Hello everyone, and welcome to chapter 2 of Before Kingdom Hearts: Shadows!
Creativity: Man, it feels good to be back in regular publishing again!
Author: Indeed it does, my friend, and it's good to have a bunch of chapters ready to go to carry us through over a third of the year, and we're so close to reaching a solid end-point for the opening salvo too!
Ah, but we're getting ahead of ourselves! I'd say we'd need to talk about the previous chapter's reviews, but as unfortunately anticipated, we don't have any reviews yet.
Creativity: We're planning to retroactively add review responses for a short stretch once we start picking up steam, so don't feel like it's too late to get a response if you so wish!
Author: Indeed! Until then, should you so desire, feel free to join us on Discord for chatter! The password can be found here: 5RRcGwh
Creativity: Oh, and credit to CeleneTheAngel for helping to beta-read/edit this chapter for us! Many thanks, Celene!
Author: Yes, many thanks indeed, and now it is time for the main event!
Allow us to proudly present chapter 2 of Before Kingdom Hearts: Shadows!
Never before had Ryo felt as stuck as he did now. He'd been in tight spots before back home, but he'd never felt trapped like this before. And all because of one sentence.
"About whom you are, mystery mage."
Ryo stared at Veruk, who was watching him carefully.
"Well, do you need another invitation, or should I start?" Veruk asked pointedly. Ryo glared a little in response.
"What's there to talk about?" Ryo replied as he looked away. Veruk shrugged.
"Well, there's always the fact that your magic has never been documented before, whatever it is. There's also the fact that I don't believe you were robbed on the road of all your traveling supplies, so that begs the question of how you made it as close to Woodfell as you did without any. You don't have any tools for survival on you, so I doubt you were hunting and drinking from creeks to make it this far. I'd assume you somehow got this far by using your magic; perhaps some method of teleportation?" Veruk replied evenly.
"Well, that's some wonderful speculation, but it doesn't mean anything in the end. I can't use magic." Ryo replied, a note of bitterness creeping into his voice. Veruk frowned and narrowed his eyes as he leaned forward.
"Don't think you can lie to me about this, kid. Hector took a reading while he was examining you and confirmed that you have magic. I get that you might not want to talk about it, but I can't afford to have a mage running wild with the Dread King's forces lurking around. Now I need you to tell me what really happened and explain your mag…"
"And I'm telling you to stop wasting your breath; I can't use magic." Ryo interrupted, his voice now one of frustration. Veruk rose to his feet.
"And I told you not to think you can lie to me." Veruk hissed as he towered to his full height. However, Ryo didn't react. He was too angry to be intimidated at the moment.
"Now, stop being so damn stubborn and tell me the truth!" Veruk demanded. Ryo stared him dead in the eye, his purple irises beginning to glow a little as similarly colored sparks began to dance along his entire body. They started sporadically but were growing more intense and constant by the second! Veruk was quick to notice and start backing up.
"You aren't listening, I can't use my…!" Ryo began to shout before a loud, sputtering burst of energy erupted from his body, causing Ryo to cry out in pain before falling down on all fours. Smoke began to curl up from his body as his muscles spasmed. Ryo began clutching his chest as his chest heaved, his skin quickly becoming slick with sweat. Veruk muttered a curse before he hurried over to Ryo and started trying to figure how to help him. Luckily, it seemed that the effects of whatever had happened to Ryo were already beginning to fade as he was beginning to stagger to his feet. Veruk helped Ryo up and gave him some space as he gasped for air. Ryo looked like he was going to be sick, but it passed.
"I need to lie down." Ryo groaned and Veruk heartily agreed. Luckily, he knew his way back to his house without having to backtrack through the village. He visited this clearing enough to know his way around.
"So, when you were saying you couldn't use your magic…" Veruk started, only for Ryo to interrupt again.
"I wasn't denying that I had magic. But I may as well not have any for all the good it does me." Ryo concluded. The bitterness had returned to his voice, though it was no longer just a note.
"That still doesn't explain how you got this far with no weapons or supplies." Veruk muttered as his home came into view.
"That was something else entirely, and that doesn't matter either. It's gone now, and it's better that way." Ryo muttered. Veruk glanced at him, having noted something specific that Ryo had let slip.
"What exactly is gone?" Veruk asked carefully. Ryo muttered something Veruk couldn't understand but sounded familiar all the same. Either way, he suspected that it was probably something not meant for the ears of children.
