I raced home after that without looking back, afraid the eccentric monster would change his mind. By the time I returned home my mother was already preparing dinner. A bit of rice porridge was cooking on the hearth and small strips of cured beast meat were being sliced and placed onto one of our few remaining plates. We were lucky, as not only had or house not been destroyed but the village food stores were in tact. Every villager had enough to eat. The meal was however a far cry from the feasts that we used to prepare when father came back from his hunting trips. I sat down for dinner and my mother served me my plate. She tried to force a smile but I saw her lips sink the moment she turned away.

“I’m going to bring him back one day” I said, not sure why I brought it up, or how I could ever accomplish the task.

“ Jeru, your father told me one day he might have to leave, and I don’t hate him for it.”

It was meant to comfort me but it made my insides twist in rage. He knew he might leave, he was an offworlder an upper planar titan, he knew he might have to leave and he told us nothing. My arm trembled trying to squeeze my wooden spoon into dust. No warning of who he was or why he would go, may the thousand hammers of Arlen fall upon his head[1]. In that moment my determination to find him skyrocketed. I wanted answers more than I wanted my next breath.

“Still, someday I will find out why.”

My mother gazed into my eyes and grabbed me as I was shoveling porridge into my mouth. “Don’t hate him, and don’t go leaving me too” she said letting go of me.

She was strong in a way I didn’t understand. How could she deal with the betrayal? Did she know he was an outworlder, should I tell her or would that only hurt her more.

“Hey are you listening?” I heard her say.

“ Of course mother."

“ What did I just say” she asked.

Murste caught, “uhh uhh.”

“ I was saying without your father how will you continue your studies.”

My mother worked making garments for the village and while my dad was village guardian he had taken the time to teach me to read, write, do math and some beginning self-defense methods.

“I can teach myself” I answered not wanting to tell her about Edjudan in case she would put a stop to my training.

“ I know you are a smart and capable child but without going to school no one here will treat you like one. So work three times as hard to prove them wrong”

That’s right without an element I was defective, and even with training I wouldn’t have one, but I would work hard and find my own path. That night I tossed and turned on my bedding, unable to wait to become strong. Eventually morning came and I bolted back to the outskirts of the village, following the same path, crossing the gorge.

My eagerness was clouding my common sense as I went deep into the forest. I then heard a low and guttural growl but I thought it was a good distance away and I was close to the campsite so I continued my trek through the forest, quickening my pace. The next moment came without warning and I felt a searing pain in my back and three lines of unimaginable coldness spread from those points of pain.

[1] Idiom originating from the Kingdom of Arlen referring to the wrath of the heavy hammers battalion