《Soul Siphon: The Beast Land Chronicles》 Chapter 1: Another Day in Paradise Chapter 1: Another Day in Paradise Time for another lovely day working at Wally World stocking shelves, dealing with idiots...I mean customers and pandering to my boss'' whims. This is really not what I saw myself doing in my late 20''s. I tried the whole college thing, but between my hate of people in general, bipolar, and a tendency to procrastinate when I get bored with things, I just ended up with a mountain of debt and getting dropped after the first year. But I digress, I''m suppose to work the evening shift that runs from 3pm to 11:30, but somewhere along the lines it turned into the late evening shift with me working from 5pm to 1:30am. Worst shift ever...really, not joking, I''ve lost all hope in the future of humanity. From 5 to about 7, you get all the impatient people coming in to grab things after getting off work. They apparently don''t have any time to spare to actually use their eyes. I swear one more person asks me where the ketchup is while I''m stocking mustard and I''m shoving them in the trash compactor. Seriously, look up, we have signs at both sides of the aisle that clearly states condiments, it''s impossible to miss the cart full of mustard I''m grabbing from, and I don''t think a store exists that doesn''t stock the ketchup next to the mustard. Between 7-11, the store is mostly dead, so there''s not much to do after you finish stocking up the shelves from the after work idiot that lacks common sense rush. Unfortunately, that means the multitude of too good to get their own hands dirty, or actually pitch in, managers task me to do whatever else may be needed in the whole bloody store. Today seems to be my turn at maintenance, apparently some calamity happened in the women''s restroom in the back. I don''t know what you need to do to actually end up with the toilet falling off the wall...that right, off the fucking wall, but it happened. The only thing I can imagine is some fat ass that is afraid to touch their sweaty ass to the toilet squatting on the seat, and crack....wait, think I''m gonna puke. Quick think of something else...a hottie was practicing tap dancing on the toilet...ok, think we''re good. After 11, it turns into the parade of freaks, we get everything from goths, emo and punks to tweekers and the outright bizarre. I never knew hanging out at a supermarket was a thing for high schoolers until I started working at one. Honestly, I don''t have much of a problem with school kids if they aren''t walking around eating and drinking the product. Seriously, who do you think has to clean that shit up? Sure as hell not maintenance, NO, we don''t have one at this time, so ME asshole, that''s who! Most of them just roam around the store, listen to music, bounce through the isles on the fitness balls and play dodge ball with the giant super bouncy balls. You''d think I''d be pissed at that last one right, but nope...I get a sick pleasure from watching them ricochet all over the store before taking my last break. You''ve got to love the policy at Wally World, you can''t be forced to work during breaks, *ahahahah*. It''s almost as fun as hiding in the clothing racks to freak people out..."Not your size fat ass!" *wahaha*, oh you''re fast for a 300lb tub of lard... The rest are a pain though, as they tend to try to sneak things out, or just crawl into the bathroom to puke or sleep off the high...1:30 never comes quick enough. Finally I hear the oh so sweet words from the dic...I mean manager, I''ve been waiting to hear all night. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Mike Cullen, it''s 1:30, don''t forget to clock out before you go home." This pompous ass refuses to call anyone with anything but their full name, makes him sound like a robot half the time. Alright, I''m officially off the clock, time for one more rack surprise! After looking around, I spot a group of goth looking girls browsing the women''s section and make my way over. I manage to get into a rack of decidedly risqu¨¦ lingerie, mostly see-through lace camisoles and babydolls with matching panties, before the girls begin to browse it. After looking over the rack for a while, one of the cuter ones picks out an eye-catching pitch black cammy with hot pink lacing. I managed to say "Nice choice!" before she let out a scream that felt like it ruptured my ear drums. While I hate this job, I need the money...so I did what any red blooded American would do. I ran as if my life depended on it, which it kind of did, to and out of the side exit. "Over react much, DAMN, my ears are still ringing." Deciding it may be best to get home quick in the hope of using time as an alibi, I head off over the hill toward my apartment. Even so early in the morning, plenty is still going on, I live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the home of the philly cheese steak. It takes about half an hour to walk home the long way, but since I need to get home quick for my alibi, I dash through the back alleys. The alleys can be dangerous, there are gangs and various scum of society type people running around at this hour after all. I''m pretty confident in myself though, so I risk it, which turns out to be a mistake. Three of said scum close in on me soon after, "asking" for my hard-earned money, with knives...so much for my alibi. Rather peeved from my crushed plan, but exited at letting out some frustration, I smile brightly and take a page from Steve Austin, flipping them a pair of birds. Obviously not taking it well, the first moves in to stab at me, rather clumsily, with his little pocket knife. As he closes in, all I can think is, [If I had one of my knives on me right now, it would be the perfect time to pull a Crocodile Dundee impression.] Once he stabs at me, I side step to my left and brush his arm to the right side of my body. As he goes to pass by me from momentum, I link our arms at the elbows, pivot on my right foot to move behind him, and grab his head with my left hand pulling it back hard as I bring my knee up to meet it. When he crumbles, the second one charges, trying to take me out quick while my back is turned...asshole. I touch my left foot to the ground, spin it to face away from me, and use the torque on my leg to spin my body around, launching a quick front kick right up between the second attackers legs. He drops the knife and falls to his knees as I say aloud, "Ouch, that''s gotta hurt." I may have gotten a little full of myself, sue me. Expecting the third guy to come rushing at my any second, I step up to the guy on his knees and place my left hand on his shoulder and right on his head, getting ready to end him with a solid knee to the chin. As my knee comes off the ground, I look up to try and spot the third, only to see a beretta pointed at my face. My knee connects to it''s target and I manage to blurt out "Fuck" before seeing a pretty flash and everything goes dark. Chapter 2: Limbo? Chapter 2 : Limbo? Ummm...I was expecting to get disembodied and look down at my last moments, have my life flash before my eyes, see a bright light, or a green glow, but nope...nothing, just darkness. It does feel like I''m floating though, that''s interesting at least. I wonder if this is limbo, hopefully I''m not stuck here for years or something, personally I''d prefer hellfire and brimstone. Don''t get me wrong, spending an eternity bathing in fire would suck ass, but at least my mind would be occupied by all that pain. There''s nothing I hate more than being bored, it gives my mind too much opportunity to roam, dredge up old memories I''d prefer to forget, and come up with all kinds of ideas that usually lead to trouble. Being stuck inside your own mind can be torture, especially when it''s a bit...twisted. That''s why I rarely finish anything, whether it is a job, school, or relationship, once I''m bored it just falls to the wayside. I''ve often thought that maybe I''m just not cut out for this modern society. I like the tech, but I''ve always been rather solitary and not much of a talker, so I''ve never really fit in too well. Didn''t help that my family was poor so I was always wearing cheap and secondhand clothes. Not to mention encountering porn when I was still toddling around, apparently I was drawn to it. Not that I remember it, but according to my parents anytime they turned it on, I''d suddenly appear, no matter where I was in the house. So yeah, I was turned into a pervert early on...though I was also setting the vcr at 2, so maybe there''s some correlation between intelligence and perversion? I honestly don''t have many early childhood memories of my parents, kind of awkward when you go through the family photos and can''t recognize your own parents. The fault for that is with the poor status though, as they both worked multiple jobs, so I spent most my time at or with a babysitter. My earliest memories are of playing in the basement by myself and having the babysitter that watched me at my parents house threaten to cut off my fingers. Then at the babysitters I went to, getting poked in the eye by some little prick, getting made fun of for various reasons, such as my clothes, and playing "show me yours, I''ll show you mine" with my first friend...yup, I was a little perv. Apparently at some point we even told our parents we were going to get married lol, ah the simplicity of youth. Then my parents got divorced and mom and I moved, though it didn''t affect me much since aside from loosing touch with my first friend, the only thing that changed was the house and babysitter. My new babysitters were my grandparents on my mothers'' side, who happened to be devout Catholic farmers. Talk about strict, I got use to pain and discipline pretty quick, which was probably good since my dad moved back in with his parents too, which were a whole other realm of strict. Have you ever been picked up by your ears? That shit fuckin'' hurts. How about told to mow the lawn with a scythe? Not fun. Then there was the time I had to plant an acre of beans by hand, time-consuming doesn''t even begin to cover that. My dads parents were middle ages old-fashioned. Really, the man pulled some Gladiator shit, went off to war, earned a drawer full of medals, including multiple purple hearts, then retired and bought a farm. My Grandma made ammunition during the war, apparently they married young. It was around this time I saw my parents fight for the first time that I can remember. Wasn''t anything huge, my dad stopped himself and stormed off before it got out of hand, but it was the deciding factor for ingraining in me that men aren''t suppose to hurt women. As any young boy, I was interested in fighting and weapons...a farm really is a play ground fit for a child. When I was at my moms'' parents farm, I helped around in the garden, but spent most my time in the basement playing pool, shuffle board and darts. I was mostly trying to stay out of the way of my grandparents, unless they told me to do something, to lessen the amount of daily beatings. At my dads'' parents farm, I also tried to stay out of the way, but more because there really wasn''t anything to do but run around and find "toys". So I played with the scythe, a machete and throwing stars I found, and entertained myself by mixing chemicals together to see what would happen. All that alone time really cuts back on communication skills, I actually thought it was normal to run around talking to yourself. At 5, I entered kindergarten just like any other kid, but because I rarely talked, to anyone else at least, I can''t say I made any friends either. At least that also meant that pretty much everyone left me alone, however, I did see a lot of bullying, kids can be so cruel. After that my life consisted of moving all over the place, since we moved every time mom got a new boyfriend. Most of them were bikers and military, apparently she had a type. On the upside, I learned a bit of basic survival from being shoved in boy scouts, and got to shoot a wide variety of guns. I was thrown into the misfit bunch in school, most of which were alright, but the compulsive liar was a headache. Being in the misfit crowd and having second-hand clothes, it didn''t take long for me to be targeted by bullies. I didn''t know much about fighting at 6, so I just did what I saw from movies...I punt kicked the poor bastard in the junk. Apparently I hit pretty hard even back then, since he got carted off to the hospital. