Homecoming

11th of Samaya, year 991

"Isn't that Kraszad?" a male voice resounded surprise.

"That's indeed Kraszad!" a female voice shrieked in even greater surprise.

"But why would that boy be here?" the female wondered aloud.

"Maybe he's finally allowed to have a vacation. He had not been home for almost five years."

At the sound of the two familiar voices, Blink got up from the bench outside the house. He arrived a few hours after midnight and decided to lay down on it and wait for the morning. He didn't want to disturb anybody. Besides, a bench was much better than what he had slept on some nights during his journey to his adoptive mother's village.

"Namgan (elder sister), Namgun (elder brother), I have come home," he greeted his elder sister and brother-in-law with a slight bow.

"Why are you sleeping outside? There's enough space for twenty people in the common room."

"I arrived just barely after midnight, Namgan. I didn't want to be too much of a bother."

"Nonsense! Why would we think of you coming home in the middle of the night even a bit of a bother at all?"

"You must be tired," Blink's brother-in-law butted in. "Are you hungry?"

"I'm actually still quite full, Namgun. I ate dinner in Calandra last night. I had more than a meal of it, in fact."

Blink was, of course, not telling the whole story.

Calandra was the closest town to the village of Kasgar where Blink grew up. When the rogues in the town of Shramez and its surrounding villages heard that the Butt-Sticking Brownie was headed there, they all ran off to Calandra, which was the third town west of Shramez. Blink had been moving northward veering slightly to the east. The ruffians thought they'd be safe in Calandra and even dared to make their presence felt in the town.

After three days had passed with no signs of the dreadful brownie, the rogues grew more confident and decided to go all-out with their criminal activities. However, early in the morning, while they were still sleeping out the effects of a whole night of drinking and whoring, a famous stick descended on them. While none of them felt the terror of getting probed on their behinds by a quarter staff, they did get whipped severely on their calves and buttocks.

The town of Calandra, of course, held a feast partly in thanksgiving and partly to honor Blink's presence among them. Blink wanted to head off to Kasgar immediately but the mayor would not hear any of the young hero's excuses. The whole town of Calandra would lose face were Blink to refuse their hospitality, the mayor argued.

Blink ate his fill and politely watched the entertainment performances. But, just when the evening reached its peak of excitement, Blink quietly snuck out and left for Kasgar. While they were eating, he informed the mayor that he was on an urgent mission, and this business with the bandits had delayed him by a few days.

Leaving during the climax of the celebration was by design. First, Blink didn't want to be bothered to state his goodbyes to anybody, which would then lead to him being held up having to say goodbye to every other person who managed to be informed of his desire to leave. Second, and more importantly, he didn't want anybody to find out which direction he left. The last thing Blink wanted was to be visited by people from other towns and villages requesting help from the "Butt-Sticking Brownie."

For the next few days, while he was in Kasgar, Blink wanted nothing less than peace and tranquillity. He did not want to be bothered with other people's problems precisely because he himself has a huge personal crisis to resolve. What was he going to do with his life? Blink certainly did not want to be chasing after bandits his whole life.

Indeed, the question of what to do for the rest of his life had never left Blink's mind ever since the day he left the Ragha Martial Arts Academy. The thought crushed his spirit and left him feeling lost and hopeless. It did not also help that this feeling of hopelessness led to some other dark thoughts.

How will my family react if they found out I was kicked out of the academy?

How am I going to make a living? Martial arts was everything to me, and I learned nothing else in my life.

What's to become of me and Berge? She'll be a martial arts master in two years. Will I still be a suitable husband to her?

Would she actually marry one of those toads after five years and I'm not yet back?

And why do I often dream of Berge and Flip crying in each other's embrace?

That last thought had the effect of unravelling Blink's mental stability such that he often thought of rushing back to the academy to take Berge away and live like clouds, their lives taking shape out of their control and going to wherever the wind blows them.

However, Blink felt strongly about her too much to want that kind of life for her, no matter how willing she might be. Blink strongly believed that it was utterly wrong for a man to lead his woman to a miserable life, especially so if the woman gave him nothing less than her unconditional love.

In the end, Blink could only hang his head and look towards Kasgar, his heart aching for the comfort of the village he had once called home.

Now that he had arrived at Kasgar, he felt a rather awkward feeling facing his adoptive sister and her husband. For some reason, he and his elder sister had never been particularly close. Before he was taken into the Ragha Martial Arts Academy, there were moments when Blink had felt emotionally distraught and wanted to get a hug from his namgan, but she just stood in front of him awkwardly, hands dangling stiffly on the side.

