Chapter 2

New Beginnings.

three years of my life rotted away. Three years wasted, melted away into nothing. It wasn’t until the day of my tenth birthday that something finally changed for me. I was fetching water for the horses when I saw this old man approaching through the main entrance. He looked worn out, not like old people worn out but like life did a number on him, he was missing three fingers in his right hand, hair as white as snow, his eyes sharp and full of intent. He must have been a warrior in a past life. What caught my attention the most was this long scar on his face, exactly where his left eye should have been. He walked up to me and said,

‘’BOY! My name is Ekis, I’ve come to speak to the elders of this clan, do you know where I could find them?’’ Naturally I answered, of course I can help you find them sir. Please, follow me!

We walked for about fifteen minutes, past the stables and the barracks where the mages trained until we reached this building at the back of our clan grounds. It was a massive structure that could have easily accommodated about four-hundred people inside but instead housed only our ten clan elders and their servants. It was a square building made to look like one solid unit of pure rock but don’t be fooled, there were points of access only visible with mage sight. It was this way to keep the prying eyes from looking too much.

Once at the main entrance I spoke to Ekis, ‘’sir, this is where I leave you. I need to get back to the horses before Elder Gen has me strung upside down.’’ Ekis just looked at me with an expression that didn’t reveal much but perhaps that was a hint of anger I noticed.

Back at the stables doing my job and caring for the horses, most days it wasn’t that bad. The horses kept me company and I could eat once my tasks for the day were completed. It was days like today where I missed my parents the most, days where I was by myself with the horses.

“Kid, come here’’ someone spoke up, when I turned around from feeding the last horse when I saw Ekis was the one talking to me. ‘’Everything alright Sir? Do you need anything else?’’ What does this old man want with me now? I wondered.

‘’I spoke to the elders and they have agreed to sell you to me, you are now my property. Grab your shit, we’re leaving this shit hole.’’

I didn’t even hesitate, as soon as his words left his mouth a plan started forming in my head. This clan will burn. ‘’Sir this is all that I own, I’m ready now.’’

He looked at me weirdly, like I grew a second head or something. ‘’Just like that? You’re not even going to ask why I bought you ? or why they gave you up so easily?’’

to which I just shrugged and said, ‘’I am already a little less than a slave here, what could be worse than being a real one?’’ and to my surprise Ekis just laughed, the asshole just fucking laughed at me.

‘’Kid, I like your upfrontness but no, you’re not a slave. You are free, I owed your father a blood oath, he saw me live through that shit show three years ago and now I’m repaying in kind.’’

I could not believe my words, even in death they looked after me and secured me, even in death my father was a figure of undeniable strength. When Ekis saw my reaction he just said,

‘’oh but I haven’t paid him back yet, what good would it do to just simply free you from these geezers, tell me boy, have you heard of mercenaries?’’

Of course I had, who fucking hadn’t of mercenaries ? I asked, they made money and fucked shit up.

Ekis just chuckled and said, ‘’Well would you like me to teach you how to become one? Listen kid, I’m gonna level with you. I only know how to fight, hunt and kill in any one order.’’

I looked at his eye and said, ‘’I need to grow stronger, no one else will ever treat me like those fucking geezers back at the clan, by my own two hands. I will not allow it!’’

Ekis just chuckled and asked, ‘’why so serious all of sudden runt?’’

I had never been outside of the clan walls, my parents didn’t dare take me out lest a rumor starts that the clan is birthing defects. Those giant brick walls were the beginning and end of my entire world. How many times did I fucking dream of leaving this place? And today I did just that. I didn’t dare let my heart feel an inkling of hope.

This was the beginning of my new life. I was wholly unimpressed with the world outside of the clan walls. I saw nothing but discrimination against those that are weaker. I tried to not pay too much attention to our surroundings. I wanted to be clear of this rotten city and away from the Clan’s influence. After a quick stop at the local merchant shops to resupply we started our journey north. At first I didn’t know where we were going or what it had in store for me but it was a tough couple of months of travel. One thing became obvious early on our journey, Ekis wasn’t joking when he said he could fight, hunt and kill. I’ve never seen someone with one eye dispatch game as quickly as Ekis could or fight as good as he could either. I recall this one event early in our journey to wherever the fuck he was taking me we were ambushed by a group of five bandits, all armed, all dangerous. Ekis just looked at me with his one good eye and said,

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‘’This is going to take longer than two minutes but less than five. Runt, go stand back there and don’t intervene.’’

Which I had no intention of doing unless I knew I could, why? For once, I haven’t been in many real fights, other than kid fights which mostly amounted to me getting hit multiple times because of my station in the clan. But what I saw Ekis do, that was real fighting, almost regal in nature. He threw his bag at the first attacker, a tank of man, wielding an ax in one hand and a shield in the other, momentarily blind, Ekis got past his defenses, a blade magically appeared in his hand and he stabbed once, because that was all it took, the bandit fell to the ground never to get back up. Ekis took this momentarily dull moment in battle to address the remaining four.

‘’I will give you one chance to leave here with all of your blood where it belongs, take it now or forfeit your lives!’’

