A few hours ago
Lucas was walking away from the construction works 'I can almost lift the stones for the entire day, I'll finally be able to help out!'
'Do you think that you'll gain much from it? Your brothers are a lot stronger, yet they only get a measly pay, why do you think you'll have such a big impact?'
'I don't think I'll have a big impact, but every little stone helps to create a mountain.'
'Yet your stone will be so small, it would be uncomparable to the others, do you not feel embarrassed by it?'
'Of course not'
Lucas had developed a different way of life since he lost most of his palls after one kid started to bully him. Talking to himself became a habit, he even used it to learn his language, it was a part of everyday life. He split his personality into two parts, a positive one and a negative one, to keep each other in balance.
'For so long I had to watch them plow and work hard for a few coins just so we could eat, it's time I help out so I can see Marie's beautiful smile again', attention from her was a motivator for him, getting him through the days.
'Why do you care about her smile? It doesn't provide you with which much does it? There won't be more food available or a better bed, nothing of value will be created.'
'You're wrong about that, value will obviously be created, after all, Marie will be happy.'
'How does that even translate into your happiness, it won't.'
'It will, for her happiness is a cause for my own.'
'Hmm, I can't really argue with that, except why you even care about her so much in the first place.'
While he was thinking about his beloved Marie, he noticed that he had worked up quite the sweat and didn't smell that great. Wanting to keep a good impression for Marie he started moving towards the river to wash himself a bit. Not noticing there was a group of similar-aged children following him.
Lucas knew his situation well, he was a child that was remarkably smarter than most children his age. He saw that he didn't have parents like the other children of the village, but he didn't care since Marie and Gregory kind of played the role of mother and father. He grew up in a harsh environment, but always found something to be happy about. Even when he only received a single slice of bread for the day, he was happy that he even got a slice.
After a while, he arrived at the river. The river was pretty small in both width and depth, filled with a bunch of very round pebbles that felt cool to the touch. It wasn't big enough to house any kind of big fish, but if you were lucky you could get a brown trout. Most of the time it would just be graylings. These are very small fish, you would need about 5-7 to create a decent meal, not that the kids ever complained in their days. They knew how hard it was to get food, so they never blamed Marie and did their own part to help the family. Nowadays, thanks Gregory convinced the others to start working in construction, that's not a problem anymore. Tris tried to work in the tailor shop, but she was a bit unhandy and was afraid of needles and pointy things.
Lucas scooped some water and felt the cool water touch his hands. He was surprised that the water was this cool or that his hands were so warm from all the lifting. He splashed the water on his face and saw his own reflection in the river. His face had a few scratches and he had a bruise on his lower left cheek. What stood out the most were his yellow irises. It is said that the eyes are the window of the soul, but that was mere superstition.
Still, he looked very out of place in the village, especially with his eyes.
'Hopefully, Tris won't get mad at me for getting into fights again.'
'Do you truly believe that now? C'mon!'
'I'll just have to buy some sweets from Olivia to calm her down' Lucas smiled while thinking about the squabbles he and Tris got into.
He had several fights with the other children when they talked badly about him or his family. He never backed down from a fight, he even secretly enjoyed the thrill of it, but he wouldn't ever seek it out.
Luckily or unluckily the fights always came to him, just like this time. A small group of children had been following him, they were all about the same age or a bit older than Lucas. The one in front was the child of the Coin Changer, one of the more important members of their village. He was about a year older than Lucas and because of his standing in the village created his own little circle of followers.
"So there you are, you motherless loser!" Lucas ignored the insult he had heard for the last couple of years, it barely held weight anymore, though he did stop washing his face to grab ahold of a few pebbles from inside the river.
"I heard you hurt one of my friends yesterday, we're here for some payback!" the leading kid said
"Yeah, that's what you get for hurting someone, if 'Our little Sunshine' just gave us his bread we wouldn't be in this situation." some of his followers just started to mock him even further, to show their loyalty.
'Are you just going to let them say whatever they want? Or are you going to protect the honor of your family? Let me handle the insults.'
Lucas wanted to stay quiet, but he couldn't hold back anymore "So your little lapdog couldn't get what you wanted huh?", Lucas slowly turned around with one hand behind his back almost like he was giving a lecture as the village head would sometimes do. "Now that you can't beat me one on one, because you're too weak you need your entire group to try and hurt me? I thought your big strong leader was meant to be a man of power, yet all I see is a little baby who needs the help of his parents to even make friends!"
Although his taunts were superficial and didn't make a whole lot of sense because he didn't get unscathed from his fight yesterday, it was good enough to enrage the kids, especially the leader.
"You asked for this! Get him!" the group started to run towards Lucas. A total of 4 came running, with the oldest being in front.
