Alaric was a bit frustrated at first when he started this trial. How could he not be? He wanted nothing more than a quick trial for his final one but got one of the longest conceivable trials assigned to him. However, he started working towards completing his trial in earnest soon after, not before cursing the damn tower some though. Something he will come to do often in the coming years.
--Two Hundred Years Ago--
Alaric woke up in a bedroom that could only be described as small and rundown for a single person. Groggy, disoriented, and with a mighty headache, he cursed the tower under his breath.
As soon as his attention snapped back, he tensed his muscles and gave his surroundings a once over. Year after year, trial after trial, he knew that the tower was never benevolent. Never at this difficulty, never at this level.
He found himself lying on a bed that occupied most of the room. A room painted blue that showed signs of fading. Apart from the bed 'with sheets that could clearly be softer', there was a study table pressed against the opposite wall and a cupboard beside it. The room felt too stuffed for his taste, but it will have to do, for now. After confirming nothing threatened his safety or required immediate attention, he observed his new body.
He found himself in a body that roughly matched his original, albeit this one was a bit skinny. If he had to point something that stood out to him, then that would be his hair. They were rather long, reaching shoulder length. 'Should I trim those? Maybe I'll sport a braid this time around.' He mused to himself, chuckling at the thought of him in a braid before putting that thought to the back of his mind.
After methodically carrying out the essential checks he started looking for the mandatory objective the tower provided at the beginning of every trial. He searched around himself like someone who had prescribed glasses searched for them the first thing after waking up. After fumbling about his room for some minutes, he finally found the envelope he was looking for.
It wasn't in the best of conditions. It appeared tattered and had a rugged feel to it as if it had passed through some rough times. A coarse yellowish cover sealed with wax.
He tore open the envelope without thinking further and read the letter's content. Usually, the Letter of Objective was the only time the tower tangibly communicated with you during a trial. It provided him with general information about the world he had been sent to, just the bare bones of it.
After reading the letter, creases started appearing on his forehead. Once he compiled all the available information, he confidently concluded that he needed more information.
He was in a village named Pehevell and was the former village head's second son. That was pretty much all the valuable information he had. He was used to the tower being a cheapskate when it came to knowledge.
He got up and tried swinging his arms and legs around with a couple rounds of shadow boxing to get used to the new body. After a couple of reps when he got the hang of it, somewhat, he went ahead and took stock of what was available to him in the room. The study, the cupboard, the bed, under the bed, under the floor. He literally left no tiles unturned.
After finding a whole lot of nothing, he grabbed a change of clothes before checking himself out in the mirror he found attached to the cupboard's door. In the mirror, an average face stared back at him, someone who you'd lose sight of on a busy street or marketplace. He appeared to be a young adult about 20-22 years old.
Turning around the mirror a couple of times, he set off to explore the house where he was staying. The house wasn't that big, and it had a couple of rooms, a kitchen, and a locked room that had a 'Village Head's Study' written on it. 'Wow, ain't that convenient, I can almost smell the quest that's lurking beyond these doors' he thought.
From what he gathered, his elder brother or elder sister if he had any. had to be the new village head for him to be still sleeping in the village head's house.
When he arrived where the family dined, he saw a couple in their late thirties, a woman similar to his age or perhaps a bit younger, and a little kid about ten years old.
When the people at the table saw him, they invited him to join them. The lady sitting across the table half invited and half mocked, "Join us already, or are you waiting for a gold-laced invitation for you to be willing to dine with us, your majesty?"
The kid giggled. Watching his aunt and uncle argue was indeed a pleasant thing for him to enjoy. "Zea cut Al some slack. His head might not be able to process all that information since he just got up. What would we do if his head stopped working altogether?" The eldest cousin joined in on the fun.
Alaric looked around the table and looked at the kid, who looked like a squirrel, eating porridge by the mouthfuls, and said, "Oh just shut up you two… and little rascal, how come you and your mum are eating with two pigs today? Did I not tell you that you might get sick if you let stinking animals into the house?"
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The kid, who was still giggling, laughed heartily when he saw the expressions of his father and his aunt turning ugly. He just hoped that his dear mother would not stop them. But alas, when has the little kid gotten his way?
Soon after, who he assumed was his sister-in-law interfered, and they continued having a meal. She had a sunny personality, but neither Zea, nor his brother dared to cross her for some reason. Even his brother, who seemed like the typical 'as bold as a spear,' village head acted timid in front of her. Fortunately for the little kid, even subdued, the banter continued throughout the meal.
Just like that, more than two weeks flew by in a flash. During that time, Alaric went to the village's tavern to listen to the conversation between people, or roamed around the village to better understand the situation.
Although a nice little tidbit he found out was that his elder brother, 'twin' sister, and the kid were called Gerard, Zea, and Ryan respectively.
During his time in the village, nothing stood out. Like every other village, it had homes made up of logs or hay and the like that farmers resided in, even a couple of brick houses where the 'big shots' such as the village chief, the smith, the pharmacy's owner, and the richest of the merchants lived.
Although Alaric hadn't found anything out of place yet, he wasn't discouraged, and soon all that hard work paid off. On the 17th evening, after persistent inspection and digging around, he found walls covering a much larger area around the village.
