《KeyMaster: Origins》 1. My Wings Wind Valley, such a simple name but for people who know nothing about outer world this name was enough. About a hundred years ago people settled here, near the rocky coastline, where winds always wept, and you could hear from far away how waves desperately fought with invincible cliffs and now I¡¯m standing on the edge of a cliff with my arms spread open wide, feeling how the might of nature¡¯s power is pushing me back. Salt is gathering in my nose and it starts to itch, but I can¡¯t scratch it. Two of my friends, my only friends, are holding my hands. I close my eyes and imagine myself as a huge seagull, catching the gust before a hunt for a tasty fish. My left wing¡¯s name is Senka. I look at him and see how afraid he is of height and waves that are bursting beneath us. He never spoke much and always accepted all my endeavours, but I always understood from his face what he wants to say. I¡¯ve known him since forever. Our families share neighbouring farmlands, and I¡¯m only one month older than he is, so our parents decided that it would be perfect to raise us something like brother and sister. Our village is placed between the Northern Ocean and the Cold Peak (from top to bottom this mountain is two giants in height or at least that¡¯s what I¡¯ve heard from my father, he still has a memory of places beyond the Cold Peak, or he heard it from his father, my grandad, who was among the first settlers here) and vast fields are scattered around the valley. People in Wind Valley determine time by sun¡¯s position between the ocean and the mountain, dawn from the Sea and Dusk from the Peak. It is always time for us to head home when the sun hides behind the Peak, otherwise mountain witches would tear away our ears (at least that is what my mother told me, or her mother, my grandmother, told her). I was afraid to never hear the ocean again and always got back before witches could get me. It is difficult to raise crops in this weather, so most of the villagers are forced to raise cattle or practice in craftsmanship to sell their goods to neighbouring settlements, or chosen few decided to become hunters. It was obvious that they would introduce me to Senka so when we grow up, we could continue the job of our parents. Our relationship developed slowly, as Senka was very shy and preferred playing alone in the mud, rather than speaking to anyone. Through our silent meetings we felt close to each other. I think that we both felt equally uncomfortable and that lead to our bonding. When mud puddles became too small for the two of us, we started exploring fields that were near our houses. There is nothing particularly interesting in those fields, yet we found it exciting. Being further away from our houses than we have ever been before thrilled blood in our veins. We were dreaming about adventures beyond the Cold Peak. Looking at those fields everyday we grew bored of the same landscape and they looked less and less appealing. Wandering merchants would visit our village from time to time to sell knifes, axes and other metalwork that you couldn¡¯t find in these places. In return, they would buy meats, eggs and hides. Our fathers would take us to these markets to teach us how to bargain and get a better deal. One day we overheard one of the merchants telling stories about vast lands behind the Cold Peak, but local folks just laughed. These stories encouraged us even more. Having Senka as a friend helped me to avoid spending time with my elder brothers. Before Senka I was used as a servant by them. They would send me to the village when mother told them to bring crops or water for the kitchen. Elder brothers used to tease me with scary tales about Cold Peak and goblins that were living inside of the mountains. But with Senka I could run away from home and leave my brothers to entertain themselves by milking cows and gaining my father¡¯s appreciation. I am still too young to be allowed to handle cows but grown up enough to run around green fields and think about how fascinating it would be to cross the Peak and reach the unknown lands.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. My right wing¡¯s name is Hina. Her long sweet chestnut colour hair is waving in the wind. Her palm is warm and soft in comparison to Senka¡¯s. I could see fire in her eyes, she is brave and adventurous. We met her during one of our wanderings towards the Peak. She was all alone and had no fear in the eye when we approach her. We asked her what she was doing there. She only smiled, immediately I saw something shining in her palm. It was a small knife that she was prepared to use if we move an inch. When she asked who we are in return, we pointed our fingers towards the Windy Valley and told her that me and Senka are children of local farmers. She bursted with laughter, because we were stuttering. Immediately she pointed her finger towards the Cold Peak and told us that she lives there. I one instant, our bodies were covered in shivers. She lived there? How? Impossible. She looked our age and already lived beyond the Peak. Then I inspected her more thoroughly and realized that