Hey guys, here's the first full chapter of the story. Meant to finish it much earlier but got caught up with No Man's Sky and Battle Brothers. Full games btw.

venyr4686 - Thank you! Welcome!

Chapter 1: A Day in Stagfield

Severus slurped down his porridge happily, even as the chaos raged around him. His two younger brothers have decided that their breakfast served better as projectiles than food and their spoons better catapults than eating. A glob of porridge flew past where Sev's head had been, his happy swaying in his seat preventing a mess from materializing on his head. His younger sister had no such luck; she sobbed loudly, a bystander turned into a collateral casualty of the food war. This in turn woke their youngest sibling, who bawled loudly in their mother's arms.

Well, at least in the one that didn't hold the weapon of mass destruction.

The cooking spoon rose, and it fell, casting its tyranny across their main table. The boys commenced an immediate ceasefire as the greater threat presented itself, along with the thundering voice of their mother. "How many times must I say this: NO PLAYING WITH YOUR FOOD!" Sev looked over his bowl at the former combatants cowering in their seats, ineffectively using the table as cover for their small statures against the verbal onslaught. "Now you can go hungry until lunchtime! Go on then! Finish what's left in your bowls and be about your chores!"

The main room of their thatched-roof hut mirrored the others in their village, with the main room serving multiple purposes. A stone stove nestled against one of the wooden walls, a few smoking embers still smoking under the porridge-crested pot. Lining one side, a narrow table for food preparation flanked the stove along with a pile of wood, chopped and ready for the fire. Currently, the main table sat in the middle of the room, with all the chairs and stools occupied by the children. Several farming tools hung on the wall by the front door, waving gently to the knot of garlic hanging from the roof beam across the room each time the door opened and closed. Containers, from sacks to old chests, laid against the walls wherever space permitted.

As the twins cried afoul about the injustices inflicted upon them by their mother, the red-haired woman turned to her crying daughter, and her face softened from her mask of anger. "Kayla, dear. Why don't you go clean up? I'll keep your bowl from your brothers, and you can finish your porridge afterward." The tiny blonde child kept crying, giving no indication of hearing her. Sighing, the adult turned to her eldest. "Sev, will you kindly help Kayla clean up? I've got my hands full with Isla and these two. She shot a stern stare at the two boys, whose jaws quickly locked up at the angered sight.

"Yes, Mama. C'mon Kay-Kay," Sev nodded and quickly hopped on his feet, collecting his bowl and spoon and running to the stove to deposit them in the tub next to it, before running back to gently grab his little sister's hand and guiding her to the next room in their hut, where they slept. While their parents slept on the larger bed on the ground floor, the kids had their individual cots in a section above, accessible only via the ladder in the room. Collecting a rag from the top of their dresser-shelf, he gently wiped the mixture of food, tears, and snot from his little sister's face, taking care to flip the rag over before air rinsing the young girl's hair, letting the last of the food fall onto the dirt.

His sister's eyes, while red, had finally ceased their tears, and she stared up at him, a look oddly reminiscent of their mother's. "Why are they such big dooty heads?" she pouted as her big brother cleaned the rag as best as he could.

Sev gave a laugh. "Because they haven't worked a full day out on an empty stomach."He hung the rag back where he had found it. "Trust me, after today, they'll be eating that porridge off of your little face."

"Yuck!" Kayla stuck her tongue out.

Still chuckling, Sev held out his hand as Kayla took it, and they walk back into the main room of their home. Hiding slightly behind him, his little sister checked behind her mobile cover to make sure the area was clear, before heading back to her food. Indeed, their mother had made good on her punishment and both the boys were nowhere to be seen. A familiar humming heralded the sight of their mother by the stove window, no doubt tending to the chicken pen in the back. Sev turned back to his little sister, "be sure to help Mama out once you're done with breakfast, alright?" At the bob of his sister's head, the boy turned and walked outside, circling around to face his mother within the tiny fenced-off area for their few fowls.

True enough, the mother of five tossed a handful of seeds for the chickens within, still holding her youngest in one arm. The babe slept peacefully, a trickle of drool leaking onto her mother's shoulder. Spotting Sev, she called out, "Sev, good. Is Kayla finishing her breakfast?" The boy's enthusiastic nodding drew out a warm smile from the woman. "I can always count on you. Speaking of which: Papa's got a task for you. Go find him in the barley field with the Kiren and Mylos."

"Yes Mama, Kayla will be right out to help you." Turning, Sev ran off with the childish energy no adult ever remembered possessing, hopping onto the dirt road in front of their hut and bounded down the path. Within moments, the corp fields of Stagfield came into view. A sea of gold to the boy, he paced himself so as to not miss the second right turn, then a skip over the stream where, every moon during the spring and summer, the children would come to race their hand made vessels, each vying for the coveted title of 'Admiral of Stagfield.' Finally, a turn past the shrine of Dera to arrive at their family field.

