Children of Chance

Danielle met Lupita outside her father's smithy at the exact moment the teen became homeless. A man six feet tall if he was an inch with hair cut to his scalp threw a young girl out by the arm.

“Don't come back witch! You're no daughter of mine. Come back here and I'll set the town guard on you.” The muscular man slammed the door of his home, leaving his daughter sobbing in the street.

“Can I help you?” Danielle asked the girl.

“Why would a knight want to help any girl accused of witchery?” asked Luptia, wiping tears from her eyes. She took Danielle's calloused hand and stood up.

“Because I know as well as anyone that people aren't always as they seem. I know how badly a father can let his daughter down.” The statement made the blacksmith's daughter narrow her eyes in confusion. Danielle had her hair cut short. She was wearing chain-mail over her broad shoulders, had a sword on her hip and a shield on her arm.

“Got a sister or something?” Lupita asked.

“Eh, yes. Our father was a drunk until the end.”

“Where is your sister then?”

“Married and away.” Lied Danielle.

“We should leave. You don't want to be accused of associating with witches.”

“If they're as pretty as you maybe I wouldn't mind.” Danielle flushed red, she'd not meant to say that. Lupita's warm brown skin took on a red tone as well. Danielle's father had used similar words on many women as she'd watched him.

They walked through the streets of Leonor City towards a crowd outside the prison. Leonor Prison was a fortress only half the size of Leonor Castle at the heart of the city.

“What's the ruckus?”Danielle wondered.

“Monsters in the prison Sir,” said a man who stank of onion and seemed to be wearing clothes made of potato sack. “Bunch o knights went in to slay 'em. We heard screaming just now and that's it.”

“Let me through please, good people,” said Danielle. The crowds parted for the woman in chain-mail with a shield and sword. By the gate of the prison the duo saw a boy roughly their age being restrained by soldier's in the green armour of the town guard.

“We can't let you in there lad. If your father's alive he'll come back. If not there's no sense in dying in there with 'im.”

“I must help him! Unhand me. I need to go to him.” The boy was more muscular than even Danielle. He had a sword on his hip like her, but his was new. The tan leather of the scabbard gleamed. The pommel stone was an intricately carved sphere of knot patterns. He wore a shirt of fine linen in leaf green. His leather trousers were black.

“You've no chance son. Your father is a great knight. Lightning Lorenzo will slay the beasts inside and come back for you. Give him the chance.” At the words of the oldest man holding him the boy relaxed a little. He looked at the muddy ground and nodded.

“My father is the greatest warrior alive.” The boy said it as a matter of fact. “I'm fine. Let me go I pray thee. If anyone can slay the beast within there it will be Sir Lorenzo Castel and his squire Norton. I shall await them.”

The men of the guard let the boy go. He looked about at the crowd outside the gate and fixed his long mane of hair behind his ears. With his green sleeves rolled up Danielle saw a scar across his right forearm.

“Another knight come to slay the beast?” asked the boy, smiling a vague grin. “You are too late. My father is already upon the task. Where are my manners? I am Fabian Castel, son of Lorenzo, the fastest blade in the west.” He held out his hand to Danielle.

“Daniel, son of Darren, the drunkest man in the barn.” A handful of the crowd laughed.

“Your father was surely a great man to produce such a worthy son. You are a strong and may I say handsome. He gave you his strength as my father gave me mine.” He turned to Lupita. “And what is your name fair maiden?”

“Lupita Smith. Daughter of none.”

“An orphan?” Fabian asked, his brave smile dropping away.

“As of today.” Lupita nodded. Her black curls bounced as her head moved forwards and back.

The introductions were interupted by screams for help from the yard inside the prison gate. Guards drew their swords and one slowly opened the gate. A blood covered body crawled through the dirt to leave the prison, yelling at the guards to shut the gate behind him.

“Norton.” Fabian gasped. The man he named was missing the lower half of his left leg. Tendrils of gore hung from what was left. Everywhere else was clawed and bloody. The young man rushed to the side of his father's paige.

“They're demon's,” Norton wailed. “Faces of wolves all of them. Covered in blood. So fast. We tried to fight 'em but there were six.”

“What of my father?” Fabian asked. His voice trembled with emotion.

“Brave to the end. Slew one with his first stroke before they were upon him with swords.” Norton gasped. “Laughing. All of them. Laughing until he gutted one. They swore to eat us both.”

“Eat you?” Fabian asked.

“They talked?” Danielle asked in an effeminate voice she instantly regretted. In the moment it seemed no one had noticed but Lupita gave Darren's daughter a suspicious look as she scanned the crowd.

“Loup Garous. They must be. Shapeshifters that turn into wolves. Like werewolves but worse. They don't need the moon to turn and when they do they're just as smart as they were before only as strong as ten.” Danielle wondered if the blacksmith's daughter was reciting that from somewhere.

