First Patrol [Complete]

[John Griffin]

Early Afternoon, 3rd Day of Summer, AV 510

John still couldn't believe it. He was finally a Syliran Knight. Years of training, study, and all around hard work had finally come to fruition. He didn't really feel different, except for a sort of lightheaded euphoric feeling that hadn't stopped since he had been knighted three days ago. The look on his father's face after John had been knighted was worth it all. Since his mother's death his father had been mostly sullen, even more so since his injury. To see the obvious joy and pride filling the older knight's face gave John a warm feeling of accomplishment.

The new knight had been given the two days following the knighting off, to celebrate and ready himself for duty. John had spent the first with his father, engaged in hearty conversation about life, love, knighthood, and other things. The second he had begun with a light training workout, followed by a nice afternoon reading in the sun just outside the gates of Syliras. Finally, the third day had come, and John was put on day patrol duty inside the city.

The young knight had put on his plate armor for the first time, a red tabard over it cinched at the waist by his belt. His longsword, a family sword given to him by his father, hung at his waist, as did his dagger. On his head his helmet fit snugly, its flat visor lifted up so that John's face was visible.

John was now several hours into the shift. His route covered part of the Third Tier, including Traveler's Row and the other outside businesses. With regular interval he passed other knights patrolling the same area, including some of his new wing mates. So far the patrol had been relatively boring. With the high volume of knights within Syliras, the populous hardly noticed a lone knight unless they needed his assistance or already knew him. As such, the only person to interact with him, other than his Sergeant Knight, was an elderly lady who needed some help carrying her laundry. Taught humility and service during his squirehood, John was not above such menial tasks, and gladly gave her assistance, though he was already carrying gear three times as heavy as her laundry.

The good deed finished, the knight headed out to Traveler's row, stopping his route to keep an eye out on a single location, as he was told to do every so often to prevent the predictability of his patrol.

[Yngvie]

As Yngvie walked idly through the city, still having no idea where to go, he spotted one of the Sylirian knights helping an elderly woman with her laundry. Of course, it was of no business to him, but it disgusted Yngvie all the more. He may have been only twenty something odd years, but he had seen enough things to know that people like the knights, regardless of their physical prowess, had relatively weak minds.
Yngvie dearly hoped that the knight would find him a suspicious enough character and stop him. If he did not find the man in a dark cloak, muttering to himself, carrying a scythe on his back, a suspicious character, then he was blind. He noted that the knight looked fairly young, maybe a newly dubbed knight. Such a young mind would be easy to break, but Yngvie knew better than to kill a knight in the middle of the street. He would try and not build a bad reputation in the city; not yet of course.
Yngvie stopped walking dead in front of the knight and turned to look him in the eyes, his own eyes turning a fiery red. As he did this, he started laughing, the kind of laugh that haunts the dreams of children at night when they sleep, although Yngvie did not intend it to be so haunting.

[John Griffin]

John had barely been standing in the row for two minutes before he saw a particularly creepy man. A cloak pulled around him, muttering something under his breath, the man made the hair on the back of John's neck stand up. The scythe on the stranger's back gave John pause, but it wasn't illegal for him to have it. Likely the man was just a farmer, albeit and extremely weird one.

John was about to dismiss the man as just a peculiarity when he made eye contact. The eyes flared to red as the man started laughing maniacally. Had John not read about Vantha once, he might have been deeply disturbed. Instead he thought Truly, this farmer is crazy.

Despite how uncomfortable the cloaked man made him, it was John's duty to help both the residents and visitors of the fair city of Syliras, regardless of how much they made his spine tingle. As a knight he could not rightfully judge the man based on his appearance alone.

The young knight walked closer to the Vantha, stopping a few paces away. Raising his free hand in greeting, he said, "Hail, good sir. Is there perhaps something I can help you with?"

[Yngvie]

"Don't hail me, good knight. There is no room for hailing when there are dangerous people roaming the streets! Or room for questions either! You must be wary of the dangers! Somebody could sneak up on you you know. It's not the suspicious people you need to be wary of anyway, it's the most inconspicuous, innocent, unimpressive people you should look out for! Besides, that is such a silly question,don't you think? Can you help me? Or can I help you? I don't know, you tell ME!" Yngvie looked at the knight with an inquisitive look.

[Kane Roth]

Kane had been running errands for a majority of the day before he'd actually permitted himself a chance to glance around, to get a feel for the city. First on his list of items was a sword, though a sword is nothing without a scabbard in which to sheath it, and so he purchased both a scabbard and a belt on which to wear it as well. All the merchandise cost a good few Miza, though it was a good investment, the blade was well forged, and the scabbard of good build. Now he was ready for anything, at least anything he'd expect on the streets of Syliras.

Of course, there were many things occuring on the streets of Syliras that he wasn't expecting.

His woolen cloak hanging on his shoulders, though the hood wasn't drawn over his head, and the cloak draped over his body, the heat that was once present now beginning to wear off with the waning day.The district he'd strolled into was known to the locals as Traveler's Row, and for good reason; Kane could tell he wasn't the only one that wasn't from around here, even the human ones. All manner of individual walked these streets, all of them brushing shoulders without a glare or a shove, a stark contrast with Sunberth. It was a relaxing scene, at least for Kane, the hum of the crowds, the shuffling on countless feet, but above it all one could hear the sounds of shouting. Agitated shouting at that. Looking towards the source of the commotion one could catch a glimpse of two figures; one a Knight, and the other a very odd man, clad in a black cloak with a scythe draped across his back.

