At the Northern Gate
Dacen Kresk was the newest member of the Sandpoint Guard. As such, he had been assigned the relatively low-maintenance (and low-excitement) duty of patrolling Junker’s Way, Cliff Street, Church Street from Cliff to the Northern Gate, and Tomb Street. If you were a gambling man, those were the streets you would bet on to be completely devoid of people during the cathedral’s consecration ceremony.
Only 16 and the oldest of his siblings, Dacen had been extremely proud when Sherriff Hemlock selected him, out of all of that year’s applicants, to be Sandpoint’s newest guardsman. He smiled as he remembered the celebration when he had come home to inform his family. And his pride didn’t stop there; he was being trained by Alergast Barett himself! Dacen remembered watching the big guardsman ring the Ogre Stomp! bell a record SEVEN TIMES last year. Dacen thought he had never seen anything so exciting and inspiring. And the man was a wizard with a polearm; he had already shown Dacen had a few neat maneuvers. Dacen practiced them every day without fail.
Now Dacen, Dacen Kresk, was wearing the same uniform as Belor Hemlock, Alergast Barett, and Kellan Storval! He had heard about Kellan’s exploits earlier in the day. He hoped that as he got older people would talk of him the way they talked about those three. It would happen soon, if hard work and effort had anything to do with it; after all, Kellan wasn’t THAT much older than Dacen was!
But Dacen realized that such daring deeds were far in his future. The most exciting thing that had happened to him that evening was watching Gorvi drunkenly berate his junkmen over at Junker’s Edge. He was REALLY glad Sheriff Hemlock and Lieutenant Barett weren’t like that! Right now Dacen knew he needed to keep his head down, obey orders, and learn as much as he could from them and Guardsman Storval.
As Dacen made a left from Cliff Street onto Church Street, heading toward the Northern Gate, he noticed that the gate seemed to be open. That was strange; Dacen was almost certain it was supposed to be closed for the ceremony. But he figured it wouldn’t be unusual for someone to try and beat the crowds out the Northern Gate if they weren’t that interested in the consecration. That said, the Gate was supposed to be closed, and Desna take him if Guardsman Kresk wasn’t going to be the one to close it!
As Dacen walked toward the Gate, he wondered if the other guards were finally going to let him go out drinking with them after the Festival was over. Apparently new guards had to prove themselves, or something, before they received such an honor. Dacen was hoping that his successful patrol tonight would . . .
That was odd. It looked like small figures were slipping in the North Gate and heading down Tomb Street. Maybe animals? It was hard to see in the dark. He increased his pace, bringing his polearm into a ready position. He didn’t want to think about what Sheriff Hemlock would say if animals disrupted the ceremony because Dacen hadn’t managed to keep the gate secure.
As the young guardsman jogged past the White Deer, he heard laughter. It was a high-pitched, harsh sort of laughter that he had trouble locating. Wait, was it . . . above him? Dacen heard a movement on the White Deer’s roof, and looked up just in time to see a small figure hurtling through the air directly towards him.
Dacen had no time to react. The figure landed on his shoulders, slit his throat with the sharp weapon it carried, and leapt off him before he crumpled to the ground.
As Dacen Kresk’s lifeblood spilled out onto the rough ground of Church Street, he saw that his attacker was a black-cloaked goblin, and that many more goblins were entering the town through the Northern Gate. He hoped Sheriff Hemlock, Lieutenant Barett, and Guardsman Storval would do a better job protecting Sandpoint than he had. He really hoped his parents, little brothers, and little sister would be okay.
He wished he could see them one last time.
Then his vision went black, and young Dacen Kresk, oldest son of Nedrick and Polla Kresk, youngest member of the Sandpoint Guard, never saw anything again.