"Papa! Papa!" Sev yelled at the man with the rolled-up sleeves as he ran up and threw his arms around the man's waist. His father's husky smell always made him feel safe, and the dirt from work never bothered the boy. Behind them, the twins busied themselves with picking up the fallen barley at the edge of the field, destined for the grinder and to feed their family until harvest finished. The sun-beaten brunette man reached down and ruffled his oldest son, a grin on his face.

"Ah, good. I gathered breakfast was a handful for ya poor mum?" his father asked. Still hugging his waist, Sev looked up at the man and shrugged, a sheepish smile on his face. "Don't even bother covering for them. I can hear their stomach growling from here. Don't worry though, I'm sure your old lady's cooking up a feast for us for dinner."

"Hey! Mum's not old!" Mylos yelled from the back.

"I'm telling!" Kiren added. At least, Sev was pretty sure that was Kiren, and the other was Mylos.

"Alright, alright boys. You don't tell mama what I said, and I'll show you what I've been working on the last few weeks behind the barn, deal?"

"Deal!" the twins replied simultaneously, enthusiastically going back to their chores. With a chuckle, their father turned back to Sev as he began to follow his younger brothers.

"Not so fast, Sev. Got a couple of things in town I need taking care of, but Old Man Stannis needs some extra hay for a new stud he bought a moon ago. Run into town for me and finish those errands, will ya?" His father reached into a pocket and pulled out a few coins, before handing them to his eldest. "Pick up the sickle from the smithy and a bag of salt for your mama from Lucee's stand. Then stop by the Boorish Tap: Moriss still owes me a crate of pickled fish. The crate's a bit big but I think you can handle it."

"Yes, Papa," Sev carefully counted out the lintons and put them into the lone pocket within his tattered pants.

"Oh, and if you want to get yourself a snack on the way home, feel free. The harvest looks decent thus far." His father gave a glance to the others. "Either get enough for everyone or make sure your brothers don't see them. Don't need you lot fighting all over the hut and waking the babe." He ruffled Sev's hair one more time before giving the boy a quick shove towards the center of their village. "Now get going! I want you back by sundown!"

"I'm on it!" Sev sprinted away from his father, only to turn around at the sound of his father's voice.

"Sev! You're going the wrong way!"

Passing over the tiny plank bridge over Sheep's Brook, Sev dashed into the main dirt road of Stagfield. The raven-haired boy passed the few bordering huts on the edge of the village, waving to the various village folks he passed. Bobbing and weaving through the (sparse) thoroughfare of the village center, he ran towards the steady trail of smoke from one of the open-air shacks, right up to the humble local smithy. Hearty and Husky Hartland the Smith, who had been hammering something, greeted him with a wave and smile almost as warm as the air around his forge. Setting down the tool in one hand and the blazing hot metal tongs in the other, the local tradesman spoke as the boy approached. "Come to pick up your dad's commission, Sev?"

"Uh-huh," Sev nodded as he glanced curiously at some of the unfinished wares in the shop. The smithy was as close as he had ever been to an actual store. Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out three of the coins as Hartland came back with something wrapped in a thick cloth. "The rest of the payment Papa owed you," the boy said as he reached out and handed the three coins to the smithy.

"Why thank you, young man, and here's your Papa's sickle. Hardened and sharpened as promised," Hartland handed the sickle to the boy, who seemed to have his hands full with the adult-sized tool. "Oh, and Cynthia's been looking for you. You haven't played together in some time, is that right?"

Sev pursed his lips at the name of the Smith's daughter. Like her mother, the older girl often hugged him too hard and too long each time they saw each other, wasting precious playtime. Not to mention, he didn't particularly enjoy her smell, which reminded him of a moist towel that's started to mold. Fortunately, he had already turned his back to Hartland, and thus had a moment to recompose his face before turning back to the Smith. "I'm sorry Master Hartland, I've had a lot of chores to do, and I don't get any playtime until they're all done."

He felt a tinge of guilt at the Smith's friendly smile. "Well, I can't fault you for wanting to help your Mama and Papa first with their work. Well, be sure to swing by whenever you're done, I'm sure Cynthia will be delighted to see you."

"Bye, Master Hartland!" Sev waved as he left, purposely ignoring the last part of their conversation as he ran towards the vegetable stand on the other side of the market. There, the familiar sight of two people greeted him. First, a pretty but irritated young woman stood behind her stand, covered with baskets full of produce from her family's garden. Next to her, a young man with a bit too much grease on his face smiled sleazily at her.

"Come now, Lucee. I'm the most eligible bachelor in town, and you're not exactly swarmed by prospects at the moment."

The young woman shot him a look of disdain. Or disguise. Sev wasn't really good at discerning her face from his low vantage point. "How absolutely charming of you, Reggie. It's a wonder you're still unmarried with such sense of romance towards the fairer sex."

