venturer

ch2 nightshift

Bruto was getting ready for a Skywatcher night shift. He put on a light cloak, and wrapped a vermillion scarf around his head. This symbolized his family, and every family's scarf color was different.

He leaned out the window, and jumped onto the roof of his house. He had been doing this job for almost twenty moons now, and he had learned shortcuts around the city, jumping techniques, how to run faster, what jumps are harder than others.

Bruto jumped off of the roof, and grabbed a ledge on the side of a tall building's wall. He pulled himself up, and started to escalate on a rock truss, on the corner of the building. As he climbed up higher, it started to rain, and the rocks were getting slick. He put his hand on a smooth rock, and he slipped off the truss. He tucked to embrace the fall, and rolled onto his back when he hit the ground.

Bruto sat up, and looked at his cloak, grimacing. His horn had hooked into the cloak, and made a tear in the cloth. He heard padding footsteps coming towards him, so he quickly stood up and brushed the sand off of his cloak.

Bruto saw Sumagne's yellow and silver scarf before he had even turned the corner. Sumagne stood tall compared to Bruto, but was only a couple moons older. Bruto turned his cloak around so that the tear was on his backside.

"I thought you were on the north side of town tonight," said Bruto, suggesting that he didn't want to be mocked for his recent fall.

Sumagne shrugged. "Yeah, but the only other person on their shift on that side of town isPherus."

"Pherus is nice, why can't you stay with her?"

"I do like myself a good floor show. It was my calling."

"Shut up." Bruto scraped his foot on the ground, and started back at the truss, this time going faster.

"Are you actually expecting a different outcome than when you did it last time?" said Sumagne, questioning Bruto. Bruto grunted, and gripped tighter, still walking up the truss. Sumagne followed up with him.

When Bruto got to the top of the building, Sumagne hoisted himself up not long after. They both watched from the top of that building for about an hour, but Bruto had fallen asleep sitting up. "You're boring, I'm gonna go talk to Pherus," said Sumagne, standing up and jumping off the building, onto a lower house.

Bruto woke up suddenly, in the middle of the night. Crap, I slept on my shift.. he thought, looking back up at the stars. He wasn't sure why he had gotten up so suddenly.

An abrupt "Hey, give me that back!" broke Bruto's subconscious.

Alright, some real action for once! Bruto jumped off of the building towards the grandmaster's hut, where he had heard the message come from. The moon was being blocked by crooked trees, so he could not see very well where he was going.

He took a black rock out of his cloak and cracked it in half on the side of the house. He then threw it towards where the sound was coming from, and when the rock touched the sand, the sand around it would start to glow a deep blue, and a hoarse voice said, "What was that?"

The light was dark, but it helped him see a little better. There were two bigger figures, who seemed to be outsiders, and a citizen of their town, who was wearing a vermillion scarf.

A vermillion scarf?

"Sepia-Jen!" yelled Bruto. She whipped her head around, and said, "Well, help, will you?" She jumped to reach an object too shadowed to see being held by one of the jocks, but was pushed onto the ground by the other.

Bruto leaped off of the house, onto another. The jocks did not know where he was. One of them was pinning Sepia-Jen to the ground, while the other was looking for Bruto. Sepia-Jen tried to kick the one pinning her down in the chest, but that just made him hold down harder.

Bruto precisioned himself, then bounded off the side of the house and kicked the jock.

The jock, bleeding an oozy, clear substance, stood up and yelled, "Are you stupid or something, kid?"

Bruto shrugged. "That's one way to say it." He unsheathed the dagger at his hip, and threw it at the jock. When it hit the skin, it's target evaporated into a red fog. He walked over to retrieve his dagger, but the second jock ran towards him and tackled him.

Bruto was rolling along the ground with jock numero two, and he was trying to reach for his dagger. When he finally grabbed it, he slithered out of grip, stood on the jock's arm and chest, and dangled the dagger over his head.

"Wait!" said the jock. "We can settle on an agreement!"

"I liked this impasse, but I can listen for a bit longer." Bruto tucked his dagger back into its sheathe.

"If you let me have your sister, I will give you knowledge of my homeland."

"That is dumb."

"Riches, too!"

A knife landed in the jocks head, one that was not Bruto's. When the jock evaporated, Bruto looked at the knife in shock, then looked up.

The grandmaster was on the roof of his house, looking at Bruto.

"I still have the arms for throwing, y'know," said the grandmaster, climbing down from the house, "although that's probably the first time I have thrown in a few good moons."

Sepia-Jen picked up the object off of the ground, which was a piece of wood, with her name inscribed on it.

Bruto looked at it, and asked, "You were going to try for Venturer?" Sepia-Jen slunked back, and nodded.

The grandmaster looked over the area, and said, "Girl, give me your tablet and go back home. I would like to discuss some things with Bruto privately." She quickly nodded, and started to run back home.

The grandmaster slowly sat down on a rock. "I know I mention this every single year, but-"

"I know. I'm great Venturer material." Bruto pulled a rock over, and sat down on it, so he was eye to eye with the grandmaster.

The grandmaster, blowing dust off of his knife, said, "That was a great fight, protecting your sister like so."

Bruto sighed. "I guess I could be a Venturer, but it seems sort of dangerous. Nobody has ever survived it, even people tens of moons older than me. For another, if I leave, then Sepia-Jen will probably have the worst moons of her life."

The grandmaster put his hand over his heart. "I will protect your family with my life. I will take your place in society while you are gone."

Bruto nodded, but said, "Aren't you much too old for what I do?"

The grandmaster stood up, and said, "Aren't you much too young for fighting outsiders instead of calling upon me?"

Bruto choked on a laugh, and said, "Fine, I'll do it. Just please protect my family in the capacity you can."

"I will notify the town that you have left in the morning. You can get out on this side of town, starting up this mountain." The grandmaster pointed towards a mountain, with birds circling around the snowcap.

Bruto walked towards the mountain a bit, and looked back. He saluted, and emerged into the forest.