Prologue – Boy in the Forest
—
It was a cool spring morning in the Asterisk Mountains, with the sun beating along the forest groves that littered the mountain ranges. The air was feeling slightly thick as a lingering aftereffect from the subsided fog that had combed over the lands just an hour ago. It left the ground and the flora around with a tint of fresh dew. Soon summer would be coming and days like this would become far more frequent than not.
Out of the lone farmhouse that sat upon a mountaintop, a young boy by the age of 12 stepped out of the front door and onto the hard ground. He stood shy of four and a half feet tall, with short, scruffy brown hair that covered his dark brown eyes. He had tan skin that coated over a muscular frame that was befitting a child who worked hard in the outdoors. He wore a grey tank top and lose black shorts which were held by an orange belt. However, he had no shoes on, preferring to go barefoot; the hardened soles of his feet were a testament of this fact.
As the boy was taking in the slight breeze that bristled past and around him, he heard a female voice call out to him, "Rezzie! What are you doing out there?"
Rezzie turned around to the source of the voice, which came from the front doorway of their house. There stood a young girl a year older and a few inches taller than he was with her hands on her hips. Apart from her long, blonde hair and the usual feminine features, she looked like a doppelganger of Rezzie.
The boy still retained stone-faced as he fully faced her, "Just catching some morning rays, Ivy. Looks like summer is finally starting to set in."
"Child, summer set in the day the school year ended," scoffed the girl as she rolled her eyes at him.
"I'm sorry, child?" Rezzie, "Not sure why you keep ignoring the memo, sis, but you're not even a year older than I am."
"Yeah but I'm smarter than you by years," bragged Ivy as she stuck her nose up arrogantly.
"And you can be the smartest person in the world and still be dumber than a box of rocks," Rezzie noted as her expression changed to an annoyed one, "Anyways, did dad want us for anything today?"
The two siblings often had childish spats like this far too often to count. Then again, siblings often argued among themselves all the same. As Rezzie cracked his neck to remove the sudden stiffness that was ailing it, Ivy's expression left her as she took a more calmer state of mind.
"Yeah. Once we're done with chores and training, he and mom have something to talk to us about over lunch," answered Ivy, "the firewood inside needs to be taken outside and stacked with the rest and the trash from the bins around the house needs to be put in the dumpster bin."
"And I suppose you and dad will be training together as usual?" Rezzie asked as he absentmindedly cracked his knuckles
"Yeah. I got that national wakeboard competition coming up so I need to prepare for it."
Rezzie's eyes sunk down a bit in dejection. For as long as he could remember, Ivy and their father were like two peas in a pod. Likely inseparable if they could. And when his sister took up wakeboarding and proven to be skilled in the sport, he dedicated a good portion of his efforts into making sure she was the best she could be. Of course, with them having similar personalities they tend of butt heads on certain matters. Rezzie could never get himself into water sports, even though he was a good swimmer. So for the most part, he was pretty much left on the back burner to his own devices.
"All right. I'll tell ya what, I'll take care of the chores since it isn't much to do. You can get a head start on your training if you want," suggested Rezzie as he made his way up the steps onto the front porch.
"That's awfully generous. What's the occasion?" asked Ivy as she raised an eyebrow at him.
"I'm not sure. I'll get back to you on that later," he answered as he maneuvered past Ivy and went back inside.
As he left Ivy to her business, Rezzie went into the kitchen and grabbed an empty trash bag from under the sink and went from room to room emptying out the trash bins. Each one looked about partially full, halfway at the most. Once he got done with gathering the trash from around the house, he tied it up and put it in the dumpster bin next to the front porch.
He then went into the garage where the firewood was stored. There was about a couple dozen pieces that were there, likely been there since the start of winter. Opening the garage door, he grabbed the wheelbarrow and started putting firewood pieces in there half a dozen at a time. After five trips of putting the firewood outside with the rest that were stacked up on the side of the house, he took a dustpan and swept up the broken off wood chips and bark that was left behind with a hand broom. He then took the swept up debris outside and chucked it into the woods on the edge of the clearing, back into nature's hands.
Wiping his hands on his shorts, Rezzie nodded at the job well done, "Well, that's one less thing that I have to do today. Wonder what dad and Ivy are up to with their training."
As he walked around to the other side of the house where the gardens and the larger clearing was, he saw his father and Ivy running drills and calisthenics. From the looks of things, they appeared to be having a good time and that they were bonding well. Rezzie scoffed at it all. He loathed his father for not being able to properly connect with him on the same level as his sister, and he envied Ivy for having what he didn't.
