When i was younger my family used to tell stories of myths and legends, of monster so big that they would make castles pale in there shadows, of men so strong that they could lift mountains as if it were their training regime. My favorite one was the story of “Hork”. Hork was a boy that at a young age went to sea with his dad and got ate by a giant whale.but instead of devoured by the monster his father had sadly used his body to protected young Horks body with his own and died. While in the stomach of the whale he survived by eating the inside of the whale, while eating the meat of the monster Hork got bigger and stronger with each passing day. Eventually Hork was able to get so strong that he climbed back up the whale's mouth and escaped but not before ripping a tooth out, luckily when he escaped the whale he wasn't to far from land he swam and passed out on the beach of an island along with him and his tooth. He awoke to nothing but a pain in his stomach and a burn on his back, it had been so long since he had seen the light of day that he was unused to it. Eventually Hork made himself a boat using the tooth as an axe and various other supplies on the island, he escaped and found a port city and went on to become a great warrior and having many more stories named after him. But this was just a story no one could survive being eaten, build a boat from nothing and then just happen to make it to port.
There are many stories like this in my town, to call it a town is a bit of a stretch though there are only 20 families spread out with large farms. There are to many stories one could say there is probably a hundred in my family alone another hundred in the family down the street certain old people probably could know even more, some overlap, some are similar but have key differences. But in the end there all fantasy. The only truth of life for me is that i could become a soldier for the king or i can work on my family's farm. The latter being the most easy while becoming a soldier means becoming another person's piece in the wars that may come, or collecting taxes from those that can't afford them. As a pleasant there isn't anyway for me to become higher in the army, or just slaying simple monsters that may be around, there only are stories of goblins and every couple years a rumor of a troll terrorizing the masses. I've heard fables of other beasts and creatures from travelling merchants but that's all there is to it just hearsay from a man trying to keep your attention enough to tell you something.
As an 15 year old boy most of the days i help my father in the fields, today there wasn't too much work winter is approaching and most of all the crops are in and stored. I walk up to my father and ask “Father is there anything i can do to help?” . He makes a pondering look and the tells me “No i think we are done for the day just don't go to far mother will be making lunch soon and if you're late i'm gonna eat yours!”. I laugh and walk towards the forest i've been going into the forest for 2 years since my mother started letting me she would always say that she can't have her hardest worker disappearing into the forest never to be seen of again. I don't know why she never let me into it earlier i've always been a little bigger than the other couple boys my age and i would say i'm mostly muscle from all the working i do in the fields. But alas a mother is a mother. I still haven’t completely been around the entire forest yet I try to mark here and there so I don’t get lost which still happens from time to time. But today is different I’m going to go see the old mountain i've seen in the horizon to the east, after lunch it's about an hour or so away from looks but I should be able to make it quickly enough to be back before night.
As I walk up my house from the other side of the woods I see father going into the house, surely finished off today’s work. I quickly follow behind not to get my food ate. “How’s is your day mother?” I ask politely. “It’s going as good as all the others have, food on the table and family around it. That’s all that matters, right?” I see her ashen face as she says “right”. From what I’ve heard around the village mother was an active young lady and wanted to become a merchant but not enough money from her and with her being a woman it was almost assuredly not going to happen. Eventually she met my father and began he peaceful life of farming. “Aye mom and what are we having tonight, smells of roast to me” my father changes the subject, years of practice must have honed his skills of adverted memories of what could have been. “Well your nose never fails you does it now Mr” mother says with a wink.” I haven’t had roast in so long” I lie we had it last week as we do every week. To call it roast would be like calling me a man at the middle of his life or rather 60 years old, there wasn't a ton of meat just what we can trade with from the Juges down the old road. I'd call it more of a soup. “Well there’s plenty here. Now enough jibber jabber get to eating” my mother laughs as she says.
I walk outside after telling my thanks to my parents. I begin my quest for the awe sought after hill of gold. I imagine stuff to make it sound cooler in my head. It sounds a lot better than let’s go see the overgrown hill. As i walking through the forest you can see all the critters, the squirrels running around birds chirping. You can also so see the tracks of deesh every now and then littering the forest floor. Here and there you can see the rays of light through the canopies of the trees. I continue along peacefully walking , Until I come upon it a huge uprising from the earth. All the trees in the area become fewer and fewer as I look up. The sun does seem to be still high in the sky raining down light.
Then out of the corner of my eye I see something it’s a black aberration of some sort, I start to walk towards it some more, my heartbeat jumps a little increasing slightly. I feel silly though to think it was someone, or worse something, it’s just a cave. I start to look inside it and I get about 7 feet before the light starts to fade to almost complete darkness. Enough so to stop me from trying to continue on. On the way back out of the cave my foot hits and slips upon something and i quickly collapse to the ground just barely catching myself with my hands, i feel the shock in them reverberating up with a twinge of pain. I look down and scour the ground for the immoral object that have relinquished me of standing.i spot it now a few feet ahead, It looks like a torch “hmm i wonder what's in the cave” i say. I take it back near the exit of the cave. I take a rock on the side of the cave and start trying to spark onto the torch. It doesn't work in any way not even giving me the hopes of a spark. I start thinking of someway to light the torch, i pull off a string on my clothes and find a stick on the ground. I remember watching old man Choik showing this to dad one time, i grab a bigger log and some leaves that the ground is full of and start to spin the wood using the string. Eventually i see a small amount of smoke and my hope begins to rise, then i see a small ember going and i put it on the torch. It bursts into flame it looks like the cloth might have been covered with something that i had not seen or noticed.
