With Family Like This

The meadows were beautiful and the birds, beers and insects flew between the grasses. The light was partly shaded by clouds that drifted to and fro and the trees waved gently in the light breeze. The trunks of the trees stood loosely amongst themselves but just coordinated enough that they created a unit like the troops around them that clambered and stumbled onward behind their two leaders.

"I hate it here." The man clad in leather armour with a bushy and also very sweaty beard complained. His hair was unkempt as was his beard and it waved along with the wind. He seemed nervous and had a tough time getting through some of the grass, swishing and swatting at insects and hay alike.

"Oh come on now. This is better than the week at your hunting lodge." The man next to him replied, donning similar leather armor yet with a different design. He, too, sported a bushy and sweaty beard, though it was well taken care of. His movements were elegant as he shifted one leg in front of the other on his way over the same meadow that the man slightly ahead of him tried to best.

"Listen Tobias." The unkempt bearded man continued, breathlessly passing through the grass as his retinue fell in line behind him, marching at the same speed. All the horsemen had gotten off of their horses as well as they marched through the meadow. "We are doing this for the good of the Kingdom. That's all."

The other named Tobias nodded "Of course Zdik. I get it. We have to. We have to save the Kingdom." Zdik retorted immediately.

"Ay!" He grunted, stumbling to the ground ungracefully. His hands hung onto the floor desperately as his entire body became rigid. "You alright?" Tobias asked, caringly. "Yeah, no it's good. It's good. Go, let's go." He ushered Tobias away and got up and brushed himself off. All eyes fell on Zdik and he looked at the ground a moment, took a breath and continued.

"This incursion by Monfred cannot be tolerated."

"Manfred." Tobias corrected him.

"Yes, that's what I said." They continued to march to the retinue of the King. The meadow bowed down into a valley and there the host of the King waited. Tents were pitched and the men were in formations already. The opponent stood on the other side of a lower hill. Tobias and Zdik recognized him.

"He looks better, doesn't he?" Tobias noted. Zdik nodded as they stood side-by-side on the hill, their sergeants behind them shouting orders to the mass of men that accompanied them.

"Yeah. Did you not see him at the feast last month?"

"From auntie?"

"Yes." The reply from Zdik reminded him of their feud. He remembered the past. "The one from auntie. You never come to these things."

Tobias shrugged "Never feel the need. I am insulted directly or indirectly every day ruling what was given to me. I do not need to go to a feast to be insulted further." He stared at Zdik.

Zdik stared back at him and spoke nothing for a moment. He simply studied his face. There was an ingratitude in that face, he could feel it. Yet they would never speak about it. The eyes talk to one another and look for openness. A moment of vulnerability. So Zdik thought. Should he try it? Should he try to grow?

"You know she misses you." Zdik then turned his head to the armies. Tobias frowned and looked to the armies as well. Such bloodshed that will be put upon these men, these innocent men, he thought to himself. "You know this could all be avoided."

Zdik laughed "Yes, you see the irony in this statement." All Tobias had to do was apologize. He knew it. Tobias knew it.

"I will not apologize." Tobias huffed and Zdik puffed "I warned you. I warned you about marrying her."

"I am a man. I can do what I want."

Zdik turned to him, hand on his sword "You cannot! Look at these people around you! They are all listening to us! You cannot do what-"

"My sons!" The shout bellowed from the bottom of the hill. The two boys turned to their father down the hill, sitting atop a marvelous warhorse of splendour and strength. It was named Goliath after the biblical figure from eons past.

"It is marvelous to see you here my children!" He continued to shout as Goliath stomped upwards with thunderous hooves and huffing. Everyone tightened their grips. All stood further to attention. The eyes were focused on the King.

"Father." Tobias bowed.

Zdik knelt down on one knee and shouted "Father! I apologi-"

"Enough." Father hissed. "I have enough trouble with your uncle now I do not need you two bickering. You two can go back at it once we have finished this incursion." An arrow landed near the camp. Suddenly hooves went off to their left. They all looked on in that direction and their father looked back them.

"Listen, it begins. We will deal with your uncle's and nephew's lands and you will be civil. By the gods, you will be civil. Are we understood?"

"Yes, father!" They both barked, one standing, one kneeling. Their father turned back to the camp and rode down towards his tents.

The brothers looked at one another for a moment. They recognized their shared past. Zdik could see it in Tobias' eyes. He wanted to open but he could not. He was too stiff, too rigid in his ways of thinking. He put appearance above everything, like father. He wanted to be like father. He would never be himself. Zdik sighed and stormed off to the left and shouted at his men as Tobias stormed off to the right and shouted equally at his. The onslaught would begin soon and Tobias would head to his Duchy and Zdik to his and they would continue to bicker about who would get their uncle Monfred's lands.