Lostris Smith sat squat before a low table, sorting his lord’s finances’, a small man, 4.11” he had no chance joining the army or becoming an elite guard, he was too weak to farm, and the local fishermen told him he couldn’t pull his own weight and jibed,”you’re as good as a man short” then they would howl with laughter.
-Lostris’s break came, when he got a job cleaning the local tax office, Boland the local tax man, a lazy man by every account, began giving Lostris small inventories from the local trades men, nothing big, at first, Boland had shown him what to do, and on this occasion Boland had to leave town for the day. When Boland returned the next morning to find not only the small inventories done but the whole months logs, He beamed, “boy..., I am going to bestow upon you the privilege of working all my books” clearing his throat “with a minor raise in pay, of course”, "thank you sir" Lostris replied, bowing and gritting his teeth, at thirty two years of age, he hated being called boy.
-After his promotion Lostris never looked back, not even when Boland had been dragged from his house and into the woods by the elite guard, screaming and declaring his innocents. There was no pity in the onlookers’ faces; they knew his fate and some were glad. Lostris’s immaculate accounting had caught the lord’s eye and soon he was in his lord’s employ. The fishermen didn’t laugh now, he had raised their taxes, Lostris would often find them grovelling at his door, he would call the brutes and have them punished.
-Lostris straightened, his back ached, reflecting on his rise to power often comforted him, but not tonight, Dym Hellstroke had just reported that a guard was missing, Lostris had often chided Lord Milios for his lack of security, Twelve guards on the wall and only two personal guards, which, incidentally had left that morning with lord Milios on urgent request to the king, leaving him in charge of the manor.
"Bah", he didn’t care for Lord Milios reassurances that they were elite guards; that any one of them was as good as 10 fighting men. Twelve men...it just didn’t seem right to Lostris.
“ah well” he sighed, it didn’t matter, In the morning he would be on his way home.
(I decided to make the leading name bold, as to break up the story and make it easier to read, as i find the lack of font size settings very limiting and inconvenient, my eyesight is 20/20, i am thinking of others, If you have Fire fox you can use "Ctrl and +" to zoom in, you should try it even if you have 20/20 as it helps prevent eye strain caused by thin small type)
Bosse Hamfyst
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