her clothes looked like those that wandering merchants were wearing. So, we trusted her and showed our empty hands. With a swift flick Hina hid her knife in a rear pocket and introduced herself. I doubt that Senka ever noticed the knife and I didn¡¯t ask him if he saw it. From that day, she called us to stroll around almost every evening. Frankly saying, I was afraid of her and couldn¡¯t go without Senka accompanying me. We were showing her our favourite spots in Wind Valley and in return she would tell us tales about the world behind the Peak. She didn¡¯t tell about the details, just described the nature. I think it is because she didn¡¯t want to scare us and just wanted to share what she has seen or heard during her adventures with parents. We were amazed how much she had seen at her age and we on other hand were only exploring fields around the village. She invited us to visit her place at the root of the mountain where her parents made a camp, but it was too far from our houses, so we never did. I couldn¡¯t resist the itch and sneezed so loud that Senka fell on his butt and Hina started laughing. ¡®Next time you do something like that tell me in advance, I need to prepare myself. I almost fell off the cliff¡¯, cried out loud Senka, trying to stand up. When it came to complaining, Senka wasn¡¯t shy and could tell off anyone. ¡®Hahaha! You could scare off any goblin with this shout, Tarynn! Is this how you going fight your enemies? Rhaaa! And all of them just flee. Hahaha!¡¯, was Hina¡¯s response to my sneeze. I cleaned my nose with the back of my palm and gazed into the horizon, ¡®Hina,¡¯ I began, ¡®Do you think me¡­ and Senka¡­ Would we be able to come with you? I mean. Beyond the Peak.¡¯ She looked at me and stopped laughing, ¡®No. You would die. Instantly.¡¯ It didn¡¯t sound as if she was joking. She genuinely thought that there was no chance for us, maybe even we were not the first ones to ask her this question. Who knows how much she travelled and how many people met. We might¡¯ve been her hundredth attempt to make friends in this journey. However, she continued, ¡®In your current state,¡¯ then I saw fire in her eyes, ¡®You must learn how to survive in the wilderness at least. Then we can speak about your journey to the other side of the Cold Peak.¡¯ I slowly turned my head to Senka and he was already standing by my side, ¡®My uncle,¡¯ he began murmuring, ¡®Nimrod. He¡¯s a hunter. We can ask him¡­ to teach us how to hunt. And stuff¡­¡¯ Ocean wind was hitting my ears, I could barely hear his voice. I heard only ¡®Hunter, we can ask...¡¯ and just an idea that we could start preparing for our adventure sparked a joyful smile on my face. There are only a few hunters in our village and they don¡¯t like to share their knowledge with others, but we will try our best. 2. Becoming a Hunter Next morning with first birds we woke up and went to the Hunter¡¯s camp where Nimrod and other hunters lived. The camp consisted of a few human height tents made of leather. We figured that might have been elk¡¯s hide. Senka told me that hunters wake up really early to find places for hunting. He also thought that it is much easier to hunt for sleepy animals, but that didn¡¯t make sense to me somehow. Hina refused to come, because she thought that this would be a waste of time for her and she would better spend time gathering berries in the field, rather than watch us humiliate ourselves. The first person to appear from a tent was strong man with a graceful posture. However, his beard was fluffed up on the right side that gave us the clue that this was the side on which he was sleeping. First, he did not notice us, because he was scratching his eyes with knuckles and passionately stretching. When he finished his morning routine, he finally noticed us and a warm smile appeared on his face, ¡®Hey, Senka! What brings you here so early? Oh, you have a friend with you as well! That makes it even more intriguing! Tell me, boy.¡¯ Senka immediately looked away from Nimrod and I understood that I have to take the lead. ¡®Good morning, sir! Senka told me that his uncle is a hunter and I always was curious about how hunters live, so we couldn¡¯t and ran her as soon as we woke up!¡¯ ¡®Haha! That sounds promising. We need more hunters, animals are breeding much faster than we can kill them! Haha!¡¯ he sounded too cheerful for this time of the day, but his attitude encouraged me to ask him about everything straight. ¡®If it doesn¡¯t bother you much, we would like you to show us how hunters live. Maybe how you hunt or what stuff you do. Like, we won¡¯t bother you much¡­ Yeah! My name is Tarynn, by the way¡­¡¯ Nimrod looked at both of us as if he already imagined how we grow up to be new hunters of this village. ¡®Haha! Of course! We need some fresh blood here; would it be animal¡¯s blood or human¡¯s!