After walking some distance we arrived at what was named Becky's Inn and unlike Tom's Pub this one was as quiet as a mouse. Despite my calm and handsome outlook, internally I was a mess as I walked into the Inn and towards the lady sitting behind the counter, she was a middle aged woman and presumingly the owner of Becky's Inn.
" Your best food and room for a night" I said with only half my mind present and the other somewhere else.
" E–Eh, Ga–Gaston, we're a bit short on-"
My mind was pulled back by Lafool's stuttering.
" Oh right, room for two…eh…please" I said as I remembered my loyal imp and also my promise to be a changed man so I smoothly added the word please.
" H–Here you go sir" The Inn owner handed over the keys to me, her eyes however showed a look of wonder and a bit of fear, most likely because of my physique.
" Thank you" I said with a small smile on my face which seemed to put her at ease, no surprise considering my looks.
"Lafool, pay the beautiful lady while I settle in for the night" I say to Lafool as he handles all the money. Lafool looked like he wanted to say something, but I was already up the stairs and frankly I was too tired right now, plus, if it was important he would have spoken up.
I opened the door to the room and immediately noticed how everything was too small for my usage, but with my large frame there's hardly anything that is. The room has one bed, a table with a candle on it and two chairs, it was the best comfort this outskirts could offer. Despite its creaking protest, I sat down on the wooden chair and was finally able to relax. Unknowingly I began to dive into my life as a whole.
I grew up in a small village that was close to a wild forest, so it was home to many hunter and my father was among them. If you had anyone in town who was the best hunter then you would hear my father's name. My father had built a reputation so large that the merchants would come to our village just to buy his loot. By the time my father married the love of his life, he had enough money to quit hunting and that's what he did. Unfortunately it wasn't a happy ending for this huntsman, for he had lost his beloved at child birth… yes a truly sad tale, BUT FRET NOT! For his beloved left behind a treasure that was a gift to not only the huntsman but to the Kingdom as a whole…Yes people, I was born!
My life was nothing short of a hero's tale. From being an active child, to conquering all the children at the playground, I was unstoppable. I went to one of the bigger towns to enrolled in their knights academy to learn swords and marksmanship. I successfully entered as the youngest student ever and graduated ahead of my peers. At the age of sixteen I saw myself fit for more than my small village could offer, I left my village with nothing but my sword, money and the hunting equipment, all which I got from my father who was fortunate enough to bear witness to a legend in the making.
I made my way to the big city with hope and vigor. On the way there, I met upon a disaster in the making, a robbery of a carriage by two goons. The victim of this robbery was a fair maiden whose only aid was an old coachman of the now destroyed carriage. Anticipation filled my youthful body and without hesitation, I drew my sword and as you would expect from untrained goons the battle was completely in my favour, this feeding my expectations that I was destined for great things.
The lady took me to her home demanding I stay the night as a show of her thanks, however, I didn't realize how thankful she really was until she walked into my bedroom…sparsely clothed. That day I fought two battle and came out victorious in both, but more importantly I discovered something that was just as, if not more, important than my journey to greatness...women!
The day to day city life was gruesome, but I was tougher. With the hunting skills I mastered from my father I quickly became famous because I could provide in bulk loot's like bears fur, boar tusks and the tender rabbit meat, all which were rare and expensive in the market. During the day I was the upcoming city huntsman and at night I was the notorious city playboy leaving trails of broken hearts behind me. However, on a faithful day I received a news that forever changed my humble status, an enlistment into the army.
Four years ago, their was a sudden discovery that shook this Kingdoms very foundation. The Kingdom of Eastwood which practiced a ruling system...forgot they actually had a king. The common people weren't affected as they just went on with their lives, the noble however immediately knew something was amiss; and who could blame them, the person who they spend half of their day thinking up methods to better kiss his ass was suddenly gone, anyone would be shocked, and yet their was something even more important about the throne than the disappearance of the person who sat on it...the throne of King Francis IV….WAS UP FOR GRABS!
One can always trust those scheming noble to never miss an opportunity like this. Those nobles acted like starving vulgar vultures who had been given a fat juicy piece of meat, every actions they took was out of greed; be it forming alliances, raising taxes how they saw fit or assassinating potential competitors. But all active have consequences, especially when it involves the suffering of the common people, one of the lower rank noble hab been too caught up in his greed and had increased the tax to over ten times the original amount and as if to make it worse the fool was hanging anyone who refused to pay, seeing no way out the people revolted and burn him and his family on a stake.
This turn of events had scared the nobles to their core, they learned from this lesson and reduced their greed by a large margin. However, the the chase for the throne was still in full swing, this resulted in small scale wars being fought. And that's where I come in, I saw this as a chance for fame on a larger scale. At my first conscription and I was treated like an ordinary soldier, but my achievements after immediately took me to squad leader but I wasn't satisfied with the slow pace of the war, so despite the begging of the commander I left my first conscription and went to a more heated battlefield.
And just like that, from battlefield to battlefield, camp to camp, allies turned to enemies and enemies turned to allies, before I knew I had been made a legend known as Gaston the Gallant to the common people and a hot topic to the aristocrats. But who would have known that my uprising fame would hit a stumble block, apparently the top officials had some complaints concerning my nightly activity, after all a soldier can only get so many pardons for bringing women into my tent…. especially with the other soldiers watching, it's not my fault they are unpopular with the ladies.
So alas, all good things must come to an end, I left my soldier life behind not knowing what I would find or who. With big strides I walked to my new destination where I would meet someone whose life I would change forever, a change for which he would be eternally grateful for…Yes, i was to meet my timeless servant Lafool.
I had just come back from one of my nightly adventures, this time it was the wife of a Baron, the ruler of the town. The Baron's wife had just caught her husband cheating on her, the poor thing was soo distressed that it took several nightly appointments before I could calm her down, another one of my many gifts. Unfortunately the Baron had found out about this appointments and saw it as a marriage misconduct; Ha! Talk about pot calling kettle black. I was informed of this by Lafool, at the time he claimed I had saved him from a group of bandits that had planned to have hung to become bird food, I could have sworn I went their to save a baker's daughter that had caught my eye, the little man had just gotten lucky, Nevertheless, I accepted his eternal servitude, I mean, he was basically begging, anyway, with him as my servant I took off.
Who knew it would lead me where I was today...who knew indeed