"Damn, this metal is garbage! I should just toss it, Bjorn, go to that metal trader, Frik, and bring me some of that fresh iron he has got. " Gallion called over to me. We were in the shop working on a few jobs that needed to be completely, I had not realized that he had started to mend that old sword he has been hanging onto. "Don't tell me after all these years, you have finally decided to listen to me about something?" I asked him shocked. "Shut up and go, before I change my mind. There's more to this blade then just this. Go. Now." he said. I did, in fact I left that shop faster then I even had in the past. I was not going to miss the chance to finally get some answers about why he had it. I wasn't going to rush to Frik's shop though, the weather was nice and I was in need of the air. I was nearing one of the trade centers of the village were Frik was usually set up, when I started to hear the raise voices of a group arguing. Coming out the path and row of homes into the center that's exactly what I found. A large group of people gathered together arguing about something. I decided to stick around for a moment and listen to the news.

"This is unacceptable, our farmers have been attacked for weeks, now people in the village?" A man called over the crowd. Adio was standing in front of the crowd. "We are going to have to make some changes, starting now we are going to build a defense wall around the village. It's the only way we can make sure no one is in the village unchecked." He called out to everyone. "What do we do now?" A woman asked. "If your home is on the tree line, then don't leave your dwellings at night. That's all we can do for tonight." Adio told her. He turned and started to walk to another exit of the center, probably going to spread word of the defensive wall. I went straight to Frik trade wagon he had filled with bags of ore. "Frik, I need iron, copper, and what do you have that's new?" I said to him. He was a skinny man, his hair long and always full of ore dust. I was sure the man lived in his mountain mine, his skin was more pale then most people proving that he was rarely outside. He was only in the village a few hours a day to unload his wagon. The man must have his riches buried in the mountain. "Nothing new, nothing other then copper and iron either. I ain't gonna be around for a while either, gonna be held up in my mountain until all the trouble has been dealt with." Frik said. "I'll take a sack of each. Gallion said to give you these." I held out stack of forty furs roped together, as well as some wrapped smoked meat. "Ah, yeah that's good enough for payment. The meat, is that from that trader near the hall?" He asked me. "I don't know, Frik. I just do the dropping off and picking up." I grabbed the two bags of ore, slung them over my shoulders and started to haul them back to Gallion.

The sacks were heavy enough that by the time I got back I had sweat dripping into my eyes. "Gallion, your ore." I said walking into the shop and dropping the two sacks to the ground with a thud. Gallion wasn't there but the forge was roaring hot like it was when I left. "Where did you go now?" I asked out loud. "Gallion?" I yelled out. I walked to the house across the short path, stepping into the door I called out again, "Gallion, where are you, man?" I walked across the main room to Gallion's bedroom door, and opened it leaning into see if he was there. Nothing. It wasn't unusual for him to not be home when I get back from errands, so I decided to go back to the shop and start the process of steel making from the iron.

Making sure the heat was high enough, I put a few large chunks of iron into a heat bowl and placed it into the furnace to melt down. Gallion had already pressed the broken blade into pressed sand for the mold. I was looking at the sword, Gallion had already pieced the sword back together, there were a few places I could see needed the extra iron for. I picked up the sword by the hilt, the first time I could lift it this way without worrying it would break in two. I held the blade in front of my face examining the runes that were carved into the blade. Protection, strength, victory and one symbol I have never seen before. It was almost like two axes crossing each other, but it was faded from the repair and I could only assume that Gallion had planned to repair those as well. I continued to work with the iron, molding it into bars so it was easier to store and work with. I wasn't going to be able to finish the sack today so set out to finish tomorrow.

Gallion still had not returned from where ever he had gone too, and I was hungry. I walked over to the water troft outside and splashed my body rubbing off the ore dust, smoke and dirt off from my body and face. We were not near the tree line and were well into the village, there were a few other homes that were in the same area as us, mostly smaller farms that contributed to the villages stores and trade needs I wasn't thinking to myself about a late evening visitor, let a lot thinking the man from the tree line would be standing in front of me now. Almost walking straight into this man, I stumbled backwards pulling my dagger from my hip and holding it out in front of me. "Who are you?" I demanded. "Calm down, boy. You need not fear me. I am here to warn you." He said to me, his blue eyes almost glowing in the darker light. "Call me Ota." He said. "Ota? Like the old god?" I asked him. "Old god?" He asked with a chuckle "Damn, has it been that long since I have been forgotten by men?"

