As Ren was waking up the next morning, he decided to lay in bed for just a little bit longer. he smiled as his finger brushed against the spine of his newest birthday present, the old story book. The tattered and torn volume was by no means pretty, but it allowed him to relive the old stories. It was one of the only things they got back after his grandfather died. Books were hard to come by, especially hard cover books, and books about old stories even more so. But they had been his grandfather’s favorite. Whenever he would visit, which was only about twice a year, he would spend the whole night telling him stories, some of his adventures in the outside world, others about the Heroes of Legend. He was a never-ending fount of information, always with an exciting story to tell, and seemingly always having to leave town at the last minute with the guards hot on his tail. Mary Voland, Ren’s Mother, had always said he was making it up for his sake, to make his stories more interesting. However, Ren believed every word of it, regardless of what his mother said.

His grandfather had been a traveling merchant, but to him he was like one of the heroes from the stories. He had always found it strange how almost none of his stories revolved around him trading wares. They never started off with “…I was just minding my own business trying to sell this silk fabric I had picked up in the capital…” No, they had almost always started off with him looking for something or someone, or being somewhere he shouldn’t be. But he always had chalked it up to just a strange practice of the merchants. He did seem to have a lot of friends after all, but he seemed to have even more enemies. Whatever the case, his grandfather seemed to be rather well off, so whatever he was doing was working. However, Ren’s Mother refused to take anything from him, always saying that they will manage without his money. Not that he ever stopped trying to give him something, when he would leave the village Ren would find some coins under his pillow, his mother would find extra food in the root cellar, and his father would discover new tools in the storeroom. They never seemed to be upset about this, although they always did let out a soft defeated sigh when they found the presents. Ren loved it though since his parents would host a large party in the square and everyone could eat like kings. His Father would lend out any tools he had “mysteriously” acquired to others in the village. Even Ren, moved by the generosity of his parents, had secretly paid for the entire village’s monthly taxes on more than one occasion.

Lying in bed thinking of his grandfather made him begin to tear up. The hurt still fresh in his heart even though it has been months since they heard of his death. Which had been when the merchants had come through during the Winter Months. He had died shortly before that, they didn’t really offer up any other information. He had normally made it a point to always show up for his birthdays, and this last birthday he was so excited about his story book he hadn’t even noticed that he wasn’t there. That just made him more upset, but he was awake now. Wiping away his tears he sat up, his bed creaking as he did so, and he pushed aside the curtain. The morning sun was harsh on his newly woken eyes, and he shielded them from it with his hand.

It was a small room with Ren’s parents’ bed and a single window. Their bed was like Ren’s with the only notable difference being that it was larger and on the floor. The walls or the room were made of a mud and straw mixture with wooden supports that crisscrossed the walls. It was no surprise that his parents were not in the room. It must have been an hour, maybe two hours past sunrise and he could hear his mother in the kitchen chopping something. His father may very well already be at work, which means that he will have to walk to work by himself. It was just then that he realized, the sun was up, he was late for work. The panic began to set in. His heart began to race, and he jumped out of bed attempting to throw on his work pants in the same motion. Then suddenly his vision rotated, and the floor rushed up to meet him, blinding pain and a loud crash later, and he was on the floor in a heap.

Opening his eyes, he saw his mother leaning up against the door frame with a smile on her face. “Is this a new way to get dressed?” she asked nonchalantly. “It looks… uncomfortable…”

“Well of course Mom. Didn’t you know this is how all the kids are getting dressed these days.” he said confidently as he attempted to finish putting on his pants without standing up. When he finished, he looked back at his mother as if to say “see”.

“Well then, be careful as you finish getting dressed, I could use your help in the kitchen, and if you keep getting dressed that way, I don’t think you will be able to.” She gently pushed off the wall and turned on her heel into the kitchen.

“Be careful” Ren mumbled mockingly under his breath, but as he was attempting to stand up his birthday present came down right on his head, forcing him back down to the floor.

“I can hear you, Ren. Now get in here I need your help with the potatoes.” Came a disappointed voice from the kitchen.

“Sorry Mom! I’m coming!” Ren slowly finished getting ready and placed his book under his makeshift pillow. After changing out the tunic that he fell asleep in and attempting to push his unkempt hair out of his eyes he moved into the kitchen.

