"I'm very proud of ya Emp. What ya did for Calla was great."

"I felt like her wish deserved to come true because she's always so kind."

"Fiona had that huge smile too, ya made a whole lot of people happy that way."

Emp did indeed notice that everyone knowing Calla seemed very happy for her. They all thought that she deserved her wish like him, he felt very good about it. Marcy continued on something else.

"So, will you go see Chase off tomorrow?"

"Yes, I want to wish him good luck like the others."

It was a common thing for people to go for their first hunt on the first day of the year. They harnessed the power of the changing year for luck and started the year as a true man.

Chase thought the same, he had practiced a lot and felt ready to try. Everyone else felt they would rather wait longer but Chase was one of the two oldest boys of the group and much better at handling sword and bow than Gilbert who shared his t.i.tle of oldest. Everyone expected him to hunt tomorrow since months ago. Plus, the mother of Willow was getting very angry at him.

The woman had caught on about what was going on between the two and berated the both of them about how they should wait for the first hunt before building a relations.h.i.+p.

Emp remembered that moment because Willow had yelled at her mother as well.

"I can't help it if I love him! Why don't you understand!"

Chase was very embarra.s.sed to have Willow scream her love for him in front of everyone but it had just made her mother more angry.

"You're too young to understand. I know you can't help it but the harder you indulge in that feeling, the harder it will be to let go if something goes wrong!"

They yelled at each other for a while but Emp understood something important from it. Love can't be helped. Not Love his creator but the feeling instead. Feelings aren't easy to control. Then, it should be obvious to him if he fell in love yes?

His thoughts were interrupted by vigorous knocks on the door.

"Who is it this late? Emp, go open."

Emp rose from his seat and went to the door. Opening it revealed a tall blond woman with toned muscles. She wore a simple traveling tunic, a longbow hung across her chest and a large sack over her shoulder. At her side, a large brown dog with drooping ears and a tongue hanging out of its mouth moved up to Emp immediately after he opened the door, requesting some affection.

At first the woman seemed amicable but it quickly changed to confusion when she saw who had opened the door.

"Eh? Isn't that Marcy's house? Who are you kid?"

Somehow, her face seemed familiar, even though she didn't live in the village. Emp answered while rubbing the dogs head to satisfy it. That animal was almost as big as him.

"I'm Emp, Marcy is inside. I feel like I know you somehow, have we met before?"

"I doubt it kid. Let me in, I need to speak to her, I have stuff to sell."

"She almost never buy anything though."

"Who is it Emp?" Called Marcy.

"A woman who says she wants to sell."

"I'm not buying anything."

That was exactly what he just said.

"Marcy, it's me! June! Tell the kid to let me through my bag is heavy!"

"June? It's been a while! Sure, Emp, close behind her."

So she was a friend of Marcy?

Emp let her in and she walked up to the kitchen, dropping her huge bag on the floor at her side.

"Haaa... So good to finally drop it. You have no idea how far I had to travel with that. Happy new year by the way."

Following her inside, the huge dog waged its tail and sniffed around the room. It went to get a welcome rub from Marcy as well, made four circles around Emp to sniff his boots and collapsed at its master side, instantly closing its eyes for a nap.

"Good girl, she knows you don't like to be bothered too much."

"The whole house's going to get greasy again. Ya should wash her more often.

After closing the door Emp went back to the table and sat at Marcy's side to take a better look at the visitor.

June had thick brows and a warrior's jaw with a pair of twin scars on her chin. She was clearly an adult but much younger than Marcy, maybe in her early twenties. Being that old, she had a lot more breast than most girls Emp knew but compared to most women in the village, they were nothing impressive. She crossed her long legs over the table and leaned back on the chair.

"No worry, I'll do that tomorrow. It's great to be back, can I sleep here tonight?"

"Sure, ya can sleep here in the kitchen, and happy new year to ya as well."

"In the kitchen? What happened to my room?"

"It was never yar room it was a spare room. I gave it to Emp."

"You gave my room to that kid?" She shot a puzzled look his way.

Obviously, she had no idea who he was or why he was there.

"I told ya, it was never yar room. Ya only come here about once a year, keeping ya a room is a waste of s.p.a.ce. I gave it to my apprentice instead. He's also my son now."

Emp didn't object to that, he had no idea how any of this worked anyway. Maybe if he asked madam Blackbull she'd be able to explain in a way he could understand. Although, asking her about that might just make everything more complicated. Let's not do that.