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. The rest of my early school life boiled down to one fight after another, either fighting off bullies or just getting into fights to see who was stronger or better, and pursuing my interests, mostly weapons and martial arts. I don''t mean I took classes though, my family was poor, instead I grabbed every book I could on it; and between those and movies, I did what I could to adapt what I read and saw into something usable. Due to my high intelligence and growing up doing puzzles and farming, I did pretty well at math and science since as a young child I was really interested in the world around me. I only did well in the other classes until the boredom set in, then it went down hill. Between the moves I lost contact with most the people I knew, and in solitude turned to spirituality. As I was interested in nature anyway, I began to research old world and new age religions. Eventually I settled on a personalized version of Druidism, an old world earth based religion, since not much was known about it. Taking the core concepts of living alongside nature and keeping balance between the natural world and the man-made one, I combined it with whatever felt right, and created my own version of it. Almost in direct contrast of the natural feel of Druidism, I ended up getting into ghost hunting and death symbolism like the grim reaper, skeletons, and horror in general. It eventually got to the point that I was falling asleep at night watching the Many Faces of Death, a documentary showing the most gruesome and disturbing deaths caught on camera. Finally, I found myself living with my father and in high school...or hell, they both make sense. I played sports in junior high, was decent enough at most of them, but every time I started making headway, I''d get in trouble for something or injure myself. So in high school hell I tried taking martial arts at a hole in the wall dojo, but got bored quickly after I beat the instructor in my first week. Eventually, after a short 2nd term in wrestling, I stopped doing sports and started working, then started skipping class because I didn''t want to deal with idiots and boredom anymore than I already was. My only release in the early days of fast food service and menial labor was being a smart ass. It''s the simple things in life that give the most pleasure, like putting the condiments on a burger in the shape of a pentagram to be handed to a preacher. That one really couldn''t have gone more perfect, the total came up to $6.66 and the light above the drive though window flickered as he got his sandwich...me and the rest of the prep cooks were still giggling like little girls hours later. Sarcasm became a way of life for me, or a coping mechanism to release my stress without beating the crap out of every idiot I came across. It sucks that the older you get the less you can really let loose. Just like most people, though high school was hell I did manage to make a couple of friends that managed to stay alive and deal with me ever since. We played havoc in and around the school, breaking shit, raiding lockers, blowing up stuff...really we were just bored. As a true blue pervert, I did have relationships, but they all went to hell pretty quick...I seem to attract young and crazy, not the best combination for longevity. My first friend managed to get back a hold of me too, but we quickly fell back out of touch...it got awkward quick after I found out her "parents" were actually extended family. Her actual parents were in jail due to filming child pornography, of course staring her...really explained why "show and tell" went so far when we were younger. All in all high school went pretty fast, not all roses though, what do you expect when the highschool has an average death toll per year. After entering the "real world" I floated from job to job in my little town till I ran out of possibilities. I used what money I had and headed to Philly, always wanted to try getting into the city. By the time I was 20 my style had morphed into some kind of twisted bastard child of goth and biker, with the occasional farm wear. I quickly got a job and started using the money I didn''t spend on food and rent to frequent the night life. I worked all day and played all night, often waking up in weird places or next to people whose name I didn''t even know. Twenty to twenty-five went by in a flash, like some rock star fantasy filled with sex, drugs, and deafening music. Unfortunately, as my luck would have it, it left me with plenty of physical problems and no cash to fall back on, which is how I ended up working a dead-end job at Wally World. Due to an age-old interest in games that started from the Atari and melded into pen and paper rpg games, I tried briefly to get a degree in game design. Yeah, that didn''t work...game design is extremely expensive due to the software, and designers have to know every aspect of creating a game, which causes a huge overflow of classes arraying from art to programming to computer-aided graphics design, and even business classes, psychology and sociology. With a monstrous debt and 5 years spent at dead-end job hell, I''m basically stuck waiting for either winning the lottery or dying soon. I guess dying soon won out between the two options, at least I don''t have too many regrets...and I''m talking to myself again, great...well not like there''s anything else to do as I float here in the dark. Hmm...just for shit''s and giggles, let''s try this....LET THERE BE LIGHT! ... HOLY SHIT, IT WORKED!!! In front of me now, is a floating ball of emerald-green light the size of a soccer ball, just floating there...bobbing a bit...almost like it''s laughing at me... Chapter 3: Authors Note: Last part of what amounts to a really long Prologue. With this, you will have seen the character''s current personality, gotten some background to know why he is that way and a bit about what makes him tick, and now will get to know about the setting the rest of the story will continue in. I know it''s long, but hopefully you''ll stick it out, early childhood will go pretty quick in the next few chapters. Need to get to the good stuff right? Enjoy chapter 2 and 3 while you wait. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3 : The Womb in the New World "You mortal, are very entertaining." - Floating Ball of Light "WHAT THE FUCK, IT TALKS!?" - Mike Ok, I think I''ve officially lost it now, we are on a whole new level of deranged bipolar here. "Hahaha, I never get tired of the reactions of the mortals, of course I talk, I am a God after all." - Nameless God "Oh good, I thought I was loosing my mind there for a minute" - Mike "..." "..." "Wait, you''re a WHAT?" - Mike "Haha, I was waiting for that, I am a God, or at least what you mortals have always referred to as one. Cernunnos to be exact." - Cernunnos Huh, what mortals have always referred to?, so he isn''t really a god then?...wait, doesn''t matter right now, ask later. "Really, you''re telling me you are THE Cernunnos, as in the Horned God, The Green Man, ruler of life and death?" - Mike "Yup" - Cernunnos "..." Ok mind work fast, take it in, extrapolate the data you''re getting, don''t shut down or geek out on me now. "..." Alright, information uptake completed, I''m now in the presence of an utterly awesome divine being, proceed to turn back into a D&D geek. "HOLY SHIT, I won the religious choice lottery! Double d20 roll confirmed!" - Mike "Ahahaha, such an odd and entertaining mortal, but we really need to move on, there is much to say and not much time." - Cernunnos "Ah, right, right...please excuse the outburst and proceed, I am after all in quite a bit of confusion as to where I am and why." - Mike "That was quick, well since you asked nicely..." - Cernunnos Cernunnos proceeded to give me the gist of what was going on and why I am here. To break it down, when I died they felt that a soul who believed in them passed on and decided to bring it/me here...wherever here is. This was most likely due to me following Druidism for most of my life, really lucky break there. Apparently this world is known as the Beast Lands, or Plane of Beasts, it''s kind of like another dimension from where I was. From what Cernunnos told me, human greed and lust was pushing the old races way too close to extinction and beginning to upset the balance of the world and it''s dragon lines, or ley lines as they are known now. Seriously we never learn, only gotten worse with time it seems, I knew humans were beyond redemption. This threw magic completely out of wack and the Gods decided to lead a mass exodus of sorts. So all the priest and priestess of nature type people the old races and the gods gathered at Stonehenge to invoke a Gate like spell. The Gods chose the Beast Lands because it was still untouched by human hands so to speak, still being completely covered in its'' natural pristine terrain. The gathered elves, dwarves, dragons, various fey creatures and mythical beasts, along with the humans that lived alongside nature all went through the Gate with the Gods and disappeared from our world. Matching up the time-frames from what I remember of the history, it seems this is what triggered the Dark Ages period of history. It''s my guess that without any religious guidance from the gods, humans went kind of nuts for a few hundred years until they invented new gods for themselves. At least in what is now Europe, according to Curnunnos, other Gods exist in other parts of the world as well, but they didn''t come along with them on their migration...at least at that time. Apparently after the massive expansion of the Roman Catholic Church, some of the others followed suit with their followers and such as well, although only a couple of others chose to also come to the Beast Lands. The reasons I hate Catholicism just keep increasing it seems, I swear they ruin everything. Anyway, I was told that due to the nature of the Beast Lands itself, the existence of magic, as well as the head start of the nature loving folk, the technological development is far behind what it is on my old world. The basic crafts found in the middle ages combined with the existence of fantasy like materials has gone much further than what they are on Earth though. The civilizations of the Beast Lands lack many of the creature comforts we have on Earth, however, those they do have are mostly achieved through the use of magic and advanced material use. For instance, instead of waterproofing through chemicals, they do it either with magic or naturally water proof materials. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The society of the place is very much still on a pre-dark age bent though apparently. The addition of the other Gods'' people has caused the break up of land into continental sized countries, that occasionally wage war. With the multitude of people still roughly stuck in the middle ages'' mindset, the social views haven''t advanced, meaning slavery, monarchies, and survival of the fittest is still pretty much the norm. Furthermore, through the interference of the old races, mythical creatures, the added power of the Gods seeping into the environment and the natural evolutionary track of the original inhabitants...many of the more powerful native beasts quickly evolved into a sort of humanoid form. Some of those humanoid beasts, through either naturally evolving further over the centuries, or through breeding with drunken pagans, have produced the perverted joy of every otaku''s wet dream...the beastkin. Cernunnos also told me that he and the other Gods decided to grant me an inborn gift due to being the only soul, for over a thousand years, that had strong enough bonds to nature and belief in the old ways, to get their attention. It didn''t take me too long to come up with an idea for the kind of ability I wanted to be born with. After pretty much a lifetime of being nearly obsessed with death and the Grim Reaper, I knew I wanted some kind of control of my soul and the ability to absorb the souls of living things, just like Grim. Of course, I was told that would be way to powerful an ability, and my soul would literally explode since human souls are inherently weak. So we bantered back and forth for a while about potential soul devourer like abilities...well more like I came up with various completely OP soul sucking abilities and Cernunnos just shook his head no. From the wiggling of the Cern ball, I think I even managed to surprise him with some of the ideas I came up with. In the end, I managed to finally find something that wouldn''t make my soul imitate a firework. We decided to call it Soul Siphon, as it siphons a part of the soul and stores its information so I can access it later to alter or improve myself. Whenever I use the ability, I gain Soul Essence and Soul Knowledge, both of which improve over time and have multiple uses. Soul Essence collects in different amounts dependent on the