On the other side of the coin, it felt like too much noise for him if he did. He tended to prefer his own company most of the time so he didn't mind much at all being alone. His mother was somewhat the same way. Maybe it was something in the genetics, a disposition for solitude. But because of his own social deficit he had very little friends. Then again, it would be a surprise to have any friends if you lived atop of a mountain in the middle of nowhere.
Realizing that he needed to cool off and get his head right, he let out a sigh and went back inside the garage. Whenever the boy needed to get his head straight, he always went off into the surrounding woods by himself. However, the woods aren't a safe place to be in for longer than he had to, especially for a child. Deciding to carry some sort of protection with him, he rustled through the tools and found a sheathed black-handled machete mixed among them. Strapping it to his belt, he felt more secure. Leaving a note on the key rack letting his family know where he was off to and when he will be back, he set himself off into wilds to regain his senses.
The forest was filled with tall, winding oak trees that were spaced out so openly that someone could drive a minivan through there with ease without crashing. It was mostly because Rezzie's family owned the surrounding woods for a mile all around the farmhouse and years ago his father took measures in clearing out hundreds upon hundreds of trees so they could have an easier time hunting and traversing the wilds. Even without the clearing, Rezzie would've still been able to adventure through the thick without much difficulty. The forests were his domain.
After several minutes of walking, Rezzie came off to a clearing in the middle of the woods just 100 yards off from the property line. This place was his personal slice of the universe, the place where he goes to in order to be alone with his thoughts and feelings. In the clearing was a large tree stump were a massive oak tree once stood that acted as a sort of table. Placed around them were large logs that were positioned to be used as chairs to sit in. The boy took in a deep breath of the dew-soaked scent of bark and wood that stained the air around him, and with that his worries and his negative thoughts just went away altogether.
"Well, I guess it's time to do some training of my own," Rezzie said as he looked around to make sure no one was watching.
Removing the machete from his belt, he drew the blade from his sheath and placed the hard leather sheath on the stump. Rezzie never had much affinity when it came to self defense and combat. While his father spent his time teaching Ivy about the self defense training he got during his tenure in the military, the boy had to learn on his own without any proper help or guidance. Most of the stuff he learned was from watching old martial arts movies that showed up on the television once in a while when he got the chance to watch it. However, while he wasn't much good in hand to hand combat, he did excel when it came to weapons combat; specifically with swords. His father was always annoyed with him practicing with sticks he would find lying around, calling his actions stupid. But as for Rezzie, he couldn't get enough of it.
Rezzie moved through the motions that he observed and practiced, practicing different spinning strikes, pirouettes and thrusts. The machete swung through the air cleanly with each motion that he made. Spinning the blade in his hand and grasping it with a reverse grip, he leapt into the air, spun a fluid 360 in midair before stabbing the machete blade clean in the center of the stump with a falling stab. The machete blade sunk over half a foot into the stump, cracking the wood slightly around the point of contact.
As Rezzie touched down on the wet stump after the downward stab, he slipped up on his footing and tumbled off the stump and landed face first into the ground in a heap. As he got up, he spat out a wad of dirt that ended up in his mouth and got back up on his feet. Dusting himself off, he stepped back up atop of the stump and tried to pry the blade free from the center of the stump. However, he couldn't get it out no matter how hard he pulled.
Grunting in frustration, he kept pulling and whispering to himself, "Pry…free…you son of a…bitch!"
With a final hard yank, he was able to finally free the machete from the stump with a wet thunk. However, the momentum that was still left over nearly caused Rezzie to lose his footing again as he balanced for a minute on the edge of the stump before regaining his footing properly. Taking a sharp swing through the air like a samurai in order to shake off any sort of remaining residue and wood-stained dew off the blade, he wiped the blade dry off on his shorts and picked up the leather sheath in order to holster the machete. But before he could finish the deed, he heard a deep, dark gurgle come up from behind him that caused him to freeze in place like a statue.
"Damn the Gods…" Rezzie mouthed to himself in pure disdain, "please be a frog, please be a frog, please be a frog…"
Rezzie, very slowly, turned around to face the source of the noise to see what he was up against. And when he saw what made that noise, he almost lost composure. On all fours was a large brown bear, poised and ready to attack at any given moment. With a heave, it rose up on its hind legs, standing almost seven feet tall, and eyeballed what could be very well its next meal with a carnivorous intent.
