When it all began
The sound of hammering, the smell of smoke and the warmth of the house. This is what a young man in his twenties woke up to, while some people would grumble and curse at this disturbance early in the morning, the young man just shook his head and stretched his body to shake off the sleepiness.
The young man took a deep breath before rolling of the bed and standing up, he kept feeling around him for few seconds until he found what he has been looking for.
'One. Two. Three. Four. Five.' thought the the young man while walking out of his room and he kept repeating it until he got down from the second floor and to the front of the house where the hammering sound kept coming from.
" morning, son! Slept well ? " an old an in his middle sixties asked cheerfully upon seeing the young man walking toward him.
The old man was hammering on a hot red sword while wearing a leather apron, the only telling of the old man true age was his white hair and beard, otherwise he could be mistaken for being a middle aged man at worse.
The old man was nothing short of fit, the veins on his muscled arm could be seeing moving up and down everytime he brought his hammer down, his musclar chest could be seen despite the apron he was wearing, his tanned skin didn't even have sweat on it despite working for sometime and he worked with speed that would make young people blush in shame.
The old man was standing between the anvil and the forge to his left was a table that had many forging tools and a window where customers can come and ask for repairs or order weapons and to his right was a rack filled with swords, daggers, axes, hammers and so on, one look and even and idiot can tell that these weapons, were top notch and can be used at a moment notice.
" with this constant banging and hammering? Yeah, I don't even remember when I slept this well before. " was the sarcastic response of the young man.
" haha, these old bones of mine needs to work or they will get rusty before I know it. " chuckled the old man while he kept hammering the sword into shape.
" this is still too early even for you, I can already imagine those old hags torturing the poor mayor with their complaints about the noise" responded the young man while moving to the weapon rack and touch the blade of one of the swords.
" let them be, unless the mayor want to explain to the army soldiers why their equipment aren't ready yet. He will just have to endure in silence " scoffed the old man his eyes never losing focus of the sword in his hand.
"....… another nightmare, isn't it grandfather ?" asked the young man while his tone was certain.
BANG!
The old man lost focus and used too much strength that he ended breaking the sword he was working on.
"... can't hide it from you, can I ? " sighed the old man in a resigned voice and put before putting down the hammer.
" while you didn't mention it, I already know that today is my parent's death anniversary and knew that you will try to bury yourself in work for the the day." said the young man in a calm voice before turning to face his grandfather.
"it's either that or wallow if guilt and alcohol. The lesser of two evils I would say. " said the old man with a sad smile of his face.
" are you willing to hear another one of your old man rants, Ryder ? " asked the old man while looking outside of the window.
" of course, grandpa. " said Ryder before leaning his back on a free spot on wall and crossing his arm in front of his chest.
"as you know, your grandfather Edric was the most talented blacksmith in the royal capital back in my days, if I claimed that I was the second best blacksmith, no one will dare to claim to be the first." started the old man known as Edric while his eyes gained a distant look.
Nodded Ryder, among the blacksmiths his grandfather was a league on his own, not only were his weapons sharper and more durable than the other blacksmiths but from what he heard his grandfather spent a lot of effort on making his weapons looks elegant and imposing instead of the normal standards, many nobles and generals fought to buy his weapons while some carried them through wars and fights others - especially nobles - used them as heirlooms or decoration for theirs offices or homes.
" I was offered the opportunity to become the royal family personal blacksmith. Back then I thought it was a great honor but I turned down the offer, as I grew tired of the rushed life in the capital and the faction wars that fought for more authority and power. So before I became entangled to deep, I declared that I won't forge any more of my special weapons and used the small fortune I gathered to buy this piece of land in this distant town." continued Edric while going to stand next to Ryder.
" I still remember how excited was your father when he saw our new home and when we opened our new forge here."
Smiled Edric while reminiscing about the past.
" As your father grew into the man I knew he would be and his talents in forging started to appear, one day caravan filled with traders and merchants from the capital came to our town, some of their carriages got damaged and they needed to stop to make some repairs, that when a young and beautiful young lady came into our forge with her father. I remember how your father stopped breathing for a whole minute when he saw her, haha." Edric laughter rumbled in the whole forge for few seconds before he became quite once again.
Listened Ryder calmaly without making a sound. He heard this story at least once every year since he could remember and he knew that his grandfather wasn't finished.
" it took some encouragement from your grandmother and few good slaps from your grandfather until your father gathered his courage and went to talk to her and I always feel astonished how fast they clicked together, they skipped the getting to know each other phase and in few hours started arguing like old couples." shook his head edric with an amused smile on his face.
