Night was falling on the new year in Dark-glint village. Emp and Marcy were back in her home, discussing the events of the day a bit before putting an end to it."I'm very proud of ya Emp. What ya did for Calla was great.""I felt like her wish deserved to come true because she's always so kind.""Fiona had that huge smile too, ya made a whole lot of people happy that way."Emp did indeed notice that everyone knowing Calla seemed very happy for her. They all thought that she deserved her wish like him, he felt very good about it. Marcy continued on something else."So, will you go see Chase off tomorrow?""Yes, I want to wish him good luck like the others."It was a common thing for people to go for their first hunt on the first day of the year. They harnessed the power of the changing year for luck and started the year as a true man.Chase thought the same, he had practiced a lot and felt ready to try. Everyone else felt they would rather wait longer but Chase was one of the two oldest boys of the group and much better at handling sword and bow than Gilbert who shared his t.i.tle of oldest. Everyone expected him to hunt tomorrow since months ago. Plus, the mother of Willow was getting very angry at him.The woman had caught on about what was going on between the two and berated the both of them about how they should wait for the first hunt before building a relations.h.i.+p.Emp remembered that moment because Willow had yelled at her mother as well."I can't help it if I love him! Why don't you understand!"Chase was very embarra.s.sed to have Willow scream her love for him in front of everyone but it had just made her mother more angry."You're too young to understand. I know you can't help it but the harder you indulge in that feeling, the harder it will be to let go if something goes wrong!"They yelled at each other for a while but Emp understood something important from it. Love can't be helped. Not Love his creator but the feeling instead. Feelings aren't easy to control. Then, it should be obvious to him if he fell in love yes?His thoughts were interrupted by vigorous knocks on the door."Who is it this late? Emp, go open."Emp rose from his seat and went to the door. Opening it revealed a tall blond woman with toned muscles. She wore a simple traveling tunic, a longbow hung across her chest and a large sack over her shoulder. At her side, a large brown dog with drooping ears and a tongue hanging out of its mouth moved up to Emp immediately after he opened the door, requesting some affection.At first the woman seemed amicable but it quickly changed to confusion when she saw who had opened the door."Eh? Isn't that Marcy's house? Who are you kid?"Somehow, her face seemed familiar, even though she didn't live in the village. Emp answered while rubbing the dogs head to satisfy it. That animal was almost as big as him.
"I'm Emp, Marcy is inside. I feel like I know you somehow, have we met before?""I doubt it kid. Let me in, I need to speak to her, I have stuff to sell.""She almost never buy anything though.""Who is it Emp?" Called Marcy."A woman who says she wants to sell.""I'm not buying anything."That was exactly what he just said."Marcy, it's me! June! Tell the kid to let me through my bag is heavy!""June? It's been a while! Sure, Emp, close behind her."So she was a friend of Marcy?Emp let her in and she walked up to the kitchen, dropping her huge bag on the floor at her side."Haaa... So good to finally drop it. You have no idea how far I had to travel with that. Happy new year by the way."Following her inside, the huge dog waged its tail and sniffed around the room. It went to get a welcome rub from Marcy as well, made four circles around Emp to sniff his boots and collapsed at its master side, instantly closing its eyes for a nap."Good girl, she knows you don't like to be bothered too much.""The whole house's going to get greasy again. Ya should wash her more often.After closing the door Emp went back to the table and sat at Marcy's side to take a better look at the visitor.June had thick brows and a warrior's jaw with a pair of twin scars on her chin. She was clearly an adult but much younger than Marcy, maybe in her early twenties. Being that old, she had a lot more breast than most girls Emp knew but compared to most women in the village, they were nothing impressive. She crossed her long legs over the table and leaned back on the chair."No worry, I'll do that tomorrow. It's great to be back, can I sleep here tonight?""Sure, ya can sleep here in the kitchen, and happy new year to ya as well.""In the kitchen? What happened to my room?""It was never yar room it was a spare room. I gave it to Emp.""You gave my room to that kid?" She shot a puzzled look his way.Obviously, she had no idea who he was or why he was there."I told ya, it was