power of the soul siphoned from, and is stored until I use it. It''s used for fusing Soul Knowledge with my own soul, allowing me to enhance myself with knowledge contained in the siphoned soul, though I was told I''d have to figure out what kind of things will be available through experience. I can also use it to mark a soul, though I don''t get the essence used back, this lets me know where that soul is in relation to me at all times, like 400 miles north of my current location; also, if the soul is nearby when it leaves a body I will automatically siphon from it. That sounded quite useful for battle situations...if a little unethical, but hey, I''m no saint here. Soul Knowledge on the other hand is kind of like a feat and skill list from D&D, I can conjure up a mental list of all the knowledge I have stored and spend Soul Essence to make it my own, with more powerful knowledge being more expensive. That''s all I know about the ability so far, I''ll have to wait until I use it to figure out more. If it''s anything like what I''m thinking though, while it will be a slow start, I might just be able to turn into a true OP MC if I put in enough effort. Potentially slow growth aside, this is almost too awesome for me to believe it''s happening. Hopefully, I don''t royally screw up and die before I get a hang of my new life and ability, but that''s all beside the point. To my utter joy, I get to enter into a world with all kinds of fantasy like concepts, that doesn''t have the concept of the guns that ended my life, I got to choose a god given gift to be born with, and it''s populated with human looking, animal eared, tail wagging, heat having beastkin, various sexy mythical creatures, dryads, nymphs, and lusty fey critters of all kinds. *mental heavy breathing* Ok, gotta calm down, way too high a level of nerding out here...breath in, breath out...once again from the diaphragm, in, out...ok, calm and collected. Now for the all important question of why I can''t see shit if I''m already in this other world. "Hey, Cernunnos, could you please tell my why I can''t really see anything in here?" - Mike "Ah, that was so you wouldn''t freak out before we were done talking." - Cernunnos "Freak out? Why would I freak out if I could see?" - Mike *Cernunnos glows, shedding soft green light all around* "It looks like I''m enclosed by a wall of some sort, kind of disgusting looking actually" - Mike Then I looked down, and noticed the odd shape of what I assume is my body, before looking back to the walls, through some sort of membrane. "I''m a FUCKING FETUS!" - Mike *Not a pig, don''t be a pig, not a pig* Chapter 4: New Beginnings AN: Sorry it took a few days for this, I was going back and forth on how I wanted to present the chapter. The flow may be a bit off or seem fast, since I was trying to condense it, to get the early childhood part out of the way. Aside from that, someone please leave a bloody comment! It helps the motivation. Now on to the chapter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 4: New Beginnings You know how all those MC''s in the reincarnation stories forget to cry right away after they''re born? Yeah, that''s a load of bullshit, no way you get squeezed through a hole much to small for you to fit, and not come out screaming from the pain. On the plus side, my fear of being born a pig was quelled some time ago after my fetus developed. It was terrifying while it lasted, not that I''m sure how long that was, since it''s difficult to keep track of time inside the womb. When I woke up the next day, I got my first good look at my new mother. She came barreling in after a few minute of screaming my head off from hunger, gotta get her attention somehow after all. Honestly, she looks a bit plain with her straight strawberry blonde hair, green eyes, and freckled face. She''s currently got the pregnancy weight still on her of course, but from my best guess, she shouldn''t be more than a little plump once she looses the excess. After getting my fill of milk, she stumbled back out, probably going back to bed since it''s still the middle of the night. My father, at least I hope, came in to poke at me later, I assume he''s trying to play with me, or just thinks I''m cute...if I had teeth, I''d bite the stupid finger that he keeps poking into my cheek. He''s a bit rough-looking due to his weathered skin and stubble, probably a bit taller than my mother, with dark brown hair and grey-blue eyes. On the plus side, now that I''ve gotten a look at both parents, I can say with a fair bit of certainty that I''m human. It''s been awhile since I was born now, not sure how long really, it''s easy to lose track of days when you sleep through most of it. I''m starting to stay awake longer, so my parents have started playing and talking with me, not that I can understand many of the words. They seem to be speaking some form of Gaelic, which I knew a few words of from Earth; but decided to keep my mouth shut since I''m still a baby here. Few means few by the way, I only know a hand full of words from when I was looking into Druidism, seemed like a really hard language to learn so I gave up on it back on Earth...figures that would come back to bite me in the ass now. It looks like mom is either a housewife or staying home with me, as I don''t see my father much, he''s probably still working at whatever his job is. I''ve decided to wait till I can better understand the language before I let anything but unintelligible babble escape my mouth, it would probably freak my mother out if I tried saying any of the few words I know. When she''s not spending time with me or feeding me, I''ve been working on crawling in my crib, I want to be let loose as soon as possible to learn what I can from just looking around. When the time finally came, they brought in some simple toys for me to play with, mostly made from wood. They consisted of blocks, simple wooden puzzles, and to my surprise what looked a lot like a humongous set of Linkoln Logs, man talk about nostalgia. Despite my curiosity of my surroundings, I spent the next few days playing...come on, who doesn''t think of reliving their childhood every now and then. Really, I only stopped because they started babbling excitedly, non-stop, when they walked in and saw I had used nearly every one of the near 300 pieces of connecting logs to make a huge castle like structure. Their reaction told me that probably wasn''t normal, so I had set my play time aside to start searching around the room. After a few days of inspection, I didn''t really manage to find out too much. To the best of my knowledge, it''s hard to do precise measurement as a baby, the room is around 15 square feet and everything is made of hardwood. The one window in the room seems to face north due to the displacement of the light over time, but because of it I only know the sky is blue, I haven''t seen hide nor hair of the sun or moon to know if there''s any real difference from Earth. With my utter lack of any real results, I went back to playing while trying to appear somewhat like a normal baby. Enough time has passed now that I have finally been able to understand some portion of the language, a while ago I finally graduated to semi-solid food as well. Not nearly enough for my peace of mind, but enough that I know my birthday is today, I''m turning 1, and decided I need to start saying some simple words. By the way, my name in this world appears to be Mallic, while fathers'' is Connor, and mothers'' is Keelin, with our family name being Caervylen. I started walking a while ago as well, so I was able to look out the window from some new angles, and it appears that all the structures I could see are made of the same wood as my room. I''m starting to wonder if they have something against stone, or if my family just lives in some kind of outlying village. Weirdly, at least to me, this would be the first time I''ve been brought out of my room, I wonder if that''s normal in this world? When my mother came to get me, I called her momma for the first time...maybe I waited a bit too long, she dropped to her knees and started bawling after I spoke. I guess I may have worried them a bit since I haven''t tried to say any baby like words till now. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Father came running shortly after to try to figure out what was wrong, he sighed in relief and was really happy when mom told him what happened. We celebrated my birthday with a small cake like thing that wasn''t near as sweet as a cake should have been, maybe sugar is rare here? I got a few new toys as presents and they finally started to leave the door open for me to move around the house. After a year of moving around the house as I please, I got a much better understanding of my surrounding. We live in what looks like a small rural village of some sort, mostly surrounded by forests. Everything is really made of wood, just like you''d expect from a low tech outlying village. The sun looks a bit bigger than it did back on Earth, and there are 3 moons of different colors. The biggest is about 3 times the size of Earths'' moon and of a blue-silver color, the second largest is reddish and about twice the size of the moon on Earth, and the last moon is about the same size as Earths'' and yellow-orange in color. They must have an odd rotation around the planet as the only one you can see every night is the smallest one. When I asked my new mom about them, she told me they are, in order of size, the Beast Moon, then the Blood Moon, and then the Hearth Moon. The Beast Moon enhances the power of the natives of this world, making them more aggressive and putting the beastkin into heat. The Blood Moon makes the beasts and beastkin of the world even more aggressive, and it''s used to signal the start of succession and advancement battles in the beast clans. She said that it also has an effect on blood related or dependent creatures as well, making them more aggressive. The Hearth Moon, named because it looks a little like a hearth fire in color, simply acts as a normal moon. The following year I finally figured out that my father acts as a hunter and trapper for the village. My mother is apparently some kind of healer, and has started seeing patients in the home, though whenever someone comes over, I''m told to stay in my room. I asked her about it after, and it turns out she heals with magic, she has me stay away so that she doesn''t have to waste mana on curing me on the off-chance I caught something from a patient. Even though I asked, she won''t teach me about magic right now. She told me it''s unsafe to learn until the mana current in the body stabilizes around 5 years old. Once that happens, children are sent to the village sage to start basic schooling, and the exceptional ones are sent to special schools in bigger towns to be further trained after they turn 10. Life was pretty normal for me after that, consisting of simply being a kid again, just stuck inside, since it was dangerous to roam around outside due to wild beasts. I finally turned 5, after a breakfast of potato and mushroom porridge we''ll be heading to meet the sage. The sage is an old human with a bald head and a long grey beard, he kinda reminds me of Gandalf if he took off his hat. The old man is seems nice enough, probably the type that''s good with kids. He took us to a small building next to his house, where class is held. It''s a really simple place, one large classroom, an office, and a type of indoor outhouse....how I miss flushing toilets, at least the bathrooms are kept clean with water magic. I was told my class would have 8 students once I joined, between the ages of 5 and 7, and I would be learning the basics of magic, world study(which is basically nature science back on Earth), arithmetic, reading and writing. It seems humans are able to learn all the basic magics in this world, which are called basic invokements...which makes them sound a lot more impressive than they really are. Basic invokements are basically cantrip spells from good old D&D, doing nothing more than acting like a lighter, shedding light similar to a candle, and other little effects from each of the four basic elements. Today is my first day of school, I''m not going to lie, I''m nervous...I didn''t exactly have the best experience in school on Earth. As I was procrastinating getting out of bed, my door slammed open and my mother stormed in. "Time to get up, it''s your first day of school! How can you still be sleeping? When I was your age, I was so excited that I couldn''t even sleep!" - Keelin I just looked flatly at the "happy-go-lucky" mother, buzzing with excitement, and apparently that was enough to get her to realize I wasn''t as happy as her about the situation. Saying, "No time for butterflies, up you get!" she unceremoniously drug me out of bed, undressed, then redressed me in clean clothes appropriate for the first day of school. Pulling me to the kitchen table, she proceeded to shove food in me till it looked like I was full, before taking my hand and dragging me out the door...I may or may not have left treads in the ground. Once we arrived in front of the "school," she grabbed me by the shoulders, kissed my forehead, and told me to, "Go learn and have fun, that''s an order little man!", before shoving me toward the building. I stand in front of the door for a minute, look back to my mother who''s just standing there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot briefly, huff a long sigh, then open the door. When the door opened, everyone stopped what they were doing to turn and look at me, my only thought with all those eyes on me was, *Great, I''m back in hell.