Sonnet: The Cities of Steam, Brass, and Aether

Chapter Twenty Two

A few days after arriving at Lineejos keep, Grilimir departed for his home. Saying goodbye to the others, and leaving unsure of whether Rodkin would pull through or not.

He needed to see his daddy. To let him know that he had finished the trials, that he could be proud of Grilimir for once. He arrived home after a couple hard days of marching.

Grilimir pushed upon the door to the small wooden shack his father owned. He stomped his boots on the ground before entering, so as to remove any dirt tracks he would drag inside. Wouldn't want that just after getting home, father would get mad.

The smell of old, stale smoke lingered in the air; it was a smell that Grilimir happily breathed in deeply. Ahh, it was the smell of home.

He stepped through the door and removed his boots, placing them beside them on the nearly empty bookshelf; the only other thing that rested upon it was his fathers boots and half-filled ashtray.

He walked over to the dining table and placed his bag down upon one of the chairs; walking past the large reclining chair that his father currently rested in, he still had yet to see him sitting there.

Suddenly a light illuminated the room behind him as he heard the sound of a match striking. Grilimir gave a slight gulp at the sound, he assumed father would have been asleep right now. Instead he had been up and waiting, that couldn't mean anything good.

"Well. Boy. Do ye feel like a man yet? Eh?" Asked his father from the seat, Grilimir turned around to face his father in the dark room.

The only light that gave him any idea of what expression was on his father's face, was from the single cherry that illuminated every time his father took a drag.

"Ye... yes da... yes father!" He said with resolve, he had learned much over the last few days.

Surely his father would be proud of him, Grilimir had heard that under three hundred children in total returned this year. There were thousands of children that went out, that had to have meant something!

"Yeah? And tell me. What was it that you learned out in the wildlands?" He spit the last word out of his mouth like it was a disgusting raisin that had somehow snuck into his mouth.

"Ummh, I'm not sure. Let's see." He swung the chair around and sat in it, happy to get off his feet after the long journey.

He didn't even have a chance to ponder the question before his father's roar came.

"Who gave you the permission to sit down right now, huh? You think just because you passed Kimas, you are now somebody is that it? You will stand unless I say otherwise!" He was shaking a raised finger in the emphasis of his words, fury evidently plastered across his face.

"Yes, of course father. I don't know what I was thinking. Of course not, I am nobody without my dad... without my father I mean." He hastily said while standing back up and correcting the chair's position.

"I learned so much father! Uhh, I learned how to hunt and fight. I learned that faye use traps and speak! There was even Faye who could make human technology!"

In his growing excitement, he missed his father standing up; hovering over Grilimir menacingly.

He did notice however, the overpowering stench of ale smack into his nostrils. Oh no. Daddy was always more violent when he was drunk.

"What was that you just said?" Grilimir had to look directly upwards in order to see his father's face. A long line of drool fell from his mouth and onto Grilimir's face as he looked up.

"I asked you a question. What did you just say about them damn filth?" Oh right. He wasn't supposed to mention Lance and the others to anybody... uh oh.