Book 1, Ch. 3.5 - Bandits (Patreon)

After  they had left the walls of Porcero behind the horizon, he at last could  stop. His hands on his knees, he gulped in the cold winter air to catch  his breath. A quick look towards the back and his heart bled again, as  it had so much during their escape. His parents, his wife, his siblings  and the children. Everyone carried far more than they should, far more  than they could. And yet it would still only last them a few days. A few  weeks maybe.

After  he had brought Prince Corco to the castle, he had immediately known  what trouble would await him. He wouldn't even fault the prince for it.  In the end, it had been the prince who had pointed him towards the  danger, shown him that Lord Saliena had set him up. Though it felt wrong  in his heart, the prince could be considered his savior.

Thus,  before he would be trapped by the walls of Ceros Castle, he had left  his deputy in charge on a flimsy excuse and ran off as fast as he could,  back home to his family. He barely had time to explain the gravity of  their plight before they were forced to grab whatever they could, in  preparation of their life on the run. What little they carried still  would be nowhere near enough.

For  warriors who had abandoned or lost their lords, the future was always  bleak. They could not own land, could not run business or do trade.  There were no legal means of livelihood besides servitude under their  lord. As such, many would resort to crime just to fill their bellies. As  members of his family caught up one by one, he looked up ahead, past  the fields of winter wheat and towards the safety of the treeline; and  even further all the way to the hills and then the great Sallqata  Mountains behind them. Latrus was determined: They would make their way.  Somehow, they would.

And thus begins the tale of the infamous Latrus bandits.

Hermit's Notes: This is a little side story I wrote a while ago, about a minor character at the start of the novel. I didn't want to include it in the main story since it wouldn't get a continuation for a while. Since we're actually getting closer to the continuation of this, I'll put it here and write more once we reach that point.

I also plan to write out the fable "The Ape King's Banquet" at some point within this or next week, something I've been wanting to do for a while. If there's any specific side stories you are interested in reading apart from that, I'm open to suggestions (and promise nothing ;-) )

Oh, finally, I've also added a little extra bit at the end of Book 2, Chapter 2. Still not sure I want to keep that in. It's been in and out of my draft multiple times.