All of the crowd had turned in hushed silence to listen to Lupita's prophetic words. Heads turned back to the guards and yelled demands that the beasts be slaughtered. They called for the army.

“We're at war people.” The captain of the guard yelled. “The army are defending our borders against invaders. If you want to deal with these monsters then arm yourselves and we'll go back in tomorrow at dawn. Any man brave enough and willing is welcome to join the town guard. We have armour and weapons.”

“Tomorrow!”

“Tomorrow at dawn!” yelled the crowd.

“What of my father?”Fabian asked, shoulders sagging under the weight of loss.

“You heard him,” said the captain. “Your father died a hero boy. Killed at least one of them.”

Danielle noticed what the captain and Fabian had not. Norton was dead. He lay sprawled in the dirt in a pool of his own blood. When Fabian did notice he roared and threw out promises for revenge. Eventually the town mortician came with a cart to take the body to the mortuary where rights would be performed to cleanse the body of evil before it could be claimed by Norton’s family.

Danielle took the arm of the grieving son. He stared at her, eyes filled with sorrow, anger, and bitterness.

“Will you fight with me tomorrow to avenge them?” Fabian asked her.

“I will,” she said without thinking.

“Really?” Lupita asked. “Against four, possibly five Loup Garous?”

“Where would have learned of such beasts.”

“My mother had a book of monsters.”

“You read?” Danielle asked in her impression of a man’s gruff voice.

“Mother taught me. She was a wise woman.”

“Was?” Danielle asked. “Then we make a terrible trio don’t we.”

“Indeed.” Fabian agreed in a sombre tone. “Come with me the two of you. You can stay in my home tonight as we prepare for battle in the morning. We shall be brothers in arms.” He tried to smile but the joy never made it to his quivering lip. Danielle supressed the urge to hug him.

He led them to his house near the heart of the city. They passed chapels and temples. They carefully avoided the vomit outside taverns and brothels. Up the hill they went. The shadow of the castle lay upon them as Fabian announced that their walk was over. His house was tiled with grey stone. Two storeys high with a lower floor of granite bricks and an upper storey of wattle and dob.

Pulling a brass key from a chain around his neck Fabian unlocked the heavy cedar door and announced himself to the household. A servant came to take their swords and Danielle’s bow and shield and chainmail.

A woman of roughly forty years stood atop a staircase in a dress more beautiful than anything Danielle had ever seen. It was silk and lace in vivid red and blue. Gold thread detailed the floral patterns.

“What news of your father?” asked the lady who had red-gold hair and brown eyes.

“None good, mother. Norton is dead. Father did not return. People of the town gather tomorrow at dawn to enter the prison and slay the beasts responsible. We will be among them. These are my new friends Sir Daniel Longbow and Lupita Smith.”

“What good is a smith? And what use in my house?”

“She knew that the beasts Norton described with his last breaths were Loup Garous.”

“What?” she called. Her high voice made them all wince.

“They are alike to werewolves my lady. Only worse.” Said Lupita in a quiet voice.

“Worse?” Fabian’s mother yelled the word. “If they are worse then there can be no question of you going tomorrow, Fabian. I is likely I have lost my husband today. I will not lose my son tomorrow.”

“Mother, I must avenge him.” Yelled the long-haired warrior.

“Enough! You will live and you will carry on the family name. Your father gave me no other sons Fabian. Would you take his name with you to the grave? Would you leave me a weeping widow with no prospects? Your father was foolish to go to the prison. I said so.”

“Father was a hero!” Fabian roared.

“All heroes are fools. They never die in their beds. Your father was a great and wonderful man, but I beg you son. Do not follow him to a painful death.”

“I promise nothing!” Hissed Fabio. “I’m going to show my friends to the guest rooms.” His mother huffed and turned away. In a flash of red and blue silk she was gone. Moments later Danielle heard crying.

Down a hallway lined with oil paintings in gilded frames they were led to two rooms. Danielle was given the room at the end and Lupita the one next to it on the right.

“This is all too kind.” Lupita protested, looking at a room with a wooden screen to hide the bathtub Fabian assured her the servants would fill. He ignored that and found chairs for them to sit together.

“My father and Norton took the best armour and swords with them when they went into the prison. We have more though. I can have us both fitted up like royal knights by the morning before we do battle with the beasts.”

“You can’t just fight them with steel.” Lupita scolded him. “Monsters like that are born of impurity. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. Pure elements such as gold, platinum and silver would weaken them.”

Fabian didn’t have weapons made of a pure metal. He did however have candle holders and cutlery made of silver. He had a servant fetch all of the silver cutlery the man could find as well as a file.

