A few sweet months passed.
I must've been 11 and 3 quarters.
I was enjoying life.
Or rather, life had just become far more enjoyable.
Being the youngest swordsman in the history of the village had given me a rather fancy status.
Old ladies from the village began calling me 'Chief' as a joke.
I remember blushing in embarrassment every time they looked away.
I had never been in the eye of the village to this extent before.
My arcane text studies didn't really progress but it was whatever, after all, I had a whole life in the village ahead of me.
Ahem.
A few months had passed since I had completed my swordsmanship exam.
I was relaxing by the pond, a few children were near me.
We were all tired and taking in the peace of our domain.
A few of the children were skimming rocks, I was on lookout duty.
There was one big rule in the village.
And that was to never throw things into the pond.
Neither I, nor the children knew why this rule existed.
The children made excuses before they started skimming stones for if they got caught.
'We aren't throwing things into the pond, we're just throwing them along the pond. Right?'
'Yeah! The adults will understand.'
I looked back rapidly.
It was safe.
I gave my peers the thumbs up and they continued their skimming session.
As I did so, a brother and sister duo who I usually worked with on the farms began excitedly talking to me.
I hadn't spoken to them for a few months at this point in time.
This was because I didn't need to work on the farms, the village elders had told me that I should just study my arcane text and practice swordsmanship instead.
I suppose they wanted me to fill the role of Chief as soon as possible.
They asked the same questions that I had been asked for the past few months.
'Is it true that you're a swordsman?'
'I heard you won in 4 moves. Did you like actually win in 4 moves against Mr. Berah?'
I answered all their questions modestly, stuffing down an arrogant smirk and I asked a few questions of my own without trying to sound like a superior douchebag.
'How are the farms? Is everything good over there?'
'Do you need help with swordsmanship?'
All of that simple stuff.
The brother-sister duo wasn't particularly prevalent in my mind.
I think I thought the sister of the duo was cute. She had nice, longing silver hair and a pretty smile to boot.
That was all I needed.
She was also apparently a genius in arcane, having already mastered 6 spells from the light branch.
Sometimes, I think I secretly imagined replacing myself with the brother.
God. That was embarrassing.
The age gap was a bit disorienting, with her being 13 and me being 11, it was probably a relationship fated to break apart.
We all ran out of questions and curiosity, so we merely rested on the grass humps behind us.
'Oi. Sultra. Come take a skim!'
The children from below started shouting around.
I shook my head calmly but it didn't stop their pleas.
Finally, I gave in and hopped down to the edge of the pond irritably.
The brother-sister pair encouraged me as I did so.
'Good luck.'
'Send it far.'
I was handed a rather bulky rock.
Not a flat skimming stone, but a boulder of a rock.
Nevertheless, it was extremely smooth, I could feel the crevices in my fingertips as I caressed it lightly.
I laughed dryly.
Saying something along the lines of...
'Is this meant to be a joke?'
'Pass me a real stone.'
We all laughed it off.
They offered up a few actual flat skimming stones so I chucked the boulder of a rock straight at the middle of the pond.
Splosh.
A great splash of water rose up.
Ripples passed out through the pond coldly.
And something began rumbling from the depths of the pond.
And a sight of majestic triumph arose.
I remember hearing insufferable whispers pass through the air for a few silent moments.
'Alou taro kama naro. Sipah tika farah tomo.'
BOOOOOM.
A huge geyser of clear blue water, invaded by gushing white blasted upward into the air, a shockwave shot through the atmosphere and a feeling of surrealness engulfed me.
When the huge geyser came crashing down to return to the pond, huge waves of water dashed out and soaked us all.
I was drenched, the water was cold and salty.
My eyes were stinging and my ears were ringing coyly.
We were all extremely confuddled.
At the time I reasoned that this was why the adults said to not throw things into the pond.
But when all was said and done, and when the raging torrents of the usually serene pond finally calmed, a man was sat hunched in the middle of the pond.
He was... Beautiful.
He had the skin of the gods, it was so smooth that it seemed entirely fake. But every inch of it was real and fleshy.
He had devout marron eyes, and a strange white light was lurking within them.
He had flowing blonde hair, the kind that seemed pleasant and calming.
He wore rags of sodden grey and he had no shoes.
And every single part of him was drenched with the pond water.
He was shivering and trembling from the cold water dripping down his skin.
He shut his eyes fearfully.
He slowly stood up, and his clenched eyes slowly unveiled themselves.
My peers ran behind me in fear.
We had never seen anyone with golden hair before.
We had never seen a human appear from the pond.
We had never wanted to see the thing before us either.
The children spouted a bunch of cowardly remarks whilst they prodded my back repeatedly...
'Use your sword stuff Sultra.'
'Show him who's boss Sultra.'
I stood still, devoid of fear.
The golden-haired man looked my way.
He pointed at me eerily.
'Are you one of them?'
His voice was soft and precious.
I opened my mouth to answer but the village chief swooped in from behind, stomping through us before punching the golden-haired man square in the face with a right hook.
The golden-haired man collapsed and fell into the chief's arms quietly.
We were all terrified.
The village chief had a big build, big fuzzy black hair, and roaring muscles.
He wore strange red armor.
He yabbered on about something inaudibly before picking up the smooth rock that I had thrown into the pond brutishly.
Water dripped down from his hand that now held the smooth rock.
"Who threw this..."
Veins popped up all over his face.
His voice boomed out violently.
"TELL ME."
I raised a hand tiredly.
He walked over, I could feel the rage hissing through his eyes.
He towered over me and my peers, he was a mountain of a man.
"I revoke your right to the title of Chief of the village."
I gulped down hard.
Everything began falling apart in my mind.
"W-why?"
I almost sounded tearful.
The chief slung the golden-haired man over his shoulder effortlessly and began walking off clunkily.
"A chief keeps the danger away, a chief does not invite the danger in."
"A chief has honour and glory. That means he has respect for his origins. You have shamed your ancestors."
My peers scurried away in fright.
The whole village knew of my revoked rights the very next day.
I could only silently agonize over the event in silenced outrage.
If I spoke out, the situation would have probably only gotten worse.
My teacher looked at me in disappointment but did not bring up the matter even once.
That look of his hurt me deeply.
From that day on, I found myself developing a severe hatred for the chief of the village.