As i begin to walk into the cave i keep my eyes open for anything, i don't know what could be in here. A sudden though hits my mind there could even be monsters. My heart beats faster and faster as i continue to walk into the cave even though it's still cool out my head had a nice pool of sweat. Likely from the nervousness and the heat radiating off from the torch. It keeps going and going, for what seems like hours. Nothing is on the floor aside from rocks, the only noises i hear are the thumps of my leather covered feet hitting the floor and the pitter patter of my heart. This is true until there seems to be a bigger room ahead. As i step into it i hear a crack underneath my feet. I look down only to see a bunch of white rocks, upon a more detailed inspection and a guttural noise symbolizing my heart falling into my stomach, i realize they're not rocks but bones there are a enormous amount of bones here and there. And then i start to see skulls lots of tiny skulls, if i didn't know better i would say that they are children. But why on earth would there be children in a place like this especially in the amount that there is surrounding me. Then on the floor i see bunch of little spears and sharpened rocks. To call them spears may be a little too much there more sharpened sticks with the occasional sharp rock on it instead. They must be goblins. The image of the miniature green frame of what terrorizes the people comes into my head. Last time i checked there weren't any goblins around here for years. I wonder who killed them all. My question is answered after walking a bit in the corner i see a much larger body, so large in fact that i thought it was another monster, instead it seemed to be human. It wasn't a body on second look it was still a skeleton just this time it was much larger than the ones around it and seemed to be an area around it in the corner protecting it from the goblins. Saying this because there didn't seem to be a single other bone within a area of at least 3 feet in front of him,i guess this was his final spot after defeating the goblins. I see a plethora of spears dangling out of the body of the deceased man. One seems stuck in the ribcage. I guess he was the one who killed all the goblins. I decide in that moment that this man deserves a proper burial. He fought a multitude of goblins and in the end he gave his life. Hell maybe if he hadn't they could have terrorized the locals, or more importantly my family even if i may have been young at the time.
As i move the body i see in the corner something come and swing down next to me luckily i flail out the way and land on my side. I pick up the dropped torch and look at what had attacked me to see it had been a giant sword. I leave it there and attend to the body. After A few trips i had brought the skeleton to the edge of the entrance. I go back and drag the sword straining myself as it cuts the floor slightly. By the time i had gotten it near the entrance i see that the sun is almost set, i decide that i'll leave the body near the entrance of the cave along with the sword and that i'll come back tomorrow. I see under the ragged cloak he had is a bag on him. I go through it looking for any clues of the once living man. I find inside a smaller bag with a few silver pieces in it what are family would make in a good year after taxes. What looks to be old food now blackened to the point i couldn't tell what it had once been, some more torches and finally a book. With the sudden sign of the book i know he must have been from a bigger town or possibly a rich noble. There isnt to many people or rather any that i know of that can read and write around here . From what i heard from the merchants in some places it's common for even children to read and that there are book that are written in the clearest writing.
Upon looking at The sword again something was off. The size was different from all those i had seen to make a comparison the swords from the soldiers are but the ear of corn compared to this sword being the stalk. It was massive and heavy i could barely hold it this probably didn't help him when fighting so many little goblins. I leave the sword therefore it would be way to hard to bring back i bring the satchel and the journal. Maybe i can see if i can learn to read and write from mom or someone in town. I'm dying to know what's in it. I then look to see the purplish haze in the horizon accompanying the golden sky.
As i walk back night falls and it takes all my memory of the forest to get me home. How long did i spend in the cave it's easy to say i missed dinner, the feeling that i got as i was walking into the unknown and looking at what i thought no one could have been before. Then it dawned on me. Maybe continuing and living the life of a simple and easy farmer isn't for me. That feeling that i got from simply walking into a cave caught me. “I'm going to be an adventurer” i say to myself “No matter the cost”. Then the dawning of how silly that sounds come to me. “Or at least ill try”
I walk into the house it seems my parents are asleep, there is a cold bowl of food sitting on the table i quickly eat and clean up my mess. I go to my room and get ready for bed the excitement of the world starts to eat at me in the night. I start thinking to myself what is and isn't real.
“Jord where have you been all night, we were so worried all night thinking that you actually did get lost” my mother yells as she wakes me up. I know it's serious when she says my name, she knows i don't like being called Jord, who knows why i was named that. “ Yes son your mother's right i can't have my hardest worker disappearing” father says. I think about how my dad would feel if i tried telling i wanted to leave to go see the world. Maybe i could talk to mom about it, she felt the same as i did at one point. “Im sorry ill make sure to be safe” i tell them. “Well as long as you're safe everything's good wouldn't you say honey” my father says to mother. “Yes as long as he's more careful” mother says.
