The Legend Of Sir Gimblethourp Book One

         Our story begins unlike most others, in a library with a man with a small triangular beard and large mustache upon his face, he was wearing something that resembled a suit of armor ,which me not knowing who he was made me think he had come for a round of DND with the other nerds who hung out there, at least I did until I noticed the book in his hands and the emotion on his face which made him look like, by this point he looks ready to start to tell the tale.”Come sit down I have got quite the story to tell”, said the man who I’m guessing is the story teller because he never spoke his name. Almost as though I was under some sort of control that his good attitude and calming voice I went and sat down. Upon going over and sitting down I noticed the book in his hands was in titled “The Legends of Old”. With my curiosity peaked I happily a waited him to tell the many of us who were waiting what legend he would be reading, but to our surprise he never told us, he didn't even open the book. He began the tale, and with a dark fear inducing look in his eyes he said, “It was a dark and gloomy day about five years back, a day much like today actually”.

         The sky was dark and grey, and the rain was falling like pines from a pine tree in winter. I was on duty that day outside the keep of King Philip the Wonderful when another of his elite royal guards came up to me and said in worried tones,” King Philip needs to see you immediately, you’d best hurry it sounds urgent!”. With that he was off running back to his post high atop one of the watch towers by the large Iron Gate that lead into the kingdom. After that I wasted no time rushing into the keep. Upon entering the keep I slowly and calmly approached the throne. Once there I knelt down and waited for the king to arrive.

         With a blast from the herald trumpets signaling the arrival of the king, King Philip entered the room and proceeded to his throne. Once he was comfortably seated he said,” Arise Sir Gimblethourp royal guard and knight of the one hundred and eighty eighth legion”. With that I stood up and awaited his majesty’s orders. Then with a confident look in his eye and commanding tone in his voice King Philip said,” You are my best warrior and guard do you know why I have called you here?” I shook my head in reply signaling to him that I didn’t know why. At that point he proceeded to say,” I’m assuming you’ve heard about the recent murders in our fair kingdom. Well if you haven’t I we’ve been tracking these past few murders for quite some time now and I think we know where they’re going to strike next, as always I suspect Dark King Burt the Vile and his league of assassins to be behind these attacks.” With that said one of the other guards gave me a paper with an address on it, an address that was all too familiar to me, the address of my good friend and comrade in arms Sir Gregory the Independent. Then I was off rushing through the traffic of people in the town.

         By the time I got to the house of Sir Gregory it was night fall and I looked around then I said to myself,” Nothing looks wrong here but maybe if I stick around for a while then something will come up. “So there I waited for what had felt like forever and just as I was on the brink of giving up I saw three suspicious looking characters in dark outfits I noticed some kind of symbol on their outfits, at first it look like letters, but in the low light of a nearby torch I could not make out what it was. Then I said,” Halt you’re trespassing in the kingdom of Sir Philip The Wonderful what business do you have here?” With that the three figures glanced at each other and then hopped down off the roof. Once they were off the roof and a bit more into the light I could make out the letters on their outfits they all read B.V, which I suspected stood for Burt the Vile. Upon Figuring that out I said,” Once again you are trespassing what business do you have here?” With that one of them walked up to me and then the others were soon to follow.

