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Baroness Amelia of Rein was a busy woman. The affairs of the barony occupied most of her time, time she could not spend with her daughter. This left young Rose with little to do frequently. The manor was full of books on all manner of subjects, but these did not appeal her. She had taken up the craft of knitting - despite, or indeed because of, her mother's protests that it was beneath her - but this could only occupy her for so long. She was always told it was dangerous to go into the town alone, and there was no fun to be had with a chaperone.
Instead, Rose had taken up a rather different craft. Under the house, in a room hidden behind the wine cellar, she'd set up what she called her atelier. Her favourite purpose for it was to spy on the townspeople, particularly her beau and his friends.
Dabbling in these arts was often bad for a person's sanity. But addiction is a powerful thing.
Squires weren't allowed their own horses. Dave had to borrow one belonging to the Order to accompany his brother and keep up with Big Cal. This was a standard enough practice. On this day, Sir Joseph had taken his brother out hunting. Ever since the incident with those two trolls and the dragon, the knight had been going to greater efforts to train his squire in the ways of the Order. While Dave was grateful for the experience, he felt as though he were being fattened up for the slaughter.
Big Cal came to an abrupt halt. Dave's horse followed suit. Sir Joe pointed to some deer tracks.
"These ones are fresh. See how they're still wet round the edges? Let's follow 'em and see where they lead."
They followed the tracks through moorland and into a copse. The tracks were harder to find in here, but the knight had a keen hunting instinct that he assured his little brother would come naturally with time. Eventually, the deer was in their sights.
Silently, Sir Joe passed his bow to Dave. "Let's see how good a shot you are," he whispered.
Dave, somewhat nervous, drew it, arrow in place, trained on the grazing buck. While he was stronger than average, his strength wasn't exactly trained. The arrow fell short by quite some distance.
His brother stifled a laugh. "Give it another shot."
This time, Dave adjusted his angle higher, hoping to make a good arc. This time he overshot, and the arrow landed in the bushes behind. The rustling caught the deer's attention.
"One more time! Be quick!"
Dave took aim once again, lower than before. He was quite sure he'd hit this time. But before he could release the arrow, the deer fled.
The horses were spurred into chase. The knight took his bow back, and, letting the horse do the chasing while he aimed, fired, and killed the beast in one shot.
"And that," he said, "is how it's done."
"Hey," Dave asked later. "How did our parents die?"
His brother looked at him. "Killed in the war. You know that."
"Yeah, but, what was this war all about? Why did they get involved?"
The knight sighed. "Alright. Best sit tight, it's a long story."
As far back as anyone can remember, humans and trolls have never got along. Generally both races always kept to themselves, but the human and troll lands do have a border. Both peoples think it's a little further into the others' land than it really is.
People on the border have often been subject to trespass, thefts, vandalism and violence from those on the other side. Nobody really knows how it started, but tensions had been rising for years. The thefts got bigger, the vandalism worse, the fights more frequent. Before anyone knew it there were soldiers getting involved, and soon, armies.
A major cause of the tension was the shifting politics of the lands of the trolls. The ruthless Alternian empire, originally just a small county that nobody really noticed, had been uniting the disparate nations of the trolls by sword. Trolls looked at the humans' freedom and peace with envy; humans looked at the trolls' mercilessness with fear. When word of the border disputes reached the pointed ears of the Alternian emperor, he saw it as an excuse to put into action his designs on the fertile human land.
When human scouts and spies reported the mobilisation of the trolls to various human kings, an alliance was formed to repel the Alternian menace. Recruitment for a united human army began.
As a knight of the Order of Iron, Sir Constantine was given an immediate position as an officer on the field. He heeded the call of duty and departed for the front, leaving his wife and two sons, the younger of which, David, was newly-born. He promised his family that he would return victorious, to raise his boys well in the peace he would have fought hard to earn. He took the Rein regiment west, to the border kingdoms, to repel the invaders.
Four months passed without any news of the war. At last, a group of wounded soldiers, alive but crippled too badly to fight, rode into the town in search of the way home. The wife, Julia, recognised them as soldiers from Rein. She asked them the fate of her husband, to be told that he had died in battle. Julia refused to believe it. She left her sons with her brother, a blacksmith, until Joseph would be old enough to take care of himself and David. She then left west, to find her husband.
Julia never returned.
The war was costly in lives, but little was achieved. The trolls couldn't break the human lines, and the humans couldn't get through the trolls'. A series of battles claimed both lives and livelihoods, until the Alternians called for a truce. Both sides still keep garrisons at the borders now, but relative peace has since been maintained.
As the years passed, Joseph followed his father's footsteps and joined the Order of Iron. Though he was young, he soon earned a reputation for his martial skill. David too hoped to become a knight, and became squire to his brother until the Order would accept him.
John took the western road out to Jade's house. In hand, a hamper full of bread, meat, and vegetables. But mostly bread. He had two days off a week, and would spend at least one visiting his best friend. She didn't go into the town much. Most people disliked her. Sometimes she simply had to, to sell her strange contraptions to earn enough money to live on. But often she could not get enough. Rather than let her go hungry, John brought her food with the money he earned, despite her protests.
As he turned onto the winding path up to her cottage, he was greeted by Archimedes, who took an immediate interest in the basket of food. He laughed, and petted the dog for good measure.
He didn't even have to knock on the worn old door before Jade burst out and hugged him tightly.
"Hi John!" she squealed. "I haven't seen you all week! How are you doing?"
"I'm fine! Dad's keeping me busy. Dave too, actually. What about you?"
Jade's stomach growled, as if to answer his question. She gave him a guilty look.
"I brought you some food," he said, proffering the hamper. "It should last long enough if you're careful."
She looked sincerely grateful as she took the food and led John into the house. She put a kettle on the stove to make tea.
"Oh," she said reproachfully as she looked in a tin, "I think I'm going to run out soon."
"Why do you make tea every time I come round? Isn't it really expensive?"
"It would be really rude to not make you tea! Besides, I don't buy it. Grandpa usually brings it when he comes home." She sighed. "I hope he comes home again soon."
"How long has it been now?"
"Three years. It's been a very long time."
"Jade... what if he's not going to come back at all?"
"Don't say that!"
Her eyes were glazed with tears. He'd raised her for as young as she could remember, her mother having died in childbirth and her father having left her in his care and disappeared. Almost everything she did, she did to make him proud.
Harrison Harley was a famed explorer and cartographer. He had mapped out the entirety of the human lands, and a large portion of the trolls', before Jade was born. He took a ten-year break to raise her, but once he decided she was old enough to look after herself, he started making small expeditions again. He always promised he'd come back and, after a few weeks or months, he always did.
The day after she turned thirteen, he left on another expedition. He hadn't made his usual promise to return. She thought nothing of it at the time, but...
She shook such thoughts from her mind. Of course he'd come back. He was her grandpa! Even if he didn't need to take care of her, he'd return. He had to. She hoped he'd be proud of the woman she'd become.
"He's coming back. He will. Some day."