“Father do you know anybody that can read and write?” i ask wanting to see if i can learn. “Well i don't know if he ever learned it but i think Mr choik about a couple houses down knows more than most around. Why are you wanting to learn boy there isn't any use to spending your time doing that there isn't any books around here i don't think” Father replies “ i don't know i just think it could be useful to know, maybe i could get a better deal from the merchants or something” i try to think of a good reason other than me finding a book with a corpse in the woods. “Well you can see if you can give him some corn to teach you if you want, couldnt hurt to ask” father says.
We eat breakfast and go out to do what little work remains for the year, as i do what father asks i get this feeling in my stomach, how could i do this for the rest of my life. There are people out there discovering new things and exploring. Why would people farm. Since there isn't much left father lets me go see if Mr choik can help me it's a far walk but not nearly as far as the cave. I do need to go back to bury him and bring the sword somewhere closer.
As i walk to Mr choik's with the corn in the satchel which my parents started asking about, to which i said i just found it in the woods. They didn't care to much as long as i didn't steal it so they went back to doing there own thing. Hmm i guess if i am going to try to start on the path of exploring i should get used to walking a lot i bet, i also should maybe start to learn how to use a sword. And i by learn i mean actually get strong enough to carry the one i have now. I soon arrived to mr choik. An older man with very few gray hair, some people say that he is the oldest in the town. They also say he is the saddest apparently when he was much younger with a family his wife and son died in a house fire and all he could do was watch. Ever since then it's just been him.
As i walk up onto the area that marks Choiks land, i see an old man sitting on a chair out front of his house petting a squirrel. I haven't seen many things outside of my farm but i just have a gut feeling that this shouldn't be a sight. “ How is it going Mr Choiks?” i ask sounding as nice as i can. “Well every day is a good now how can i help you young one” he says in a dreamy voice as he stares off towards the forest. “Well my father says that you maybe able to teach me to read and write” i ask politely while staring into his eyes, they are longing, it's as if he's looking for his family in the forest and is waiting for them to come out at any moment just hoping to get that first glimpse of them again. “Well i can definitely teach you but why do you want to learn it isn't hard to learn but, living around here you may only use it once or twice in your life unless you are actually trying to read the taxes that come” he says quickly as if trying to dissuade me from learning and ending with a joke about the taxes in then end the tax is the tax it doesn't matter if you can read it, the soldiers will just come and take what is said. I look into his eyes i get that the feeling that i couldn't lie that he was seeing through to me and had already knew the answer but wanted me to confirm. ”I'll be honest in the hopes that you won't talk to my parents about it, the other day when i was in the woods and i came upon a cave. The feeling that i got while i was exploring it and seeing new things was unreal to me it felt great like i was on the brink of happiness. I just want to follow the feeling i had gotten from it.” i tell him as it just all spills out, it continues. “ I tried helping my dad this morning and it felt awful, I knew that I couldn't do this myself for the rest of my life, i have become addicted to the feeling, its that simple”. I say ashamed that i have so easily shamed the life that my parents have, saying i couldn't do it. The old man starts to laugh and says “Those are some beautifully passionate and true words that are coming from you boy, but do you know what it takes to live a life like that, if anyone could do it we all would, hell your mother tried and look where she is now”. I start to feel bad could i do it. But Mr Choiks interrupts these thoughts. “Now dont doubt yourself that is the only thing that will stop you, that's what stopped your mother she had a single doubt placed into her by all the people around her and it corrupted her passion, she let the water of doubts extinguish the flames of passion, these waters have made me live a life of pain” he says as he starts to cry and then continues “that's what makes the difference between the stories you hear and the lives you see, if i had just gone into the fire to try and save my family i could of helped or at least died with them, but i doubted myself, i said what if i just die for nothing, maybe they already escaped. But in the end i didn't ,and they died.” he wipes the few tears from the leathered skin that is his face. “Come here i have something that may help you, a lot more than it would me”. We walk into Mr Choiks new house, it's simple but i imagine he doesn't need more, and then he pulls out book from a shelf on a wall. It looks old but not nearly as old as the one from the cave. It has a slight sheen upon it that gives me a fuzzy feeling seeing it. Mr Choiks looks at the book and looks to reminisce for a couple seconds before he says ”Me and my wife bought this book when our son was just a baby to hope to give him a better future so he wouldn't have to live the life of a farmer, to let him do anything he wanted, you see it's actually a magic book, do you know what they are?” he looks into me knowing the answer but asking still. “I can't say that i do, how is it magic sir” i ask mystified as i look at it. “ Well magic books usually teach you something that you dont know instantly,” as he says this my face lights up could this be some heroic power, some blessing from the gods. ”Now don't get too excited it's just going to teach you how to read and write, i've never seen a book that can teach you something crazy and even this one costed almost 3 years of farming” He finishes. “3 years of farming that's crazy how long did it take you to save that sir” i'm astonished that must of took years to save. “Quite a bit i do remember but now it doesn't have a real use it would be wasted on an old bones like mine, but you i want you to never give up on your fire no matter the pain and the struggle you go through reach your dreams, no matter the cost. Now here have it, you're lucky it survived the fire i imagine it was the magic in it” he says with a stern face that ends with a chuckle. “Thank you so much sir how could i ever repay you” i gratefully ask.
