“Halt!” Shouts out a voice, as I get startled awake. “I need to see identification cards from everyone aboard before you may enter Felkstad.”
A man appears behind the wagon and slowly climbs aboard. The woman and man hold out 2 green cards towards him, and he checks them briefly before walking towards my mother. She reaches down and grabs the bag she grabbed on the way out of the house and starts to quickly dig through it. She produces a gold card and hands it to the guard.
“Woah, I haven't seen one of these in a while. Are you planning on staying in the village or moving on adventurer?”
“I plan on staying here until my son comes of age.”
“Alright, what’s with the bandage around his head?” The man points towards me.
“I tripped on the road and he ended up falling out of my hands sir”
The man looks down at me with the look of suspicion.
“Ma’am there are rumors of a disease plaguing a village near here, and I’m going to have to inspect his wound, can you please come with me.”
My mother stands up with me in her arms. Picks up the bag and starts walking with the man.
“Alright let’s go”
We walk off the cart and I can finally see more of the world. The cart we were just on looks like a cart from an old western movie with a grisly looking man sitting at the helm. The horse at the front looks like it's seen better days, with its matted mane and sweat soaked harness. The cart itself is made from rough cut timbers like what the furniture in our house was. In Front of the cart there is a wooden wall surrounding the village and another guard standing in front of the cart blocking its entry into the village.
As we are walking with the guard to wherever he is taking us my mom slips the cloth down from my eye and takes her finger nail and scratches me across the brow while shoveling dirt in my right eye. What the hell is wrong with this woman!
She whispers to me “Forgive me” I start crying and try to move away.
“Why the hell is he crying all of a sudden?”
“I think the wound started bleeding again, I just pulled the cloth down to check it for infection”
“Oh alright quick come into the guard house, we have a light mage on duty today”
I’m still crying and my right eye is so painful I can’t open it keeping it closed; we walk into the guard room.
“Alright CARL! Check this woman's baby for diseases!” The guard calls out
I can feel another man's footsteps walking towards me.
“Okay let me check”
I feel a strange sensation flow over me, almost ticklish. While I sense the heat of his hand over my face.
“He’s fine, just bleeding from a small cut over his eye. I’ll just heal it as it will only take a miniscule amount of mana.” A new sensation fills my face, as the wound my mother put on my brow tickles until it doesn’t hurt anymore and the pain in my right eye goes away. Woah so this is the power of magic!
My mother briskly moves my head towards her body burying the right side of my face under her breast as soon as the man is done. Why does she keep hiding my right eye?
“Alright you're free to enter the Village also no fee because you’re gold, let me know if you need anything while you’re here. The names Barbaroe, but everyone just calls me Red.” The first guard says to my mother.
“Thank you sir” She replies while briskly leaving the guard house into the village.
As she carries me through the village, I see a couple of shops selling vials of fluid, some pieces of paper, and weapons. A couple stalls are on the street selling various food items. She walks quickly towards a building near the center of the village; the sign reads (Misty Tavern and Pub). Walking into the building the smell of alcohol burns my nose. A rowdy crowd of grisly looking men are scattered around at tables. A couple lanterns swing from the ceiling keeping the room dimly lit. Straight across the doorway is a bar with two men sitting at it casually talking.
“How much is one room” My mother asks the bartender.
“Two Copper for a day, Three silver for a week, one gold for a month” The bartender replies while filling a mug with pungent alcohol. The lady has red hair, draught eyes sunk back into her eyes with a medium build. A solid 4/10 on my scale.
“Alright come here please” My mother replies quickly
With a confused face the woman walks over to my mother.
“Is there a problem?” She politely asks.
“No problem, I just don’t want people to see this.” My mother quickly hands her a coin that looks like its silver, but not quite.
“I’ll be here for at least a year if that's enough” She whispers quickly to her.
“Yes that is fine” The woman replies with wide eyes as she quickly puts the coin in the pouch on her apron. Then she walks back to the bar, quickly handing the drink she was pouring to the customer and walks back over to us.
“I'll show you to your room if you follow me.” As she walks towards the side of the tavern and up the stairs my mother hot on her tail. She shows us to a room that’s about the same size as the loft that I was living in previously. The room has stone walls with a single small window letting sunlight in. An unlit lamp hangs from the middle of the room and a straw twin sized bed sits resting up against the wall near the window. A small end table in the other corner of the room.
“This is it. Make yourself at home” As she hands a key to my mother and leaves.
My mother walks over to the bed and sits down with me in her lap and looks down at me with teary eyes. Slowly hugs me against her chest and starts sobbing. I move my left arm up to her face and touch the tears dripping down her cheeks and smile.
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Everythings going to be okay. I'm here with you.
She opens her eyes and smiles back. She slowly rocks me back and forth and before I knew it, I was fast asleep.
========================================================================
Seven years have gone by since my mother brought me to this town. I don’t actually see her
very often as she works as an adventurer to provide food and shelter for us. She leaves around 8
am in the morning and comes back around 8 pm every day. My mother has told me a few things
about the place I live, but for some reason I have not been able to leave the room. She locks the
door every time that she leaves. I’ve tried asking her why I can’t leave the room and all she says is
you’re not old enough. That hasn’t stopped me from looking outside the window every day for these
past seven years and wondering why am I so unlucky.
