Alfwald’s feet were tired, his hands were hurting, and his body was lethargic and slow moving.

  He’d cried himself out over the walk, each stomp of his clanging feet over the grasses reminding him of the fact that those same metal pieces had pulled apart his neighbors. They may not have been friends, but they were people who didn't deserve to die.

  He’d cried so hard that the armor complained it was getting wet, and pulled away from his face, leaving him without the helmet. He rubbed his snotty nose on his sleeves so much that those parts had pulled back as well, leaving him in just the chest piece and lower half. Still, it was heavy.

  The armor complained like a child in the back of a wagon, begging him to leave it all due to boredom.

  “Nothing to do, nothing to kill, the same six hills to look at and a bunch of bogs you keep getting all over me”

  “Sorry” Alfwald sniffed

  “It's…fine. Just get us there”

  “I will, armor. I promise. Maybe one more day and we will arrive, we can sleep by a fire tonight, there haven't been any bandits besides, well besides you, in a long time” he coughed a little from the exertion of his tears and his trek.

  “I've got a name, you know”

  Alfwald looked up at this. Of course it had a name. It had a full personality, he was stupid to assume it was less of a person and more of an object.

  “What's your name then, armor? I'm Alfwald, son of Edwin, son of Alfwald.”

  “I know your name, stupid, it's on all of your boxes” it said, sarcastically. “Alfwald is too dumb of a name to not be yours. And great originality, I bet you name your son Edwin”

  He didn't answer, not wanting the armor to know it was correct. He had planned to name any first or son Edwin, after his own father, who had named him after his father. It only seemed fair to repay the favor.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “So what is it then? Your name?”

  “Longsword of challenge, great shine of knights, light bringer of the seventh son, great caller of wild things”

  “Really? You're called all that?”

  “No, idiot, who would name a piece of armor that?”

  He sighed loudly, continuing forward over some high brush. There were large tufts of it everywhere, the moors got wilder the farther from people you got, with less animals to graze on the taller grasses. It must still be a while before they entered the next town, but from the position of the sun, they were still going in the right direction. They were both quiet for a moment before the armor spoke gently in his ear.

  “It's Vambrace”

  “That's much less of a mouth full” he replied quietly and continued to march.

  They camped in a small dry spot between high grasses, hoping the rustling would wake them if any wolves or predatorial animals were nearby.

  The fire crackled warmly against the chill coming off the low, rolling hills. He watched the embers slowly grow into flames, picking up heat that he drank in with thankfulness. The wind had picked up, making fairy lights out of all of the tiny bits of wood that flaked off and flew away to the heavens, like stars rising into the sky.

  Alfwald put his hands out to the warmth, feeling it rise up his uncovered arms and into the sides of the armor, which had been quiet for most of their walk since telling him its name.

  “Vambrace?”

  “Yes, little sheep?”

  “Can you feel the warmth? Do you get cold or hunger?”

  “I need nothing, no food or drink or warmth to sustain me. But yes, I can feel the fire. Let us stay near it for a while, if we can.”

  “Of course, my friend” he slid closer, his knees up to let the heat run through the metal to every inch of him as he finished off the last of his pre-prepared food for the travel days.

  “We aren't friends, Alfwald”

  He awoke to his face wet with dew and the morning sun shining so brightly on him that he believed he was back in the village, falling asleep in the fields. He expected to open his eyes to vegetables being picked around him, but the sounds of the field were not there. When he sat up, there were only empty moors, and a few sheep that seemed completely disinterested in him chewing on grasses. They’d eaten most of it from the flat cleaning they’d found, leaving it bare and muddy from the morning dew.

  He fed them grain and packed up again, Heartseeker was silent for all of this, almost broodingly so. He didn't want to break the silence himself, so his occasional sniffs were the only sound outside of the sheep and his large stomps and creaks.

  They continued like this for hours before the armor finally broke the quiet pact they'd made for the walk.

  “Is this village like yours?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Thatched roofs, fires, lots of people?”

  “Yeah, it's a good bit bigger so it also has businesses and shops, but it's very similar, why do you ask?”

  “Because I can see smoke on the horizon”

  Vambrace was right, there were trails of black smoke coming up in tendrils. The thought of fire and villages made him feel sick, his anxiety overtaking him. What if it was destroyed and this was all a cruel joke? What if Heartseeker had taken him here just to break him with more bodies?”

  But he passed over a small hill to see roofs, intact buildings, and what was a very alive city of people.

  Vambrace had been telling the truth, he was seeing this town for the first time, too. With a last look back towards home, he set off to see what the town had to offer, and what he had to offer to it.