A Knight's Purpose – Marto Copperkettle – 15.11.2022
Dec 8, 2022 10:41:27 GMT
Velania Kalugina, Andy D, and 3 more like this
Post by Marto Copperkettle on Dec 8, 2022 10:41:27 GMT
Continuing after the events of ‘A Knight's Errant’
🌲 With a letter written by Beets The Beetle (Feenix) 🌲
🌲 With a letter written by Beets The Beetle (Feenix) 🌲
Marto sets down his quill and stretches his arms. A small shiver passes through his body as he feels how chilly it has gotten in his room at the Hearth & Road. The sun is already setting — It gets dark so early here in winter… — as he sprinkles drying sand over the letter he had just written to his sister. Cornflower blue eyes follow the granules as they pass from his fingers. A few of the grains land on a piece of paper, another letter, underneath. Carefully, Marto pulls at the corner, tilting the sand onto the ink that needs it whilst lifting the paper up, a small smile curving his lips as reads it again.
Hello Marto
Hi
Marto,
I’m really really sorry
I’m such an idiot
I nearly caused a political incident
I nearly ran away from..home
Please don’t ever grow any taller
I’m no good at writing or talking!
I don’t know if I could ever truly deserve a friend like you.
You’re the first real friend I’ve ever had and I’m so truly sorry I made you feel that you had to push me away.
I deserved it.
And you didn’t deserve having to worry about me or all the trouble I’ve ever caused you.
I’ve learnt more about myself recently than I’ve ever thought possible, and that's not counting the stuff I’ve learnt about Bogar and the curse.
There’s a lot I’ve gotta do to make up for things, both my friends and myself.
I’ll understand if you don’t ever want to talk to me again.
Just know…
I’m so glad I got to meet you.
Love
All the buggin’best
Your friend,
Beets
Beets Sunwater
“Reading her letter again?” Gwen asks, as she climbs up Marto’s leg to perch on his lap.
“Yeah…” He feels the unasked question from the fey spirit and elaborates. “Even though it’s messy, it’s… honest. That’s what I hoped she’d find. I’m glad she’s learning and growing.”
“And you’re sure there’s nothing else?”
His brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?” Marto asks, looking down at Gwen.
“Well, you know,” she starts, sitting back on her red squirrel legs to fold her front paws over her chest. The pose is very much like a teacher explaining a complex subject to a young student. “I noticed the way Beets looked at you, Marto, at the tournament. I know when there’s been something between two people. I could feel it, mhmm,” Gwen intones as she nods her little squirrel head.
Marto chuckles. “No, Gwen. There’s never been anything between us. At least, not from my side. Beets did say she loved me, but I… I’ve only ever seen her as a friend.” He sets down Beets’ letter.
“Ah! So I was right!” Her tail swishes back and forth. “But Beets wasn’t the only one stealing glances, you know. There was Zola, too, I’m sure of it. Although she seemed rather- Oh! Hey!”
Gwen’s cry of indignance is brought on by Marto suddenly standing up. Scooping Gwen into his hand, she doesn’t fall, but she is deposited rather unceremoniously onto the desk.
“I’ve gotta get this to Wendy,” he says, grabbing the letter “She’s due to swing by any minute.”
He grabs his coat and scarf, shoves his feet into his boots, and leaves. Gwen barely makes it to the door before it closes. She stops just on the other side, watching the halfling bundle himself up, a worried quiver to her whiskers. Perhaps she pushed too far. They’ve only known each other a few weeks in this way, but Gwenael felt like she knew Marto for longer. It isn’t usual for fey spirits to follow mortals to the Prime Material but perhaps it was because he was the Queen’s brother. Or maybe it was something else. She wasn’t sure. All she knew was she wanted to be by Marto’s side.
As for the lad himself, Marto was avoiding the question, staunchly. He knew it. He knew Gwen knew it too. He also knew he didn’t want to get into it right now. It had been… tough having Zola there. But Marto was glad he’d asked her to come. The last time he’d seen her was four months ago, when he was still angry and hurt and raw. Marto had let go then, or believed he had…
Yet somehow, when he saw her half-masked face and the moonstone eye, knowing the scars underneath were not but half of what she must have been putting herself through — he found out later that Zola’s hag mothers had to grow her arm back else she would never have been able to dual wield again — he still cared. Yondalla’s left foot, it was frustrating to admit but he did! She was being careless, seemingly acting in a similar, reckless manner to Beets and he just-
No. He would not do this. He would not dwell on Zola. He had let her go. He had left that love behind.
It had been good to invite her. The knightly competitions had kept his mind focused, distracted even.
It’s not like he hated Zola, either. He couldn’t. Marto just needed to be careful.
He thinks back to the crown of thorns and roses Wilhelm had given him as a favour for winning the tournament.
He remembers holding Fog’s hand, the feel of their softer skin under his rough hands. How just the simplicity of holding another even in that small amount had felt… different than anything he’d felt before…
The beetle. The sword dancer. The mist walker.
Yeah. Marto had to be really careful.
Dear Merla,
It’s been fairly quiet here in New Hillborrow in recent days. The folks here are settling in for winter whilst also preparing for the Fayre. I’ve let the elders know that you and Kruxeral are indeed going to be doing a performance with the kids from Thia’s Refuge. They’re absolutely delighted. I can’t wait to see you both perform again. I’ll try not to get too seasonably merry, but no promises, ha!
