7. To Find A Little Mouse

The world seemingly stood still as the sounds of the forest rapidly faded.

Raymond looked into his son's eyes. They burnt their brightest and his body bent any light that dared approach him. The living manifestation of…

Raymond didn't know what his son was. It had been less than a full week and yet Kalos was already exhibiting the magical potential of a knight belonging to the highest possible rank.

Raymond then turned his attention to the creature which was trembling near the cave's mouth. He looked into its black eyes and saw fear. True fear. Its heartbeat rapidly knocked on Raymond's eardrums as it trembled.

Raymond walked slightly to the left, but the creature's eyes remained on Kalos, who was focusing on releasing as much of his aura as possible.

"Uh- Kalos, I think that's enough." He said and just like that, the world swallowing darkness disappeared.

"Hey, Dad, what's that thing behind you?" Kalos asked.

"Mmm? Oh, that's a lopus. It's a greater dark being. We were supposed to hunt and kill it but then you scared the shit out of it and now I feel guilty." Raymond said as the giant creature cowered in the distance.

"Oh- sorry."

"No, it's not really a problem. Actually, I had planned that your battle it to improve your combat prowess, but it doesn't look like it'll put up much of a fight now." Raymond said as he approached the lopus.

In terms of size, it was twice as tall as Raymond. In terms of appearance, it looked like a giant man covered in stone-like skin.

Its movements were slow, but Kalos could tell that its muscles were powerful.

"Oi! Big guy. Get out here." Raymond said as he created a blade of light, which he pointed at the lopus.

"Come on, move!" He said as the lopus emerged from the cave, revealing its full form.

Kalos followed his father's lead and forged his sword, except his was solid and looked quite glorious. He then began circling the lopus. His stance low.

The lopus on the other hand hadn't forgotten what Kalos was, so it trembled as it moved closer to the treeline, possibly in an attempt to escape.

Kalos saw the creatures strange movements and dashed towards the it. He then swung his sword in a perfect arc towards the creature's neck which would have normally decapitated any other animal, but the lopus's skin proved too tough for Kalosýni's sword.

The lopus broke into a sprint and ran off into the forest.

Kalos looked at his father for answers.

"What? Go after it." Raymond said before Kalos disappeared into the forest.

A moment later, Crimwal and the others appeared at the cave's mouth.

"Oi, Raymond. What in the world was that strange darkness from before? Was it you?" Crimwal asked as he helped Estella sit on a nearby rock.

"Oh, that? That wasn't me. My darkness isn't that potent. It's that damned freakazoid of a son of mine. I swear, every time I try to teach him something, he does something that not only surpasses what I've taught him, but blows things out of proportion." Raymond said as he gathered firewood.

"Where is he now?" Crimwal asked.

"Mmm? Don't worry, he'll be fine. Lopi are actually quite easy to deal with and since the darned show off has so much magic, it'll be a piece of cake. Now, help me set up camp in the cave." Raymond said.

Crimwal sighed, before helping Estella get up.

"Eevana, help Estella. I'll go look for something to eat." Crimwal said as he withdrew his rusty dagger. He walked back into the forest, his eyes narrowed and his ears to the ground. He sought prey that wasn't particularly big, but at the same time ignored creatures that were too small.

He travelled for some time before hearing what sounded like metal hitting stone.

Crimwal cautiously approached the sounds until it he came across a rather confusing scene.

Kalos was brutally swinging his sword at what looked like a giant human-shaped rock.

The boy seemed rather frustrated because he wasn't really getting anywhere.

"Uh- Kalos… what are you doing?" Crimwal asked as the boy continuously beat the rocky creature, which looked quite frightened.

"I'm trying to kill this thing, but its skin is really tough. It's like I'm hitting a rock." Kalos said as he restlessly swung his sword, which to Crimwal's surprise, hadn't gotten a single scratch.

Crimwal then thought about what other kinds of weapons Kalos could create.

"Hey, try making a hammer," Crimwal suggested.

Kalosýni's eyes widened and sparkled a little.

"Great idea!" Kalos said before destroying his sword and forming a small hammer in his hands. He turned to Crimwal, who merely shook his head.

Kalos then pumped more particles of light into the hammer which enlarged by several times. The odd thing was that although the hammer increased drastically in size, its weight remained the same.

Kalos swung his newly formed hammer and hit the lopus on its head, but nothing happened. He then realised that the hammer was too light, so he imagined it being far heavier and just as more particles of darkness and light flew into it, its weight rapidly increased.

Kalos continued to pump magical energy into his hammer until he could no longer hold it up. Satisfied with its weight, Kalos tried to lift it. The action, as Kalos quickly learnt, would be much harder than he'd thought. So he used every ounce of energy he had to lift the slab of a hammer.

The lopus saw that the next attack wasn't going to be a tickle so it slowly got up and started running away.

