The real trouble seemed to start when my father refused to visit a temple priestess, who requested his presence in her private chambers at the city temple, after she had seen him while out walking in the marketplace during the harvest festival. Such a refusal was little heard of as few would turn down a sensual evening with a beautiful temple priestess behind closed doors. Priestesses rarely made advances to commoners and to refuse such an offer was regarded as an insult. I had always respected the relationship my father had with my mother, even though it was old fashioned to be committed to only one person. Turning down the priestesses offer had been the right decision for father to make and yet the cost of it had been high.
One warm summer morning they came for us. I had almost finished with my morning chores, when I had seen my father walking toward me across the barn lot stumble and gasp hard as four brightly colored arrow shafts slammed hard into his chest with dull sounding thuds of finality. Horrified by what I had just seen I dropped the bucket of water I had been carrying from the well and started running towards father, but he had waived me off with a violent gesture of one arm.
Several mounted Zoarinian lancers started to converge on my father from opposite ends of the barnyard. My father still upright on his feet had yelled to me.
"Save your mother and brother, Roric!"
My eyes had locked with his for a moment and in a dazed realization I had sensed the weight of the responsibility he had just conveyed to me, as if it was a crushing burden I was unfit yet to manage. I had not been overly close with my father, but in that moment I felt like I knew my father in a deeper more powerful way than I had ever known him before.
Frozen in place, I had watched him turn to meet the onrushing lancers boldly. I had come unfrozen with a jerk of consciousness then, as I remembered the responsibility he had conveyed to me to protect the family. I'd run for the house with all I'd had in me then. As I ran, I watched what became of my father; I had no choice but to as I had to run past him to reach the house.
He had stood there tall and proud and I had watched as somehow he was able to grab a hold of a lowered lance and rip it from the hands of its mounted rider. Balancing the lance overhand he had thrown it like a spear at the next rider and I'd saw it impale the rider through his middle, causing him to fall backward off his horse. A third lancer, who had come up from behind my father's blind side, impaled him through the back with his lance. Tears streaming from my eyes, I had looked away from father and run even faster for the house determined to save my mother and brother.