Jakob's Legacy of Power

The morning was clear, the sky crisp and blue. The wind swirled around Jakob as he rode on his horse, Mally. A gentle breeze which wrapped his cloak around him. It was a warm morning, but Jakob was not hot. The sun shined down on him as if it was embracing him, like he was a king once more. The land stretched out before him, covered in a blanket of green. An endless sea of grass for miles and miles. To his left lay the forest, to his right lay a vast mountain range with snow capped peaks that stretched out into the sky. Beyond those mountains lay a vast desert, where Jakob had never ventured. Yet he knew there were people beyond those mountains. He had seen their caravans from afar, and had heard stories from travelers about what lay beyond them.

Jakob spurred Mally forward and she began to canter along the road ahead of him. They had been traveling on this road for several days now, since leaving home so abruptly. As they rode along, Mally suddenly stopped and whinnied loudly. Jakob looked up at her and saw her ears were twitching violently and her eyes were wide open with fear as she stared off to their left, towards the forest that stood at their side of the road.

Jakob pulled back on Mally's reigns and she came to a halt next to him. He looked back over his shoulder and caught sight of a horse rider emerging from the forest behind them. A man dressed in black armor adorned with gold trimmings charged forth on his steed wearing a helmet that hid all but his eyes, riding straight towards them. It was too late to turn back now; he would have to face this armored knight head-on and hope that Mally might be able to keep them both safe until help could arrive.

The armored rider swung his heavy broadsword down at Jakob while shouting something unintelligible above the thundering hooves of his warhorse. Jakob ducked low across Mally's neck just as the blade cut through the air where he had been sitting only a moment before; Mally reared up on her hind legs and kicked out at the charging knight but he drew back his sword and sliced her leg clean through; blood sprayed into the air as she screamed in pain and collapsed onto her side, struggling to maintain consciousness as she continued to bleed profusely from her severed leg stump. The charging knight slowed down slightly as he turned his own horse around to face Jakob once more; this time swinging high overhead with an overhead downwards strike that nearly decapitated Jakob as he rolled away from it onto the ground beneath it, covering himself by holding up his arms in defense against it and cowering in fear underneath its shadow until it passed over him.

When he finally dared look up again, he saw that the knight was gone; vanishing into the distance faster than Jakob could see after taking advantage of Mally's inability to flee again without being cut down by either sword or broadaxe first by turning back around towards him once more after making sure his target wasn't going anywhere else fast enough in order to put an end to them right then and there without mercy or quarter offered or asked for in return by either party involved who took part in this encounter between two men who were nothing more than strangers at one point despite having both lived here in Europe all their lives yet remained ignorant of each other until fate brought them together today unlike every other day prior when they didn't know each other at all otherwise they may have even been friends instead of enemies but today wasn't any other day either because today these two men found themselves facing each other across this field where one would die by the hand of another after making just one mistake that cost him everything including his life because of this armored knight who'd just slaughtered Mally for no reason other than sheer luck alone; he hadn't even seen it coming or even expected it just like I didn't expect anything like this would ever happen either but I guess there are always people out there who are just plain crazy like this armored knight clearly is so I'll need to be careful or else I'll end up getting myself killed just like poor old Mally did or worse yet if I don't get help soon then I might end up being dead by tomorrow night instead of tonight like when we've got an appointment with death later tonight if I don't get some help before then otherwise we're both dead meat!