The Sword & Hunger

A young boy sits quietly outside on the, in his hands a small booklet. This booklet looks well worn and the pages inside are slightly yellowed with minute tears in places along the edge. This was the manual for the Shieldless Sword and the young boy was none other than Vale. His brows twitching every so often in concentration. It'd been nearly two weeks since his parents disappeared and almost 4 days since his body refining had finally broken through to the Striking level of the Shackled realm. His long light brown hair was tied back with a thin strap of leather and he has wearing his training suit for his daily runs. The reason for his current state was obviously the sword manual, because other than the most basic moves of chop, stab, slash and the initial stance he was utterly unable to figure out what he was doing wrong. No matter which move listed in the manual and how closely he thought he was following the diagrams they simply didn't flow like the manual said they should. Frustration, that was why he was currently studying the diagrams again and again trying to glean any idea as to where his problem lies. He'd already been going over each and every diagram for two hours, sighing in disgust he turned the page. As he was going over the next diagram which was a called Willow catching the wind he noticed some writing near the spine.

"Who would write in a sword manual?" Vale murmured to himself before turning the manual sideways to read what it said.

'The moves of the Shieldless Sword are fluidly dynamic, this is not the work of the moves themselves but of the footwork involved'

Stunned by what he read Vale realised he had been thinking too much of the movement of the sword and had ignored his feet. A swordsman couldn't just stand in one place, maybe he could if it was just simple movements like slashing or chopping but the more advanced moves required more. He'd need to judge distance and positioning and even calculate which moves could follow depending on the situation and to insure enough options were available he'd need to pay close attention to his whole body and his footing. Frustration set in even more as he realised all the things that went into using a sword.

"This... This is gonna be difficult without someone to guide me... If only father was still here!" Grumbling in annoyance Vale finally got up, he set the manual down on the windowsill of the forge and grabbed his father's old practice sword from against the wall. "Well all I can do is keep trying!"

Vale began practicing the moves, once again he experienced a disjointed feeling when transitioning between moves. He didn't give up though. More and more he performed the moves while trying to figure out the proper way to move his feet to keep his balance. After another hour the sun started to lower below the horizon. With sweat pouring down his young face Vale put away the practice sword and took off his running suit.

" Ahhh!! Feels good being out of that thing, maybe I shouldn't wear it while practicing the sword?" Vale contemplated for a bit before settling in wearing it even though he didn't like it. He figured if nothing else it'd increase the speed at which his body refining progressed. Picking up the sword manual from the windowsill he made his way into the house. After lighting all the lanterns in the living room Vale went to the pantry to get something to eat. Grabbing some boar jerky and a few potatoes in dismay he realized he all he had left was another potato and three strips of rabbit jerky.

"Crap! I'm almost out of food and that means I'll have to hunt... But there's no bow and arrows... Oh maybe I can use a sword? It'd be good practice and I could get some more meat!" Considering himself a genius after coming up with a solution to his predicament Vale built a fire in the fireplace, poured water into a small hanging cauldron and threw the potatoes in to build and then after thinking it over he tore the boar jerky in half and threw a piece in the water as well.

"That should help with the flavor!" Vale remarked as he markedly ignored the containers of dried spices and herbs on the mantle above the fireplace. He'd suffered through more than a few meals he'd attempted to spice in the first week after his parents disappeared and he had not touched them since.

The next morning Vale began his day a little earlier so he could get ready for his first hunt. After doing his basic exercises he gathered the things for his hunting trip, an old sword with some rolled spots along the edge, which for in a worn out leather sheath. He had to wear it where the pommel was over his shoulder because it was much too awkward on his hip due to his height. He also took the remaining strip of rabbit jerky as he'd eaten two that morning.

With a jovial stride Vale set out to the South, first he'd go to the hill he used for his runs and then to the forest. It was noon by the time he reached the top of the hill. He stopped to eat half of the rabbit jerky while he surveyed the edge of the forest. The trees were thick with dark brown bark for the most part, with a few every now and then having a slimmer trunk and light brown bark which meant they were ironwoods. The ironwoods were also taller and had no branches below three quarters of their height, the branches near the top fanned out and had small spade shaped green leaves with light brown veins cutting throughout. Vale suddenly though his idea to go hunting was a bad one but as he looked down at the half a piece of rabbit jerky in his hand his resolve hardened and he put the jerky away and made his way down the hill towards the massive treeline ahead, he could even see the white peaks of mountains far in the distance.

