The Roamer

CHAPTER 2: Struggle begins

Aeollus woke up, ready for the next day. After the first day, he realized that life here might not be as bad as he thought. He walks out towards the woods, ready to pick up an axe and cut down some trees. His stomach rumbles, clearly disagreeing with the action of work. Of course, which stomach wouldn’t rumble if you were only offered a cup of water and a loaf for dinner, with no breakfast and lunch included?

“New kid, stop right there!” calls out a guard.

Upon further inspection, Aeollus discovered that it was the same guard who gave him the axe, and collected his wood. ‘Each slave probably has a guard assigned to him from now on’ went through his mind.

Of course, Aeollus still doesn’t understand him, so he just walks up to him, ready to get whipped like yesterday. He closes his eyes, and turns his back towards the guard, preparing for the whip which he assumes is coming.

Surprisingly, a whip doesn’t come, but a parchment is shoved into his face. Aeollus inspects this parchment deeply, probing for anything that he can understand. His face turns a deep purple when he discovers that he can understand what this parchment says, as if the sky had just fallen upon him.

Throughout his childhood, he had been told multiple times that the language that the village speaks is barely known and spoken in the outside world, so he should try to learn another language as soon as possible if he were to ever roam out there.

It was already shocking enough that the man last night understood his language, but it seems that even more people understood the language as well, furthering his doubts on what his people taught him.

He reads the paper, slowly digesting the information on it into his mind, and after a minute or two, has read the whole thing. He looks up at the guard and shakes his head violently, clearly showing that he was not willing to do this. What he read on the paper stated that starting today, he would stop being a woodcutter, but would instead become a fighter in some sort of arena!

Since he was a slave, his option was immediately denied, since this was an order from the higher-ups. The guard smiles at Aeollus, as if he immediately took joy in his despair. Next thing he knew, the guard hit him on the back of his head, and he was on the ground before he even knew it, his vision dimming into nothing.

--- Sequence 2 ---

Aeollus wakes up in a cell, though this cell is not the one he had slept in last night. He looks around and realizes that this cell is much better than his old one, containing more space, some books, and even a window, though the window was, of course, shut off.

“Next up, we have a brand new fighter that has just arrived yesterday! Will he be able to compete against this brand new rookie who had arrived only a few weeks before him? Introducing, Aeollus of the tributary village!” yells some man floating in the air. As soon as he saw this man, he was flabbergasted at the powers one could show when they took the time to cultivate, as this man was even able to float in the air!

The iron gate to his cell is unlocked, even though nobody was there to unlock it, and opened up. This event reminded Aeollus of the wind of the village, which was free and unrestrained, and he felt that the wind in the village definitely had an aura of mystical things lying within it, just like the breeze that blew past the gate just now.

“God, this world truly has some indecency in it, just like the elders of the village said…” he says to himself while walking out of the gate. ‘This place truly is filled to the brim, the amount of people just sitting around the arena already surpasses the population of our village by tenfold!’ he thinks to himself, unsure of what to think of this, though it definitely is surprising!

“Come at me newbie, let me show you the experience of a battle!” yells the person standing across from him. The arena isn’t as big as one would think usual arenas are, only being about 15 feet in circumference. For that reason, everyone around the arena heard him, and truly thought he was a daring man!

“What a youngin, daring to talk like that in his second battle!” Yelled some man in an arrogant tone.

“If only I had the guts he had, I could be a wealthy lord that could also attract women!” said another man in an envious tone.

“How could such a cute man become a slave? I wouldn’t have minded him serving me…” muttered some girl watching the battle.

Many people had their own comments about the words he said, but most thought that he was a courageous, and a tidbit of an arrogant young man, even though he was a slave.

Aeollus did not know how to reply in words and in gestures, as this was his first time in a fight, thanks to him being raised in a peaceful village. What did surprise him though, was that he could understand everything the people were saying. ‘Are some people casting some sort of translation spell?’ he thought to himself, but was also thankful for letting him understand their language.

Aeollus musters up the courage to say one sentence, which would turn out to be “Do we really have to compete with one another? I say we work together and find a peaceful way out of this!” he says to the other man opposing him.

At his words, the whole crowd looks at him as if he was some sort of creature that did not understand how things worked, while some others laughed as if what he just said was really funny.

“Child, you really are new to this world aren’t ya?”

Says the man opposing him.

“Since you and me are in this arena, the only thing left to do is to fight. If you want to walk out of here, you can, though it will have to be with my head in your hands!” yells the man at Aeollus.

This surprised him, as he had never heard or seen people as vulgar as these.

“Alright then, but there really has to be someway for me to leave without disrupting the peace in this world, right?!” Aeollus yells out loud, as he really did not wish for this to go any further, as it might end up with his head on the ground, or maybe the opponents.

“Fair brown hair, a tall posture, while also possessing some muscle. Above all that, you seem dirty, and your eyes are brown, so most people can’t make it out. Pretty boys like you are spoiled in this world, and have not seen the truth yet, so I do not blame you for being naive, but it is because of that, that if you leave, you will not survive in the world anyway!” The man opposing Aeollus yells out loud, as if it was obvious.