never yar room. Ya only come here about once a year, keeping ya a room is a waste of s.p.a.ce. I gave it to my apprentice instead. He's also my son now."Emp didn't object to that, he had no idea how any of this worked anyway. Maybe if he asked madam Blackbull she'd be able to explain in a way he could understand. Although, asking her about that might just make everything more complicated. Let's not do that."Ohhh. So that guy is the next Marcy? Might be a good idea to b.u.t.ter him up too. Say kid, heuum.. Emp, would you like to see this big sister b.o.o.bs?" She said playfully.Emp didn't get why he would want that but he somehow felt that accepting would be a terrible idea."June, if you do that I will break the table on top of your head." Marcy said with a dark look."Mwu, you're no fun Marcy. I was just joking anyway, I'm not here to lay with a random kid, I'm here to sell a bunch of junk.""It's crazy how you always call that junk but still expect me to buy it.""Well you know, the trash of some is the treasure of others and all that. Anything you don't buy I'll probably just throw away somewhere.""What are we buying here?" Asked Emp curious."Why not just take a look?"June removed her legs from the table and used her foot to push the bag to their side of it. It made a bunch of clanking noises and sc.r.a.ped the floor along the way. It was full of metal.At Marcy's behest, Emp opened the bag and started placing the things inside on the table. It was mostly weapons and bits of armor, damaged more often than not. Clearly Marcy had no use for all that unless it was for melting back into usable steel."What do you think of it?" Marcy asked him, using the opportunity to teach him."She is right, it's just junk, the weapons are cheap and the armors are either broken or incomplete. We can only melt it all back to steel if we have to find a use out of it."June snorted in discontent but stayed silent while Marcy pointed something out to him."Mostly yes but sometimes, there's a gem hidden through all the random bits she brings back. The girl has no idea what is valuable and what isn't so she brings it all to me hoping I will give good money for a piece or at least, buy the bulk of it for sc.r.a.ps. This one isn't so bad."She picked up a long knife from the pile, or perhaps a short sword. It was a bit curved at the end, the blade wasn't sharp and the grip was cracked."It should be a good curved blade, it just needs a bit of care. It's hard to see because of how dirty it is but there are some runes engraved into the blade. They continued down into the grip and pommel but it cracked through them see? That's why it lost all its power. I don't know what those runes were for but if we make a new hilt for it copying the original runes, we should be able to make it work again."Emp nodded in understanding. Even if it was broken now, it didn't mean that you had to throw it aside, you could repair it and make it a good tool again.It made him think about Celtine. She wasn't a tool but she was similarly damaged. All he needed to do to see her full potential was repair the damaged bits. He felt more motivated to do it now. All he saw before was the broken bit rather than what she could be. He needed to think about how it would be later rather than how it was now.Marcy decided to buy the whole bag and June gloated as she pocketed her new money. Marcy put everything aside and fetched some more beer to share with her old friend."Were do you even find all that?" Asked her Emp."I go up and down the howling hills path, from Dark-glint to Starfall. I pick up lost equipment, take care of the dead I find and sometimes get rid of a dangerous animal or another." She answered after a long gulp of what Marcy gave her.It was at the mention of Starfall that Emp finally remembered when he had seen her before."That's right, that's where I saw you, just before the Low-woods, you shot me in the shoulder with your bow."The two women froze in the middle of their drinking."Eh? That can't be, I'm sure I'd remember if I shot a kid." She said, a bit confused and a bit fl.u.s.tered.Emp fetched his helmet in his bag to help her remember and placed it over his head."s.h.i.+t! I do remember that helmet!""Wait, ya're saying ya shot my apprentice?""Yeah!