Aias was sitting by the fire with his back up against Varja, which from looking at the newly arrived envoy they hadn’t noticed.

Both the guards and miss where looking around the campsite trying to spot whoever had set it up. They had already seen Aias however he was just a kid so they had overlooked him in hope for an adult to speak to. The guards were slowly tensing up in suspicion that it may be a trap.

“Excuse me miss!” Aias finally spoke out, he had had enough of sitting around waiting, he could at least have a conversation.

“Hello there! Who are you?” The woman responded, her voice was soft and kind. She also seemed to be looking to start a conversation, most likely to reassure her guards that nothing would happen.

“My names Aias, I came with my teacher from the orphanage by Canastota” Aias began explaining to the lady. Looking at their reaction when he mentioned the orphanage many of the guards began to relax.

“I see. Well hello Aias, my name is Laura, I work for the city guild at Svordie castle. The men behind me are city guards we have employed. So can you tell me why you are here Aias, why have you left the orphanage?” The woman and her guards went closer to the fire, the ones with spears now sitting by the fire with Aias, and the sword and shield wielding ones a little further out, guarding for if something attacked out of the dark.

“Well we came to get my beast branded, Varja say hello!” The guards and the woman got confused by his words but when the rock he had been sitting by suddenly started to move were they immediately on their feet again.

Spears and swords were pointed at the large snake that had suddenly popped up behind Aias. “What is a Kjil serpent doing here!” One of the guards exclaimed in a terrified and frantic tone. Many other guards had similar comments, all slowly backing up trying to get out of its strike range.

By the sudden surprise however, Laura had been left behind, still sitting by the fire. She was clearly in more shock than the guards, she had sat closest to Aias and was most likely not a fighter by her reaction. Realizing the danger she was about to scream when Aias interrupted her.

“Miss Laura, you don’t have to worry, Varja isn’t going to hurt you” Aias calm, collected voice managed to soothe Laura’s scattered mind, letting her collect herself before speaking again.

She looked at the large snake towering over them, now that she had noticed the snake did she also see its enormous body. It was easily over fifteen meters long, thick as a tree, and a jaw so large it could most likely eat a person in a single bite.

“S- so this beast is yours A- Aias?” Laura gulped, still in trance under the serpent's gaze. She clearly still had a hard time getting over the danger she had been under.

He nodded and gave the best most reassuring smile he could muster in the situation. As he did Varja’s attention drifted away and the large serpent coiled itself together again, still on the lookout for if something attacked, but now not looking as intimidating.

The guards were still somewhat on guard with Varja so Aias took it on him to clear the tension a little, “So as I said, I wish to get him branded in the city, what grade can the city guild give at most?” Aias asked the still somewhat shocked woman.

Laura had been in a bit of a trance, looking at Varja lying behind Aias. When Aias asked his questing it took a moment before she registered that he had addressed her, “A- Oh yes, um. The city guild currently has three specialists in beast mastery. The one with the most experience would be Hannes, he is an excellent beast master and is one of the ten beast masters in Antrim that can give a grade of A. We are very lucky to have him!” As she spoke of Hannes Aias could see a glint of pride in her eyes.

Looking to the guards Aias could see admiration, they clearly held Hannes in high regard. He was most likely a good man, strength was often not only admired but also envied, but none of the guards appeared to have even a slither of it.

“That’s impressive, I wonder if teacher knows him” Aias mumbled to himself.

Laura seemed to hear his mumbling and decided to ask, “So Aias, you came with a teacher? Who is it you are traveling with?” Aias had expected the question but wasn’t sure if they knew of his teacher.

“My teacher is O’jghar, he guards the orphanage from beasts. He isn’t one of the caretakers but he does work for the orphanage” While explaining Aias eyes had been on the forest to see if his teacher was coming back, but as he turned and looked at the little crowd and saw their expressions he was shocked. Because the guards and the woman were both in even more shock than when they first saw Varja.

“I- Im sorry, you said O’jghar correct? And he is a Klenod correct? He looks like a ram correct?” Laura stuttered, she didn’t seem to be afraid but more in awe than anything else.

