Chapter 3: Mold Breaker

…Work as usual. Everything about it was boring, and once again he had no colleagues or even customers to talk to. Just the same as yesterday, polishing glasses he had definitely polished the day before and had obviously not been used since. The only reason he did this tedious action of turning a glass in his hand with a cloth inside of it was because he would look busy if his boss walked in. Surprisingly enough though, the next person to walk in was actually a customer. And a cute looking girl at that. She was quite petite, no more than 5’5”,5’6”, with long, dark, auburn hair that sat about halfway down her back. With perfect emerald eyes and the face of an angel, she was a dream girl in every sense of the word.

“Hello! Take a seat wherever and I’ll be with you in just a second to take your order.”

The girl paused for a second, looked at him then ran towards the bar all while maintaining eye contact with Austin. She leaned over as far as she could to get as close as she could to him while still looking him straight in the eyes.

“Are you new here?”

Nobody had ever been this close to Austin let alone asked him a question or even wanted to talk to him at all in the first place. Yet for some reason she sounded exited to see him.

“Uhhhh, no… I’ve been working here for about two years now.” ‘What the fuck?’

“Huh. Is that so? Then why is it so obviously apparent that you are new here?”

“I don’t know…” ‘should I call the cops?’

“So, what’s your name?” By this point she had settled down a bit and become more level-headed. But she was still clearly very interested in him.

“Umm… I’m Austin. And yours?”

“I’m El… Ellie! Yeah, that’s right. I’m Ellie!” Ellie’s voice seemed to tremble a little.

“Did you just forget your name?”

“NO!” Her bright red cheeks told the opposite.

A couple strands of hair waved across Austin’s face and he brushed his hands through his hair to hide them away. This felt like the normal thing for him to do, until he realised that there was no way in hell with the length of his hair that any could fall into his face. A blank expression filled his face as he brushed his hands through his hair… And again… And again. He even tried pulling on his hair to see if it was a wig that he put on as some sort of joke and forgotten about. Nope. Austin had hair. He pulled it in front of his face to get a closer look at it.

‘The same colour as usual… But it’s long… like really long… It’s perfect… Fuck Yeah!’

“Shall we go for a walk?” All this time Ellie watched as Austin played with his hair and saw how excited he got over it.

“But there’s no one to take over for me.”

“Why do you care? You don’t work here.”

For some reason what the girl just said seemed to make sense to Austin. “Good point… Okay then, let’s go for a walk.”

The two of them stepped out of the door and looked over a busy cobble stone street filled with market stands and people. Everyone seemed to be in a much more cheerful state than what Austin was used to. It was at that moment that he knew, let alone work, or England, at this point in time, he wasn’t even on planet Earth.

“Ummm… where are we?”

“Incipancy.”

“Ah yes good, I guess I’ll just walk home from here then.” This was the first time that Austin had ever been sarcastic to anyone and it even caught him a little off guard. In retaliation, Ellie rolled her eyes so powerfully that it sent a shudder down his back.

“Follow me.” She chirped.

The eye roll seemed to completely rebound the effect of the sarcasm and Austin was completely dazed at this point. After about 10 minutes of walking down the same street Austin began seeing differences in this ‘Incipancy’. So far all he had noticed was that there were no lampposts, instead, about every 20 meters, there were tall poles with a large stone plate on them, and there were no roads.

“Soooo… We walking to your car or something?”

“Nope, no carts around here. We’re going to see a friend of mine. He’s a blacksmith, should be able to sort you out with something.”

“Sort me out with what?”

“I don’t know! A weapon? Armour? Anything he has lying around! Something to help you survive!” She barked.

“Damn… okayyy goddddd… wait. A weapon?” Austin suddenly began to feel nauseous.

“Well yeah, how else are you gonna kill stuff?”

“Ah yes, good point, because killing is normal.” At this point Austin couldn’t stop himself from making a sarcastic comment.

“You obviously are new around here.”

“Ah good, I’m glad you could tell… But, for real, I’m gonna need to kill people?”

“Not people you idiot, monsters. If you wanna survive outside the walls you need to be able to protect yourself against the creatures that are out for blood.”

“Oh… And how many would that be?” Austin seemed surprisingly happy about this.

“Pretty much all of them.” She replied bluntly. “Anyway. We’re here now.”

The two of them stopped in front of a large open double wooden door that exposed the entire shop of a forge for everyone to see. Armour stood high and proud and glistened in the sunlight while swords and spears sat by their sides ready to cut through steel at a moment’s notice. Everything in the room twinkled and light danced from blade to plate and back to blade. Even the tough fabric of the leather armor and the many sharp knives concealed throughout demanded and controlled the attention of people who wouldn’t usually concern themselves with such things. There was nobody in, but the presence of the armor alone was enough to halt any thief in their tracks, each set its own personality glaring at the door waiting for its chance to strike. The different metals glinted in unique ways, but every set grabbed Austin by the throat and pulled him closer as if they were looking into his soul checking if he was worthy of their use. He could hear their voices undermining him, each one insulting him more and more, their murmurs echoed through his mind turning him inside out like he was in fact the armour and they were trying him on. Each one’s whisper penetrated deeper into his mind, even the blades mocked him and there was nowhere to turn to. Every glance led him to a different glistening metal which scorned him, then pushed him away for his eyes to only be enchanted by the next. Over and over again. Nothing here wanted him. All blunt in their insults. All sharp in their abuse.

Austin’s head hit the floor but even being on his hands and knees wasn’t enough to shut out the voices. “I feel sick.”

