The Journey

Chapter 1 - The Funeral

     Rain pours down over the heads of about twenty members of the Reyou family, who are all busy mourning the loss of an important family member. Grandpa Joe, the ex-head of the family, died two days earlier from a swift kick to the head from a donkey. Despite the mundane fashion in which he died, Joe was an explorer, and had spent forty five years of his life adventuring the vast lands upon which all known life lived on. His adventures, numerous, and very successful, had a large payoff (though Joe sometimes payed the price of losing a few fingers every now and then). The explorer could have been very rich, and powerful, but he gave all of his treasures to his king (being a patriotic man), in return for a gift cloaked in mystery, one that the Reyou family hoped would be uncovered at the reading of the will.

     Raj clung to his father, weeping, of all the family members gathered on that day, he was the closest to grandpa Joe. The man had practically been his father during the time that his real father was drafted into the army. Standing in the now muddy graveyard, where centuries of Reyous had been buried, Raj reflected on the good times he had had with his grandfather. The two had practiced archery, swordsmanship (with practice sticks), and stealth skills. He, at the age of fourteen, was probably better trained then some of the king's own officers, certainly better than his father, who was a simple foot soldier, and had never had his sword smash against an actual opponent.

     After the traditional fifteen minute period of mourning had past, one by one the family members stopped reminiscing (as best they could, for Joe was an elusive man), and stood in a circle where the new head of the family, Raj's father, unfolded the scroll, and started to read the old man's last wishes.

     "To my dearest son..." his father proclaimed, "I give to you, as demanded by your birthright, my land, my (limited) wealth, and my responsibility as the head of this family". The reading continued for several minutes, until the speaker's eyes bulged, whereupon he spoke the following words, changing Raj's life forever, "And finally, to my favorite person in this world, Raj, my Slade Blade and the paperwork that entitles him to it, you will find the blade tucked away in our favorite spot."

     Finally, the strange item the king had bestowed upon the adventurer, a Slade Blade, now, the family's reactions were mixed, his parents gazing down upon him with wide eyes, his aunts, uncles, and cousins, once overjoyed at the gifts their grandfather had left for them, were furious. Now, this gift was a strange one, an extremely rare occurrence at that, let's start with the explanation of the blade.

     Slade blades are perhaps the most sought for swords in the land, except that finding one, stealing one, or even crafting one that resembles a Slade blade is punishable by death. The story begins with a smith named Slade, this smith was gifted with what most people can only blame the gods for, an uncanny ability with a smithy. The anvil was like an extension of his arm, the hammer, his fingers, and his swords, his blood. The man's swords were not only decorated by golden flares that seemed to move from inside of the blade, whenever the user swung a Slade blade, it would sing. But they were of such good quality, that anyone found holding a Slade blade without the correct paperwork would be hung. The reason for this being that there are only fifteen of these blades in existence, and currently, only two of those blades were not in the king's possession. If you found a Slade blade, you were spared the noose and given fifteen hundred gold coins if you brought it back to his majesty's palace.

     Now, if you can imagine this young man's surprise... He not only been gifted blades that were not only three hundred years old and of exceptional quality, but the paperwork that would entitle him to the blades! After about a minute of silence from the family, uproar came about. His cousins complaining that the blade should be rightfully theirs, for they were a good two years older than him, his uncles saying that they would claim responsibility for the blade, and his father looking in disapproval at the area in the grass where the old man had been buried.

     Raj was about to take a beating from one particularly meaty cousin, when his father shouted, "ENOUGH, this is my land now, and anyone who has a problem with what my son has entitled can leave it! Now, let's all see sense here, who ever heard of Joe having Slade blades, eh? He probably wrote this in as some sort of senile joke, and even if he did have them, why would he give them to Raj here? It's not as if he knows how to use a sword!". Raj was about to speak up, stating that he did indeed know how to use a sword, but the warning glance from his father stopped him. "Now I need everyone to go back up to the house, we've all been riled up, we just need a good night's rest to bring our energy back up!"