The Bastard Knight

His father was a lost king from an ancient land of lost kings
A royal line stretching back millennia
There, land, lost in war and fire and ravaging
Their knowledge, lost in corruption and erasure and ignorance
They're warriors, lost in blood and servitude and hate
But royalty still flowed in their people's veins and their hearts

He was a bastard, as were his brothers and sisters
Very common but still, a bastard he was nonetheless
In name, he was a bastard because his parents were unwed
In deed, he became a bastard because it was necessary
He was noble in that every man that is a man has a code
Love your mother, respect your father, honor your family
But his environs made him a bastard
To protect the ones he loved, he had to be a bastard
To survive in the hardscrabble desert, he had to be a bastard
To rise above his abandonment, he had to be a bastard
To succeed in the world past his borderlands, he had to become a knight
So that is what he became
The Bastard Knight

He fought in secret battles in dark places
He warred in open conflict with enemies great and small
Dragons were slayed, monsters were conquered
Beasts and men alike fell before his blade
He became a warrior like no other and even rose beyond the Bastard Knight title
Gods were brought low by his hand
God Killer, Titan Ender, Heaven Shaker
New names for the same bastard

He grew bored
He lost fights
He lost friends
He lost loves
He returned home

The old man was dying

The Bastard Knight searched him out to see what aid he could provide
The lost king had left him but there was still a code
He was noble in that every man that is a man has a code
Love your mother, respect your father, honor your family
So, he scours the land, he finds his siblings
Old friends appear and family is rediscovered

The Bastard Knight finds The Lost King

Old men state their love in the dark old times
When The Reaper God approaches
It is always the same
For they can see the lonely end on the horizon
And they want to grasp onto whatever life they have remaining
Either theirs or the lives of the ones they leave behind
The Lost King does loves his Bastard Knight
And the feelings are returned
Even beyond the anger and remembrance of past slights
You can love someone and not like them
And at the end, the big emotions conquer the petty ones
Like a Bastard Knight conquers mythic beasts
You say your goodbyes, you remember your code
You lay the king's shield on his casket, you thrust his sword into the ground
You grab your own crown

This is the way of The Bastard Knight
It is hard, it is necessary
There isn't always praise for it
But The Bastard Knight does his duty anyway

Because every man that is a man has a code
Love your mother, respect your father, honor your family