Bacorium Legacy Read Free Page B

quiet, and his eyes would fill with the weight of memory. And regret.
    For seven months now he had been staying in this village, longer than any of the other places they had gone to, and he was starting to feel restless. While he was no stranger to staying in areas all but untouched by mankind, he felt almost claustrophobic whenever he stepped outside the hut he shared with his father. Part of this perhaps was because of the tall cliffs surrounding the village, but the minuscule population was the true reason. That tight feeling, coupled with his disdain for the cold, had led to him becoming something of a shut-in for the past two weeks or so.
    Calling it a village in the first place was a compliment, really - it was more like a glorified group of huts. The population probably didn’t even exceed fifty. He wasn’t quite sure, as the only people he saw regularly were the village elder and a girl named Arlea. The girl seemed to go out of her way to ‘bump’ into him often - the reasons for which were all too clear with the obvious lack of young men in the town. He would have been flattered if the whole affair hadn’t been such a bother to him. He liked girls, sure - but he had learnt long ago not to get attached.
    Indeed, it wasn’t only girls that he had made a habit of avoiding. He had learnt long ago not to bother making friends in the small towns and villages they passed through. He had made a decision to walk alone - one of the most important books his father had ever given him had instilled in him a sense of duty and honour which he had swore never to sway from.
    He turned his attentions back to his books, exhausted and frustrated by his thoughts. The diary of the traveller which he had been reading moments ago was nearing its end - only a sliver of page length remained in the binding. Wishing to save the rest for another time, he returned it to the wooden chest he kept his books in. He withdrew instead a thick tome of Bacorian lore, which he had already made considerable progress in studying. He returned to his comfortable mattress beside the fire, and opened to where he had left off - a chapter on myths told in the early days of Bacoria.
    He read of Ekkei, the god-emperor of mankind. He read of the Eldritch, the fell beasts Ekkei commanded, that enforced the demon’s will. And he read of Uro, the liberator, who had appeared with Rixeor the magick sword, and had slain both the demon and the beasts that followed it.
    Familiar stories. He’d read them many times before. It was not so much the legend of Uro that interested him so much as the writings of Uro himself that he had left behind after his conquest - the Way.
    Some time passed, but it passed by slow.
    From the single window of his home, sunlight peaked in where it could through the shoddy curtain. And yet the shadows were long, betraying the day’s infancy. The sky of Arimos was an often troubled one, the thick clouds so perfectly blocking the sun so as to drag on night and throttle the light of day. In the frozen north, light was precious. He idly wondered if noon drew near.
    His thoughts were interrupted as the song-like voice of a young woman called his name from the other side of his door.
    “Luca, are you home? It's noon, and I wondered if you might be interested in sharing a meal with me?”
    He cursed his luck. He had hoped his father would appear and take him away before Arlea got the same idea. Still, he couldn’t turn aside the company.
    “Come in.”
    Luca rose and dusted himself off as the girl stepped inside. Her garb was similar to his own - several layers of insulating monster skins to shield the wearer from the biting cold - the same cold he felt as she opened the door. Her yellow hair was longer than his, reaching just past her shoulders, and her eyes were wide and blue.
    She was pretty, he figured… but he just had no interest in her in the way she seemed to be interested in him. Or rather, he would not allow himself to - again, he had