Normally, I wouldn’t really consider what those markings in the air were for. However, I literally had no choice on that front. My life was going into upheaval as soon as I first laid eyes on them. I hope you don’t follow my mistakes in the future…

~Gato, son of Alexander, giving a lesson to his grandchildren

#

Gato opened his eyes groggily, finding himself under the covers of his bed. Let’s see… I ate my lunch, did a few more chores, ate my dinner, then went straight to bed. I must’ve been that tired… At that point, he discovered something that threw him for a loop… a box in his field of vision. Huh?

[???????? ?? ? ???? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ???????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????.]

What in the world does it even say?

With a sigh, Gato got out of bed and did some minor stretches. He was certain that he had to do some extra chores to make up for having fallen asleep a lot earlier than normal. Because of that, he had had a good night’s sleep and had awakened earlier than usual. As he looked out the window, from the position of the moon and stars, he estimated that it was 4:30 in the morning.

Dressing quickly, Gato tried to be very quiet, because he saw that Delaz was shifting in his bed, seeming restless. He walked slowly and carefully out to the broom closet to make sure that he could do his work without waking his family up. After all, what sort of hard-working son was he if he didn’t respect his family when they were trying to get some sleep?

Hmm… this is really rather odd. I don’t know why, but I’m not tired in any way whatsoever…

He sighed as he headed to the broom closet, opening the door and pulling out the broom before he began his job. He went to clean the floor in the kitchen area, taking absolute care to make the floor as clean as possible. As he did so…

Well, this is a soothing task to take care of, if nothing else. I wonder what else I can do to make the rest of the house clean for the family?

As soon as he finished sweeping the kitchen, he went back to the broom closet and pulled out a dust rag, before noticing something. The dust rag was especially dirty for some reason.

And we don’t have any other dust rags in the house, do we? He sighed and shook his head. I’ll just take this rag down to the creek and wash it. I’ll be back to finish dusting the kitchen as soon as I can.

As he walked out of the house with the dust rag, he had taken five steps away from the front door when he saw another box appear in his field of vision.

Oh, fer cryin’ out loud… why am I seeing these boxes, to begin with?! I’m starting to wonder whose idea of a prank it is this time…

Before Gato could do anything with the boxes that were already in his field of vision, the snapping of a twig drew his attention to the granary.

Wait a second… what’s going on over there?

As he waited with bated breath, he clearly heard a pair of low voices coming from the direction of the granary.

“Are you sure about this, Frederick?” a tinny man’s voice asked.

“Positive, Fernando,” another man’s deep voice replied, although he sounded uncertain. “We’ve had no issues with robbing this farm yet, and everyone should be asleep, so no harm for us.”

“I hope so… I just don’t want the sheriff to get his hands on us.”

“Oh, will you give it a rest? The sheriff won’t find out about this operation for a long time.”

“That doesn’t fill me with confidence…”

“Fer cryin’ out loud, Nando… don’t forget that we need to be stealthy and quiet for this operation to work.”

Gato listened carefully, surprised that these robbers sounded as if they had been to the farm before.

Great… why did we not notice until now? I hope that this pair of bandits leave our food alone… or we might have a fight on our hands. I’m not entirely sure what the outcome would be if we have a fight…

Calmly, he said to himself, “Well, I’d better stop these idiots.”

At that point, the new box disappeared from his vision, but the original box remained.

Huh?! What’s going on?!

He spun around, looking for anyone in the vicinity. So far as he could tell, there was nobody to find.

Am I being targeted by an illusionist?!

He took the dirty dust rag in his right hand and slapped his left arm with it, expecting this to break the illusion he felt that he was under. But the first box was still there.

Dammit… Well, no point thinking about this further. I’ve got robbers to confront.

At that, he headed over to the granary, making sure to stay even more silent than his foes. He needed to get the drop on these bandits, he figured, before they stole his family’s food supplies.

#

I can’t believe I nearly forgot to grab a weapon, Gato thought as he took the farm’s pitchfork from next to the entrance of the barn.

As he walked over to the granary, he began envisioning what he needed to say to the bandits to get them to stop their thieving ways… he hoped it would work, but he was a real beginner at this. Stuff like “put the food down and walk away” sounded a bit stupid to him, but it was worth a shot.

He continued toward the granary, which was at least fifty meters away from the barn. He needed to hurry and get this over with. Let’s see what these two have stolen so far.

