Nihe looked up, It was several hours after his fight with the bear. The crowds of spectators had left long ago all talking about the show. He had heard the conversations through the small barred slit in the cell that served as a window to the street above.

“...you see how he dealt with that bear”

“Yes, that was some masterful spearmanship and he must have some impressive strength to put that much power into a single handed strike.”

“What kind of training do you reckon he's gone through? must have been some young noble with that level of skill.”

“...Maybe”

“I reckon his family fell into ruin and their enemies captured him and sold him as a fighting slave ...Wait why maybe”

“Well I'm no expert but I don’t think you could train that type of spear in the manner of a noble”

“What? Where else would he have learned it?”

“I duno…”

In the corner of the cell sat on a bench cut out of the wall Nihe sat. Still pondering the words he had heard earlier as hadn’t understood everything he had heard. What was a noble? Nihe had heard the word before, he had been told occasionally that he would be fighting in front of nobles but when he entered the ring he had only seen men in the stand around him. This always confused him because people used the word noble like they used the words Men, Bear, Lion and Dog. He knew that they were all different things and he had seen that each of them looked very different from each other. Nihe tilted his head what if they were like the wind? Nihe hated the wind that was what the other gladiators called it. That cold, loud nothing that would come in at night through the window and make him shiver while he tried to sleep. Yeah maybe nobles were like the wind and you couldn’t see them but, hadn’t they called him a noble to and Nihe was sure people could see him. Ok so people could definitely see nobles so why couldn’t he?

There was one other question he had, one which he just couldn’t find a reason for they had said his enemies captured and sold him. Nihe couldn’t understand this at all, well he knew what an enemy was it was something you had to kill, so why did they talk about something so strange as an enemy that would not kill you? Nihe sat with thoughts chasing each other around his head without explanations to go with them.

A while later, Nihe was curled up in the, ever smaller, last patch of sun as the cold shadows circled him when he heard the sound of boots on stone coming up the corridor towards him. A figure appeared, through the bars of the cell door, Nihe could see a man fumbling with a large ring of keys. He was a squat man in his late thirties without a full head of hair dressed in a shabby overall that always seemed to have at least one new tear or hole but never seemed to fall apart. Nihe recognised him instantly.

“Donto!” Nihe leapt to his feet rushing to the door and shifting his weight from foot to foot as he waited for the older man to find the right key and open the door.

“Calm down boy, you’re acting like this is a visit between friends.” Donto found a key that looked right and tried the door again. He removed it again cursing as it failed to turn. Nihe continued as if he hadn’t heard the outburst.

“But this is only the 28th day?” he asked Donto through the bars.

“Aye…” Donto said his hands stopping momentarily before continuing his search for the right key. The halt in motion appeared to go unnoticed by nihe. The concept of months and years was something Nihe had not known about until recently when he had asked a question to Donto. Nihe had never understood why sometimes the gap between visits would be different, he had tried to find a pattern but after 5 visits he couldn’t find it. Giving in to his curiosity Nihe had asked Donto about it and had received a confusing lecture about the order of days into months, months into seasons and seasons into years.

Seeing that his answer had not giving the boy the explanation he was looking for Donto sighed, paused and then elaborated. “The second month of the year is special, it has 28 days except for once every four years when it has 29”

“What… Why?”

“I dunno, geez boy that's how it's always been back before the corrupt brought the land to its knees.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“The corrupt brought the land to its knees?” Nihe repeated the last sentence slowly as if it would make more sense to him that way. Seeing the look on the boys face Donto realised what he had just said.

“I don’t suppose you would just forget that part would ya” Nihe’s eyes gave his answer before his mouth could, this drew another sigh from the man.

“I had hoped to keep this from you as you have enough problems in your life without me adding humanities problems to your shoulders but I guess the cat is out of the bag and you won’t stop pestering me regardless…” Nihe wanted to ask how the cat got into the bag but he suppressed the urge as he nodded his head vehemently as Donto continued.

“... They say The land used to stretch on forever and you could spend your entire life travelling and never see it all. They say, that even when the land did end you would only find seas still larger and more endless than the land and across those, you would find more lands just as big as this one if not bigger. They say there, were once enough men to cover the land and that they built empires larger than anything you could see today. Alas boy, that might still be the world in which we lived, if not for the corruption...”

By this point Nihe’s mouth was open and he had even stopped moving from side to side as he stared enraptured at Donto. This... this is a story, the realisation was the reason for Nihe’s current dumbstruck appearance. Nihe always listened and remembered anything Donto said even the curses, but the stories were his favourite. It was hard to get Donto to tell stories, he said ‘Stories are told between friends around a fire under the stars’. Every now and then, however, Nihe could make him tell one, sure they were shortened un-descriptive and told so quick you would think Donto was skipping parts out but despite that Donto was an excellent storyteller. Nihe redoubled his efforts as if straining imaginary muscles to hear the words more clearly as he spoke them.