It felt like a command that rang true in everyone’s ears. Relentless the rest of the group attacked, Ekis just sighed and went on like clockwork. One of the bandits tried to slash his remaining good hand to get him to drop his weapon but Ekis was ready, he ducked and swung at the bandits feet, as the bandit fell he stabbed him in the chest. Two down, three to go, that's when two of the bandits finally surrounded him and one stayed back with a cross bolt trying to pin him down but Ekis was almost inhuman in the way he moved, a parry here, a slash there, little by little he wore down one of the attackers and again he stabbed with uncanny precision and almost inhuman reflexes,, he whipped around before the other bandit that had engaged him in melee could get to him, four down I counted, that's when the bolt was finally released. In what could only be described as skills honed through the use of weapons he materialized a dagger out of nowhere and threw it before the bolt hit him on the shoulder, dropping down the last bandit.

‘’Must be getting rusty, If I still had full use of my right hand, this wouldn’t have taken more than two minutes minus the injury.’’

I was aghast, he was disappointed he didn’t kill five bandits faster? I couldn’t take it anymore and asked, ‘’How did you pull the blade out of thin air?’’ he chuckled and said,

‘’It's called a storage device, it lets me take items out by putting in just a bit of Tora. We were lucky they didn’t have a mage with them. It would have taken significantly longer to take care of a full fledged mage.’'

‘’Hey, Ekis? Can you wield magic?’’

‘’I’m not great at it, I’m able to shape my energy into shields which I can use to block attacks and cover my blind spots, I can also wield my energy to cover my body like a second skin which makes me more resistant to magic or physical attacks.’’ He looked at me up and down as if lost in thought, at last he went through his bag and pulled out a scroll, it looked worn out just like him. ‘’Alecc gave me this the last time I saw him, I don’t know what it is besides knowing that it's a spell that he made for you. Before you ask, runt. I don’t know what it does. He didn’t grace me with that knowledge but he did say, if anyone would figure it out, it will be you.’’

My hands were trembling as I took the scroll, a small thank you escaped my lips. I wanted to open it immediately, but Ekis stopped me.

‘’Not here, runt. Wait until we get to our destination. It’ll be safer then.’’

After the bandits, nothing else of notice happened. Ekis wasn’t idle during those two months, he kept drilling me in daily exercise after long days of walking. I was exhausted most days but it was worth it. He had me haul fallen trees around, at first I could barely move it a couple of paces but by the end of our journey I was able to move it about a dozen paces. It was always a different log but always about the same weight. I tried multiple times to ask about my fathers dying moments, or what had happened back at the fort but Ekis refused me. He just told me to complete Ekis awesome training camp and he might tell me. When we finally made it to where we were going, we were deep into the north. Trees taller than any I had seen before, animal life was abundant and I could hear rivers nearby. We finally reached a run down cabin, it looked like no one had been there in years. Vines were growing on the walls, and the door looked half busted. It wasn’t a big cabin either. I’m sure the inside isn’t much better. One oddity did stand out to me, the wood looked like it was almost alive. It looked like the trees themselves grew in the shape of the cabin.

‘’There you go runt, we’re finally here!’’ I looked at him incredulously,

‘’where the hell is this exactly? You kept being so secretive about this location that I almost thought we were going to cross the border into orc territory.’’

Ekis looked at me and laughed, deep and uncontrollably. ‘’Runt, you don’t know anything, do you? You’re not ready for orcs, you would just be a liability.’’ he continued, ‘’this is where we make something out of nothing. I will hone your skills with the blade, I will make sure you can hunt, you can fight and you can survive, for that is the weight of the oath I have made.’’

In the two months I traveled with Ekis, I had learned that he was very easy going most of the time. He had his serious moments, like when the bandits attacked or whenever he was hunting for food. It hit me how severe it must be for him. This oath it’s something that’s dear to him. It made him that much more human in my eyes.

Once inside the cabin, I was blown away. Contrary to my original assessment of the cabin. The outside does not reflect the inside of the house at all. It had very expensive looking furniture. It was so clean I could have probably eaten off the floor. There wasn’t much in the way of decor but I noticed two short swords adorning the strange wood that made up our walls. I couldn’t hold in how impressed I was.

“Ekis, how long has it been since you were here?’’ What happened next, I did not expect. He hit me, and he hit me hard across the chest with the back of his hand.

‘’Listen runt, from this moment on. I am your master, you will address me as such. If I am to teach you what I know about being a mercenary and surviving you will have to address me accordingly. Sorry about the slap but I need to get the point across. This training will not be easy. It will be up to you whether you pass or not.’’ As he said this, he helped me back up. He didn’t give me a chance to complain however. He continued on.

‘’This is how we will do things around here. First, we need to be up before the first light. We'll start by doing exercises until, when the morning hits, we’ll move on to practice. I will teach you the only way I know how, fighting. We’ll spar. The rest of the day is for you to practice what you pick up from our spars. Any questions?’’

I was eager and full of questions to boot, but I didn’t ask any. I knew Master Ekis for a while now, and he didn’t like me asking too many questions. He always goes on a stupid rant about how I don’t know anything. Fucking geezer.