Kegan quickly fell into a new routine. The early hours of the morning before the sun came up, were spent doing bodyweight exercises on the ground. Once there was a little bit of light he would go hunting for small game, or deer (he was only allowed to kill one deer a week). He’d cook and eat the small game, or turn the deer into pemmican. While it was cooking he would create wooden javelins.

Once the sun was visible on the horizon he would head for the Keep for his daily allotment of food. Five loaves of bread, five pounds of vegetables, a wedge of cheese, a pound of jerky, five boiled eggs, a bottle of mead or wine, and a mug of beer. He would eat all of this food during his daily four-hour guard shift. The guard shift was the most boring and tedious part of Kegan’s day. All he did was stand at the top of the keep and watch the horizon for anything interesting.

Following the guard shift, there was training and sparring for the knights and some of the guards. The knights trained daily, but the guards were normally only allowed to train one day a week. As a mercenary on retainer, Kegan would have normally only been able to train in the mustering yard three days a week. However, everyone loved sparring against him.

Kegan was the perfect sparring partner. He didn’t tire easily, he could take hits, his skills were somewhat lacking so he didn’t give out as many hits as he received, and he was strong as well as fast so the only way to beat him was with skill. As Kegan’s skills improved, he made sure to pull his hits or handicap himself in other ways to keep the guardsmen and knights interested in sparring with him. In Kegan’s mind, there was always an advantage to having more fights, and more experience.

Gregory took the opposite approach to training, so instead of quantity like Kegan, he sought quality. He would practice sword forms to perfection, day in and day out. He would only spar with the other knights, and the spars were short and fast. In the first few weeks, there was still some lingering bad blood between the two, and this difference in training only made it worse.

Gregory was mad at himself for losing to a ‘brutish’ fighting style, and he was annoyed with Kegan for spreading his brutish fighting style to the guards and some of the younger more impressionable knights. Kegan was upset with the duel because he felt like he had lost even though he was officially the victor. Losing six out of seven rounds didn’t feel like a victory. Kegan then became frustrated with Gregory when the man wouldn’t spar with him.

After the training session, Kegan would help around the village. The blacksmith, tanner, and leatherworker he would help for free just to learn their craft. Everyone else would pay him in food for the work he did.

Occasionally the young Lord Tasmeel would want to go on a hunt and that would fill Kegan’s afternoon. The hunts were choreographed events. The goal for everyone was to weaken but not kill or knock out a boar. Then the young Lord Tasmeel would move in for the final kill and get ‘the glory’.

It was a few days before someone explained to Kegan that an older man, Baron Tasmeel, was actually in charge. The baron was off at war with half of the Knights and able-bodied men. The kingdom was fighting a two-front war. One war against the orcs, and another one against elves and ‘human rebels’. Kegan was curious about the wars, but no one wanted to talk about them. The conflicts had been going on for a long time and everyone had lost friends and relatives to the fighting.

The summer passed uneventfully and Kegan felt settled into his new home as the days grew colder. The Baron was expected back just before the harvest festival. But the day came and went, the harvest festival came and went, and everyone grew tense with the extended absence.

A rider came into town one morning with an urgent message for Lord Tasmeel and Sir Gregory. Kegan didn’t get to hear the message as they ushered in the man into some private chambers. The daily training and sparring session was canceled, but the guards and knights had gathered in the training yard.

The young knights and guards spoke quietly with each other:

“What did the messenger say? Has the Baron fallen?”

“Why is he so late in returning?”

“We don’t know what the messenger said, he would only speak with Sir Gregory and Lord Tasmeel.”

“Lord Tasmeel is still too young to take ownership of a Barony, will we be without a Lord?”

The older knights were quiet and contemplative. A grizzled veteran named Davis stepped forward, and the conversations fell silent. He looked around at the guardsmen.

“If that rider brought news of the Baron’s death then you all need to gather your things and leave town as fast as you can. The Barony would revert to the Baron’s second cousin Count Talias. The Count has no need for this Barony. If you all are lucky he will gift the Barony to a subordinate that he doesn’t trust or like. Probably some Knight that did well in battle but has no idea how to run an estate. If you are unlucky he will declare the Barony an outlaw estate since you are not sworn to any feudal lord of the realm. His soldiers will be free to plunder and enslave any outlaws of the realm.”

