First Light, page 6
“Hey,” Rune asked Venraya, “how many smiths does Hilden have?”
“Um, two…I think.” Venraya stopped walking to answer Rune’s question and gave him an odd look. “One focuses more on weapons while the other is more of an armorer, but you can get any kind of work done at both.”
“That’s odd. I would think you all would just import weapons from Locke.”
“Oh, I am sure we bring in a fair number, but as a town, we have to be self-sufficient in some capacity, you know? We can’t just buy everything we need, like the northerners. Besides, most of the material we import from there are raw and refined ores, I believe. Look, I’m just parroting something my mom said. Go ask the actual smiths later. Let’s go.”
Venraya turned and hurried even faster toward the gates. Rune tried his best to sightsee at least a little. He noticed Hilden had a similar architectural style to Locke, with simple wooden homes that had few windows and stone chimneys. The only buildings that seemed to use stone as a primary construction material—beyond a simple chimney—were the church, with a bell tower peaking over the rooflines, and the Lord’s home. It could be seen just off the market in the town’s center and looked as though it could house five full families alone. With a stone foundation and corner supports, the wooden walls that made up the rest of the building made it a beautiful feature to the town. Most of the buildings near the lordly manor were also larger than any of the buildings back home. Likely a noble district. Or something that passed for one this far away from the capital.
Such an interesting place! So many people in one spot… I can’t even imagine what Jelmoore would look like… Suddenly realizing he was distracted by the sights, Rune had to rush to catch up to his senior once more. Unfortunately, there were a few times on the way to their destination that Venraya was forced to slow down for him. It was obvious the girl did not think highly of him, but he could not figure out why, for the life of him. Rune simply shrugged and wondered if it was like how Mona and her party had been reserved before the bandit ambush. Either way, there was no reason to let this get him down. He was still just as excited to finally fulfill his childhood dream of adventuring as a member of the Vanguard.
Once the pair finally reached the western gates, the size of them shocked him. They were a fair bit larger than the ones facing the road to Locke, but he figured it made sense since this road led to the large port city of Jelmoore and connected them to the rest of the kingdom. Guards at the gate waved at Venraya, easily recognizing her. They simply waved the duo past without checking papers or anything.
The perks of being known around here, I suppose, Rune mused, continuing to follow Venraya’s lead to the hunting grounds.
Ven
About an hour away from the city gates, Ven finally heard the cawing of a flock of Bash Eagles. She was worried at first that her charge would pester her with questions, considering how entranced with the town he was. Against her expectations, he remained silent and only offered insight into potential creatures of interest they passed. Most of the area around Hilden was set up for farming, but the untamed grasses beyond that held a handful of smaller creatures such as horned rabbits and tunnel ferrets. She knew Rune was excited to join the ranks of the Vanguard, but she needed to be the one to make sure that he met the high standards of Hilden’s Master. Or rather, her own high standards.
Ven heard more cries of Bash Eagles in the distance and finally eyed several black objects in the sky above the tree line. They had ventured much closer to the woods than they had expected, which made the mission a little riskier. Anywhere between one and three Bash Eagles was an F-Rank job, but if they went above three, it became an E-Rank mission. As an E-Rank herself, she would need at least one other Ranked member to join her. Rune did not count since this was his test. Maybe they could lure one away from the flock… No, it was probably best if they called it here.
Rune stopped just to her right and crouched down. He motioned for her to come closer. Doing as asked, she crept towards him. Each step grated on her soul, rustling grass and fallen leaves. Doing her best not to create too much more noise, she whispered, “What? Did you see something?”
Rune nodded his head with a finger over his lips. He pointed to their right. A few hundred feet away and circling in the sky was a trio of Bash Eagles. She had already noticed them, but he pointed to the ground beneath them where two more feasted on some other creature. They either did not notice the duo or were distracted by something they had just attacked. This was too dangerous. With five of them, it was officially a quest above their approved rank. There was no feasible way for one creature to be pulled from the rest with them all being so close to one another. The three above kept watch over those currently feasting. Most likely, when the others finished their meal, they would trade out spots. For birds like them, it was strange behavior, but indicative of their flock mentality.
Ven swallowed her anxiety. She turned to face the young man and advise him they would pull back. Either they would go out another day, or the Hall Master would give them a different quest. Rune had other plans, it seemed. Instead of concern, his eyes were full of confidence. Not with fresh-faced bravado, but with experience. She was no stranger to that look. Part of her hesitated, but ultimately readied her hunting bow. She notched an arrow while remaining crouched on one knee. Rune came closer and whispered quietly into Ven’s ear.
“Count to ten, then take a shot. I’ll distract them with a call. At least one of them should pause. That’s the one to hit.”
Before, his childish demeanor and innocent expressions had annoyed her. Now that they were about to enter battle, the young man changed. Ven found herself willing to listen to him, despite their difference in rank. It was like he had become the party leader and that frustrated her.
