Blacksmith Wars

Unlucky draw.

Chapter 2:  Unlucky draw!

Every young person was staring at each other as the last words the man in white garments said start to sink in, just now realizing that they still had no idea why they were brought here in front of this man.

“You aren’t the only ones in this situation, many young men and girls are being drafted from similar villages.”, The boy with the red and white hair suddenly widened his eyes as his superior intellect allowed him to realize the purpose behind this gathering.

“You will be sent to the capital as an apprentice and you will represent one of the 5 families in the Blacksmith Wars!!”

“WhaaaaaaaT!!!”, The reaction was completely expected of the young ones, as they understood that going to the capital meant giving up the easy life they had here in the rural areas for one equal to slavery.

 The boy that had the face of a monkey had the exact opposite reaction, he was thrilled at the chance of going to the capital and getting famous.

The white and red haired boy stood silent in his chair, inspecting with his heterochromatic eyes, the small rectangular windows and the door, but he soon gave up on the chance of escaping as he saw many guards posted outside in case something went wrong.

The man in white garments noticed this and chuckled at the boys reaction whispering to himself “Good choice kid!”.

“Okay now, relax!”, The man tries in vain to calm the young ones down, but seeing that they just wouldn’t listen he knocks on one of the walls saying with a loud voice, “Gas them!!”.

At that exact moment, small hatches in the wall open up releasing smoke inside the building.

Invisible until then to the naked eye, the young one’s panic and fail to see the man in the white garments covering his face with a mask made of strange blue herbs.

Not even 30 seconds pass, and most of the kids fall down unconscious after inhaling a small bit of the smoke.

The only ones still standing were the white and red haired boy who was holding his breath and the big monkey faced boy who was moderately resistant to the gas.

From where the man in white garments was standing, he could only see the big boy, while the other one was hiding behind him.

Thinking there was no threat he decides to open the door, letting the guards outside take the young ones to the boats on the river that led them directly to the capital.

Seizing his chance the moment he sees an opening, the white and red haired boy jumps on the man with white garments from behind, hitting him with a chair.

Not wasting any time, he exits the building still covered in the smoke and wearing the white garments from the man, trying to make himself as hard a target to hit as he could.

But he barely manages to take 10 steps before getting hit by a dart with a concentrated solution of the herbs that made the smoke that was inside the building.

The one who shot him, was one of the apprentices from the infamous family that dared to cheat in the Blacksmith wars.

She was wearing a leather apron with the prints of a wolf, chicken and horse on them characteristic to the blacksmith’s.

 Her long black hair was tied behind her back in locks that stretched to her waist, the soot on her cheeks and clothing, contrasted with her pale skin.

Her green eyes inspected the boy as he lay unconscious on the ground, it didn’t take long for her to smile and order one of the guards to take him to the boats under her families flag.

“Uwah! Such an unlucky draw, poor kid”, The guards couldn’t stop themselves from pitying the boy, as his new life was going to become a living hell.

Hours pass and the boy wakes up to a massive headache and unable to move his hands and legs as they were tied with a strong rope, on his left was one of the girls from earlier still asleep from the gas.

She was by no means an ugly girl, but in the current situation the boy couldn’t call himself lucky to be near a sleeping beauty.

He tries to worm his way on the other side only to see the big boy with the monkey face drooling profusely from his mouth, forming a veritable pool that was inching closer to the other boy.

“You have got to be joking me!”, The boy sighs.

“Snort! Brfff!!”, If that wasn’t enough he also burped straight into his face, while he had his mouth open.

“Ohh nasty, who crawled up your mouth and died!!”, He worm’s his way back on the left side and tries to fall asleep again, trying to clear his head of the headache.

But he is unable to so, as he starts hearing a girl’s voice singing in the background, unsure of who it was, the boy stays silent.

“♩♪♫ ♬♪♫♩♪♬♪♫♩”*The voice was beautiful even though the boy couldn’t understand any of the words, he could feel the emotions strongly emphasized at some intervals, forcing the voice to go silent before joyfully recovering it’s vigor.

“…”

“…”, Silence falls on the deck of the ship, the voice being replaced by small footsteps, inching closer to the boy.

“Did she notice me, is she going to do something?”, The boy keeps imagining the worst case scenario, he closes his eyes in fear, prepared for pain.

Moments pass and a dead silence settled on his ears, as the darkness created by his closed eyes only made his anxiousness even greater.

Unable to resist the boy tries to take a peak to see what happened, but as he turns his head just a little, the girl from before pops in his face.

“Boo!”

“AHHHHHHHHHH!!”, The boy screams his lungs out, but neither of his companions wake up.

“Ahyahya, sorry there partner, didn’t expect you to get so scared!”, She tries to apologize but keeps laughing for another minute or two.

“What do you mean partner?”, The boy asks knowing the answer already.

“You are now official members of the Wolfpferdhuhn** Family, which many say it’s a bad draw since our family has low prestige, low income, and we work you as hard as you can still draw breath.”, The boy knew that the girl was serious as her green eyes reflected a cold stare as if she was remembering what she went through.

“But relax, we treat you as a family member and death will not be an option…”, The boy unavoidably relaxes hearing that, but the girl wasn’t finished.

“Of course, all of that is true for the girl, you on the other hand will be fighting in the arena using our crappy swords to prove once again that we are the crappiest of the 5 families.”, The girl turns her back as she sees the slight hope in the boys eyes crumble into nothingness.

“Get some sleep, it will be the last sleep that will last more than 3 hours.”, The girl moves away leaving the boy to taste his own despair.

The boy feels his body grow cold as the sun sets and the thoughts of death and pain flood his mind, as he desperately tries to sleep, as he tries to forget everything.

As he slept, he dreamed of his home and all his smaller siblings enjoying the sun, but his dream turns into a nightmare the second the girl with black hair and green eyes appears near his siblings.

One by one they get strangled to death, and the boy could do nothing as he realized his hands and legs were chained to a pole.

“AHHHHHH!!!”, The boy screamed as hard as he could, banging his head into the pole, trying to wake himself up, but it was to no avail.

 What eventually woke him up, was the cold water thrown on him by the very person responsible for his nightmare.

“Wake up, we’ve arrived!”