Over the weeks that Lucas had spent in the village he had integrated quite well, most of the time he had simply slept in his chair, spear stood against the side, a cloak draped over his head to protect himself from the sun. Villagers left food and water next to his watch station for when he was awake. When he made his rounds he would greet the villagers and had come to know a few. Sparrow had also learned a bit more about his life as he shared a few of his more palatable stories with her, as a thank you for her taking the bounties into the city. To her, his life seemed magical, his rank limited him to the borders of Leeuveld but he'd still experienced more than she could even imagine. He'd explored caverns in search of tomes and texts of a history long past, seen the ocean and heard tales of the countries beyond, and even been inside the castle she admires so much. But there were some things he refused to reveal, like what the markings on his hands were for? How does his massive pouch work? What his annual income was?
There were relatively few incidents while Lucas stood watch and half the time when someone challenged him he was able to "convince" them to leave. The pattern remained true during the last week, or at least thats what Lucas thought until about halfway through the week.
The sun was at its peak and hotter than usual.
The normal sounds of a late-summer day were interrupted with a loud scream. Lucas sprung into action. He tried to grab his spear as he sprinted towards the source of the scream, but fumbled his grip, leaving the spear in the dust. Choosing to go unarmed rather than waste precious seconds.
He slowed as he approached the source of the scream. One of the older villagers and her husband stood on their back porch and stared in fear at someone. The stranger looked like a walking bundle of rags. Lucas quickly moved between the villagers and the stranger.
"State your name and business" he shouted
"Please, sir, I'm just a traveler looking for some water" the rags croaked.
"Are you armed?"
"Yes, sir, I carry a sword for my own protection"
"Okay pull it out and place it on the ground in front of you"
As the rags moved to remove their sword Lucas moved into a defensive position. He raised his arms slightly and slid his right foot back. The rags slowly bent over and placed his sword on the ground. Lucas dropped his guard slightly. Realising what had happened, the rags slashed at the ground, shooting dust and gravel at Lucas's face and into his eyes. Lucas raised his arms in a X in front of his face and ducked his head down. His instinct told him the next strike would be from above. He was right. The sword struck his armour he wore on his forearm. As soon as it made contact he ignited the symbol on his left palm. Twisted his wrist and grabbed his opponent's. The rags jumped back in pain. Lucas succeeded in reducing the damage he would take for the rest of the fight since his opponent could now only use one hand. But he lost him.
Lucas was blinded and the soft sand hid the sound of the rags' footsteps. He brought his hands up once again into a guard position. A hard impact hit the back of his right shoulder. The damage was mitigated by his armour, but knocked him slightly off balance. Lucas tried to remain calm. Focused. Trying to listen for any sound that would reveal his opponent's position. All he could hear was the whispers of an audience that seemed to have increased in size.
"Kind of annoying that no one is telling me where he is" Lucas thought "well, they're not used to combat so I guess it makes sense. They're probably scared of what could happen. Wait... focus you idiot"
He felt sharp pain on his right thigh. His opponent had wisened up a bit. Their stalemate continued for what felt like ages, but was only a couple of minutes.
"BEHIND YOU!!" shouted a familiar voice
"Seems at least one of them isn't too scared" Lucas thought as he spun, crouched, and lunged as directed. He grabbed what felt like a neck and reignited his left hand.
A scream of pain and fear errupted from the target. Lucas hooked one of his feet and pushed the man to the gound. The rags continued to scream as he tried to remove the hand from his throat. He clawed at Lucas' forearms, but couldn't do any damage through his armour. His nails peeled from his finger tips, but it didn't stop him. Soon Lucas' armour was dripping with blood. The screams faded. The arms dropped. In the end he lay still. Lifeless.
Lucas rose and wiped his eyes. The smell of burnt flesh hovered in the air. Some of the villagers ran away, the ones that remained stared in fear, shock, and disgust. The rags identity once hidden by cloth, now horribly disfigured.
"Well, um, I'm gonna take this" Lucas said as he picked up the body "Sparrow could you bring a shovel please"
The pair walked to the perimeter of the village looking for a place to bury the body. They eventually found a solitary tree and started to dig grave.
Sparrow thinking that since he had shown what the markings on his left hand did asked, "so what do the markings on your right hand do?"
"That's on a need to know basis"
"I mean you could tell me. I'm good at keeping secrets"
"Do you know why I had to fight today?"
"Because the other guy wanted to?"
"Yes and no. We fought because he saw that I was unarmed and relatively young, so I was not likely to put up much of a fight, also I let down my guard because I assumed that we wasn't hostile. In a fight, information is your strongest weapon and while there is a non-zero chance that we will fight one day I'm gooing to keep some information hidden"
"That seems overly pessimistic"
"Maybe, but it's worked for me so far"
The rest of the grave was dug in silence.
Lucas looked around under the corpse's clothes.
"What are you looking for?" Sparrow asked.
"His money pouch"
"You're robbing a dead body?!"
"Money is for the living"
He placed the body in the in the shallow grave, lay his sword along his body and place his hands on the hilt, and finally placed a silver coin on each of his eyes.
"Why are you doing placing coins on his eyes and burying him with his sword?" Sparrow asked
"They're burial ceremonies in different cultures, and since I don't know where he comes from I'm hedging my bets" Lucas replied as he started to fill in the grave.
Thus ended Lucas' tenure as the guard of this small village. Their goodbyes were expectedly cold on the last day, he had a feeling they were unlikely to hire him again. 'It is what it is' he thought. He had made fond memories at the village and enjoyed his time there, but most importantly he was satisfied with his performance and thought of new ways that he could improve.
Sparrow escorted him back to the city so that they could collect his compensation. In total he earned 1 gold, 75 silver, and 300 copper coins. 1 gold, 25 silver coins from the collection of bounties, and 50 silver 300 copper coins from the guard quest. Their parting was warmer than the one he received from the rest of the villagers, Lucas felt that they were likely to see each other again in the future.