“Um yes he is!” Aias didn’t know much about his teacher but it appeared these people did, maybe he could hear something interesting. “I’m sorry, I don’t know much about my teacher myself, he doesn’t talk much about himself” Aias changed his voice to appear more apologetic, as if asking for forgiveness for not knowing.

One of the guards cleared his throat, it seemed he was going to explain but before he could begin another guard started, “Oh, his story isn’t one for kids after all! But I’ll tell you about it!” It seemed he was setting up to talk about a grand tale.

“A long time ago, before you were even born, back when antrim was still in war. In those times battles were ramping across the border and death consumed this country. There in the middle of that giant mess one large battle began emerging, the Tivoli Alliance, then consisting of the Antrim kingdom, Motoman empire, and six independent states fought together against the Porte empires entire army.”

The guard telling the story was an old man, his hair was gray and his face was filled with wrinkles and scars. He had most likely been a part of the battle.

“In that battle there were probably about two million people fighting to defend against those Porte invaders. That battle was the start of many legends, and end of others. For Antrim there were eight great warriors that made legends in that battle, O’jghar ‘bloodthunder’, Georgio ‘earthbreaker’ our lord, Laue ‘the ghost’, and lord Meleth ‘the black flame’, are all warriors from Goijbi who became legends on that battlefield. Well lord Meleth and Laue were both renowned warriors from before then, but their infamy did become exponentially greater after that battle.

And I’m guessing you want to know how your teacher became known as bloodthunder, well you see during the battle corpses began littering the ground everywhere you looked, and blood covered everything. Your teacher used the blood from the ground and created an inscription that was like a tide of electrik blood. In the area it covered nothing was able to enter except for himself, thanks to that we were able to disrupt the enemy from getting to our medical encampment without using a larger force”

As the story ended most of the guards listening had gotten unusually hard looks on their faces, Aias could guess why and so he asked, “Did you all participate in the battle too?” it was a simple question however war wasn’t something that most veterans would speak of lightly. They may be able to speak of others accomplishments during war as grand stories, however as for themselves, their memories may be more painful.

“Ah- well, almost anyone who was a soldier back then would have been a part in it, so yeah, all of us except for Michal here!” He pointed to a younger man, Michal appeared to be about nineteen, he at the time of the battle would only have been about Aias age so it was understandable that he hadn’t participated.

“We were all a part of the same brigade under Georgio, we were apart of the vanguard during the battle so when we got injured we were sent to the rear. Then those Portians sent an army to try and attack us wounded soldiers, luckily Laue was in charge of the rear guard. If it wasn’t for him and O’jghar holding them away we wouldn’t be here today” The men all sat there smiling to themselves, they seemed thankful.

As everyone had quieted down now waiting for O’jghar to come back Aias started to comprehend more of what he had just heard. He could guess that the Laue they mentioned was the same uncle Laue that took care of the kids in the orphanage. He could also guess that O’jghar mainly used elemental energy, Aias did know that elemental energy wasn’t the only energy type that could make electricity however it seemed most reasonable.

After a few minutes of waiting could they hear footsteps approaching the camp. None of the guards seemed to be worried, they were completely ‘off guard’ as O’jghar entered the light of the campfire. “Hello, I’m guessing you are all from the city guild. I am O’jghar, I and my disciple Aias have come to get a beast marked” Immediately as he entered the camp he began explaining what he had come for, not wasting a second.

After spending almost two years with his teacher he could understand why, O’jghar wasn’t very good with people and couldn’t handle small talk very well. He and Aias barely spoke outside of when he was teaching.

Laura having been quiet not getting a word in during the story now seemed to want to take the initiative however the old man took the word before her. “Aie, we are from the city guild, but I have to ask you, why would you leave a small kid alone here? Don’t you know what could happen?!” Aias could tell the man was clearly not angry or upset but simply wanted to screw around with O’jghar. And it would most likely work as O’jghar’s personality wasn’t very outgoing.