“Stop trying to scare all the men Davis”

Gregory spoke from the edge of the training field, no one had noticed him approach.

“There is good news, the Baron will return in just two days. We will plan a celebration and a feast for his safe return. All of the guardsmen can take the day off. Those who have sworn loyalty to the Baron, follow me.”

Despite the good news, Gregory didn’t seem happy at all. Kegan also realized he didn’t fit in either group. Gregory noticed his hesitation.

“You are dismissed Kegan.”

Kegan stared at Gregory for a moment before leaving, the anger and stress he'd heard in the man’s voice weren’t sitting well with Kegan.

The rest of the day Kegan continued his normal routine of helping around the village. As night fell a group of guardsmen approached him. None of them were in uniform, and they all looked nervous. All of the guards in this group had families in the village and had children to help them with the chores that Kegan usually helped with. A man named Terry spoke up:

“Kegan, can we speak with you.”

“Yes, do you need work done? If I get to make something useful it's free of charge, otherwise I …”

“No no no, it’s not like that Kegan. It’s about what Davis said … about what happens if the Baron dies.”

“Gregory said the Baron was alive and returning.”

They all looked at each other as if deciding on who was going to say the next part. They prodded Terry forward again.

“We just wanted to be sure … could you speak with Gregory and Davis again. To uh ask them how we can help prepare for the Baron’s return …”

“Why don’t you ask them?”

Terry began stuttering out attempting to think of a response “Our families … well .. we could but we um”

Jacus spoke up behind him:

“They respect you the most. Since you are such a great warrior. They wouldn’t want to lose the help of such a warrior if they left the Keep.”

“Why would they leave the Keep?”

Terry spoke up again

“A hunt! … they might be going on a hunt soon to prepare for the feast.”

Kegan was convinced they were hiding something. Maybe they were trying to pull one of the “pranks” on him like they did to each other. He might as well go along with it … and get some food out of the deal as well.

“Well, this isn’t the normal kind of job I do for people. I want twenty carrots for this. And if Gregory punishes me with lower pay for disobeying his dismissal than y’all will cover this.”

They seemed surprised at him asking to get paid but agreed to it anyways. Jacus even ran off to get the carrots right away, Kegan knew his family had a small garden plot with extra carrots.

Kegan was eating his newly earned carrots as he walked up to the Keep. The Keep itself was on a hill adjacent to the village. One entrance to the Keep leads to the village, and another entrance on the opposite side leads to the main road for the area. There was a small hamlet further up the road and about eight manors in the surrounding area all within a day’s walk. There had apparently once been three times as many manors, but they had been slowly abandoned as men were lost in the ongoing wars.

Kegan came up the village side entrance, but the gate was shut tight. This wasn’t too abnormal, so he walked around to the other side of the Keep. The gate facing the road was cracked open. From inside the Keep, he could hear a lot of activity and voices.

He hesitated for a moment, wondering why it was so noisy late at night. He bit into another carrot and remember he was being paid to come here. So he pushed open the gate.

As it squeaked open and he stepped inside all of the voices halted. There were horses being packed and saddled in the courtyard. All sixteen of the knights dressed in full armor, and they were clearly ready to leave.

“Kegan! What are you doing here?!”

Gregory seemed clearly angry with him.

“The guardsmen were worried after hearing what Davis said. They wanted to make sure the Baron is returning soon. And they offered to help with any preparation for the Baron’s arrival.”

Gregory glared at Davis who had a stony look on his face. Without looking back at Kegan, and still glaring at Davis he said

“This is your fault, Davis.”

Gregory raised his hand and signaled toward Kegan. A half-second later before Kegan could react two crossbow bolts thudded into his chest. Kegan stumbled back against the gate and then fell to his knees. One of the bolts had pierced his right lung, and the other had pierced his left lung. They’d both had enough power to punch all the way through to his spine. It hurt, but not nearly as bad as he thought it should.

