[center][b][u]House Harvestar[/u][/b][/center]

[b]Kaldur Fief[/b]
It was a cold night. Lord Torak Harvestar didn't mind - cold was a regular visitor to the Kingdom of Kaldur, due to its location in the far east, a long way away from the coast. The ancestral castle he was living in had been built over natural hot pools of water, which filled the castle with steam and heat. They didn't need baths in the castle, as they could clean themselves and relax in the hot pools instead. It was a pleasant feeling, and Torak had banned his children from using them too often, lest it made them weak. As he was thinking of his children, one of them knocked on the door to his study. In walked Torak's eldest son and heir Thorn, followed by Torak's ward Detlan. Detlan's father had been a hedge knight slain in battle. Torak had not asked for him to serve him, but he had anyway, and when a giant crushed his skull in with a club, Torak had felt obliged to take his son in. Two years younger than Thorn, Detlan idolised him and trailed after him wherever he went, when he wasn't busy mooning over Torak's daughter Renn, that was. Torak stared at his son and asked him what the matter was.

"Have you heard?" asked Thorn. "Princess Helen has disappeared! Fled the Crownlands, it is said. There is a bounty on her head." 

"Yes, I heard. Nothing to do with us,however, so don't concern yourself with it."

"But she might come here! We should send men out to try and look for her."

Torak fixed his gaze on his son. "We are quite far from the Crownlands, and our Kingdom does not share a border with it. It is a very slim chance that Helen will make her way to our cold lands. But you may be right. I will send word to Lord Eadric Summer to keep an eye out for her."

Thorn glared back. "That won't be enough! We need to find her! If we catch her and bring her back, it will prove our loyalty to the Overlord," he replied angrily. "The Lord knows we need to!"

Torak was unsurprised by the sudden heat in his son's voice. He had made these complaints before. "This is about the battle with the Bogans when Balthazar, may he rest in peace, was slain, isn't it?"

"Why did you run?" Thorn yelled. "You should have stayed and fought!"

"The war was over. How was I supposed to know that without Balthazar, the Crownland forces would be so incompetent? Besides, I was not the first lord to return home."

"You were near enough to first!" Barely containing his anger, Thorn's eyes darted around the room. They fixed on the round shield on the wall, embossed with the symbol of House Harvestar, a teal fox. "You certainly lived up to our symbol, didn't you father? A fox, always running away, always sneaking and conniving, always trying to do what suits you best rather than what is right. Look at the other houses, at our neighbours. House Griffiths has a wild unicorn, House Osgar a wolf. They must make fun of us, I know it."

Torak was now angry as well. He pointed a finger at a sword mounted horizontally on the wall. It was a huge ugly blade, straight edged, far larger than even a Mishfarden greatsword. "Look at that blade. That was taken from the dead hands of Keg the Giant King, all those years ago when he burned his way through our lands, trying to carve out a kingdom for himself, and thousands of good men died to stop him. There were no Griffith unicorns then, boy, nor any Osgar wolves. Even our vassals could not make it in time. No, the fox stood alone against Keg that day, and the giants learnt to fear the name of Harvestar. Remember that before you insult the fox again!"

Flushed, Thorn turned on his heel and strode out of the room, Detlan following close behind. Torak watched him go, before sighing to himself. The boy would have to learn to contain his anger if he was to ever inherit Kaldur. Torak sat at his desk to write out his messages. One would be to Lord Summer, as he had said. Others were to go to Icemark. The giants would come again, Torak knew, and when they did, the town of Giant's Bane would be the target. It was time to better protect it and the vital trade routes it was connected to.