She taught me about basic necessities like the denomination of coins which is copper, 10 coppers
is 1 silver, 10 silver is 1 gold, and 10 gold is 1 platinum. The language that I’m speaking isn’t know
as english it is known as common. The other language she taught me is Luink which is the
language of Lizardfolk. She teaches me every night for 2 hours before we go to sleep. She’s even
taught me a bit about magic, classes, and skills.
Magic lets people use mana with elements to cast spells depending on the affinity of the person.
The main affinities are earth,fire,water,air,light,and dark. I don’t know what affinity I have, as the
device they use to calculate it is not accessible to me. She has taught me that not everyone has the
ability to cast magic and you have to have the skill called mana manipulation. Basically its
controlling the mana inside your body to affect the real world and not just the inside of your body.
Since she told me about this I’ve been trying to figure out how to control my mana but I haven't had
much luck. I don’t feel any different than the body I had on earth except for scales on my right arm
and chest.
Skills are things learned over time by doing something repetitive, or by gaining in some form or
another. She wasn’t very thorough on the information regarding how to gain skills. I have managed
to gain some skills though as I have been doing workouts in the small room I’ve been in since there
hasn’t been anything better to do.
----------------------------------------
Name: Kusk
Age: 7
Race: Demi-Human
Hit Points: 25/25
Mana: 10/10
Class: None
Stats
Strength: 11
Agility: 13
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 14
Dexterity: 10
Skills: Common (Language) lvl 10, Luink (LizardFolk Language) lvl 6, Acrobatics lvl 4, unarmed fighting lvl 2, Cleaning lvl 10, Learning lvl 4, Cuteness lvl 2, Keen Eye lvl 1
Titles: None
Spells: None
My best skill so far is learning, besides the language skills. Learning has something to do with how
fast you get levels in skills. I also believe it somehow correlates with intelligence as when I get a
level in it I get an intelligence level also. It makes learning things easier. The other skill I got that's
interesting is unarmed fighting. I got that from pretending to fight someone with my fists.
My Mother slowly opens the door to the dimly lit room and looks over at me with a slight smile on
her face. “How was your day mother?" I ask moving from the window to sit on the bed.
“Oh, about the same as every other. Went to work and got you a little treat on the way back.” She
looks at me with a smirk and produces a sweet from behind her back.
Immediately rushing over to her and embracing her with a big hug I greedily reached my hand out
waiting for the treat. Since my life has been so uneventful you’ve got to appreciate the small things.
“Anyways, mother, can you pleaseeee tell me why I can’t leave this room. I’ve been trapped in this
room for the past 7 years and I can’t wait to see the world!” I say excitedly.
This has been something I’ve been doing for the past 3 weeks every single day.
She lets out a long sigh before answering. “Okay Kusk, I will explain. I think you’re finally old
enough to understand.”
“Yay!”
“Well as you’re well aware, you and I are not the same. You are what is called a demi-human. A
mixed breed between a human and a breast kin. The reason I havn’t let you leave this room is
because it is dangerous for people like you.” She starts telling me with eyes beginning to get puffy.
“What do you mean dangerous mother?”
“Well Kusk, beast kin have certain rights within this kingdom, not as many as regular humans such
as myself. Beast kin males are able to own land, trade with humans but at a less than ideal rate,
and are categorized as citizens of Tri Kingdom. On the other hand; demi humans are ostracized by
the humans and are looked at as nothing more than abominations. Most if not all demi humans are
slaves Kusk” She tells me in between sobs.
“Anyways ttthat is why I have you locked up in this room everyday. I don’t want to lose you Kusk. I
know I can’t keep you locked away from the world forever, but I promise it's just for a little while
longer Kusk. I waaaant you to be prepared before you're sent into the world. I want you to be able
to protect yourself” She huffs out as the tears run from her eyes.
Oh well that explains a lot… What a cruel roll on the dice of luck.
“Mother, I understand.” I stammer out with a look of guilt as she embraces me in a hug.
“Well Kusk, I’ve decided. I can’t keep you here forever. We are going out tonight. We’ve just got to
cover up your arm and your right eye.” She pulls away from the hug and stands up reaching into
the bag she always takes with her when she goes to work.
She pulls out a set of leather gloves, and a thick long sleeved shirt. Once I put those on she
approaches me and squats down and looks me in the eye.
“Your eye is exactly like your fathers.” She says with a sigh and a slight look of grief.
She reaches behind her back and produces a piece of metal wrapped in cloth. As she unwraps it I
can make out a cross engraving on a metal plate shaped like a shield. The back of it is covered in a
thick dark material.
“This is what the royal army uses to cover missing eyes, Kusk.” She slowly places it over my eye
and whispers “bind” under her breath.
The eye coverings cross lights up with a faint blue light and suctions around my eye. It feels like a
slight pressure, like if you suck lightly on the back of your hand.
“Okay Kusk, let's go. Make sure to hold my hand and don’t let go.” As we walk together out of the
room. My heart is pounding in my chest. This is the first time I've left this room in 7 years.
(Skill keen eye lvl 1) Locked