Origins

by Andrew Bardsley

  As Ceras reached the guards, they re-opened the gate for him, each of the guards bowed their head slightly, and the older of the guards said, "Good evening warrior, you just made it in time, I see."

  Ceras was about to say he was just a farm boy but thought better of it, and just nodded respectfully to the older guard. Looking around the town, there was just enough light for Ceras to make out one of the main market plazas of the town just past the southern gates. Walking into the plaza, as it was nightfall all of the market stalls were closed, and the temporary wooden structures were broken down with the merchandise having been taken home for safekeeping the square was mostly empty. In the center of the market was a fountain of water used by towns dwellers for fresh water that was still flowing with a bubbling noise. The plaza was mostly quiet with only a few traders still packing up wares they did not sell that day.

  As Ceras strode into the square, he made his way, towards one of the side streets. His dad had instructed him that there was an inn he could bed down for the night in. This was not to be a room, at the inn, but the hayloft in its stable.

  The inn was not far from the main market, down a winding alley, which was only lit by the small rays of light from the window of houses and shops he passed. As he walked down the alley with its cobbles stone road, Ceras saw a large white sign lit by a single magical light, with a blue boar painted on it. The inn was wooden with white lime coated walls, with a thatch roof that had an arch supporting a second floor leading into a central courtyard. Ceras walked into the courtyard, which was lit up by several magical yellow lights, and saw a large open door into the inn, from which he could hear merry folk music coming from. From the other side of the courtyard, he could both smell and see the stable with horses in it.

  A bit nervous about what type of reception he would receive, he walked into the inn through the open doors, finding himself in a large open room with a high ceiling. At one end of the room was a small wooden stage about a foot high, with a few musicians playing a folk tune he recognized from hearing his mother singing as she worked around the farm. At the other end of the room was a large bar with a big man standing behind it. At the moment the man was pulling beer from a tap on the bar. Around the room were lots of table and chairs with a mixture of people all ages and occupations drinking and eat. There was a lot of laughter, in the inn, and the atmosphere was one of relaxation after a long day of work.

  Ceras could not help notice that most of the people were looking at him with an expression of surprise and respect. Wondering what was wrong with him, Ceras walked up to the man at the bar and waited quietly for him to finish pulling a pint of frothing beer from the tap. When the barman finally saw him, he smiled and nodded his head, as he handed the beer mug to a serving woman who walked off with a sway of her hips as if swaying her hips was part of her job.

  Looking up at Ceras, the barman said in a respectful tone as he placed his hand on the bar, "What can I do for you a good warrior?"

  Ceras just stopped himself in time before he said he was not a warrior, but said looking down on the large man, "My Pa told me that you could provide me a place to stay for the night. I'm from the sheep farm beyond the forest south of here."

  The barman looked surprised as he looked closely at Ceras face and said in an amazed voice, "You must be Ceras, I didn't recognize you at first. My how you've grown since I last saw you. You can sleep in the hayloft in the barn tonight. But first, have some food as it must have been a long journey for you."

  "Thank you," said Ceras as he nodded his head.

  Ceras sat down at an empty table as the barman asked one of the pretty serving women to serve him some stew from the pot that looked like it had been simmering on the fire for most of the night. The stew tasted mostly of lentils and some meat that was stringy; he found chunks of some root vegetables also in the stew. It was served in a wooden bowl with a metal spoon, with some bread to wipe the last gravy from the bowl, which Ceras used with great relish. As he finished the bowl of stew, he was still hungry for some more food but felt bad if he asked for some more as the barman was kind enough.

  When he'd finished, he handed the bowl back to one of the serving women and went to the door and out into the courtyard that leads to the stable ready for some much-needed rest.

  Entering the stables, he could smell the horses that were busy added an interesting ambiance to the air with the thud of droppings. Every now and then one of the horses would make a noise as he walked past the stalls, they were in as if they slightly worried by this large boy. Reaching the ladder at the back of the stables, leading into the hayloft Ceras started clambering up the ladder under the light of a magical yellow light hung from the wooden ceiling joisted.

  Just as he was about to crest the top of a ladder, into the loft, he heard a woman say in a loud voice, "Were your parent's gorillas?"

  All he saw was a girl about his age sitting up look at him from the side of the loft in some straw bedding.

  Ceras said in a surprised voice, "Who are you?"

  The girl smiled and said, "Well, I'm not a large gorilla-like you. My names Rhef and snoring over in the corner, there is Rinaldo, my brother."

  The dark-haired girl with clothing similar in style to Ceras, which were obviously homemade, pointed to a pile of hay in one of the corners that Ceras could hear snoring coming from as it moved ever so slightly.

  Rhef said in a strong questioning voice, "Are you here for the goddess blessing?"

  Ceras said as he was moving toward the other side of the loft from her and said, "I just turned fifteen yesterday, so this is the first chance that I've had to receive the goddess blessing. So, I'm off to the temple tomorrow."

