Life Smithing

The town of Mirow. An ordinary little town in the backyard of a Kingdom of Flower, West of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, the most dangerous mountain range within Han continent, also known as the mountain range of death.

Deep into the night, a child 10 years of age with an empty backpack on his bag, running from the outskirts of the city to the very poor-looking house. Clothes tattered, scratches and splashes of blood on the whole body.

As soon as Greg gets close to the house, he slows down and makes sure that he makes as little noise as possible. But as he gets in, he feels a firm grip on his shoulder, which caused even more pain to spread throughout his body.

"Where have you been?". Greg was scared senseless by his uncle. He knew that he was in huge trouble. Olov who couldn't sleep and waited for him to come back was very angry.

"I was just practising in the forest for some time and forgot about the time! I am sorry, uncle, please don't punish me". Pleaded Greg, lowering his head.

"You have been missing for 3 days". Shouted the angry voice.

The only thing seen in the dark was a large hand tightly gripping his shoulder. If Greg saw Olov's face, he would have fainted.

"I over-exhausted myself, and I blacked out, once I woke up I ran straight back home".

The grip tightened.

"You don't change. As a punishment, you have to help me in the smithy for a month". This was the worst punishment for Greg imaginable, the only thing worse would be a sweeping job. Greg hated that place. It was hot, boring and he didn't get any satisfaction from creating anything ever. "When your parents left to fight at the war front they entrusted you to me. If anything happens to you, what will I tell them when they come back?! " burled out Olov.

"We haven't heard from them for 3 years, they are not coming back, so who cares?!". Now that the punishment has been stated, there was no point in behaving.

Olov pressed on to Greg's shoulder that he couldn't stand anymore and he fell to his knees. "Never speak such stupid things. They are alive, and considering how the war has been going, there is no way your parents are missing. Do you know how strong your parents were? They were one of the most strong warriors in the city. Tsk. You are ignorant of what war is, never speak nonsense such as this!" Olov clicked his tongue in anger. "Now apologise!".

"I am terribly sorry" said Greg with a sarcastic smile on his face.

Even though his face couldn't be seen, Orlov saw though the tone and pushed him forward with anger. After thinking of speaking more, he chose against and went up into his room. Once he got to the top of the staircase, he looked at the Greg lying down in pain and said "There are food and bandages in the kitchen. Also, you can use a little of the cream I made on your scratches. Tsk." Clicking his tongue again, he went into his bedroom to sleep.

House fell into a silence, the only sound left was of Greg struggling to stand up. After checking himself that nothing is broken, he went into the kitchen where he slowly lighted up the small lantern which consisted of small purple rock and some wax-like cube ontop. Growling stomach was indicating that he needed food as soon as possible. The food uncle left for him consisted of rice with soya soaked beans and fermented cabbage. "No meat. Eh." thought Greg. "Oh well if I haven't collapsed back in the forest, that wild chicken would have been such a great meal for uncle and me". His diet consisted of berries and rare fruits he could find in the forest for the last couple of days.

In reality, Greg was trying to hunt in the forest as the meat was very expensive and scarce in the town, and it only got worse, longer the war went on for.

The last thing Greg remembers about his parent was their backs going away with a newly formed caravan. Ever since then, they have been living together with his uncle who worked as a blacksmith in town. Even though Olov also wanted to go, but Town Head forced him to stay to supply special weapons and armour to the war front.

Life was miserable but the only thing which Greg enjoyed was exploring the forest and improving his physique. As he didn't have any formal education, except for a weekly 2 hour lessons his uncle arranged for him, his future was very limited. One of the ways would be to go to the military to do the same service his parents did. Fight in the war was considered very prestigious and so it only made sense for him to want to do that.

Once the scolding was over, what followed was a silent meal full of judging gazes from the uncle and later soundless sleep on the mat placed in the leaving room. Greg casually gave a last glance to the door leading to the smithy before falling asleep.

Sometime during the night, Greg awoke due to blinding light and hot radiance which as soon as Greg realised what was going on to get knocked out.

At sunrise, Greg awoke with cold sweat and bloodshot eyes "What the hell was that? What was that light? And that scorching heat was impossible to survive. What was that?" His pulsating heart didn't give him any answers. Greg knew that he needed to leave the house as soon as possible if he didn't want to be forced to slave away for his uncle. He prepared filling porridge for himself and his uncle as a sorry gesture and ran towards the door.

But when he was just about to touch the door, he heard a voice "How nice of you Greg! I thought that you are an ungrateful brat, but I guess I was wrong!" Olov had the wickedest smirk on his face Greg has ever seen. This only meant one thing. Change clothes and get ready to hammer.