Noah woke up the next morning. He didn't manage to go to sleep for a small while, but still got to sleep before his father got back inside. He groaned when he rolled over to get out of bed as his muscles still hurt. He grudgingly got up out of bed and put on his clothes and armor. He headed downstairs and into the living room and to his surprise, no one was there. He then remembered that he did not need to get up as early because the traders were already in town. Idiot. He called himself not as much angrily but more disappointingly. He sighed and headed into the kitchen to get breakfast consisting of bread and cheese.
The kitchen was four and half meters wide and four meters long. The door to the pantry was on the left side upon walking into the kitchen with a stove on the opposite side and a table in the middle. The table was one meter long and half a meter wide with two chairs on the long side and one at the head. A sink sat at the right side for washing dishes. Noah took his seat at the left of the table and began to eat.
When Noah finished eating he grabbed his dishes and silverware and took them to the sink and began to wash them. After he was done with that, Noah went into the living room and sat on the couch to wait for his father.
* * *
When Sean came downstairs, Noah saw a small look of shock on his face.
"Well, I guess you wake up when you wake up." Noah's father said, and then began to chuckle.
"You do wake up when you wake up." Noah responded with a smile on his face.
"Have you had breakfast yet?" Sean asked.
"Yes I have, and I already took care of my dishes." Noah responded.
"Good, I'll get mine and when I'm done eating we're gonna head out. Your spear is up in my room, but be careful your mother is still sleeping and you know how she is." Sean said.
"Alright." Noah said, shuddering. It was an unspoken rule that you don't wake up Lucia when she's sleeping, god help you if you do.
* * *
"Are you ready to head out?" Sean asked.
"Yes I am." Noah responded.
"Good." Sean said, nodding his head. They headed out the door with Sean in the front and Noah in the back. They quickly made their way to the town square, which wasn't too far from their house. There were four other guards already there and none of the apprentices out of the Trade Group, an unofficial name for the group of guards that patrolled the square while the traders were in town. Sean and Noah quickly made their way over to the group.
"Good morning," One of the guards said to the pair, "how is it with you two?"
"I'm fine, not sure about him." Sean said as they joined the group.
"I'm good, even though my muscles still hurt from yesterday." Noah said. He didn't mind talking to people, however he doesn't like to start conversations.
"That's normal." Sean said to Noah and then said to the other guard. "How are you doing, Jackson?"
"Oh I'm fine, thanks for asking. The others should be here soon." Jackson said as three more guards joined their group with there still being no sign of the other apprentices.
"Let's hope nothing like what happened yesterday morning happens again." Another one of the guards said, joining in on their conversation. Noah remembered that his name was Lucas.
"I think we all can agree on that. Speaking of, did the dragon messenger go out yet?" Sean said.
"Yes, he did, same one as yesterday, nobody died or got born so the report should be the same." Lucas replied.
"That's good, anyway let's enjoy ourselves for now, we still have quite a bit of time before people start coming in." Sean said and the others agreed with him.
* * *
When the rest of the guards came and it was getting to be mid-morning, Sean sent a pair of guards to the west and east entrances and put pairs in equal distance around the square. The way that the guards patrol is that the guards have the crowd of people move counterclockwise and they go with the crowd. If someone calls out a thief, the guards of the entrances close them and the nearest pair chases the thief while the others stop, limiting the thieves options to nearly nothing but to fight, and going against two guards, that option would be suicide.
"Let's go." Sean said to Noah when he was done positioning the guards.
"Alright." Noah nodded and left the last pair where they were.
As they got to their position, the traders started to open up their booths and people began to head inside. Noah sighed and prepared himself for another long day.
"You ready?" Sean asked Noah.
"Yeah, I am." Noah replied.
"Okay, that's good." Sean responded and grabbed the war horn that was hanging from his waist and blew into it. A loud deep note rang out, signaling that it was time to start patrolling. Sean put the war horn back onto his waist and they began to patrol.
There weren't many people when they started patrolling, but as time went on into the start of the afternoon more and more people began to go to the square whether it be that they were heading to work or taking a break. Noah kept focused on his current job, scanning the area for thieves and people that looked shady. He felt anxiety creep into his conscious but he tried to not look that show in his face or his posture. He looked up at his father and he was doing the same thing with a stern look on his face. Noah looked away and took a few deep breaths to calm himself, focusing on the area around him and his current job. As they were going by the east entrance, Noah noticed the line to get in the square for people to get checked.
People were checked for hidden weapons upon entering the square, weapons for show and self defense were alright, however, the person will be brought to the guards attention. There were multiple roads around the square so farmers and other workers could go to their workplace without any interference. People would put all of their possessions on the ground in front of them and then get ready for a body check. If the guard finds something on the person, the guard would go on high alert and order the person to reveal it. If the person refused, they would be sent away and unable to enter for the rest of the time that the traders were there. If they attacked the guard, it was an automatic arrest.