'Sigh, you should really stop taunting entire groups you know, how am I meant to fight against them?'
'Hmm? I don't know what you're talking about, I merely said that I'll handle the insults, it was you who gave me permission, so who's at fault here?'
'They are.', he could see his negative side smile in satisfaction.
'Correct'
His thoughts were interrupted when he saw that the leader was already very close to him, he quickly threw the pebbles he collected towards his face. The leader tried to protect his face but hurt his arms instead. Lucas took the opportunity and punched with all his might in the stomach of the leader. Thanks to his daily training in construction, he already got quite some muscle for his age.
Lucas started to run towards the next one but didn't have any plan, he just went and tried to punch his face. Although successful he also got hit and it didn't stop there. The other two boys were behind him and kicked against his legs and back.
Lucas fell to the ground while the leader was already back on his feet. Lucas was surrounded by the boys kicking him, he just tried to protect his face and stomach by lying in a fetal position. After the children lost most of their energy from all the 'fighting' they decided to look at what they had done and were proud of the results.
The leader was called Damian, but Lucas didn't really care for his name and had already forgotten it.
"Pant, pant, that's what you get when you fight against us, idiot. Be careful on your way back home kid, there's a mage coming to our town looking for evildoers, if you don't hide yourself and do what we want we'll go tell him what you are!"
Happy with their victory the children let Lucas lie there and went away. Lying on the ground that was somewhat wet due to the proximity of the river he looked at his injuries. He stood up and spat the blood in his mouth out
'Ptui, they really couldn't hold back huh.'
'What did you think would happen?'
Thinking about what Damian said he was intrigued by this so-called mage that was visiting his town.
Lucas had heard of mages before, from Marie, they were powerful humans with the power to move mountains and save lives with their magic. Lucas wanted to become a mage himself, but Marie destroyed his dream by saying that people naturally awaken to magic when they're 10, and Lucas was already a bit older. Marie herself didn't know too much about mages, but she lived in the city for quite some time when she was young so she had some basic knowledge about them.
Covered in sweat and blood he went back to the river to clean himself, when he was done and started to put his clothes back on he saw Rast walking towards him. "Hey Lucas, there you are, Sister is worried about you."
"Why do you still call her Sister?" Lucas said while he tried to put on his clothes as fast as possible. "Out of respect, something that you really need to learn it seems." Rast shook his head in a disavowing manner. "They started it!"
"That doesn't matter and you know it, how many times have we had this kind of conversation? I think more than enough, c'mon let's go back." Lucas followed Rast back to the church.
They went inside and saw the entire family praying on the benches. Though they had never seen any magic or gods, they prayed every day in the hopes that they could keep eating and living this life. It wasn't grand or luxurious but it was enough to keep them happy, as long as they stuck together they could deal with any problems ahead.
Marie once told them that the goddess was actually listening to their prayers. Apparently, if she performed a certain ritual she could make the goddess descent towards the statue and ask for protection.
After the prayer, Marie went to the altar and turned around to address the group. She seemed excited to reveal what she had been hiding and couldn't handle the suspense.
"I have a big announcement for all of you, with the way we have been saving money, we need one more month before we can move into the city! Woohoo!" Marie said while she looked like she was glowing from excitement, throwing her arms in the air. But the group didn't look that enthusiastic, they sat there, looking at her in silence.
"Euhm, sister is it necessary that we move to the city, what's wrong with our village?"
"Not that there's anything wrong with it, but inside the city, we'll be capable of sleeping in comfortable beds and be protected by strong walls with knights and mages!"
"Protected from what? We know that there are monsters inside the woods, but they don't really ever go outside of their habitat, no?"
The village was located on the outskirts and was partially surrounded by the woods, the edges where the river flows are safe, but the deeper you go into the forest the more dangerous it becomes. The group had only seen monsters from drawings.
Lucas suddenly said: "What can we do in the city that we can't do here?" Most of the listeners thought that was a decent question and nodded in unison.
"You can go to school and learn to become a knight or a professor or any other job you want."
"But we're already working in construction, why would we need to study?" "Can we also study to become a mage?" "How hard is studying?" "Will there be other children of our age in that school?" "Will we be together even if we go to school?" Marie was buried under questions she couldn't give a clear answer to.
Gregory stoop up "Alright, calm your horses, everyone, let's listen to what she has to say, stay quiet for a bit okay?" silencing the crowd Marie could think clearly again.
She went over the questions again and answered every single one of them to the best of her capabilities. Explaining what a city could offer was difficult for the group to understand since they never went outside of their village. Luckily Marie could eventually convince them to go when they gathered enough money. The biggest reason was the delicious food that they could only get in the city, although Marie couldn't think of anything right off the bat, she knew that there had to be something somewhere.
Nightfall came, but this night would go down in history