The Rusting Shield By Kenneth Wright © 11 06 2018

chapter 2: A Family Reunited

with the remains of the shield that saved her life in her pack,

upon seeing her home city she was glad to be back,

she ran back to the house made of hard painted metal and bone,

where the black dust of items forged covered the formally gold painted walls of her home,

she ran inside and placed the shields rusted pieces on the black metal forging table, 

begging her parents to repair it if they where able,

her mother turned away from the powerful green forging fire,

 and tried to give her daughter a smile to bring hope and inspire,

her smile turned to curiosity as under the rust her blacksmiths eyes could see a metal she had never before seen, 

and she called her wizardly husband over to see what insight he could gleam,

as they gazed down she recounted the tale of how the shield had given its last to save her life, 

picking it up from a ground destroyed by time and warring strife,

her father than speaks up with a myth that saved the residents of a town caught up in a war, 

while their homes and town had become rubble around them and the area was liveable no more,

but the residents themselves where all saved by a strange force that covered their forms,

only a few paying attention noticed an armoured person holding a shield in the middle of the fiery storm,

the shield and the armoured resident who used it seemed to vanish under the rubble and the smoke, 

and into a new future building a new town near the memories the residents awoke,

the residents founded the town with the name Sirlarafendwhere they now a hopeful message of a brighter future to send.

that was the myth of how the town they lived in came to be though over time the myth of the shield became warped and lost to history its a story only he and a few other wizards seem today to know,

 covered over in the libraries by other deeds putting on a far more flashy show,

while even today the wizards and blacksmiths don't know which resident was holding the shield,nor even how it had created its life saving field,

their daughter was in slight shock that it must have been the mythical shield that saved her that day, as their mother heated and polished the shield pieces to try and clear the rust away.

she told her daughter it may take some time, 

and that she may as well rest in her bed under a gentle chime,

when their daughter had gone to sleep she pulled out the large gemmed heart that dangled down from her neck, 

and of the rust and damage she would try to remove every fleck.

the gemmed heart seemed to glow,

 in the presence of the shield and it seemed that there may be more life in the metal fragments that was too weak to show.