“Just live a good life, how you want it and never give up on anything that you set your mind to you can always fail, just remember to get back up and try harder, that's all it takes to become a great man” he says “Oh and leave the corn” he says with a big smile on his face. As i set the corn down and begin to walk away i say “Thanks for everything i promise to live how you said sir”. As i walk away back onto the house i look at the book, i wonder how i use the book. As i think that a bright light begins to shine and then nothing. I feel as if nothing changed. “Wait ill try to write my name” i say “J-O-R-D” as i draw each into the ground as i start to walk away. I feel an understanding with writing that feels like it has been present in my mind since i was born. “Jeez even my name looks ugly” i mutter to myself.
I continue walking on the way towards home when I remember I can start to read the book that’s in my satchel. I look at the black leathered cover it has many a scratches in wear in it making me think just how old it is. On the cover I can now read the set of letters on it saying “Journal”. Hmm a journal, there could be a plethora of information in it especially since he died in such an unusual place that’s cause alone for a story leading up to it. I flip to the first page.
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“Dear reader, if you are reading this that most likely means I am dead or you have stolen my journal. If you’re the latter you're a twat and I hope you many deaths, hopefully given to you from me. If it is the former than I allow you to take this and use it to your full power as long as you continue my name, because If you found this and I died that means I most likely did not have an heir or at least a legitimate one if you know what I mean. Now my name is not the most prestigious, hell the only reason I’m a warrior is to gain my own prestige and money. But as long as you carry the name of Bernhardt on you, you will have my blessing, bonus points if you have a kid and name him wade after me.
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“Hell wade is a cool enough name i'll take it for myself i say aloud it's better than jord, like who names their kid that,”. I say with a laugh. That all it says on the first page, sadly there isn't mark of how old it is or the date. Before i know it i'm back to my home and am ready to begin my new life now i need to start making preparation. I also don't want my parents getting suspicious of what is going on and catch wind of me leaving. I will of course leave most of the money that found in the satchel to help them since i won't be here. I finish reading the first page as i arrive at the beginning of the path to the house i put the book back into it and keep walking with the name Wade Bernhardt in the back of my mind.
I walk towards my house to see my dad trying to fix a old sickle we have with a whetstone. ” How is Mr Choik doing jord, was he able to help you with reading” father asks me. I lie and say “He needs to see if he has an old book to help me if he finds it he`ll let me know and he will teach me soon after”. “Oh well thats good lets just hope he finds it” father says. I go into the shed in the back and see my reflection sitting in a bucket of water. My short brown hair matching my brown eyes stared back at me, there seems to be some dirt on my forehead from the day before being in the cave. I see the scar i got when i was little and i dropped a sickle on my face. Luckily it just sliced the side of my cheek up. Purely superficial. “Wade Bernhardt” i whisper to myself. Under this name i'll pursue my dreams i pick up the shovel near the door and head onto my way in the woods. As i walk i swing the shovel here and there pretending it's the sword in my hands and not a tool used for digging.
I arrive to the entrance of the cave and find a suitable spot under a older tree, i begin to dig and eventually i have a hole a couple feet deep and a large amount of saturation upon my head and back. I go pick up the skeleton of my stepfather/ stanger, and lay him down. As i do this i see his skeleton once more and after burning it into my memory i notice on its smallest finger a ring, i take it off to get a better look. On closer inspection i realise that it has a large capital B on it i guess for Bernhardt. I would put it on but that would be even weirder to my parents, just randomly coming home with a satchel, a journal, and a ring, are more than a little cause for suspicion in what I have been doing. Then i go to get a better look at the sword, as i saw yesterday it is quite giant, but even with its size, i feel the edge only for a small trace to be marked on my finger in a red ink, it is still quite sharp.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I set the shovel down and try to pick up the sword. I feel my arms stress as i try to pick it up with both my hands. I barely get it up all the way before my arms give and i drop it back down. Well i don't know how i'm gonna carry this around if i can't even hold it up. I decide that i need to start to get stronger. I drag the sword back into the cave, near the entrance and set it down, i don't think i'm gonna be bringing it out of here any more i don't want to dull it by dragging it around, I think about things that are heavy, the sun is starting to go down, with the dying light i begin to walk back and try to read another page of the book. It's strange there doesn't seem to be any traces or animals around that i can hear or see. This seems to be the first page of the journal or rather where he starts actually accounting what had happened in his life.
