The Grand Soul

Hadbrook Bay- the Roof

My eyes opened to the same familiar ceiling, a pounding headache beating against the middle of my forehead. Three dark oak beams stretched across from end to end, dust slipping through the cracks and crevices as the sounds of thumping hammered in nails from above. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I pulled the quilt covering me away, and rested my bare feet against the grains of the wooden floor boards. They felt cool to the touch, refreshing almost. Hoisting myself upward I made my way for the door stopping across the room just before leaving. I almost left without my necklace. Quickly, I grabbed it from my decaying dresser and stumbled into the living room. The pounding from the roof continued. Opening my palm, a glistening light shone off the smooth circular gem. It always glowed a cool amber in the sunlight just like all the gems in the rest of town.

Hadbrook Bay is a one of the many mining towns in the kingdom of Aernora. It's population is that of 500 people give or take and has been around for more than 280 years. Our main export query and export is the sol stone. The very stone tucked into the palm of my hand. It's the symbol of our kingdom, but also one of our major trade goods. The world has grown quite dependent on them as these gems have seemingly mystical powers and utilizing them grants their users miracles destroying the stone in the process. The properties of these miracles vary widely in their use but more difficult fears take more skill to accomplish. This phenomenon is named after the crystals simply as; Sol, a gift from our God himself. On the day we turn adults here in Hadbrook and are allowed to work in the mine, we're given one of these stones to signify our devotion to that god whom we know as Solus. To not follow Solus is heresy, and claims of heresy are usually followed by death.

Tieing the necklace around my throat and slipping on my boots, I walked out the front door. Dusty as always, and just opening your mouth filled it with the taste of smoke and soot. The street was narrow and busy with men hauling their cargo, not to mention the carriages and their steeds drawing it without rest.

"Gale!! Get your ass up here!" A voice rang out from above.

I looked behind me to see my father grinning with his signature rag holding his long thick black hair down. His greying beard did little to hide his big toothy smile. I clambered up the rungs of the ladder unable to stop myself from smiling back.

"It's not my fault you wanted to show me what it's really like to drink."

He sat back on his knees placing his hands down to his thighs at rest.

"16 is an important day isn't it?! There's a reason they give you that stone after all." He raised one toned arm and pointed it at me. "You're the pride of the village you know that?"

I made myself comfortable on the roof across from him and began shimmying across to avoid falling.

"Really? I wasn't aware." I retorted.

"Aye that's cause I lied, Haha! You're just my pride and joy, take it or leave it!" He grabbed me in a hard hug once I was close enough and I felt my back pop. He let go and suddenly I felt myself slipping off the roof. Before I knew it one of my legs was already dangling over the edge of the roof. I felt my shirt pull hard against my neck and torso.

"Ah don't think you can weasel out of helping me repair this roof! You know I'm damn well tired of that leak." He pulled me back up like a mother dog does to her pups by the scruff accidentally breaking the threads that secured my amulet. It slid off my torso and I fumbled it into my hands bouncing it between the two. Alas, I inevitably dropped it and it rattled twice off the roof and into the dirt. I sighed at my failure.

"Heh, seeing you fumble that gem gives me memories. I remember when I took you with me to the store house to drop off one last crate of Sol Stones before we went to the shore." He patted me on the shoulder hard, but this time bracing me with his other giant hand as if making sure not to send me rolling down the roof this time. "I left you alone for 5 minutes and I come back to you, sprawling the damn gems all over the floor in neat little rows and columns, haha!" His laugh was bellowing. "I told old Renard you were going to grow up into one smart kid. And that old bastard just smiled and said, 'unlike you, Cid.'" My old man could ramble, and that he did the whole time we fixed the roof.