"Ohhh. So that guy is the next Marcy? Might be a good idea to b.u.t.ter him up too. Say kid, heuum.. Emp, would you like to see this big sister b.o.o.bs?" She said playfully.

Emp didn't get why he would want that but he somehow felt that accepting would be a terrible idea.

"June, if you do that I will break the table on top of your head." Marcy said with a dark look.

"Mwu, you're no fun Marcy. I was just joking anyway, I'm not here to lay with a random kid, I'm here to sell a bunch of junk."

"It's crazy how you always call that junk but still expect me to buy it."

"Well you know, the trash of some is the treasure of others and all that. Anything you don't buy I'll probably just throw away somewhere."

"What are we buying here?" Asked Emp curious.

"Why not just take a look?"

June removed her legs from the table and used her foot to push the bag to their side of it. It made a bunch of clanking noises and sc.r.a.ped the floor along the way. It was full of metal.

At Marcy's behest, Emp opened the bag and started placing the things inside on the table. It was mostly weapons and bits of armor, damaged more often than not. Clearly Marcy had no use for all that unless it was for melting back into usable steel.

"What do you think of it?" Marcy asked him, using the opportunity to teach him.

"She is right, it's just junk, the weapons are cheap and the armors are either broken or incomplete. We can only melt it all back to steel if we have to find a use out of it."

June snorted in discontent but stayed silent while Marcy pointed something out to him.

"Mostly yes but sometimes, there's a gem hidden through all the random bits she brings back. The girl has no idea what is valuable and what isn't so she brings it all to me hoping I will give good money for a piece or at least, buy the bulk of it for sc.r.a.ps. This one isn't so bad."

She picked up a long knife from the pile, or perhaps a short sword. It was a bit curved at the end, the blade wasn't sharp and the grip was cracked.

"It should be a good curved blade, it just needs a bit of care. It's hard to see because of how dirty it is but there are some runes engraved into the blade. They continued down into the grip and pommel but it cracked through them see? That's why it lost all its power. I don't know what those runes were for but if we make a new hilt for it copying the original runes, we should be able to make it work again."

Emp nodded in understanding. Even if it was broken now, it didn't mean that you had to throw it aside, you could repair it and make it a good tool again.

It made him think about Celtine. She wasn't a tool but she was similarly damaged. All he needed to do to see her full potential was repair the damaged bits. He felt more motivated to do it now. All he saw before was the broken bit rather than what she could be. He needed to think about how it would be later rather than how it was now.

Marcy decided to buy the whole bag and June gloated as she pocketed her new money. Marcy put everything aside and fetched some more beer to share with her old friend.

"Were do you even find all that?" Asked her Emp.

"I go up and down the howling hills path, from Dark-glint to Starfall. I pick up lost equipment, take care of the dead I find and sometimes get rid of a dangerous animal or another." She answered after a long gulp of what Marcy gave her.

It was at the mention of Starfall that Emp finally remembered when he had seen her before.

"That's right, that's where I saw you, just before the Low-woods, you shot me in the shoulder with your bow."

The two women froze in the middle of their drinking.

"Eh? That can't be, I'm sure I'd remember if I shot a kid." She said, a bit confused and a bit fl.u.s.tered.

Emp fetched his helmet in his bag to help her remember and placed it over his head.

"s.h.i.+t! I do remember that helmet!"

"Wait, ya're saying ya shot my apprentice?"

"Yeah!/ Uh, I mean, it's a misunderstanding. How was I supposed to know the guy under the freak armor was someone you knew? I was sure he was a cursed blood!"

That freak armor was made by Marcy herself though. That comment didn't appease her at all.

"Couldn't ya just have asked? What are ya, a highwayman?"

"But I did! I saw a freak on the road that day so I prepared my bow and called for him to remove his helmet and tell me who he was but that idiot drew his weapon instead and then a second guy appeared out of nowhere. I panicked and shot him but my arrow just bounced off like a pea! I ran through the woods hoping the barbarian wouldn't be able to follow me and kill me. I was so scared I stayed hidden for a good week afterward. I swear that's what happened."

"Is this the truth?" Marcy asked, turning toward Emp.

"She came out of forest pointing an arrow at me and yelled something at me but she spoke in common so I have no idea what she meant. Since she had a weapon drawn, I did the same and she shot me. She did run away afterward so maybe it really was just a misunderstanding."

"What do you mean you had no idea what I meant! Does the helmet makes you deaf?"

"No, Emp didn't speak the common back then, he learned it all since he came in Dark-glint. I'll believe ya this time since I can see all that possibly happening. What about ya Emp?"

