Chapter 21: Chapter 21 – Geared up! (Krossa Mine V)

With no more objections, I turned to face Azer, who had just arrived. His guards pushed the cart from behind as the horse looked like it was about to pass out from the weight it had been forced to pull.

Azer scratched his head with a confused look and asked, “What happened?”

“You didn’t tell us about the fire he can shoot out of his hands.” Artos quizzed, shaking his head. He was still shivering from what he had just witnessed.

“Indeed... I didn’t know he could do that.” Azer replied, giving me the “What the heck!” look as if I had forgotten his warning.

I replied to this with a cheeky grin. It wasn’t like the people hated it, as they had all cheered after the battle. It’s not like I had a choice anyway. That asshole Ronta was hell-bent on ending my life. I did what I had to do; I wasn’t sorry if that’s what he was looking for.

“Ronta was a bit sceptical at first. Now that we’ve all seen what he’s capable of, I think we’re ready to get going. Isn’t that right, Ronta?” Artos added before turning to the bullish man for an answer.

Ronta crossed his arms and grunted in agreement when a few of the other fighting age men in the crowd raised their voices with words like “I’m in.” “We’ll join you.” Either they were scared of me, or they were confident in my abilities to win the battle. I still had no idea what to expect from the goblins, so I sort of played along acting confident.

“Indeed, great news. Half the town’s riled up thinking there was some kind of a bandit raid about to break out. I was lucky to have been able to purchase the supplies before they scurried back to their homes.” Azer scoffed, pointing at the cart.

One thing I really wanted to know was, how the hell did he manage to buy everything in such a short amount of time? It hadn’t been that long since we left the town, and besides, the fight only lasted a short time. He did say he had agreements with the other merchants, so it made sense, but boy was he fast when it came to buying and selling things. No wonder he seemed a little annoyed when we first met, and I kept asking him stupid questions. Time is money.

Azer glanced towards the sky, “We need to think about setting off soon if we’re to make it to Vern in time.”

“You worry too much, Azer. The only place your horse is going is the grave.” Artos pointed at the gasping horse. He turned to Ronta, “Please tell me you haven't sold all the horses.”

“We’ve still got a few. Why?” Ronta grunted, clearly annoyed at this.

Artos sighed, “Just get them ready, you big oaf. We obviously need them as we’ll all be half-dead by the time, we get there on foot. I know you’ve been saving them to sell off when times get hard.”

With that explanation, a lightbulb switched on in the man’s brain and he grunted in agreement before making his way behind the tents, but not before motioning some of the other men to join him.

“Now… we need to get equipped, so we’ll leave you to it for a while.” Artos said before he and Atreyu made their way toward a tent.

Some of the crowd began to disperse with the children and younger adults still standing there giving me dirty looks as if I’d done something wrong. Probably all the magic shunning their parents had warned them about. I gave them a wave and an awkward nod to calm them down but that only resulted in the younger crying and scurrying off into the tents. Come on... the fire spell wasn’t that scary!

A young lad, who must have been in his early teens, stepped forward and kept staring at my sword. He wore a dirty, ragged tunic which had seen better days, many years ago, as it seemed to be a very loose fit on his slender frame and seemed to cover most of his dirty skin. He seemed very intrigued by the sword, so I removed it from the sheath, which seemed to startle him, making him think twice about coming forward. He looked like he was about to run away like the others.

“Relax… grab it from the handle and hold it,” I said before making space on the grip to let his thin hands hold it.

The kid’s mouth dropped in awe, and he held it, “It… It’s lighter than I thought.”

“Forged by the greatest elven smiths alive,” I added, trying to make it sound cool, but that was complete bullshit. It made the boy’s smile grow even wider as I doubted there was a weapon around here that matched its quality

He swung it around a few times and pretended to act like a warrior. “It… It’s amazing!” He gasped for air. As strange as it sounds, his happiness seemed to make me feel sorry for him as this was probably the best moment of his life– holding this exquisite beauty of a weapon… that didn’t belong to him...

His frail look made me think about the hardship they must have faced when they lost their home and giving this kid some hope, and inspiration sure felt great.

“E… Elves, I have only heard stories from my mother about them. C… can you teach me how to fight one day?” He asked before locking gazes with me with those puppy dog eyes.

“Me? Shouldn't your father be teaching you or one of the twins? Not sure if it would be safe to learn from... Ronta.” I replied, as it seemed strange that this young boy would ask me, a complete stranger, for something like this.