The boy was now in a serious bind. He knew the forest well and was certainly fast enough to take his chances of running away, but he could only avoid the bear for so long until he would run out of stamina and stop running. While he did have his machete, he never fought a bear before so he didn't know how fast it could strike in combination with it's immense strength. He was far away from the house, so calling for help would take a while. He then eyed the ground beneath them; it was thick, granular and wet enough to be packed easily.
Rezzie decided on his plan. As the bear lunged forward to take a massive swipe at the boy, he dove out of the way and rolled to a kneeling position several feet away. Scooping up a huge chunk of wet dirt in his free hand, he chucked it as hard as he could right into the bear's face. The dirt ball nailed home right into the bear's eyes, causing the lumbering animal to claw at its own face in order to free himself from his temporary blindness.
Seeing his moment to run, the boy bolted as fast as he could through the woods, dodging and weaving around and over fallen trees and overhanging branches. As he ran for dear life, he started shouting into the air as loud as he could in order to call for help:
"Dad! Daaadddd!" Rezzie shouted at the top of his lungs every ten seconds or so as he ran, his voice filled with terror.
As he continued to run, he heard from behind him the fast-paced, thudding noises of a now angry brown bear charging after him. Fortunately, the boy had a steady head start on the animal so it would take it a few seconds for the bear to actually catch up with him. Weaving in a zig-zag pattern through the woods on the way back to the farmhouse, he started swinging at numerous low-hanging branches and small trees with the machete in order to obstruct the bear's path no matter how slight he possibly could. While the bear was able to plow through the feeble defenses with ease, it had to take just a very slight moment to get through them, not even a tenth of a second. But Rezzie knew that any time he could accumulate for himself will add up and could very well save him from certain death.
However, his luck took a bad turn as he accidentally came up to a solid wall of cliff that went up for almost 50 feet. At that moment, the bear was starting to gain on Rezzie and in the next several seconds it was going to attack the boy right there on the spot. Turning around to face the charging bear, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to outrun the bear any longer. He was going to have to gamble everything he could on trying to kill the bear.
Taking up a combat stance with the machete, he saw as the bear finally came into view in front of him. It surged forward and came headfirst at the boy in order to take a massive bite out of him. At the same time, Rezzie's irises glowed a blood orange as a similar colored light surged around him, catching the bear by surprise for a split second. As the light enveloped the machete blade, Rezzie lunged forward, roaring as he swung the blade down as hard as he could down on the bear's head with all the strength that he had in his body.
—
Meanwhile, back at the farmhouse Ivy and her father just finished their calisthenics and wakeboard workouts on the trampoline that they had in the backyard. They were unaware of everything that was gong on so far with Rezzie off in the woods. As the girl leapt off the trampoline and landed softly on her feet, her father spoke with a look of approval on his face.
"All right, that'll be all for today. You can rest for now and we'll get back to it again in the afternoon," her father spoke with sternness in his voice.
"Sure, dad," Ivy complied before she paused and asked, "I know you wanted to wait until Rezzie was here for this, but can you tell me what you wanted to talk to us about?"
"Well, I suppose there's no harm in that. Either way you both will know at the end of the day," her father stroked his beard in thought before speaking, "your great-grandmother is going to be moving into a retirement home in the next few weeks, so her home is going to be vacant. Rather than selling it off to the highest bidder, she decided that your mother and I can move the family towards the capitol and live there instead."
Ivy had a look of excitement and surprise on her face. Their family only ever gone to the capitol to visit her father's side of the family only during the holidays, but in the end that was all that they did. But to live there in a house that is already been paid for would be a huge bolster both in lifestyle and in opportunities, not just for the family but for herself and her wakeboard career. She can think of dozens of different academies and sites where she can practice her craft and be able to get in as much training and riding time as she wants.
"That sounds like a great idea!" Ivy exclaimed as she hopped up in down in excitement, "and I know Rezzie will love the idea as well-"
"Wait, what the heck is that noise? Her father held his hand up in order to silence his daughter and listen with full concentration.
Suddenly they heard faint shouting from the distance, gradually growing louder as if it was coming closer towards the house. At first they weren't able to make out what exactly what the noise was, as it was muffled from being far away as well as coming from the forest. But as it was gradually becoming clearer, it revealed to be none other than Rezzie's voice coming from the distance. And judging by the tone of his voice, he sounded absolutely terrified.
