A Spark in the land of the bears
In his grief, King Abelard of Hundsburg inevitably will start a war.
The prince of Hundsburg never returned from battle. At first, the king believed that he was captured. However, days passed with no ransom letters. Then, days turned into weeks.
Finally, the king mounted his horse and set out east, into the Preorn territories. There, he found the head of his son mounted on a spike. He climbed down from his horse and went closer to it. Sure enough, the scent and face, through the decay, certainly looked like his son.
He saw marks on the head, turned to his horse and prepared to mount. As he did, a scent hit his nose. He climbed up on the horse's back and slapped it in the rear end. The creature widened its eyes and bolted past the bodies.
As it did, crows flew away from the scene while they were in the middle of eating remains from some of the bodies. As the crows flew, the king could hear thunder in the distance. Then, he felt a cold drip on his shoulder. Nevertheless, onward he went, for his emotions had taken hold; anger, grief.
As he rode, his eyes fell on a dove a little ahead of him braving the coming storm. Then, he watched as it let out a screech and turned towards a tree. It perched under the canopy of leaves within a nest of leaves and grass wedged at the base of the branch. As king Abelard rode past, his eyes and those of the bird met.
He thought he could see something within the eyes of the avian, but he only had a split second to look before he had to watch for a fallen log and hang on as his horse jumped over it. After the jump, he had a moment to think about what he saw as the horse had an uphill journey. He remembered that the eyes looked familiar, as if a lost soul was trapped within the form of the avian.On the way up, he thought he could see it once again. Then, he rubbed his eyes, and it vanished into thin air.
Finally, the horse rounded the mount, and they came across an encampment. Within the encampment was a collection of bears, none of which seemed to notice Abelard. They were drinking, playing craps, eating etc. That is, until Abelard drew his sword being illuminated by a flash of lightning.
As cubs ran, a few bears grabbed spears and approached him. He batted at the spears with his sword just before his horse reared back and let out a loud whinny. One of the bears charged only to get trampled by the horse. Meanwhile, Abelard cut at the other bears' spears, as well as the bears themselves.
Some of the bears jammed their spears into Abelard's armor. However, they got stuck and inflicted little damage. He grabbed two shafts and snapped them before pulling the spearheads out of his armor. Then, as he was about to swing, he heard thumping behind him.
He made the horse turn and clashed blades with another bear. He heard a deep rumble coming from the bear as they pushed their blade closer to him. He looked down and noticed that he still had a spearhead stuck in his armor, so, with one hand, he yanked it out and threw it at the bear. When the bear swatted it out of the way, he forced their blade down and thrust his pommel at their head.
They ducked and swung their sword at his head. He ducked as well, and caught the blade with his hand. While he had a grip on it, he weaved his own sword around it and threw the blade at the bear's torso. When the bear grabbed his blade, he yanked it back to try to cut their palm.
It didn't work, but he did get his blade back. He let go of the bear's blade and made an uppercut as they lowered theirs. He clicked his tongue, and the horse began trotting in a circle around the bear while he began unscrewing his pommel. He saw the bear raise their sword and bring it down at the horse, and, just in time, he managed to deflect the strike.
While holding the bear's blade, Abelard made another attempt at a pommel strike to the head. He only grazed the bear's nose, which served to agitate them. So, he slapped the horse on the rear and held on as the animal bolted. Along the way, he lowered his sword and struck one of the campfires.
Sparks went up, some of which landing on a nearby tent. Due to lack of proper fireproofing, the tent slowly went up in flames. Abelard didn't see the flames spread as he rode up the hill, until he brought his horse to a stop and turned around. Tears filled his reddening eyes as he watched the encampment burn.
He looked away and led his horse down the hill once the idea of how many innocent lives were lost crossed his mind. Mothers, fathers, cubs, but also his own son. They were not supposed to see him as a threat when he was on campaign; he was after the kobolds. He heard quiet sobbing and looked in the direction he heard to find a bear cub under a tree.
He shut his eyes and tipped his nose down knowing that it was probably his own doing. In the back of his mind, he had an excellent feeling that his actions that day would spark a war. He felt his throat shut and snorted in a breath as even more tears than before came. While he sobbed, he left the bear cub behind all alone. War was sure to come, and no matter how much he regretted it, Abelard could not undo it.