Kalos took a deep breath, dashed in the lopus's direction and swung his hammer at one of its legs, sending both he and the lopus flying to the left.

Kalos tightly held onto his hammer and his tumble came to a stop shortly after the massive impact. The lopus wasn't so lucky, its entire right leg had been blown off and it now desperately tried crawling away.

Kalos got up and dragged his monster-sized hammer to the lopus. He looked deep into its eyes and saw nothing but despair.

Kalos decided it would be best to put the creature out of it's out of its misery, so he lifted his hammer above his head, walked over to where its head was and swung down with all he had.

The resulting sound shook the forest, along with its inhabitants. Wolves howled in the night, possible mourning the loss of the lopus.

Kalos understood that his father was training him, but so far he'd killed one man and two dark beings. He wondered how many times he'd have to kill before their adventure ended.

Kalos closed his mind to such thoughts and found Crimwal hiding behind a tree.

"What were you doing out here anyway, didn't dad say to follow him?" Kalos asked Crimwal, as he casually placed his hammer on his shoulder.

Crimwal took a good look at its dark grey surface. It was both shiny and matte, had a feeling of tremendous power yet Kalos held it like a big stick.

"Uh- yes, I was actually looking for supper, hehe," Crimwal said nervously.

"Oh? Then let's hunt together." Kalos said as he walked into the forest with Crimwal in tow.

The two spend the next hour or so hunting before they found and killed two short and fluffy rabbits. Kalos didn't know what it was, but the particular species of rabbit they'd run into was proving to be rather delicious.

Kalos and Crimwal made their way back to the cave, the smell of smoke filled the air and Kalos could hear Estella's voice echoing in the cave.

They arrived at their new campsite to find Raymond and the others lazily sitting by the campfire. It was autumn, so the air was cool enough to warrant the use of fire for heating, but warm enough to prevent anyone from freezing.

Kalos and Crimwal joined the others before handed the catch of the day to Raymond, who skilfully skinned the small animals before handing them to Estella who, with the help of one of Kalosýni's daggers, chopped the rabbits into little pieces.

Once everyone had their pieces, it was time to roast them over the fire.

"We're going to be eating a lot of meat, huh?" Estella said while rubbing her belly.

"Unfortunately," Raymond said.

"Mmm… I know this is a bit out of the way, but maybe we should pass through Ianndor. We'll be able to restock and maybe get some food that isn't protein-based." Crimwal suggested before he took a bite out of his rabbit piece. His teeth ripped into its juicy flesh and the flame did well in adding an extra layer of flavour to the already succulent meat.

"Ianndor… it's been a while since my last visit there. Tell me, is it still the prosperous riverside city of old or has it fallen like Llendor?" Raymond asked as he too joined in the feasting.

"It's pretty much the same as always. Lots of merchants, lots of trading, plus the order of Eirini has a strong presence there. Meaning it's relatively stable." Crimwal said.

"Also, winter is coming. Getting some heavier clothes would serve us well, no?" Crimwal asked.

"You have a point, but my purse is not bottomless. We will have to be wise with our spending." Raymond said.

"Of course. Besides, I have a few friends in the city who offer the best of goods at the lowest of prices." Crimwal said before noticing that Kalos was gone. Instead, a pile of rabbit bones remained where he once sat.

Crimwal assumed that the boy had ventured further into the cave.

Raymond noticed Crimwal's wondering eyes and saw a large hammer where his son was seated. He wiped his hands on his pants and stood up. He then walked towards the unreasonably large slab of metal and placed his hand on its handle.

Crimwal, Estella and Eevana watched closely as Raymond tried lifting the hammer.

A moment passed as Raymond tried lifting Kalosýni's hammer but he ultimately failed.

"Is it that heavy?" Crimwal asked as he got up and joined Raymond in his quest to lift the hammer.

Raymond moved aside while rubbing his shoulders.

"It's really heavy. Be careful." Raymond cautioned.

Crimwal wrapped both of his hands around the hammer's long handle and as soon as he made contact with the hammer, he felt what Raymond was talking about. Lifting it was going to be very difficult.

Crimwal tried lifting the hammer, with increasingly intense amounts of strength, but he too failed. Raymond approached Crimwal and they both gave an honest attempt to lift the damn hammer, only to fail and fall on their butts.

"Didn't you say something about Kalos not being able to maintain objects for too long. So why hasn't it disappeared?" Crimwal asked as he crawled toward his bed.

"Mmm… well, him pumping more magic into the hammer could have resulted in it taking longer for the magic to fully disperse. The hammer is maintaining itself, just in case Kalos needs it." Raymond said as he too made his way to his bed. He crawled into his bed and thought about nothing in particular.

His son was exploring the cave and in some profound way, this made Raymond happy. This entire adventure started because they couldn't live in their peaceful village anymore. But that village was also the place where Raymond had chosen to shut the world out and raise his son in a protective bubble. This journey would also be his attempt at helping Kalos take his first steps out of that bubble.

