Cato Emberson's Perspective:
"Hello?" I hollered up the stairs.
"Hey, Cato!" my parents responded in unison.
I bounded up the stairs taking them two at a time. When I reached the top, I witnessed a farm bird my father was slowly cooking over the fire.
"Smells delicious," I mentioned as I motioned towards the fire.
My father stuck up a thumb without turning around and said, "It'll taste even better just you wait." I could have sworn my father had a smirk plastered across his face, but I couldn't tell for sure because of the way he positioned himself.
"Cato, how was your training with Angelica and Blaze?" my mother questioned, slowly caressing the lump of her stomach that housed her next child.
"It went well. Those two are pretty talented and should be able to control their source energy before they turn twelve." I responded.
"Now I wonder why they can do that?" my father started, "Is it perhaps because my son is one of the most talented Fire Tribe members!" he boomed with pride.
My mother stifled a giggle as I rolled my eyes, "I'm not that talented. Sure, source energy comes easy to me, but that doesn't mean I'm talented. I might not even be eligible for a contract." I mentioned glumly.
"Well, no use getting worked up about that. You still have another couple of years before you even get to meet the Goddess." my father puffed out his chest in evident pride of having seen the Goddess in her serene glory.
"And once he does, you won't get to act so high and mighty about having seen her," my mother teased back. "Maybe Cato will be the second Emberson to witness the Goddess' genuine beauty that you have so reluctantly shared with us, Clay." a tinge of ice coated the sarcasm in her voice, to which my father retracted ever so slightly.
"Well, let's not get too caught up on the Goddess' beauty," my father coughed, "Let's get you, Theresa, into your comfy dinner chair. Cato, would you mind putting out our utensils?"
"Of course," I said as I moved towards the cabinets that held our plates and glasses.
As I was grabbing out three plates, I stared at the stack in my hand. It would be four plates soon enough. My mother was pregnant with my soon-to-be baby-sister, Ruth.
Although I wanted to be strong and fight for my tribe, I did not wish that upon Ruth. I hoped that she would be able to live a Fire Tribe life that I had grown accustomed to; a peaceful Fire Tribe life.
It was all I could hope that my little sister got to experience.
As the three of us sat down around our table, we thanked our Goddess for the abilities she granted us as well as the food we had acquired.
I had never questioned this act, but when I did, it only seemed to reinforce the idea that our Goddess of Fire had to be watching from somewhere within these tunnels.
~~~
I woke up in my bed to a new day. It was hard to tell what time it was precisely in the tunnels we called home, but in the middle of the main square, above the statue of our Goddess, was a large circular ball of fire. This ball of fire indicated the time outside of our tunnels. The fire would grow dimmer as the day went on until it went out once the sun had set, leaving only the sconces to light up our tunnels.
As I approached the square, I noticed the statue of the Goddess again, 'Man,' I thought, 'what I would give to Wield her power.' I stared up at the statue carved from a black rock that glittered like obsidian. Her eyes held the only color in the sculpture; two bright red gemstones.
I stared at these gemstones that towered almost twenty feet above me. The figure of the Goddess was only around fifteen feet tall. However, she stood on a pedestal carved from the same black stone that added another five feet to her height. The pedestal was in a water ring with nozzles placed to spit the water back into the moat below the structure.
People of the Fire Tribe would often gather around the statue of our Goddess, for she was our symbol of peace. I sat on the edge of the circle and dragged my eyes around the square. There were merchants all around pushing carts and selling different things.
There was one store in particular that caught my eye because of the man working behind it. It was the elderly gentleman that I had greeted the day before—stationed behind a cart filled with weapons that received absolutely no attention from any of the surrounding tribe members.
Weapons weren't entirely the Fire Tribe's favorite items. The conversion to a more peaceful society and the ability to use fire as a weapon meant that swords, spears, axes, and other conventional weapons lost their use throughout the Fire Tribe.
As I was looking around, I overheard pieces of a conversation some of my tribe members were having.
"....lmost no contractors." he shook his head.
"well... maybe next year..." his voice trailed off as the two started to make their way out of the square.
'Hm,' I thought, 'is the Goddess not granting contracts anymore? How many fire holders did we get this year?' A million thoughts raced through my head—the most prominent one being the possibility that I could end up contractless.
My mother was contractless, so it wasn't necessarily something I hadn't thought of before, but the mention of fewer and fewer contractors throughout the years did not look good for me.
As I sat, overthinking whether or not I would become a contractor, I decided to be a warrior regardless of a contract.
I sifted my way through the crowd towards the elderly gentleman I had grown to appreciate. I didn't have very much money, but maybe he might let me use one. I am a kid. After all, a kid won't go breaking any steel weapons.
I approached the cart with the friendly man behind it and started to make conversation. They were light topics of speech, but I stared over his products as I continued to chat with him.
One sword, in particular, caught my eye. It wasn't a giant sword, nor was it a dagger, but a decently sized sword that seemed to feel nice when I picked it up. It had a black handle and an even darker sheath. When I gripped the handle, I felt something on the side I wasn't inspecting. I flipped over the sword to reveal an opaque red gemstone right in the middle of the handle. Most likely where the tang of a blade ended in the hold.
I held the sword out in front of me and stared at our Goddess' eyes. The gemstone on the handle was darker than those used for her eyes, but they had the same color.
The older man stared down the bridge of his nose at me while I picked up the sword. We had stopped conversing once I found the sword that I was now holding.
'It's beautiful,' I thought, 'too bad it'll be stupidly expensive. I also don't know how to use a sword.'
I set the item back down on the cart and thanked the man behind it. But, before I could leave, he motioned me towards him.
His voice was sandpaper against my ears, but his message felt as if our Goddess herself had embraced me.
"Take it," he croaked,
"Excuse me? I do not have the money to purchase this, and I refuse to take it from you." I stated. His business was already lacking in sales. How would he benefit from giving a ten-year-old one of his weapons?
"Take it, you brat. I'm giving it to you because nobody else is going to buy the damn thing!" He attempted to raise his voice, but it only cracked, throwing him into a fit of coughing.
"But, why?" I asked, still hesitant to walk away with the blade in hand.
"Hopefully, you can be a real Fire Tribe warrior, or maybe that weapon can turn you into one," the man grumbled, "Now piss off before I get angrier."
I mock saluted him, and he waved me away with the back of his hand in slight annoyance. As I started up the stairs to our hidden training area, I thought about all the possibilities I could create with a sword. Could I imbue source energy to help the blade cut? Could I maybe make it longer with my source energy to throw off opponents? Although I had grown up in a peace-loving society, I had as many thoughts about war as any young boy.
'Well,' I thought, "better get practicing, I guess."
I unsheathed the sword to reveal a blade darker than the most bottomless pits of the tunnels we called home.
Yet, it glistened. It was pitch black, yet, it shone incredulously.
I stared in awe at the blade I had just received for free, 'What kind of crazy person just gives something like this away?" I couldn't come up with a solid answer as I stepped up the final stair to our dome-shaped training room.