"I'm not angry. I just thought it was a funny memory. I was so sure I knew her from somewhere."

June visibly relaxed. Thinking back to that time, Emp wondered where that huge dog was back then.

"So... we're good?"

"Yeah we are, but ya'll have to pay me back with some good materials."

"Aww, come on, really? But you know I hate hunting! That was almost a year ago and the guy himself isn't angry at all about this."

"That doesn't count, Emp never gets angry at anything."

The good mood returned and both Marcy and Emp listened to June's strange stories for a while before everyone went to sleep.

Marcy woke him up early the next day so he wouldn't miss Chase. June left very early too, something about not wanting to get caught by Karp Champom, the eldest brother of Calla. She gave her goodbyes in good humor and left with her faithful dog following behind her.

Apparently, Emp had learned through her stories, the dog was there to protect her from the timestop sloths. The big dog wasn't the best guard dog there was but it was more than enough to protect her from the sloths.

After she had left, Emp joined up with everyone near one of the village gates. Everyone from the younger generation was here with their parents and some onlookers, like Emp for example.

One could insist Emp was also part of the younger generation but he had done more than enough to beat the test already, he was an adult by the empire standards.

Bor, the village head and chief of the guards was standing near the gate and asked who wanted to take the challenge on the new year. Like most expected, only Chase stepped up.

Of course, one didn't have to wait for such an occasion to go out in the wild and kill something but the new year was special and everyone gave a better attention to those that tried at that moment. Plus, Bor was willing to lend a blade to whomever wanted to become a man.

Chase had already his own bow, he had made it himself so it wasn't against the laws, with the short sword Bor placed in his hands, he was as equipped as a boy raised in a village could possibly be for the challenge.

All his friends including Emp wished him good luck and watched him walk into the forest. Willow was especially talkative and showered encouragements on him. Just as he left, his father gave him a last bit of advice and everyone cheered and applauded as he disappeared from view.

At this time of the year, many creatures living in the woods had just reached adulthood as well and left their parents to live alone. It wasn't yet mating season so there wasn't a big chance of encountering a large group or particularly aggressive beasts. There was almost no chances of encountering a mother still protecting its young either. It was the perfect time to find a suitable opponent for the rite of pa.s.sage.

There should be plenty of weak creatures lurking about in the nearby woods. In theory, all chase had to do was find a weaker monster, put an arrow in its flank and then come back. In the past, new year hunts often took about half a day to complete, sometimes more and sometimes less.

Most wouldn't wait for him to come back, this was a day like any other for the villagers, there was work to be done. Only the younger people remained and wasted their time just outside of the wall while they waited for their friend to return.

They played around until noon came. Bor walked up to them and asked if Chase had come back, they answered in the negative and he left with a worried face.

A few hours later, Willow started to stare at the woods. When the sun got a bit low, Chase's father came to ask them if they had seen him, he left with a grim look on his face. The others were getting worried.

Everyone left to go eat something and came back to their original spot, discovering that Willow hadn't moved at all. Like many adults in the village, Emp was starting to feel that Chase might not be coming back.

While the others went up to Willow, either to try to cheer her up or rea.s.sure her, Emp got the book of answers out from his bag.

"Is Chase alive?"

The book was as useful as always.

"Is the Chase I know alive?"

The page stayed empty. He knew the answer. Maybe the book felt that knowing that thirty-five thousands Chases were alive was enough of an answer? It didn't help him at all though.

He placed the book back into his bag and looked up to discover that Willow was now standing in front of the woods. Was she about to go in there? Emp walked up to the others.

"Going there alone isn't a good idea at all." Complained Eda "Bor and the others will gather a rescue team soon and go look for him."

"But anything could happen by then! We, I have to go now!"

"Emp, Willow wants to go get Chase herself." Calla explained right away when he got close.

Hearing his name, Willow turned towards him and asked for his help.

"Emp, you'll help me right? Let's go look for Chase."

Emp frowned. He wasn't against going searching for Chase but bringing Willow wasn't a good idea.

"I don't think it's a good idea to go there now either, it's going to get dark soon."

"See? Be reasonable and let the grownups take care of it." Insisted Eda

"I'm gonna go whether you come with me or not!" Stubbornly yelled Willow before das.h.i.+ng towards the forest.

That couldn't be a good thing.

The group didn't know what to do. Everyone stared at Eda and Emp.

"Emp." Pleaded Calla.

She was right, he couldn't let her go alone, it was way too dangerous.

"I'll go after her." He said.

