Legacies of light

-Break-

Those days continued, and as I expected father's abuse got worse with each passing day. He hurt them more and more while leaving visible scar after visible scar, and eventually, they reached a point where neither could leave the house.

Minagrain spent every day crying and trying to force herself to speak but it was all to no avail. It just broke her heart more and more, so I hugged her and made her let it all out in my arms.

It was horrible that she had to stay in that house all day, never letting anyone else see her. But for me, I was liberated, because now I could move around unfettered with anyone reporting my actions.

With this new freedom, came an idea, one that would allow me to end all of this once and for all.

Holding a dead fish in my arms, I walk in front of my Hewt’s house and say, “Here you go.”

Expecting it he says, “This is a high-quality salmon, it is good to have you around Ferdiad.”

“Enough of that, just hand me my rewards.”

In my hands, I am handed some Red branch coins, and then I run away, “Saying thank you.”

Holding them in my hands, I say, “Now I no longer have to wait!”

-Break-

Location: Gorias

In front of a blacksmith, I walk in and am greeted by many different men working. Nervous I walk forward and there I am stopped by a man, who says, “What does a child like you want here?”

The man is old and riding a wonderbeast, so I say, “I want to buy a weapon, whatever you have I just need it to do a job.”

“And what would that be?”

I sweat a bit then say, “For my father, I plan to give him a present before he leaves for war.”

“I see, then how much do you have.”

I drop some coins in front of him, and he says, “So these red branch coins are Fuinseog, it seems you got a good family to back these off against, they are doing rather well after their last battle, and are currently ranked 5th in value among all of the different red branch families.”

“Really?” I say with a smile.

“You didn’t know, well you’re a lucky one. With these, you can buy whatever you want in this room.”

I look around, and soon I see an iron spear so I say, “I will take this one.”

“Right.”

The small cuboid wonderbeast the man is riding opens its mouth and sticks out its long tongue to grab the spear off the wall, then the man hands me the spear and my coins back saying, “Here you go.”

“Why are you returning my coins?”

“Judging from the callous on your hands I can tell that a boy like you has worked really hard to buy this for your dad, so I have decided to reward that effort, it is as simple as that.”

“I think you should take it, because I won’t have any use for it after today,” I say sticking out my hand with the money open.

He closes my hand and says, “That’s all the more reason I want you to keep it, if you want to be kind to me make sure you get value out of this.”

I nod my head and run out. With my spear in hand, I run happily through Gorias moving towards the exit, but as I do I run into another person and then fall onto my butt dropping my spear.

Recovering I go to pick up my spear, and as I do someone else picks it up and says, “This is a rather nice spear, I claim it as my own.”

Looking up, I see a boy with silver hair and golden eyes, some type of wolf beastkin. Getting up, I say, “Hey, give that back?”

“Is this yours? Well not anymore, since it is mine now. Bye, bye now.”

Moving up to him I grab his shoulder, but then he grabs my body and pins me to the ground saying, “I prefer not to be touched by lowly peasants just like you, and I am sure this beautiful spear doesn’t like it either so shut your mouth and stay in place.”

“Give it back.” The boy smashes my head into the ground quickly in response to my demand.

Then he says, “Peasant trash like you has no right to ask anything of me like this, so remember to be a good little dog and go back home to your mommy.”

Getting up, he walks away while saying, “I swear the trash around here is getting far too uppity.”

As he moves away I start to cry and tears fall from my eyes whilst blood falls from my head, and soon a man comes up to me and says, “Are you ok?”

I swat him away, but he says, “I shouldn’t have asked that, it is not like you would admit it.”

Ripping off a piece of his cloth he wraps it around my head, then says, “That’s Setanta he is a child of the red branch family that lives around here, and essentially goes about doing what he wants.”

Looking up, I see he is flipping up the skirts of any girl he passes by.

The man says, “It is best to keep your head down around him, since for as arrogant as he. Setanta is also strong so please take care.” After finishing my bandages, he leaves and I get up to do the same.

As I walk away, I simply look down in shame with my tears non-stopping. Why does this have to happen to me? I went through all of that effort, yet even when it seems I am finally having a good day someone has to come and ruin it. I am always looked down, upon all told what I have to do, I am not even allowed to protect my sister from my father, and at the end of all of this hardship, I get insulted by a child who has never faced hardship!

-Break-

Φ On the outskirts of the town Setanta uses his new spear, and as he does from behind him someone runs up and tries to tackle him so he jumps up and away from the attack.

Turning around, he says, “I thought I told you to stay down you fool.”

