The Fearless War

"Could you tell me the story again, Grandpa?" Even if my grandfather repeated the stories he told me, they were always interesting. "Tell me the one about the wolf you found in the war!" Unable to contain my excitement, I stood up to look at my grandfather. "Sure, he's your favorite, isn't he? "Of course, he is!" my voice echoed through my hands as I shouted. --------------------------------------------------------------- "Ugh... " my eyes widened after I felt a twinge of pain in my back. "Osbert Wolfric! Wake up or mom won't save you breakfast." My eyes darted to the source of the voice to see my attacker; it was an intense voice, but it is also one I was already used to. As I removed my face completely from the pillow, I could see more clearly my sister, Everild, or as she was known in the village, [The Boar Reaper]. Despite having such a crude nickname, her appearance was that of a young woman that any man would desire, thanks to her face and green eyes with dark hair. Meeting her gaze I said apathetically, "Coming, coming, what's on the menu today?" "Wild boar stew." Her gaze strayed from me for a few moments to her pockets as she tossed a small bag to me. "I already told you I don't collect bones." I tossed the bag back to Eve knowing what it contained. "Then why do you always have that on you?" She pointed to my wrist on which was an intertwined thread and in the center of it, a fang, a reminder of my grandfather's "You know Grandpa left it." "Yes, of course..." before she finished her sentence, she turned to the hallway and said before walking to the kitchen. "You know you're the only one in the village who thinks Grandpa was okay." "Ah..." I sighed as I hit my face with the pillow. After getting dressed I headed to the kitchen so I could eat. I had put on a green shirt with a leather vest, and my grandfather's knight's boots, one more thing he had left behind before he passed away. 'Don't worry grandpa, I know you weren't crazy.' I said in my thoughts as I adjusted the rope in my hand. As I walked into the kitchen, I was overcome by an aroma of meat with honey and cinnamon, rare ingredients that my family did not use every time. "Was it a good hunt today?" I asked my sister who had a mouth full of food as I sat on the other side of the table. "Biggest of the season Oz, you should learn more from your sister." My father said with pride in his voice, in his hand he held the skin that I assumed was from the boar we were eating. "Learn what? Table manners?" not paying attention I questioned my father knowing my sister had meat juice dripping from her mouth. "You know what your father means son, you should start working instead of playing with a wooden sword." My mother was serving more food to my sister, when she remarked on my father's intention. With food still on the spoon I lifted my gaze to the window, "Yeah, I might go help Uncle Miles." "Oz, you know my brother can't have the best mentality, you still want to work with him?" My father put his tools down on the table and started eating as well. "Would there be a problem if I did?" "...Not much, but I want you to be careful, and it better not have anything to do with your grandfather." "I know, and you know I have my own ideas." 'Gulp' "Does your head even have a brain?" "Eve! Don't talk like that, especially not with food in your mouth." My mother in her attempt to calm the situation, caused my sister to bite her tongue trying to respond. "Even if my sister seems to have lost half a brain, yes, I have one Eve." "Hmph! I'm going to hunt for dinner, if you'll excuse me." Without wasting a second, she got up and went for her bow and hunting knives so she could go into the forest behind the village. I finished breakfast and discussed a couple more things with my parents, about what I was going to start doing with my life. After a while, I headed outside and followed the road to the center of the village, without stopping at the market or to greet the neighbors, I went straight to the farthest building from everything, looking like a tower and with black smoke coming out of the top. At the bottom of the massive structure were a pair of metal doors, as if preparing to prevent something from entering. Before such doors, I shouted without thinking twice. "Uncle! Wake up, it's already the middle of the day!" I kicked the door with all my might regardless of the uproar. Moments later, I heard banging and metal clanging on the floor, including in the uproar some screams of pain. Such was the atmosphere at the pride of the village, [Miles Wolfric's armory and blacksmith shop]. I waited a while for the noises to subside, entered through the unlocked door and found on the floor a thin man with dark hair and torn clothes with red on his hands. To anyone outside the village the scene before me would have caused them to shock or faint. "Did you sleep at least uncle?" I asked the body as I stung it with tongs lying next to the wall. "Hmm, I could sleep better if a barbarian stabbed me in the head." he said as he wiped his hands clean of grease to ask for help to get up. When he managed to get up, his face could be seen better, it was one like my father, but the clear difference was the eyes and hair. As for the eyes, my uncle had a blue one like my grandfather and my father, but his right eye was black, something that made the children in