Foreward: 1
Taigen stood with his short sword sheathed at his waist. His other hand rested on his pistol, ready to draw at any hostile movement from the armor clad invader on his captain’s airship. Looking towards Captain Hawthorne, he grins before saying “Captain, what is the course of action for uninvited guests?”. Hawthorne turned and shrugged before replying “That depends on the guests intentions, why don’t we here this gent out? Be ready though.”. Taigen stared in contempt at the “guest” as the man started to speak “Leiutenant Captain Aiden Hawthorne, long time no see. You were supposedly killed in battle, yet here you stand. You own this vessel I assume?" .... "No matter, you never reported in to high command after the battle, for that you are a traitor to the realm. Surrender yourself and your crew will be spared, fight and it will be a slaughter. We have more men than you, double your guns, and better armor and technology, you have no chance.” Hawthorne sighed before nodding to Taigen “Welp, guess that is the sign of how this will go huh? Can’t we just have a friendly guest for once?”. The words barely started to leave his friends lips and Taigen was in motion, rushing towards this intruder.
Chapter 1
Struggling through the night, under a heavy rain, one hand holding a bundle, the other pressed to a bleeding wound on his right shoulder, a man forced himself to keep moving. “Just a little more and you will be safe my son. I know you wont understand me now, but do your best to remember my words. I love you. I would do anything for you. And we will meet again, but for now I must do this. I hope you can forgive me one day. It was the only option to keep you safe.”
The man sets the bundle under a porch awning, before knocking on the door and proceeding to walk into the rain. He looked back after being obscured by the rain and darkness to watch the young acolyte answer the door before looking around and then spotting his son, then take him into the chapel with a concerned expression. “Take care my son, when you have grown up, I’ll come back for you, and then you will understand why I had to do this.”
The man walked for a while longer before ducking into an alley, hand feeling along the wall before brushing against a wooden knocker and rasping 4 times. When the slider opened, the eyes that peered out at him widened in surprise as the locks were clinking out of place. “Nathaniel what the hell are you doing here, and who did this to YOU?” a short older woman with a hunched frame and calloused wrinkled hands asked, all but pulling the younger man to the table in the center of the room. “Marcy it was a misunderstanding, Jurgen didn’t know I was coming. He didn’t think he actually owed me for the job he had us do. Well, I got what I was owed…” says Nathaniel, doing his best to try and strip off his wet coat and blood soaked shirt. “Every time you come here its in some state of complete disrepair… I swear at this point you are more scar tissue and metal than living flesh and bone. When are you going to retire this guild of yours? You are already 35… as much as you had me fix you up, your body is more like a man in his 50s.” Nathaniel sighed wearily, sick of this same conversation. “Honestly at this point I am hoping to fade out of the lime light, I’m going to let Daniel run things, while I just maintain the connections and take it easy from here on out. I can be the guild master while also doing less than I used to….” He trails off before thinking to himself “I hope at least.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
10 years later
“Taigen, wake up, we have to eat and get to our chores or Sister will get mad at us.” A girls voice is heard from the doorway. As I slowly start to roll over and get to my feet, the door opens the rest of the way as she steps into the room. “I’m up Bridget, I’m up.” I watch as she makes her way over to me and pulls me to my feet. “I let you sleep for 15 extra minutes already today, we have to go.” She impatiently gestures towards the door, tugging me along with her towards the dining room. “You know Bridget, if you didn’t come to get me, your food wouldn’t be cold when you ate it.” I say with a smile, doing my best to keep up while still half asleep. “I know, but if I didn’t wake you, you would sleep until Sister came and flipped the bed.” I don’t want to admit it but she does have a point, I do enjoy my sleep.
After we arrive at the dining room, we sit down and start to eat the porridge provided to us. I think it tastes pretty good, but Bridget often tells me how she misses having fruit slices with hers. She never spoke about what caused her to come live with Sister and me. Every time I tried to ask her she would just get very sad and I would do my best to change the subject, no matter how curious I am. “Bridget, can we go explore the city after we are done with our chores today?” She turns to me with a smile on her face “If you ask Sister, im sure she wouldn’t mind us running to town and getting some things for her.”
With a resigned sigh I stand and make my way over towards the kitchen, knowing Sister will be cleaning the dishes from cooking breakfast. As I put my dish into the sink, pulling my sleeves up to help her wash, I ask “Sister, is there anything you need to get in town today? I was hoping to go with Bridget and do some exploring. We can get to go to town and pick up what you need.” After she finishes cleaning the few pots and pans she was washing, she lets her robes fall back over her forearms and adjusts the rest of her robes to fit properly again, before smiling at me. “No Taigen, there isn’t anything I need from the town today. Sorry, but I was hoping to ask you to help me with the chores in the garden and house. Bridget isn’t strong enough to help pull the wheelbarrow.” “Okay, I don’t mind.”
It took a few weeks to finally get to go into town, by myself this time. Sister needed me to go and get some supplies from the grocery store. The streets weren’t yet packed this early in the morning, the sun rising over the rooftops caused most of the street to be cast in shadow, where as alleyways were almost impossible to see the end of. These things never bothered me though, I knew the alleyways almost as well as I knew the forest behind Sister’s house. I was busy debating cutting through the alleyways to save time on getting to the grocery store when I saw some people slowly walking down an alley.