"It doesn't matter. Trust me, you're better off not knowing." Ryo replied. Veruk didn't look convinced, but he dropped it all the same. Ryo wasn't in any shape to be answering more questions anyway.
Once they got back to Veruk's home, Ryo was once again entrapped by blankets in his room while he waited for the after-effects of his attack to wear off. As Veruk pulled the door closed to give the boy some privacy, he let out a sigh and wiped his forehead with his hand.
"What mess have you gotten wrapped up in this time, Ruk?" The man asked himself as he went to the kitchen to pour himself a mug of ale to calm himself down. He hoped that whatever was currently afflicting Ryo that it would clear itself up fast. On a related note, he was probably going to have to keep an eye on the kid and make sure he didn't have any more emotional outbursts like that. Veruk knew all to well what a danger it was to possess magic; worse still if the kid couldn't even use it to defend himself. No one else could know, especially considering the unique circumstances they were dealing with.
Part of Veruk wanted to try and see Ryo out the door and to the village exit the moment he was confident the kid was fully recovered, and he had a feeling that Ryo was thinking the same thing. However, Veruk knew better than to be that callous. The kid probably had no idea where he was going and once he was recovered, he'd need to purchase supplies and plan a route to… wherever he was going to go. The kid could probably handle that himself. However, a lone travelling mage…
"Damn it all…" Veruk muttered before taking a big swig of his ale. The kid was gonna be more of a headache than he thought.
It wasn't until much later that Ryo emerged from his temporary lodging. In fact, Veruk was in the middle of preparing dinner when he heard the door to Ryo's room open and the occupant shuffle out. He was looking a lot better, if quite drowsy. He'd likely been dozing for most of the day. Veruk nodded to the boy as he looked around the house again, seemingly unsure of what to do.
"Just take a seat. The food's almost ready." Veruk told him. Ryo nodded and took a seat at the table, rubbing his eyes a bit in an effort to shake loose a few cobwebs. Not a few moments later the front door opened and shut. Ryo glanced up to see Veris had returned to the house. There was a scant acknowledgement between the two, consisting of eye contact and a faint nod.
Veris did her best to clean her boots off before she strode to where Veruk was cooking and opened up a cupboard, retrieving three plates and bowls before retrieving utensils from a drawer and making her way to the table where she laid everything out before going to collect three cups, setting them on the table before filling each one with water. Not even a minute or so later, Veruk was dishing out a hearty stew made of beef and root vegetables with bread on the side. Ryo nodded appreciatively before tucking in. While not quite the food he was used to, Veruk's cooking had yet to be anything other than delicious.
There wasn't much talk during the meal, and the reason was fairly obvious. Needless to say, Ryo felt like an intruder at the table; a sentiment that seemed not unrestricted to him. Despite having been living under the same roof for three days and counting, Ryo hadn't said a word to Veris yet and vice versa. This was mostly due to Veris spending most of her time out of the house, likely doing jobs from that board that Veruk had told Ryo about before, though that was just an assumption on Ryo's part. Aside from that, Ryo hadn't actually left the room in the entirety of the time he'd spent in Veruk's home and the door was often shut, save for when Veruk popped in to drop off food or water. The longest interaction they could say that they'd had so far was when Veris had brought Ryo water at her father's request, and that was it.
Once the meal was done, Ryo watched as the Veruk and Veris brought the dishes over to the kitchen and washed them. Doing them by hand was unfamiliar to him, but he didn't want to let that slip. Besides, if he was going to be stuck here for a while, he imagined there'd be an expectation of him assisting around the house once he was back on his feet. It would be a good idea for him to familiarize himself with such tasks before he was expected to perform them.
There wasn't much to the evening after the dishes were washed and put away (with Ryo making mental note of where everything went). Veruk got a fire going in a small stone fireplace that was located opposite the kitchen and poured himself a mug of a strange liquid before sitting down in a wooden chair by the fire. There was another chair sitting nearby that Veris was currently occupying. She was currently whittling something with a knife. Ryo didn't care to intrude nor was he enticed by the warmth of the fire, so he quietly stepped outside and took a seat on the bottom step of the front door's staircase, staring up at the night sky.
It was different from home. There were fewer clouds in the sky and far more stars. Every now and again he'd see something winged zip by overhead. At first Ryo thought they were some sort of bird, but he wasn't so sure now that he'd seen them a few times. However, the thing that drew his attention the most was the moon. It was so strange; The moon looked so familiar, and yet there was something fundamentally different about this one. Ryo just couldn't put his finger on it.
