6 The memory of death
1531 Words
Alec was just ten when his father died from an incurable disease.
His father’s death made his childhood memories stained with a painful memory, and he mourned for so long even when he grew up.
The death of his father made her mother mourn so much that she became ill.
At a young age, he worked as a young errand boy for an official at that time. It paid him quite enough to feed his mother and sister at least once a day, but not enough to buy his mother’s medicine.
His older sister felt pitiful of Alec, and so she could help her ill mother and feed his younger brother, she married a man at the age of eighteen.
He was absolutely opposed to his older sister marrying someone she didn’t even love and older than their father, even.
“I’ll just work! Don’t do it,” he said. He didn’t want his older sister to be in the hands of a corrupt man, who also could hurt her.
“I have to, Alec,” she said and smiled, caressing young Alec’s cheek with tears running down his cheeks. “I love him,” she added.
Alec knew her eyes were saying the other way. She was lying. She was just sacrificing her life for him and their mother. She never loved him.
After her sister left two days later, he never heard of her whereabouts, but he receives a letter with her money every month.
Her mother’s health state didn’t improve even with the medicine he bought with her sister’s money. After two years, his mother died.
Since then, Alec lived alone. He decided to leave his hometown to find a living until he turned fifteen.
He lived in another city until The Punic War broke.
He was seventeen when the war broke, and he witnessed a lot of people being killed. Since he lived by himself, he didn’t have anyone to take care of. He fled on his own, away from the war.
But he just thought so.
Two days living in the mountain, a group of people with weapons took him back to the city.
He was sent to fight on the war, and he fought since then for more than two years. He learned how to use the sword by actually fighting on the war zone.
After learning Latin through Alec’s memory, he found that Alec’s memories of the war were an opportunity to learn sword fighting skills.
At first, he thought he’d actually die, but as if Alec was guiding him, his body moved gracefully as he fought soldiers on the war zone.
He noted every little movement in his mind and made his muscles and body memorize it, until he mastered Alec’s sword skills.
He continued to learn until Alec fought for five more years. He watched and felt the pain when Alec actually died from the war when he was just twenty
Ray could vividly recall all Alec’s memories and it became his own.
Since Alec’s spiritual fire was totally absorbed onto his body, Ray easily adapted Alec’s sword skills and technique. How to wield a sword, how to properly use it, how to attack and defend himself using it.
He looked at his hands. He felt these skills in his body, especially in his hands and arms. It was bizarre to him, as his hands and arm felt tensed while he was holding the double-edged sword he gave to the skeleton warrior. It felt like a normal thing to him.
Aside from that, Alec’s childhood, his father and mother’s deaths, his sister, and the war. All those four memories of Alec helped Ray learn Latin.
“Idiots,” Ray said in Latin, teasing the three who were totally confused. “I can now speak Latin,” he boasted.
Now, it was Zack’s turn to summon.
Ray took the bones to a side and gave the summoning circle for Zack to take over. Ray was pleased with what he achieved and he knew he could make use of it later.
As Zack stepped into the circle, the summoning circle flickered before going back to normal.
“Is that normal?” Zack asked.
Ray shrugged. “I think so? I think it’s because you’re the one stepping onto the circle. The summoning circle is probably tapping onto your spiritual power.”
Everyone looked at Ray. “How do you know about this?” Josh asked.
Ray shrugged again. “I don’t know. My gamer intuition speaks to me.”
Zack stifled a laugh. “Gamer intuition,” he repeated the words that made him laugh.
Just like he thought earlier, Zack decided to go for a green goblin.
Green goblins were known to be mischievous and malicious creatures but since they were small, the possibility of them causing severe harm to someone could be really low.
They were common to be summoned, as sometimes they could be loyal to the summoner that it would do anything for the summoner. Summoners who took their loyalty as an opportunity, used goblins for treasure hunting.
Sometimes, some would even order goblins to steal precious jewelry for them.
Invisibility was their defense, and they could run incredibly fast that it would require skills for someone to chase and capture them.
Zack held onto the book and searched for the mantra for the green goblin.
“What are you summoning, though?” Peter asked, cautious. He wanted to know what they’d each summon first so he would know if he needed to take drastic defense measures.
“Green goblin,” he said without looking at him.
Ray hummed. “Should we at least prepare something like a trap? We all know goblins are small beings but they are fast. Besides, they could go invisible.”
“They do?” Zack looked at Ray and asked.
Peter slapped his forehead in dismay. “You’re summoning something not knowing what they could do? This is why it’s dangerous.”
Zack looked at Peter. “I only knew them through the folklore. I didn’t know they could be invisible.”
“I have lists of fantastic creatures. Maybe I should send them to you guys later,” Ray said.
Peter scratched his head. “Let’s set some trap. They love shiny things, so we should use some jewelry as bait. I’ll get some flour,” Peter walked upstairs to get the flour to spread some to the floor in case the goblin went invisible.
“I think I saw a gold ring on one of the metal chests in the second room. I’ll get it,” Josh insisted and walked to the second room in the basement. He glanced at the third door they weren’t even able to open.
He took note of that door and took the gold and gave it to Zack. While Peter was coming back from the kitchen with the flour, Ray and Josh had set up a rope trap. They looped the rope into a simple noose knot in the middle of the circle, with the golden ring inside the knot.. the rope was hanging by the light of the basement, and the end was held by Ray and Josh.
The plan was simple. The ring was bait for the goblin, and when the goblin set its foot in the noose, Ray and Josh would pull the rope and by then the goblin would be suspended on the air.
Peter came back with the flour, and he spread it inside the circle and poured some to cover the rope on the floor.
“Ready?” Zack asked. The three nodded.
Zack now read the mantra.
“The minor creature from the world of Filasso;
Monstrous creature of grotesque and pure mischief.
I laid this precious thing for you; you must abide by me.
In my name, Zack Deppe, I command you to appear in this world!”
A familiar whirl of strong wind swirled inside the circle that sent their hair and clothes billowing through the wind. When the virtual wind stopped, the cloud of the portal appeared by the center of the circle.
The four anticipated and saw small foot appear through the portal and there, a green goblin appeared.
The green goblin was just more than a foot in height and fat that it had layers of skin on its chin, and its belly was protruding and saggy that they couldn’t see the garter of the ragged short it was wearing. Its skin was the same as frogs; it was bumpy and looked rough. Compared to the frog, the skin of the goblin didn’t look slimy.
The ears of the green goblin were pointy and higher than its bumpy head. It had a witch-like nose and small black eyes. The goblin’s lips were wide in some sinister way.
The green goblin didn’t see the four guys and went straight towards the gold ring. The moment it set its foot on the noose knot, Ray and Josh pulled the rope which caught the goblin’s foot and by the basement light, it was held on the air.
By then, the goblin realized it was a trap.
Hanging upside-down, the green goblin let out an annoying shriek, like a pig and frog’s screams mixed together.
The four grimaced at the noise it made.
To the creature’s defense, it started to malfunction, it started to go back from normal to being invisible.
The green goblin started to move around to set itself free from the rope but Ray and Josh were holding it. Poor goblin, the two weren’t even budging at its movements.
But then, the goblin had another plan. It continued to shake its saggy body until its foot was starting to let loose from the rope.
“Hey, watch out. His foot is slipping off!” Peter warned the three.
- Writer
