Broken Earth: Unveiling the Secrets of the Worlds

Old man's past

Xerxes arrived and was told about the talented craftsman that Britt and Bianca were talking about when he was away and is delighted to hear some good news after failing to find one. “If he is talented then it would be a great thing to bring him here.” Xerxes says with anticipation just by thinking that his blueprints might come to life after all those months of waiting.

              “So, who knows where that craftsman is located?” Xerxes asked and Britt volunteers to go. “I can, Bianca also knows where but it would be dangerous for her to travel since she is a girl and I am worried for her safety so I would like to volunteer.” Britt says which completely surprised everyone. “Wow- I never thought that you would be worried about your sister. You were always looking after yourself after all.” Cynthia says with a cold tone as she sees Britt in a new light. “What are you talking about? Someone needs to come with me. We have our hands full with the people trying to do something to everyone, we should confirm if he is reliable or not right? We don’t want another like that cook the other time.” He says and everyone completely agrees.

              “So you speak some useful things sometimes.” Cynthia added and greatly annoyed Britt. “I’ll go, there is not much happening here anyway so I might as well go travel with Britt.” Xerxes says as he grab Britt’s shoulders. “Since we are still not taking commissions. Everyone can take a break for aw while and train.” Everyone of them is disturbed by the fact that they have not really done any proper job since they started and spent their entire time idling in the shop while the three are away. Samantha raise her hand to tell them of her concerns but Xerxes dismissed it without even listening to her. “Everyone will get paid so don’t worry. ‘There is no much things to do’ is what you thought right but unbeknownst to you all, you have been doing the most important job of all. And that is guarding the weapons that we have stored in the shop.” Xerxes says as he turns and look at everyone.

              “As you already know, these weapons are dangerous and is the sole reason that people are coming for my head so that they can take these weapons. Imagine these weapons get in the wrong hands, what do you think would happen? That’s right, bloodbath. I don’t think I need to tell you all about that in detail so don’t even think of being worthless and get paid for doing nothing.” He added as he goes inside the shop. “Hey Britt, when are we leaving? We better move as soon as possible. If he is a really talented craftsman then people would look after him, especially those people that wants me dead.”

              Britt then realizes the situation and heads inside the shop as well in hurry. ‘Sh*t! why didn’t I think of this sooner! It would be really too late for us to make contact with him if those people decided to contact him first.’ He thinks and then curse to himself for now saying anything for a long time. “That really might happen. Those people don’t stop at nothing just to get what they want.” Rupert says as the others continue to eat their food.

              A few moments later and the two are ready to leave just as they have finished eating all the food. “You both look like hobos. What is with that get up? You both running away or something?” Cynthia ask and criticizes the twos’ outfits. “Moreover, Britt, you look like a beggar and the boss looks like a person that had been robbed on the road.” She adds as the two stands in front of everyone without flinching from her words.

              “Don’t you think this is a good disguise? If we don’t want to die, we should at least make some effort right? And this is the thing that we both agreed on so don’t laugh at us.” Britt says with an embarrassed expression. Xerxes breaks off the two before they start arguing with each other and justifies their outfits.

              “What Britt says is true. This disguise might have it’s pros and cons but at least we get to keep our lives right? ‘s all that mattes and I don’t really mind being in this disguise at all and neither does Britt. Now its time for us to move otherwise it will be dark soon before we arrive at that place.” The other employees then bid them farewell on their journey after a few exchange of words to Rupert and Ramirez. Telling the two that they are in charge of the place while he is away. “I hope you both know what to do in certain instances right?” Xerxes says before he left.

              The two reached the entrance of the village and pass by without any complications. They hitched a ride on a passing old man with a cart. “You guys going to Elderwood? I am going to village before that place so I guess I can give you guys a ride but I can’t promise to give you guys some food so you better have brought some with you.” The old man says and the two thanks him for his generosity. “Thank you very much.” Xerxes says as he also disguises his voice of a weak person. Britt stares at his boss performance that he could not help but admire him.

              ‘Woah- I never thought the boss would take it to that level. That is really surprising and shocking at the same time.’ He thinks to himself as the two continues to talk about things in life. The three stops in the third village that they reached due to the night that caught up to them. Acting true to their disguise, the two decided to stay and take shelter in the stable that everyone uses, feeling ashamed that he would be the only one that will stay in an inn, the old man accompanies them and decided to sleep in the stable inside their cart as well.

              “You didn’t have to do that you know?” Xerxes says with a weak voice but the old man brushes him off. “Nah- don’t worry about it. There is no one that I would be able to talk to inside the inn so might as well join you guys right?” the old man says with a smile and the two no longer said anything. ‘Damn, old people tend to talk a lot if they get older and I did not think it would be true but now I think I might regret not ever listening to my mother. If this continues then my voice would get hoarse and I will not be able to speak with the craftsman properly.’ Xerxes thinks to himself as he tries to evade making a long conversation with the old man.

              “You know, I used to have a wife with me. We travel all around due to my business  and see some things along the way. We were happy but not everything stays like that. There was that one time that we traveled near the border of the kingdom, we saw people running away from the direction where we are supposed to go. At first it was only two people so we disregarded it and continued on thinking that it was nothing and it would be impossible for the village to be chaotic since it more peaceful than any other places. But a few moments later, we saw a large group of people running away at the same time, some people brought their animals as well as they their whole family. Some of them did no bring anything and run away as if their life depends on it. It is then that I get a bad feeling about what is happening.”

              “At that time, my wife started telling me that we need to go back. But I insist since it was our biggest profit in a long time so I decided to venture on. We arrived near the village but much to our surprise, the village is raided by robbers in large groups. The houses and shops are all robbed and when we arrived, the women there are r***d and killed while the men are forced to watch their wives and daughters getting violated. At that time, we were staring at the terror that those people are showing but then everything made drastic turn.”

              “The robbers saw us and chase us, we used to have a horse back then so we are a lot faster than those robbers but they are armed, I can’t forget that day. That is the day when my wife died, she was shot by an arrow through her neck. She almost died instantly while I stare at her blood spurting like a small faucet. The horses continues to run back until stop in exhaustion. It turns out that we arrived in the previous town and the people are looking at us, maybe they are wondering if I am fine but I’m now. I just stared at my wife the entire time.” The old man tells them his story and the two can’t help but shed tears and say their condolences.

              “There is no need, it all happened two decades ago. That is when I realized that in business, there are times that we are tempted but don’t let it sway us or we will loss something dear to us. Be it a material or someone, we should always think about things and listen to others. That way, we can easily evade some things that would drastically change our lives.” Their talk is cut short when the old man slept after telling them his story.

              Dawn came and the three get up early to travel. Xerxes bought some buns in a nearby bakery that opens as early as they woke up and ate it on their way. A few hours later and the old man arrives in his destination. “Sorry, lads. This is as far as I go.” The old man says but the two tells him its okay. “Thank you very much for giving us a lift.” Xerxes says with a casual tone and forgot that he needs to disguise his voice.

              “There is no need to be surprise, you guys must be hiding from people right? Your secrets are safe with me. You both don’t look like that old to me, I have seen many people that did the same thing so I know a disguise when I see one.” The old man says with a smile as the two continues on their journey. “This will not help much but I hope that this can help you.” Xerxes says as he hands the old man a pouch full of silver coins.

              The old man can’t believe his eyes after taking a glance inside the pouch but the moment he turns to look at Xerxes and Britt, they are already gone in the woods. Soon, the two reached the village after taking a short cut that no one really knows. “Is this the place?” Xerxes asks Britt who nods his head as they stand in the doorstep of the craftsman.