Ven nodded and counted to ten in her head. The moment she hit nine, she heard from just behind her the call of what sounded like a baby Bash Eagle. Suddenly, one of the three monsters in the air flapped its wings to stop its circling and change direction. At that exact moment, Ven released her notched arrow. It flew straight, landing solidly in the beast's neck and dropping it to the ground like a rock.
The other two monsters in the air beside it screeched angrily and dived straight towards the girl who had killed a member of their flock. The two on the ground looked up, confused, and had not yet spotted the source of the commotion. Ven felt herself become glued to the ground. She knew she had to move, otherwise the Bash Eagles would land a direct hit on her, and that would put her in a world of pain. It could even kill her. Something else, however, seemed to tell her that if she moved, her death was even more assured.
The first of the two diving birds had closed the gap and quickly appeared only a few feet from the girl. She saw a flash of light and a silver blur as Rune dashed in front of her. In one quick motion, he sliced off one of the creature’s wings while he simultaneously deflected it to the ground with a simple smack of his shield. Not even a moment later, he propelled himself off the ground and landed the pommel of his sword into the side of the second monster, who was just inches behind the first.
Ven heard a sickening, wet crunch as the two Bash Eagles struck the ground at full speed and broke their necks. Red gore soaked into the dirt. She looked up at the silver-haired boy with surprise. Rune flicked some blood off his sword. Something was different, but it was hard to say what. The young man’s movements seemed to blur together. His head snapped toward the feasting beasts.
What in Chaos’s name was that?
By that point, the two on the ground had seen everything and launched into the air, sending out a small puff of dust. Ven pulled herself from her thoughts and loosed another arrow at them. Her target avoided a killing blow, but the arrow still struck its wing, forcing it to fall back to the ground. It flopped around in pain, helplessly flapping its wings in a vain effort to take to the sky.
The other one made it into the air and tried to retreat. Rune placed his buckler in front of him and started rhythmically smacking it with the flat of his blade while also dragging it across the metal studs. A painful screech of scraping metal rang in her ears. Ven could almost feel the rage building in the remaining beast. With a twitch of its head, it screeched a sort of war cry. Its feathers puffed out and it dove straight at the young man who taunted it. Instead of moving, Rune held his ground. The Bash Eagle picked up speed, faster than the other two. A few inches from hitting him, he stepped to the side and let the monster hit the ground. Thanks to its hard head and spine, the Bash Eagle simply created a small cloud of dust. By the time the dust cleared, the monster had already taken off again.
“Venraya! Quickly finish the one you disabled. Approach it from behind and put a blade right behind its skull, or just shoot an arrow into it if you don’t want to get close. I’ll handle this last one. Seems to be the head of the flock. Faster. Tougher,” Rune ordered before chasing after the monster.
It took a moment for her to react to his words. The way he had sidestepped that beast…could she have done that? No. She wasn’t fast enough. Ven did as she was told and moved to kill the one she had wounded earlier. It was simple enough to move into position while the creature squawked in defiance against its own fate. The noise hid her quiet steps. Bash Eagles were incredibly weak without their aerial advantage, so it was a simple task to overpower it. A single stroke of her blade was all it took as Ven planted one of her daggers into the base of its skull. She remembered to do it just to the side of the spinal cord and aim for the brain and not directly into the tough muscles that ran the length of its spine.
Ven turned around to catch Rune dodging a second dive, then a third. She contemplated helping him when the beast started a fourth dive, but held out as she realized that the boy’s plan was to tire the monster out. The fourth and final dive was initiated at a lower altitude and was nowhere near as fast or powerful as the previous attacks. Had it made a mistake and attacked too quickly? As it approached, it was finally slow enough for Rune to sidestep and attack. He had dropped his short sword before the last dive, and pulled out a knife, which he plunged into the beast’s belly, allowing it to gut itself with the momentum.
Innards splattered across the dirt and grass, some spraying on to Ven’s leg. With a wide-eyed expression, she watched as Rune cleaned his blades before he grabbed the last kill, taking it over to the other two he had killed. He nudged them with a foot, testing to make sure they were dead. She watched him momentarily rub the side of his head with a look of discomfort. It quickly vanished when he turned around to face her.
“Nice team work!” the boy—no, young man—shouted as he gave her a thumbs up with that stupid grin he had worn earlier.
A strange pinch came from inside Ven’s chest before she shook her head before she went to fetch the two Bash Eagles she felled and brought them back to where the other three lay. By the time she returned, Rune had already used the knife from the last kill to separate the armored skull plate that gave the beasts their names and remove their wings at the joints. The wings were not worth much other than the primary flight feathers. He also plucked the tail feathers and put them into a pouch.
“As a thank you, I figured you can take the feathers from these three, too? As long as I can keep the skull plates from the ones I killed? Of course, you can still keep the plates and feathers from your two!”
“Sure. Thanks.” Ven stated. She continued to be pleasantly surprised by Rune.
She had not expected him to understand that the flight and tail feathers from the beasts made excellent arrows. As his proctor, she technically had rights to all the materials from the beasts, but seeing as he had killed three while she only killed two—one being with his help—she had no complaints about sharing the loot. Besides, she was his senior. She would do well to set a good example for the boy by letting him have some of the spoils.