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Dear diary (scratched out) journal
Today me and father got into an argument again he thinks i should just learn the family business of loans and leave fighting and adventuring to my brothers who have done much better in his opinion. I told him to quickly go fuck himself and to never talk to me again, tonight i plan on leaving and going to a nearby island that is said to be uninhabited due to the lack of fertile land, also there seems to be some type of beast that attacks whatever comes near to it. I have borrowed a sword from my younger brother but it is pathetically puny and i imagine i will break it almost instantly if i get into a fight with it. I do wonder how charles, and alec do use the weapons that they do, but that is for another time. How dare dad not think i can become an adventurer, i just haven't found my groove yet. Well hopefully tonight goes well and maybe i will even find a dungeon or a rare monster even.
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I arrive at my house soon after finishing the page, he goes on listing how unfair his dad and brothers are. Well i wonder what a dungeon or a rare monster even is. I have never even heard of them let alone see one. My mind fills with questions from the information that has entered my mind. I stumble into a tree due to both the darkness that now is present and me being too distracted. I see some of the stumps that me and father have removed from the earth along with the trees for both the purpose of firewood and the approaching winter and the expansion of farmland. I remember those being a struggle to carry, in both weight and finding how to grip it. I walk over and begin to lift the pain in my arm continues from earlier. As i pick it up the thoughts of just putting it down, that this is crazy, that i shouldn't be doing it any longer in my head. But then i think of what Mr Choik said “don't let the fire be extinguished”. The phrase repeats into my head louder and louder as the fire continues in my arms and i lift the stump over my head i throw it towards another tree. It hits with a loud thick blow. In my head i hear the idea that this would be sufficient for the day, but again there is a small voice that says that this isn't how legends are made. I hear the voice and the pain almost becomes non existent. I
I continue picking the stump and throwing it for another hour by this time i can barely even raise my arms the pain is almost unbearable. The pain now is very existent, I feel like my arms have been ripped off. I walk into the house to the same cries that i heard the previous night and a slightly warmer bowl of soup still on the table. I try to pick up the spoon but the pain in my arms give me a good idea and that is to just sip it with my face near the bowel. Which after having my parents stare at me and ask if i need any help, helped me realize that it wasn't that good of an idea and i am a fool. I endure the pain for the more than half remaining soup. After wishing my parents a good sleep i let the abyss that is slumber take over for the hopes of a better day tomorrow.
I awake to the soreness of my arms or what i imagined i was missing. At the insistent yelling of my mother i got up, made my bed with the noodles i had been blessed with and went to go eat. ”Is something wrong jord” mother asks with worry in her eye. I smile and say that “nothing is wrong, and i'm just a bit tired”. “Well you need to get more sleep then love or else you won't become the strong man that i know you can be” she says as breaks me off a semi stale piece of bread, along with some corn. “Thank you” i politely say before scarfing the food down and asking if i could have some more. I think this might of surprised my mom usually i rarely eat in the morning and i don't eat much at all but i imagine she just pushed the worry with the me being tired from last night and gave me some more bread.
After eating all that was reasonably given to me i head out i start to feel the cold descend onto the land in some spots i can see the frost built up overtaking what once dew. I decide to go on in and put an additional thicker shirt on to accompany my ragged shirt and pants. With my satchel at my side i decide i should go see if i can lift the sword better. Even with my arms being sore i know the answer is probably no how much could one day really change in the grand scheme of things. I pull out the book and begin to read the second page.
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Today while training in the courtyard some knight's apprentice tried saying that i could never become an adventurer that i was far to small and weak. I then challenged him to a practice duel, he quickly accepted thinking that i truly was the weak teen that i am. He took up his stance and went on the aggression but you could see the visible smile of smugness in his assured win go away when his first blow met with mine. I imagine he didn't think i could block with such a large wooden sword. It would be more fair to say i was fighting with a smoothed log then a sword. Now that he took some amount of respect in me i would make him pay. I begin to switch from the defensive to the aggressive as i started thwacking at him with the large sword . I may be small but i think it is safe to say i am one of the strongest around for my age, the only thing i lack is my height. Which like mother said will come to me eventually. As i swing for what i think is the final blow he stabs his sword into my stomach pushing me back into the ground. As he wipes the sweat from his head you can see that he was just lucky and that he didn't even think he was going to get it with that sloppy stab. If i hadn't been distracted by thoughts of mother, i would have won. To my surprise there are no boats or exclaims of me not being able to ever become a warrior. Instead all i see is a hand in my face that a minute ago i was viciously attacking and pushing around with the weapon, he had came over and offered his hand to help me up. “That was a good fight, you may not have the height of a warrior but you truly have the heart and muscles” he says as he helps me up from the ground. “ Thanks, now if you don't mind i need to get back to training” i respond with not wanting to show my excitement at being called a warrior or the self anger that i had from losing. From that day on decided to train in the forest, i want to become the strongest i can be, but i don't want others to know my strength till it is time. Also if dad would catch wind, which he most likely will, of me fighting a knight's squire he will surely give me shit for it. I heard from my elder brother that there is going to be a dungeon group heading out soon i wonder who will be going and what is inside. I wish that i could somehow tag along.