Φ With tears down my eyes, I say, “Return that spear to me!”

Setanta hits me in the stomach and then says, “Make me.”

As I reel from the blow, Setanta walks away and says, “At least be able to fight before you make demands you bitch.”

On the floor holding my stomach, I say, “Return my spear, apologize to me, and to all of the women whose you touched today, you scummy brat.”

Φ Setanta infuriated by this Kicks Ferdiad in the face, but to his surprise, Ferdiad doesn’t fly away. Instead, he sinks his teeth right into Setanta’s leg and mumbles, “Apologise.”

Setanta punches him on the side of his head saying, “Let go of me you peasant.”

But as he does this Ferdiad grabs Setanta's other leg with his tail and makes him fall on his butt then he strikes his right in the groin causing Setanta to reel in pain.

Ferdiad then rips a piece of leg meat right out of Setanta and then spits it on him, and then he says, “What’s wrong mister prince, you were acting all high and mighty but now you are on the floor like a beaten down puppy.”

Even more enraged by this Setanta says, “Every bone in your body is going to break for those words.”

Getting up Setanta punches Ferdiad, but Ferdiad manages to hold on and punches Setanta back in the face directly.

Taking the blow Setanta says, “Is that all you got!” Then release a flurry of hits to Ferdiad.

Φ Oh fuck, if this goes on I am going to die. He keeps hitting me and dodges right as I am about to hit him, and even if I land a blow he can take it far better than I can.

It hurts, it hurts really fucking bad, no beastkin should ever have to face this kind of punishment. But my little sister takes even worse than this all the time, from someone she believes loves her, from someone who she relies on for protection.

She is strong, far stronger than I am.

I always hated myself for not being able to do anything as they get beaten, making illusions of how if Father would attack me instead of them, I would easily hold through all the abuse, but after taking this I know I was full of shit. But at least for now, I will try to change that.

Watch closely, and strike. Dodgin Setanta blows I hit him in the face once, and then again, and then again, between each of my blows he lands more than I ever do, but I won’t go down.

Φ Stepping back Setanta says, “Why the hell won’t you go down!”

“Because I am tired of having no control over my life, if someone hurts my family I will kill them, and if someone looks down on me I will fight back that’s how I am going to live from now on!”

Ferdiad moves forward and hits Setanta right in the face, which causes him to fall to one knee. Excited by this Setanta smiles and says, “You’re on then you fucking peasant, I can’t wait to see you break into pieces!”

They both fight with all of their hearts and despite everything, they smile as they do.

-Break-

Exhausted both of them walk towards one another, and Ferdiad says, “How is that you royal asshole.”

“You talk a big game from someone whose face is lumpy like a field of burial mounts.”

“Well only one of us will win in the end,” Ferdiad says moving forward.

“And it will be me!” Setanta says throwing a punch.

Dodging Setanta's punch Ferdiad throws his head into Setanta’s Diaphragm and says, “Take this!”

Falling to the ground, Setanta falls on his back and Ferdiad on top of him says, “Apologise you bastard,” while hitting him.

Exhausted, Setanta says, “You won, I am sorry.”

Ferdiad yells at the top of his lungs then fall over right beside Setanta and says, “And you better go apologize to everyone you messed with you bitch!”

Setanta covers his face and tears run down and seeing this Ferdiad starts to look around and the reality of what he has done crashes down on him, and he says, “I just beat the shit out of the son of one of the most powerful men in the empire.”

He starts to sweat profusely, and says, “I guess I am dead.”

But as he says this Setanta jumps up and says, “I never knew why Father would waste time on all of you useless pieces of trash, but if all of the other peasants and commoners can be as amazing as you, I see why he cares for Gorias so much!”

“Is that a compliment?”

Picking me up and putting me on my feet, Setanta says, “Of course, it is since from today on you got my approval.”

Laughing a bit, Ferdiad says, “I guess that’s worth something.”

“Be jealous not many people could get the blessing from the nephew of the high king.”

Ferdiad with a smile of disbelief, says, “You mean you have royal blood?”

“Yep.”

Ferdiad starts to panic internally, and as he does Setanta says, “You have the victory today, but don’t worry I will win the next eight times.”

“You won’t even get one.”

“We will see about that, but for today it is your complete victory. See you later.”

Setanta walks past me and throws the spear towards me saying, “Master that, since I am at my best with a spear in hand. Now onto apologising to all the women I met today.”

As he walks away, I smile and say, “I actually managed to win.” Then for a little while, I just cry in this spot.