¡¯ by the looks he was definitely pleased with a joke that he made. That morning Nimrod¡¯s lecture started something like that, ¡®First, we will need to find materials. There can¡¯t be a hunter without a weapon, right? So, we start from something simple. Bow consists from two main pieces ¨C wooden arc and a string. The only tree perfectly suitable for making bows in Wind Valley is yew, but you can also consider making hunting bows from willow or oak, but actually it doesn¡¯t matter! Haha! As long as your branch is hard and somewhat flexible. Make sure that your piece of wood is not completely dry, because bow will snap instantly when you try to shoot. Then the length of the stick must be equal the distance from the top of your head to your tights. This way your weapon will be most effective. Then you will need to find a string for your hunting bow. This time we will be using rawhide, as we have plenty of it stored in our tents you don¡¯t need to worry for this time. However, you won¡¯t be always lucky. Next time in the wilderness if your string breaks, try to find something that is not too stretchy like strands of cotton, silk or even a fishing line. Remember that the power of the shot comes not from the string, but from wooden arc. That¡¯s all for the hunting bow, now materials for the arrows¡­¡¯ and so on and so on. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.In the end Nimrod turned out to be a respectable man. He did not tell our parents about our plans and taught us everything that he knew about hunting. We were coming to see him almost every morning after that day and he showed us something new each time. Then during the evening fathers would teach us how to take care of our cattle. After few months, we could make bows, rabbit traps, and pocket knives on our own, as well as, how to herd cows and make food for them. Nimrod thought us how to start a fire in the wild and how to prepare and cook meat and on the other hand our parents taught us how to milk cows and how to bargain with wandering merchants. In these months we rarely saw Hina, she wasn¡¯t interested in our endeavors. Sometimes we saw her in the field, sometimes she came to ask how we are doing and how much have we learned. At first it was difficult to get used to kill and flay our pray, especially for Senka. He is a peaceful creature and finds violence unappealing and would have refused killing animals at all, but he did not have a choice. Senka had to accept that people are animals too. If he wanted to survive in wilderness and have a long-lasting adventure, we had to be on top of the food chain. Nimrod was proud of us, he genuinely thought that he is raising new hunters for this village. And we on the other hand, were hiding our hunting equipment beneath a huge rock on the edge of the forest, so that when we would need it we could easily get it and take off for our adventure. It was hard to decide when we were ready to break off. Senka was always full of doubts and I was afraid of leaving behind my family and the village where I grew up. If we won¡¯t succeed and return right after we go missing, punishment will be unavoidable. It was early autumn when we started visiting Nimrod, so we decided that easiest time to start our adventure would be early summer. There would be no need for heavy clothes, and we could take more food with us. Last time we saw Hina was in May. The closer we got to achieving our escape, the less she appeared to say Hi or ask how we were doing. It felt as if she was just a dream that me and Senka saw one day and then decided to prepare ourselves for the adventure. 3. Root of the Mountain It¡¯s a warm morning without a slight breeze. We sneaked out of our houses and met in front of the giant rock on the edge of the forest that we called our ¡®secret place¡¯. I changed my everyday clothes to a hunter¡¯s robe made of leather, but Senka lingered. His arms were trembling, and he couldn¡¯t tie his vest properly, so I helped him out, but right after that Senka suddenly grabbed me and said, ¡®Do you really think it is time for us to move?¡¯ his voice was barely audible. ¡®Yes, we can¡¯t wait any longer. I¡¯m sure that Hina is already somewhere far away from here and we must catch up with her. It¡¯s already been a month since we last saw her,¡¯ Was my answer and then I added, ¡®Do you remember our plan?¡¯ ¡®Ye¡­ Yeah¡­ We go up to the root of the mountain where Hina was always pointing with her finger and try to find where her parent¡¯s camps is and then we will try to track where they went after¡­¡¯ Senkas¡¯s voice was trembling, ¡®Are you sure that Mountain Witches won¡¯t be mad if we pass the Cold Peak when it¡¯s so dark?¡¯ ¡®Even if they are real, we have bows and knives to protect ourselves. We still don¡¯t know if they are real or not,¡¯ Last sentence calmed Senka down and he finished preparing. It felt like I was his Mother, preparing him for a festival, where he has to sing in front of a huge crowd. Seeing him kneeling in front of me I recalled that time when I first saw him playing in a mud puddle. He looked like a little puppy, that I wanted to take care off. During the winter, we were training every single day and now it was time to test our new skills. We explored every single corner of the Cold Valley and once huge fields now felt so trivial. Now I understand why Hina lost her interest in us after such a little time. I suppose it was because she already had seen places much more stunning than the Wind Valley and this raging Ocean. This is if Hina actually existed. However, Hina had interest in rocky cliffs near the village, she always charged there if we had no clue where to go. I assume you can¡¯t find something like this very often and even she was amazed with never-ending battle of bubbly waves and sharp cliffs. Or was is just me so fascinated about the cliffs and I gave Hina these traits? These thoughts swept through my mind as we were running through the field where she used to pick berries. The Cold Peak in front of us seemed unfriendly, yet, we were full of will to conquer the giant. Senka left his doubts behind and I saw how his eyes filled with courage. ¡®Tarynn!