While he walked, he saw that there were a few animals missing, like some of the sheep that needed shearing, the only rooster on the farm, and a few of the hens.

How did they pull this off?

He didn’t get much opportunity to think on that subject, because by then he had reached the granary.

Standing outside the granary door, Gato quickly looked around to see if any other thieves were visible. He then heard Fernando and Frederick again, this time in the granary.

I’d better be careful, Gato thought to himself.

“So, the food we need to lift from this farm is all in the granary?” Fernando asked.

“Yeah,” Frederick said. “Then again, why this place doesn’t have anything like roosters or wool-laden sheep, I have no clue.”

Back up… what did he just say? Gato stuck his head in the doorway and looked at the thieves incredulously. I thought that they’d stolen the animals already…

The first thief that Gato saw, who he guessed was Fernando, was as thin as a twig and wore leather armor over his green tunic. He also had a dagger strapped over his armor and at the small of his back, which made Gato raise an eyebrow.

What the… why is his dagger at the small of his back?

His companion, who Gato thought was Frederick, was thick and full of bulging muscles. He couldn’t tell if this one had armor or not, but he did know that the man had a sword on hand, held in place over his right shoulder.

This is scary. I could get hurt and possibly die stopping these thieves… so why am I so calm?

“Why do we need roosters and wool-laden sheep, Frederick?” The second thief asked, confusing Gato.

Wait… I thought Fernando was the thin guy?!

“Simply put, Fernando?” The first thief asked. “Our boss doesn’t need roosters and sheep. He’s after something much bigger. He is building a financial empire starting with farm materials that any true farmer would want to keep safe. He plans to undercut the prices of all the materials that farmers need.”

Ugh… this is not good.

“I’m surprised that our boss has this empire in the works, to be honest,” Fernando said, grabbing a bag of barley. “I mean, what’s his overall goal for the empire?”

“How should I know?” Frederick asked. “All I know is that the boss wants to build a financial empire that will control the economies of the entire world. He’s beginning with agriculture.”

“That’s good for him, but what about his employees, like us?”

“We need to be patient. He’ll reward us immediately when we return, most likely with a dozen gold pieces each for every thing that we stole.”

Thinking to himself, I’ve heard enough, Gato walked into the granary, holding the pitchfork in his hands. “Why are you two nimrods stealing from my family’s farm?!”

““Urk!!”” the two thieves froze, before slowly turning to face Gato. Upon seeing him, though…

“Hey, kid,” Frederick sneered at him. “Shouldn’t you be asleep in bed?”

“Yeah, you need to forget this ever happened,” Fernando said, waving a hand at Gato, in a slow, deliberate manner.

Gato began to blink. He couldn’t be entirely sure, but he felt that Fernando was trying to manipulate his thoughts. What is that idiot trying to do? Gato thought to himself.

At that moment, a second box appeared within his field of vision, to join the one that had never gone away.

Frederick looked at his buddy. “I think it’s working splendidly.”

“I know, right?” Fernando grinned, looking like a cat that ate the canary and drank the cream in one go. “C’mon, we need to get the food supplies over to the boss immediately.”

As they continued to grab the food from the granary, Gato willed the boxes to move out of the way of his line of sight. Much better… “Hold it, you idiots! Put the food back where you found it and walk away!”

Frederick and Fernando stopped in their tracks, each of them about to carry out a bag of grain, when they heard Gato’s declaration. “What the…?” Fernando asked.

“I thought your power was impossible to block?” Frederick looked at his partner with a raised eyebrow.

“It is!” Fernando looked back at Frederick. “I don’t get what’s going on here!”

Maybe it has to do with me? Gato thought.

“Okay, jokers, listen to what I have to say to you,” Gato said, pointing the pitchfork at the thieves. “Either you stop the burglary right now, or you face my wrath. Which will it be?”

The thieves took a look at Gato, then looked back at each other, before nodding. Turning to face Gato again, Frederick drew his dagger from behind his back at the same time as Fernando pulled his sword from over his shoulder. “Go to hell, boy!” Frederick declared.

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“Option two it is, then,” Gato shook his head. “Come get me... if you dare!”

At that, the two thieves charged at Gato, before Frederick stopped in mid-step and threw his dagger at Gato.

Gato quickly caught the dagger with the tines of the pitchfork. He saw that Fernando was about ready to strike with his sword, which Gato somehow blocked by directing the dagger toward his opponent.