* Chapter 5: Back in Hell AN: I''m thinking of switching to this size text from now on, to make it a bit easier to read. What do you readers think, helpful or not? Let me know, since it''s for your benefit after all. ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 5: Back in Hell "Ah, there you are, class was just starting, your seat is the empty one in the back. Introduce yourself and have a seat." - Sage "Hello, I''m Mallic Caervylen, I''m 5, nice to meet you all." I say, bowing my head slightly, before I sit. Most of the curious stares returned to the front, putting me much more at ease. The older students in the class opened books, or are doing something else, I assume they''ve already heard this lecture. "Now, as I was just saying, it is my job here as your teacher to instruct new students in the basic principles of magic and basic study." - Sage "To begin with, magic is broken into 3 categories, those being Primal, Natural, and Spiritual." "Primal is elemental magic, starting at the basic four elements of earth, air, fire, and water." "Once you gain enough control over a combination of these 4, then you are able to combine them into additional effect, such as Ice or elemental lightning." "As you all know, everyone can learn the basic invocations of each element, which you will learn here." "At 10, you will learn of your elemental affinities, and progress from there." "Most of you will have one dominant element, while in a progressive rarity, you may find yourselves with more than one, meaning it''s more rare to have 4 than 3 and 3 than 2." "Natural magic is the ability to commune with and control nature, from plants and animals to soil and weather." "It shares some abilities with Primal and Spiritual magic, and can produce added effect if combined with the proper affinities." "Spiritual magic is broken into 4 parts, two of light and two of darkness, they are Healing, Hallowed, Shadow, and Void magic respectively" "Healing magic is fairly self-explanatory, it heals the user or others, alone or in groups, depending on the rank of magic." "Hallowed magic is attack and defense magic of the light category, it is primarily used to combat the unnatural forces of the world, such as undead." "Shadow magic is used primarily for stealth, as it doesn''t have any direct combat ability until very late in its mastery." "Its'' most common abilities are shadow manipulation, shadow movement, and shadow concealment." "Void magic consists of negation and absolution invocations and barriers, but also has various drain effects." "The basic magic you will be taught in this class, for the next 5 years, will be primarily from the Primal category; however, I will also be teaching you the basic commune for Natural magic." "Are there any questions before I continue on with the first days'' lecture?" A few of the other 5 year olds in the class asked some simple questions, receiving snickers from the older students before the last one finally asked something pertinent. "Why do we only learn to commune with nature and the basic Primal magic?" - random 5-year-old "Good question, since that looks like all the questions, I''ll answer that and then continue the lecture." - Sage The answer to that question was that, while everyone has an affinity for Primal, not everyone has an affinity for Spiritual magic. Also, affinity in Natural magic is gained through understanding of the world and communing with nature. Apparently, if someone without the proper affinity tries to use a magic, it will cause backlash, which can damage the mind and body of the caster depending on the element. The backlash from Void magic can supposedly even damage the soul if someone is stupid enough to try to invoke one of its'' higher ranks. We also learned that everyone produces an aura, which varies in appearance based on the strength of their soul, their personality and their affinities for magic. With proper training, everyone can see this aura if they concentrate, but some are able to view it at all times or can read it much better than others. If we show enough promise, or just if the family wants to make the trip, we are brought before someone who can read them with high certainty. They will then tell us, and our parents, of our affinities in the various magics. At lunch time, I was bombarded by the curious students as soon as I took out my food. I was asked repeatedly why I was late of course, to which I responded, "My bed attempted to eat me." Apparently, there was one person stupid enough to believe that, and we had a good laugh at his expense. The class is made up of 6 males, including myself, and 2 females, who happened to be among the older students. From talking with them, I found out that the older students were given a review sheet of sorts to complete before I got to class. Talking with the girls didn''t seem to sit too well with the oldest male in the class, but at least so far he''s kept it to just glaring at me. I spent the rest of lunch time talking with most of the younger students, and getting to know some more about them. After lunch, the lecture continued, but moved on to some of the other topics that were going to be covered in the class. The "self-defense" we were going to be learning was actually more like a medieval gym class. The younger students would be working on their basic physical education, while the older students would be learning basic blocks and attacks with a variety of simple weapons. World study would cover the local flora and fauna first, then move into more advanced concepts paired with environmental factors and their common flora and fauna. Reading and writing would be taught in tandem, utilizing local stories and known tales for the older students, while the younger ones would review the alphabet and start on the basics. Arithmetic, or course, is teaching us the number system, which thankfully uses the same one I already know, as well as covering the currency used in this world. With the lecture finally over, the first day of school ends, with my head fuzzy from information overload. When I got home my mom was dealing with a patient, so I went to my room and crashed onto my bed, waiting for my head to finish processing everything I learned. At dinner, I was asked how my day went, to which I honestly replied, "It could have been a lot worse." Over the next two years, my day was split between attending school and communing with nature behind the house. We learned how to commune in the first month...turns out it''s a lot like meditation, you just relax and let yourself blend into the environment through the use of mana. I''d tried this back on Earth, but never really got the hang of it, it''s a bit overwhelming to the senses at first, but quite peaceful after you get the gist. Two new students have joined the class, one male and one female, putting our total at 10, and I''ve gotten to know all of them a bit better, even the oldest jackass. Despite the small number of students, it''s still a typical classroom. You''ve got a few genuinely nice people, one or two who don''t seem to care, a couple of sporty type of people, and a bully or two. The only thing it''s missing is the rich entitled little pricks, but that''s probably because this is a small village. So far, I get along alright with about half the class, all 3 of the girls, a nice guy who sits in front of me, and the excited dumb one who we all laughed at during lunch on the first day. He''s among the sporty type, which I usually find exhausting, but his stupidity is of the funny variety, so I''m able to laugh at him a lot. The oldest jackass, who is now 9, has just gotten worse, as apparently he likes one of the older girls, and acts very possessive. Since she''s part of my little group that eats lunch together every day, he really doesn''t seem to like me much. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. According to her, he''s been targeting everyone who gets close to her since before I started, and it doesn''t show any signs of changing. Lately, the oldest kids have been paired up with us to teach basic defense with weapons. Unfortunately, today I got paired with the controlling asshole, so I can foresee some issues headed my way. During the matchups, we each get a straight short sword made of wood, a small round wooden shield, and a wooden chest protector that goes over the head and ties together at the waist, to keep in it place. At the start, it''s just practicing blocking basic sword swings with the shield, it''s designed to teach how to position the shield to be most effective. As such, all strikes need to be blocked, parried, or deflected by the shield, while we each take turns on the offensive. He''s been glaring at me with a smile on his face since the start, because he knows full well that after, we get to do a light spar. Even though we are only supposed to use the basic stuff, when the spar started, much like I assumed, he came rushing at me to try to beat me down with his little wooden sword. I had a lot of trouble, as I was trying to play by the rules and use my shield to block or parry all the swings. The Sage, decided to let it go unless it got too out of hand, and at some point all the students had gathered around to watch. I can''t really blame them, it''s fun watching people fight, and we were moving much faster than what most do during a basic spar. Honestly, I''m not doing as well as I should here, due to the added weight that this body isn''t use to, as well as not being overly familiar with shields and the unwieldy chest protector. I ended up taking a hit to the shoulder and knee before he bashed me in the face with his shield after I moved it to the side to block his sword, which forced me back a couple of steps and dazed me. I faintly heard the Sage yelling "That''s enough!" before my impact blurred vision turned red from anger. Dropping my shield, I was done playing by the rules. I closed the distance in a couple of steps and kicked the bottom of his shield, sending it up over his head, and making him stumble slightly. Before he could recover, I stepped in and drove my sword into the connection between his chin and neck. The strike, pushing up and back on an unbalanced opponent, sent him crashing to the ground. He dropped his sword and tried to bring his hands to his throat, but just managed to slam the shield still attached to his left arm into his own face. I followed up with a two-handed swing coming down on his groin, which made him turn green, and in a coughing fit, writhe around on the ground. I just watched him, laughing sadistically, until he started crying while in a fetal position on the ground holding his groin. Before the shocked onlookers, including the Sage, snapped out of it to come help, I walked to his head. Taking another two-handed grip, I brought the flat of the blade down flat onto his ear, making him scream again and clutch toward the new pain of a shattered eardrum. Of at least try, as he rolled to his back after the blow, and the shield hitting the ground wouldn''t allow his hand to reach his ear. With him now on his back, I took the opportunity to reverse my sword grip, and still standing by his grimacing face, stabbed my sword down into his right eye. With an extremely high-pitched scream, that plastered an evil grin on my face, and a little spray of blood and goo as his eye burst open, his bladder let loose and he passed out. I tossed my sword next to the jackass and turned to apologize for going a bit out of control, only to find a look of horror on his face. The rest of the class wasn''t much better, everyone was either pale from fear or green after just having thrown up, and the youngest girl had actually fainted and was laying over at the side. Seeing this, I scratched my head