The Memory Remains

Reldo was closing his library, looking if somebody was in there, when he closed two figures appeared, they were around the same height, one of them was grey haired and the other one had brown hair.

Reldo proceeded to let them in, nodding in to them as a signal that they could enter, he set up a table and put a 80x80cm marble square in the middle, and dropped a sack full of figurines on top of it.

"Sir," Saluted Reldo "You can take your seat now"

One candle lit the table, the oldest man sat first, his shoulder was decorated with a crown and three button-like stars (like on .), The younger one sat moments after, they set the pieces on the board.

A White Pawn took a step forward, A rival Black Pawn took two steps instead, a White Priest took five diagonal steps, a Black Cavalryman jumped over a fellow soldier and then took one step right.

"Let's make this more enjoyable, I've been thinking about asking about something"

"What would that be?"

"How was the day I was born?"

"Well... If you want to know..."

Rintra 7th, 157 of the Fifth Age.

The new year had it's own plans, with a war included.

The leader of a Barbarian community had put his eyes over Taverley, his plan was to dominate the industry of Herblore and create super potions for all his warriors to be superior, and to cut off the potion supply to other armies.

An Asgarnian spy was aware of this, and he reported it to his superiors, after analyzing the situation, King Vallance convinced King Roald to help him, since it represented a threat to both of them.

Major Rottham was sent to work as a scout for possible Barbarian units mobilising to Taverley.

His squadron went as fast as they could to Taverley to warn everyone and making escape plans and refuges in case Lathas attacked that day.

But life had other plans for him that day, a messenger pigeon descended from the sky and posed in the Major's glove. He took off the paper from the leg of the animal and it flew away, he read:

"Dear Gerard.

Your wife will give birth in two hours, eleven minutes and six seconds.

Come back immediately, The chieftain is drunk and will not do anything today, but I still cannot predict when he will, it's blurry.

Take care of Jacob!

Aris

P.S.: Don't be afraid if you get some company on the road"

The Major climbed on his horse and took off without explaining anyone where he was going, the Asgarnian soldiers opened the gate for him and he sped up to Varrock.

Suddenly, at the same pace as his horse, a green wolf was running at his side.

"Where did it come from?" Rottham asked himself.

The Major felt security, he felt like nothing wrong was going to happen while that wolf was around.

They finally arrived at the castle, the wolf vanished and the Major entered the hospital.

He was told to wait outside the room, he couldn't sit down, he was worried.

"A-A-Aldie! I-I'm here, th-there is nothing to worry about!" He yelled at the curtains where his wife was giving birth, obviously extremely stressed and worried.

He looked at the ceiling and noted there was a hole on it, the green wolf appeared at the roof and stared at him through the hole.

"AHHH! What the hell! How did it get there?"

He felt all his worries dissipating, he was calming down, he sat, and waited patiently.

About an hour and a half later, the Major heard a howl.

"Wow, Buddy, you sure appear everywhere!" He said to the wolf, who had just appeared to his side.

Almost instantly a doctor emerged from the birth room.

"Sir! Your child is born safe and healthy, how would you call him?" Asked the doctor.

"Jacob, my wife chose it"

"So, Sir, we will take care of Little Jake for a few days, do you want to carry him?"

The Mayor extended his arms to receive the baby, he knelt down and prayed on the baby's ear.

The wolf licked the head of the boy and then disappeared, the Major looked around but never saw the wolf again.

"...And I never knew what that wolf was, it wasn't a normal animal, that is for sure"

"I cannot remember when I got interested into this game..." Jake muttered, while taking one of his father's Rooks with his Bishop.

"It was the last year of the war against the barbarians..."

"Check Mate" The Major exclaimed, the soldier he was playing against was arguably the best of the whole platoon, still Rottham had won five matches in a row.

The facts were these: The barbarians started digging tunnels to enter and exit Taverley without problems. The squadron of Rottham discovered this and split in groups to raid the tunnels.

The digging was covered by minimal attacks that were easily repealed, the scouts were obviously deployed to their bases, and then they discovered the tunnels.

Two hours after, they were very deep inside the tunnel, after resting many times, they finally reached a candle-lit chamber.

"What is this?" A soldier asked.

The other groups also reached that chamber, it seemed like the room was some sort of inter connection between the tunnels.

"Blow this up..." The Major said.

"What?" Other officer said.

"Destroy this, that way they won't have any way out"

They put barrels of Gunpowder and exited the tunnels, pouring oil all the way out, then set a match on the oil and it burned its way through the tunnel, they fled the area immediately.