“I- I trusted Aias beast to protect him” O’jghar was indeed not able to keep appearances, a great warrior, someone who had gotten his own title, bloodthunder, now being chewed out by the guards he once protected. To Aias laying there by Varja, it was hilarious, he could barely contain his laughter.

“Everyone please stop!” Suddenly miss Laura spoke out, she seemed to have gotten tired of waiting to get the word and so she took it.

“I- I apologize for leaving Aias unattended-” O’jghar seemed to still want to apologize for his mistake but Laura had had enough of the guards farce.

“Mister O’jghar we have already spoken to Aias and it appears his beast isn’t of any high danger, I will give you a temporary C-rank mark so he can move through the city, however I will place you as owner of the beast until Aias has gone through the test! That will be all for today, I believe you personally know Georgio and so I will let you find stay on your own” As she finished her explanation she also got her guards together and left the camp.

She left Aias quite confused, why was she so upset?

O’jghar began packing up the camp and prepare to enter the castle’s walls. Aias continued to lay there waiting. He still couldn’t get the image of O’jghar apologizing out of his head.

……….

As their carriage approached the giant wall that separated them and the town they started getting all kinds of looks by the many lookouts standing guard. Older lookouts that were thirty or older would give a short bow when seeing O’jghar, while those of the younger generation would look in awe. It appeared that they had heard the stories of O’jghar bloodthunder.

The carriage slowly approached a gigantic stone gate in the wall. Aias had never seen a gate so large, it was definitely over fifteen meters tall, and ten meters wide. The gate itself seemed impractical for humans to use, however to the sides of the large gate there were small doors for people to go through. And in the middle of the large gate there was a smaller gate, only about 4 meters in height.

As they rolled forward Aias also noticed that the gate was built almost ten meters deep into the wall. There once past the exterior of the wall were guards and officials ready to inspect and greet them before they were let in through the gate.

O’jghar showed the paperwork he had been given by Laura, there was written about the beast they were bringing. If there was anything else they were bringing it would have been written there too.

The guards briefly checked over the papers also looking over the large serpent. They performed a small check where a few guards would surround Varja and walk slowly towards him to see if it would act aggressive or not. Varja passed the test with flying colors, all the guards were able to walk up to and even touch Varja with him only looking at them slightly.

The smaller gate began opening and they were let into the town. As they went through the smaller gate and Aias saw the other side he was even more shocked than he had been from seeing the walls height, just the thickness of the gate was about five meters, and then passed there there was another ten meters of wall before they got out into the town.

The wall was about thirty meters in height, twenty five meters in depth, and from feeling it up close he could tell it was all packed with energy. This wall was unbreakable!

As they left the wall behind them they saw a small encampment before the town, there were several tents and tables, many with guards sitting by them, eating and drinking.

As they headed past the encampment towards the town Aias noticed some of the guards who had been with Laura were sitting there. The guards also noticed them and quickly a small commotion started. More and more guards began to gather to greet O’jghar, it showed now more than ever the rule he played during the war. Many of these men may not have survived if it wasn’t for him.

Looking at O’jghar on the other hand, he was sitting by the reins trying to look composed and cool, however his knees were definitely shaking from all the attention.

Aias didn’t want his teacher to suffer from humiliation any more and started acting as if he was very tired, “Teacher--” *Yawn* “Are we there yet? I need to sleep!” It was enough of an excuse for O’jghar to be able to leave the little crowd that had gathered.

When they had passed the encampment Aias heard O’jghar whisper, “Thank you” It wasn’t loud however it was intentional that Aias heard him.

Slowly Aias and O’jghar made their way through the town up toward the castle in the middle. As Aias had acted as if he was being tired he had also began to feel how tired he really was. It was currently about two AM in the night, the streets were barely lit, no one were out except a few mercenaries or guards that had been drinking.

O’jghar was looking vigilantly around to make sure no thieves or bandits would try anything. Even if they were protected by armies by the great walls didn’t mean anything to small timers out in the night.

Slowly the sleepiness took over Aias and he began snoozing away.