The New Dynasty

The First Strike

Russell Redd cannot feel his toes. Or his hands...or his face. It's late evening in the last few weeks of winter, and the snow is halfway up his calf. Somehow, yet again, he's found himself in the forest on an adventure with his older brother. Tonight, Stacey's mission is to collect some kind of rock that forms beneath fallen trees. It's difficult for Russell to remain focused on the task when he feels like he's freezing to death.

"What's the name of this rock again?" he asks Stacey. They're walking further uphill into the forest now. The village of Middlebridge is surrounded on all sides by terrain that slopes upward. Essentially, the city is in a bowl.

"It's not a rock, it's a mineral," Stacey calls back. While Russell struggles to keep his breath and his balance from the incline, Stacey athletically bounds forward, moving through the trees like some kind of animal, "It's an exceptionally scarce, but the only one with the perfect balance of properties that I need. In it's raw form it's sticky enough to use for bonding, and when it's heated it turns hard as stone. It's called bluenite, for the one-hundredth time."

"Well don't you think we have enough bluenite?" With a grunt, Russell hoists the sack of what they've already collected up onto his back to stop it from cutting into his shoulder.

"I can never have enough bluenite." Stacey says. Even he sighs in relief when they reach a plateau and are on flat ground again. "Let's see...which direction should we go in next...?" He gestures around him with his index finger, murmuring to himself about different types of trees. It all looks the same to Russell. It's just a bunch of trees and leaves and sticks and snow.

"I can't feel my feet." Russell says.

Stacey ignores him. After a few more seconds he snaps his fingers and strides off in a new direction.

Russell follows with another groan, "And it's getting dark. We'd better get home soon, or Charmaine's going to kill us."

"I can deal with Charmaine."

"Because you dealt with her so well last time," Russell snorts, "She yelled at you for a full half-hour."

"It was twenty-eight minutes to be exact. I was watching the wall clock behind her the entire time. I wonder if she realizes that she says the same things over and over again? 'I'm a no-good, trouble-making, trouble-maker. If I stay on the path I'm on, I'll never amount to anything in life. Why do I go out of my way to make life so difficult for her and Pop?'" Stacey raises an eyebrow at Russell. "Am I missing anything?"

"One day you're gonna learn your lesson!" Russell mimics their step-mother's sharp tone.

"One day, maybe...but not today."

They climb on. The sun sinks further down into the horizon, and Russell's anxiety grows.

"How far are we from town?" he asks.

"Um...a few miles. Not that far..."

"How far exactly?"

"Like four miles...and a quarter. Please don't start panicking Russ, you know I hate when you do that."

"I'm not panicking," Russell fights to keep his tone even. "I'm just saying, we don't want to go too far--"

"The boundary is at five miles. Relax. There's a full three-quarters of a mile between us and The La---here we go!" Stacey dives forward onto his hands and knees at the foot of a wide tree trunk and starts frantically pawing at the ground. Dirt and snow fly up all around him. Once a space is clear, he pulls a jagged piece of metal from his pocket and hacks at the earth with that instead.