EP01 - A New Chapter (Draft)

The two twins; one a girl and the other a boy ventured out of the moss-covered cave, brushing off the dust and cobwebs and goodness else knows what. They found themselves a few hours later than expected, although whether they had a specific schedule in place was a different matter altogether and if it were indeed the case, it would’ve been quite the marvel. It couldn’t have taken them more than a solid two, maybe three hours inside what now seemed to them as an already distant obstacle. The boy often found himself checking behind him as if he was a small mountain animal, running from its more threatening, more predatory and considerably larger cousins. The girl marched swiftly ahead cutting off the gap left by her brother’s overzealous insecurity. Eventually he composed himself, the girl hadn’t decided if she believed her brother’s ‘irrational’ behaviour; to her this was just another farce of his. While she hadn’t quite been taken in by his newly adopted yet highly undeveloped skill set   the boy hurried along behind her non-complacently. The girl’s right arm had many horrible scars of which weren’t exactly from experiences one thrives on bringing up; all these individual cuts and lacerations remained well hidden by the many astringent lashings of bandages covering it, all until it relinquished its somewhat debateable Mythrian look altogether. While being an ex-guardsman of a busy market town does demand rather a lot of on-the-job experience, her callous and talented tongue almost guaranteed trouble if the wrong person should stumble upon her path, hence the decrease of crime in Pine’s Reach not all that long ago. The girl carried a satchel on her back; it was packed to the brim with supplies and items they’d felt the need to take with them. Both twins held a fairly normal air about them, both couldn’t have been much older than Fifteen ages old, which was an unusual age to start as what would inevitably come to be known as the frivolous and often fantasised adventurer life; however the girl’s sword which was slung over her left shoulder, held a slightly more… Overpowering notion than that of the boy’s blue spiky hair and black eyes; the girl however had bright blue eyes that glistened in the blazing twilight sun as the wild animals in the distance sung their daily mid-cycle hymns. They marched on for a solid while away from their hometown and old childish memories. The boy could still see it over the dense populace of trees painting the far horizon seemingly in an endless loop, but it was now little more than the size of the head of a pin. They spotted a hill encamped next to plenty of trees and wild creatures, sloping down all until ending up encompassed by and around the river. To her this said hill looked more like the first decent night’s sleep in two days; her brother saw a slight smile creep up towards her cheeks, which wasn’t seen very often; it certainly shocked him. She had a good reason to smile seeing as a warm, comfortable mattress wasn’t accessible, this was the closest thing to home; it looked like a good spot too, although some of the creatures and insects lying dormant in the forest aren’t exactly the most pleasant of sorts to become acquainted with; she turned to the boy, just enough to make out his familiar, soured grimace and yet he seemed more anxious and upset than before. Instantly her face met his eye with as comforting a remark as she was able to muster; he bared no obvious appraisement, instead he kept walking, holding both of his fists in a tight clench; He hadn’t stopped consoling himself since they’d left Kur behind, the boy had never been quite the same since, unlike his older counterpart whom herself had always had a bit of a reserved and yet feisty attitude, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t swing a sword at whoever or Mythria forbid whatever threatens her.  She turned back slightly, gauging the distance left until they reached their destination, without any hesitance she instantly declared “All right, looks like we’re staying here for the night.”

The boy found no reason to disagree with her; after all it was going to be dark soon. The girl reached into her satchel and pulled out her tinderbox and blankets, then gently arranged some dry firewood that she’d found earlier on that day, they set up their small but welcoming camp on top of the hill, with a view that made the two siblings look as if the whole world was watching them, as if everything was dependant on them. She lit some dry firewood she’d kept wrapped tightly in her bag and they sat down onto their blankets waiting for night to approach.

The campfire roared and crackled with its lashing flames, which warmed the barren and cold night air. The Forests sung in the wind their ancient battle songs, tales of old and the great Carel Moon basked in attentiveness, complimenting the vast hills and ravines circling the whole of the Kurdiil Mountain pass. Around its rungs drew a massive river that travelled miles out, only to meet its halt at the massive chasms below, leaving the thousands, upon thousands of trees and animals pitted around it, especially the Mountain wolves, they were bustling at that particular time of the year. Luckily for the twins, the wild beats lurking far off in the distance weren’t craving Mythrian twins that night. The boy’s hands peered over the campfire in frantic abrasive motions in some sort of sordid attempt to warm themselves and essentially found his numb fingers already in his pockets not many short moments before pulling them out. The girl took from her satchel a bag of zesen beans and takes barely a handful, leaving a generous enough bounty for her brother to delve into. She drops her satchel down beside her and throws the almost full bag to her brother.

She ushered “C’mon you need to eat something.”

The boy set them back down further from him, for he knew his hunger would never be satisfied, not until they’d found what they’ve been looking for, he wryly mumbles “I’m not hungry sis.”

His face was pale and yet, his silence hindered himself from speaking the utmost truth of his bereavement, it wasn’t simply the fact of not eating, he was troubled; the girl could see the pain in his eyes, to her this was a common occurrence she had dealt with as if she were an expert. The girl tried comforting her brother but instead he sprung up and began recollecting upon their almost fatal experiences in the cave which still then held very little room for forgetting so quickly; the girl was somewhat shocked that her brother had resolved to becoming so affected by these events and found her sword being drawn. She turned the blade away from him and without any remaining hesitance she swung the pommel end as hard as she could, ending in a sharp whack, connecting with the back of the boy’s scruffy head. She threw her sword down in frustration and sat down on top of the high ridge peering down into the valleys of the Mountain pass, persisting upon her memories of the cave and the unfortunate ordeals which forced them to leave their warm, cosy beds behind them.