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As i arrive at the cave i can't help but wonder if this is the man's book that i buried. It would be hard not to think that they are different the man that i buried was definitely taller than even me being way above 6 foot. I grab a stick and some of the worn and holed cloak of what i assume to be Wade Bernhardt and wrap it along as a torch. After a bit of struggling to start an ember with the cooler winter breeze hindering me, i have it going. I walk into the cave more and reach the large room that i had found Wade in as i step i hear the cracking of bones underneath. I start to pick up the the shortish spears and toss them towards what i presume to be the exit. While searching the room it seems to be larger than i had originally though i keep walking along the side of the wall until i hit the 2nd corner and i turn to keep going along the wall and at this point i don't know where the entrance is anymore so i just have roughly 3 short spears in my hand. As i continue to walk i hear some type of noise i keep walking along the wall until i finally come upon the noise. Im staring at a door, which puzzles me greatly as the door ahead of me looks nothing like the one on my home or any home i have seen there is handprint on the door right where there might be a handle.
As i'm staring i can hear a noise behind that i have never heard. For some reason i feel like i should go in but there seems to be a thick sense of foreboding as i put my hand on the handprint i hear a voice in my head. Something that sounds like it has came straight from the mouth of a monster. As if all the skeletons in the room had came alive and said it. “Would you like to enter the dungeon” the voice says. As the question swims in my mind there is too many feelings that are showing themselves. I can't help but have the feeling of adventure swim in the bottom of my stomach, ready to burst out. The curiosity that want me to go in the bravery that says that i can enter, the fear that says i'm not strong enough, the fear of never seeing my parents again, it sounded like Wade had been training for quite a bit and had died to some goblins at the entrance of this thing. Then i resolve and collect myself, i shouldn't enter, i will when i believe my self strong enough and i have read more from the journal. What matters now is that i have a goal to go for not to just leave my family. I take all spears under one arm while i attempt to carry the torch in the other. As i go outside i set the torch down into the ground as a possible way to allow a source of heat to grace my body. I go to attempt to pick and swing the sword i can feel that if i really tried i could lift it but i would hurt myself so i set it back against the wall of the cave. I pick up the spear as if i'm going to use it as a weapon and begin to stab the air in front of me, i also start to throw a couple at bushes near the edge where the forest begin. I feel disadvantaged they are way too small if compared to a soldier's spear, but then agains they belonged to goblins so there isn't much to be surprised about.
After kind of getting the hang of throwing it with good force i feel it's time to go back home and i decide to bring the two sharpest spears with me. As i walk back i put the two shortish spears and pull out the journal and begin to read another page.
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Today i trained for 3 hours swinging the sword given to me by my brother.i wish it had been larger and thicker but i guess i couldn't handle much more with my size as it is. It's been a week since the group left to go to conquer the dungeon before any of the other countries come to do the same. I wonder if they will get any treasures or will they get any powers. I heard there is a guy in the ship's legion that can talk to the animals of the sea. I heard that my great great grandfather who before entering the dungeon had absolutely no magical power so he couldn't be a mage but after he had conquered one he came out with the power-
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Suddenly while reading the journal i hear a rustling, i look up to see a large deesh an animal with horns that grow like the branches on a tree, they only eat vegetation but are quite fast and have been known to stab and trample people with there horns. It doesn't completely see me, though i see that it knows somethings going on, i imagine it smells me but thinks i'm farther off than i really am. I quickly shuffle my stance and put the book away into the satchel and put one of the short spears into my left hand. I stare at the deesh and aim with the spear in my hands cocked ready to throw, I pull my arm back as far as it can go and chuck the spear as fast as i can and as hard as i can. With all the power in my shoulder and the already soreness in it, i accidentally tip over and fall onto my face, thinking i must've missed i take my time getting up with the new pain in my shoulder from the unexpected use.
I slowly rise up and take the other spear in my hand i look around to see not a thing in sight, but then i hear a loud wheeze and the beginning of a cry in pain. I look down to see what i didn't expect I had hit the deesh right in the chest below the neck, it was slowly bleeding out on the forest floor. I slowly walked up stared down at the sad sight below me. I felt bad for a moment but then it dawned on me this is just the first of many things that i will have to kill. I even bet i'll have to kill another human one day, he most likely will be doing something bad but still. I grab the spear in my hand and shove it down into the neck, a spray of blood hits and warms my face.
