Before The Always Cold Winter - Part 1
Fourteen years after Emperor Meelis death.
“Yul did you find some?”
Yul, sleeping on a random mattress they found in a ditch two years ago just after they arrive here on top of a flat stone roof with a lot of holes in it, it was the roof of a random house, now only another ruins they found at the most south edge of the slum, woke up to the sound of his older cousin sitting on a part of the stone wall encircling the rectangular shape roof and asking him the same question he always asked him since he was eight. That was approximately six years ago.
“What Rohit.” Yul muttered sleepily while waving his hand in front of him as if trying to get an annoying fly out of his face.
“Don’t what me did you find some?" Rohit asked again with the look of someone being annoyed on his face.
“No, I didn't.” He said as he was getting up, grabbing his joke of a face mask putting it on and going to sit next to him while sighing.
“Well, FUCK!” Rohit yelled angrily, as he jumped up from the stone wall and kicked a random rock on the roof.
His face began to darken as he calmed down a bit and turned back to sit next to Yul to his left, his voice sounding desperate with even a hint of panic. "Yul, winter is coming we need to find some food to stack, we have the clothes already if barely, but we need the food badly, you know how people get when winter arrives.”
Yul and Rohit stomach growled at the same time whether their own stomach was cheering them on to find food quickly or cursing them for their emptiness, only their blabber would know.
Looking in the eyes of Rohit that were shifting with determination, responsibility or maybe both, Yul knew it was time for it again. Another big jump off a cliff, hoping to not hit any rock in the water, a gamble or maybe a solid plan, hopefully the latter.
“What's the plan?” Yul said while turning himself and letting his leg hang in the air to surveil their surroundings for any stragglers or worse yet raiders.
“I don't know yet, but we'll find something we have to, not like we have much of a choice.” he said, muttering the last part under his breath but not quietly enough for Yul to not pick on it.
“We always have a choice.” Yul responded in his almost always neutral tone.
“Stop it...” Rohit said in the same tone, letting a bit of silence sneak itself in the middle of their conversation and then, asked another question that Yul also get asked a lot, in a tentative tone. "Did you hear anything while going around?”
Probably worrying about the bad news Yul thought. Too bad it is the only sort we get.
“Yep, the demons will be here in 4 years' time rumor says and Larry is dead, I try and told him he should only smuggle Relic, but he wanted to smuggle a handgun in, he got caught by the guards, I mean we are too close to the frontline for a gun to not get intercepted by them.” Yul said his voice rising, getting angry at the stupidity.
“He was pretty ambitious, but he was older and born here, he knew people who knew people with good information, but I guess it one less mouth to feed and more job for you, little spies.” Rohit responded in a serious tone.
“Also talking about guards, we co-”
“There is no way.” Yul uttered while shaking his head and looking at Rohit like he was an imbecile.
“Oh, come on last time they barely gave you a scratch on your shoulder when they caught you stealing black bread from their barrack” Rohit said while laughing heartily.
“You mean I almost lost my arm and then they left me to die in an alleyway, luckily the only nun left from The Gods Church step out to heal me when I was on the step just before the gateway, or I would be dead.” he said resentfully while caressing the scar on his shoulder.
“It wasn't that bad.”
“Yes, it was.”
“You sur-”
“Get someone younger to do it, I'm no longer a worthy candidate for the barrack.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
There is no way I'm doing some barrack stealing again. It was alright when I was younger, a kind guard, a rare bread, even gave me his bread once, but they have been getting rougher in the last years when they’ve caught me. I guess pity is only reserved for the truly young. As he was about to zone out a bit, he heard a deep sight to his left.
“The two youngest died this summer. Caught by raiders looking for information, they didn't even give up this stupid ruin, they were good kid better than you for sure.” he said jokingly with his head in his hand.
Summer is kinder than winter, but all seasons are harsh in their own way, summer for example has the most Humans activity of them all, and Humans are not kind, the kind one are already dead.
Yul putting his hand on his shoulder in comfort, he asked.” How many are left?”
Pushing his hand away and standing up he responded in a reproachful and exasperating tone.” You would know if you just went in the ruins for once and talked to the people living just beneath you it's one rooftop away for fucksake, you only come to hide from the rain.”
“Talked about what, how we are always hungry all the timed there is not much to talked about, negativity is all I bring, and I bet it is all they bring as well.” he said in a pessimist voice
I'd rather drown in my own sorrow than have another drown me in theirs.
Changing the subject, Rohit coughed and brought the topic back to the question but not before getting the final words.” You’d be surprised. Anyways we are currently six including me and you, we are starting to get extremely thin in numbers, raiders will probably raid us for the little we have before the winter if we find food and they see any of it we’ll get raided for sure , nine was a bad number already and with two younger than twelve years old we were closer to seven point five, also don't even asked me their names if you wanted to know go ask them.”
Then an uncomfortable and long silence fell on the rooftop. There was only one subject remaining to talk about before Yul would go on his merry way. An almost forbidden one amongst them.
“We're leaving in three years' time to another city farther west, once again, one-year before the demons arrive.” Rohit relented and finally said.