Suddenly Noah heard shouting, though he couldn't make out the words. He looked at his father, certain that he heard it as well. Sean shook his head, signaling not to go, but as the shouting continued he eventually signaled for them to go. They began to head towards the source, which wasn't that far away, it was just drowned by other sounds of people trading. As they got closer, Noah began to be able to hear words.
"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING THEN!" A very angry shout was said as Noah and his father pushed their way through the crowd that had formed. A man stood shouting at a young man who looked to be about three or four years older than Noah.
"Oh good, guards are here." The older man said. Noah remembered that his name was Arthur Andrews, one of the three families that the people considered nobles, but were actually just richer than the average family there. The other ones were the Sky family and the Headspear family. The Andrews and Sky families were the only families that lived in Northspear that didn't have surnames related to the work the family does. Noah thought that it was because most of their family thought themselves too important for work.Those families got their money from trade tax as a thank you from the Headspear family for leading and helping negotiations the majority of the time. However, with the dragon crisis some of the trade tax had been taken by the Headspear family to help pay for the people living there, causing the other families frustration.
"This boy has assaulted me, please arrest him." Arthur continued, causing the crowd and the young boy to be shocked.
"I'm not arresting anyone without proper evidence." Sean responded. Noah knew that his father did not like Arthur because of things like this, saying that it wasted time that could have been spent capturing actual criminals or protecting the walls.
"Is my word not enough? You know I'm a man of honor and honesty." Arthur responded.
"I'm going to investigate anyways." Sean responded, annoyed and then told Noah, "Go tell the others that it was nothing major and that they can continue to patrol."
"Yes, sir." Noah responded and then headed off.
* * *
When Noah got back the situation hadn't really changed. The crowd had begun to disperse. When Noah got through the crowd it looked like nothing had really changed.
"Good you're back." Sean said to Noah.
"Oh so you're ignoring me now." Arthur angrily said.
"Well if you would take the corks out of your ears then maybe you'd be able to listen to reason." Sean responded.
"Well what does your apprentice have to say about this?" Arthur smugly responded.
"I have no objections." Sean calmly responded.
"I have nothing to say on this, I do not know the situation and I am not going to arrest someone based on another person's word. The decision is not mine anyways since the captain of the guard is here." The calmness in Noah's voice shocked him, as about an hour prior he was close to being a nervous wreck. He sighed as he began to realize why his father is constantly annoyed by Arthur when they meet.
"Well you're biased since you are Sean's apprentice and his son." Arthur accusingly said.
"Get out of here before I kick you out myself." Sean said, fed up with Arthur.
"Well I still have business here so I am going to stay for a while." Arthur responded, challenging Sean.
"Alright then, that is your decision." Sean responded and then grabbed Arthur's wrist, bending it backwards. Arthur yelped in pain and tried to pull away but Sean's grip was steel tight. Sean put more pressure on Arthur's wrist, forcing him to knees and then began to drag him to the nearest entrance ignoring Arthur's pleas.
Noah sighed, he had a feeling that as a guard, apprentice even, he would be dealing with a lot more people like Arthur. Two pairs of guards had passed while he and his father had been dealing with that situation. Noah ran to his position, not even waiting for his father.
When his father came back to their position he said, "You made me proud with how you handled the situation back there."
"But I hardly did anything, you did the vast majority." Noah responded, confused.
"You did a lot more than you realize." Sean said and then continued, "By staying back and letting me do most of the work, you showed the level of trust that the guards have in each other. By immediately following my orders you showed the level of order and discipline that the guards have. And by staying quiet, you not only showed me respect by not second guessing me, you also showed Arthur respect by not jeering and insulting him." Noah was shocked when his father finished at how much he did by doing, in his mind, nothing. He almost laughed at his father's final sentence but held it in. That man deserves as much respect as an outlaw. He thought.
"It wasn't anything too major, but I'm still glad it's over nonetheless." Noah responded, smiling slightly.
"Same here. Anyway, let's continue." Sean said, smiling as well. Noah nodded and then they went back to keeping watch over the square.
* * *
When the day was done and the people left the square to go prepare for the next day Noah was walking around browsing the stalls. After a small bit, Noah had gone by most of the stalls and didn't see anything he wanted. There was one more stall Noah didn't check yet. The trader that ran that stall was packing his goods up and closing it down. Noah looked at what was left, it looked to be that the stall sold books. Noah didn't see anything that interested him but as he was turning around the trader picked up some more books and Noah looked at the book underneath those. To his shock, it was just what he needed, it was a book about dragon anatomy.