Part 3 - The Unkept

By the looks of Relek's attic living area he was a regular entertainer, and Tolan honestly wasnt surprised. Tolan was often of a generally sombre disposition but somehow Releks attitude and happiness seemed infectious and Tolan's mouth couldnt help but crease into a slight grin each time the blacksmith let out one of his booming laughs aimed at one of his own quips or jokes.

In the centre of Relek's room lay a mammoth oak table surrounded by six chairs, and sat at the end of it in a sturdy cradle was a large cask with a tap, no doubt filled to the brim with mead. Relek continued talking about trival matters trying desperatly to shake the memory of that battle from his youth, but Tolan was only half paying attention. He was soaking in the character of the room; the warmth rising from the forge below, the furs draped on the walls, and large bed in the corner and the general look of comfort. Relek noticed Tolan looking around and changed tact to engage the young man
"Its not very much, but i've got everything thats important" Tolan looked at the blacksmith in shock
"Not much? This is truly a palace friend Relek. I may not be a Brother but i still live in an abbey, where we are provided with no more earthly posessions than is completely required. The bare essentials" Relek consolingly and understandingly placed his hand on Tolans shoulder
"The bare essentials? so that means a barrel of mead and a place to fall into once you are too drunk to stand!" Relek's booming laugh once again resounded around the barn and Tolan could not help but crack into a wide grin.
"I implore you Relek, stop making me smile so much, or my cheeks will be aching for weeks" another roar from Relek erupted as he walked away to collect two flagons.
"Forgive me friend, i shall give your cheeks a rest from my epic humour. Tell me about yourself, how did you come to be in the service of the church?" Tolan remained silent for the moments it took Relek to pour the drinks and place one infront of him. He wrapped his hand around the flagon and slowly thought through his answer to such a question.

Tolan was never sure what he should say in relation to his past. So much of it was supposition, infact so little was fact that it would be easier to refer to it simply as a story. Then of course, there were the conotations. The story of Tolan, and of his surrogate brother Sil, was well known among the cloth because of the possibilties that it may bring to fruition. Tolan often glossed over the stories, but Relek was a good man, and it had been so long since Tolan had talked about any of it.
"I was born in a small village along the border, east enough not to be troubled by border skirmishes but to see the occasional soldier. It was named Calindrop"
"Calindrop? I dont think ive heard of it" Relek was entranced, the silence before the beginning of the tale had told him that this wasnt being shared lightly
"Few people these days know of it" he took a deep breath in and a sip of mead "and if you asked me to find it on a map, i would be hard pressed to point out the place where it used to be"
"Used to be?" a look of confusion flitted over Releks face until he assumed the worse, and waited for me to tell him he was right
"It was a village small enough so that everyone knew any indiscretion a young girl might find herself in, but large enough so that there was very rarely a need to go to an accompanying village to get whatever you needed. Or so i've been told, my memories are sketchy, but then i was only four when it all happened" Relek sat through the momentary pause, not breathing, and he hadnt even touched his mead, he seemed almost afraid to do anything incase the spell of this honesty was broken and he would never find out what had happened to Calindrop and the young man who sat across from him. "My village was attacked. We weren't prepared, and it wouldnt have mattered if we had been" Relek suddenly looked outraged, and immediatly burst into an animated tirade
"Those bastard scorched land dogs! Murdering scum! Isnt it enough that they've ruined half the land, do they have to come here and kill innocent people trying to live their lives!" Tolan was unphased the rant, he had expected it. With a slow raise of his hand he cut the blacksmith short
"Our borders were safe. There was no infringement" Releks brow crinkled in bafflement and he stammered out his words
"But..then...who?"
"Have you heard of the Unkept?" Tolan asked a question, but the tone belied that. He knew the answer, and he knew the response even before it happened, making Releks apology unnecessary
"Gaia-Kalen...forgive my blasphemy....but i never believed them to be real. A RockLord turning to the other side? It is madness" Despite the tone of the conversation Tolan smiled. Relek's description was perfect. It was madness. The RockLords were creatures born of the rock, to protect it. What reason would there for one to join the Scorched Land; the country that laid waste to forests and mined for metals unrelentingly and indulgently, other than sheer madness.
"Even the RockLords do not believe in the Unkept, and they have seen them. They believe one day they will realise their folly and return. But that does not bring back the dead" Finally Relek took a drink of his mead, half draining the flagon to ease his nerves at hearing such things.
"How did you survive?"
"Now thats a question no-one but the Unkept can answer. But i shall tell you what happened if that will help...RockLords can feel the very earth as im sure you know, but this makes them lethal killers and a RockLord who wishes to wipe out a village would simply do as it wanted. It was able to smash through whole buildings, trample people and throw them like dolls. I dont remember what my family looked like, but i remember how easily that Unkept killed"
"What did you do?" Relek was enraptured, he knew the power of the Rocklords and their abilities
"I did what all young boys do better than anyone else, i hid" Tolan smiled at the memory of how genius his plan had seemed at the time
"But RockLords can sense where people are, the land tells them" Relek again searched for answers, eager to know the whole story before it was finished being told
"You forget friend Relek, i was a very small boy, i didnt know the wonders of the RockLords back then. So i hid. But as i ran to my favourite hiding spot i came across a woman. A beautiful young woman, whose name i would give anything to remember. She lay in the middle of the street contorted and twisted, unmoving, lifeless. But next to her lay a baby, crying with all its might. I dont know why he was crying, but he stopped the moment i picked him up, and together we went to hide." Relek sipped at his mead and took a deep breath in
"It is an incredibly valiant thing to risk your life for another, and so much more so for one so young to do it"
"Well as you already stated, it didnt matter either way, the baby and i were still dead if the RockLord found us, which it would. And did. It tore away the roof of the shed that i had taken the baby to and looked at us with those pure white eyes. I have no idea what it was thinking, but it smiled. It smiled and then left us there before heading towards the border" Tolan took a long draught of his mead and set the flagon back down on the table, allowing the liquid to sink into him, to begin to numb the thoughts of what he had been denied. The normal life which he could never hope to have.
"Maybe the Rocklords are right, maybe it is still good in its heart, and it couldnt kill children because they are too innocent, too pure" Relek smiled to himself broadly, almost convincing himself of his explanation, until Tolan cut in
"Ah Relek, you are of the same thinking of the RockLords...the church however think that i was left alive for a reason, that the gods themselves chose to protect me" Tolans tone showed no inclination to either belief
"And what do you believe my young friend?"
"I see no point in believing anything. One day i will find that Unkept, and i will ask him myself. Then when i am satisfied that i have the answer, he will pay for everything i lost" Tolans tone for the first time told of the emotion within him. It cut through the blacksmiths toughened skin, and for the first time he realised how truly dangerous this man before him was. Earlier he had fleetingly wondered why the church had sent just one man to collect such an artefact, but now he knew that Tolan was more than capable of seeing it to the church safely.





alright, need comments though people, tell me what you like and dont like. And i know the punctuation and spelling is off, but think of this as my very first draft, ill read through it and make corrections at a later date, its just the story im interested in correcting right now