The young man tutted at Lucee, his face almost as smug as it was greasy. "You know what I say is true: what other alternative is there? Bart? He's more likely to crush you in the bed-chamber than to make any children with you. Lanny? I don't even know if he has enough brains to know how to work the twig between his legs."

"You seem quite familiar with Lanny's twig, perhaps you two should go and entertain each other, instead of standing in front of my stand annoying my customers," Lucee replied coolly, and Reggie's face swelled red. As he opened his mouth, however, she turned towards Sev, standing with the large covered sickle in hand and waiting for them to finish their conversation. "In fact, one of my favorite customers is here. Hello, Sev! How can I help you?"

Sev didn't like how Reggie spun towards him with narrowed eyes, nor the glare the young man now placed upon him. Shifting his weight from one foot to another uncomfortably, he suddenly found the pumpkins in front of him very interesting. "I-I came to pick up some salt for my Mama," he muttered as he looked up at the smiling face of the young woman.

"Helping out your Ma, huh? How sweet of you. Just a moment," she disappeared behind her stall, rummaging through something in it. Reggie edged his way around, pivoting to get a full view without the interference of the shop, but before he could though, the young woman popped back up with a small sack in hand, while shooting a glare at the pseudo-innocent looking Reggie. "Here you go! One bag of salt." As Sev reached in his pocket to pull out a linton to pay her, Lucee looked back at him with her green eyes and waved her hands. "No need, I still owe your mama for mending my dress at the Mid-Summer festival. Please let her know I really appreciate that."

Lucee walked around the stall and plopped the sack on top of the tool, making Sev stumble a little. She smiled at him as he regained his footing, and gave a smile back to the young woman. "Wow! Thanks Lucee!"

"At least someone around here knows how to act like a gentleman," Lucee said, shooting another cold stare at Reggie. Just as she made her way back behind the stall, Reggie came over and put a hand over his mouth, speaking to Sev from the side.

"Alright, you've got your five minutes in the sun, kid. Now scram. I'm trying to get some here and you're cockblocking me."

Sev looked at him, confused. Reggie was always talking about 'getting some,' but he never said some of what exactly. Also, Lucee's family sold vegetables, not chickens. In fact, Sev didn't see any chickens at the market today, let alone roosters. Still confused, the boy waved at Lucee, who happily waved back. "Bye Lucee, I'll thank Mama for you!"

"Bye now!"

With that, Sev ran towards the lively sound of the lone establishment of food and drinks within his village. Just as he reached the center of the square though, an unknown voice greeted him. "Hey there, adventurer! In a hurry to rescue a princess? Why don't you browse my wares a bit before heading back out to face the angry dragon in its tower?" Sev slowed and turned. A colorful covered wagon greeted him, along with a man with a very strange hat. It looked soft but had something like a green and yellow rope attached to its sides. The colors matched the man's outfit, which flashed brightly, catching the eyes of anyone who looked in his general direction.

In front of him laid several tarps on the ground, with various bobbles and knick-knacks on top of each. Walking over with the tool and salt in arms, Sev glanced curiously at the items. There were balls of various shapes and sizes, anywhere from a common playing ball to a crystal one. Seeing Sev's eyes falling on the crystal ball, the salesman quickly picked it up. "Ah, perhaps the gift of divination interests you? This is the Ball of Foresight! Simply rub it, picture what future you would like to discern, and it will show it to you!"

Not paying any attention to the man, Sev moved on to some very lifelike statuette toys laid on another tarp, ranging anywhere from a princess-looking woman to many different soldiers posing in different positions. Of course, the strange man stayed on his trail. "Ah, perhaps you would like a fearsome army at your disposal! Here we have the frozen Corps D'Attend! Famed for their courage and loyalty! A simple passphrase, and you can unleash them upon your enemies!"

Before he finished his last sentence, however, Sev had already walked towards yet another item which looked like a large dagger, or a short sword, along with a metal star with sharpened edges. "You have a good eye, sir! That there is Urikbane, the legendary blade that struck down the last dark lord of the Northern Wastes. For only six payments of..." Sev had already drowned down the peddler's words, as he lost interest in most of his goods. Just as the boy turned to leave though, he spotted a stuffed toy bear, wearing cloth versions of a knight's armor along with a small wood and leather shield on its back and a wooden sword on its side.

"Very good! That there is the magical companion of the previous Princess of Charola, now its current queen. It is said that-"

"How much for it?"

"Oh!" the merchant paused, a peeved look over his face for a moment at the missed opportunity to properly sell the item. He looked at the boy with an inspecting eye, perhaps seeing the peasant's child's clothes for the first time. "Well, how much do you have on you?" Sev shrugged and carefully put down the salt bag along with the sickle, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out the two lintons he still had on him. "Perfect!" the merchant cried out and rubbed his hands together, making Sev jump slightly. "I had originally priced it to three lintons, but for you, young adventurer, I'll drop it to two, but!" He raised a finger, just as Sev raised an eyebrow. "You'll have to take advantage of the deal right now!"