         The one who walked up to me I was presuming was the leader of the group. Then he proceeded to say “Since you probably won’t last the night after were done with you I guess I’ll tell you.” We’re a group of assassins sent by Dark King Burt the Vile every night to murder another one of this kingdom’s town folks, but now that you know we’re going to have to kill you.” At that point one of them succeeded in putting out the torch and much fighting ensued, outnumbered I knew that I wouldn’t last long. The battle began with their leader flying out of the darkness and swishing by slicing my arm with his sword on the way by. The slice in my arm stung for a bit then I looked over and to my surprise I wasn’t bleeding that much and yet at the same time I felt like dying. It was at that point I realized that their blades were coated with a powerful poison. It was at that time the second assassin had his go at me but he made the mistake of trying to do what the first assassin had done except to my other arm. When he charged at me I used the blunt side of my sword and hit his leg with it causing him to stumble which gave me enough time to hit him in the back of the head with the rounded end of my sword’s handle successfully knocking him out and with that he fell to the ground. Sure I could have killed him as he did me but it wasn’t my job to kill them that was the royal headsmen’s job, it was just my job to either make them surrender or to knock them out so that they could be easily transported to the dungeon to await sentencing from his majesty the king. Then the third assassin came in flanking me from the right side slashing across the back of both of my legs as he went by. Then the same assassin came at me again but this time from the left obviously going for the front of my legs. At that point I tried to use the blunt side of my sword to trip him up but he was too smart for that and he ended up diving over my sword, which unknown to him is exactly what I wanted him to do. Once he was completely horizontal with the ground I used the handle of my blade to hit him between the shoulder blades sending him down to the ground unconscious. Then came their leader the luckiest of them all, he came at me once again this time landing a strong swipe across my waist with his blade. With the impact of the strike I ended up turning around and falling down towards some barrels. The barrels fell over just the same as I did after I hit them.

         Through the door bright light came as it swung open. In the light I could see the silhouette of Sir Gregory the independent looking surprised to hear such a ruckus outside his house. Looking around I saw that what I had knocked over was his garbage when he noticed me there he asked me “Are you alright?” I was in too much agony from the poison in the cuts on my body, so to answer I moaned and groaned. Just then he noticed the assassin standing by my side sword drawn and ready to make the kill. He then said “You there stop why are you attacking my brother in arms?” The assassin remained silent. Upon noticing the letters on the assassin’s back he said ”Your time has come my enemy”, And with that he came up bare knuckled and decked him across the face knocking him out in one blow to the nose. With the tussle done and over with he took me inside and healed me up. Then we proceeded to tie up the assassins so if they ever came through they could not escape. In the morning after having rested up and ate some food we hauled the assassins to the keep to show the king.

         It was about noon when we arrived at the keep upon entering the keep we saw the king sitting in his royal diamond and emerald encrusted gold throne with a serious but also slightly surprised look on his face. Almost as though on queue he said” Who are these people you two have dragged into my keep?” Then I proceeded in telling him the happenings of the night before and that we had discovered that these were assassins sent by Dark King Burt the Vile. Then as though to make the moment more dramatic there was a terribly loud thunder clap, at that point upon looking around at each other I noticed that we all had the same kind of what the look on our faces because there was not a single cloud in the sky that bright day. Afterwards the king ordered his prison warden to take the assassins to the deepest, brightest, smallest, and most uncomfortable jail cell that he could find and with that he was off. Then the king instructed me to go to the blacksmith’s and get some new gear then to leave the kingdom in order to travel to Burt the Vile’s castle to vanquish him before this war gets too out of hand . Once at the blacksmiths I saw that Boten the blacksmith was working on a new blade, and hanging on the wall I could see a newly made set of armor. Then I rang the bell on the counter in order to get his attention. After having hit the bell he came over and before we got into too much of a conversation I told him that I was kind of in a hurry and I needed some new gear for the quest the king had sent me on. Then he said” Alright what would you like, and good news there’s a one hundred percent discount on any item ordered by the any of the king’s men”. So I proceeded to point to the new set of armor on the wall as well as the new blade. Then he gave me the new armor and I was off on my great quest to end a war before it becomes a war. Then I began my trek through the woods of unlimited perils. On my stroll I ran into many fellow adventurers who asked if they could tag along because they’re just as tired of the war as I was, so I kindly accepted because I knew I would goanna need all the help I could get on this most perilous and difficult quest. After a while I and my small band of fifteen adventurers approached the edge of the top of a tall cliff of which allowed us to see everything. While up there I spotted the object of our quest, the castle of Dark King Burt the Vile as well as the only obstacle left in our way before we can get to the castle. Regrettably it is the hardest one to bypass it was the mountains of much pain and suffering. With our objective spotted and hope in our hearts we proceeded to set up camp for the night and rest comfortably knowing how close we seemed to our final destination.

To Be Continued…

         Will Sir Gimblethourp and his new crew make it to the mountains of much pain and suffering? Find out in The Legend of Sir Gimblethourp Book Two: Once Started There is No Turning Back