bashfully and said, "I went a bit too far, sorry." The old man finally snapped out of it, and rushed over to the passed out 9-year-old. After a quick once over, he picked him up and told the rest of the students to go home before hustling off away from the school. I ended up just following the Sage, since it turned out he was headed to my house to have my mother heal him. I opened the door for him and he yelled, "We need healing here quick!", to which my mom came running. Once mom started healing the boy, the Sage excused himself to go tell his parents and have them pick him up. Along with a lot of apologizing from my mother and I, mom explained to the boys'' parents that everything was cured, and he was no longer in any danger, but that she wasn''t skilled enough to regenerate his eye. After the boy and his parents left, the Sage stayed, and we all gathered at the table to talk about what happened. The Sage told us, that although my retaliation on the boy wasn''t a problem, how far I took it was. Had I stopped at just beating the boy, or breaking a few bones, it could have been easily fixed with no recourse, but since I did irreparable damage and scared the shit out of the entire class, I was going to be barred for a month. After saying his peace, he left to go clean up and make sure everyone got home safely. I was then lectured by my mother for hours, I swear she only stopped because she had to start fixing dinner, but stated we would continue the "talk" after father got home. And sure enough, after we all had dinner, we picked it right back up, and it continued until I was sent to bed. The whole gist of it was simply, that I need to control myself better, so that I don''t take it so far next time. When dad mentioned that I might have inherited some of his ancestors ¨²lfh¨¦enar blood, they decided they need to keep a closer eye on me just in case. When I asked what that meant, they told me, and apparently it''s something like a berserker from D&D. The lecture was a bit more light-hearted after that, since they had something they could blame my behavior on probably. I was mostly warned to tell them, immediately, if I was feeling any sudden fits of anger or aggression, especially if accompanied by a desire to see blood or break things. Dad also told me that we would be sparring with each other after dinner for the next month, to see if I have any more fits. Unfortunately, my month of freedom from hell went by way too quickly. I sparred with my father every day after dinner for 2 hours with wooden swords and shields. He taught me some more basics for the first half, and we openly sparred for the second. After every spar, he would bombard me with questions about my mental state, to see if I was having any surges of anger. Toward the end of the month, my parents sat me down and asked me to give my best opinion on why it hasn''t happened again. After thinking for a while, I said, "I think it''s because dad cares for me, while the boy didn''t." When they asked what I meant, I told them about him not liking me from day one, and why. "I think I lost it like I did, because after spending years with him directing his dislike and bloodlust at me every day, I felt a need to return it all to him when the chance showed itself." - Mallic "So you''re saying, I wasn''t really trying to do you harm...that would explain why you took out his eye at least. But what about his ear?" - Connor "I''m honestly not sure, the only reason that comes to mind is that he never listens to what other people tell him. Most of the bullying he does to people, is because they talk to a girl he likes in class, even though she doesn''t like him." - Mallic To which, mom chimes in with an evil grin, "Well, if a man refuses to hear, he doesn''t really need his ears, now does he?" - Keelin "..." - Mallic and Connor "That''s kind of scary and cool at the same time mom." - Mallic Chapter 6: Leaving Home Chapter 6: Leaving Home Returning to school was interesting, to say the least. Walking into the classroom caused startled jumps and cringes of fear. The empty desk, I presumed to be mine, was now separated from the rest of the class to the side; and I was no longer being paired with any of the students in classes. I guess my actions were too much for simple villagers to stomach. I can''t really blame them I suppose, this is a really small village after all. There are no guards and no walls in this village, and as far as I can tell, it would be lucky if it had a total of 100 people in it. Apparently, the hunters act as the main guard force, as they try to keep the hostile creatures cleaned out while hunting. When I asked my father, Connor, about the lack of guards before, he told me that it''s rare for any of the creatures near here to group up in a large enough number to threaten the town. On the few occasions when small bands of goblins or packs of wolves attacked, the adults would gather farm tools to hold them off, while the hunters would pick them off until they broke and ran, which has only happened a hand full of times since the founding of the village. He took the opportunity to tell me, if a large band of creatures ever attacked the village, that the village would be screwed; and I should meet up with my mother immediately to evacuate. Something about karma really pisses me off, apparently I jinxed the village by asking. "Hey, move your ass!", my dad says quietly, smacking my side. Getting up and looking around briefly, my father is standing in my room in his hunting gear, bow in hand; and I can hear some sounds from faintly from outside. "What''s going on, dad, it''s still night?", I replied noticing it''s still really dark outside, before being hushed by him. "The village is under attack, stay silent, get up." - Connor My eyes went wide, then my brow furrowed in irritation, "Shit", I said as I got up, pissed at my luck. Once I was getting dressed, my father ripped one end of my pillow and shook it to let out the fluff. He threw it to me and whispered, "Throw 2 changes of clothing in there and tie it to your belt, we''re moving light." After doing as told, I followed him to the main room where we ran into my mother, Keelin, and I stopped dead, unable to do more than stare. The mother I knew was nowhere to be found, in her place was a beauty clad in chainmail, a mace at her hip, a shield on her back, and a way too serious expression for my somewhat aloof mother. The wheels of my mind began churning, the only thought I was capable of making was, "Holy shit, my mom''s a cleric." She looked the spitting image of a D&D cleric, without the helm, though apparently they''re called Battle Priestess'' here. Seeing I had stopped, my father came over and gave me a slap upside the head, bringing me back to my senses. "There will be plenty of time to marvel at the beauty of your mother in full gear if we get out of here alive." - Connor Displaying a little of the mother I know, my mom raised an eyebrow and giggled softly before her serious look came back. "Here, take this, hopefully you won''t have to use it, but I wouldn''t hold my breath.", my dad said while handing me a long knife, which I put through my belt on my right hip, since the bag of clothes was tied to my left. My parent then quickly updated me on the situation at hand. The village was being attacked by a large group of goblinkin, composed of 5 squads of goblins led by a single squad worth of hobgoblins, each squad contains 20 goblinkin. If it was just the goblins, the village could fight back, but hobgoblins can fight on par with humans. To top it off, they seem to be organized, as the goblins used a pincer movement on the village. Seeing that and deciding to follow his gut, my father decided to abandon post and try to get his family out of the village. They came out of the forest to the north-west and south-west, so we will be heading to the east. "Get your weapon and shield at the ready, keep your eyes open, we''re heading out." - Connor Exiting the house, I could now hear the sounds clearly, the sounds of battle from the west side of the village were constant, only pierced by the occasional sounds of the dying. Bright flickering light suddenly appeared on the edge of my vision, and my dad cursed, "Shit, they already started burning the place." "Keep silent and follow." Connor said, as he led us west quickly and silently. Mom and I followed dad a short pace behind, shoulder to shoulder, as he took the lead to scout. "Keep an eye out for loose goblin.", mother whispered as we got closer to the edge of the village. Getting to the last house on this side of the village, father hugged the walls and peered around the edge briefly, before pulling his head back and motioning us to get to the wall. He held up his hand with two fingers extended but bent at the knuckle, then pointed to the wall. "Two goblins moving to the left of the house." Keelin whispered to me. Dad drew his bow and knocked an arrow, pausing to nod to us, before moving around the edge of the house. I heard the sound of a bow-string shortly after, followed quickly by another one accompanied by a soft grunt. Father came back around the corner, motioning his thumb across his throat before waving us to follow. Once at the edge of the forest, we all stopped to take a last look at the village. The fighting had reached the center of the village now, and many of those that couldn''t fight were beginning to flee. I spotted a familiar one-eyed face, filled with horror as he was running next to his mother, right before I noticed something else. "What the fuck is that?!", escaped my mouth as I watched what looked like a goblin version of the hulk break through the defenders, heading straight to the fleeing. The one-eyed bully, and his mother, also saw it, making them panic even more, increasing their pace a bit. As it got closer, to my disgust, the boy pushed his mother, causing her to fall before running again. The mother got to her hands and knees, staring at her son in shock before the huge goblin caught up. It didn''t stop though, instead it used her as a stepping stone, placing its massive foot on her back and jumping into the air. The hollow grating sound of her back snapping could be heard even from the edge of the forest we were hiding in. "Shit, they have a brute with them, time to go." my father said, turning to head into the forest. The brute landed right behind the one-eyed boy bringing its fist down on top of his head. The heavy blow was enough to crush his neck, appearing to almost sink his head into his torso before he crumbled, forcing a sinister smile to my face. "Serves him right, the ungrateful little shit." - Keelin Hearing that, I turned to look at my mother, to see a smile much like my own on her face, before we both turned to follow my father. After entering the forest, the sounds of battle quickly faded out, the dense layers of trees acting as natural sound-proofing. We were moving slow, staying as silent as possible to avoid detection from any roaming goblins. Connor was keeping a 10 foot lead on us to scout, occasionally climbing a tree to survey the area. After a half an hour, mom called a halt and we hid ourselves behind some trees, dad closing his eyes and cupping his hands over his ears. "Moving on high alert, straining your senses like, quickly overwhelms the mind, so I called a 5 minute break to have him rest." - Keelin explained "We''ve been moving steadily, but not very quickly, to be careful of ambushes or trackers." - Keelin "Do you think we''ve gone far enough to escape pursuit?" - Mallic Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. "Hardly, we only moved a mile at most, and slowly, it would be easy for them to catch up if they noticed our tracks; but unfortunately a break is needed, your father isn''t as young as he use to be." - Keelin "I get slower, and she gets more beautiful, how fair is that?" - Connor "Oh, come on, you know I only look this good in my charm enchanted chainmail...more importantly, are you better now?" - Keelin Before my mother and father could enter their own pink colored little world, they were interrupted by some rustling near by. The mood was instantly erased, and my father once again held his bow, arrow knocked, waiting for whatever was coming. The bushes sprouted two goblins, the first to appear got an arrow to the eye for his troubles, sending a short spray of blood before collapsing from the arrow piercing its brain. The second rushed forward, eating a face-full of shield from my mother, stunning it before her mace swung around meeting the side of its bulbous head. With a loud enough crunch to make you cringe, the side of his head caved in to meet his nose, spraying blood and brain matter to the surroundings. I bowed