¡¯ he yelled at me as we approached the root of the mountain, ¡®I feel myself more alive than I ever was! I couldn¡¯t imagine that our meeting back then on in a mud puddle would change my life so much!¡¯ I only smiled at him, as I was only pretending to be confident and focused, on the inside my heart was beating like crazy. Pretending to be cool, I have weakened Senka¡¯s doubts, but my own fears never left. Giving the fact how excited he is, my plan to raise Senka¡¯s morale worked, but who will raise my morale? Hina would definitely raise my morale. She is much stronger than me. She has much more courage than me.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡®Tarynn, do you have any idea where we need to start our search?¡¯, Senka separately looked around. ¡®Yeah, kind of. Look at the path that is going around the edge of the mountain. Have you forgotten everything that Nimrod thought us? We were hunting deer by their traces and what we are doing right now is similar but only with people.¡¯ ¡®Yeah¡­ but how can that help us? I can see some footprints and trails, but they are pointing both ways¡­¡¯ ¡®Damn it! This make everything much harder¡­¡¯ I felt a slight hint of fear in Senka¡¯s eyes and understood that we had same thoughts in our minds ¨C we had to split up to make the search faster. Our parents woke up very early every day to milk cows and feed cattle, so we had to find Hina¡¯s hideout before the sun is up, so we could run away from the pursuit that the villagers would set up after they find out that we went missing. I was first to propose it, ¡®Senka, we have to split up. Whenever someone finds Hina¡¯s hideout, he starts to whistle as loud as he possibly can, just like Nimrod taught us.¡¯ ¡®But what if no one finds it?¡¯ ¡®We. Will. Find It!¡¯ My angry voice suddenly changed Senka¡¯s attitude. Hina would definitely say it like that. When you don¡¯t give any option for interpretation your words differently, they come across much faster. He did not answer me, just nodded, turned around and started running down the left side of the Cold Peak. There were still no signs of dawn, so we had some time to search for the cave, where Hina and her parents lived. Searching the root of the mountain on my own turned out to be a lot more frightening than I thought it would be. I was left alone with the voice in my head that kept saying things like, ¡®You will never find this cave¡­ and even if you find it what do you expect to find there? You know that they left this place months ago¡­ and how could you tell which cave was their hide out? What if they were hiding not in a cave but somewhere else? What if Senka won¡¯t hear your whistle? What if Mountain Witches get you even before finding that damn cave? What if witches get Senka instead? What if your parents find out what you were doing here and find both of you in fields near the Cold Peak? What will everyone say in the village when they find out that children of cattle farmers tried to escape the Wind Valley pretending to be adventurers?¡¯ The last thought stroke me so hard, that I had to stop and get my breath back from running. When I raised my head again, a murky cave emerged in front of my eyes. On the outside, there were no signs that someone lived in that cave before. Going in was the only way to find out if this had been somebody¡¯s hideout. I figured that leaving twigs in front of the cave in the shape of arrow will help Senka find me if he comes this way. I pulled out my pocket knife and had it ready if someone jumps right in front of me. CREACK! The sound came from the back! I turned around swiftly swinging my knife in front of me at the same time! 4. Blue Light ¡®Ah!¡¯ I screamed and my foot slipped on a wet moss, I threw my knife on the ground and tried to recover balance clinging with both hands onto the wall, but my attempt failed, and I fell on the ground. When I looked up, Senka was standing in front of me shaking. His vest was cut on a chest and he was touching it with his trebling hands. He stepped on an arrow that I left for him. ¡®I couldn¡¯t go¡­¡¯ he cried out, ¡®I was following you. Sorry¡­¡¯ Now he definitely looked a lot like a puppy who was left by his master. I wanted to hug him and pat his head to calm him down, but anger filled me first, ¡®Why didn¡¯t you tell it back then?! I would have completely understood that!