Kur was a marketing village of considerable merit, thriving with travellers and merchant traders from all distinctions looking for that next big bargain. Shirts became sodden with sweat, until it became evident there was no actual affiliation with its old, rather materialised self; yet the most spirited of the younger more active generations blemished their days with getting into an array of trouble, practicing the noble art of warrior style fighting, even conjuring up folklore until their heads began to bleed with creativity and sometimes coming home with much more than the average blister woven into their arms. A small band of teenage folk decided it would be a good idea to invent a new gang of sorts: ‘The Harbingers’ they called themselves; many considered them to be little more than a rabble, a little mediocre band of degenerates, lowlifes; however some of them possessed considerable skill in the art of pick pocketing, especially the leader of the group Gynnar, one of the most reckless Mythrians in the whole of Kur and Pine’s Reach. However there was one boy whom held an ever-increasing hold over their gang’s popularity. He was still asleep in bed while the beginning of what had started to look like a parade was quickly becoming known all around the town. Children and their parents had flooded the streets while many performers of literally all shapes and sizes; one of the jugglers had the biggest beard that one had ever seen before, so much so that he had to drag it over his right shoulder, whereas this one man had such a full round body that he might have very well burst in that searing heat. A girl with soft black, silky hair walked cheerfully through the market square and was on her way to the western quarter by the looks of it, bearing nothing but a grin and a wholesome, honest sense of happiness. The town square and all around were bustling with life, the smell of freshly baked gyokuma pudding filled the air, shouts and screams of joy lifted the townspeople into absolute merriment, that day was going to be a good day she thought to herself.

The people of Kur weren’t too kindly taken by the seer though, people used to make up unorthodox and horrible stories about her and call her derogatory names. She didn’t look much older than her early twenties, her slender and highly defined figure almost demanded attention; she wore a double crested robe that held her figure in check and her right eye was pure bright white with old war tattoos that came full circle around her upper jaw line.

All around the tent-like yurt were relics and objects which only encouraged curiosity as to what each one did. The seer had started the brewing of a potion of some sorts, she wasn’t ever found without her wand filter, which did little more than look interesting to the eye; however it was never certain as to whether it actually did anything.

Her hands wavered and flew over her wooden pot, sprinkling all sorts of weird ingredients and foreign animal powders which no matter where her hand went, not a single thing found itself an inch or more away from exactly where it was supposed to be in the first place. A shadow of an arm eclipsed the doorway of the yurt and soon a bandage was indentified to embody the whole of her arm and fingerless battle gloves shadowed the doorway, then the body of a young Guardswoman became fully acknowledged, obstructing the light from going any further. The seer had obstructed her right eye with the hood of her robe bringing little room for observation or even discrimination if it indeed became the case. The girl bore a sword that wasn’t exactly long enough to be that of a soldier’s, but resembled that of an over-sized dagger, which was carried on her left shoulder. The girl had bright blue hair and nonetheless brighter eyes which complimented her proudly worn Guardswoman uniform, however she couldn’t have recalled being one for running errands; usually her brother was the one carrying the heavy loads, even though he almost always slacked off to go somewhere of greater importance which always meant he’d be somewhere with his friend and the term was often used loosely meaning they’d be somewhere off in the ever-growing masses of the town square. The girl became intrigued with the various relics and charms adorning the shelves, forgetting for a moment the very reason she’d entered the yurt in the first place. The seer raised her right hand until curving her fingers into a stiff point facing toward the girl.

“What do you require child?” her voice resounded in a sleepy whisper that calmly drew the girl’s attention toward her. She was surprised that the seer’s voice was so gentle, of the stories she had been told, she didn’t expect such formalities, at least not from her. The girl was caught completely off guard, but the seer persisted that she approached her.

“Uh… Miss Hyrii?” the girl snapped.

“Yes that is my name young one, come sit, it’s been a while since I last had any visitors.”

The girl wasn’t taken in by the seer’s hospitality, she thought whether she would be forced to keep the seer company but reluctantly she replied “No that’s okay, I really need to be going, I just came to deliver this package.”

The seer rose her right hand up again, only this time to whisk away the hood from her right, gleaming eye. The girl couldn’t help but assume she’d be put under some kind of spell, or be part of an experiment of sorts; the girl quickly placed the package down and turned away.

“Where are you going? Wouldn’t you like me to read your fortune before you leave?” the seer suddenly inquired.

“Umm… No thanks, I’ve got a pile of errands to run.”

“But I assure you it will only require a brief moment” the seer insisted.

Author's Note

Part one (draft) needs more, but any notes on character development, confusion, misplacement or anything else that raises concern or merit would be very appreciated.

Reviews

[Andrew Uphoff]

I don't want to give a rating to this yet since it's still in the works. However, I will suggest working on the formatting. Spacing and paragraphs are important because it allows the brain pause from the story to catch itself up. This is the epitome of wall o' text and I can't read things like this. Let me know when you do some formatting and I'll be(and more than likely others will too) be more than willing to get a full review of it.