In the horizon, an explosion could be seen, and though it wasn't thought that way, the fire spread through the tunnels and killed the barbarians that were inside it, some had already entered the city, and were being slaughtered by Asgarnian forces, the scouts arrived some hours later and took the refugees to Varrock.

Before he left, the Major saw a green hawk flying around him, he felt the urge to follow it, and he did.

He found someone crushed by a tree, it was a man around his age.

"Gosh... I knew this guy... he was called Y...Ykas...Ykassomething, poor guy, I heard he had a - Hey! Who are you? Don't Cry" He saw also a little girl crying.

"...To think I never showed respect to her when she deserved it" Jake said, moving his Queen to another square.

"I hope you do now..."

"Daddy! Wake up!" The 4-year-old girl was shouting, Rottham didn't knew what to do, he had never had this problem with Jake.

"I'll take care of you, Ok? I will raise you, let me take you home" Was all he could say.

The girl followed him, as he removed the tree from Ykasix's body, and carried his corpse to his horse, they set off to Varrock to join the others.

"Major Rottham! You did an impressive job, you won the war for us with your idea of blowing the tunnels" A high-ranked officer told him and made a signal to the General to indicate that Rottham had arrived.

"Rottham, with the great service and leadership you have proven through this war, I honorably promote you to Colonel, please accept this uniform with your new insignia and proper title"

The newly-promoted Colonel was very happy with the notice, so he rushed to do all the formalities and then ran home just to deliver the notice.

After telling his story to Jake, the young boy jumped on his dad's lap.

"I want to become as good as you! How do you do it?"

"I played Chess, that gave me the strategic thinking I needed to command my units to victory"

"Can you teach me how to play?"

Rottham nodded an looked for his Chess board, eager to teach his son how to play the game that had made him reach his actual status.

"That was exactly 13 years ago" The Brigadier said.

"You taught me well" Jake replied.

"You still haven't beaten me, you have beaten me in everything I've taught you but not in chess"

"What else did you teach me?"

"I taught you to fight..."

"No way! I remember I learned alone"

"Really? I thought I you had learned the day I made you a wooden sword"

"It was a few days before, you know, 11 years ago"

Jake was playing chess with other boys on Varrock's fountain, the sun was shining and the water pouring down while the gypsy was looking at her crystal ball and Romeo was picking flowers for Juliet.

The rumors of a dragon seeking near the wilderness ditch were growing, nobody was brave enough to go check if it was true.

Naturally, it would be the Colonel's responsibility to scout for threats, but he wasn't contacted by his superiors, so he didn't do anything.

Still, he couldn't keep his son from going to check, he wanted to see a dragon face to face and touch it, he even wanted one as a pet.

"Ah... The kids and their curiosity..." Rottham said to himself every time he thought about it.

But this day Jake wanted his dream to come true, so he stood up after beating his friend for the eleventh time on chess, picked up a rock the size of his fist and walked to the wilderness.

He spotted a man with two big crates heading to the wilderness, he thought that the man was going to feed the dragon or something, so he followed him.

Iyla was walking around the fountain before he left. Eager to see what he was going to do with a rock in direction to the wilderness, she followed him.

She finally reached him and patted his shoulder, he told her to follow the guy with the crates, who was still unaware that he was being followed.

However, Giant Rats didn't care who was following whom, so they one of them jumped to bite Jake's arm.

Jake dodged and threw his stone at the rat, who was now hurt and enraged.

"Jake, take this, daddy gave it to me in the war years, but you need it now!" Iyla said, while passing an adamantite dagger to Jake, which he used to stab the rat while it rammed its head to Jake's legs.

He then did the same to any rat that came across, until he reached a small hill from where he could see the man with the crates.

He opened his crates, and put on the armor that was inside them, he then took a sword from the bottom of the second crate, the sword was very big and heavy, but the man could easily lift it.

He waited for the dragon to come out, and then he ran behind a rock and waited for the dragon to spit fire at him, when the dragon did, he jumped out from cover and raised his shield, the dragon had to take a deep breath to spit fire again, so the man had time to cut his head off.

After the man killed the dragon, Jake grabbed Iyla by her arm arm and ran home, he just couldn't wait to tell his friends what he had just saw.

"...I don't think Tarqinder saw me, I ran very fast."

"Thank Guthix you came in one piece"

The game continued, half an hour had already passed since the start, and then there were fifteen entire minutes until one of the players exclaimed:

"Check Mate"