¡¯ Now my clothes were wet from the moss and I had bruises on my palms. ¡®Sorry¡­¡¯ Senka¡¯s apology was swept away with the wind that rushed towards the darkness of the cave. ¡®Senka! Wind! It means that this cave has an exit on the other side!¡¯ my anger had disappeared in an instant, now I only felt relief. A second breeze swept through my back and my nose started itching so hard that I couldn¡¯t resist and let out the loudest sneeze in my life. RRHHACHUU! Then right after the sound the whole cave filled with sapphire light. My mouth opened in amazement, this view was stunning and scary at the same time. I regained my balance on these slippery rocks and stood up. With this light I could easily find the knife that I dropped earlier. The cave was filled with flowers that emitted blue light. When I made a step, flowers on the walls turned away. I think they were sleeping, and my sneeze woke them up. Maybe Hina was right; my sneeze is what is going to help me defeat all of my opponents. Maybe it was some sort of warning system to alert everyone if some intruders get inside but it didn¡¯t matter to me. I tried to pluck out some of the flowers and to my surprise they separated with the wall quite easily, gathering a dozen of them in my sac I turned to Senka. The look on his face was like he just discovered a jar or jam under his bed pillow and now he can it eat all up alone. My heart began thumping harder with each step I took. I reckoned everyone could hear my sneeze both inside and outside the cave, so there was no point in hiding. I was making my way through the tunnel walking straight down the middle with my nose proudly pointing to the ceiling. I felt like a person from a royal family that everyone would admired in our village. We had no royals in our village, but this is how they would walk, I thought. With all these lights around me, shining like stars in the night¡¯s sky, I completely forgot about caution and why in the first place I stepped into this cave.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡®Senka, come!¡¯ I waved at him to release him from this mesmerizing curse of blue flowers. We began walking slowly into the depths of the Cold Peak. In front of me saw a blue dot that was not afraid of sounds and stood still, it was constantly growing bigger as we were approaching it, as well as, the wind got stronger and cooler. I started hearing water croaking and when I came up to the end of the tunnel a huge cavern unfolded in front of my eyes. It was so huge that the half of our village could fit in here. A steady river was flowing from left to the right in the middle of this cavern and I couldn¡¯t see from where it was running and where it was heading because the tunnels on both sides were not illuminated. On the other hand, the cavern itself was covered with same blue flowers as before and I could see everything like it was daylight. Both banks of the river were filled with flowers and whenever a stronger wave hit the bank flowers would turn away. It looked like a dance. Small blue lights leaning towards and outwards the stream. ¡®How can they grow here if there are no bees to pollinate them?¡¯ I whispered to myself in amazement, ¡®Or they grow like mushrooms with spores? It¡¯s so fascinating¡­¡¯ I sat down in front of them and was stunned with what I saw. I could see liquid flowing inside of the veins of these flowers as if they had blue blood streaming up from the ground. Then a quiet buzzing noise broke the silence. It was a small stag-beetle flying around me, covered in something blue. The beetle sat down on a flower and started scratching it with its little horns. Then little drops of blue liquid appeared, and stag-beetle drank them. The beetle turned blue and began shining same as these flowers. I crushed some of the flowers to get the juice out of them and poured it onto the blade of my pocket knife. The knife soaked all the liquid and began glowing. ¡®Senka! Look!¡¯ I showed him my discovery, ¡®These flowers interact with metals and I think if you consume them, they will have the same effect on you.¡¯ ¡®I don¡¯t want to try it out¡­ It¡¯s cool and all... but we didn¡¯t find any traces of Hina!¡¯ Senka¡¯s voice brought me back to reality. ¡®Senka, do you really want to find her so hard? Look at these flowers, look at these shining beauties! Don¡¯t you want to explore the world to see things even more incredible than that? Screw Hina and her survival skills! We were alone in the beginning and planned our adventure to be ours, not hers!¡¯ That¡¯s right! We didn¡¯t find evidence that Hina was actually here! She is not real, she is just a plot of our imagination. We don¡¯t need her to have an adventure. ¡®Our families lived here for decades and we never heard stories about these caves and rivers inside of the mountain. They only told us stories about witches and other scary creatures, don¡¯t you find that odd?¡¯ Senka wondered. ¡®There must be a reason for that¡­¡¯ CLUNK! CLUNK! I swallowed the last words of the sentence because we heard a noise coming out of the left river tunnel. CLUNK! CLUNK! ¡®There is nowhere to hide, Senka! Prepare your bow and when this thing from a tunnel shows up be ready to shoot!¡¯ CLUNK! CLUNK!!!