Ryo wasn't sure how long he'd spent outside, but it had clearly been a while as he heard the door open behind him. He glanced back to see Veris standing in the doorway, staring at him.
"My dad sent me to tell you that we're heading to bed now." She told him. There were a few strained notes of awkwardness in her voice, but nothing denoting suspicion or other ill feelings towards him. Ryo nodded in acknowledgement before turning his gaze back to the sky.
"Alright. I'll head in for the night too." Ryo replied before he stood up before taking one last look at the sky. As Veris turned to head back inside, she spared a glance back at him as he continued to watch the moon ever so slowly creep across the night sky.
"You like stargazing?" She asked hesitantly. Ryo turned and shrugged.
"I guess. The sky just looks different from home. Besides, I've never really cared about the dark before." Ryo replied as he followed Veris into the house. Opinions on the dark didn't exactly matter when sleep beckoned.
The next morning, Ryo was feeling a lot better than he had the past few days. The pain and weakness post his attack the previous day was a distant memory. Glancing out the window of the small room, he could see the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon. Tossing the sheets off his body, Ryo got dressed in the clothes he'd been loaned and exited the room. Veruk was already up and in the kitchen, working on breakfast. Ryo couldn't quite see what it was, but it looked like a mix of dried grains being poured into boiling water, with yet more bread already waiting on the table, though it was accompanied by a small assortment of fruits this time.
It seemed that Veruk had been a minute away from finishing breakfast when Ryo emerged as he'd barely had time to sit down before Veruk strode over to the table and started ladling out a thick, soup-like mixture into bowls. Steam was rising from the bowl and while there wasn't any particularly enticing smell to go with it, Ryo was hungry enough to not care.
As it turned out, the meal was pretty bland tasting overall, but it was filling enough, and the fruit helped cover for the lack of flavor. Ryo had only gotten a few spoonful's in when the front door opened and Veris stepped inside, carrying a couple of small books and what looked like a stick with a long length of translucent cloth attached to the end. The rest of the cloth was wrapped around the stick.
Veris looked panicked for a brief moment when she saw Ryo, but the look vanished when he didn't seem to react beyond momentary curiosity. She quickly hurried to her room and emerged a minute or so later, the books and stick absent from her grasp. She hurriedly took her seat at the table and began attacking her own breakfast without saying a word. Veruk was the first to finish his bowl and turned to his daughter, who was almost done with her own bowl.
"Ver, would you mind taking Ryo out when you go to do jobs on the board today?" Veruk suddenly asked Veris in an offhanded manner as he carried his dishes over to the kitchen. Veris almost choked on her food but managed to stop herself and swallow properly before turning to stare at her father with a surprised look.
"Wait, what?! Why me?!" Veris spluttered. Ryo glanced up as well. He hadn't been sure what to expect from the day, but he'd assumed he'd either be out on his own or be following Veruk around again. Though, it did make some sense. Running errands in the village was probably the best way for him to acquire supplies if he intended to travel. Besides, it wasn't like he could stay in the village without contributing in some way.
"Well, I'm going to be busy with construction for most of the day, and Ryo needs someone to show him how the Board works. Besides, you two need to interact somehow if you're both going to be living under the same roof." Veruk replied easily. Veris seemed to have a brief moment of mild mortification, but Ryo couldn't be quite sure. The girl opened her mouth to argue, but evidently couldn't find any words as she slowly closed her mouth and slumped over. Veruk smiled a bit without turning around.
"Oh, relax. It's hardly the end of the world." He assured his daughter as she reluctantly got up from the table and went to her room. Ryo could have sworn her heard her say "why me…" under her breath, but he didn't pay it any mind. As long as they got through the day without incident, there'd be nothing to complain about as far as he was concerned.
After finishing breakfast, Ryo went back to his room and retrieved the scavenged sword that had been resting against the wall since he woke up in Veruk's home. It was thin and straight with no guard. It likely wasn't even meant for dueling or battle of any kind, but it was all he had for now. Besides, it was rather light, which suited him perfectly. Of course, there was the current problem of it lacking a scabbard. He hadn't bothered to search for it when he'd torn the blade from the ground and ran for his life. Ryo recalled Veruk pointing out a location in the village where he could get a new scabbard made. He hated the idea of walking around unarmed, especially considering the circumstances that led to his arrival in the village, so getting a scabbard made was absolutely a necessity in his eyes.
