Footsteps To Home (2)

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The nighttime air gently graced my cheek, passing me by in a subtle display of its frigid brilliance. The thing I enjoyed most about these bodies made of flesh and blood was the shocking degree of sensitivity that came along with them, even the slightest touch from so much as an ant would cause a rection from me, whether it was voluntary or not.

Looking out from the small ‘patio’ as they called it, I could see the faint glimmers of Aether crystals coming from across the bridge. They did have candles here, but seeing as Aether crystals could be used for illuminating the streets at night and also due to them lasting far longer than typical candles and torches, they were the go-to method of illumination in this world.

Directly across from me, the small pond that contained the scarcely floating lily pads now had some sort of strange yellow glow coming from a select few of the floating structures. I couldn’t exactly tell what they were, but from here, they resembled frogs with tails and esca lights protruding from their foreheads.

Oliver stretched both hands in front of him, fingers now interlocked. Standing beside him I could hear the faint sounds of creaking coming from his now relaxed joints, it was a given considering just how much his massive frame was already stretching the buttoned up short-sleeved shirt he was now wearing.

Pulling in a deep breath of fresh air, he turned to face me with an expression beaming with vigor, it wasn’t the peak of his condition, but it was still far better than the dreary look his eyes held only a few minutes ago.

“Alright Liam, it’s been a while so let’s have a little talk.”

“O-okay....you sound kind of sleepy father.”

“Well, if it's this obvious then I guess even you could tell.....Its true that I am a little worn out right now, but this shouldn’t take too much out of me.”

The dry laughter that followed his last sentence completely contradicted the words he’d just spoken.

“.....Why did we have to come outside though...?”

“Just for a change of pace, let's talk it out in the great outdoors until your mother gets done making dinner. Besides, I could tell that you were already getting bored of looking through those dusty old books, so let's try something different for a change.”

“Heh-Heh....alright let’s do it!”

The innocent laughter that came from me just now was starting to make this performance all the more convincing.

“So you want to know why we live so far out from everyone else right?”

“Mhm...... everyone else lives inside the city but we’re the only one who stay so far out here.....”

Apparently, my juvenile voice had some sort of effect on him, as soon as he heard my words trailing off, Oliver took a few steps closer before placing his large hand on my head.

“You know about my job as a raider right?”

“Mother told me about it, she said that’s you fight monsters and go on adventures.”

“Well that is true, but fighting monsters is more like a side effect of being a raider, at least for me anyway, other people may have different reasons. For me, my duty as a raider is to protect others, and that includes everyone from you and your mother to all the people of Ekin......”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

He exhaled a heavy breath, releasing yet another burst of the built-up tension nestling within his body.

“Liam we’re not actually from this town, we came here on a mission before you were born.”

A strange silence filled the air between us, I’d known about Julia not originating from here, but for Oliver to be a nomad as well was something of a surprise.

“Hah-Hah-Hah...don’t look so confused. Your mother’s a druid so she isn’t from anywhere near here either, her homes to the north of here.”

He pointed in some arbitrary direction with absolute certainty, clearly not something you could pull off if you weren’t absolutely sure of it.

“So then.... where are you from father?”

“Hm? My hometown is Orna, the capital city. We’ve been here ever since you were born so I’m sure this is all a little confusing for you. Let’s go back to the beginning, before you were born our raid party – I mean, me, your mom and our other raider friends came here on a secondary mission to defeat a certain monster, but the fight ended up dragging on and it got away. We couldn’t beat it because your mother was carrying you at the time Liam.”

“What do you mean by ‘carrying’ father?”

On instinct my head cocked to the side in a fit of confusion, I saw Oliver direct his gaze elsewhere as if to avoid making eye contact with me.

“Ahem! It means you were still a baby back then.”

Ahhh...he must have meant human conception; it wasn’t something I was overly familiar with, but I did at least know the principles surrounding it. That must be why his voice now sounded so docile, completely unlike the usual commanding tone it normally carried.

“Y-You see, druids like your mother take longer to make babies than humans, for them it takes about a year and a half, and since she was already getting weak because of it we decided to stay here for the time being and not risk the danger of going back with her in that condition. Since this place has next to no raiders, they ended up relying on me for protection and our stay here dragged on for way longer than I’d planned, especially since your mother was still recovering.”

“So...when are we going back to that Orna place father?”

“Oh it shouldn’t be too long now, in fact we were supposed to have left already, but a while back I found traces of that monster that we’d let get away all those years ago. It looks like its still weakened but I’d hate to leave that thing roaming around here, especially since it was our mess to begin with. There’s no warden around here either so if that thing does show up, then things would get ugly real fast.”

He finally gazed down at my peering expression after going off on his own little tangent. Strengthening his grip on my now disheveled head of hair, he chuckled in a tone that sounded both indulgent and amused.

“There’s no need for you to be so stiff about all of this, with me around here there’s nothing for you to worry about. I’ll finish what our party started all those years ago, that's why I have to check the town’s entire perimeter every day, having this house out here just makes that a little easier.”

“Uhm......father what's a warden? Are they different from raiders?”

“Oh, I guess you’ve never really heard about them since Zale isn’t all that in touch with the capital. Wardens are the people who were granted power by the deities of the land, raiders are mostly tasked with exploring dungeons and the like, they don’t really stay in cities for too long unless its for a mission and they don’t act under the orders of any deities. Wardens on the other hand are tasked with overseeing and protecting the territories that are managed by a particular deity's sect so.....”

Oliver abruptly stopped himself before he could go off on yet another lengthy tangent. It was one of the few habits I’d gotten used to seeing since coming here.

“Ahem!....You’re probably still too young for this, but let me finish what I was saying anyway, the wardens are basically the head members of whatever leading sect is in charge of carrying out a deities will.”

That explanation was rather concise, but I still got the gist of it. With all the different nations and factions spread across this continent it's no surprise that they’d have something like that in place.

(You two! I’m almost done making dinner.)

Julia’s echoing voice barely managed to make its way to us on the outside.

“So Liam? Is there anything you want to do before heading back inside?”

The answer to that was obvious.

“Can you show it to me one more time? .......Your magic I mean.....”