In a lot of ways, his elder sister could not really be faulted for it. Kraszad came into their lives when she was eleven and immediately took her place as the center of her parents' universe. He also had the propensity for making trouble for her by his constant running around and getting into trouble. Every time he was gone and her parents noticed, she would get a scolding. Whenever he came home with bruises or cuts, it could only be her fault.

Such a situation over a long period of time had led her to become distant towards her adopted brother. She wasn't exactly cold, no not even mean. She was just like a piece of rock, immovable and with a hard exterior.

Thus, she had become, in Blink's childhood, a ubiquitous but awkward presence. She was there, but it would have mattered less if she were not.

Right at that moment, after not having seen each other for almost five years, it was Blink's turn to feel awkward in front of his Namgan Magra. With hands dangling stiffly by his side, Blink gave Magra a slight bow as he approached her.

It was his brother-in-law who was more cordial towards him. He wrapped one of his arms around Blink and led him towards the kitchen.

Unlike his relationship with his sister, Blink had been truly close with Jogr, his brother-in-law. Jogrr and he had been like brothers ever since the former laid eyes on Magra. Jogr wanted to be his brother-in-law and he, in turn, wanted nobody else for a brother-in-law. Needless to say, the two of them held a secret alliance behind his Namgan Magra's back.

"Since you are not hungry, join me for a cup of coffee instead," his brother-in-law said.

"I'd be delighted to, Namgun," Blink replied.

With that the brothers-in-law happily entered the kitchen with Magra trailing awkwardly after them. She also wanted to hug her younger brother but felt so unsure of herself.

While waiting for his sister to cook the coffee, Blink and his brother-in-law had a light chat over his experiences at the academy. Blink learned that their seven-year old son was training with the other kids in the village under the tutelage of one of the black-robed academy graduates.

The village was given the privilege of having a training center with a full-time martial arts teacher because of Blink's exceptional performance among the second class of the academy. This fact did not escape the mind of the villagers and everybody had since acted obsequiously towards Magra and her husband. Their lives had become much better, and every enterprise they ventured into succeeded only and only because Magra's brother was the number one disciple of the Ragha Martial Arts Academy and this brought a positive change in their village.

When Blink turned fourteen, neighbors came knocking at their door with generous proposals for marriage. Magra's mother only needed to accept one and their family would have owned a few important properties that would have made them the most prosperous family in all of Kasgar. However, Magra happened to find out from one of the students who didn't have the talent to remain in the academy that her younger brother was romantically linked with the most beautiful disciple of Ragha Martial Arts Academy.

In the end, none of those proposals were accepted. The family simply explained that they could all just wait for Kraszad to graduate from the academy and ask his opinion as, after all, their village changed for the better because of him. It was all for the best, too: They did manage to become the richest family in Kasgar through the efforts and business savvy of Magra and her husband.

In a short while, the coffee was served. Blink and his brother-in-law stopped chatting for a minute to enjoy the rich aroma and taste of the coffee.

After sipping half the coffee in his mug, Blink nodded towards his sister.

"Namgan, your coffee tastes so much better than I remember," Blink casually remarked.

"Thank you, Nimgun (younger brother). Your Namgun had complained incessantly for over two years before I got it right."

"Urgh! Why'd you have to recall such terrible times?" Blink's brother-in-law rolled his eyes. He seemed rather particular about his coffee.

Blink stared at him with an inquiring look.

"Nimgun," he said, "there is no greater pleasure than drinking coffee early in the morning while going over your day and thinking of what you want to get done.

"Imagine if you have to do all that over a terribly-brewed mug of coffee. I'm quite sure your whole day will turn out terrible too."

"I cannot imagine it otherwise, Namgun" Blink sincerely agreed before proceeding to empty the rest of his coffee.

Blink was about to stand up when he was interrupted by his brother-in-law.

"If you arrived here a little after midnight, you must have left Calandra in the midst of the celebration," his brother-in-law noted with a wink. Naturally, he knew about the bandit situation in Calandra and what it meant that Blink had been there.

"There is no other way I could have done so without making a fuss," Blink replied.

"Indeed. Indeed. But I can only imagine the scene of girls feeling bitterly disappointed that the great hero with the funny name didn't even dance with them or at least look them over."

At that, Blink didn't know how to respond. It hardly ever crossed his mind to even look at the girls of Calandra.

What did cross his mind was the image of Berge and Flip crying in each other's embrace while everybody was dancing. That was exactly when he decided to leave.