Chapter 1: In the beginning

      IT was a dark and stormy knight that tromped across the battlefield on his loyal steed. It had been an over a week since he had last eaten, he was soaked from head to toe from the rain that was falling and he had just killed fifteen men, or was it sixteen. His day was completely ruined. Horses laden with bags were galloping off in every direction without riders on them. Dead bodies were laying everywhere, proof that a vicious fight had just taken place. He looked over the carnage and counted…one, two, three and so on, until he had counted the last dead person, or so he thought. The knight stopped when he thought he heard a sound from behind him, a groan from somewhere and someone. On the edge of the battlefield, a wounded man was crawling through the mud on hands and knees towards the trees that lay beyond. The knight rode over and jumped off his horse in front of the beleaguered man sword in hand.

      “Halt, you who crawls in the mud,” said the knight.

      “Who are you and what is it that you want?” the beaten down man said as he looked up to the knight. The knight stood against the sun, eclipsing it and making it hard for the man on all fours to see who exactly it was that stood before him. All he could really tell is that the knight was about six foot one in height, had broad shoulders and fairly muscular in build. He could also tell he had coal black hair that curled out and down, had piercing blue eyes that glowed like precious blue sapphires, had a well manicured goatee and two days growth of stubble on his face and that was all. Oh yes, he had a nice well placed dimple on his cheek that made him an incredibly handsome man when he smiled, but since he was frowning he was not quite so handsome.

      “I am Sir Algernon and I am from Affar to wreak savage justice on the band of outlaws that has burned, raped and pillaged my homeland.”