Now that i have a dead deesh i don't know what i should do, i leave one of the spear apparently on contact with the deesh on the throw it broke into tons of little pieces. I put the satchel securely on my back and pick up the red stained deesh and begin on my journey back. Luckily there is still plenty of light in the sky or it would be impossible to carry the torch that i had left at the cave. Eventually i made it home after taking a couple stops to rest my arms again today they were getting their workout. Upon arrival i could see the worry in my father's eye he must of just seen a figure approaching covered in blood and thought the worst. “Stranger do you need any help” he asks offering help but still curious if i am friend or foe. “Father it is me Jord, I have found and killed this deesh, we won't have to trade with the others for at least a week when it comes to meat” i say looking for the approval of father. “How did you take it down son, they are incredibly fast, and you don't have any weapons” he asks interrogating me out of curiosity but knows that end the end this is a boon upon us. “Actually i made this spear here and when i was walking i saw it in the woods, and with the right timing i threw it and nailed it in the chest” i say full of pride and honor, even though in the end it was mostly luck. “Well i'll start to skin it and you can go in and tell mother” dad says with a happy look, i imagine he hasn't had fresh meat in quite a while. “Wait father could you teach me to skin an animal also” i ask thinking that skinning can be valued way to make sure the meat i'm getting is good and have a way to sell the furs and skins of other animals for money or to be made into clothes.
“Yeah i don't see a reason for you not to know especially with you hunting now for some reason” father says with a hearty laugh at the end. We lay the animal outside by the shed and go inside to grab a meal. “Aye honey did you see what jord did” father says with something in his voice i want to says its pride but i don't think it is all i did was get lucky with a throw. “No i haven't what did that boy do this time” she says with panic evident by how she quickly come from the kitchen. I'm feel attacked because i can't remember a time where i had actually caused some amount of a problem if not by accident or it not being my fault.” No no no, he somehow managed to kill and bring a deesh buck all the way here, looks like he got it pretty good too”. Father says. “Now how on earth did he do that, and i swear if he says he found it in the woods along with that sachel i think we are gonna need to start heading in there too”. She says laughing at the thought of being given goods and supplies from a forest. I look into my mother's eyes they are the color of a fresh tilled soil, a light brown softer than any bed i have slept on. “Well i had found a spear in the woods just poking out of some bushes, and then when i was walking along the woods i heard some rustling and saw the deesh and i pulled the spear back and threw it with all my power and happened to hit it right in the chest wounding it enough that it fell and eventually died on the ground” i said making sure to leave out the part where i threw so hard i ended up eating some dirt. “Wow that's quite the story well i don't want to hold you too long, eat and go get her ready and we'll have some for dinner. I can't remember the last time we had some fresh meat” mother says trying to remember seeming to be lost in thought. Feeling the pain in my body every time i push the bread into my gaping mouth and the same with the soup we eventually go outside following dad with his knife which if i had to guess is less sharp than my sword. He probably just hasnt sharpened it in a while.
If i had to describe what i had just seen in few words it would be bloody and precise. He just straight took his knife and shoved it in fast but slow at the same time, it's like he knew exactly where he was going and had lined it up perfectly but within a few seconds. He gave me a turn in an area that wasn't as risky to miss, i ripped along the flesh trying to be as accurate as i could while doing what he told me being careful to avoid different things. By the time i was done i had blood all along my arms i went to the well and cleaned off. Father took the meat that we had freshly cut and cleaned it also and brought it into mother and helped her start preparing dinner.
While they did this i had enough time and light to read another page in the journal, before doing that i wanted to see how many pages there was that he written in sadly i saw that it wasn't full but it had at least about 40 pages of the 70 that was in there. I continue onto the 4th page which seems rather short.
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Today i trained hard since the early sun, there isn't much more i can do since father doesn't want me to train physically with any other and i am too young to try to sneak into the academy. Ive thought about sneaking away and just going to a different academy but i do not even know where the second closest one is and there is still lots of valuable information for me to learn from. I later found out brother came home today and he even had enough profits from re clearing the dungeon to buy a ebene book and let me see it. His stats were pretty good from what i've heard but even father wouldn't show me his book. I wonder what mine will say, i bet it will say my strength is ridiculous. Also since brother got one he can finally leave the kingdom officially. I think i'm going to start hanging around the crow's eye to see if i can pick up any valuable information. Also next week is my eighteenth birthday so i can't wait for that, maybe father will allow me to begin the life i wish, doubtfully.
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Hmm as I ponder what an ebene book is and what kingdom what or should I say my new father is from, mother comes out to tell me she’s made a some nice fresh steak for us all with me getting the biggest and best prices for myself. I tell her thanks and follow her in. “ well I think we should thank the king for this one and allowing us to be able to catch” father says. We all sit and i look down to see a couple large pieces of the deesh in front of me it's been a while i admit since i had this much meat by itself. As my family and i gorge ourselves on the delicious food before us there isn't anything being said, if there was it would just be agreements on the greatness of the food and thanks to me for procuring it.