/ Uh, I mean, it's a misunderstanding. How was I supposed to know the guy under the freak armor was someone you knew? I was sure he was a cursed blood!"That freak armor was made by Marcy herself though. That comment didn't appease her at all."Couldn't ya just have asked? What are ya, a highwayman?""But I did! I saw a freak on the road that day so I prepared my bow and called for him to remove his helmet and tell me who he was but that idiot drew his weapon instead and then a second guy appeared out of nowhere. I panicked and shot him but my arrow just bounced off like a pea! I ran through the woods hoping the barbarian wouldn't be able to follow me and kill me. I was so scared I stayed hidden for a good week afterward. I swear that's what happened.""Is this the truth?" Marcy asked, turning toward Emp."She came out of forest pointing an arrow at me and yelled something at me but she spoke in common so I have no idea what she meant. Since she had a weapon drawn, I did the same and she shot me. She did run away afterward so maybe it really was just a misunderstanding.""What do you mean you had no idea what I meant! Does the helmet makes you deaf?""No, Emp didn't speak the common back then, he learned it all since he came in Dark-glint. I'll believe ya this time since I can see all that possibly happening. What about ya Emp?""I'm not angry. I just thought it was a funny memory. I was so sure I knew her from somewhere."June visibly relaxed. Thinking back to that time, Emp wondered where that huge dog was back then."So... we're good?""Yeah we are, but ya'll have to pay me back with some good materials.""Aww, come on, really? But you know I hate hunting! That was almost a year ago and the guy himself isn't angry at all about this.""That doesn't count, Emp never gets angry at anything."The good mood returned and both Marcy and Emp listened to June's strange stories for a while before everyone went to sleep.Marcy woke him up early the next day so he wouldn't miss Chase. June left very early too, something about not wanting to get caught by Karp Champom, the eldest brother of Calla. She gave her goodbyes in good humor and left with her faithful dog following behind her.Apparently, Emp had learned through her stories, the dog was there to protect her from the timestop sloths. The big dog wasn't the best guard dog there was but it was more than enough to protect her from the sloths.After she had left, Emp joined up with everyone near one of the village gates. Everyone from the younger generation was here with their parents and some onlookers, like Emp for example.One could insist Emp was also part of the younger generation but he had done more than enough to beat the test already, he was an adult by the empire standards.Bor, the village head and chief of the guards was standing near the gate and asked who wanted to take the challenge on the new year. Like most expected, only Chase stepped up.Of course, one didn't have to wait for such an occasion to go out in the wild and kill something but the new year was special and everyone gave a better attention to those that tried at that moment. Plus, Bor was willing to lend a blade to whomever wanted to become a man.Chase had already his own bow, he had made it himself so it wasn't against the laws, with the short sword Bor placed in his hands, he was as equipped as a boy raised in a village could possibly be for the challenge.All his friends including Emp wished him good luck and watched him walk into the forest. Willow was especially talkative and showered encouragements on him. Just as he left, his father gave him a last bit of advice and everyone cheered and applauded as he disappeared from view.At this time of the year, many creatures living in the woods had just reached adulthood as well and left their parents to live alone. It wasn't yet mating season so there wasn't a big chance of encountering a large group or particularly aggressive beasts. There was almost no chances of encountering a mother still protecting its young either. It was the perfect time to find a suitable opponent for the rite of pa.s.sage.There should be plenty of weak creatures lurking about in the nearby woods. In theory, all chase had to do was find a weaker monster, put an arrow in its flank and then come back. In the past, new year hunts often took about half a day to complete, sometimes more and sometimes less.Most wouldn't wait for him to come back, this was a day like any other for the villagers, there was work to be done. Only the younger people remained and wasted their time just outside of the wall while they waited for their friend to return.They played around until noon came. Bor walked up to them and asked if Chase had come back, they answered in the negative and he left with a worried face.A few hours later, Willow started to stare at the woods. When the sun got a bit low, Chase's father came to ask them if they had seen him, he left with a grim look on his face. The others were getting worried.Everyone left to go eat something and came back to their original spot, discovering that Willow hadn't moved at all. Like many adults in the village, Emp was starting to feel that Chase might not be coming back.While the others went up to Willow, either to try to cheer her up or rea.s.sure her, Emp got the book of answers out from his bag."Is Chase alive?"
