In a set of rolling field's, a man was walking down the dirt road as the sun shone down on him he seemed to not be bothered by the heat of the afternoon sun that shone brightly in the clear blue sky. There seemed to be nothing for as far as the eye could see but still, this man walking down the road was humming to himself as he strolled along. He wore some simple clothing of brown pants and a shirt with a burlap sack over his left shoulder and a lute over his other as he went on his way. His features were handsome, to say the least with a chiseled jaw, blue eyes that would remind those of the sea or sky, and a short set of brown hair. His body was well built as he looked muscular and lean but not having either take over them to much of his figure.
Suddenly the man starts to laugh at a new song that he just came up with and stops walking for a while to sit on the side of the dirt road in the grass of the fields. The countryside was beautiful to see as rolling hills waved in the wind that carried with it the smell of grass and the faint smell of manure. Suddenly as the man was getting out his lute to start practicing some chords for his new song he hears the neighing of a horse from a distance.
"I wonder if I could play a song for this fellow?' The man thinks to himself
While thinking he sees that the horse and its rider are now because of him so he stands up and with his lute in hand walks out onto the road once more.
The man wore a sword in a scabbard at his side and had a sack tied to the horse's saddle that was off to the side. He looked like a commoner who joined a city guard as he wore simple leather armor with very little metal protecting himself in his vital spots. As the man on the horse saw the man on the road his hand went to the hilt of his sword, when they are close enough they both start talking.
"How far to the nearest town?" The man on the road asks
"A few days along the road and then you reach one while on foot," the horse rider answers in a gruff disinterested voice
"My thanks," The man on the road says
He starts walking down the road going the way that the man on the horse came from. He turns around when he hears the horse's steps not receding but following and sees the rider following at a slow pace behind him so he stops to let him catch up.
When he pulls next to him the musician sizes up the man up. He sees he has he had green eyes, tanned skin, a handlebar mustache, bulging muscles from some sort of hard labor, but his eyes betrayed some sort of malicious intent as he stared at the man.
"Can I help you?" The man asks
"These roads are dangerous and long to go alone so let me accompany you to the town you seek," The rider offers
At this, the musician smiles and says "Of course you can accompany me and I will sing some songs to lighten the trip"
So the musician starts by singing his favorite song "How The Dragon Flies At Night" as they both travel down the road while many songs are sung to pass the time. Eventually, they stop at a little grove of trees that broke through from the fields which were near a river so they can rest and refill a water skin the rider had. Noticing it was getting dark they decided to stay at the little grove for the night before they did not have the chance to set up camp. After they made camp and as the musician is tuning his lute the soldier sits down to the opposite of him from the fire they built.
"Why do you not carry a sword, Mister?" He asks the musician
"I took a vow to never touch a sword a long time ago"
"So that is why you carry a lute instead of a sword then," he asks
"Yes and no" he replies "I carry a lute cause I can and it helps time to hurry up on long journeys" The musician smiles at him and begins to stroke the fire with a stick before he soon could feel a gaze on himself
The rider leaves when the musician looks up and a few minutes later he sets up a spot to sleep, and the musician goes to find relieve himself. He returns a few moments later and then the soldiers appear once again afterward. He had two rabbits and even a bird on his belt.
"You did that without a bow sir that is an impressive feat on its own," The musician says to him
The rider sits back down across from the musician and takes a knife out and starts skinning the animals.
"Well I learned to catch fast prey without a bow at a young age mister and it is a handy trick when the only game is crow and you don't want to waste arrows," he says as he works on plucking the feathers and skinning the animals
"So you have been in the army and fought against foreigners?" The musician asks while giving some herbs for the meal.
"Ay, how could you guess that?" He says while looking up from the kills and at the musician for an answer
"The way you said "when the only game is a crow and you don't want to waste arrows" The only place you would find a surplus of crows and people not wanting to waste arrows would be a battlefield," The musician says while feeding the fire some more wood
It goes silent for a few moments the only sound being the crackling of the fire and the work of the meat. Then the man asks the musician something unexpected
"What is your name mister? If you tell me...I will tell you mine" At this, the musician just stared at him and then started to laugh uncontrollably.
He laughed so hard his sides ached, was crying, his face was turning red, and all the while he was rolling in the dirt. The soldier who was taken aback by the musician's sudden hysteria tries to speak.
