Lightstar Family/Xarnelf/Roleplay 03

Temple Mob

Xarnelf awoke to the slightly muffled sounds of his men gathering their weapons and armors together in addition to the loud, unintelligible shouts of none other than his captain. With a silent yawn, he got up and proceeded with his morning rituals. The noise outside his room began to increase in volume as he finished, drying his face on a towel. Yawning yet again while he opened the door, Xarnelf entered the main section of the barracks--and was immediately blasted by the full force of his captain's words amid the jumbling sounds of men in a great hurry.

"Alright you bootless, dizzy-eyed coxcombs, you have one minute to get your toad-spotted arses out to the training grounds, NOW!" bellowed Urjintah at the top of his lungs. "When I arrive there in five minutes, all of your mangled, clapper-clawed excuses for hands had better be shooting those arrows straight into those bull's-eyes like there is no tomorrow, or else! On the double! MOVE!" Captain Feralgem yelled that last word with the accompaniment of several sharp claps of his hands.

The Farsighters scrambled out the barracks' door and rushed off with their equipment in tow. Fortunately, all thirty-two men managed to exit the without anyone falling or otherwise getting injured. Xarnelf grinned as Urjintah turned to face him.

"I don't know what I'd do without your help, Jint" he remarked with a chuckle.

"Well, knowing your lazy arse, Xarne, you would probably still be snoring until the sun passed its zenith!" replied the captain in good-natured jest.

Xarnelf snickered in response, "In my defense though, I have not been gifted by the angels with the internal clock of a cock as you seem to have been truly blessed with..."

"Why you shag-haired codpiece!" Urjintah gruffly responded, followed by a light cuff aimed at the face of Xarnelf, who nimbly dodged--straight, or sideways rather, into the doorjamb of his room with an audible CRACK!

"Oof!" grunted Xarnelf, rubbing, with a wince, his right temple, which was beginning to color.

The two childhood friends then looked at each other and shared a hearty guffaw.

"Silly Xarne, doorjambs are for doors!"

Xarnelf grimaced, both from his swelling forehead and Urjintah's sorry excuse for a joke. "Please, spare me Jint, and believe me when I tell you that you possess no talent as a comedian. So, any news to report before you go babysit the men?"

Urjintah grinned and walked over to his bunk, picking up a letter and a pouch from its surface. "Ah, well..this," he walked back to Xarnelf and handed over the letter, "and these," jingling the pouch, "were dropped off earlier this morning by the courier, while you were still dreaming the angels know what," he ended with a wink.

"Oh great! I must thank my parents for their generosity. This extra gold will surely be of great use, what with all the costs involved with renting the training field and paying for equipment repairs."

"Indeed..we may have to visit the smithy again later today or tomorrow. Better to repair while we still can since we do not know if or when we will be moving out."

"Right, one more thing before you leave, Jint: do you have any suggestions as to where I should enquire for the services of a professional scribe? I think I'm going to need one soon to keep track of future reports and letters."

Urjintah furrowed his brow in thought and then let out a sigh. "Well, I have not explored much of this place yet, but perhaps a visit to that new temple will lead you to the right place. In any event, I have dallied here for long enough already...need to supervise the men's training before the darn fools hurt themselves. I shall report to you later in the afternoon."

After exchanging a nod of acknowledgement with his troop leader, Captain Feralgem turned about and quickly left, closing the barracks' door behind him. Xarnelf turned back into his room and took a seat, hefting the pouch of gold with a smile. He proceeded to read the letter from his parents, the contents of which contained his father's regards and his mother's worries about his health. Xarnelf resolved to pay them a visit soon, perhaps in a month, or more likely a couple weeks, since he was experiencing a mild homesickness despite his best efforts to push the uninvited feelings to the back of his mind.

The young knight stood up and safely secreted both the letter and the coins in a covert place. He strolled out of the barracks, deciding to pay a visit to the temple and perhaps find a suitable scribe before breaking his fast. As the peak of the grand structure came into view in the distance, hidden behind buildings that were starting to come to life, Xarnelf began hearing traces of discord upon the chill, morning air.

He quickened his pace, and soon, after turning the corner into the main street, he was able to hear distinct, civilian voices, the source of which composed a steadily growing crowd at the base of the temple steps.

"Just relax!" "Is the Lady Arella alright?!" "What was the meaning of Lord Helio's crazed charge yesterday?!" "Let us through!" "Tell us!" "Please, everyone just stay calm!" "Is this a sign from the angels?!" "We are all going to die!!!" "What's happening?!" "Everything will be fine!"

The scene beneath the temple came into focus as Xarnelf moved into a jog. He reached the farthest reaches of the still growing crowd and then groaned: the increasingly panicked people started to push against the meager line of temple officials trying to restore peace and order with soothing words that were beginning to become swallowed up by the crowd's shouts.

"Everyone please sta--" "WE WANT TO SEE HER!" "Stay bac--" "BRING HER OUT NOW!"

Xarnelf squirmed his way forward through the roiling mass of screaming bodies. Finally, after almost a minute of pushing and shoving, he reached the front lines. The thin line of temple officials stood only two ranks deep and totaled less than a third of the increasingly large group of protesters; they started to lose ground near the edges even with the help of their staves, their formation curving inwards into a crescent and being pushed up the steps.

Reaching out with both hands, Xarnelf latched on to an official's jerkin and shook him roughly, all the while yelling into the scared man's face, "My name is Xarnelf Lightstar, and I am a Knight of the Lady Arella! If you do not want a full-scale riot on your hands, then you will run as fast as you can to alert the Pontifex's troops. Is the Lady insi--"

WHACK! dropped an official's staff from the second rank down onto Xarnelf's right temple, spreading a dizzying wave of pain across his forehead. His earlier encounter with the doorjamb did not help matters.

"Arrrgh! You lout! Can't you see I'm trying to help?!" The knight turned around and started pushing back the surging people around him, receiving quite a few blows to the head and torso from angry civilians as payment. "Now go! Make haste man!" Xarnelf screamed over his shoulder to the first official. He hoped the temple official was not completely scared witless to take heed of his words.

"Everyone please remain calm! There is nothing to worr--"

SMACK! slammed a civilian's fist straight into Xarnelf's face. Unfortunately for the young knight, it connected with his already injured temple, causing his vision to swim as he reeled backwards onto the temple's marble steps. He landed with a second audible CRACK!--precisely on his right temple. With a faint groan, Xarnelf faded away into bittersweet, dark oblivion....