Telling them she had an idea Lupita filed the knives and forks to points and saved the silver filings in a cup. She asked if Fabian had a cask of wine or beer. He did, though he was horrified when she began to pour the silver filings into the cask.

“Plenty of those who go in tomorrow wont be coming back out again.” Lupita said. “If we give them a drink of this, they might not feel it so much when they’re eaten alive, and their death will serve to help kill the beasts.”

Fabian’s eyes shone with malicious intent as he nodded. Clapping Lupita on the shoulder he called her a genius. Danielle had to agree. The man of the house gave the order that the cast and some tankards should be wheeled to the prison with him in the morning where he would offer every brave avenger a draft of courage before the fight.

Danielle had never slept as soundly as she did in the beautiful bed that night. She slept with her bosom strapped down to avoid any chance of being discovered. The soft mattress and plump pillow hugged her like the god’s embrace.

Before dawn she was woken by a servant and helped into her armour. Fabian awaited her, already in far better armour. Someone else, presumably Lupita, stood shorter in lighter armour with a warhammer in hand. They clinked as they walked.

Fabian’s mother met them by the door. She wished them luck since she could not stop them, and kissed Fabian’s forehead.

“Make this world a safer place. Slaughter those monsters for me,” she hissed to her son. He nodded.

The mob gathered by the prison gate were all happy for a drink before they met the monsters. Fabian insisted they had but one drink each. He, Danielle, and Lupita drank as well. Twenty men had come to fight with axes and pitchforks. Fabian told them to have one of his silver knives in their belts and to stab if they got the chance. All the men laughed at first, seeing the cutlery. All took one after the explanation.

When the door opened Danielle saw nothing but the empty yard through the visor of the helm she had been given. Some men carried torches, saying the inside of the prison would be dark. It was true.

With the eyes of wolves, the beasts would have no trouble seeing the people of Leonor. The mob however would rely on the light of their torches and feeble human eyes.

The door to the cells lay open. Looking up to the second floor Danielle saw a shadow move in a barred window in the red bricks. Remembering the silver knife tucked into her belt she followed behind Fabian, Lupita behind her and the mob behind them.

As they crowded through the door the sound of howling echoed off the walls.

“Come in, come in. Little meals. We are hungry.” Beastly laughter reverberated off cold brick in absolute darkness. The light of the torches did not go far enough.

Hearing the door creak, Danielle knew instinctually what was happening. She heard the key turn and click in the door as footsteps shot away in the dark.

“There,” cried someone, “it’s AHHHHH.” The scream echoed off the walls and Danielle heard someone banging on the locked door, screaming for help.

A man behind Danielle roared suddenly and ran past her into the darkness with an axe in one hand and a torch in the other. His battle cry was cut short by a crossbow bolt through his chest that put him on his back. Something laughed victoriously.

Light died behind Danielle as water splashed down from the ceiling. No. Not water. Urine and worse from a slop bucket. As the foul smell hit her nose a huge shape barrelled into her, knocking her to the ground.

Before she could swing her old sword, the beast was gone, leaping at another man with a torch and extinguishing it in his mouth. Someone else was dragged away screaming.

By then all the discipline had gone from the mob. Some lost their heads completely and ran back to the door to punch it in vain. Others tried to fight and slashed and ripped apart where they stood or dragged off.

A huge beast smacked into Danielle again, knocking her shield away with furious strength. All but one of the torches was out. All she saw was the yellow of the monster’s eyes. It batted aside her sword as she swung and lunged its jaws down for a bite. She pulled the tiny silver butter knife from her belt and jabbed it into the beast’s upper palate as its teeth mashed against the wrist of her new gauntlet.

It howled and moved away. It no longer moved with the haste it had before. It was lethargic, almost drunken. Retrieving her sword from the floor Danielle aimed the point at the beats eye and thrust down until she heard and felt the tip ring against the stone below. It was dead. She pulled the silver knife from the beast’s mouth.

She saw a dark shape on another someone in armour. She ran sword first, skewering the thing through the ribs and as she saw the eyes, stuck the silver knife through one and punched until it disappeared.

It seemed Fabian had stumbled upon the same tactic with his sword in one hand and a bloody silver fork in another. Lupita had killed one herself and Fabian another. The last cowered in a corner as they faced it down.

“This is for my father Lorenzo,” Fabian spat as he ran the thing through with his sword and finished it with the tiny fork.

They were all shadows in the dark as he turned to thank Lupita for her wisdom. The world was a safer place without the beasts. He promised the two young women that they would want for nothing from then on, on his honour to a knight and a lady. Danielle laughed inwardly that he was pledging himself to a drunk’s bastard and a smithy’s daughter. That was chance though. They were fate’s odd trio.