It was a small kitchen with just enough room for a fireplace with a small cooking pot over it and a small table that they used mostly to prepare food. During the Summer they ate outside on a few stumps around their house, but during the winter they would eat in the bedroom. The floor of their house was wooden planks and had been worn down by many years of hard living, but that didn’t stop Ren from finding every splinter in existence with his bare feet. His mother was peeling potatoes with a small knife, placing the peels in a small wicker basket and the finished potatoes in a larger one. Ren’s mother was a kind woman, but she had a hard look to her eyes, sharp, piercing. She was fair skinned with sharp edges, narrow light brown eyes and silky jet-black hair. People always told Ren that he looked more like his father then his mother, to which, if his father was in earshot would yell “That rat wishes he looked as good as his parents!” Not that he could tell since the only mirror for miles around would probably be in the Representatives Manor and he had never been in there except on a dare, and he got caught soon after entering. But he sure hoped he looked anything like his dad or his mom.

“Good morning, Mom! I would love to help you but I’m super late for work. I’m surprised that dad didn’t wake me up.” Ren said as he was putting on his shoes.

“Don’t worry about going to work today. Brett Fletcher said he would cover for you as your birthday present from his family. Remember? He told you he talked to Corbett about it yesterday at your party.” his mother replied as she continued to peel potatoes. “Which means you can help me with some chores around the house.”

Ren’s jaw dropped “You can’t be serious mom… it’s my birthday present…”

“Oh? You don’t want to spend your day off with your Mom?”

Sputtering he replied “Um… of... of course I do mom! I’d love to spend my day off with you!” Ren panicked, not wanting to get on his mother’s bad side this early in the morning.

She laughed “I’m just messing with you honey. Go have fun with your friends. I’m sure that your friend Gena is hanging around the square.”

Ren eyed her suspiciously, after all this could be a trap, but he decided to take his mother’s words at face value with some insurance. “Alright Mom but let me help you with those potatoes before I leave.” He hoped to earn some brownie points with her if this was a trap.

“I’m almost done but if you want to rinse them off, I would appreciate it.” She said looking over her shoulder at Ren, her eyes twinkling.

“Of course Mom” said Ren as he stepped up next to his mother taking a potato in each hand and rinsing them off in a small wooden bucket on the floor next to the table.

After a while his mother broke the silence. “It sounded like you were up late last night. Did you like your birthday present?”

Ren looked at her with a sheepish grin. “Ah you heard me…? I was trying to be quiet.”

“The curtain doesn’t block out the light from your candle completely, and it definitely doesn’t block out the sounds of your giggles.”

“I was rereading the Legend of the Three Heroes, Grandfather always used to tell me that story on my birthday.”

“Ah, yes… He was… pretty obsessed with that legend.”

Silence fell between them for a while until Ren broke it with something that bothered him since last night. “It’s a little strange though… Grandfather told the story differently then what was originally written, like he told me about other adventures that the Heroes went on, not just the ones that are in the book. He even would describe their artifacts, what they looked like, what they could do. I was wondering if there is another book.”

“I’m sure that he made up those stories, so he wasn’t telling you the same story over and over again. Makes it more interesting that way.”

“Really? I don’t know mom… He always seemed so sure about them… I just wish I had them written down. The story that the book tells is mainly just about how the boy betrayed them. I liked the stories about their adventures before… It still hurts me thinking about how that boy would do such a thing.”

his Mother nodded knowingly; she had been subjected to her dad’s obsession just as much if not more then she had. “Yep, but whenever you brought that up to him, he would say…”

“That’s not the point!” they said together in unison. They laughed; grandfather had been consistent if nothing else. Dedicated to his work he never really settled down anywhere. Supposedly his mother and father were on the road with him when he was born. They had left his grandfather to settle down soon after that.

“I miss him…” Ren said as he returned his full focus back to rinsing off the potatoes.

It wasn’t long after that when he finished helping his mother, and he grabbed a small loaf of bread to snack on while he headed into the village center. Stepping outside he was greeted by a strong smell of the nearby lake. The lake was almost constantly covered in a heavy mist, the water was a dark green and almost impossible to see through. Many villagers had tried their hand at fishing, but no one ever caught anything. In fact, there is a pier that extended about 15 ft into the lake made of stone. It was said to have been built a long time ago, before the village was founded, by a great wizard king that liked to fish in privacy. However, when the people of Kilead settled here he took great offence and poisoned the lake, so no one else could enjoy it. Every now and again someone would travel to the village and attempt to fish off it hoping to gain his favor, but every one of them left empty handed. It wasn’t a long walk to the village center, but he wasn’t in any particular rush to get there, so he took his time walking slowly, thinking about the local legends, and talking to people on the way. Most people had been to his party the night before and greeted him warmly, commenting on how he looked older. This led him to attempt stand up straighter and try and give his voice a deeper inflection, which he soon realized made him look ridiculous and made him feel embarrassed.