Calon awoke to the sudden feeling of expectations, it buzzed in the air of the small hut he shared with his mother like a live thing. Twisting and twining around the necks of all who lived there, waiting for them to find out just exactly what it promised. It filled him with a sort of nervous energy that coursed like fire through his veins, making him unable to stay still any longer.Calon hopped from his nest of blankets and sleepily tromped into the front room and was surprised to find that during the night, his mother had prepared a feast fit for a king “Ama, what’s the occasion?” His mother sat a plate piled with food before him and smiled brightly, her plump form shaking with laughter, what was so funny?
“Silly boy,” she responded. “Today is your 15th turn on this earth, the day you begin on the path of becoming a man.” She tearfully patted him on the shoulder and disappeared back into the kitchen to bring out even more delectables.Although she had prepared all of his favorite dishes, he could eat none of it.
Calon had completely forgotten about the day if his blank expression was anything to go by. The day that he would journey out into the desert with nothing but his Lakir, Nicka and the clothes on his back to the place of prophets, there he would receive his true name and guiding spirit. Upon his return, he would receive the first in a series of tattoos that would mark him as a true man, but calon was still but a boy, and an inept one at that. How would he defend himself from ghouls if he could barely lift a scimitar? He’d be ghoul fodder before he was even a mile from the village! He would hate to disappoint his mother, but it would be better if he hid until the time for him to leave for the Place of Prophets was well over. Resolutely, he shoveled down several large gulps of spiced desert fowl and snuck past the hanging curtain that separated the kitchen from the dining room. Quickly, he led Nicka from her pen and led her to the mounting stool. For once, he had no trouble mounting her and then they were off, her bird-like feet flying across the golden brown sands. Calon fancied that the sun beat down with a fierce energy that day, that its pulsing rays chastised the boy from running from the village. But in truth lord sun, he thought. that is all I am, a boy. He didn’t want the responsibilities of a man, nor did he want to one day take a wife, he had no interest in the vapid girls of the village, nor did he have any interest the boys of his village who the adults whispered about in hushed tones. He would never be a warrior of any renown either. Sometimes, he wished that he had the talent of Haruel, or the agility and grace of Anwar, but every time he went to sleep hoping to wake up stronger or more elegant, he would look down at his body in hopes of change and see that he was still the same scrawny boy as before, too tall for his age and brown as a groundnut. The only thing that calon could do better then most was the art of deciphering ancient runes, a skill mandatory of all children in his village to learn, but was considered useless due to the fact that the People hadn’t written anything new beyond that of everyday records since the time before even the oldest of the elders were born.
Calon had been so lost in his thoughts, that he had not noticed how close he was to the curious shack of his friend Ruala the Tinker. It was a usual place for him to hide when responsibility reared its ugly head, so he quickly hitched Nicka to a post not too far from a bin of only mildly stagnant water, and took the odd dwelling in for what seemed to be the hundredth time. The house itself was truly the sight to see, spigots from which smoke steadily puffed jutted haphazardly from the walls of the house as if stuck there during a drunken haze. Several plots of plants which types could only be guessed at grew in a circle around the hut and queer wooden structures that sang when the desert winds struck them were stuck in the plots as if put there by the same drunk who had decorated the house, in and around the house lay rusted pieces of Ruala’s failed experiments left there as soon as his interest had been called elsewhere. Calon knew that for the most part, the appearance of the house was a ploy to keep others from bothering Ruala while he did his ‘work sent from the gods’ no one was quite sure how long he had been there, in that desolate stretch of desert sheltered by an outcropping of rocks, it was rumored the he himself was an exiled god and worked so feverishly in the hopes that he would be re-admitted into the lofty halls of heaven, Calon couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of that crazy old man being a god, but kept the idea to himself in case it turned out to be true. Calon stooped to enter the dimly lit front room, his nose wrinkled at the smell of oil and food slowly molding. What immediately drew his attention though were the loud snores of a hunched figure that lay slumped in an armchair, his head thrown back, and mouth wide open. The boy cautiously found his way through the maze of machinery and books over to Ruala and debated on whether he should rouse him from his nap or not. Last time he had tried, he’d been knocked out cold by the sleepers’ surprisingly strong uppercut hoping for the best, he tried to wake him. “Old man, rouse yourself!” he said while cautiously shaking his shoulder. The old man grunted his eyelids flickered, but showed no signs of opening. Calon, growing more annoyed by the moment at the indolence of the old, shook him harder. “I said ROUSE YOURSELF, old man!”
