IX. Axe of the People

Morning came and the villagers stood astounded at Alexius's great victory, for their greatest and most primal enemy had been defeated in a single night by one man. And so great indeed was the victory of the Night Siege that some commentators have said, and in some cases continue to say, that Alexius had used mercenaries, hounds, or other villagers to rid Sarfan of the zombies. But the historical record disagrees: that first victory was his and his only.

And great also was the exuberance of the villagers of Sarfan, who gifted Alexius emeralds and foodstuffs generously, and now trusted him fully. In those days they were not accustomed to calling him Hero of the Village, a title they would bestow later; but an impromptu ceremony was held in the great cobblestone church, in front of which he had slain a great number of the undead, and where he had christened Jacob Efel Yed, son of Azel the Butcher.

It was here that Azel the Butcher, and indeed many of the other villagers of the town, expressed their immense gratitude for saving Sarfan from the clutches of death, and swore a life-exchange to Alexius to protect and serve him with their lives, as was then customary. And there Sev the Cleric made Alexius sit on the steps of the church and bestowed on him his first and greatest title: "Feror peulorom", Axe of the People. So he was presented as the great protector to the people, who cheered greatly for him and said amongst themselves, "Our ancestors have sent him to us, for they have heard our prayers and delivered us." And who would not have said thus at such a miracle?

A speech was in order and Alexius came forth in the square (where rotten flesh still lingered in piles eagerly collected by Sev the Cleric), stood beneath the great oak tree, and called for the attention of the expectant, reverent crowd. He gave one.

He gave thanks for the hospitality of the people of Sarfan, for without them he would not have lasted more than three nights in the wilderness. After all, it was Spayer the Armorer who had first invited him to Sarfan, Sev the Cleric and Ramaf the Cartographer who had first taught him their tongue, Hava Yal the Fletcher who had first introduced him to trade. Really, he said, the greatest accomplishment was not of his own, but rather of the village as a whole. And the crowd nodded to themselves.

However, he continued, Sarfan had serious vulnerabilities. Their enemies lurked at every corner, Pillagers and monsters of the night, ready to ambush them as they had the previous night. At this a shudder ran through the crowd. Perhaps sensing this unease, Alexius calmed the people and said that there was no need for worry, not with him there, who would always be at the side of the good people of Sarfan, defending them from every evil and calamity. He would always be thankful primarily to them, and his duty would always serve them only.

He had some ideas he wanted to share with them: plans for a great wall encircling Sarfan, so that no Pillagers or zombies could ever harm them again; expanded buildings and jobs available, so that they could grow rich and prosper; emissaries sent to the neighboring villages, to spread their word and create a collective force to resist the fearsome sieges of the night and the formidable raids of the Pillagers. When some villagers laughed when hearing of these grand visions, he retorted that all these were not only possible, but fully within reach—right now.

If they were willing, he would gladly protect and serve them as a leader of the community, the one who made their wills come to fruition and protected them with his great axe and sword. By their consent, he would enact their wishes, serve Sarfan with them, and, above all, ensure the safety of the villagers and of their children, their livestock, their property, their land. After all, who would want the Axe of the People, slayer of the dark armies, against them?

And, raising triumphantly his battered and scratched axe, he declared the eternal quote that would cement his place in the records of history: "It is proper that you have called me Axe of the People, for I am an axe, and you are my people—this I swear on the heavens above."

He stressed that he would only serve them if they willed it, but he did not need to. All of the villagers of Sarfan cheered for Alexius, Axe of the People, and they embraced the iron man who had saved them from doom. And all agreed unanimously that he should lead them as protector and builder. So it came to pass that Alexius became one of the first truly elected leaders of a village in the history of the Plains, and the villagers celebrated him and raised him on their shoulders.

That was how he knew that he would come to rule.

Author's notes:

Thank you for all the lovely comments so far—you all genuinely make my day and it's incredible that people take the time out of their day to leave encouraging words. I'm very grateful and I hope to see more soon.

One of the commenters asked about the language/names I chose. They're not from a Minecraft mod or anything; most of the proper nouns (villager names and place names) are pure gibberish. The articles, conjunctions and regular nouns, though, are something like half Latin and half Romance languages, or at least heavily bastardized versions of them. Aguyu comes from agua ("water" in Spanish), dems from temps ("time" in Occitan), vespra from vesper ("evening" in Latin).

Occasionally, some words have been changed from their original meanings. For instance, fert, which means strength, comes from Latin ferrum, which originally means iron; similarly, mered, which means virtue, comes from Spanish merced, which originally means mercy, and tafer, which means security, comes from Arabic tawaf, which originally means to circumambulate. And so on and so forth.

(P.S.: I'll be studying for APs for a big chunk of next week, so I apologize if I'm late with the story updates. Sorry!)