"I am so sleepy. Why did you wake me up?" Brukk complained, yawning as he followed behind Logan.
After lazing around on the road for some time, Logan and Brukk had finally gotten up and started to walk in the direction of the memorial stones.
"Who sleeps on the road? We were just lying there to rest, dumbass!" Logan replied.
"You weren't even tired like me, and our mothers are waiting for us at home," he sighed.
Brukk opened his mouth to complain again but was stopped by Logan.
Logan pointed his hand in the direction of three giant Blackstone slabs that were rising like towers easily over thirty feet in height.
Some strange red and white symbols were engraved on the stone, making it look more mysterious as they shone like stars in the darkness of night.
Even Brukk, who behaved like a child most of the time, became serious as he looked in the direction Logan was pointing.
A sweet fragrance of sandalwood entered Logan's nose, making him feel much more relaxed than before.
This fragrant sandalwood was actually a very expensive wood that could only be found deep in the Black Forest on the banks of Moon River.
When inhaling the smoke of red sandalwood, one would feel relaxed and calm. Often, the extract from these trees was used as painkillers and sometimes abused by people.
---
There were hundreds of people gathered around the memorial stones.
Most had tears in their eyes. Some were holding them back, and few remained silent.
Also, there were some young people whose eyes were filled with admiration!
They too wanted to have their names engraved on the memorial stones, but sadly there were only two ways one could get that honour—either die protecting the village or become a third-stage spiritmancer.
And both were hard to achieve in a single life.
But no one dared to say a word or whisper anything. All remained silent, looking at the glowing white and red runes on the black stones.
…
Logan was looking at the third blackstone, finding something on it. His eyes were wet as some tears rolled down his cheeks, but he kept searching amongst the countless engravings on it… Finally, after a long time, his eyes stopped wandering and focused on a name engraved in red: 'Korgul'.
"Father!"
A weak voice escaped his mouth. He immediately wiped his face with the corner of his tattered sleeves.
Even though he knew the place where his father's name was engraved, he forgot every time.
Unlike when he was a small kid, where his father reached him every time he got lost in village fares, Logan now had to find him on his own!
He tried to hold his tears back, but it eventually came down as it trailed down his pale cheeks.
Brukk was no different. His big eyes were filled with tears as he kept crying, looking at the memorial stone.
He had also lost his father and grandparents three years ago. He and his mother remained safe as they were in Logan's house that day, when the savage wolves attacked the village.
The memorial stones were guarded by nine armoured warriors, each one of them carrying a big sword and a brown earth sprite that was sitting on their shoulders quietly.
Even the earth sprites were sad, as no one was humming their songs and praising the god of the mountain, Rk'kala!
Unlike the other elemental sprites, earth sprites remained silent near the memorial stones.
Well, that's the sole reason they were chosen to be guardians of the memorial stones. No one would want sprites going around singing songs on the grave of their relatives.
After crying for some time, Logan and Brukk separated and walked to their homes.
Brukk's home was on the corner of the village close to the southern stone walls, while Logan's house was in the middle of the village, much closer to the memorial stones.
---
Logan was standing in front of a wooden house with cracks all over the place, as it had been repaired countless times over the years.
It was his home.
Knock~
Logan knocked softly, unsure whether his mom was awake.
A middle-aged woman with brown eyes opened the gate. She was looking at him with worry as his clothes were tainted in the deer's blood.
She opened her mouth to say something, but Logan interrupted her.
"I am okay, Mom," he replied lightly and smiled, and to make her believe that the blood on his shirt didn't belong to him, he handed the skin bag full of meat, making her smile too.
"Come inside fast, I will cook rice and stew today," she said.
He placed his spear at a corner. After hunting the deer, he had washed it in the Pristine Lake.
They only had two rooms, one for him and one for his mother. It was an extravagant house even compared to many warriors in the village, who earned a lot.
"What happened to your eyes?" she asked almost with a somber expression but didn't wait for Logan's answer. She pressed her soft hands against his cheeks and said gently, "Don't push yourself too much, Logu."
Growl~
Logan's stomach growled.
She laughed loudly, cutting the tense environment. "Wash your hands, I will prepare the dish," she said with a wide smile reaching her cheeks.
Logan smiled as his mother gently opened the deer's skin, revealing ribs and organs.
"You killed a deer today?" She asked many questions like—How did you hunt this? Where? and all the things that happened on the hunt…
Logan answered happily as she prepared organ stew and white rice.
Logan finished his meal in a hurry, eating all the organ pieces and two bowls of white rice. Of course he would; it was his favourite food, after all, and they didn't get to eat rice every day.
"Your uncle came in the morning," she said in an uneven tone, almost opposite of how she usually talked.
Logan's face soured.
Even though his uncle was an Elder, he never actually cared for his sister and him.
"Logu, sleep early today! Tomorrow is your spirit awakening ceremony," she said with a sad expression.
Logan knew why his mother's mood was sour today.
The spirit awakening ceremony was considered the most important aspect of one's life, deciding the fate of an individual—whether he was going to become a spiritmancer or remain ordinary all his life.
His parents never wanted him to be a spiritmancer, not only because his physique was weak but also because of his mysterious illness that almost gave him seizures many times.
But that was the tradition of the village passed down from hundreds of years—that each villager had to participate in the awakening ceremony upon reaching adulthood, and it was up to fate and talent whether one could awaken the spirit or not.
Sadly, she couldn't do anything or go against the whole village.