  Rhef said, as he was starting to go back to sleep, "Same for my twin brother and me, I'm going to sleep, so don't make too much noise."

  Ceras quietly sorted out a place in the hay for him to bed in and pulled a woolen cloak out of his pack to give him some extra warmth, as he tried to get to sleep with the sound of heavy snoring from the end of the loft.

  Ceras woke up to the sound of heavy breathing and the straining of wood. Looking up from his bed in the hay, Ceras saw a boy about his age holding onto the edge of the hayloft shelf pulling himself up to his head appeared just above the shelf and them dropped down again.

  As Ceras slowly came out of his sleeping stupor, he wonders what the strange boy was doing and said, "What the hell are you doing at this early hour of the morning?"

  The boy's head was now above the loft shelf and said in a strained voice as he kept this position while talking, "Too be a great warrior, I need to dedicate myself to working hard and building up my strength, so I'm exercising of courses."

  Rhef said from the side of the loft, "Rinaldo, you idiot, can't you be quiet this early in the morning and let the rest of us sleep some more."

  "I don't disturb you, went you're practicing all the time, so shut up," Rinaldo said as he strained to keep his position in a pull-up.

  Ceras, for next few minutes, was forced to listen to the two siblings argue with each other, that ended up with lot name calling until Rinaldo started exercising again and ignored his twin sister as she continued to shout at him.

  Deciding that he would not get back to sleep, he got up from the hay and started to sort out his few possessions into his pack, to the background of Rhef now trying to stamp on the hands of her brother who was laughing as he moved from one arm to another to avoiding her feet. Eventual she managed to hit both hands at once, causing Rinaldo to drop to the floor of the barn cursing her once he managed to get up.

  Ceras started down the ladder to find Rinaldo now doing push up on the stable floor in the dirty hay, while the horses watching with slightly bewildered looks as he went up and down on the floor blowing his breath in and out.

  Rinaldo looked up from the floor at Ceras large body, bursting out of his clothes and said, "Well, I see you're going to take one of the warrior classes, like me."

  "Why do you say that?" Ceras said t
o him in a curious tone of voice as he looked at the dark-haired muscular boy with similar feature to Rhef and home-made clothing.

  Before Rinaldo could answer Rhef said from the hayloft with a voice full of sarcasm, "Just look at yourself, you look like a warrior with all these muscles; it's obvious that you've been exercising to become one!"

  "Well, I'm going to be a wizard!" Ceras said with an annoyed tone of voice.

  The response from the twins was for Rhef to laugh and Rinaldo to looked shocked and slightly sick and said under his breath, "What a waste."

  Ceras looked at the two with annoyance but said in a calm manner, "As were up so early, we might as well see if the goddess temple is open this early in the morning. So, we can receive the blessing."

  That comment managed to distract the two of them from talking about Ceras choice of class, as they both quickly gather up their few possessions from the hayloft. Ceras watched Rinaldo come down from the ladder, with a canvases sack on his back holding a club with large metal spikes sticking out of the side and top like it was a homemade mace. He also had bare feet as did Ceras and his sister.

  Rhef came down, with a similar canvases sack but her only weapon, other than her belt knife, was a sling hung over her belt. Ceras noticed that she was quick pretty and athlete built, but her clothing hid this well as she was dressed similar to Rinaldo, with home-made trousers and shirts but her clothes were cleaner as if she kept them washed.

  As her bare feet hit the ground, she took a good look at the two boys and said with a frown on her face, "Look at all of us, it looks like we've all just come poor farms with little money to our names.

  "Rinaldo let me at least get the straw out of your hair."

  Rhef started to comb Rinaldo hair as he tried to move away from his sister, reaching and grabbing hands.

  Ceras smile as she had hit it right on the nail, as he like them, was the latest of youngsters to come from a farm, with next to no money to his name to adventure for the required period of the five-year set by the goddess for her gifts.

  Walking out of the stable into the cold world that was still dark, with the first signs of the sunlight pecking over the horizon, the two others would be adventures quickly followed him. As the three walked out of the inn's courtyard nobody was around to see them leave, and once outside the inn, there were only a few people out and about, making early deliveries of food to houses still quiet in the early morning darkness.

  The streets were cobbled, as they got closer to the town center, felt cold their feet, as the farm children were more used to walking in the dirt for the grass of the field, they often worked in. Ceras noticed the houses getting better as they approached the town center. They got larger with fresh white-wash showing the money was being spent upon them by the richer town folk.

  As the group of farm children walked down one narrow alleyway with a shop on all sides, selling anything they could think of from food to weapons and clothing, Rhef stopped at a shop window displaying dresses for woman, as she looked at the dresses she snorted and worked on with a frown on her face. Rinaldo was about to say something to her, with a smile on his face, but as he saw her dark expression, he just frowns and kept his comment to himself.