The boy’s eyes grew misty, and his face dropped into a deep trench of sadness. Tears ran down his cheeks and he let out a whimper after trying his best to hold them back. He composed himself and roughly wiped the tears away, “My father was one of the first to die when the goblins attacked. He used to work in the mines. My mother is getting old and sick, so I have no one.”

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“Ah… sorry for your loss.” I consoled him, patting him on the back, “Don’t worry, kiddo, once we have the mine back, I’ll see what I can do about some sword training. Just… don’t tell your mother. I don’t want a frying pan to my face.” The jest at the end made him cheer up with a smile before he passed my sword back.

“M… master Ali’Creed… I’ll be waiting for your return.” He smiled, handing my sword back before scurrying off to one of the tents where some of the other children tried their best to hide behind the entrance that observed the entire thing.

I easily spotted them before they jumped back in after being noticed and the kid turning back to give me a final smile before entering the tent, where I’m sure he would likely be interrogated by the rest of them about the encounter. Did I just turn that boy into some kind of local celebrity?

The interaction dug up old memories locked within the dark corners of my mind. My gaze shifted off into empty space as I began to get bombarded with some of the shit I had seen in the early days of my post. For some reason, I had found it hard to recall my training and the things I had done while I served. Even Glen seemed like a stranger, but that was absurd the more I thought about it. The man had served alongside me for years as my subordinate. Was this PTSD, or was it something to do with the procedure that had brought me here in the first place?

“Are you ready?” A voice pulled me out of my musings. I turned around, gasping for air as Atreyu patted me on the back. “That look… I know that look all too well. Are you alright?” He asked.

“I’ll be fine.” I sighed.

The others all stood there waiting for me with the horses. They must have seen the interaction or parts of it and looked happy, even Ronta looked surprised and gave me a subtle smiling nod. Giving hope and inspiration to that kid must have been a welcome change to all the despair they had been dealing with since losing their home. I noticed Artos now wore a full set of Iron armour with a round metal shield slung across his back and a well-decorated sword resting on his hip. His brother was wearing a set of studded leather armour beneath a black cloak similar to mine and a bow slung around his back next to a quiver full to the brim with arrows.

There was a total of eight other warriors that had joined the party. Their equipment looked old, and their weapons were fairly standard, similar to those that Azer’s guards had been equipped with. But the determination in their eyes made them look more dangerous than Australia, and that’s saying something.

The crowd gathered once more and began showering us with words of inspiration and cheered for our success. Artos motioned for everyone to simmer down and cleared his throat, “This is what we’ve been waiting for. We may be few in number and vastly outnumbered, but I assure you all, we will do what we must and take our home back from the Goblin filth. There are others from Vern village that will no doubt join our cause, and besides, we have a wizard with us.” He pointed at me, which seemed to rile the crowd once more. “May the gods give us favour in this endeavour and grant us victory!” He finished, followed by a final great cheer from the crowd.

“Indeed.” Azer interrupted, “come on then! You’ll murder us with your talking before we get to the real fight.”

Everyone burst into laughter before we finally moved out. We had all been given a horse each, along with Azer’s cart being rigged with another. I bet that horse was thanking the horse gods right now it didn’t have to pull the damn thing the whole way.

I was lucky enough to have been given horse riding lessons back on earth when I was younger. The memories were hazy, but from the way I controlled the horse, not all was lost. I was certain it would all come back to me at some point. We made our way to the dirt path; the same one we had used to get to the town the previous night. It was then I remembered Sparky. Shit! I had promised him that we were going to fight some cool enemies. Damn it! He’s sure going to be pissed off if I don’t give him a slice of the action.

“Errm… guys! I need to go back to my camp.” I blurted.

“Why, what’s up?” Artos asked.

“I need to grab Sparky,” I replied, scratching my head.

“What's Sparky?” Artos asked, looking at me all funny.

“Oh, yeah… I forgot to tell you. Sparky’s my dire-wolf friend. He can shoot sparks and lightning bolts out of his mouth… we teamed up to fight a nasty goo monster a while back.”

“What? You’ve surely lost your mind. The magic I can understand, but magic dire wolves?” He scoffed.

“Indeed. It’s true!” Azer shouted from the back, “I’ve seen it. The bastard’s bigger than a horse and fiercer than Ali’Creed here.”

The others gave me a questioning look and shook their heads like, “What a strange guy.”

Up ahead, something caught our attention, a rider approached with his horse launching grass up in the air. A moment later, he arrived. “Vern Village... It’s under attack!” He shouted as he came to a stop.

“Under attack from what?” Artos asked, moving closer to the man.

“Goblins, they’re everywhere!”

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