Ivy's father looked alarmed as he sprung into action, a look of horror on his face. He knew the wilds weren't a safe place to be in, even though that he tried his best to make it so with all the efforts to make the forests in their property line a controlled environment. But every now and then, something could blunder its way into their part of the world and cause some form of havoc. While he could trust his son to go into the woods safely, accidents could ways happen.
"REZZIE!" Ivy's father exclaimed before turning to her, "Ivy, stay right where you are. I'm going to get my gun!"
"Wait what?" Ivy asked, confused.
As her father sprinted into the house, Ivy was in confusion. Her brain wasn't initially grasping that her brother was potentially in mortal danger. But, just as the thought registered in her mind, she saw something that rendered it blank once more, this time with shock. A loud explosion and a bright light jetted out through the forest and shot high into the sky. Then, a heavy shock-wave from the light bent the trees back and scoured across the entirety of the hill and the farmhouse. All the windows and glass in the farmhouse shattered into pieces and ivy was thrown backwards into the air, flipping through the air before landing belly-first on the ground ten yards from where she originally stood.
Getting up off her feet slowly and groggily, she saw as he father staggered out of the house with a 30-30 rifle in his hands as well as her mother, who looked confused and beside herself. Clearly they was dazed by the shock-wave as well. When the light faded, all that was left was a large cloud of smoke that rose up into the air.
"What the hell was that, Hunter? That sounded like a bomb just went off over there in the woods!" Ivy's mother, "By the Gods, I hope Rezzie is all right…"
"More like a damn nuke," the father looked towards the direction off the smoke, "I'm going down there. Lynn, call the cops!"
"Okay!"
With a burst of adrenaline and speed, Hunter rushed out towards the source of the explosion, tearing into the woods. He didn't care for a second that he was blindly tearing his way through the forest and cutting himself on the low-lying branches and bushes. He didn't even care that his gun was knocking into obstacles and getting scuffed and dirty. All he cared about at that moment was the safety and well being of his son.
He knew he never really spent as much time with Rezzie as much as he did with Ivy. It was mostly his fault on that matter. They never exactly had much in common to begin with, and they never had any real joy in each other's people that see them together often did say that Ivy takes after him while Rezzie takes after his mother. But he tried his best to love his children equally.
After tearing through the woods, he finally came to the end of the treeline where the source of the explosion was. What he saw as nothing like he ever seen before in his life. The entire area was absolutely desolate, not an ounce of flora and fauna in the blast zone in sight. The edge of the clearing was coated in a hard layer of blood orange glass. All the ground, all the trees, even all the leaves on the trees were glassed over. However, he couldn't see head or tails of his son anywhere.
"Rezzie!" the father called out as he was looking through the wasteland, "Rezzie where are you!?'
"I'm…over hear, dad…" the father heard the voice of his son on his left.
The father turned around to see Rezzie stagger towards him from the edge of ground zero, absolutely disoriented. Apart from a few scratches, which could possiblybe sourced from tearing through the woods, he was virtually unhurt. The father ran towards his son and embraced him as hard as he could.
"Oh thank the Gods, I thought you were dead!" the father exclaimed, relieved out of his mind, "'Are you all right?"
"Dad, where are we?" asked Rezzie, confused out of his mind, "I remember being at the homestead, and the next I'm waking up outside of…dad, what the hell happened here?"
"Wait, you don't remember anything that happened here?" as he saw his son shook his head, the father released his embrace, looked around and answered, "Well, our property used to be a small battlefield from the Old War long ago. I'm guessing maybe an animal or something stepped on some sort of landmine out here and torched the place. You're one lucky bastard to survive this, much less come out untouched."
"I guess so, " Rezzie nodded, accepting the story as what it could be, "I don't think we're safe here anymore."
"I agree. That's why we're going to be moving to the capitol, "the father watched as his son's eyes widened, "Originally it was to move into Nana's house since she's moving into a retirement home, but this will be the new reason. The best reason. Sounds about right to you?"
"Yeah, definitely."
"Good, now let's go home."
As the two started walking away from the blast zone and started into the woods, they made their way back home. Not once did they ever consider to look towards the center of the clearing. In the middle was a dead bear slumped on its side, eviscerated and glassed over just like the rest of the area. And lodged in the ground in front of it was the machete Rezzie was wielding, faintly glowing and pulsating with a blood orange flame like a heartbeat.