A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

She turned and looked around, wondering what to do. There was not a single person in sight for miles around. The roads were empty and the world was quiet, with the sky full of a bright moon and many thousands of sparkling stars.

The plains caught her attention then. She rarely spared them time for a wander, for the hunting was far better in the forest. She made her decision, then, and instead of entering the woods, walked alongside them, further to the east, gently picking her way through the long grass as she enjoyed the chilly night's breeze.

A white rabbit flashed by her as she walked, startling her. She let out a yelp of surprise.

It stood on its hind legs and tilted its head at her cutely, before setting its feet back on the ground and going rushing further into the long grass, even further to the east.

Nila smiled at it, finding it to be incredibly charming. It was rare that one found a white rabbit. In fact, she never had. The ones she hunted were always brown and grey.

Out of curiosity, Nila decided to follow it for a little while longer, deciding that she'd probably head back soon, since she'd already gone quite a distance from the village.

And so she walked in search of this white rabbit, further and further, until the long grass began to shrink, giving way to shorter stuff, filled with thistles, that only crept up as high as her ankles. There, ahead, where that grass began next to the trees, Nila paused in alarm, seeing three figures up ahead and sensing an immense danger in the air.

She drew the knife at her hip despite herself and slowly started to back away. One of the shadows turned violently. A man in a strawhat. He was still a good distance away, but his eyes pierced her, making her feel like a tiny mouse within the vision of a hawk. She shrank back despite herself.

But after a moment, the aggression faded, and Nila too was less on her guard. She thought she recognized such a shadow.

The figure motioned with its arm for her to approach, and after a moment's pause, she dared to. As she crept closer, still with her knife unsheathed, her initial recognition proved to be well-founded. There, with his strawhat on his head and a heavy cloak over his shoulders was the old man that supported Beam.

"Good evening," he said dryly, once she was close enough.

"…What are you doing out here?" She said, nearing his side. Only once she stood next to him could she make out the figure of Beam, around fifty paces away. "Is that Beam..? Gods! Is that a Hobgoblin!? What's he doing?"

Dominus held up a hand for quiet. "If you are going to be here, then you must be silent. Do not distract the boy from his task."

Beam didn't turn around as he faced off against the Hobgoblin, sword in hand, as though the two were waiting for some sort of signal. Around them both, Nila finally noticed the corpses of 6 Goblins, strewn out, some with limbs severed.

"You're not seriously going to let him fight that, are you? He doesn't stand a chance! His leg is in too bad a state – it's barely been two weeks since he injured it! He's going to get killed if you leave him like that!" Nila shouted, unable to hide her worry.

Dominus sighed and rubbed his temples. "I am of the same opinion, girl. But there are certain choices that people make that we must not trample on, even if we believe that will lead to their demise. Do not stain his honour."

"Honour?" Nila repeated, her voice rising. "What good is honour when you're dead?"

"You might not value the worth he puts in honour, but that does not give you the right to snatch it from him. Be silent, girl. There are forces at work this night. The Gods are at play. Merely observe – if you get in the way, I will have to forbid you from remaining," Dominus said. "Now – do you wish to stay?"

Nila gulped. She already knew that she wouldn't stand a chance if Dominus wanted to make her leave. This was a man who had slain a Hobgoblin with a single casual flick of his wrist. He was a monster that far eclipsed them. "…I'll stay," she said quietly.

"Good. Now look – it's starting," Dominus said, pointing with a finger, as the Hobgoblin let out a low growl and lunged towards Beam.

…

…

"Damn it! Will someone shut that bloody bird up?" Greeves roared, as he threw a pillow at the window, attempting to silence the relentless cawing of a crow that had been robbing him of sleep for the past few hours.

Even with him shouting so loud, there was no reply from his servants. Greeves got up, his face contorted in anger, and he stormed out of his room, running straight into Judas as he sat there on his chair, standing guard, drifting in and out of sleep.

"Wake up, you oaf!" Greeves said, smacking the big man awake.

"Mm?" Judas said, blinking the sleep from his eyes as he gathered his bearings and shot up. "Ah, sorry, boss. What were you saying?"

The vein bulged on Greeves' forehead as he gritted his teeth, seeing how soundly the man that was meant to be guarding him had slept. "Do you really think I'm going to pay you when you sleep on the job? Do something about the bird! It's been going at it for hours now."

"Bird?" Judas repeated with a frown. "I haven't heard any bird."

"No, I imagine not, because you've been fast asleep, you dullard. It's a damn crow, that's what it is. Go outside and neck the bastard," Greeves said.

"Eh…? But how am I meant to catch it? Where even is it?" Judas said slowly.

Greeves had to make a conscious effort to hold back from slapping the man, such was his frustration. With a roar of anger, he stormed back into his room and slipped on his leather boots, before grabbing a thick woollen jumper and waxed coat to go over the top of it. He grabbed his knife from the bedside to go with it, not bothering to change out of his night trousers. "Right. Outside, now.

We're going to gut this damn bird and I'm going to sleep in till the afternoon," Greeves declared.

They stormed out of the front of Greeves' house in search of the bird, only to discover that it was right outside the front door, waiting for them, cawing up a vicious racked as it flew around.

"Now do you see the bird?" Greeves said, twisting his face unpleasantly.

Judas looked similarly displeased by the noise. "Aye, I see the bird," he said, drawing his knife, swinging at it. But the crow easily evaded, dancing around the blade and flying at Greeves, pecking him on the head.

"AH, DAMN THING!" Greeves shouted, swinging wildly with his knife, but missing just as Judas had, provoking another peck on the head from the crow, this time drawing a small amount of blood.

When the two recovered their senses, the crow was sitting a small distance away, cawing at them, egging them on. The two stormed after it, swinging at it, only for the crow to dodge and dance further away.

They were halfway out of the village when the two began to grow tired of the affair. "Damn it all. Just leave the thing. We've already chased it off – that should be good enough," Greeves said, turning around to go back to his house and finally get some sleep in.

But the crow was not want to let them go. As soon as his back was turned, it flapped towards him, and pecked him on the head again, before flapping back to its original spot, luring them even further away from the village.

Greeves grit his teeth. "This isn't a fuckin' normal bird. Which one of those bastard Gods is toying with me? What have I done?"

"Eh… boss, didn't you give the order for us to take out that family yesterday..? Might have been something special about them," Judas said ominously.

Greeves glared at him in irritation. "Piss off. I don't need you lecturing me on morals. We'll gut this crow and cook it up tomorrow – see how mighty the Gods are then."

"I dunno if that's a good idea, boss…" Judas said.

"Shut up, would you? You wouldn't know a good idea if it hit you in the face. And this bird isn't going to leave us alone. Even though it's a pain in the arse and I'd much rather be asleep, we may as well chase it as far as we can, and hopefully it'll eventually grow tired, or even better, we'd manage to catch the damn thing," Greeves said.

But those hopes proved optimistic. They chased the crow back and forth all the way to the edge of the forest, until it sat on the plains, amidst the long grass. From there, they'd been about to go back, only for the creature to fly at them once more and attack them in a fit of rage.

They'd sighed and resigned themselves to follow it some more, until the sounds of battle crept into their eardrums from a distance. The metallic ring of sword against sword.