The tales of Lysia (Part two)

The knock

         It was the end to another wonderful day at the shack, Arthur had caught a few fish and so the family feasted on wild winged trout, while regaling about the day and all its merriment's. The meal was so good and the conversation was so deep that the family almost didn’t hear the light knock on the door. The chatter died down and the feast was almost forgotten as the Arthur and Cassandra starred at the door in absolute silence. Another knock at the door sent a shudder down their spines, confirming their fear that the chaos had eventually caught up with them. Starr was deeply confused since he had never seen anyone else besides his family by the river. Slowly Arthur rose and crept silently by the door, his brow beginning to sweat, and his body beginning to shake from fright. When he reached the door he opened it and peered outside. What he saw almost made him faint from fright; standing at the door was a massive figure clad fully in black steel armor, a sword almost as tall as the man himself was standing by him, the tip sunken in the ground. The figure, which Starr assumed to be a giant, removed his helmet. Starr wished he hadn’t, for what greeted him was a scarred and serious face that wore a heavy scowl, so menacing it made the whole family shake with fright.
         The figure looked at Arthur and spoke, with a deep and angry voice. The voice said,” I am Hodor of the Royal King’s army, slayer of all that stands in my way, and head of the tax collecting division. “Pulling out a large and heavy scroll the man continues, “It says here that you have failed to pay your dues on time, the punishment for this is most severe, do you know what the punishment is?” With the last few words his face twisted into an evil grin, as if he knew what the answer was already. Arthur was beginning to weep, something that he had never done before, this scared Starr for he knew that the man at their door meant nothing but trouble. Starr could not do anything about the man however since he was only 10 years old, and the man at the door seemed to have no problem with hurting a child.
         Arthur began to speak however it was in such a low and pained voice that it did not bring much comfort to Starr, in fact this scared him even more. “ I..I do understand the punishment for failing to pay sir. Please do not hurt my family, take me instead.” Starr had no clue what was going on, he had no idea who the king was or why he sent this man here, nor did he understand why he was scared or why his family was scared. And what was bothering him most was the punishment. He had no idea what the punishment was, and that was the worst part. Hodor suddenly grabbed Starr’s father and picked him up from the ground. In a booming voice Hodor said, “You and your entire family will be punished because you are all vermin, you disrespect the great king Crimax, you will pay the price.” Hodor then dropped Arthur with a loud thud. Both of Starr’s parents began to weep with no control, tears pouring over their face.
         Hodor then tied up the family using a red rope, Starr didn’t think the rope was originally red. With heavy feet the family began to march behind Hodor to a massive cart that was walled with rusty metal bars. Hodor opened the door of the cage with a loud bang, and the family stepped inside. The cage was empty and soulless, Starr felt a heavy sadness wash over him as he saw the only place he knew disappear behind the heavy trees as the cage was pulled by horses into the forest. The forest was a dense place that was shrouded by massive shadows; it would have had a charming nature to it if it weren’t for the cage. The forest path that they followed seemed to twist and turn for ages until suddenly the forest broke into a clearing. The light blinded Starr for a moment and what he saw was shocking. All around them giant mountains stood with snow capped peaks and jagged edges. For a moment Starr forgot about everything except for the splendid view around him, a sudden bump made his head hit the cage bars, a cruel reminder to show him that he was in big trouble.
         Starr then remembered that he was unsure about the severity of their punishment. Starr then asked his father “Father, where are we going and what is this punishment?” Starr almost wished he hadn’t asked, his father bowed his head into lap and spoke with a soft and broken voice, “Starr, all this time we have hidden from you the fact that Lysia is in complete turmoil. The whole kingdom is ruled by the mad king Crimax who only spreads fear amongst the people.” He paused to allow Starr to understand what he had said, Starr then asked, “But, why does Crimax spread fear, and what does this have to do with us?" Arthur had no explanation that Starr could understand. He knew that the true answer would frighten his son too much. Finally after much deliberation he spoke, "Starr, Crimax is an evil man who cannot be reasoned with, he only wants to destroy this once mighty kingdom. A man like that cares not for his people but only of himself. As for us, we have broken the law. The law states that every citizen must pay a tax every year, we fled to the outermost region of Lysia to avoid all this, and in doing so we avoided the tax." Starr began to realize the scale of their predicament, and this made him even more afraid. Before Starr could ask another question his mother began to speak, she spoke as if she was pained just from talking, "Starr, the reason we are so saddened by these circumstances is that the punishment for our actions is jail." She shuddered at the thought of jail. Starr was still scared but a bit relieved since he was still going to be able to be with his family. 
          The family remained in silence for hours; the mountains disappeared into more forest. The forest seemed to engulf them in shadows; the forest felt cold and threatening unlike the forest near the shack. Hodor did not make any movements besides the occasional grunt and flick of his wrist to steer the horses. Suddenly Starr thought he saw a flash of light come from the forest, it illuminated the darkness for a split second and made Starr's eyes hurt from the sudden change. Hodor must have seen it too because he stopped the horses and dismounted, grunting with anger as he did so. The man stepped in front of the cage and casted a massive shadow upon the family. He then spoke with a trembling force, "I will go and investigate the light, you are to STAY HERE! If any of you try and fight, you will be slain where you stand." With that, he unsheathed his sword and headed into the dense forest. As he was just about to reach the forest's edge something happened in the forest, a flash like that of metal. The next thing Starr saw was Hodor get hit with something, he thought it was a rock because Hodor stumbled backwards when he was hit. The man turned around to face the cage, what Starr saw was far more disturbing. The man had been shot with an arrow the size of a small tree and was now sitting on the ground in shock; he eventually fell with a great thud and stopped moving. The whole family was riddled with shock, who was it that killed Hodor, what was happening, and even more pressing, what is going to happen now that their captor was dead? 
            They sat in silence for a few minutes before a figure emerged from the forest. Starr was surprised to see that it was a boy, no more than fifteen who had emerged. He was of average height and had fair brown hair that was kept a little long, he had dark green eyes and pointed ears. He looked like a normal boy except for the pointy ears it was a little strange. The boy was holding a bow and had a dark green shirt with brown trousers; Starr thought this was for camouflage. The boy stopped in font of the cage and looked at the family inside, his eyes were bright like fire. The boy then spoke, "I am Darius, the son of the noble Elven warrior Kessius. Who are you?" 
            "I am Starr, and this is my father Arthur and my mother Cassandra. We were captured by the man you just shot." As he spoke he glanced at the body of Hodor who still lay motionless on the ground; Starr continued, "We are forever grateful, Thank you." He bowed his head at Darius who simply walked up to the cage and broke the lock. "You are free now," He said "You may leave now if you want, or you can come with me and fight back against this scum." Darius kicked Hodor as if he was just a stick on the ground; Starr was scared the giant might get back up. Darius looked at the family expectantly as if wanting an answer to his proposal. The family looked at each other, each one wanting to go home and pretend that none of this had ever happened. To go back to a normal life before the knock on the door, all except for Starr. Although he was scarred beyond his mind about fighting, he could not resist the urge to seek justice. 
           "I will go with you Darius." Starr finally confessed. Both Arthur and Cassandra were shocked and confused about his answer. They wanted to play ignorant and pretend he had just said something like " That would be the noble thing to say but I must go with my family back to the shack by the river." after wards. But to their dismay he remained firm with his decision. A new look of ferocity shone in his eyes that they had never seen before. This scarred them since they knew they could not plead with him to change his decision. Both Arthur and Cassandra said goodbye to their son with heavy hearts and left him with Darius. As they marched away no one knew that it would be the last time Starr saw them alive.