“There is not much left after that if I remember from my father hunting map, Human will fall in the next 15 years probably, maybe Dream City will survive.” Yul said neutrally.
“The curse...-” Rohit starts but couldn't finish as Yul cut him off.
“Is not real it was only bad consecutive luck.” Yul stated, trying his best to put up a tough front even though he knew it was hopeless to argument against a shapeless curse.
Then, as if waiting for a cue, the trapdoor leading to the roof opened wide and before a head could reveal itself a girl's voice was heard.
“Yul is right it is not a curse but Fate.” She said with conviction as if talking about something everybody should know.
She pulls herself up from the ladder and then let the trapdoor fall in a loud bang before turning around and looking straight toward Yu.
Yul met her eyes for the first-time, moment never forgotten and saw her long wavy strawberry blonde hair, her beautiful but hard to read magenta eyes, they were full without pupils like two sun at their midday peak, she looked older than him probably as old as Rohit eighteen years old, the girl stood at 5.7 feet (174 cm), she was wearing tight blue jeans with a lot of sorry looking patch to cover the holes in them with whatever tissue she could probably find sew in an amateurish way, a piece of cloth sitting on the bridge of her small nose and covering the bottom of her face to not breath the fume of war haunting the air and a dirty dark grey hoodie but her pale skin wasn't dirty and stain from the ashes in the air like most, you could even call it clean as if the World was hesitant to dirty her.
“Who are you and what do you mean?” Yul asked calmly knowing she came from below the roof.
“She lives below, one of the six of us.” Rohit said stating the obvious while eyeing her skeptically, wondering how long was she there for.
“I am Genovefa, and I simply meant what I said, not a curse but Fate.” Genovefa presented herself, repeated the same words while smiling happily and sitting down on the flat stone roof.
“I believe Fate has bigger fish to worry about than us.” Rohit said with a forced smile.
“Your personal belief does not matter Rohit Gehazi, Fate cares for us all equally or at least I used to think so.” she responded with the same smile but more coldly than before while still staring toward Yul with intrigue... maybe.
Yul stared toward her magenta eyes with an obviously curious look wondering what she meant at the end of her phrase, not oblivious to her words but also thinking that maybe his cousin had gone back on his promise he made to himself a while ago to no longer take in any mana junkie.
Adverting his gaze and glancing toward the setting sun hiding behind the always gray sky, Yul got up from the stone wall and took his only possession under the bed he sleeps in if it could even be called that, it was an old military knife his father gave him seven years ago with a red handle, probably made from the Meelis empire capital to the east, a place with an history of falling and rising stronger than ever like the phoenix of old, though this time they've been put too deep.
It was called a relic these day since it has two mana enchantments, one to make it a bit sharper and one to coat it in fire, sadly that one can't be use with the mana disappearance 14 years ago and even the sharpness enchantment can only be use and not made, they are now call relics for a reason.
“Alright, I'll be back tomorrow morning when the sun started rising, I'm going to be roaming tonight looking for food as always, you better have a plan come tomorrow morning.” Yul said addressing Rohit.
“Don't take any risk.” Rohit order or so it seem like it, the right-hand squeezing Yul left shoulder showed his simple worry.
“I won't, later.” Yul, ignoring his hand, started walking toward the trapdoor while saying his goodbye.
“Later.”
“Later!” Genovefa yelled in a happy tone while Yul was closing the trapped door and going down the rusty ladder toward the first story.
While walking toward the stairs leading to the ground floor, he looked around the place where they live having not truly taken the sight in a long time, since there is not much to take in, an old stone house, more ruin than house with 3 bedrooms, well two would be closer from the current truth with the gigantic hole in the middle of the floor in the master bedroom on the first story.
The glass of the windows around the house has long been broken and there are now only a couple of wooden planks they could find to protect them from the fresh autumn wind soon the be the cold winter one, wood is hard to come by close to the frontline since the army took it all, fences don't build themselves since the mana disappeared.
The smells in the ruin are a mix of burning smoke and fool corpse but the same smell is in every region beside the far north, the fire of war gave the world a greyish tint, spared nobody and is to blame for the awful smell, most wear random piece of cloth as a face mask to cover the nose and the mouth, it filters the air to the best the average person can afford, beside in Dream City, the last functional mana shield is all around the city and is probably the only reason the Humans still stands at the front lines, after all demon are extremely weak to the pure power of mana even more than the divine one.
Besides that, there is not much to describe, it is no longer a beautiful house after all but just another empty and dirty ruin of the slum.
Walking down the stairs he turns to his left and saw the “Doctor” starring in the void thinking about who knows what, sitting on an old rotten wooden chair that even the army would not want to take, in the middle of what was probably the living room once.
Ignoring him and walking toward the door leading outside while thinking that they should kick him out before he gets them all in trouble with the guards since his medical business was not in the healing department but more in the stealing organs department and guards do not take kindly to those if anyone, they deem suspicious, and he was an extremely suspicious looking man, but it is Rohit jobs to judge who can get in or get out one way or another not is.
Not even turning the knob on the door since it was long gone, he simply pushed it with his left arm while looking around for any stragglers before finally deciding to start walking toward the bustling city or what was once.
It is all but ruinous slums now.