"Wh-what makes you laugh so that tears spring into your eyes mister if I have said something hilarious then tell me, cause I have missed the joke," He says while he looks at the musician as he straightened himself and wipes tears out of his eyes from laughing
"Forgive me my good man but no joke said is as funny as what I heard. For you see I have no name at all, my parents left me at an orphanage with nothing at all. The people whom I have met have called me by different names. However, you can call me Desmond if you will as I like that the most," Desmond tells the man
"Ah that explains it then," The man says as he continues working on preparing the meal for the two of them
"So what other names did you have then?" The man asks trying to make conversation
The musician gladly starts telling the man of all the men that he remembered being called from the insults to the actual names that people called him from his years as a child up till now while omitting a few of them that he felt that should be kept secret. With all those names told through the meal that the two of them enjoyed together, Desmond continues to go on to explain how he got a few of them to the man before him and to add a little flavor reenacts a few scenes of how he got them.
Before both of them knew it though the sun was just rising from the earth and beginning to spread its warmth across the land below.
Seeing this happening they both realize that they are tired and need some sleep from that night of talking and reenacting, so they stay in their spot until the sun is at its peak to sleep and rest. Then they set out again and this time the man encouraging Desmond so they could go as far as possible until it was pitch black to make up for the lost time. Then as it reached total darkness they stop off the side of the road where a river was nearby and allow the horse to rest as they attempt to set up camp in the dark. Bandits were not uncommon these days so they both decide that someone needs to keep watch with the soldier saying that he would take the first watch and wake Desmond when it was time to switch, so with nothing else to do Desmond sleeps. Then in the middle of the night, Desmond hears something and is awake in an instant but he doesn't move an inch. He hears something moving behind him a short distance away, so he rolls around as most people tend to do in their sleep. Whatever was making the noise stops then he hears voices coming from the direction that the noises were coming from.
"Are you sure he is asleep?" A man asks suddenly in a harsh whisper
"I am positive that he is asleep and he won't get up cause he thinks I'll wake him when it's his turn to guard" From the rider
"Heh heh... he will get a nasty surprise in the morning, but why don't we just kill him like the other people on the road boss?" A third man says in a heavy accent
"Cause this man is not like the other people we usually kill on the road," Says the rider
"He is smart, cunning, and is probably the son of some lord who'll pay to get him back" He adds on
Desmond slowly picks up his lute next to him and slips it onto his back, while preparing for a fight. He gets up as quietly as he can and walks to the three men slowly while trying to not make any noise. Then when right behind them he sees they are preoccupied with his belongings in the burlap sack
"I believe that you did not tell me your name," Desmond says
One of the men instantly gets up and spins around to face Desmond immediately. The others are a little slower but do get up and stand next to their comrade. Desmond walks over to the now burnt-out fire to throw some wood and kindling to get going again through the still alive embers.
As the fire gets reignited Desmond can see the men who face him more clearly now, they all had their swords drawn and were looking at him. They slowly advance towards him, but he doesn't move at all only as he just stares at the rider he had traveled with. Then one of them comes at Desmond with a downward stroke of his shortsword and Desmond answers with a sidestep out of the way. He stumbles as he hits nothing and Desmond gives him a small push into the fire behind him. The man's whole body falls into the flames with only his head and shoulders not going in and soon he begins screaming from the pain of his flesh melting off and catching fire.
The attacker frantically tries to get up but Desmond pushes him back down into the flames with his boot and soon all is quiet as the man's screams die down. The flames caught on his remaining clothing and were now starting to advance across his body as the smell of burning flesh and the sound of meat sizzling begin to fill the air. Desmond turns around and sees the rider and other man are staring at him with horrified expressions plastered over their faces. Desmond takes one step towards them and they start to back up. Then the musician sees behind them in the darkness there was an archer with his bow drawn and he hits the dirt.
The arrow goes right over Desmond's head and he gets up to run toward the remaining men. The rider runs away, but the other man stands his ground hoping to kill Desmond. He uses his sword to stab at him, so Desmond does another side step and punches him in the face. At that moment the archer decided to lose another arrow at Desmond but instead, he hit his friend in the back driving it between his shoulder blades and into his heart killing him instantly. Seeing his opponent go limp Desmond grabs the dead man's body and uses it as a shield while running at the archer as he starts to lose more and more arrows at him. As he gets near him the archer tries to run away seeing that there is no stopping Desmond's advance.
Desmond drops the body and reaches for his lute before, with one swift motion he throws it at the archer and hits him in the head and he falls face-first into the grass. Seeing that the rider had now escaped into the darkness gone Desmond walks to the archer and check to see if he is breathing, luckily he was, however, he would have a nasty headache when he woke up. Desmond then goes back to the fire and moves the body in the fire away and starts putting the flames out as best he can with the water from the river. After the flames are out he looks to see if there was anything salvageable on him but the flames had completely engulfed him leaving nothing on him that survived. Desmond then goes to the body of the man who tried to fight him to check his body and he had some coins and a knife that were worth taking.