Sev looked down at the two coins in his hand. Sure, his father had given him permission to spend one of them for snacks, but things at home weren't desperate, they also didn't have too much to go around either, especially between the five children. He gave another look at the stuffed toy bear, before shoving the coins back into his pocket. "No, thank you, sir. I think I'll pass on the deal."

The merchant's face instantly darkened, and he aimed a kick at Sev. "Well, then get out of here, you no good pauper! Get your poor arse back to your poor little shack!" The boy had better reflexes though and jumped out of the way. Before the merchant could attempt the kick again, he had already scooped out his father's tool and his mother's salt and ran away, specifically towards the Boorish Tap. Leaving the irate merchant behind, he rushed into the inn.

A musky, sweet smell swelled Sev's nostrils as he made his way to the serving table in the back. On one of the guest tables, a man smelling of beer and foul stuff snored loudly, the content of his tipped-over mug dripping off the side of the table. A hushed discussion between some of the elders of the village took place at another. As Sev got closer to the second table, he heard, "That's the third attack, and five cows between the lot. We have to do something about this."

"Maybe just a pack of wolves? We can gather some men and put up extra night watches."

"Have you seen the carcasses? Those are no wolves. We need to put a contract up."

Before Sev could listen in anymore, however, Hella, the serving maid, stepped past him with several full mugs in each hand. "Oh, pardon me, little one. Have to refill the alderman and his friend's drinks." While Sev knew Hella had blonde hair, he rarely found himself able to see her face from his short stature; her chest was often in the way. Nodding, he went up to the serving table, where a hairy man busied himself with filling up several bowls in front of him with stew from the pot over the fire.

The adult scowled as Sev approached. "Alright! Who's whelp is running around my inn? Get outta here kid, before I give ya a tanning!" Sev frowned, and did his best to stand up straight with the heavy load in his arms.

"Nah uh, my Papa said you owe him a box of pickled fish, Geen!"

"I don't owe your old man nothing!" the inn owner replied, now stepping around the serving table with a menacing kitchen knife in hand. "Now, scram before I chop you up and serve you with the next stew!" Sev did his best to ignore the stinging in his eyes and kept his chin up at the advancing man. "Alright, don't say I didn't warn you, brat!" Just as the knife went up, Geen's head jolted forward with a crack, a lump swelling where he had been hit. Next to him, a stern-looking woman appeared, a rolling pin in hand.

"What in Melitele's name are you doing, Geen? Scaring children again? How many times do I have to tell you scaring them pisses off their parents," she said as she pinched the man's cheek, hard. "In other words, they're our customers, you moron. Now get your arse back in the kitchen and see to the pies before they're burnt. I don't know why I ever married you." Grumbling, the man shot another look at Sev before retreating quickly to a room in the back under the wrathful gaze of his wife. Turning back to Sev with a satisfied look on her face, she gracefully pretended not to notice as he wiped his face with his sleeve. "Ah, Sev! You must be here for a pickled fish, right?"

Nodding, Sev looked up to see the woman had materialized a crate full of jars of the stuff in her hands. She reached down and took the covered sickle and the bag of salt and placed them into the crate, fitting them snuggly between the jars and the side. "Careful now, it's a little heavy," her welcomed kind words, unfortunately, did not help the child balance as she placed the crate in his arms, the content tall enough to block his view. "Got it, Sev?"

"Uh-huh," Sev grunted as he struggled to turn around and began waddling to the door. "Thanks, Madam Geen!" The missus merely smiled as she waved him goodbye. The boy waddled past the sleeping drunk and the elders' discussion, now too focused on the task at hand to further listen in. He gave a wide berth to Hella as she returned to the serving table in the opposite direction, knowing that avoiding a possible hazard to his mission was well worth the effort to walk a few extra steps. Just as he reached the threshold of the establishment though, a sudden shadow blocked the exit.

Barely able to see over the contents in his arms, Sev bumped into the owner of the silhouette, falling to the floor. He let out a sharp exhale as the crate fell on top of him, landing with a thud on his stomach. Somehow he had the wherewithal to keep the things within the crate from spilling or breaking (though the credit rested with Mrs. Geen, who eliminated as much space within the crate as possible with her packing).

"I-I'm sorry," he gasped, only for his jaw to drop as he looked up, and stared into a pair of cat-like eyes peering down at him.

Alrighty, that's the first chapter. Excited to write the next one since I've already gotten a good idea of what it'll look like, but a bit tired right now from the post-workout slump. Will likely start it later today. Hope you like this chapter and, regardless, have a good one!