“... There are many different beliefs when it comes to the corruption, some say it's a punishment from god, others say other things. The point is no one knows the truth as to where the corruption came from. It ripped through the land, smothered the sea and even covered the sky. It took everything the land had and changed it, beasts common and magical became twisted monstrosities that hunted men and beast and if nothing could be found to hunt they turned on each other. Many wars were fought against the corrupt but eventually, the people of the land were sent running from their homes until they reached the land around the great tree. The great tree is a manifestation of the natural power of nature and those who serve nature and harness its power were able to stop the corruption. These people are called druids and they are the heroes who protected us then and who do so to this day on the great wooden walls of Oak, Ash and Pine.”

Here Donto paused and tried another key, this one worked and he swung open the door looking up Nihe and seeing he was waiting for him to continue Donto gestured down the corridor. “you can listen and walk at the same time boy.” Nihe quickly stepped out the cell and listened as they walked together.

“It’s been two thousand years since the walls were raised and still they fight to protect us.” Dontos voice turned sour as he went on. “Of course the new kings of this land have long forgotten that always warring and fighting in their courts or on the battlefield. People have forgotten the fear of the corruption that drove their ancestors behind the druids walls.”

“But not you Donto?”

“Not always boy, when I was younger I was just as ignorant as most. However, one day before you were born I was working during the winter festival. At a wall town and ill tell you even there many miles from the wall I heard the roars of the corrupt as they attacked the wall. I’ve heard nothing like it since and hope it will stay that way. Nightmares for months just from the sound of corrupt roars and there are men who fight them. I’ll tell you druids are either madmen or heroes worthy of song but I will tell you that kings and soldiers who fight each other when the real enemy is all around us are fools.” Donto finished with a harumph!

The two turned into a small room, on the floor, a small hole cut out of the stone. Donto moved around the room lighting torches placed in brackets on the walls as he did so Nihe noticed that as always he kept as far away from the barrels lined up beside the hole. Nihe strode forwards and using strength that did not fit his statue to rip the sealed lid of one of the barrels, as he did so he started to ask questions about the story Donto had just told.

“What is a king?”

“A king, you don’t even know what a king is?”

“No, so what is it?

“You shouldn’t be so calm about not knowing such a basic thing.” thinking about it for a second Donto answered the initial question. “A King is a man who rules over all the other men in his country with the help of the nobles.”

“What’s a noble?”

“A noble is…”

The questions continued flowing as the pair worked, Donto continued to answer as best he could but didn’t know many specifics about the Corrupt or the Druids. As Nihe opened one barrel after another the room was slowly filled with a smell that made Donto scrunch up his nose in disgust. This made nihe laugh.

“It's only pig's blood, it doesn't smell that bad”

Donto shot Nihe a grim look as he responded “Just get in already so I can leave.”

Nihe continued to laugh as he pulled off his threadbare tunic and trousers and sat crossed legged in the small hole. Donto walked up to the first barrel and tipped it into the hole it sloshed around Nihes feet painting his skin red. Donto repeated this until all the barrels were empty and the blood came up to Nihes neck. The smell had grown so thick that Donto was green in the face he quickly headed to the door as soon as the last barrel was empty.

Just as he was about to go he turned to look at the boy sat neck deep in pigs blood smiling broadly at him and for the third time sighed.

“You don’t even know how wrong it is for me to put you in that pit do you?”

“It doesn't smell that bad”

Donto turned to go chuckling “one day you will know better and you might understand why I said these are not friendly visits.”

“I'll be back to get you in the morning” and with that donto was gone up the corridor. Nihe listened until he couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore. Nihe loved these meetings despite the large quantities of blood involved. Donto was the only worker who didn’t appear to be scared of him even means always kept him behind a set of iron bars when talking to him. He always said that this wasn’t enough to make them friends as a true friend would try to help him escape this fate. Nihe never understood that and Donto just waved him off when he asked saying “I guess if you don’t know better you can't want better.”

With this Nihe quieted his mind and reached out with his mind. He felt his skin crawl as his pores opened wide and the poorest parts of the pig's blood around him were absorbed into his body. Carried along his veins it eventually reached a spot just below his navel, his Dantian there it became a read swirling gas that mingled with the other 11 shades of red gas present there. This was the source of the boy's abnormal strength and proof that he was a body cultivator of the third rank. Something that would have shocked any number of learned people in the area of body cultivation.