“I told you that telling the villagers anything would spook them! And they’ll realize what has happened when this idiot doesn’t return!”

“I’ve been protecting these people for thirty years, and you want us to run off and leave them to the wolves just to raise the spoiled brat in a city!”

“You swore an oath …”

“To his father! Who was an honorable ...”

Their argument had drawn everyone’s attention. Kegan activated the internal surgery perk to assess the wounds and determine whether he should just suicide out of this situation. The damage in his right lung seemed worse. He made a quick decision, grabbed the bolt on the left and yanked it out. Luckily the bolt wasn’t barbed or he would have just activated the suicide perk. As the bolt came out, blood started coming out of the wound and flowing into his lungs.

“Fine, we don’t need your help, Davis. You and whoever else wants to stay can stay. You’ll be dead when Count Talias’ men arrive.”

One other knight moved to stay, and Davis spoke to him, “This is the right decision Adrian, I will tell Katharine of your bravery.”

“No, you won’t,” Gregory said as he made the same signal again.

One bolt struck Adrian in the chest, the other was caught on Davis’ shield as he reacted in time. Gregory moved with lightning speed, his sword lashing out at Davis’ face. Davis tried to dodge, but the sword still caught his face gouging out his eye.

In the next moments, the other knights moved in and cut down Adrian and then Davis.

Kegan had fallen forward and started the internal surgery perk to stop the bleeding. He left a hole in his lung so the blood could leak out. Although his internal surgery perk worked slowly there was no limit to how many times he could activate it at once. Each activation would cost him a thousand calories over six hours. His body had been trying to cough all the blood out of his lungs, but it was also letting everyone know that he was still alive. He used the surgery perk to alter the insides of his lungs and throat to be less sensitive.

“Should we bury them?”

“No, they were traitors, we will leave them here to rot. We need to leave now before the villagers try to follow us. Someone go get Lord Tasmeel. We leave in five minutes.”

The coughing had stopped, and he was lying still, but he was also running low on air. He activated more internal surgeries to clean up the blood in his lungs and throat. The air was flowing into his one good lung again. With his chances of survival looking better by the second he used the active surgery perks to create new skin and lung tissue to seal up the bolt still inside him. Finally, the surgery perks started slowly pushing the bolt out of him and repairing any damage as it moved. It would take a few hours at this rate to push the bolt out, but that was fine, as long as it wasn’t obvious he was still alive.

“What was all of the commotion out here Gregory?”

“There were traitors milord, Davis and Adrian forsook their oaths and refused to protect you.”

“Oh … is that Kegan? Why is he here … and is he dead too?”

“Yes, Kegan was a spy for your enemies. We have to move quickly milord. You have many enemies now that your father has passed. I am the only one you can trust.”

Kegan was already planning to kill Gregory for this betrayal. But now he was thinking the man would need to suffer before he dies.

They opened the gate and quietly filed past Kegan. Once they had been gone for a few minutes Kegan quietly moved and checked his surroundings from the ground. The courtyard of the Keep was empty other than the corpses of Adrian and Davis. Kegan cursed Gregory once again. Davis had been a great sparring partner and a friendly man. Adrian was barely old enough to be a man. A terrible sparring partner, because he spent all his free time with Katharine off in the woods. Neither of them deserved to die.

Bracing himself against the wall Kegan yanked the second bolt free. It didn’t come out cleanly and it took a few minutes for the internal surgery to get him stable once again. All of the internal bleeding had been stopped, but there was still missing flesh and blood for the surgery perks to clean up.

He looked around at the Keep. It was such an impressive defensive structure. Gregory was a coward for not staying. A plan formed in Kegan’s mind as he opened the gate facing towards the village. He had tried to defend a village before, with Jotun. The plan had been all wrong back then. Kegan should have never agreed to stay in one place and fight. He had beaten the bone knight army by being smart and using hit and run tactics. He could do it again.

But that didn’t matter right now. Once he told the villagers what to do and grabbed some weapons from his hut, he’d take care of the more important problem: Gregory.