Heir of Nuadha: The Story of Bardox

Chapter One

The Heroes of Alexina

A Mabinogi Fanfiction

By: A.M. Lena

Bardox

Chapter One

As the sun began to rise over the horizon Bardox sat waiting upon a hill, staring off into nothingness, contemplating, waiting. Near to him, wolves and foxes could be heard waking with the coming of the new day, yipping, and snarling as they began the dance of their morning routines. Birds rustled from their nests in the trees above, sheep bahhed in the fields, and the clink clink clink of carts could be heard traveling along the trail leading to Dugald Aisle, people whistling as they made their way from Tir Chonail to Dunbarton in order to sell their wares for the day. Life bustled, the silence of the early morning fading into nothing more than a fond memory at this point for the young lad as he continued to watch the world pass him by and wait, hoping that his father and brother would return home like they had promised. Sitting as he was, Bardox had a clear vantage point of the comings and goings of the village. He could see everyone from Ferghus clanking away in his forge and cursing as he more-then-likely broke yet another sword, Deian chasing after a sheep that had wandered off to close to a pack of wolves and screaming at the top of his lungs for the dear thing to come back, to Alissa and Nora gossiping about something that Piaras had done the night before.

As the morning wore on, the deadline for when he was supposed to meet up with the other recruits in front of the Magic School grew closer by the minute. Bardox continued to watch anxiously as milletians and merchants bustled in and out of the tunnel to Dugald, many of them stopping to talk with the people of the Trading Post in order to find out the latest gossip or deals for the day, none of them being the two people he longed to see most of all. Especially on today of all days. Frustration setting in Bardox relented with a sigh and a heavy heart that they just weren't coming. Getting up and patting himself down he quickly groomed himself back to the order he had been in when his mother had tidied him up at dawn, knowing full well that he was going to wait up for his father and brother, then made his way to the Magic School, slouched over with his hands buried in his pockets in disappointment.

By the time he made it to the school, with scarce minutes to spare, a crowd had already formed. The other ten-year-olds from his class had already lined up on the practice field with Lassar, Ranald, Trefor and Duncan standing front and center before the crowd as they waited for the last stragglers of this year's recruits and for Tin to appear in order for the ceremony to commence. Getting into place near the back, keeping a distance from most of his peers and ignoring the whisperings of the crowd that seemed to erupt at his presence, Bardox stood at attention, keeping his eyes locked ahead and making sure to not directly stare at anyone or anything so that he could eventually just blend in with everyone else.

He knew what they were all talking about, the whisperings and awed looks were never hidden from him, people treated him as a celebrity due to being the son of Lennox – the first of the Royal Alchemists – and younger brother to Leymore – alchemist extraordinaire who was just as good or not better than their father – and was expected by everyone, including said father and brother, to live up to the family name. So far he had done just that. He ranked at the top of his class for the newest group of milletians in all of his lessons, he won all of the mock fighting tournaments that were held within the village not once getting hurt and breaking many records, but in the end, it was never good enough. No matter how hard he worked, no matter how powerful he became or the effort he put into everything that he did, the response was always the same. Bardox would forever be compared to his father and brother, never to be seen as himself, just another carbon copy of the great Lennox and Leymore, never Bardox. If it wasn't for the fact that he loved alchemy and idolized the Royal Alchemists, wanting to be one from the first moment he had seen his father fight a Fomor, he would go into another field all together just to spite everyone around him. Being as things were, though, he simply couldn't do that to himself, despite knowing that this road would be harder for him than others and that he may never actually establish a name for himself due to his family.