" as years went by they got married and gave birth to you in no time, I was just feeling proud that my son got a wife in his early twenties yet in the next day he came telling me his wife is pregnant. When your mother gave birth to you and I held you in my hand. That was the best day in my life." sighed Edric before going silence for few minutes.
Ryder didn't say a word the whole time, he knew what was coming next and he didn't look forward to it.
" few months after you were born, I received an order from the royal court to craft 100 top tier sword in a week, apparently our empire was planing to fight our neighbour for a castle on the border. If I failed to craft the weapon in time they were planing to enlist your father in the front lines they even sent a squad of royal guards to escort the weapons or your father by the end of the week period ." said Eldrich with hatred clear in his voice while clenching his fists.
" so I worked day and night without sleeping and barely eating for the whole week and barely managed to finish the swords in time, but I was at my limits, the moment the last sword was finished, I lost consciousness immediately." said Eldrich with a flat tone, then he sighed and continued.
" I woke up 2 days later to find your grandmother looking after me and your parents were escorted by the royal guards to the capital. Originally they wanted me to present the weapons to the court so they can judge whether I did my job or not, but because I wasn't in any shape to travel, they took your parents to the capital in my place. " hissed Eldrich through gritted teeth
" and we never heard from them again. I rushed to the capital as fast as thinking that my old rivals found someway to make things difficult for them or that they got in some trouble, but half way to the capital I found them…. what was left of them….."
Tears could be seeing streaming from old Eldrich face and his fist were clenched so hard that the old bones started to cracking.
"before the crossroad leading to the capital and the great forest, I found dozens of imperial guards guarding the place and behind them was an empty carriage, I recognized it as the one that the first squad of guards used to carry the swords, I don't remember how I got pass the guards but what I will never forgot was what I saw behind the guards." a look of anguish was on the old man face as he continued.
" Blood... blood covered everything, the caravan, the trees and there was even some pooling on the the muddy ground and I even found the corpse of the guards captain, at least what was left of it. All the guards were in pieces with a look of horror on their faces before they died. I remember stumbling forward as I walked to open the carriage door."
Old Eldrich bloodshot eyes' were streaming with tears when he turned to look at his grandson.
"i couldn't even recognize them, everything was a bloody mess inside the carriage and I couldn't believe what I am seeing, I looked back and noticed that all the guards were pale in the in the face and gripping their weapons tightly. Their eyes full of confusion, anxiety and dread. No one know what happened or what kind of beast or human can do this and the investigations done by the capital didn't find anything. The weapons I made were found later in the hands of a group of bandits who swore that they only stole the weapons and don't know what happened." Eldrich was gritting his teeth so hard while his body was shaking.
After few minutes and a couple of deep breaths he managed to collect himself and continued.
"your grandmother couldn't handle it and died few months later from grief. I would have committed suicide myself if it weren't for you. Over the years I spent the good part of my fortune to find any clues about what happened, only got few useless rumors of monsters living inside the great forest and that something similar happened twice again but in different parts of the empire. Eventually I gave up and focused my mind and my efforts on raising you to the best of my abilities, in hope that your parents will forgive me." self hate, pain and regret could be felt from the old blacksmith voice while his tears started streaming once again.
Suddenly Eldrich felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to his side to see Ryder smiling at him.
" i told you before and I will say it again, it was never your fault and I doubt my parents would have blamed you for whatever happened to them. Over the years you have been a grandfather, a father, a brother and a mentor. You may thing you have failed my parents but I can assure you, you have not. In fact I doubt they would have done a better job themselves if they were still here, hehe." chuckled Ryder before withdrawing his hand and putting it against the wall, then he started heading out.
" now dry your tears and get back to work, I am gonna wait for little Eli before heading out to work myself." said Ryder over his shoulder while waving his hand.
Eldrich took a good look at his grandson trying engrave his looks in his mind.
As a child, Ryder was always smaller than the other kids but when he was in his teens he hit a growth spurt and while helping in the forge he managed to gain an extra layer of muscles, he wasn't as muscular as his grandfather but he wouldn't have a problem working in the forge for hours.
Now, Ryder was 1.75 meters tall, he has a head full of spikey black hair with some white strands in it while his face was above the average among in the terms of looks, as for his eyes-
" Stay safe and don't get in any troubles!" shouted Eldrich after his grandson.
" what kind of troubles can a blind kid get in." turned to wave at his grandfather while a smile could be seen on his face.
Ryder's eyes were gray and dull, no light could be seen in them and there was a scar stretching from his right eye to his left one like some kind of blade was used to rob him of his sight.
' one, two, three, four, five.….. to the right, one, two, three, four, five..' thought Ryder while walking in front of the house.