venturer

ch1 introduction

All was well in the new area, which the new residents call Rune. The creature was a species evolved from the fish in the river, and there were more of them. The city's houses were little stone huts, usually with livestock or a garden in front of them. In one of these many houses lived a juvenile named Bruto, with a large family. He lives in the same house as his mother, father, older brother and younger sister. He never saw his father that often, because he would be at dig sites most of the time, and only came back around night.

He would never see his brother that often either, because he works at a communal farm. Bruto was under two hundred moons old, so he was not eligible for a communal profession yet, until he grew a few more moons. His sister, Sepia-Jen, was only a little bit older than one hundred fifty moons.

All of his species would over time grow small stars that would orbit around their horns. Bruto's was only just then starting to grow, and it was colorless until it was full grown.

Bruto protected Sepia-Jen like she was his right arm. Whenever she would get into any sort of trouble, Bruto would come over to help. He usually can find her because of his young position he plays in society.

Society has class professions. Class one professions you can only participate in if you are over one hundred fifty moons old. Class two professions require you to be two hundred moons old. His father has a class two profession as a miner. Bruto's brother has a class one profession. Bruto has a class one profession, and the one that he chose was to be a skywatcher. Skywatchers are the ones that perch themselves on taller buildings and look for any assault. He was happy he picked this job, since Sepia-Jen would usually be getting herself into fights every few days.

Bruto woke up after coming home from a short night shift. He wiped the residue, which had been dripping from the ceiling, off his eyes, and sat up. Sepia-Jen was sitting on a rock in his small room, adjusting her horns. "Considering getting a job yet?" Bruto teased.

Sepia-Jen smiled, shook her head, and said, "You slept in. The grandmaster's meeting is in five minutes."

Bruto shot out of his bed and grabbed his oldest cloak hanging off the wall by a hook. Every time that he were to attend one of the city grandmaster's meetings, he would wear the same cloak, as it amused the grandmaster to see the same cloak he wore tens of hundreds of moons ago. "Why didn't you wake me up?" asked Bruto, adjusting his horn.

"Last time I did, you yelled at me for waking you," Sepia-Jen answered. Bruto grunted, and jumped out of the window, conveniently only a few feet off the ground. He started at a sprint towards the center of town, with his sister following not far behind him.

The center of town was a clutter of beast skeletons, with the star in the middle. These beasts, the Thuarzegs, roamed around the area long ago, as Bruto's father had explained to him. They would use the river to catch the biggest fish they could find, and they would nest in the snow. Their existence didn't last for much longer than a thousand moons, as the mystic star had wiped out their species.

Bruto arrived at the town center, where many other people his age were gathered around a large rock. Bruto was not very tall, so he had to go in front of all of the other juveniles and take a knee for him to be able to see. On top of the rock, was the grandmaster.

The grandmaster was an old and clever man. His legs were nimble and his hands were twitchy. His cloak was a deep blue, tattered and patched. He held a crooked cane that was embedded with a crystallized part of the star. One of his horns was completely chopped off, and the other looked like it had seen better days, at some point. The grandmaster's appearance was nothing for a ruler to brag about.

His moon was a dull lavender, a sign of intelligence. It buzzed around in its place, a few inches above his head. It was that star, as the grandmaster had said in a different meeting, that had gotten his horn chopped off. There was an outside villain that was notorious for stealing stars, and he had not seen a star of such a hue. The grandmaster was confronted and told to hand over his star. The grandmaster said no, and that was the answer that made him lose his horn.

"Gather around, my citizens," said the grandmaster, in his usual raspy voice. His voice was not like a human who has grown old. It sounded like a regular, middle aged voice, with a cough. Everyone started to tune into the grandmaster.

"Another year passes, once again. Most of you know what this means, but I will clarify for those who this is their first meeting." The grandmaster's legs started to quiver even more, so he sat down.

"Every year, you can volunteer to possibly be a Venturer. A Venturer, which there is one of every year, will go beyond the known, into the wild, and hopefully return with new knowledge about the outside world."

All of the small children looked at their friends, and whispered, "I wanna do that!" Bruto smiled, because he knew that the grandmaster wouldn't accept them, for he was soft-hearted about smaller children. He wouldn't accept Bruto either, because he was not the most moral person. One of his night shift friends, Sumagne, was a part time Skywatcher and would spend the rest of his day building small houses.

Bruto did not think that he would do it, either, since no Venturer had come back with much information. One of the Venturers was Sepia-Jugne, Bruto's grandfather. He hadn't come back from the trip in many, many moons. Some assume that he got lost. Others say he was killed by thieves.

The grandmaster continued on. "Tomorrow will be the morning I choose our fortieth Venturer, since my good friend Sepio-Jugne went first." The grandmaster eyed Bruto for a moment, and stood up. "You can go to my house at any point and give me a clay tablet with your name on it until sunset to submit yourself for validation. Do be aware of the dangers, however."

The grandmaster leaned on his cane, and looked over the audience for a moment. "You may now go to your regular places." The crowd emptied out, and the grandmaster headed down a set of rock steps. He twisted his head towards Bruto, and said, "You don't plan on it this year, do you?"

Bruto shook his head. The grandmaster let out a sigh, and started walking towards his small cottage.