U.S.S.A HellField

Epilogue The Morning Star

I looked up at the red and pink morning sky. It was a beautiful dawn, the crisp air blowing on my skin never made me feel more at ease. The only thing I wanted more than to keep staring at and feeling it, was to go back home with Alice. It's been two months since we defeated the Calmams at the citadel and Af'Ziel at the temple, halting Umbra'Keshe's plans once again. I should've killed that abomination the first time. Though I suppose we wouldn't have liberated the HellFields hadn't he told us that it would be the only way for us to return. I still don't understand what he had to gain by letting us do that. Was it hubris, stupidity, or something much worse? That he had intended for this outcome to happen. I suppose I'll never find out, or I'll find out before it's too late.

I walked through the streets of BloodRust in some simple clothes and a brown leather jacket made from god knows what, with Metis in tow. Despite all the damage. The city was bustling with life again. It was still in the process of reconstruction, but that didn't seem to affect daily life for anyone here. I no longer got weird stares from the people here, they seemed to have become accustomed to me being here. Alice will still get the odd stare and Emily always wears full armor, unless it was only around us three. She seemed to have picked that up from me, like a child mimicking their parent. 

The markets were just as busy as they had been last time, filled with people buying all kinds of goods, with some now they would never have had access to because of the trade restrictions the empire had in place. During the first couple of weeks in the HellFields I knew almost nothing about how anything here worked, politics and economics least of all. I took a look at some of the things they all had for sale. One stall had these wriggling worm creatures in a tray, not very appetizing. Squids as far as I'll go. Speaking of seafood. I went to another stall and saw they had green crustation creatures in a glass case. As well as some kind of fish with many spider-like eyes.

I asked the seller about them. He told me about the planet where they came from, a mostly aquatic world in the solar system that had all kinds of exotic sea life. Sounded like a buffet to a Japanese man if there ever was one. I bought two from him, one to practice cooking and one to make for Alice and me tonight. I walked further down the street to the old man's blacksmith shop. The bell on the door rang with a new chime, must've been part of the reconstruction. -"Hello there, what can I do for you this fine morning?"  He asked, putting a pair of tongs on the desk.

I looked around the shop and turned to him. - "I just came to see how the place was doing, it looks good, well better than before."  I said. - "Haha, I know right? This shop was my father's and his father's before him. It certainly needed a fixup. Thank you again for saving the city and my home."  He said, sounding thankful.  "I have to admit when I first saw you come in through that door, I figured you were just another alien coming into the fold. Maybe some hotshot with fancy expensive armor looking to prove himself. Well, you disproved that pretty quickly, to everyone's surprise."  He said.

I wasn't sure what to say, I wasn't used to this sort of praise from people. - "It was no problem. This city has been good to us, so why not pay it back."  I told him. - "So damned humble too, not enough of that these days."  he scoffed, grabbing a cloth and wiping the metal shards off the counter. - "Actually I might buy something. That old rifle I bought from you just doesn't quite cut it. I'll need something that's more adaptable in the field and uses a larger caliber."  I told him.

The old man went around the desk and walked over to the rifle rack. - "Hmm, let me take a look."  He said, parsing through the rifles. "Hmmm. I think this ol' gal should do the trick."  He pulled out an old, but not too worn down looking rifle from the bottom rack. He held it up for me to see. "Now this old gun has seen its fair share of battles, they used to field these things way back. Around the time of the Reformation. This one's a replica, of course. No millennia-old rifles here, unfortunately."  He said, handing me the old rifle. - "It's surprisingly modern looking, by my standards anyway."  I remarked.