my head slightly and silently prayed for the dead goblins, thankful for them interrupting my love-bird parents before it got out of hand. Lowering their weapons, but keeping them at the ready, my father said, "We need to get..." That''s as far as he got before two more goblins burst out from behind us. My father''s bow quickly came up and he fired an arrow into the throat of one of the little green monstrosities, blood sprayed the surroundings as the arrow passed straight through, missing the spine. The goblin took two more steps and collapsed, its carotid artery pumping it''s life blood into a pool on the ground. The last goblin rushed at me, who happened to be in front from the direction these two came. Mom wouldn''t be able to reach it before it got to me, and I was in my fathers line of fire, so I guess I need to deal with this one myself. With the ugly little thing having finally reached me, it swung its sword from right to left in a horizontal strike. I stepped in and brought my shield up, turning it out to receive the blow. Once it connected, I swung my shield out deflecting the blow to the side, opening the goblins defense. I sent a quick kick to its solar plexus, causing it to violently expel the air in its lungs, leaving it coughing for air as it took a step back. Unfortunately for it, I was still holding my knife in a reverse grip as it stepped back with its right leg first, leaving it''s left wide open. Not one to let an opening pass, I quickly bent my knees and drove my arm down, forcing my long knife into its thigh. Rather than just pull it out, I pushed it forward on an incline, opening a long gash in the creatures leg, before the blade left its thigh and the pommel slammed into the gap of its shoulder, numbing it''s left arm. It howled in pain as its body was pushed to the side from pommel strike, but it used it to full turn and try to send a downward swing at my side, behind my shield. I took two quick steps forward to avoid the strike, and turned to my right, intending to use the swipe of my blade to keep some distance while I reset my stance. Unfortunately for the little goblin, it had tried to rush in to thrust at my heart from behind. My quick turn caused its short sword to pass right by me, while it wasn''t so lucky. The reverse sweep I used combined with the goblins closer proximity, put my blade right into its side below its outstretched arm, puncturing it''s lung. As it tried to turn to its right to keep me from getting behind it, I spun to my left, the conflicting motions tore my knife out of its body, opening a gaping hole in its side that sprayed the surroundings like a crimson fountain. Before completing my spin, I leaned to my right and pulled in my left arm in, slamming the edge of me shield into its face. I heard the satisfying crunch of its nose shattering before it pole axed and fell to its back. Not knowing if it would be out long, I quickly switched to a forward grip on my long knife, before leaning in and hurriedly swiping my blade across its throat. The sudden shower of blood that sprayed over me left me temporarily blinded, as I had to do quite a bit of wiping and blinking to clear my blood covered vision. Noticing my problem, my mother came over to help me wipe off some of the blood on my face, my dad was too busy laughing to be of any help. Once I could finally see, I noticed my moms face doing quite a bit of twitching, so with a sigh I said, "I can see, thanks, you can laugh now." To which she gratefully smiled, before drowning in her own round of laughter. After a few minutes, they finally calmed down, patted me on the back in congratulations for my first kill, and quickly got ready to leave. As they were checking the corpses, I was checking my new soul knowledge, while I couldn''t see if anything noticeable happens due to the blood mask, I could feel it. Really strange feeling it is too, almost like countless drops of water being slowly sucked into your skin...I liked that description better than the first that entered my head, which was sweating in reverse, it made me feel dirty, so I changed it. Seeing what new options I had was exciting, until I saw the first one, I almost didn''t manage to keep the shock off my face. I know they smelled bad, but really, did they smell bad enough to have a trait called ''Disgusting Stench''. Just eww, but at least the one other thing it had could be useful, disease resistance - cost 50 se. Definitely useful, once I get enough Soul Essence anyway, the dirty little goblin only gave me 2. Once the bodies were looted, we picked up the pace a bit, trying to get some distance between us and the burning village. Hours passed trekking through the thick trees, with mom and I following behind my father before we finally took another break. Mom and I sat on a fallen log, hidden by a strand of trees, while dad just leaned against a tree, keeping watch on the surroundings. "With the pace we were going, we should be out of immediate danger now, stay here and I''ll look for a spot to set up camp." - Connor Once he left, mom and I started looking around for tinder, I didn''t want to haul around heavy firewood, as we''re in a forest, it''s everywhere, and looking for nut and berry bushes. We managed to forage some mulberries and pine nuts, as well as some wild garlic by the time my father came back. He guided us to a small clearing about a half mile away, with a thick enough tree line that it would be hard to get through. Once there, he went about setting up traps, while mom and I gathered wood. Dad came back with a rabbit; and we soon had a small cooking fire over which stew was brewing. The conversation quickly turned to what we were going to do now, since we couldn''t exactly head back to the village. "I think it''s time we head back to a decent town, it shouldn''t be hard for us to get work, and it would be better school wise for Mallic." - Keelin "Hmm. The nearest place to here is still a village, the nearest town is still around 10 days away, and that''s by carriage, you sure about it Keelin?" - Connor " I know it will sap most of our funds to hire a carriage, but it will be much easier, and frankly, I want to find a new home quickly." - Keelin "Besides, if worse comes to worse, we can always take a few quests from the Adventurers Guild." - Keelin "Yeah, as usual your right sweetheart, let''s go with that then." - Connor "We should be able to get to the village by sundown tomorrow, we can catch a carriage there after a good nights sleep at the inn." - Connor "If that''s the case, we better get some sleep while we can, it will be an early start tomorrow. Night, night you two." - Keelin Knowing she gave sound advice, we all turn in for sleep, but just as I was about to doze off, I realized something that shocked me awake and upright. "Wait, you two are adventurers?!" - Mallic Chapter 7: Parents Past - Part 1 AN: There was a delay in the middle of me writing this, sorry for the slight lateness. I realized the normal adventurer guild ranking wouldn''t work for this story, so had to do some impromptu research in the middle. I ended up using the meaning of the trees in Ogham to create the ranking system. This section also turned out much longer than I first planned, as such I''m breaking it into two parts. Part 2 should be out tomorrow or the day after depending on RL. Hope you all enjoy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 7: Parents Past - Part 1 Despite the sleepless night and my continued curiosity, I had to wait until we acquired a carriage to hear the answer to my question. They told me that it wouldn''t do to reminisce while in this situation, and though they were right, I still wanted to know immediately. This new side of my parents had consumed my mind to the point I barely remember a thing about the small town we got the carriage from. The buildings were made of wood, the name started with a B, and the road was hard packed dirt, that''s all. As soon as the door closed, I burned a hole in them with my stare until they finally started to spit out the story. We had 6 days worth of travel by carriage to go through, so when not setting up camp, hunting, or sleeping, I had them fill the time spent in the carriage with stories of their past. Turns out Connor, my father, grew up in a village similar to the one that was attacked. Of course, as a youth, he got bored with the peace and quite of rural life; and once he was old enough, headed to a nearby town. He spent his time hunting for food, selling the skins for pocket-money, until he was spotted by a group of fledgling adventurers. Being a small, lopsided team of melee fighters, they pressed him to join up with their group for ranged support. After explaining about the adventurers guild and quest rewards, he readily agreed, and they quickly got him signed up at the guild. When he joined, they were still ranked as a Birch ranked team, since even though they were beginners they weren''t stupid ones. They realized they didn''t have the diversity in their team to be able to take on monsters when fully outnumbered, so they didn''t try. With dad in their party though, they could finally take on something other than beginner quests, and they quickly moved up to Ivy rank from small subjugation quests. There they were stuck once again, as they were still a bit inexperienced and didn''t have the full party needed for the harder quests to reach the next rank. When I asked about the rankings, he explained that after signing on with the guild, you were given a probationary Birch ranking. Once you proved that you could finish easy quests within the given conditions, mostly regarding time limits, you would be given full status as a Birch rank. From Birch, the rankings moved up through Ivy, Elder, Alder, Blackthorn, and Poplar, based on the Ogham Tree Alphabet. Poplar is considered the pinnacle of what adventurers could aspire to, however, there is one rank above it. That rank is Oak, and there are only two ways to reach it, which is out of reach for normal adventurers. The easy way is to receive an achievement that helps the country, such as being pivotal in the downfall of an invading army, being essential in the subjugation of a rampaging dragon, or some similar event, where all you have to do is have a starring role. The hard way is only available to prodigies, whose number can be counted on a single hand in the last thousand years or so. In other words, you have to be born with the talent for it, and have the dedication to work your ass off with Oak as the goal. Even so, it usually still involves surviving some life threatening situation, alone or with your party of 6, that would crush a normal Poplar ranked adventurer or party. As an example, he told me about two of the Oak ranked from the past, one had subjugated a dragon on his own, which usually takes a small army. The second was a party, which received the rank after returning from unbelievably surviving an attack against an army of thousands of undead while loosing only one member. Eventually, they did manage to fix the problem by adding a mage to their party a year later. With the new firepower, they were able to move up to Elder rank within a few months. Unfortunately for them, they forgot their caution with the addition of the mage, and continued to push for the next rank. Quests went well at first, but they soon took on a subjugation that turned out to be too much for their party. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Thinking their mage''s aoe spells would be enough to destroy a nest of Grand Widows, a dire spider version of the black widow that has an armor like exoskeleton, they brashly walked into their lair. They made good progress at first, igniting the giant spiders, and finishing them with swords while they thrashed in pain. But soon, they came to a huge chamber in the cave complex, so large, they couldn''t see the ceiling, even with the mage floating some light spells. While defeating the few large spiders that came rushing at them without a worry, everything changed. From the shadows on the far side of the chamber, a spider twice the size of any they had faced appeared. They began hearing skittering all around, so the mage sent his lights out around them. What they saw filled them with horror, not because they were surrounded, as there were only a half a dozen of the giant spiders moving around them. It was the sight of dozens of Grand Widow corpses covered in webs that terrified them. That sight told them exactly what the huge spider on the far side of the chamber was. She was a Grand Widow Queen, and her presence meant the presence of something else...eggs. With a high pitched screech, the Queen showed her anger, and seconds later, as if in response to her scream, was the sound of many somethings tearing. Then it began to rain, as baby spiders the size of a full-grown mans head fell from the caves ceiling. Though they tried their best, they were quickly overwhelmed by the hundreds of spiders raining down on them. The mage fell first, having no armor to protect it against the venomous fangs of the new-born spiders. With the fall of their mage, the party tried to retreat, but seeing that, the large spiders charged as well. They barely made it to entrance they came from, but knowing they couldn''t outrun the horde in this cave, one of the melee fighters stayed to block the passage. The three surviving members returned to town hollow from the loss, sick from the venom, and tired from the exertion. Upon reaching town, they immediately headed to the healers to cure the poison, and afterword, the downtrodden party split up and went their own ways. My father told me he roamed around from town to town for a while after that, going back to his day''s hunting for food. Eventually he stumbled into a town that reminded him of his old one, and started staying in its surrounding forest, hunting and trading with the town. At this point mom took over the story, telling me that it was the town she grew up in. She said that in those days, Connor''s eyes seemed dead, he just walked into town, traded and left, never talking to anyone. To her, it seemed he wasn''t living, but rather just existing, which struck her as odd, she was young and didn''t know how a living person could look so dead. After almost a year of watching him trudging into town on a weekly basis, looking like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, curiosity took root. Still having enough caution not to run after a man alone into a forest that was known to be dangerous, she quickly extorted two other children into helping her. "Yeah, she was a mischievous little minx even back then. Oww, OWW, stop it already!" - Connor My father piped in, just to be smacked...repeatedly, by my mother before she continued the story. The next time he came to town, her and her two new cohorts followed him into the woods. Though being too young to have been allowed into the forest previously, and following a skilled hunter, even a mentally dead one, they quickly lost sight of him and got turned around. After wandering around the forest for what seemed like hours, they were scared and at their wit''s end. Hearing the sound of soft footfalls, they felt a wave of relief, thinking that soft of steps had to be that of the hunter. The three ran in the direction of the sound, speaking loudly to him, so they didn''t startle him if he didn''t notice them. Breaking through some bushes, what they found wasn''t the hunter but a wolf. A grey and white furred wolf, almost as large as the deer it was eating, and from their commotion, it was looking straight at them. It''s gaze freezing them in place from fear, it seemed the world went silent, until they heard more soft footfalls from both sides. Chapter 8: Parents Past (Part 2) Chapter 8: Parents Past (Part 2) Two move wolves emerged, one from either side. "Of course, my cohorts and I were nearly pissing our pants at this point." - Keelin "But right as the first wolf lunged for us, an arrow sprouted from its eye." "Luckily for your mother, she was right near my camp, and I couldn''t get to sleep due to the racket of it all." - Connor "Yes, you were very gallant dear, right until you fell from the tree." my mother said, smiling. My dad just sighed and continued the story, not that there was much left. His ''fall'' from the tree, was according to him, a jump onto one of the wolves. He managed to stab it in the head, and ready his bow before the last wolf got it''s bearings. Another well placed arrow ended the whole ordeal, and 3 scared children were thanking him profusely in crying voices. "He was quite harsh at that time, he called us snot nosed brats and told us to bugger off back to the village." - Keelin "Obviously, I''ve trained him quite a bit since then." mom said, as dad just stared slack-jawed while muttering "I knew it!" "In the end, I still had to lead them back to the village since they were hopelessly lost at that point." dad said, after he recovered. "From that point on, my parents pulled him to the house for supper every chance they got." - Keelin "After a few months, it became habit for me, and I''d just head over whenever I came to trade." - Connor And so the story went, as we slowly rolled down the road in the shaky carriage. After we made camp that evening, dad decided to take me hunting with him, saying "I need more experience facing monsters after that gobby." He netted a couple of rabbits with his bow before flushing out a small boar. A couple of arrows were sent into its hind quarters, near its hips, to slow it down, and he let me finish it off. Though it was unexpected, apparently I can absorb the souls from animals too. I got a much better look at it this time, but the only visual representation was some barely perceivable dark mist, that left from the body and swirled at my legs before being absorbed. I''ve got to say, it''s pretty sad, I got more Soul Essence from the young boar than I did from the goblin, just how weak was that thing? So now with the 2 from the goblin and the 5 from the boar, I''m at 7 Soul Essence. The Soul Knowledge I got from the boar appears to be a rush attack called Charge, that buffs my speed slightly while reducing the stamina used to run; and it costs 30 Soul Essence to absorb it. It looks like it''s going to be a while before I can get any useful abilities from this, oh well, it''ll come in time. Back on the road again, the stories from my parents continued. Apparently, after a year or so, life started coming back into dad''s eyes; and not long after, he left. He traveled to a nearby town and, again, took up as an adventurer, only solo. Dad told me he was still scared that he''d lose more people if he tried to press for bigger rewards. It took another two years before he was finally talked into joining another team, this time correctly balanced. The team consisted of 2 women, the mage and quick melee attacker, and 3 men, the tanker, priest, and heavy melee attacker, not including himself. He told me that, if I ever signed up as an adventurer, that I should make sure to be in a balanced party like this, or pay the extra to form a squad. Not that he really needed to stress the point, I knew the importance of a balanced party from playing D&D, nice to see it applies here though. Come to think of it, I wonder if it would sell here if I made it...might be a little too close to reality for this world. Not long after he joined the party, mom showed up in town, and apprenticed to the healer, not that dad knew it at the time. A few years went by pretty normally, and mom was on the brink of becoming a full-fledged magic healer. And then, everything went to hell, as an adult dragon rampaged through her home village, burning it to the ground. The adventurers guild enlisted all available personnel to team up with an armed dispatch from the capital to go subjugate it. The healers had to stay on stand by in the town for their return, or mom probably would have run off to die, since she couldn''t fight very well at that point in time. According to father, his team ended up pretty luck in the encounter with the dragon. When they arrived at the village, it was a smoldering ruin. The army had the adventurers integrate into the army''s formation. The mages were at the back protected by a line of blockers and a hand full of archers. The rest of the tank style adventurers were behind the armies front line, and ordered to fill any gaps. Grouped behind the flanks of the front line, was the heavy attackers, and in the middle was the rest of the archers, including dad. Behind the archers were the quick melee attackers followed by the healers. That sandwiched the healers between the guards for the mages and the mid field archers and quick melee attackers for protection. Injured combatants were to fall back to the healers, or be pulled to them by the quick attackers if unable to walk, before returning to their spots. Not that all the organization of the troops ended up helping much in the end. Shortly after arriving at the village, some army scouts were sent to do what they do, scout. Unfortunately for the subjugation force, the dragon returned before the scouts, from the back. It flew out from the forest without so much as a sound, other than the wind buffing the spread wings. By the time those at the back noticed, it was too late, the dragon opened its maw and sent a gout of fire at the force as it flew overhead. With the dragons first pass, half of the back lines and a third of the middle, turned into bad-smelling burnt marshmallows. When the fire ended, it descended in a low swoop over the front lines, grabbing a soldier in each hind claw as it flew off over the village. The remaining mages of the back line, not frantically trying to put out burning robes or sobbing uncontrollably in terror, managed to help each other out by soaking the battlefield in water. The healers buffed everyone''s fire defense, and the archers nocked their arrows, with the remaining mages preparing piercing spells. On the dragons return flight, it used the soldiers in its hind claws as rocks to toss at the mass of archers in the middle. The arrows in return, didn''t seem to do much as the majority just bounced off its tough scales. The mages projectiles had better luck, as a few managed to pierce a couple of holes in its wings instead of shattering against its scaled hide. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. But it still wasn''t enough to bring it down, as it just continued its flight over the forest, before turning a wide bank that put it in line with the heavy defenders in the front. Most, through what my dad considered stupidity, just hunkered down behind their shields instead of getting out of its path. Which caused most of them to die, as the dragon let out another breath while flying over their heads. Only a couple of hand fulls of the front line survived the onslaught of dragon fire, mostly the adventurers who had the sence to run when the dragon opened its mouth. On its next return path, they finally got it to the ground, with the aid of another barrage of spells to its wings membrane. I couldn''t help but think, "Sure, why wouldn''t you get it down after most the defenders are roasted other white meat." Even on the ground, a dragon is still dangerous, it took them hours to finally get bring it down. The casualties kept piling up as the dragon trashed around biting, clawing, and tail slamming any of the fighters that came to deter it. Unfortunately, it was either keep sending people to be eaten as a distraction, or sit back and let it roast everyone, so people kept coming. Finally the mages managed to put an end to it by sending elemental magics into its open mouth, guess it''s not as tough inside as outside. In the end, the force of over 300 that came to confront it, was whittled down to less than a hundred. Dad considered his team lucky because they only lost two of their members to the dragon, when most teams lost most of them, if they weren''t completely wiped out. Their front line defender got eaten after they got it down, and their heavy hitter got hit heavily with a much bigger tail. The quick attacker lost a hand to a claw, but was still alive; and dad got quite a few cuts from flying debris and weapons flying from broken attackers. Due to the lack of defenders when the dragon was downed, the healers were forced to ranged cast, which takes more magic, so there were very little heals to go around. Those who weren''t dying were ordered back to town to be healed there. That''s how dad got carried back, only to be reunited with mother in the healers office. The town was in a mixture of relief and grief, as the dragon was no longer a threat, but many had lost family or friends. Mom only found out that dad had gone after the dragon after he was gone, so she was quite relieved when he came back alive, despite the injuries. Due to the heavy load on the healers in town, all healers were helping out, and she got to tend to Connor. Due to all the cuts leaving his clothes in tatters, she had to strip and clean him to keep fabric from being healed into the wounds. She told me that was when her feeling for him first started to change from familial to romantic. It was the first time she had seen any male, not actually of her family, in the nude, so it made a big impact on her...aside from the embarrassment. After the fall out from the incident, as he was the only person she considered