The dagger was obviously magical: it was able to spin forward from the pitchfork, heading straight for its new target. The longer it was in the air, the more speed it seemed to gain, which meant that it hit Fernando forcefully in the left shoulder.

“Gah!!” Fernando cried out, dropping his sword as he tried to pull the dagger from his shoulder… with no success.

What the… how did that happen?

“Why, you little…” Frederick growled. In the heat of the moment, he completely forgot about the special qualities of his knife and picked up the fallen sword. “You’re gonna regret that!” With that, he charged at Gato, attempting to swing his friend’s sword at the young teen.

Gato blocked Frederick’s sword with his pitchfork, and the two weapons locked together. As the two of them struggled for dominance, neither could gain an advantage.

Gato felt his muscles begin to burn ever so slightly from the battle that was taking place. But, as the fight continued, it seemed as if his muscles were getting stronger.

Wait, what’s happening with my muscles, anyway?

“You little brat,” Frederick said, “What have you done? I can’t recall my magic dagger to my side!”

*THWACK!!*

Gato struck Frederick in the family jewels with his right foot.

“That’s… a low blow…” Frederick rasped out, having dropped his friend’s sword to clutch his genitals.

“Hey, when living on a farm, you can’t be expected to fight like a nobleman, now, can you?” Gato smirked at the look on his foe’s face. “Now… how are you going to explain this to your boss?” Before he could continue the questioning, however, Gato saw Fernando crawl over to get his sword, so he ended the threat by swinging the pitchfork in the thief’s direction. “And just what do you think you’re doing?”

“Uh-oh…” Fernando gulped. “I’ll be good!”

“There we go…” Gato said, a Cheshire grin on his face.

Frederick growled. “You bastard! I hope you rot in the depths of Hell for this!”

“Hey, that’s my line!” Gato felt his eyes twitch in anger. “Don’t you know that using magical anything is a one-way trip to Hell, on top of all the thievery that you and your buddy have committed?”

“Are you kidding me? Those ghosts know nothing of the truth of this world!” Frederick bellowed out.

“What do you mean, ‘ghosts’?” Gato asked as he raised an eyebrow.

“Those so-called Divine Spirits, you lout!” Frederick snarled. “In fact—”

“What’s going on, here?”

Gato turned to look at the speaker. “Ah, mister sheriff! Thank the Divine Spirits of Nature that you’re here!”

“Gato, son of Alexander, right?” the sheriff asked. “Is this your family’s property?”

“Yes, it is. What brings you here?”

“I started my dawn patrol early today and I overheard shouting in your granary, and I came to investigate because there have been reports of thievery on the local farms. It appears that you may have found the source of the problem. Now, could you please explain what’s going on?”

“Yes, sir,” Gato said. “For some odd reason, I awakened tonight, and thought I’d better get take care of some chores. I started in the house, and I was about to clean a really dirty dust rag when I heard these thieves here talking outside the house about robbing us of our food.”

The sheriff pinched the bridge of his nose. “Is that when you started fighting them?”

“No, sir. I stealthily followed them here to the granary after getting my pitchfork from beside the barn, and waited to hear what they were going to do. I entered the granary and challenged them. I even tried to get them to surrender the food they were robbing from us, but to no avail… they struck first.”

“Very well, Gato,” the sheriff said. “I’ll take these louts into custody in Alfheimwood. Could you please come by soon to give a fuller testimony of what happened, here?”

“Certainly, sir.”

With that, the sheriff left, and Gato sat on a bag of grain reflecting on everything that had just happened. I could’ve been killed, he thought to himself. I’m very lucky to be sitting here unhurt… and yet, why am I so calm about it all?

After a few minutes, he got up and resumed doing his chores, starting with washing the dust rag at the river as he had been about to do before being interrupted by the bandits.

#

A little over an hour later, at about six in the morning, the sun crept over the eastern horizon. Standing in the front yard as he finished the last of his chores, he watched the western mountains begin to glow pink with the rising sun. As the world got brighter around him, he thought to himself, How am I supposed to explain to my parents what happened an hour or so ago? Would they even believe me?

Fortunately, he had taken care of the chores he had set out to do in the middle of the night, but that was a rather small consolation prize. Since everyone had been asleep when he fought the bandits, it might be difficult for them to believe that something had even happened. His family, though, would surely believe the sheriff, who could be his witness.

