The Dispair

It has been two months since Ja'el left on the hunt. It feels like years.

"Get your lazy ass up boy. I need you at the smithy immediately!"

Florine's wings, again? This is the second week in a row I have had to help at the smithy without breakfast.

"Boy if you don't get your sorry ass up I will drag you to the leviathans myself now get dressed and be ready in 5 minutes."

"Yes sir, I'm sorry."

The slamming of the door jogs my brain a bit and I put on my leather covering so I don't get burned next to the flames and go to our basement which houses the village smithy. The sides have large open windows to allow heat to leave and keep us cool while working, and there are two large furnaces the size of Frelian Boars in the back with their large fans, each the size of a goat, under them to get them to the right temperature. The whole building is made of mud to survive the heat and the center is cleared out for air flow save for the large barrels of water for tempering the metal. The left side holds a large table filled with a medley of tools that feel like it should be a torture room inside the capital. This is where they perform the rituals, the unique and terrible way of imbuing a weapon with the powers of a beast captured during a hunt. Every time the screams haunt me, but I can't think about that today I need to get in the mindset for work so I can get dinner I'm starving. The right side of the room holds my pride, the reason I even put up with this mess and don't just run away- a shrine to my brother, surrounded by painted pictures of all the beasts we both dreamed of and drew as children.

"You ready brat? Stop staring at your brother it's time to get to work, we just got a few of the village boys back from the hunt last night so we have to make their weapons today- be on your best behavior while we got company or I swear by Freya you won't get dinner tonight."

"Yes sir, I promise sir."

"Good lad, start up the fire will you- one of those capital kids thinks we can just make anything, huh. The kid wants a fucking nine-tailed whip for a weapon. Freya all glorious it will take us all day to get the fire hot enough for this so get working boy."

"Right away sir."

A nine-tailed whip? We don't typically forge weapons like that Pa is very specific about the types of weapons he makes, especially since he is renowned for his work of polearm-style weaponry. Must be some hotshot from the outskirts of the capital coming in and bribing the crap outta him. Those villages bordering the capital start their training for the hunt at six years old, the closer to the capital the stronger the warrior or so they say. Supposedly it has to do with lineage from the knights of the king's personal army and even the king's sovereign himself. The real reason is the personal squadron of trained warriors they get from their parents, the spoiled brats. If only we could all be so lucky to get handed a beast when we turn of age.

...

The little bell dings at the far end of the shop as we are wrapping up the leather strips and the original barbs for the whip, which are just barely post-fire cooling and still need to be filed and stressed. A self-assured teenager strides in, standing about a head taller than me with a lean yet muscular build that hints at both agility and strength. Cascading down to his shoulders, his long blonde hair adds an air of nonchalance to his commanding presence. His face, marked by nine slim scars, bears the rugged testimony of some hard fought battle. Surrounded by a cluster of guards, one at his right stands out as his personal protector- the crisscrossed scars that cover his arm coupled with a bloody eyepatch covering some sort of clawed wound makes me wonder who this group must have gone up against. Holy shit, he's got a ritual weapon on him too, strapped across his back is a cutlass made with some sort of stripped fur at the hilt and a blade of bone that seemed to shimmer in the dim forge light. The rest of their group looks almost as intimidating, and they look like they went through hell too. Pa looks ghostly only deepening the mystery- what is going on?

"Look down boy, and keep your trap shut. That's an order."

Pa never sounds like this. He ain't scared of nobody and he makes sure people know it. He couldn't run the forge if he wasn't, the hunters would walk all over him. Who are these people? I can't ask or I risk getting beat again, the shift in Pa's mood since Ja leaving has been so intense I wonder if it has something to do with these people.

"Young Knight Cal'i of the house of Yoridic entering, please behave accordingly."

A young knight? The young knights are those who are born of the lineage of those in the elite portion of the king's army that personally protect the king. There are only 20 knights at a time in the Knights and they are replaced only in death or treason. There's no way this kid completed the hunt right? Even if he is the descendant of a freaking knight he couldn't've done that alone- there's no way! ... but if it is then it makes sense why Pa is so nervous since he has to service a celebrity client, but why choose Pa when he has access to the city smiths?

"Under Fenrir's might sir. What may I help you with, the house of Blacken is at your service. I have begun the weapon you requested, my greatest apologies that I have not finished sire I simply wish to create it to the best of my abilities so it may be worthy of your might."

"Ugh, this is why I did not wish to meddle with the likes of a backwater country smith such as yourself. I heard great things in the outskirts saying you were the best country smith out there, but to not even have finished such a simple weapon in three days. What have you been doing diddling about?"

"My apologies sire please have mercy."

"It is alright I chose this anyways- the price I pay for secrecy. I trust the provided sum is sufficient enough to buy not only the weapon and ritual but also your family's silence?"

"Of course your greatness."

"Good, I need every edge I can get in the fight for succession into knighthood. Would you be willing to begin the ritual process now, it works better if you imbue a portion as early as possible- it cannot hurt to start now."

"As you wish, may I know the name of the beast you captured sire? Or was the beast killed instead?"

"Of course it is alive you oaf, even a simpleton knows a captured beast grants more than triple the results of a dead one. Do not dare to look down upon me."

"Of course sire I apologize. Please bring in your beast and I will begin the ritual with you at once."

"Fine fine, my beast is the ninetailed ox himself- the old guardian Minotus."

I don't think I can comprehend this. I have never seen Pa so speechless. I can't blame him though, a GUARDIAN? This kid? The guardians were the 30 protectors of our continent who kept out all threats and whose chosen were held in the highest of courts in the capital as they had the power to keep our nation safe and/or fruitful depending upon the powers they inherited. In his quest for power, the king slayed the greatest of them all, the last living spectral leviathan, and upon finishing the ritual his weapon- Fenrir- contains power close to a god when wielded by him. In his quest for power, he and his knights slayed 12 of them and the rest are in hiding throughout the continent or perhaps even the world. This kid is the son of a current knight AND has a guardian for his ritual weapon? He will shape the world in his own right and-

"Hey kid, kid, KID- I refuse to be disrespected look at me now."

Is he talking to me? I have to keep my head down I don't think I can take another night without food I will pass out from the heat in the smithy tomorrow and be beaten even more. Ever since Ja left I have taken the brunt of my so-called parents frustrations. I confronted them regarding my birth and after they realized I knew the truth, they have worked and beat me to the ground so I know my place as their slave and nothing more. I exist simply to keep them in good health for when Ja brings them to the outskirts after he wins the culling. I need food I cannot look up. I cannot look up. I cannot look up. I cannot look up. I cannot look up. I cannot look up. I can no-

...