  Exiting the alley with all the shop along the side, Ceras found himself, with the twins, in a plaza, with shop and restaurant along the edges, all closed at this time in the morning. In the center was a large temple, with white marble columns holding up a triangular roof and large wooden door that light was shining out into the dark square. This was like splashes of gold on the dark cobbled ground.

  "Good it looks to be open, so we can get the blessing over with and go adventuring," Rinaldo said in an excited voice.

  Ceras crossed the flagstones of the square taking long strides with eagerness as he thought this is it, his first step on the road of magic, he had waited so long for and dreamed about while he was growing up. Crossing the stone pathing toward the temple, he was smiling with happiness at the thought of all of his dreams coming true.

  "You look like an idiot with that goofy smile on your face." was said from his side, by Rhef in a sardonic tone of voice.

  Rhef had so rudely broken Ceras from his spell of contemplation that it annoyed him that he did not look at the obnoxious girl, but moved ahead of the group and entered the goddess temple first.

  In the entrance foyer was an old priest just sitting down at a chair at a table, dressed in a black rob.

  When he saw the three farm children said with a smile, "Ahhh the first devotees of the day, how can I help you three?"

  Ceras who was in front said in a respectful manner with a slight bow of the head, "We're all here for the blessing of the goddess, as we are now fifteen years of age."

  "Good, I'll be happy to help you. It good to see you doing your duty to the goddess and the kingdom," said the kind priest smiled at each of them.

  Ceras heard a very quiet snort from the side that Rhef was on, that the priest did not hear, as he led them all into the main room of the temple.

  When the three devotees get their first looking in the temple all of them sighted in wonder about the grand room of the temple that Ceras had never been inside before, his mind boggled at the rich's shown by this room compared to the humble farm he had grown up on.

  All around him, were white marble statues of different gods and goddess, in grand poses with weapons drawn or holding the other item that signified their aspects of worship. In the center of the grand temple, the hall was a large golden chariot with four massive marble horses, pulling it with the figure of a god holding a lightning rod in his hand as if throwing thrusting it into the ground. All three of the teens looked around in wonder at the figures of the gods and goddess before them, and the amount of gold on display.

  Ceras, being from a farm was not well educated in the ways of the gods and goddess of this world, and he was surprised to see so many gods and goddess in the temple as he had never thought there would be so many.

  Rhef to his side, said in a muttered voice to Ceras and her brother, "I only thought that there was the goddess of knowledge in the temple?"

  "Don't worry about your ignorance as it is often the case, with poor children from the outlying farms, as your education is limited in the way of the gods," the old priest, who was leading them, said with a gentle smile.

  Rhef seemed about to say something about being called ignorant, to the priest, but Rinaldo elbowed her in the side and shook his head with a frown, which managed to kept the normal outspoken girl silent.

  The priest stopped the procession before the white statue of a woman, with a large book held out open before her. The carver of the statue seemed to have managed to get a look of intenseness as she if the goddess was reading the book, with robe concealing an unworldly beauty of the goddess body.

  "This is the goddess of knowledge where you swear service and received the blessing of knowledge. Who wants to go first?" said the older priest as he bowed his head to the statue and cleared his throat, turning towards the three expectant devotees.

  The twins indicated for Ceras to go first, as they both looked slightly nervous. As the priest indicated that Ceras should kneel before the statue of the goddess, Ceras fell down onto his knees and looked into her angelic face they seem to be full of wisdom. The old priest said some words to the side that he did not understand, that caused Ceras felt a presence weight upon his mind.

  "Make the oath to the goddess," said the priest in a loud but reverent tone of voices as if he was in the presence of deity.

  Ceras said in a quiet voice, the words his parents had taught him, "I Ceras swear to serve for the goddess of knowledge for the period of five years and I chose my first class as a wizard."

  When he had finished saying the words, the pressure on his mind intensified as connection were made in his brain, by the power of the blessing of the goddess until he felt a rush of knowledge into his mind creating a system of magic that all human now possessed at his age. As if it was hang
ing in the air, a semitransparent box appeared in his vision:

  Character Name:

  Ceras

  1st Class

  Wizard

  Character Total Level*

  1

  Major

  Strength

  Fortitude

  Agility

  Number

  40

  40

  40

  Major

  Intelligence

  Charisma

  Knowledge

  Number

  15

  1

  14

  Minor

  HP

  MP

  Stamina

  Carry Limit

  Number

  142

  87

  210

  90

  Regen Sec

  4

  4

  5

  N/A

  Kneeling before the statue a question was asked in his mind:

  Set the resurrection point in this temple: Yes or No

  Ceras thought the answer in his mind a ‘Yes,’ and then the question went away. As the priest indicated for Ceras to move to the side to let the others kneel and receive their blessing, from the goddess.

  Ceras just stood and looked at the information provided by the goddess in amazement. The first thing he noticed that his stats for strength, fortitude, and agility, were too high for a fifteen-year-old boy, as these would normally be having an average of five.