So, with an upbeat heart, he walked over to the kitchen table, hopeful that he would get a good meal. He was the first one there. That’s rather odd… where’s everyone else?

“Good morning, Gato,” his mother greeted him with a yawn. “You’re up early today.”

“I couldn’t fall back asleep, Mom,” Gato said. “I took care of some of the chores I thought you would assign me, and I did them in the middle of the night.”

“I see,” his mother said. “What did you do to help out around the place?”

“Well—”

“Good morning, Diana, Gato.”

“Good morning, Alexander,” Gato’s mother said to the man of the house. “Gato seems to be especially awake for someone who was up in the middle of the night.”

Gato’s father raised an eyebrow at Gato. “Why were you up then?”

“I couldn’t fall back to sleep,” Gato said. “And it’s a good thing, too, since I was able to stop a pair of thieves from robbing us of our food.”

This caused both parents to gasp out. “WHAAAAT?!”

“Yes, that happened,” Gato said, moving to his chair at the table. “I'm really hungry right now. Could we wait until after breakfast for me to tell you what happened?”

“No, Gato, we really want to hear this right now,” his father said. “How did you manage to stop thieves from robbing us without our knowing about it?”

“You mean you didn’t hear it?” Gato asked. “I thought it was loud enough that you might have heard what happened outside. As you know, I was awake earlier, shortly before Lauds, and I did some chores to make sure this day would be a good one. Partway through the chores list, however, I overheard a pair of robbers walking into the silo to try robbing us of our food. I had to stop them, so I grabbed a pitchfork and held them off for the sheriff.”

Gato’s mother’s eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open. “Gato, you could’ve been killed!” she said. “Where are the thieves now? Are they gone from the property?”

“They were taken to the Alfheimwood jail, Mom,” Gato said as he pointed in the direction of town. “You may want to go into town later today and talk with the sheriff about it.”

“You didn’t take them there yourself, did you?” Gato’s father asked.

“No, it was the sheriff who did,” Gato shook his head. “He got my statement, and he’s not going to let those two get out of jail. I think we’re safe.”

“Thank the Divine Spirits of Nature,” Gato’s mother said. “You were very brave, Gato. Would you like breakfast now? As you know, whoever is up first gets to choose what we have for breakfast. Since you were up first, what would you like?”

“I’d like to try oatmeal for once, please,” Gato answered.

“Do you want raisins in the oatmeal?”

“Yes, please.”

“Okay, Gato,” his mother said, turning to the pantry and beginning to prepare the meal.

At this point, Gato’s father cleared his throat, exclaiming, “Gato, I’m very proud of you. You saved our farm this morning!”

“Thank you, father,” Gato said.

At that point, Jeremiah groggily walked into the kitchen. “Good morning, mother. Good morning, father,” he said between yawns. “Are we going to have hashbrowns for breakfast today?”

“Nope,” the father said, shaking his head. “Gato’s the first one up today, so he chose oatmeal for us all.”

“Gato’s the first one up?” Jeremiah looked at Gato with both eyebrows raised. “How did that happen?”

“Trust me, I don’t know how to explain it, either,” Gato said, shaking his head. “I have been doing chores ever since I woke up in the middle of the night.”

Jeremiah sighed. “Okay, I understand. Oatmeal sounds fine.”

“Glad you think so,” their mother said. “Now, why don’t you wake up the rest of your siblings? I need them to get ready for the day.”

“Yes, mother,” Jeremiah said, walking out to get the rest of the siblings.

Gato gave off a contented sigh. Finally… I got to choose breakfast for the family. Out loud, he asked, “now, is there anything I should know about today’s plans?”

“No, there’s nothing to discuss,” Gato’s father answered. “You have a free day for today. If you go into town, make sure to be back here by dusk, so you can have dinner.”

Gato blinked once, twice, and thrice. “That… is surprisingly generous.”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand,” Gato’s father said, raising a hand. “If something comes up by the time you get home, then the rest of the day we will need your help until the project is done. We’d like to reward you for what you did this morning, Gato, that’s all.”

“Do you need me to do anything to help prepare the meal for this morning?” Gato asked.

“No, not yet,” his mother shook her head. “Just be sure to enjoy your day off, Gato. You earned it, son.”

Gato blinked. This is unexpected… “Thank you, Mom,” he nodded.