Quick as a flash, Ruala’s left hand struck out at calon and he was fortunate to have dodged, the old man had just tried to gut him like a pig with a fruit knife!
“I take all of you sons of bitches on! Ye worthle-,”
Ruala blinked finally coming back to his senses. “Oh, it’s you calon, what brings you here to an old man’s hut on a day like this? I could have sworn today was your day to become one of the idiotic men of the village.”
He said gruffly as he scratched his bearded chin.Ruala was not only considered odd for his dwelling, but because most people, when they worked up the courage to visit, came away with the feeling that they had just been verbally slapped in the face. He was a surly man by anyone’s standards and pale as moonshine, calon had asked him why he was so different from the People and had been answered with nothing but mumblings about there being no sun in his homeland. It was unthinkable for their to be no such thing as a sun in some places of the world, and calon itched to learn more about the world outside the confines of his village, so he bothered Ruala with every question he could possibly come up with. The deranged old man would simply grunt at some of his queries, but if he was lucky, he would ask a question on a day when the old man felt like talking. Sometimes, he would even be allowed to read from one of the tomes which spoke of fantastic cities that were run by a Council of mages and were home to wonders.
“I don’t want to become a man, plain and simple,”
he cleared a spot for himself on another chair and sat. “I’m no good at the things that they hold stock in, reading and writing are my only talents, but the People have no need for it beyond that of a record-keeper, and that is something I would die before doing.” Calon ran his hands through his long black hair as the bitter feeling of dissatisfaction filled his heart, what was out there for him beyond that of the repetition of the village? Leaving the village by himself would be treacherous, not to mention that the People had not traveled for centuries so every map was seriously out of date. “This place is trapped in a continuous loop Ruala; I would give everything to get away from here before I was sucked into the endless pattern. Unfortunately, the naïve boy had unknowingly walked right into a trap set by the old man, and he smiled wolfishly, as always thankful for the stupidity of the young. “Everything, you say?” Ruala leaned forward steepling his fingers together.
“I could deliver us both from here, you know.” he said smoothly.
Calon leaned closer suddenly excited by the idea of being able to escape this place, to finally see the world outside. “How? Tell me!” Ruala smothered another one of his predators’ smiles and leaned back into the voluminous space of ancient armchair. “I came to these desert valley years before you were born, boy. I planned to stay only for a month to further my research, but it turned out the thing I had come to find had not yet arrived, so I waited.” For some reason, he told his tale in a whisper as if spies waited outside eager to take the tale to one of his enemies. Calon listened intently, not daring to interrupt in case the old man suddenly decided to stop talking again. “And now that I have found what I have sought, I no longer have any need of this valley. But you boy, I do need.” He held up one of his liver-spotted hands, which in the half-light of the hut, seemed more talon then hand. “As you can see, I’m old now and not nearly as strong as I used to be, I will need someone to help me along the way. Are you up for it, boy?”
It was almost like a dream, to finally be given the the offer of freedom after facing the reality of staying in a place that housed little to no change. Although he was tempted to accept the offer immediately, the more logical part of the boys’ brain told him that it would be wise to work out things with his mother first, it would take quite a bit of persuasion for her to let him leave; He was her only son after all. Taking a deep breath, calon turned his thoughts outward and looked into the unfathomable eyes of Ruala. “I need time to work out things here, when will you be needing to leave?”
“A fortnight,” Ruala placidly picked a stray piece of meat from his sharp teeth and eyed the boy . “Will you be ready by then?” Calon said nothing but made his way back to the door of the tinkers’ hut.Turning at the threshold, he simply signed the mark of Ginis, god of beginnings and promises and prepared once more to return to his home, his heart full of excitement and dread at what was to come.
(So there's the first chapter!Feel free to critque and tell me what you think so far, I have the next chapter ready if you would like me to post it. :3)
I know that mine did. If you have any questions, or just want to chat, PM me. I'll be happy to help you out. Until then, good luck. Keep writing.
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