After he finished making sure he was ready for the day, Ryo stepped out of the room with sword in hand, held in a reverse grip so as to avoid any accidents. The yelp and jump from Veris was an obvious indicator that she had not been expecting him to emerge from the room with a weapon, which was an understandable response.
"Why are you bringing your sword?!" She demanded as she stared wide-eyed at the razor-sharp strip of steel.
"It doesn't have a scabbard, so I need to get one made for it. I can't exactly go walking around with it drawn all the time, and I don't want to leave it here every time I go out." Ryo replied evenly. Veris just groaned and pinched her brow.
"I'm never gonna hear the end of this from Garr… Alright! Fine! We stop by Victor's to get your sword sorted out, then on to the jobs! Just as long as you aren't carrying that oversized butterknife around all day! We'll never hear the end of it…" She decided, drifting off at the end and mumbling under her breath as she marched to the front door. Ryo wasn't sure what she was so concerned about but decided to keep an eye out as he followed her into the open air.
Veris strode swiftly through the town with Ryo trailing a few meters behind her. Sure enough, he was getting a handful of glances from people regarding the blade he was carrying around, but it hardly fazed him. It probably wasn't often that they saw someone strolling around with a drawn weapon in their hands. Hopefully, the first stop of the day would go towards rectifying that.
Speaking of, the pair reached the leatherworker's building in record time. The man behind the counter glanced over at the pair before his eyes settled on the sword in Ryo's hands, getting a look of recognition in his eyes.
"Veruk mentioned you'd probably be by as soon as you were able. The name's Victor." The man greeted them. He was on the thinner side and a bit sallow looking, with blond hair that was noticeably thinning out. His eyes were blue, and he had a few wrinkles beginning to start on his cheeks. There was also a whiff of an unpleasant smell clinging to him, though not one that suggested poor hygiene.
"My name is Ryo. I was hoping I could get a scabbard made for this." Ryo replied as he gingerly placed the blade on the counter. Victor eyed the blade.
"I haven't made scabbards in a long time, but I can definitely do something for this. It won't come cheap, though." Victor informed him.
"He doesn't have any munny right now, but he's gonna start on jobs soon. He can pay you back that way." Veris interjected. Ryo nodded in affirmation. Victor eyed them both before turning to Ryo.
"I'll be expecting regular payments of a specific minimum. I've got a business to run, after all." Victor warned.
"As long as I can manage it comfortably, I'm more than happy to agree to your terms." Ryo replied. Victor eyed Ryo shrewdly before he spoke again.
"Price is 10000 munny total, payed back at a minimum of 250 per week. That makes 40 weeks of total work, and assuming a bare minimum of 250 payed back per week." Victor replied. Ryo glanced over at Veris for her thoughts on the terms. She shrugged.
"Seems a bit pricey to me, but I don't know anything about leatherworking. The price per week's perfectly reasonable. If you're doing jobs every day, you'll make at least 500 munny a week." Veris informed him. Ryo turned back to Victor.
"I accept your terms." He decided. Victor grinned before he snatched the sword from the counter.
"I'll need this until the scabbard's done. It might be done tomorrow, but it could take a little longer. Like I said, it's been a while since I made a scabbard and this sword isn't exactly your standard issue arming blade." Victor informed Ryo before offering his hand to shake. Ryo reciprocated the gesture before he and Veris turned and made their way over to the Trading Hall. Once they arrived, Ryo followed Veris as she navigated to the back, where a large board was set up. Stuck to the board with many old and rusting nails were slips of yellowing paper, each sporting a different job request. Veris picked through the requests before she found what she was looking for and snatched it off the board.
"We're gonna be handling firewood today. It's more physically intensive, but it's simple and the pay's not bad overall." She told him before she grabbed a few more jobs off the board. Peering closer, Ryo could see they were all for firewood.
"If there's gonna be two of us, we'll be able to get more done by the end of the day. If we're splitting the reward, I'd like to make as much in a day as possible." Veris explained when she noticed him eying the jobs. That part was fairly obvious to Ryo, but he decided to keep his mouth shut. No sense in potentially antagonizing Veris if he was going to have to be living under the same roof as her for the foreseeable future.
Ryo followed Veris back to the house before she went to a small shed in the back and opened it up. Inside was a collection of tools, including a few wood-cutting axes. She pulled out a pair of such axes and handed one to Ryo.
"Everyone collects firewood from the same place." Veris continued to explain as she led him out of the village a short way to a large pile of cut-up logs were lying.
