice place.
When he finished skinning it, he set the meat up to dry inside a shed that hunters used for drying meat, when the they came up to the cabin in early spring. Luckily when he had come up the cabin was vacant. As the sun went down he decided to go to the royal capital of Clèmonteal. It was named after the King's grandfather who had conquered the barbarians in the area, and built up the kingdom from the ground. As he went to bed, on the small straw stuffed cot he remembered life with his family before he went away, he blamed himself for their deaths. If he hadn't left.... but it was too late to change that, and he drifted off to the only place he could escape reality.
On the rode to Clèmonteal, Luke found himself wondering why criminals and murders were driven to killing innocent people. Why? He asked himself over and over, was everyone made to tread a path chosen by where they came from? Who there family was? Where they grew up? Or did people choose what they became? He chose to kill the criminals he saw, he knew that much. And he would continue to do so, and one day people won't live in fear he thought to himself.
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When Luke arrived at Clèmonteal, it had been a week since the events in Hill's Summit. He went to the nearest tavern and got a room. It had been a few days since Luke had slept on a cot, and he was grateful, but first he needed to take in his surroundings. So he went out and got a feel for the city. The tavern was located on the corner of one of the tree streets that led to the castle's gate. The were all parallel to each other, making the tavern a popular place. When Luke entered the tavern, he ordered a meal, and sat down. When he overheard two men talking. "Did you hear? There's a contract out on one of the nobles inside the castle gates, old Sir Jacob I believe." "You can't be serious!" The other man replied "He's such a kind old man always trying to make the villagers lives easier." "What's more the man hired to do the job, is the same one who's been making all the hits recently, rumor is the hits going on tonight night." Luke overheard the whole conversation. He ate his meal and headed to his room. He would infiltrate the castle walls tomorrow night. It was an old trick to spread a rumor about attacking one night, but instead waiting for the next night when it wasn't expected. Luke hated people who would kill for money, and it was old man no less. Tomorrow morning he would scope out the gates, and make a plan from there. But today he could go to sleep blissfully, and without a care.