the village scared of him. I closed the door as Uncle Miles' gaze did not enjoy the light so much. "Is the room ready?" "Of course, it is, who do you think I am?!" He said as he slapped his arms which only made his muscle-less body stand out even more. "Only key right?" "Obviously there is only one key, you know, if your parents found out what you want to do, they would kill me for helping you, and Charles wouldn't stop until he buried me with everything and my workshop." "Meh, the most my dad would do would be to stab you with everything in here." "That does sound like Charles heh, what I still don't understand is why you want a room like that for training." I could see the doubt in my uncle's face. The room I had asked for was something I needed to be able to learn with grandfather's help, even though he was no longer alive, the stories he left behind were his lessons. "You know in my case; my parents wouldn't take me into the woods and shoot arrows at me if I asked them. Grandpa guided you uncle." The notebook that my grandfather left, had all the stories he had told me and my uncle and father before that, but if one paid attention, they were very graphic in the fights and techniques that were used, another reason they called him crazy in the village and his own family. "It's not that they don't love you or don't support you in your plans ... it's just that ... not everyone thinks father was someone normal with the best decisions." I turned to face him and realized he was with his hand on his chest, just like me, grandfather left something to him, in my uncle's case, he left him his watch from the order of knighthood he belonged to. These were simple things for anyone, but both he and I felt the weight of my grandfather's accomplishments, as well as his steps to follow to defend what was ours. "That's why I came with you when he passed away uncle, you helped me then, and now I need your help again." I needed his help to learn as much as possible before I turned 16, I had a little less than 2 years to master all of grandfather's techniques and enter an academy. "Heh, I know, you want to enter a knight's academy in the capital, right? It's a secure future if you make it into the exam." "Maybe. How is the situation right now?" What I was referring to be the situation in the south of the kingdom, the war in which my grandfather participated ended with the loss of a part of the south becoming a new kingdom. In which, the uncle of the current king named it the unchanging kingdom of Rocq. "Just because I'm a blacksmith and craftsman with connections doesn't mean I know everything Oz." "So?" Uncle Miles' appearance may have been the most basic possible and his workshop was not as large as others, but by miracles of life he was among the most successful in the territory. "Well apparently the ones to the south are gathering raw materials, the weird thing is that it's not metal for weapons, but wood and basic stuff." "As if they were going to feed an army?" "Not as exactly as I would put it, but it looks like they'll be a few more years away from accomplishing that, now, getting to my point, the odd thing is that these are orders from their castle, not merchants." The last thing he mentioned left me wondering, what was it that grandfather was referring to? I would have to move on to find out. Before I knew it, Uncle Miles came forward and waved his hand in front of me. "Are you okay Oz?" "Yeah, I was just thinking." "You know war can't be understood, and if you want to continue your quest there's no one to stop you but yourself." "I know... " I pulled towards me a sword wrapped in a cloth that was on a table in the workshop, when I pulled it out, I was surprised. "It's grandfather's sword, isn't it?" What I held in my hand was a sword on whose guard was engraved with my grandfather's name 'Wymond W.' The blade of the weapon was worn and dented along its length. "Yep, it's the one he used in the war, unfortunately he couldn't keep his armor, I've been trying to reprocess it in moments." "Do you think he was happy when he came back?" "Oz, even though his expression didn't change, or his aura changed, he was happy to be back with his family, he was happy to meet you and your sister, don't doubt that." I wrapped the sword back up and left it in place, my uncle's words giving me some peace, but not enough. "Well ... I'd better go for today; I'm only supposed to have come to ask for work." "Sure, don't worry, but I hope you know that you don't just have to learn how to swing a sword." "You mean magic strengthening?" It was part of the requirements to aspire to be a knight, one had to be able to strengthen their body and natural strength with mana and magic. "That will only serve you in long battles, you must learn all you can of magic as well." "And how am I supposed to do that uncle?" Even if he was a detailed fabricator, Uncle Miles never expressed himself in the best way. "Well, in your job! Ugh, what a nephew I have." "I think we both know that's not a family forte or is it uncle?" "Don't play wise guy with me young man." "See you tomorrow uncle, get at least some sleep." "Who needs that, now go before Charles comes to kill me." I closed the shop door behind me and headed back to my house, the sun was already setting behind the forest, so I hurried my pace. If I did not arrive on time, I could have no dinner.