#

A couple hours later, Gato returned to Alfheimwood. Now… what am I supposed to do here? I don’t really have any plans, I’ve got a free day.

He walked through the main gate in the town’s eastern wall, heading right to the weapons market, which was closer to the center of town than the other markets. Of course, given the layout of the town in question, one would think that the weapons market would be near the blacksmith’s workshop. One would be wrong. The blacksmith’s workshop was actually next to the south gate. Along the southern wall were barns and stables for horses and cattle and sheds to store their tack and food. Along the western wall were open-air markets for various imported clothes, which were all brightly colored. Along the north wall was the residential center of town, which included the mayor’s mansion right next to the wall itself, so that a garden could be grown there. The eastern wall supported many different food markets for items such as grains, fruits, vegetables, and meats. Finally, in the center of town was the town square, with the governmental administration building fronting the square on its west side and the weapons market on its east.

Eventually, after weaving through the crowds of people entering the eastern gate, he made it to the tents that housed the different weapon shops. He was about to walk into the first tent when —

[??? ?? ?????????? ??????, ???? ????????? ????? ??? ???? ?? ?? 1.]

—Gato growled upon seeing this new box. You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me… isn’t there any way to understand what these boxes even mean?

He sighed, before he moved to enter the tent. He barely managed to open the flap when —

[???????? ????!]

—wait, what?! What are you saying?!

As Gato looked into the tent, the shopkeeper standing inside said, “Velcome to my humble shop, young man. I have come from a long vays avay, and I am interested in selling quality vares to ze people of zis town. Might you be interested in learning more about ze veapons I have to sell?”

Gato walked into the shop, as if his body was under compulsion to view and purchase weapons. What the heck’s wrong with this picture?! Why am I not moving my body on my own?! Eventually, he stopped moving when he was in front of the stall in between the shopkeeper and him, making him sigh in relief.

“Vhat is your name?” the shopkeep asked.

“Gato, son of Alexander.”

“Ah, you must be from one of ze nearby farms. Are you here to pick up a new veapon for personal use?”

Gato nodded and asked, “Who are you?”

“Ah, right,” the shopkeep said. “My name is Tristan Heydrich, and I am just a simple veapons dealer, nozing more or less.”

Gato asked, “What weapons do you have in stock?”

“Ah, are you in for a treat, young Gato,” the shopkeeper said, walking to a chest in the back right corner of the tent. Opening it up, he pulled out a sword and scabbard that had to be as long as Gato was tall. “Zis veapon is a masterwork blade called a Zweihander.” He turned to face Gato with the weapon in his hands. “It comes from my fazerland, Deutschland, and is said to be much superior to ze veapons of zis land. Unfortunately, nobody believes zis claim of mine, nor ze claim of ozers who know better.”

“Is that right?” Gato asked. “How much are you charging for it?”

The shopkeeper glanced at the price tag on the hilt, before placing the Zweihander down on the counter top. “Hmm… tell me, vhat is your highest denomination of currency?” he asked.

Eh? What’s this guy going on about? “I have a few silver coins, but nothing past that,” Gato said, shaking his head.

“Ah, I see,” the shopkeep nodded. “Zis veapon is vorth about four fifths of a gold piece.”

Gato felt that his eyes were about to pop out of his skull. Four fifths of a gold piece?! That’d be 800 silver pieces! Isn’t that highway robbery?!

“Hmm?” The shopkeep looked Gato in the eye. “Is somezing ze matter?”

“Mister Heydrich,” Gato said in shock. “That’s an outrageous price you’re charging. I mean, I know you have to have a profit on this, but that price is far too high. I don’t see how you could sell the sword at all.”

“Actually,” the shopkeep picked up the weapon and scabbard, “Zis veapon has been marked down razer heavily. Believe me, I vas originally going to charge five fold ze amount I’m charging now.”

Gato slammed his fists down onto the countertop. “You mean to tell me that it’d be priced at four gold pieces?!”

The shopkeep nodded. “I have no customers who vould be villing to purchase zis veapon,” he sighed, “but I am a fair man in zis vorld. I am villing to charge you only four fifths of a gold piece. If you can’t afford it now, zen I’ll hold onto it until you can, ja?”

“Deal,” Gato exclaimed, shaking the shopkeep’s hand. “I’ll pay for it when I get the money somehow…” He then looked at the other weapons in the tent. “Now… how much are these worth?”