Who are you? Ven opened and closed her mouth a few times, the words still trapped in her mind. Meanwhile, they worked together to collect the materials. She was honestly quite impressed at Rune’s performance. If it had been her, she would have avoided the fight being only an E-Ranker herself. It was beyond her technical threat limit. Yet, the unranked newbie had confronted them without a moment of hesitation.
“Hey…so tell me a bit about yourself Rune,” Ven mumbled finally.
“Really? Okay. Well, not a lot to tell, actually.” Rune sighed. He looked relieved at her more muted tone. He understood this was an effort of hers to try treating him as something better than an annoyance. “I’m from Locke, born and raised. Mother is the daughter of the village head and my father is a blacksmith.”
“A blacksmith from Locke? How’d you learn to fight then? Your movements are so… flowy and weird. I’ve seen a number of styles, but yours is just different.” It was true. Most of the warriors she knew fought with solid stances. Rune almost stood in a haphazard one; like a simple shove could knock him out of it. Yet, he used that light stance to his benefit. Dodging with the slightest movements. When he actually fought the creatures, he relied less on his own strength, rather, using the monster’s own power against them.
“Oh, my father taught me that since I could never do more than basic smithing, unlike him. He’s a Wanderer and his specialty is alderite smithing. As for how he learned to fight, I don’t really know. My father doesn’t really talk about his life before the village.”
Ven could barely contain her surprise. This newbie was just one shock after another. “Your father is a Wanderer? And you somehow were born Awakened? Do you know how uncommon that is? If one parent has Volari blood, then most of the time you either get their bloodline abilities or nothing at all!”
Rune nodded in agreement. “Yea, I know. That’s one reason I was shocked when I got that reaction from the Awakening Crystal. Honestly, I thought I was just a normal human. My father said I wasn’t, but he said he couldn’t really tell me much more than that. As far as I can remember, I haven’t been able to manifest any Awakened abilities, so I never truly believed him.”
Ven sighed, “Yea, I haven’t either. You have to use an Awakening Crystal or like go through something really traumatic. Before that, the best you can do is funnel Aura into an altered weapon.”
Rune shook his head solemnly and released a pained sigh. “No. I know that. I mean, I can’t do that either. The only way I can use an alderite altered weapon is by using a charged alderite core. Just like a normal human does.”
“I see,” Ven said simply once she noticed Rune was closing off his body language. He was clearly done with this conversation. She shifted uncomfortably until that strange pinch returned, but it felt somewhat different. “Sorry, Rune, I didn’t mean to upset you or pry. But, hey! You fight pretty well. My mom is just a normal human, and she does just fine!”
Rune nodded, clearly unconvinced, as the duo finished their gathering and prepared everything to set out on the return trip to the village. Ven was the one who kept the silence going this time. She had seen how excited Rune was to find out that he was Awakened, but he had been reminded that it was pointless if he could not actually use the Aura in his body. On top of that, he was the son of someone with a Volari bloodline who could manipulate the Aura in the environment. Ven wondered if it would be better or worse for Rune to have been born a normal human. Dammit, Ven, she cursed herself. You just had to open your big mouth.
Just before they left, Rune began processing the corpses by breaking them down into smaller pieces and scattering the remains in the field. Unlike with human bodies, scattering leftover monster pieces was standard practice. They look a little malnourished. Did we get lucky? As she was helping with the breakdown, she noticed most of the creatures looked a little on the thin side. Maybe that was a factor in how they could take them out so easily?
“Rune, I’m…” Ven started before she paused. A moment passed before she swallowed her pride. “I am sorry for how I acted before. Mom was right. You’re alright.”
“Oh. Thanks. I was worried that I had done something when I first arrived to upset you.” Rune laughed awkwardly.
“No, you did nothing. I just don’t really do well with people. Especially new people. I thought you were just some idiot with delusions of grandeur. A lot of people show up thinking they are going to be heroes and ignore what it actually takes to be Vanguard… A-anyway, the way you fight is really cool.”
“Oh.” Rune blushed a little. “Thanks!”
“Kinda looks more like dancing than fighting, though.”
“Right.”
Both of them maintained an awkward silence for the return trip to town. On top of that, Ven refused to look at the young man. After seeing him fight and how easy he made taking down a large group of Bash Eagles look, she could not help but think back to the day before, when she had walked into his room. The memory brought a warm feeling to her cheeks and a slight sense of either unease, shame, or something else. She could not decide.
When they finally arrived back at the gates, the evening sun painted the sky beautiful shades of orange. The gates would close soon, but the guards held them open for the pair, letting them inside without any checks. Upon entering, Ven caught wind of a commotion. Dozens of people were shouting outside of the West Gate Inn. Out of curiosity, they went to investigate the source.
In front of the building, there were about twenty people surrounding two different groups. One was a group of four people in white robes that normally adorned members of the Crucidian Church. The other group was a group of three people with purple eyes.