Very odd, very odd indeed.

Approaching slowly, Kane watched as the odd one almost seemed to berrate the Knight, insultingly in fact... Resting his right hand on the pommel of his sword, Kane approached silently to within two yards of the two and simply watched as the odd one finished off, glaring at the knight as he did so. Kane watched and waited as the odd man continued to glare, finally he spoke up, looking to the knight as he did so, "Anything amiss here, sir?"

[Yngvie]

Yngvie looked to see that another man was approaching, seeming fairly young and full of life. He asked if there was anything amiss, presumably to the knight, but that didn't mean that Yngvie couldn't answer. "Why yes! There is much amiss! Humankind is prospering, letting the weaklings live and therefore undermining the strong! Feelings like that of empathy are considered the norm and the entire way of civilization is out of-whack! Would you like to do something about this atrocity, kind sir?" He paced back and forth whilst telling him of the atrocities that most would consider a good thing but he realized would ultimately lead to the fall of all sentient races. Of course, there was no sarcasm in his voice; he believed in all of the things that he said as much as he believed in his lord Vayt. He could spend hours upon hours listing off all of the things that where amiss, but he had a feeling that he was pushing it giving the man the short version.

[John Griffin]

As soon as John asked the dark looking man if he needed help, the crazy farmer started into a quick harangue about suspicious people, and the futility of John's question. Taken aback slightly at the man's behavior, John almost left it at that. The man obviously didn't want anything to do with the knight. He was about to bid the man good bye when another stranger walked up, this one quite different than the first. The man was several inches taller than John, but looked quite gaunt. John also took a quick notice of the sword hanging from the man's belt, and the hand resting on it.

The newcomer asked a question, but before John could answer the addled farmer burst into speech again, this time about the flaws of civilization, and the supposed atrocity of protecting those who could not protect themselves. With this John was no longer content to just leave the man alone. He had now called into question the entire purpose of his Order.

Looking at Kane, John answered the question he believed had been directed at him. "I don't think so. Just asking this man if he needed some help." Looking back at Yngvie, John spoke in a slightly matter-of-fact tone. "I suppose I CAN help you sir, but what I meant was, would you like my help."

The young knight squared his shoulders before continuing. "There is nothing amiss about protecting these people. Compassion and generosity are not vices, but virtues. Especially now, with humanity teetering on the edge of extinction." John was clearly getting worked up about the subject. "Every man, woman and child counts. Everybody. My job as a knight is to protect those people so that they may live in peace, safeguarded from those who would take advantage of them."

[Yngvie]

It was so easy. All that he had to do to work someone up was simply tell the truth. But Yngvie was not in the mood for a political debate. It greatly amused the shadowy man of how many lies that had been fed to these poor souls. Of course they would die, maybe not today, but they would die. Yngvie backed away slightly from the two do-goobers so that he could see them both clearly, and help out his arms, making a loud proclamation: "You two strike me as suspicious!" With that, he turned and slowly walked away.

[Kane Roth]

"Why yes! There is much amiss! Humankind is prospering, letting the weaklings live and therefore undermining the strong! Feelings like that of empathy are considered the norm and the entire way of civilization is out of-whack! Would you like to do something about this atrocity, kind sir?"

Mmhmm. pondered Kane to himself, his eyebrows twisting only slightly in curiosity, This guy's never been to Sunberth. The scrawny fellow went on with his rambling, speaking on all manner of subject regarding these 'atrocities', all of them things that Kane had come to regard in a positive light recently, things that Kane believed had to exist in order to be, simply, happy. This man was an odd sort, the conviction in his voice rivaled that of Kane's own views on the Order, if only in their intensity. This man did seem to believe what was spilling past his lips, which in a sense was better than a liar, but what the man preached was anarchy.

Kane just simply watched as the knight prepared his rebuttal, though he was surprised as he turned momentarily to Kane, simply saying that he was trying to see if the man needed any help. Already the Knight had begun to extrapolate on his stance, what it meant to be a knight, and why the knights were needed, getting quite flustered as he did so. As the Knight finished the cloaked man began to back away and proclaimed, hands outstrected,

"You two strike me as suspicious!" before departing. Kane stood where he'd arrived, not sure just what he'd witnessed, staring after the departing man,

"Odd man." Pondering this for a moment, Kane looked over toward the Knight, and offering his hand spoke, "Don't believe I caught your name, Sir. Kane Roth."

[John Griffin]

This man has been addled by the sun, thought John as the farmer stated his suspicion of John and the other stranger. Finally the man walked off, ending what was probably one of the most bizarre experiences in John's young life. He shook his head in amazement after the man had taken a few paces, then changed it to nodding when the second stranger remarked on the man's oddness.

"Odd indeed," added the young knight. The larger man offered his hand and introduced himself. With the politeness bread into him from a young age John took the hand in his own gauntleted hand, giving it a good greeting shake before releasing it.

"Well met, Kane," said John. "I am Syliran Knight John Griffin." He glanced back at the departing stranger one last time. Looking back at Kane he said, "Is there something I can help you with?" With the question he faintly wondered if he would get a response similar to the previous one. I sure hope not. In all his years in the city he had never met such a strange man as the departed farmer.