Though it may have seemed obvious for the man opposing him, to Aeollus, this was a slap to the face. ‘Were the villagers really wrong? ‘Were we all truly naive, not even viable enough to survive in this world!?’ he repeated in his head over and over again.

However, no matter how much he thought, he realized this as the truth. After spending a day here and experiencing how all these people lived, he realized that peace truly wasn’t a viable option in the outside world, as the people here already seem to have dropped the idea of peace down a well.

“Still, even if I am naive, is there really no way to make it out of here alive, you and me?”

Aeollus said this one last time, truly hoping for the other side to agree and find a way out of here.

“Young child, you truly have not experienced this world. I somewhat pity you, but at the same time, I still have my duty as a slave to obey the master, so stop talking right now and come here so I can behead you!” yelled the man, clearly fed up with answering the Aeollus again and again.

“Fine, I’ll stop trying to make peace, I’ll find some other way!” Said Aeollus. ‘Even though the other side refuses to see the world in a better way, I’ll still try to figure it out!’ he thought to himself.

Suddenly, the opposing man ran at him, and flung an axe at Aeollus. At first, it seems to be going slowly, but begins to speed up midway during the throw.

Aeollus blinks repeatedly, not daring to believe what he just saw. ‘Is this also what someone can do if they cultivate? Even if we were peaceful, I’m sure there are some benefits to cultivation besides just fighting!’ thought Aeollus, while wondering why they really didn’t learn how to cultivate in the village.

Even though it sped up, Aeollus somehow still avoids it, though he had to drop onto the ground to avoid it. The man jumps above Aeollus, holding an axe in his left hand that was clearly meant to penetrate through Aeollus while he was on the ground.

Aeollus tries to roll out of the way, but realizes that he bumped into something. Not having the time to look at what he bumped into considering there was literally an axe coming down to show his livers to the world, he immediately threw his arm in the way of the axe.

*SPLAT*

Aeollus screams, while his arm rolls on the ground. Everything past the elbow had been cut off, basically rendering his right arm useless. Fortunately, he was left handed, so it was only painful and did not truly affect him.

He stood up, and began to run, desperately trying to find a way out of this situation. He then thinks of climbing into the stands where the crowd was spectating, and running from there. ‘If the crowd was able to enter from somewhere, then there should also be an exit, right?’ was what he thought.

He began to try and climb, but fell the first time considering he was missing an arm. He then jumped up and reached out towards the edge of the stands, and grabbed ahold. The man opposing him had picked up the axe he had thrown at Aeollus at the beginning of the match, and throws it again!

“Hah, too bad for you, you won’t be able to catch me once I climb up here and escape!” Hollered out Aeollus, while he began to pull his whole body up.

Suddenly, the audience sitting in front of him, began to move into action. Most of the woman vomited, considering that they couldn’t stand the smell and look of his right arm, while the men began to move in on him.

‘Could they truly be trying to… no…’ he thought to himself, not willing to believe it!

“Don’t!” he yells out, but it was too late, as the men had already shoved him back into the arena, and went back to holding their women. As Aeollus was falling, he truly understood something now.

He was fed up with his village’s ideals, as they clearly weren’t going to work and keep him alive. All the events that had happened ever since he came to this so called ‘prison’ let him understood that it was truly a waste of time, all those years which were used to teach him about peace.

“This world… truly does not accept peace.”

He muttered to himself, while turning around to confront the man with the axe.

“It’s about time I begin to get stronger once this battle is done.”

He said to himself, as was truly steadying himself and readying himself to walk on the path of strength.

“You’re finally done running? I’m sorry youngin, but peace, at least in this region of the world, will not be accepted!” yelled the man, with a sorrowful look in his eye.

‘I see… he truly does wish for the better good of me and to understand that my ideals will not work in this world…’ Aeollus thought to himself, while at the same time, saying these words to the old man:

“Thank you elder, for teaching me how this world works!”

Suddenly, the elder stopped moving, and muttered something in a voice that only Aeollus could hear, and ran towards the guards for some reason. The guards pulled out their weapons, and thoroughly dealt with the old man.

Aeollus was thoroughly surprised, and ended up vomiting, while also tearing up.

For right before the elder died, he muttered to Aeollus these very words:

“Aeollus, our village ideals won’t work in the outside world, and as an elder of the village, It’s about time I head to the next world to leave a spot for youngins like you. Don’t stop living, and rise as high as you can in this world, while keeping the village in your heart.”

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AUTHOR NOTES

Idk about the direction of this story and how it will turn out, but for now, I’ll keep going in hopes of seeing where this will take me and this novel I’m going to try and keep a consistent load of chapters for this novel, as I really wanna see how far I can take this. Also, I’d be pretty thankful if y’all could spread this novel around on anywhere, whether it be social media, friends, or something else.

THANKS FOR READING!

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ABOUT ME

Age: 13 (Almost 14)

Occupation: Middle school

Goal: Idk, I’m just making a novel for now

Location: Why would I say that?

Relations: I’m not married (duh)

Anyway, as a side note, this is my first novel I’ve ever tried writing, and also accordingly the first experience. I will continue writing chapters for now, and try my hardest to continue on.