[Legate of Amon Lanc]

It was morning and Hilderinc was standing in the courtyard next to his horse, fully clad in armor, and the bright sun was rising from above the forest near Scarburg. Lord Athanar was standing in the saddle, along with Thornden to his left hand and Falco, clad in chainmail, to his right side. Lord Athanar was speaking for a long time and explaining the need to make the local landlords acknowledge the King's rule, and that today the time has come to show them the proper authority. Then everybody mounted their horses, but it was at that point when Hilderinc realised that he had forgotten his sword somewhere. He was feeling really embarassed, but there wasn't time to look for the weapon, because Thornden was calling them to go, and they rode out, followed by laden carts, carrying lord Athanar's personal belongings, because, as Hilderinc remembered, they were moving from Scarburg to lord Friduhelm's hold.

"It will be more comfortable there," Hilderinc said aloud, and suddenly they were descending some steep slope towards Friduhelm's hall, which looked like a small fortress. All the way, Hilderinc had been thinking that he had something important to tell to Coen, something concerning Thornden or maybe Falco, but he couldn't find him anywhere. He was beginning to wonder whether lord Athanar had exchanged Coen for Falco as his new captain, but then suddenly lord Friduhelm came out of the building, surrounded by guards, and openly challenged Athanar.

"You have no right to come to my doorstep!" he yelled. "If you want war, this is what you will get, and I won't stop until either of us is driven beyond Isen!"

Then Hilderinc realised that this was what he had been fearing, that now a great war will engulf the Mark, until either Athanar or Friduhelm are dead. That is terrible, he was thinking, and just yesterday they were like brothers to each other! And now he also realised with pain that he was still lacking his sword, and how was he supposed to fight without it?

He started looking around desperately, when suddenly Wulfric emerged from a nearby barn with a flower in his hair, carrying Hilderinc's sword.

"Here you go," he said.

"Thank you," Hilderinc muttered, wondering why Wulfric hid his sword in Friduhelm's barn. But there was no time to deliberate, because Friduhelm's men were already moving forward, surrounding Athanar's soldiers, and Hilderinc had to join the fight. Strange soldiers were attacking him from the right and left, and suddenly, he saw Falco among them, man-sized and accompanying Friduhelm. Hilderinc turned his sword against him and started chasing the big hobbit across the battlefield.

Then, a noise of steps, movement and muffled voices woke him up. Next to him, Baldwic was getting up, and other soldiers were also awakening. It was again morning in Scarburg and faint light could be seen coming in from the outside. Hilderinc rubbed his eyes and was gazing for a while at the wooden ceiling. Then he slowly got up as well. Before he got dressed, washed himself and went to have some breakfast, he had completely forgotten about the dream he had, nor had he remembered it in the following weeks, nor had a dream like this come to him any more during his nights in Scarburg in the following weeks.