family left alive, she decided to travel with him. That took some time however, since he didn''t want her in harm''s way, and they already had a healer. She basically stalked him for 3 months, never letting him go anywhere alone, much to his annoyance and his party''s chargrin. Finally, with some help from the other members of his party, he folded and she was able to join his party. Since both the heavy melee and the defender position were vacant, she got trained for both. The party''s thought was, it would be easier if they could still fill either position by moving her around. Not to mention, it was a boon to have a hybrid that could fulfill defender, damage dealer, and emergency healer in the party...if she could survive all the training. Mom was determined though, and in a couple of years time, not only had she learned both of the roles, she excelled at them. Once they filled the party slots, and her training was done, it didn''t take much longer for their team to rank up again. They never did advance past Blackthorn though, as a few party members decided to retire. Even though they recruited more and continued to press on for a while, it was never as good as that team. So in the end, the party split, and mom and dad just roamed from town to town together. The more time they spent alone together, the closer they got; and even dad, who thought of her only as a brat most the time, began to have feelings for her as a woman. A few years after they started their travels they decided to settle down, and that''s how they ended up in the little village I was born in. They told other stories to fill the time, but none of them were all that exciting. It was more like they were bragging about how in love they were, or stories that mostly consisted of them flirting. I had to stop them a few times when they started to get carried away, I really didn''t want to hear about any of their night-time adventures. No matter what world you''re in, it''s uncomfortable to hear about your parent''s sex lives. The only viable information that came up in the rest of the conversations was about dungeons. Apparently, that''s where mom got her chainmail from during their second year adventuring together. Dungeons are almost like they are in games on Earth, the only difference being that the creatures travel to them instead of being born from them. The condensed magic in the area draws in various creatures, who then build homes, that given time, connect into a dungeon. If it''s been around long enough, some of the items nabbed by the critters, or dropped by people can collect magic and become magical equipment. The types of creatures vary, but none are just normal, they have to be able to feed off the magic collected there, or they would kill each other off or starve. It seems the usual is undead and magic beasts, though sometimes you can run into abominations or magically created beings and mutations. Abominations are born that way, usually through negative energies or mistakes of magical experimentation. While mutations, come about due to the influence of high concentrations of any form of energy or deliberate changes through experimentation. Nothing else of interest came out before the towns stone walls came into view. This place is a lot bigger than the village, and we had to wait in line for about an hour before we got through the gates. Once inside, a bustling and lively town unfolded in front of my eyes. People were everywhere, some running, some walking, others standing at stalls shouting prices. Mom told me that the last time they were in this town it boasted 5000 people, and it looked to have doubled since then. So this town has 100 times the people of our tiny little village huh? Great, that means I''m going to find a whole lot of idiots... Chapter 9: Arrival Chapter 9: Arrival While attempting to keep my internal thoughts internal, my parents led me through the town. They told me while waiting in line that they would show me around later, but first we needed to head to the housing authorities in this district to buy a house. Apparently, each district had its own housing authorities, and a person had to go to the one in the district they wished to buy a house in, and the same for selling a house from that district. It was run by an off-shoot of the merchants guild, and which district you were in charge of determined your standing in the guild, with the lowest ranks being stationed in the poor district. While on our way, I noticed some very poor looking people hauling things about, as well as some people with what looked like leather or metal chokers. When curiosity got the better of me, I finally asked while pointing some of them out. I was told that the ones with collars were slaves, probably running errands for their masters. The ones without, were either workers from the poor district, or were servants running errands. When I asked about slaves, they went on a spiel about servants and slaves that lasted till we arrived at our destination. The major points were simple enough to grasp. Servants were paid paltry amounts for long hours of back-breaking labor, but were able to quit at any time. The more often they quit however, the harder it would be for them to get further work, and the poor didn''t have many options. Slaves, on the other hand, were expensive to purchase and were provided the basic necessities in return for whatever they were used for. In addition, they could not quit, they could however be returned to a slave trader or re-assigned to another master after an investigation, if allegations of unlawful treatment were verified. There were a few different kinds of slaves as well, with slave laborers being the most common, followed by common slaves, then a third type my parents refused to tell me about at my age. Slave laborers were mostly strong bodied men, consisting of captured common soldiers, who couldn''t be ransomed, and hardened criminals. The criminals were usually sent off to mines and the like to work away their lives, while the spoils of war guys were sometimes sold as work force for the rich. Common slaves could be either men or women, but women were more popular for their appearance and increased uses. They were often used as errand runners, but many of the women were also used as retainers or servants for young noble ladies, who were rarely able to leave their homes. The older ones could even be sold as simple tutors for the wealthier merchants children, after training of course. Common slaves were either debt holders, who would be freed automatically after working off their debt, or willing or given slaves. Sometimes, due to poor conditions, or having too many children, a person would offer themselves, or be offered by the family. Slave traders were held responsible for providing decent living conditions, including a clean place to sleep and meals, for the slaves. So if a family couldn''t provide enough food, or the person themselves couldn''t provide their own livelihood, they sometimes ended as slaves. Though that only applied to legal slave traders, and I was cautioned to be wary of any black market slave traders I might come across. Some things obviously don''t change regardless of the world it seems. The common district housing authority was conveniently situated between a woodworking shop and a tavern. The building itself was a relatively nondescript two-story wood building. If it wasn''t for the sign bearing a house in the center, with a hand holding money toward and away from the house on either side, most people would probably think it was a residence. The signage in this world seems to be rather straight-forward and literal to make it easier for those that can''t read. Signs on taverns always have something to do with food and drinks, and shops always have a depiction related to what they are for or sell. I was too busy thinking what kind of signage brothels and slave traders would put up to notice the inside of the building. By the time I had gone through a dozen or so strip club like designs for brothels, and another dozen dominatrix type ones for slave traders, in my head of course. We had already exited the housing authorities, with what I assume was a deed in my moms hand. Dad had another piece of paper unfolded in his hands, which turned out to be a simple drawn map to our house. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. While walking, my parents took the opportunity to tell me a bit about the towns layout. Mom explained that there are 4 gates in this town, the west gate, south gate, east gate, and central gate. The west gate enters into the poor district, something of a slum, with lower security. The south gate, which we came through, enters into the common district, which is relatively safe and contains simple shops; but the back-allies should be avoided after dark. The east gate enters into the upper district, which has the guilds, wealthy merchants, and a shop for almost everything. The central gate, is on a secondary wall that surrounds the noble district and the towns defensive keep. The noble district contains all the nobles housing, the main guard-house, and the shops that would require a small fortune to purchase something from. Guard houses are present in each of the districts, but get smaller by district. The upper district also contains the holding cells for criminals, located between the guard-house and the adventurers guild for added security. When our new home came into view, I was actually a little impressed for it being in a big town. It was a cozy little two-story built of wood, with a brick foundation and a small side yard set for a garden. The window in front looked to have a wide planter attached to its sill, for growing herbs. The house looked clean and maintained, obviously the merchant guild took it''s jobs seriously. The inside boasted a small mud room with an indented wall sporting hooks for coats and shelves for shoes. A spacious area followed that would be good for a living room, with a moderate fire-place on the wall opposite to the kitchen that it flowed into. The kitchen already had a stove and wash basin installed on the walls, with the stove being under the window with the planter. The wash basin was on the adjacent wall to the stove, with an L shaped wooden counter running along the wall between them. Opposite of the stove was recessed shelving for a pantry, and the door beside it led into a simple washroom. The washroom had a small wash basin and the hated wooden box seat, with a hole cut into it for waste to fall through. It was attached to the wall, which opened from the outside next to the garden for cleaning purposes...I really miss flushing toilets, but at least this one is inside. Between the living room and kitchen was an opening that led into a back room. The back room contained the stairs to the second floor on the left of the entrance, and an area that looked to be for laundry on the right of it. Immediately up the stairs was a door to a small room with two windows, probably for an office of sorts, and a hallway that went to the left. Along the hallway, there were two doors opposite each other that revealed moderate sized rooms, that would become our respective bedrooms. At the end of the hall was another door, it led to a small tiled room similar in size to the office, with a wash basin on one wall. It seems we would have to purchase the furnishings, as well as amenities for the bathing room upstairs. As it had been a long day, we decided to lay out blankets and sleep on the floor for the night. Tomorrow was set to be an even longer day, as there was much we needed to do. At dawn, my dad left to procure fire wood for the day, and purchase some seedlings for the garden. After he returned, I was tasked with tilling the garden and planting the seedlings to keep me busy, before both my parents left. Dad went to find a job, while mom went to place orders for furniture and amenities, as well as shop for lunch. I finished planting the seedlings by the time mom got back, and was asked to set a fire in the fireplace for later while she prepared a cold lunch. After we ate, I helped her put up the pots and tableware she bought, and lay out the padded blankets near the fireplace for us to sleep on. When father came back from job hunting, we lit the fire and hung a large soup pot over it to cook dinner. Dad said he wasn''t sure if he would get the job of guard, but was still hopeful, as it would be a lot less back and forth than hunting the woods for pelts. Mom mentioned she would need my help tomorrow to pick up the few furniture pieces that could be completed quickly. And with that, we went to sleep on the much more comfortable padded blankets, in front of a softly burning fire.