I’ve taken to doing a few adventuring jobs again here and there. Helped a gnome tinkerer by testing out her inventions and then helped her again by building her training dummies which we utterly obliterated when we tested out her inventions. Then we had to fight them because Mey (the tinkerer) forgot to change the switch from ‘foe’ to ‘friend’. It was both funny and frustrating for poor Mey.
The most recent and honestly way more exciting thing I’ve done recently though was taking part in a knight’s tournament! And what do ya know it I won.
Before you start singing my praises just yet I didn’t get knighted or anything — though I was being called Ser Copperkettle. Has a nice ring to it wouldn’t you say? — because I didn’t end up taking the job. It would have required me to be the personal champion of Duchess Kyra von Vald at her estate which is somewhere in the north part of the Angelbark Forest, I think. I made the mistake of thinking the place was located in the Shadowfell, but it seems though they had been there for a time, they had returned to the Material Plane. There is a Vibe about them though, sorta gothic. Maybe undead? I can’t say for sure.
But the tournament! It had all the stereotypical things any tourney would — jousting, the dance of arms (or melee if you will) — and the other knights! Some of them were really impressive. Which, speaking of, there was an eladrin from the Summer Court there, Ser Silas Varren. The instant he rode in on a unicorn I knew he had to be from the Summerlands. Do you know him, perhaps?
Also, is it common for warriors of the Summer Court to step up to a jousting match without a helm?
Even though my friends helped me win my first tournament — I honestly would not have been able to make it without them otherwise — there were so many other impressive and experienced knights. There was one knight though, a Blademaster of the Red Knight, that was a cut above the rest of us. Maria Sunscrier. I thought Zola was a talented bladedancer, but then seeing Maria fight, and fighting her myself! Merla, it was like battling against the wind except the wind has biting, cutting blades. Never have I ever seen such dual-wielding skills! I went toe-to-toe with her and if I didn’t have my shield, I would have fallen so quickly.
It was Maria who ended up being offered the job when I respectfully declined it — that was a nerve wracking conversation. The Duchess and her brother are intimidating, and to be fair, the letter did say, it would behove one to not decline the offered position if won. But even though I beat Maria this one time in the Dance of Arms, I don’t know if I could again. She knows way more about what a family like that needs from a knight commander. I’m still new to this idea, still finding my groove with it, if you will.
And as I said, I wouldn’t have been able to win as I did without my friends.
But you know that very well.
Anyways, I gotta go to my Sylvan lessons! I’m looking forward to seeing you soon. Say hi to Kruxeral and Lumina and Astra for me!
With love,
Marto
It’s been fairly quiet here in New Hillborrow in recent days. The folks here are settling in for winter whilst also preparing for the Fayre. I’ve let the elders know that you and Kruxeral are indeed going to be doing a performance with the kids from Thia’s Refuge. They’re absolutely delighted. I can’t wait to see you both perform again. I’ll try not to get too seasonably merry, but no promises, ha!
I’ve taken to doing a few adventuring jobs again here and there. Helped a gnome tinkerer by testing out her inventions and then helped her again by building her training dummies which we utterly obliterated when we tested out her inventions. Then we had to fight them because Mey (the tinkerer) forgot to change the switch from ‘foe’ to ‘friend’. It was both funny and frustrating for poor Mey.
The most recent and honestly way more exciting thing I’ve done recently though was taking part in a knight’s tournament! And what do ya know it I won.
Before you start singing my praises just yet I didn’t get knighted or anything — though I was being called Ser Copperkettle. Has a nice ring to it wouldn’t you say? — because I didn’t end up taking the job. It would have required me to be the personal champion of Duchess Kyra von Vald at her estate which is somewhere in the north part of the Angelbark Forest, I think. I made the mistake of thinking the place was located in the Shadowfell, but it seems though they had been there for a time, they had returned to the Material Plane. There is a Vibe about them though, sorta gothic. Maybe undead? I can’t say for sure.
But the tournament! It had all the stereotypical things any tourney would — jousting, the dance of arms (or melee if you will) — and the other knights! Some of them were really impressive. Which, speaking of, there was an eladrin from the Summer Court there, Ser Silas Varren. The instant he rode in on a unicorn I knew he had to be from the Summerlands. Do you know him, perhaps?
Also, is it common for warriors of the Summer Court to step up to a jousting match without a helm?
Even though my friends helped me win my first tournament — I honestly would not have been able to make it without them otherwise — there were so many other impressive and experienced knights. There was one knight though, a Blademaster of the Red Knight, that was a cut above the rest of us. Maria Sunscrier. I thought Zola was a talented bladedancer, but then seeing Maria fight, and fighting her myself! Merla, it was like battling against the wind except the wind has biting, cutting blades. Never have I ever seen such dual-wielding skills! I went toe-to-toe with her and if I didn’t have my shield, I would have fallen so quickly.
It was Maria who ended up being offered the job when I respectfully declined it — that was a nerve wracking conversation. The Duchess and her brother are intimidating, and to be fair, the letter did say, it would behove one to not decline the offered position if won. But even though I beat Maria this one time in the Dance of Arms, I don’t know if I could again. She knows way more about what a family like that needs from a knight commander. I’m still new to this idea, still finding my groove with it, if you will.
And as I said, I wouldn’t have been able to win as I did without my friends.
But you know that very well.
Anyways, I gotta go to my Sylvan lessons! I’m looking forward to seeing you soon. Say hi to Kruxeral and Lumina and Astra for me!
With love,
Marto