A campfire burned weak outside the Katastrof house, barely providing the dark night with its beautiful orange and yellow. Balton impatiently spun a chunk of meat from a slayed beast above it.
“This damn flame’s useless as Naitol's dumbass!” Balton grumbled, “Fire magic would be good right now.”
He turned to Zolton, pulling apart the beast for its edible parts.
"Say," Balton uttered, "think you can slap this hard enough to cook it? Seeing you's Vastus-blood 'n all."
Zolton gazed at his father for a moment before replying with a brief, "No."
"Shame," Balton turned to the house, "hold on…" he entered and came out with a gun, rubbed it and stared straight into the barrell.
Zolton rolled his eyes, "Bold."
"I trust my guns and my guns know better."
Balton shot at the campfire a few times before resting the flintlock. He then went inside again, then came out with two odd stones. One red, and the other gold with specks of black. He clashed them together above the flame, sprinkling red dust upon the poor excuse of a fire. He fired at the wood once more, spurring a big, brilliant flame, startling him just a bit before turning to a grin. "Forgot that shit's crazy! Git'me that horned bastard's arm o'er there!"
The arms roasted above flame, losing their hair from the heat. Zolton stared at his father, who kicked back, staring up into the starry sky. As he bit into the meat of the cooked leg meat, Balton asked, “What you gonna do?”
Zolton swallowed and lowered the smoked leg, “What do you mean?”
“Grown folks don’t live here for free. You can’t stay ‘round here forever. What are you gonna do? ‘Gonna have to get going some time soon.”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about that, but I feel like it’s not safe enough to leave you.”
Balton raised his brow, rising up to proper position, “Hell you talkin’ about? Think I can’t protect myself? I tossed you not long ago, ain’t I?”
“See, that’s the thing. I’m fairly certain you were ready to kill me. I could be overreacting, but… with all due respect, you don’t always seem like you were all there, Pa.”
“You callin’ me crazy?! ‘Cause you aren’t wrong. I think Naitol’s repugnant aroma rotted a part of my mind,” Balton chuckled as he grabbed a piece of the slayed beast. Zolton’s face did not turn from stern. Balton noticed this, thus ending his chuckles. “Oh? Ya serious? What for? Hell you going on about? You making excuses to not go anywhere?”
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“Well, no, pa. Over the years, I could tell that something was not right. I want to fix that, but I can’t if I remain here. So believe me, I want to get going a lot more than you know.”
“Fix?” Balton squinted and leaned in, “Fix what? What are you speaking ‘bout?”
Zolton gazed at his father, staring as if Balton uttered some egregious sentence. “Fix what they have done to many in their force. Prevent what further calamitous damage they can do to others in the future. They clearly are careless of their fighters. One organization should not have that magnitude of power. All I have seen is the Grand Navy doing more damage here than the very villains they claim to be pushing back against.”
“Hell you mean they’s doing more harm than good?” Balton boiled, “You ain’t see how this damn forsaken place was before they started intervening?”
“They came and took those who were already defending here, Pa. What happened after that? They were positioned elsewhere, leaving Auxuth with mediocre defenses. They gave them damn pirates more opportunity! Bigger openings to pillage and maraud. Don’t you see it?! The only reason attacks here weren’t as frequent is because Auxuth lost most of its shit from the previous raids! We were still recovering! We ain’t have nothin’ to take no more!”
“That’s stupid, boy. What you gonna do? Take on the entire G.N ya self? You’ll get jailed in a heartbeat, not even a threat to the highest in power. They wouldn’t even have-ta kill you.”
“Clearly,” Zolton affirmed, releasing a calming breath to recollect himself, “but of course, I never intended on just hopping on a rowboat and taking on the entire force when I’ve never even had a real life-or-death fight...”
“Alright, now shut it!” Balton yelled, jumping to his feet, “Get them damn thoughts outta ya skull! You ain’t going to start no shit with the navy! You wanna throw yo’ damn life away for a goal that’s as likely as you going to the moon?!”
“What do you think will happen if I just act as if there are no problems, Pa?”
Balton began to shout louder as his eyes filled with liquid rage and reddened by it, “So you want to go out and work on some fantasy for an issue that don’tt exist, Zolton?! You want to die for some fiction?!”
Zolton remained stern. “If I stay here, and they come to take me, how likely do you think I am to return? This is not a ‘fantasy’ that I’m doing for myself, Pa. This is for everyone who has been and will be impacted by the selfish Grand Navy. I know that Ma must have meant more than this whole damn world to you, and the fact they took her from you will not go unpunished. And imagine everyone else forced to experience the same! They have no care for those they snatch into their claws! Tear people apart, then leave them to suffer! I’m not letting such atrocious people run so damn rampant and to continue prospering in their greed! I know I’m likely to fail, but I’m not going to just wait for them to come here to take me.”
“Are you outta yo’ mind?! You’re going to get yourself killed! Ain’t nobody else is in my world, son! Forget all that stupid shit you spewing!”
“Pa, if I do end up putting myself on a destiny of death, at least my corpse may be the driving force for others to break through their crusty shell of cowardice, and push back on that abysmal organization.”