"If Emp goes than we go too." Wilbert said on behalf of the knife trio.

Everyone else swiftly agreed.

"That's not a good idea, everyone should stay here."

"Nah, there's no way we'll let you take all the risks by yourself." Said Manley.

"And all the glory." Added Jurgen.

Even the girls wanted to go along, they couldn't let their friend wander in the woods alone and didn't want to stay here by themselves. Only Eda decided to stay and stopped Winter from going too by grabbing the collar of her s.h.i.+rt.

"Oh no you don't, you're way too small for that."

"Aww come on, I want to take a look too."

"No way, us two are going to go get someone who knows what he's doing."

As everyone else ran after Willow, Calla hesitated and finally decided to go after them too. It was less stressful for her to have everyone in front of her eyes than waiting back in the village.

And so, eleven kids and Emp went looking for Chase in the woods. Leading them was a frantic Willow.

Emp was following with his helmet, Ray and a s.h.i.+eld, he didn't have the time to put on his armor. Since everyone was relying on him as their main protector, he did his best to equip and organize everyone else. He hoped nothing would happen but not preparing just because of hope was foolish. It was exactly what Willow was doing too but she would not listen to him.

Behind him, Calla, Izzy, Galina and Sylvia stayed close to each other. They came because of their curiosity and loyalty to their friend but they really were of little use here. Willow was the oldest of them all and she clearly wasn't thinking straight. He would have given them some weapons but even Willow wasn't able to hold one of the blades straight.

He asked the girls to stay in the middle of them so that the boys would have the time to react if something happened and so that they wouldn't get in the way if there was a fight.

Manley, Wilbert, Cuthbert, and Jurgen watched the left side. The three knife boys now possessed a short sword each because of the silver coins they received and the help of their parents but Emp didn't really trust their abilities. The three were the youngest boys here and had basically pa.s.sed the test by all getting the jump on a single cat in the middle of a battle. Manley had no weapon but Emp lent him a sword, it was too heavy for him but Emp had nothing else. He hoped that with four of them there, they would be able to delay anything long enough for him to intervene.

On the other side, Gilbert and Vesa were the ones watching.

Gilbert was the oldest and had a decent strength, he held up the sword Emp pa.s.sed him easily.

Vesa could have tried the hunt this year, he was the best swordsman of the group, even though Emp felt his swordsmans.h.i.+p was horrible. The more he received fencing and combat cla.s.ses the worse he felt about Vesa's talent but he still placed Flame in his hands, there was no one better to use it.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt they should not have come. Maybe he would have accepted to go look around for chase alone but bringing the others felt wrong, it made his heart pound. he had never felt this anxious before.

"Are you all sure you want to come? I think you should all go back."

"I think so too, we should all go back, it's too scary." Added in Calla.

"There's no way we're turning back now." Said her brother.

"Don't worry Calla, if anything happens, I'll protect you." Added in Vesa to rea.s.sure her.

Their words didn't make either Calla or Emp feel better. He couldn't stop to talk them out of it though because Willow would not stop walking forward.

How did she expect to find Chase? A forest wasn't a small thing like the village. They were in the Steelwood empire, the one they were in probably stretched all the way to the mountains down south, spanning the whole kingdom.

At some point soon after, she started screaming out Chase's name, the others followed her example to help. If he was alive, maybe he would hear and come to them.

At first, they followed the hunting paths but since they were getting no answers, Willow got adventurous and took some unexpected turns.

Emp only had to remind everyone to stay close a few times in order to not loose anyone. After that, It was Calla who did all the reminding because she was too scarred someone would leave her sight, she kept warning everyone.

After a time, the forest got darker and darker until only Ray and Flame gave them an idea of what was around them. The other girls started to think they should all turn back like Calla because the forest in the dark was ten times scarier than the forest in the day. Even the knife trio became very nervous.

Emp wanted to bring everyone back but it would mean leaving Willow alone, he couldn't do that.

"Chaaaase!" She screamed again, there were tears in her eyes.

Emp kept his mouth shut and unconsciously put strength in his jaw, pressing his teeth against one another. He too wanted Chase to be alright but...

By then, the calls of the others had quieted as well, only the voice of Willow rang in the dark, sometimes followed by a weak echo from one of the girls.

Manley finally said what Emp thought since the very beginning.

"We should go back, this is pointless."

After so long of searching, he had evidently changed his mind when the darkness consumed their surroundings.

"What do you mean pointless! He must still be alive somewhere, we have to find him!"

Willow would not give up.