Two hours later an exasperated young man could be seen sitting on a fallen tree in a small clearing, his face dirty with streaks of sweat trailing down.

"Damnit!" Vale punched the fallen tree he was sitting on in frustration. He'd seem two deer and many rabbits in the last two hours, but 'seen' was the keyword as he hadn't even come close to any of them before they bolted away out of sight. After resting for a few more minutes Vale stood up, it was time to get back to it. He only had another 4 hours before sunset but the clearing he was in took 30 minutes to reach from the edge of the forest, he'd been using it to keep his bearings so he wouldn't get lost so really he only had about two and a half hours till he needed to leave. Getting stuck in the forest at night was pretty much certain death as the Dirge wolves were much more active, they were nocturnal due to their eyes being extremely sensitive to light and their sense of smell being extremely good.

As Vale made his way west from the clearing he could hear bird calls of all sorts and even spotted a few birds that made him yearn for a bow and some arrows.

After a while Vale spotted a large bush full of peach sized black skinned berries. His face contorted in delight as hurried over. These berries were actually an unranked energy herbs called green core berries as although the outer skin was black and thick, the core flesh was green though inedible. The reason for his happiness was that the cores could be made into a paste with a little water and smeared on his skin after training which would help him progress in his body refinement nearly 10% faster. They were unranked because their effect was limited to the Straining & Striking levels of the Shackled realm which while useful there were better options for most body refiners, unfortunately Vale had no access to any of the better options so these green core berries would be extremely helpful to him. Luckily these berries were not very sought after by beasts either as consuming them would just make them sick.

After collecting all the berries that could fit in his pack there were still nearly 10 times what he'd picked still on the bush. Although happy he found the berries his stomach was not

"If I can't hunt anything and I don't find any wild vegetables I'm going to have to postpone my training regimen." Vale frowned as he talked to himself under his breath. Vale knew there wasn't much hope for his hunting but if he could find some wild potatoes or carrots, or even mushrooms it'd be better than nothing. So changing his goal he started scouring the forest floor, even though he was no expert he'd come to the forest with his parents a few times and watched them harvest vegetables so he at least knew what they looked like.

Vale sat despondently at the table, eating the last half of rabbit jerky. The day had went terribly. He didn't even manage to find an edible mushroom. The trip back had been horrible as his stomach growled the whole way but he'd resolved to wait until right before bed to eat the last of his jerky. His sword sat on the table along with his now emptied of green core berries pack, he'd already put them away as they keep for 3 weeks or more before they'd start losing their effects.

Vale came to the realization that he'd never actually been hungry in his entire short life. Now though it was only going to get worse. The remaining half of jerky was consumed quickly but it didn't do much for his stomach so Vale put out the lanterns and stumbled in the dark to reach his bed. Laying down he took a deep breath as he stared at the darkened rafters above him.

"Tomorrow will be better, I'll look for vegetables mainly, I'll just have to skip my exercises in the morning and head straight out to give myself more time."

He let out a sigh as rolled over and closed his eyes. "Tomorrow" he mumbled as he finally fell asleep.

When Vale awoke his stomach was screaming for food but sadly he could do nothing about it. He lethargically got ready and drank a lot of water before heading out again. The water made what seemed to be sloshing noises as he made his way to the the forest...

The search for vegetables failed and he killed no game. Vale was miserable. He was currently curled up in his bed, his puffy red eyes would have given away that he'd been crying not long before. He was scared. Terrified really. The pain from hunger was intense. As he'd neared his home in failure again it'd dawned on him that he didn't have long before he'd be unable to make even the trip to the forest. Maybe 3 days. That's what brought the tears out. He didn't want to starve to death, he wanted to get strong enough to find out what happened to his parents if possible, he wanted to be a Knight and travel the country fighting bandits. He didn't want to die.

His sleep didn't come easy, the hunger pains and the nightmares woke him many times.