((by Nathaniel Hieber a youtube comenter))

The Lady's Touch, formerly known as Castle Templehof, still had more than a bit of vampiric corruption despite the best efforts of Lady Madeline du Bois. It seemed as if the very earth was seeped in nothing but black magic and misery, no matter what anyone tried to do. Chilfroy de Sauveterre wasn't about to tell anyone that the efforts of some of Duke Bohemond's finest was likely going to bear little fruit, mainly because that was plain for anyone to see when they took more than a cursory glance at such efforts. Besides, the paladin had more important things to do than to criticize other people's duties. Chilfroy's liege had ordered him to inspect the local defenses and garrison for the Lady's Touch. Bohemond was already planning to strike out once again at the Von Carstiens, and he thought it was a good idea to make sure that the land that had cost him so much blood to get would remain his despite its inherent corruption. Since the former warden of Castle Bastonne had many years of acquired skills when it came to making sure an area was well defended, he had been the obvious choice for the job, and he took to it with zeal. Overall, Chilfroy concluded that the defenses of the Lady's Touch could have been worse. After walking around and inspecting the entire set of fortifications for the city, he decided that the walls of the city were in good enough shape for a proper defense should the need arise. The main issue was the defenders of these walls. Local garrison forces had been hastily assembled from the local citizenry, and they were the greenest and most ill-equipped force Chilfroy had ever seen. There would be long days and nights ahead if the men defending the Lady's Touch were to even begin to look like proper soldiers, but Chilfroy felt that he could do it if given the time to do so. Once he had concluded his inspection, Chilfroy began to walk through the streets of the Lady's Touch to return to Bohemond and give him the full report of the inspection. The few people he saw on the streets looked as if they were expecting Chilfroy to assault them at any moment. There was an air of distrust and apprehensiveness so thick that it was tangible to all but the most idiotic. The paladin thought that this was natural enough. Chilfroy imagined that if he had spent the majority of his life living as someone else's next victim, he would also instinctively assume that anyone new to his city would want to cause him nothing but harm. Only time would heal such distrust. As he walked down the streets of the Lady's Touch, the paladin suddenly had a child appear from one of the alley ways and put himself in front of Chilfroy. He couldn't have been more than ten years of age, and he grasped in both of his small hands a somewhat straight tree branch. The child wore nothing but rough rags that somehow passed for clothing, and he stared right at Chilfroy's face. "Are you a knight of Bretonnia?" he asked as he took up a rough defensive stance with his stick held in front of him. Raising an eyebrow, Chilfroy responded, "Yes, I am. Who are you to ask such a question, and threaten a knight with such a menacing weapon as a tree branch?" "I'm Oskar, and I'm going to defeat you in combat." "Oh?" Chilfroy said as he smiled at the child. He reminded the warden of some of the children he would see playing on the outskirts of Castle Bastonne whenever they had a moment to spare, pretending to be knights in shining armor battling great beasts and heroes. "And how are you going to do that, little soldier?" "Like this." At that, Oskar shouted "Now!" and a whole group of children came at Chilfroy from all directions. Instinctively, the paladin wanted to try and make an escape by breaking out at the weakest section of the incoming children. After a moment, though, Chilfroy allowed himself to be swarmed by a horde of small bodies that he permitted to force him to the ground. The paladin of course acted like he was putting up a struggle all the way down, even though he was purposefully restraining himself from harming the children, to give a more convincing show that he was indeed being overwhelmed. Finally, once Chilfroy had been subdued by a mass of children and detained, the one called Oskar came up, put a foot on Chilfroy's chest, and stabbed him with his stick, causing it to snap in half. "I've defeated you in combat," he proudly proclaimed to his "vanquished" opponent, "Now I'm a knight. My friends are now my squires, and we'll ride with Duke Bohemond in your place." "You seem to have forgotten one thing, young man," Chilfroy said as he lay motionless on the ground under the mass of children. Confused, Oskar asked, "What's that?" "You didn't make sure you really defeated me." Chilfroy rose up from the ground with barely any effort, causing the children around him to scatter. Oskar was the only one who stood his ground, putting up his two tiny fists and setting his face in what was undoubtedly a look of determination, but came off more as being an adorable pout. Smiling, Chilfroy ran up, grabbed the child by the waist, and twirled him about, causing Oskar to start shouting first out of surprise, then glee. The other children came out from hiding upon seeing this display, then ran up to Chilfroy once he had set Oskar down. Lowering himself until he was at eye-level with the child, Chilfroy said in a semi-stern voice, "Never lower your guard around an opponent until you know he's defeated. If you don't do that, you'll only give them a chance to attack you again." Smiling, the paladin continued. "You and your friends will make a good squires one day, if you continue to show this kind of teamwork and determination when attacking your foes. Keep up this kind of work, and if you still want to when you're all old enough, I'll teach you to fight like real soldiers of Bastonne." "You mean it?" Oskar asked excitedly. Taking his arm to his chest, chilfroy said resolutely, "One my honor as a paladin of Bastonne, I swear to train you and your friends when the time comes." This created a chorus of shouts from the surrounding children, and it took some effort for Chilfroy to leave them without a child following him back to Duke Bohemond. As he left the scene, the warden noticed that there were others who had watched what had occurred, all of which had smiles upon their faces, among the first smiles that Chilfroy had seen from the people of these lands. This pleased Chilfroy, for this meant that word would spread of what had happened here, and that would ease tensions between his people and those of these lands. Chilfroy smiled for the rest of the trip to Duke Bohemond, for he had enjoyed the ordeal immensely, and he wished nothing more than to keep up his duties to defend people like Oskar and others like him. they deserved to live in a safer world than they currently had, and Chilfroy was going to help give it to them.