Raymond closed his eyes and eventually found sleep.

.

..

Kalos had stumbled onto a rather bizarre sight.

He'd been crawling through the bowels of the cave for some time. He carefully squeezed into what looked like a stone room.

There he found a full set of silver armour along with various old looking items. The armour was beyond dirty and had large scars everywhere. Kalos also saw a sword with a peculiar design, but what caught his attention was a dark red book that sat on what looked like a stone table.

Kalos walked past several other items and picked up the book. It had strange symbols he'd never seen before. His father had taught him how to read, but he'd never seen most of the characters on its cover.

Kalos flipped through several pages and saw that the handwriting was perfectly fine. It's just that Kalos couldn't read any of what was inside.

Kalos looked around but found nothing of interest. He assumed that the stone room was once home to a knight from long before his time and that the book was very special.

Satisfied with his findings, Kalos crawled out of the room and returned to the camp to find everyone sleeping. He slipped into his bed and began studying the strange text that was in the big red book.

.

..

Raymond woke up the next day to find his son clutching an old red book in his sleep.

Raymond deduced that Kalos must have found it during his little crawl into the cave deep. He walked up to Kalos and gently pulled the book out of his son's grasp.

Raymond read the title and in an instant, his eyes widened.

[The First Descent]

Raymond's eyes shook upon reading the title and realizing that it was written in a language he hadn't seen in ages.

Kalos let out a soft yawn as he awoke. The morning sunlight peeped into the cave, barely illuminating the interior, but Kalos could still see his father holding the red book.

"Good morning. Can you read any of that? I spent most of last night trying, but I still can't read any of it." Kalos said as he got up.

Raymond panicked.

"Uh- N- no. Not really. This is a really old language." He said as he handed his son the book.

"Oh? Some of the characters look so familiar though. Ah well, I'll crack it eventually." Kalos said as he packed his things.

Raymond did the same and before long, everyone was up and ready to go.

"To Ianndor?" Crimwal asked while sleepily rubbing his eyes.

"Yes," Raymond said and they set off on the journey.

They walked for most of the day before the city of Ianndor came within their view and unlike Llendor, it was far bigger and looked far cleaner.

Beyond its wall was the river known as Iann. It ran along the city, its source being the Tsav mountains to the north.

Raymond snuck a glance at his son to find that he had his nose buried in the red book from before.

"Hey dad, what does the word falnae mean?" Kalos asked innocently.

"Umm… Pretty sure it means descent." Raymond said as they walked.

"Mmm…" Kalos let out a soft hum.

"Where are you in the book," Raymond asked.

"Mmm? Oh, I'm still on the cover page, but I will crack this book. You know, there's a lot of letters that match the ones you taught me, so all I need to do is fill in the blanks." Kalos said causing Raymond to do the mental equivalent of temple rubbing.

Why did you have to find that book, of all things? He wondered. However, Raymond found comfort in the fact that his boy had a healthy and curious mind.

They approached the grand gates of Ianndor and were greeted by knights clad in glorious silver armour. Their swords looked sharp and their eyes looked even sharper.

Crimwal noticed that Raymond's head was lowered, especially when they were near knights.

He decided to put aside the thought as he led the group to the central marketplace.

There, hundreds of merchants could be seen exchanging thousands of goods.

The smell of exotic spices and herbs filled the air along with the sounds of a thousand conversations.

"Come on. Let's pick up the things we need as we move towards the northern exit." Crimwal suggested.

"Where are those friends you mentioned?" Raymond asked with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, maybe I wasn't specific. These are all my friends, fellow merchants in search of profit." Crimwal said as he dramatically spread his arms.

Raymond sighed before noticing that Kalos had gone on walking ahead of them, his head still buried in the book.

"Hey, Kalos!" Raymond called out as he, Estella and Eevana walked towards the entranced boy.

Crimwal was about to follow them before his arm was grabbed by a large hand. He turned around to find a large, scruffily dressed man.

"The boss wants to speak to you." The man said, effectively stopping Crimwal's heart.

"W- wait!. I was just on my way to see her." Crimwal said as he struggled to free himself from the big man's grip. He turned around and saw that Raymond and the others were already gone.

The marketplace had also gotten rather silent and the knights who were supposed to be guarding the inner city were seemingly nowhere to be found.

The big man dragged Crimwal into one of the many large buildings that lined the inner city.

Within it sat a woman with numerous facial scars and long curly black hair. Two large goons stood behind her in the dimly lit room, adding to the already threatening atmosphere.

The woman was dressed in pitch-black leather clothes, her dark skin and curly black hair gave her a menacing aura. That plus her intense stare made Crimwal lower his head.

"There you are, little mouse." The woman said softly.