There wasn't anyone on the walls, and they were old, old walls- cracked, chipped, and not taken care of in general in a long, long time. He was confident that these used to be city walls. Somewhat confused and much more intrigued, he decided to try to unveil the mystery surrounding the walls once he got home.
Perhaps his brother's library would have something that mentions them. If what he thought was correct, then there should be more to the village, and the tower should reveal the first objective of the trial soon.
Halfway through on his way home, humming a tone to himself, he found a commotion going on near the village center. He decided to look first before going home and looking through the library.
Pushing through the crowd, he reached the heart of the heated discussion. His brother and half a dozen people conversed back and forth in a somewhat hurried tone. "Are you sure that there's been a shortage of prey since the last couple of days?" Gerard inquired with a worried expression.
"We are positive about it, hares, rabbits, birds, and even squirrels. There has been a lack of every animal we usually used to hunt around these parts of the forest." The man facing Gerard answered with certainty. He was a large man, well over six feet, and had a 'I'm serious' air about himself. He wore a hunter's jacket and hung a knife on his belt.
"Are any of the hunters acting strangely? As you know, we can't let the greed of some men ruin the entire village." Gerard implied the heavy consequences of the lack of food while there was already a food shortage throughout the village. How can he, the village chief, not be worried when one of the sources of money that used to buy food was now dwindling seemingly out of nowhere?
The villagers of Pehevell just had enough food after a hard day's work to barely eat their fill. The problem was grave to the extent that even the former village head's son was skinny.
"You don't want to throw accusations like those around, Gerard." The huge man frowned.
"Wasn't this one of yours' fault when the incident 30 years ago happened? Or perhaps you're doing well enough, Justin, to forget about something like that? Your father was the head of hunters back then. Only he and my father came out alive out of that skirmish, and that too almost dead. It's not whether or not I can handle the fallout but rather can the village afford another one of those things again! Which of you is confident enough to do so?"
Gerard, whose tone was barely audible at the beginning, almost hissed as he reached the end of his sentence. He looked around, and none in the crowd dared to match his eyes.
"I'm pretty sure that every one of us was in line." Justin replied, his confident tone wavering, "Anyway, I'd go and take a look personally with some of my guys. There's bound to be some rhyme or reason for this to happen. We must prevent another one of those incident befalling Pehevell." He reassured Gerard.
"I'd wait to hear back from you. Take a weapon from the village's storage. It is of very importance to be on the safer side. We can't lose a fighter like you in times of need," Gerard added. Even today, thinking about the past made him tremble. "Tomorrow morning, we'd set off with the best weapons and hunters and find out what's happening in the woods." He said again, with more determination than before.
After finalizing the plan, everyone started leaving. Alaric approached Gerard and asked if everything was alright. Gerard told him that they'd talk about it once they reached home.
Once they reached home, Alaric just headed straight for his brother's study with a skip in his step. Gerard raised a brow but didn't say anything, unlocking the door he let Alaric enter first. He didn't rush him or anything, clearly remembering the curiosity he had when he first entered the room.
Alaric looked around the room. It wasn't wrong to say that it had a minimalistic design. It had a table surrounded by a couple of chairs in the middle; a desk with a couple of parchments laying messily on it, and a bottle of ink and quill, on one side of the room; at the far end of the room was a bookshelf which looked nothing short of antique, it's integrity questionable at best. It was filled with books of all sorts that were neatly sorted out. A huge map pinned to the wall was on the remaining side of the room.
Alaric was surprised that the map included the walls, and on another side of the map, there was nothing but forests. Gerard entered soon afterwards, smacking him on the back of his head. He then sat down on one of the chairs around the table and gestured to Alaric to do the same. Once they were seated, both of them just stared at each other for a while.
"So, what do you want to know? I'll try my best to answer your questions. But there are certain things that you're not supposed to know. For them, I'd naturally not tell you." Gerard stated plainly.
"Why do walls surround our village, and why are they so far spread out?" Alaric pointed at the map. The walls were very far out, covering an area of more than ten times the size of Pehevell.
"I honestly don't know about that either, there are speculations around, but that's all they are, just speculations. Nothing can be said for certain as to why walls surround our village or why they are so far out. But one thing is for certain, because of those walls, the farmers can farm without many worries, it keeps random beasts out, and bandits are easily sighted. Coupled with the fact that the village isn't rich enough for it to attract them, it's truly a safe place to reside."
"Can I go through the books here?"
"Except for some of them, you can," Gerard replied after thinking for a bit.
"The incident that happened thirty-"
"No, I can't answer that, not for now at least. Maybe after me, Justin, and the guys will come back in a couple of days."
"But-"
"Al, you're not supposed to know that. There's a good reason why only a handful of people know about it. It's not some heaven-shaking secret, but the fewer people know about it, the less we'd be worried. I'm already breaking the rules by allowing you to study and browse the library as you please. So, don't put me in a difficult place." Gerard firmly denied it and turned to leave. After reaching the door, he said, "Take care of Vera, Ryan, and Zea when I'm out." With that, he left without waiting for a reply.