"It's too dark, we can't see s.h.i.+t. It's dangerous and the girls are scarred." He complained.

"Yeah, uh, the girls are scared, not us though." Jurgen added.

"Manley is right, there's no way we'll find him in the dark, we have to go back or everyone else in the village will worry." Vesa pressed her further.

Emp was about to tell them he agreed too when he heard something crack. He wasn't the only one who heard.

"Wait, did you hear that?" Asked Gilbert.

"Chase?" Asked Willow, hopeful.

It was the rustle of leaves and a low growl that answered her.

Willow backed off from the sound and hid behind Emp, joining up with the other girls. Her foolishness erased in the face of fear.

Emp readied his s.h.i.+eld as a pair of s.h.i.+mmering grey eyes revealed themselves. Crawling from the underbrush, a forest spiked wolf puffed up its quills to appear more intimidating.

Emp had already fought those animals in the past, he thought it wasn't that dangerous and they fled almost immediately. If it only had been the one in front of him, Emp would have killed it but there wasn't only one.

More growls closed in on them from all sides, revealing too many eyes they could barely see from the reflection of the lights they carried.

The last pack of wolves Emp encountered didn't want to fight two fully armored Emp with flaming swords but here was different. The forest was their home, their target had no armors and many seemed weak.

As they closed in on the humans, fear spread through the group.

"Wolves!"

"I think they're spiked wolves."

"That's worse."

"Get close together and don't leave the circle. We're like them, full of spikes. As long as we don't have any opening, they'll have no other choice than to give up." Emp told them.

If he had been alone, he would have stepped up and attacked the wolves but right now, he was afraid that if he moved too far from the group, the wolves would use the opportunity to attack the others.

The wolves weren't idiots either, they slowly came closer but did not ruthlessly attack. They waited for a weak point to reveal itself instead.

The kids did as Emp said and stayed in a tight circle with their swords pointed outward. If a wolf came too close, they swung at it to force it back but no one moved from where they were aside from that.

"I doesn't work." Izzy whimpered.

"If we stay like that it's never gonna end, you have to do something Emp." Agreed Gilbert.

A few wolves started snarling in an attempt to frighten them out of their formation and a few high pitched screams were heard from the girls. The boys were sweating profusely but kept silent except for Cuthbert who jumped fright at the first snarl.

"I can try to move up and kill a few but the circle becomes weak if I do."

"Do it!" Manley called.

With his heart beating loudly, Emp used a s.p.a.ce step to get right in front of one of the wolves and left a large gash in its face before stepping back to the circle. He would have preferred to kill it but he was too worried to take his time aiming.

The wolf yelped and jumped back as Emp did the same two more times. He even manage to kill one of his target by opening the back of its neck.

He could barely see them so targeting something else than their eyes before he stepped up was a bit risky. Only once he was close did the sword reveal them clearly and at that point, he had to take a swing whether he could reach something important or not.

Emp was moving back and forth too quickly for them to surround him or attack the weak point left in the circle. Every time they were about to move up and attack the girls, Emp would step back, forcing the wolves to back off.

The surrounding wolves were getting agitated and made weird mixes of barks and angry growls. They were angry at being unable to do anything while still getting cut.

Emp killed a second one and the wolves jumped left and right. They got more aggressive too, moving up to the circle multiple times in an attempt to test its limits and find its weakness.

"I think it's working." Said Wilbert, hopeful.

He even managed to poke the tip of a wolf's nose with his short sword when it got too close.

"I think we'll be able to hold them like Emp said." Said Gilbert.

"They're angry now. Is everyone okay?" Asked Galina

"We're fine." Answered the others despite barely being able to keep the wolves away.

Emp was starting to think they would be fine too. He had been afraid someone would get hurt but things were going well considering how many more wolves than them there was. No one had even gotten hurt.

He stepped up again and the wolf he targeted ducked, barely escaping having its skull opened and only losing an ear to Emp's sword instead.

Then, just like that, Emp vanished.

He had been recalled by the first Emp like every night before he went to bed in order to combine their memories.

The wolves were enraged, the prey was weak and a hole was left in the formation. They saw red, they smelled a feast, the first in front of them, Calla and Willow.

The pack pounced forward.

***

(AT)Would you believe I've had this scene in mind since Emp got the ability to split? I was trying to build the characters in the village a bit more but I really had nothing to say prior to this event in relation to them. The best I could come up with was the dismantlement. I really needed this to happen for what comes next so I couldn't delay it any further. I might not be as impactfull as I had hoped.