He turned and walked into Gallions house like he had been there many times before. Following him in I asked him, "You think you are god?" Not only was this man a spy he was insane as well. "From what I know, Ota was a god of myth. A king to Gods." I said. "Yeah, and?" He replied. "You don't believe me do you, Aadi?" My body froze, and my skin raised. "Why do you call me that?" I demanded from him. "Have you heard this name before?" Ota asked me. "Once, in a dream." I admitted to him. He raised his eyebrows in interest. "And who said that name?" He pushed. I didn't answer right away, I stared at him uncertain. "Why do you ask me that?" I asked. He shrugged and laughed. "I am curious. Was it a woman?" How could he have know that? "With long black hair and eyes green like my own." I told him. He nodded but said nothing. "Things are going to change for you, Aadi." He turned and walked towards the door, then turned back to me. "Tell no one you have talked with me." He said and left. I stood for a moment, my mind full of questions and thoughts, then I went out the door after him. "Hey! Wait!" I called out, he was gone already though. Shaking my head I turned back into the house and shut the door behind me.

The rest of the evening I spent shutting down the smithy shop and eating a meal alone. Gallion still not home, I decided to sleep and wait until the morning to start to worry.

The night brought nothing but dreams that kept waking me. All of them different, yet the same. My mother, the woman in my dreams was calling out Aadi, over and over. Pointing towards the sea like always, but ending differently each time. Once she fell over the edge screaming. Another She was pulled over the edge by a black mist. She died over and over. Each time I stood there, not moving only able to watch the moment play out. The final time I woke sitting up stinking of sweat, I decided to get up and drink something. I left my room to find Gallion asleep at the table, his head flat against the top of the table, a small pile of drool dripping form his lip. I quietly walked over to the water bucket and dipped a in a cup, then drinking it, water occasionally escaping my lip and dripping down my face in the rush of drinking it. My throat was dry and my body stiff from lack of sleep.

"We need to leave." Gallion said from behind me giving me a slight startle, I turned around to find him sitting up watching me. "We have to leave this village. Things have come here that will only destroy this valley, and the village with it." He said to me. "What are you talking about, Gallion?" I asked him. "More then I can explain now, Bjorn, but you are going to have to trust me for now. I will explain more later. For now, we leave." He told me. "Where were you last night? And what has happened that you want to leave?" I needed more information then what he was giving me. He looked at me and frowned, "Your mother was what we call a Heks. A magic user." He said to me. "When she died I was not around, in fact I had only came back to the village a couple of years before I took you in. When I found out who you were, I immediately sought you out, and brought you in. You see, I knew your mother well." He looked at me a little ashamed. " I was not sure if I should even tell you or not, do not think sorely of me, Bjorn. I only did what I thought was best for you." He admitted. "What do you mean?" I asked him. "My mother was a Heks? She cast spells and brewed potions?" He looked at me like I was an arsehole. "Are you stupid, boy? Heks are more then stories to scare children. They use magic for anything from starting a fire, to cutting off your head." He was serious. I shook my head in disbelief. "So where is my own magic then? Isn't that stuff supposed to be passed along?" I asked him. "Well, that's the question isn't is? Heks are descendants of a race of people who used to be called the Awakened. People who no longer exist in the world." He told me. "Awakened? Never heard of them before." Unsurprising, I was not educated in history, and really unless you were near a temple, historic scrolls were not an item you could just seek out.

"You will learn more later, for now we must leave." He stood and started towards his room. " I will sleep for a while first. Ready the wagon and horses, load that sword and ore. We will finish it when we get to our destination." He shut the door behind him and I could hear him slump into her bed with a thud. I wondered to myself if he had been up all night drinking and if he will change his mind when he wakes up later. Regardless, I did as he asked me to.

I stopped the fires in the furnace, this is something we haven't done in a long time. Then I loaded up ores, tools, and weapons some that we could sell and trade and others to use, along with other provisions and property Gallion would most likely want to bring. I was rearranging some items on the back of the wagon when Gallion finally emerged from his bed. "Almost finished that shop? I will pack some things from in here. We should be leaving soon, if not, we will have to wait until the morning." He turned without another word and started to fill baskets and bringing out anything from old items of memories, to furs for bedding and decorating. By the time the sun was high in the west, we were ready to leave. Nothing was really left behind as most of our belongings were metal working tools and materials.

"Hey, your not leaving, Gallion, are you?" Adio rode up the path coming up to the horse and wagons as were about to mount up and leave. "Aye, we are. Got word from my sister down south, she's sick and her kids need taking care of." He lied, he had no sister in the south, in fact he only had a brother and he lived to east in a city called Theramill. "Your sister eh? Well that's not great news for us anyways, no need to waste any of your time then. I will go over to Yuri and have him make the metal parts for the wall." He said, the tone of his voice hinting he wanted Gallion to ask what he needed made. "Yeah, fine. Whatever you need to do, my forge is cold. Farewell. And tell Yuri he can move into my shop while I am gone, his is a sad sight and an embarrassment to the art of metal working. If he is to keep up with my business then he will need a better workspace, that old fool." Gallion said to Adio and climbed up the wagon taking his seat with the horse reins. "Yeah, I'll do that." Adio said hesitantly. "Let's go, Bjorn." Gallion said to me, and I followed him onto the wagon taking my own seat. Gallion shook the reins making a clicking sound and the horses pulled off. "Good journey." Adio called out as we rode away. Neither Gallion or I responded to him.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.