The Rise of Belgra

Chapter 1

Choices. Sometimes it feels like everything that happens in your life can be boiled down to one choice that you made for better or for worse. I like to think that I would not have picked this life for myself but looking back was it really my decision at all? This was racing through my head as I ran from the Royal Orchard just outside the palace of Demad with a bushel of apples jammed into the knapsack on my back. The city was a haze of wind and sand churning through the air brushing off the sandstone walls that encapsulated the Orchard. There was a trio of the king’s guards chasing me down and yelling thief in the common tongue. They were slightly imposing in their leather armor with small pieces of mail attached, but I was much more worried about the apples bruising with all the jostling my escape was causing. Bruised apples were still edible of course but given the choice between bruised and non-bruised it was a simple choice for the nobles. However, for my friends and family there was no choice, we ate whatever we could find bruised or not. Food was hard to find for the poverty-stricken population in Belgra.

It was amazing the lengths one could go to for hunger, it wasn’t often that I raided the Orchard so carelessly but I needed the food. Even running now from the Guards, I could hear the grumbling in my stomach demanding to be fed.  The shine of the apples had drawn me in even though I knew the security at the orchard was some of the best in the city rivaling even that of the Guards in the Palace. I was starting to sweat from the chase and had to reach up and wipe the moisture before it reached my eyes. They really didn’t stand a chance of catching me, no one knew the streets of Belgra better than me. Then again, the chase was always so exciting for me and it felt like the only time in my life I was truly alive. In the future I would have to focus less on stealing food and more on earning the money or resources to buy them. If I was caught however, well that didn’t bear thinking about. Thieves that went into the King’s dungeon had a nasty habit of never leaving.

It was a veritable labyrinth of sandstone buildings and the streets were crowded with merchants and customers making it harder for me to dodge and evade the guards. One more turn on the sand ridden street and I could lose them in the dead end past Saaransh’s Crossing. There was a hidden passage there worked into the sandstone only known to the thieves in the city. Once I entered the dead end, I quickly tapped the bricks in the pattern required to open the wall that sheltered the hidden passage. The pattern was three up and two across three times so it was easy to remember but impossible to guess if you weren’t aware.  It shifted a door open just large enough for me to squeeze through and as soon as I was inside it closed seamlessly. Sitting on the other side of the door breathing heavily I was squished against the walls like pickles in a barrel. This was not meant for the larger thieves of the city, more likely the children’s brigands, pick pockets and the sort. If I listened closely, I could hear the guards cursing on the other side of the wall as they entered the dead end.

“Where has the little urchin gone!”, and “I could swear he had just run down into this alley!” but eventually after I didn’t appear before their eyes they left muttering to themselves about how the watch commander was going to tan their hides for letting me escape, and just like that I was once again free. Free to distribute the apples anyways to all the poor and decrepit folk that couldn’t fend for themselves. The people society scoffed at and let them live a life of pain when they could ease their hardship with barely a thought. Often people would tell me not to bother and that these people would die regardless of the kindness I showed them. I didn’t care what other people thought. If someone was starving and I had the means to assist I would always be there to help. Especially in the hell that was Belgra nowadays. It often led me to wonder what it would have been like before magic was outlawed by the King’s family. Was it better? Worse? Was this why everything seemed to be going downhill. It felt like the older I got the more I questioned the current regime.

Now that the guards had gone, and my heart had stopped racing I was starting to feel the weight of the apples. Apples are light on their own, but the bushel had to be at least 30 lbs! That means there were at least 20-30 apples in my sack and that meant that 20-30 people would be able to eat tonight because of me. It left me with a feeling of success and accomplishment knowing that I was contributing to our little society in such a way. With a grunt I shouldered the sack and pushed on the wall to get back out into the alley and then I started back up the alleyway to head towards my home in the underbelly of the city. What the nobles and the guards like to call the Dregs because everything and everyone there was nothing but trash to them.

The dregs were everything you would expect them to be cold, decrepit, and rundown. Each house was made of crumbling sandstone pieces with basic wooden doors The buildings were more like shacks, and you could see the quality of them reducing farther and farther on the way from the Palace until you got to the end of the Spectrum in the Dregs. You couldn’t turn a corner without seeing someone begging or sick and hacking blood and other fluids onto the street. The people were hurting so much under the current regime. Why could no one else see it? This was my family; this was my home. While I was walking into the Dregs, I gave the occasional apple to the people that looked like they needed but the majority I was taking to the center and my friend Garomphe.

In the center I knew I would find Garomphe (the closest thing I had to a father) who would take the Apples and distribute them evenly throughout the Dregs. In fact, I could see him up ahead and he was arguing with a man who appeared to have taken a heel of bread from a small child. Garomphe was an intimidating man a little over 6 feet with not an ounce of fat on his body, mainly since there wasn’t enough food to go around. Not that he was muscular mind you, just all the fat was gone to malnutrition. Stocky shoulders lead to a kind face with a smile, a nose that had been broken multiple times and light blue eyes with a diagonal scar across the left eye that led past a set of bushy eyebrows to a shaved head. In short, he was a fearful sight the first time around, but the harsh exterior gave way to a caring person inside.

The man he was arguing with appeared to be a sour sort, you would have to be to steal food from a child and I got to hear the end of the argument. “I needed the food so I took it. You would have done the same old man.” Said the thief. “You don’t take from children you bastard, if I hear or see you do anything like this it will be the last time. Do you understand me?” The eyes of the thief’s were cold pools without an ounce of regret but looking down at the ground he said, “It won’t happen again.” Garomphe clearly didn’t believe it at all but what was done was done and he responded, “See that it doesn’t.” and threw him against the sandstone wall that the thief was leaning against and then proceeded to give the bread back to the urchin child crying on the ground.


I strolled over to where Garomphe was standing with the child down by his feet and said “That was handled well, Little one would you like an apple with your bread?” I grabbed an apple out of the sack before the child could finish their response “… please sir.” The child grabbed the apple with tears of joy streaming down the mud and grime caked into their face and ran off before I could change my mind. “I always wish I could do more for them. We’re all barely alive down here.” Garomphe said. I handed over the rest of the sack to him and with a tinge of hope in my voice said, “These apples could be the tipping point for life or death down here, make sure they are distributed fairly and to those who need them.”

Garomphe looked over towards me and said “Anything could be with the life we have here in this hellhole, that doesn’t mean you should be risking your life to save any of us boy. I see that you got away again though. I thought I told you the orchard was too risky with the patrols, those guards could have followed you here.” I smirked and responded, “Those puffed-up fools could never catch me, I’ll be going back tomorrow to see what else I can find. For now, though I need my bed and a good night’s sleep.” Garomphe snorted “They’ll catch you one day boy and then you’ll know! A trip to the Kings dungeon is not something easily escaped. Get off to bed now so I can get this food to those who need it.”

This left me strolling through the Dregs gazing at the broken surroundings that we lived in while I walked towards my home. Night had approached by the time I got to the building that housed the path to where I lived. It was hidden in the darkest depths of the undercity towards the back. I had to scale a few walls and leap across a few buildings to get there but it was worth it. When I arrived on my rooftop, I could see my threadbare blanket and the few random pieces of food I had available strewn about the roof. A brown spotted banana and a half-eaten apple with fruit flies hovering over them to tell me they were long past time to be eaten. The real prize though was the view, where I lived was at the very back of the Dregs so I could see all the darkness leading to the lights from the city all the way to the palace. It was easy to fall asleep looking at the city while dreaming of better things.