“JEZZA! I BROUGHT A FRIEND!” Ellie’s voice seemed to make Austin feel even more nauseous but at least it stopped the others. About 10 seconds passed with no reply followed by an enormous crash with multiple others just after.

“FUCK!”

The voice echoed from the back room. Ellie realised what was about to happen and let out a low sigh and without realising it found her head in her hand. Austin didn’t know what to be more concerned about at this point: the crash from the back room, or Ellie’s reaction to it. It took about five seconds for him to find out which would cause him more worry and by that point he was about three seconds too late. The sound of panting and grunting became louder and louder and a strange man bolted from behind the counter on his hands. His legs lagged behind him and slid out of control as he turned and bashed into the wall. Before he knew it, the man was on top of Austin. Literally. He was climbing up with one arm and with the other trying to take his measurements with a tape measure. It was an impossible task, but the man seemed to be quite good at it.

“AHHHH!” Austin stood in shock and looked at Ellie, “What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?”

“I don’t know… I had already kicked him in the head like a football by this point when he tried doing that to me.” Everything about what was going on and what Ellie just said was pushing Austin into a deep dark pit of shock and horror.

“You kicked him?” Austin asked in a mortified tone.

“Yeah, she fucking did!... Had a headache for about a week after as well… Okay, I’m done now.” The man let go of Austin and fell into a slump on the floor. He turned and looked at Ellie, “Make yourself useful and go get the chair.”

Ellie walked off past the counter and around the corner and came back with the man’s wheelchair. He climbed into it and then adjusted his legs so they weren’t facing backwards and introduced himself to Austin as Jezza the blacksmith and armourer. He also explained how when he was a mercenary, he fought against a Bovemus with his crew and that’s how he became paralyzed from the waist down and every bone in both his legs crushed. All the while Ellie just walked around the shop looking and comparing all the blades and Austin just stood there in daze not knowing how to react to the story he was being told. He just left a peaceful smile on his face as his soul vacated his body.

“Anyway Jezza, enough of your lame stories.” Ellie interrupted. “We need something for him.”

“Well, I’d love to help, but I’ve got nothing. My delivery of metals was supposed to come through two days ago, but it’s still not arrived.”

Ellie turned and pulled a sword out of its sheath on display and waved it around, “What about this?”

“Ornamental.” Jezza explained, “You couldn’t even cut through hot butter with that. But I’ll tell you what. If you go up to Bunpidum and bring the metals back for me, I’ll make you whatever, free of charge.”

“That’s all well and good, and I would like to take you up on that offer, but Austin’s still gonna need something to protect himself with.”

“Yeah!” Austin felt at this point, since the conversation was clearly about him, he needed to add something to it as well. Which was a very peculiar feeling, one Austin had never known before.

“Yeah see, even Austin agrees.”

“Alright, that’s a good point… I do have something you can take actually.” Jezza wheeled himself behind the counter and rummaged through a crate. “Here you go.” He pulled out a short sword about seven inches long and four wide. “It’s not much but it’ll do for now.” He handed the sword over to Austin. “Completely forgot I had this until I found it the other day so it’s all yours.”

“Ah great, a hand-me-down. Well thankyou anyway, I’m sure this will be able to kill something.” Once again Austin was taken back by his own sarcastic comment.

As they were leaving Austin noticed the shop opposite, it was bright, colourful and inviting. It beckoned him and Austin was more than tempted.

“Come on. This way.” Elie interrupted his trance and the two of them set off down the street.

“So, where we goin’ now?”

“Bunpidum.”

“Bunpidum?”

“Bunpidum.”

“Wait so that’s actually a place?” For some reason, after the name Incipancy, the name Bunpidum confused him. “That’s a cool ass name… Bunpidum… Bunpidum…”

The two of them walked for about 20 minutes again down the same road only taking one turn until they reached a giant wall. The wall must have been about 25 meters tall and made entirely out of concrete. After seeing the wall Austin looked down at his sword and a thought crossed his mind. It was obvious that the wall was there to keep monsters out of the town, so what was he supposed to be able to do to something that a 25-meter wall was protecting the town against. Eventually they reached a large gate with a notice board next to it. The two of them stopped at the board and Ellie examined it for a minute.

“So how far away is this Bunpidum place anyway?” Austin felt like this was finally the right time to ask.

“Probably about 12 hours on cart or two days walk. I don’t mind wal- “

“Hell no. We’ll take the cart.”

“Says the one not paying.” Ellie uttered.

They walked off towards a group of carts and Ellie started haggling with a merchant heading to Bunpidum. Austin, however, was far more interested in the creatures that would be pulling them. They were unlike anything he had ever seen before. It had huge, powerful legs and quite a large body with dark patterns in its fur. Even with stubbed antlers it held its large head high and proud and even the patterns on its face were incredible. It was almost like a deer but much bigger in every way. Even a large working horse would be put to shame by the size and power of this thing. The two of them stood side by side ready to pull the cart at their master’s orders. Ellie walked up next to Austin, gave him a quick glance, reached up and started stroking the neck of the creature. It was only at this point that Austin noticed that she had some sort of tiny bow on her back that fit neatly between her shoulder blades.

“It’s called a Gazellion. Bred to work on farms and pull cargo. They’re very useful creatures, and very pretty.”

“Yeah…” Austin didn’t really know how to respond to this. He was still taken back by everything about them.

“Well, let’s get in. The trader says we’ll be there by morning if we set off now which is really good timing… I have some food with me as well, so if you like we can have a really late lunch on the way and then call it an early night.”

“Yeah, if that works for you then that works for me.”

The two of them got into the back of the carriage and the merchant started off on his way to Bunpidum.