"We just take these and split them down for firewood. Once we have enough, we deliver it to the house of whoever requested it and collect payment." Veris concluded as she set her axe down near a massive, old stump. It was heavily scarred, indicating that it had been used for log-splitting for many years, probably decades. There was another stump nearby that was almost as marked up as the one Veris was using, so Ryo placed his axe near it and followed her to the large pile of logs where he retrieved a pair and hauled them back to the stump. Once the two each had amassed a sizeable collection of logs, they got to work splitting them down into much more manageable pieces.
Ryo had to agree with Veris as he recalled what she had said about the job earlier; It was very physically intensive. And on top of that, they still had to get the freshly cut firewood back to the individuals who'd requested it. Ryo assumed that there was some way other than carrying it all by hand, considering how much wood had been requested for just one house alone. Ryo was by no means weak, but he certainly wasn't at his best right now and he wasn't optimistic that he'd have the strength and stamina to split all the logs required and then carry them to the different houses by hand.
"So, how are we going to get the firewood back to the village?" Ryo asked as he split yet another log and added the pieces to his growing pile. Veris split another log herself before gesturing back to the larger wood pile.
"We keep sledges back there specifically for hauling firewood. It's still a bit of a pain, but they work a lot better in winter. I just wish we could afford horses around here. That'd make the job so much easier!" Veris replied as she cut another log clean in half.
"Well, that answers that." Ryo thought to himself as he got another log set up before chopping it in half.
Ryo wasn't sure how long they'd been working but between the two of them, he and Veris had soon created a hefty pile of wood. After stopping to rest, Veris looked over the job requests and began counting up the firewood they'd built up over the last few hours.
"Alright, just a few more and then we'll be good to go. Why don't you go grab a couple sledges while I get the last few pieces?" Veris suggested. Ryo was more than happy to set down the axe. Too much time spent sedentary had definitely done damage to his strength and endurance. That having been said, collecting the firewood would probably be a good way to work on rebuilding it. However, he was worried how his swordsmanship had been affected by this. He'd been without a blade for some time, so he hadn't been able to assess how much his ability to fight had been affected.
Ryo shook his head and forced himself to concentrate at the task at hand. His swordsmanship was a matter for the future. Assisting and learning from Veris how the town trade worked was the present. He strode behind the wood pile and found several of the sledges that Veris had told him about. They were simple things; two planks of wood with a slight up turn at the front and connected by three 'ribs', upon which rested a flat bed made of wooden planks. Attached to the front of said bed was a length of rope that connected the front corners.
After grabbing two of the sledges he hauled them around to Veris, who had finished cutting the firewood in his absence and was sitting on the stump to rest a moment, axe resting next to her. Noticing him approaching, Veris pushed herself up off her seat and grabbed an armful of the freshly chopped firewood and began piling it onto one of the sledges, with Ryo quickly joining her despite the protest from his arms.
"Hopefully, we won't need to make two trips. It's not that far, but I'd rather we got this all done in one go rather than having to go back and forth. Also prevents potential sabotage…" Veris muttered as the two of them continued piling wood. Ryo looked at her in confusion.
"Sabotage?" He asked. Veris just grumbled under her breath, seemingly having missed his question.
"Great. Not enough room between the two of us… Alright, let's go. And when we get back, try to find a sharp rock." Veris told him in mild irritation. Ryo blinked at her before he grabbed the sledge's rope and began hauling, with Veris doing the same with her own sledge.
Strange as it was, Ryo couldn't help that their departure to the village was being observed. Suddenly, he was wishing he still had the sword. Next to him, Veris was glancing around as they crossed the threshold into the village. Ryo could hear her muttering under her breath, though it was hard to make all of it out. He did pick up a bits and pieces like "golden opportunity," "mess" and "new guy." He wasn't sure what it could all be about, but he didn't like the implications.
Just what was going to be waiting for them when they returned for the rest of the firewood?
And that wraps up chapter 2! Man, it's been so long since I gave it a once-over, I forgot how long this one was! Probably could have split it into two chapters, but I think it works better as one.
Creativity: Well, that's one opinion.
Author: Isn't it yours, too? You're a manifestation of my creativity after all.
Anyway, readers of the previous iteration of this story will already notice that we're taking our time more with this one. I've got an impatience problem with writing in that I want to rush to the 'cool parts' and the parts I'm rushing through suffer as a result. So, I'm forcing myself to slow down and take my time this run.
Well, I suppose only time will tell if I succeed at it. In the meantime I don't have much else to say, so I think I'll just end it here!
Thanks for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next week!