After dinner i decided to go wrestle with the stumps some more and maybe go for a run. What feels like a millennia the sun goes down and i decide to call it a night now my legs have decided to join the party with my arms and torso in being sore. Not that it shouldn't be i had found a bigger stump near the edge of the land we own and it seemed to possibly be closer to the sword then the previous one. Eventually i hope to be able to swing that sword as if it were a stick. I walk in, roll into bed and instantly go into a slumber
I awake to yells coming from outside the house.”how do you expect us to give you this much and live through the winter. This is insane”. I hurry outside to see a couple carts and the soldiers that come to get the taxes. As i walk out i grab the giant sword which is next to the door, i carry it better than i have and it seems the soreness is gone from my body. I appear next to my father,”what's the problem here father” i ask trying to remain as stoic as i can be, with a bunch of armed men who at the sight of the sword in my grasp begin to rise there's. “They are trying to take more than 80 percent of our food, and i told them that last year it was just 40 percent,if they do us they are basically condemning us to starving”. Right after a guard laugh and says ”How is that are problem you filthy peasant, now give it to us or we will take it”. I think in my head when i was a few years younger where i heard that they took almost all the crops from a family in a farming village near us, and that they almost made the entire winter before dying in the spring from hunger, the people said it was a horrendous sight not being able to help or starve they will also. I took the sword to the front of me and looked dead into the head guard soul” you will take 40 percent or you will take your men in the cart and nothing”. He quickly appraises me and my sword and i guess he saw weakness instead of being intimidated he came back at me “are you threatening us, now we will be taking 90 percent ” he walks past me thinking i'd be done with that but even surprising myself i say ” Then it is time for you to die” i bring up my sword and spin to face the back of the man, he must of doubted my words cause his back was still turned and i raised my giant sword and brought it down, feeling strain in my arms as if they were being pulled down instead of the sword. As he turns around he began “ what ar-” before he could finish the word cleaves him in his shoulder down a foot in his ribs he is assuredly going to die. He makes some gasping noises you would only consider to be the noise of an organism's death knell. I turn around expecting the soldiers to already be upon me but after seeing them they freeze, one then yells and charges forward me saying “you're gonna regret killing kevi, you bastard” he swings his sword at me, i parry in a flash with my own rebuttaling him back. This doesn't stop and he rushes back in and slashes at me, i dodge to the left not allowing him to even think that his blow was close, i then swing my sword right into the abdomen of my opponent. I see the shock evident in his face, he then falls forward face into the dirt as i pull out my blade.
I see father out of the corner of my eye and he looks ghastly not knowing what has just happened, not even knowing that i had a sword in the first place. He then begins to yell something but i don't hear it as a sharp pain in my back comes to me in full force. I feel a warmth come over my back and stomach and then i look down to see what has caused this sudden change. Sticking out of my stomach i see the grey that belongs to a sword. I then see all the blood pouring as if a waterfall along with some debi in the flow. How was i so stupid to forget about the third, in only a single moment i went from having the confidence to charge and take on the world only to be humbled trying to defend my family.
I fall into the earth that has now been stained red, i look into the darkness as it comes and surrounds me. There is nothing but black, i remember what was said to me from Mr Choik, about not letting my fire extinguish. I guess i have bitten off more than i could chew on this one. As my thoughts start to blur and there is not concise thoughts just sadness at what could have been, nothing takes over.
I then open up to see the light filing in from a hole, i feel my side there is no wound. I sense of puzzlement takes me over. I guess it must have been a dream, i guess that would make sense i couldn't even lift the sword the other day, it's also not here its by the cave. It's weird it felt like i was truly living and that i even died. The feeling i got looking in the darkness was awful, it made me feel insignificant. In that moment i realized i am insignificant, i'm just some farm boy trying to become bigger, i mostly likely we achieve nothing.
But i don't know that if i don't at least try to become great, and in the end all that matters is having fun and being proud of what you're doing and have done. In the moment i realized that that the in the darkness there is nothing to be afraid of if you do everything you want in life with no regret, “Just like Mr Choik said” i whisper to myself. I think wade knew this and that's why he did what he wanted and tried so hard, i wonder if he died with a smile on his face in the warmth of the memories he made, or in the coldness in what he wasn't able to do.
I let the comfort known as sleep take me back over, for the short while till I hear my mother's screeches and wakes me again. At least it was in a much better manner than I could say the first time I woke up today was. As I walk to the table to eat some more of that fresh meat, corn and bread, mother continues to blab about something that I can not hear clearly,father then comes up and says”Well today boy there isn't really anything left for us to do in the field so you can just do your own things unless I tell you to, but it wouldn't break my heart if you'd bring home another deesh” he says the last part with a laugh. I can't tell if he is laughing at the idea of me getting “lucky” two days in a row, but it still causes a slight pang of anger to flash in my stomach. But in the end this is a slight blessing, usually around now id still be helping father fix and build things that have deteriorated over the year, or possibly he would tell me to go help the neighbors who still haven't finished bringing in their crop due to poor planning or laziness, that my father doesn't suffer from. “Thanks father, i'm just going to go in the forest and whose I just might find another. ” I smile and continue to eat before walking outside wearing the skin of an animal some merchant had sold our family a few years ago. The frost lying on the ground waiting to strike at anyone who wasn't prepared for the cold would most likely be my only enemy for the day. I can't tell if i'm disappointed by this thought or happy.