My Idea Box

ORIGINAL IDEA: Sword in a Misty City

It was a normal day in the Grey Kingdom. People in grey clothes traveled on grey roads, in a city of grey buildings and signs with grey clouds above and grey mist below. There was no slush or snow, and very little rain. Citizens born and raised knew their way around, and they, like the muscle-bound Reiner, had rarely seen any visitors or any other colors than black, white, or any shades of grey in their city.

It all the more reason Reiner was surprised to see a man in a green cloak. Less so to see poor orphans ganging up on said man, out in the open street.

"Hey!" Reiner called to the orphans. "Don't make me come over there!"

The orphans, six boys in total, stopped kicking the man they robbed. "Ah fog, it's Reiner!" shouted one boy.

"Run for it!" yelled another boy.

In seconds, the six boys ran off in separate directions. They disappeared into the mist, and the man they robbed was left crumpling on the grey-tiled street. "Ow..." left the man.

No one else had been around to help the poor fellow out, so Reiner took it upon himself to act. "Hey, you alright...?" Reiner asked, kneeling to roll the man over.

This stranger was, well, strange. He didn't have spiky ivory hair of the Grey Kingdom's men nor the luscious black locks of its women. It was just an ugly dirty brown mop atop a freckled face. The only thing recognizable were the opening blue eyes, while a sound escaped through chapped lips. "Get... this... away..." the stranger said.

'This' had been a sword. It was perhaps the only thing the stranger had on his person. In fact, he had been holding it close to himself. Reiner held the sword, noticing how light it was. A normal sword this size would be too much for anyone to carry, even for Reiner.

Reiner decided to ignore it, and his other hand grabbed the stranger's green cape. Any questions would wait until the man could answer any questions. For now, Reiner dragged the man back. It had been a quick journey to home, a cubic hovel like the rest in the Grey Kingdom's outer ring. Reiner, placing the sword under his armpit, unlocked the door and entered. "Leira! We have a guest!" he called into his home.

A girl, only quarter of Reiner's full height, jumped across the barely devoid main room using her right good leg. Her ebon hair and pale frills flowed behind her and billowed when she met her father at the door. "Who's that, dad?" Leira pointed to the figure by Reiner's feet. "He's wearing a funny cape. It's like my eyes."

Reiner, putting on her best fatherly face, entered his home. "I found him on the streets. Lian and his gang were trying to rob him," he explained.

"And he let them?"

"I dunno," Reiner shrugged. "For now, can you get a warm towel for him? I'm going to take him upstairs."

"He can take my bed," Leira offered, always willing to help.

Reiner, smiling, placed the strange sword against the wall. "Yours might be a bit small. I'll put him in mine. Just get that towel ready."

With a tiny pout, Leira hobbled off on a limp leg to the built-in water well. While she did that, Reiner yanked the strange man up in his arms and took him up the creaking steps. After he ducked his head under the door, he unceremoniously dropped the man in the bed in the shadows.

"Oof!" came from the stranger, who laid in a bed which barely large enough for Reiner's size.

"Just stay there and rest. If there's a problem, just tell my daughter, and she'll get you something," Reiner ordered and turned away.

For his thirty-five years in the Grey Kingdom, Reiner had only known the usual lifestyle of schemes to make money. He rarely saw traders, especially for a job-hunting man whom nobody wanted around. Strangers with swords were a greater oddity.

"Ow!" cried Leira.

Reiner rushed down the stairs below. Leira stood by the stranger's sword, now fallen on the floor and partially unsheathed from the brown scabbard. He worryingly approached his daughter. "Leira, what were doing?" Reiner demanded while looking at the cut finger Leira was sucking on. It wasn't bleeding, thank goodness.

Leira's eyes shyly turned to the sword. "I... I just wanted to look at it... I wanted to..."

"Shhh..." Reiner shushed her quietly. "Just put a bandage on that. Then, go help out our new guest, okay?"

"'Kay..."

A sigh escaped Reiner once Leira went away, grasping her cut finger. He couldn't stop worrying about his daughter. Leira's curiosity hurt her before, and there was no way Reiner could keep it down forever.

She's only nine, said a voice in his head. Of course, she'll be curious. You were the same at that age.

Reiner glanced to the sword. The blade was unsheathed by a few centimeters. It was enough to see one half of the blade was pale white, and the other was the purest of black. Not to mentioned, there was an X engraved on the pale golden crossguard-half black, and half white. Just like the blade itself.

Reiner grabbed the sword. His hand grasped the black handle, wrapped in a golden coil. He stopped for a second, feeling the need to pull out the sword and look at its glory. It was same temptation that lured his daughter.

He stopped for a second, then he sheathed the blade fully into the scabbard. The sword wasn't cursed. There was no magic about it. The allure it had was simple its craftsmanship. At the same time, there was something special about it.

It was then and there that Reiner knew he had to research this sword. There were stories of strange sword all over the Kingdoms of Color, including the Grey Kingdom. The strange man Reiner saved wouldn't answer, not when the man was half-dazed after traveling for who knows how long.

After making sure his guest was tucked in and resting, Reiner would head out for supplies. He would tell his daughter that much. She didn't need to know where he was really going. Reiner didn't want to worry her with anything else other than herself and the guest. Most of all, he didn't want Leira's curiosity to have her follow him outside to his destination... one Reiner sadly knew all too well.

AN: This is something for Wattpad's Open Novella Contest II. I hope to publish it soon when I have enough words, an ebook cover, and (of course) a title.