Child of War (Tales of Autcrem)

Chapter ten, Old Memories.

"Can I help," Hensei said, coming up to Mayla. No one really looked at him strange besides the orc boys' hateful glares.

"Your hurt, you shouldn't have to."

"What? These scratches. They're nothing." Hensei said, shrugging.

"Alright, then." She said, slapping a fish on one of the free spots with a knife. "Do you need me to show you?"

"No, I've cleaned fish before." He said, leaning his crutch against the counter and grabbed the knife.

Time seemed to fly by as he cut the fish. The room was full of laughter that he forgot about the war. He was focused on here and now. The joy he was feeling. It was as if they were some massive family. He didn't have any more visions, he had forgotten about them. It was just him and this new family he had become a part of, maybe he'd stay a part of it. It wasn't so bad. He could get used to this. Mayla was kind like his mother, Dodd seemed wise like his father... he didn't think of his father much. Last he spoke with his father was when he left for the war. It wasn't a conversation he liked to remember. Even so, it was as clear as day in his mind. He walked into his father's studies; the wood floor creaked under his feet. His father was a large man, and he sat behind a large oak desk. It felt as if he was coming before a giant.

"Hensei," he remembered his father rumble as he studied some old dwarves diagrams for hammers. His father loved making hammers. "Come look at these," He said in a fascinated voice. His father absolutely loved to craft things. They were a blacksmithing family, and their father was the most passionate of them all. "Come see the detail. The dwarves know how to draw a diagram, I think only the elves could rival them. These hammers will be amazing to craft. Do you want to help me tomorrow? I know you've always liked swords, but no one else wants to, and I thought I'd be a fun thing to do together. Just the two of us." He never lifted his eyes from the diagram, his father normally talked while his eyes were glued to some diagram or blueprint. Hensei's mother would always get mad at him for that.

For such a large man, his father was a very talkative man. Its where Hensei got it from. You see him and would assume quiet, cold, even stone-like, but once you talk to him, he doesn't stop. Hensei remembered the many days and nights forging all kinds of things with his father. Sometimes with some of his siblings or all of them. Then there were the times when it was just him and his father.

He looked back on those times with a smile. They would work in silence or talk the entire time. It was a happier time. Now those memories hurt because they would eventually bring him to this one. The last time his father asked him to forge with him, the last time he spoke so excitedly about something with Hensei, the last time he would ever speak to his father. He liked to have foolish dreams about maybe one day coming back, and his father welcoming him with arms wide open. Such foolish dreams.

"I can't dad," Hensei remembered himself saying. He had worked himself up for a week, preparing for this. It was so easy to walk in, to come before his father, but telling him seemed to be the most painful thing he would do in the world. Watching his mother breakdown in tears as he walked away after telling her didn't hurt nearly as much as this. He now stood before his father with a pain crying in his chest, unlike anything he had ever felt.

"Why not?" His father raised his head form the diagrams concerned. "Do you already have plans?" His face soon turned mischievously. "Are you sneaking away with Bella tomorrow? I heard you told her you liked her from your sister, oops I was supposed to keep that a secret. Well, she's a good girl, better than you really deserve. Ah!" His father laughed at his joke, and normally Hensei would laugh too, but he could barely speak. He stared at the ground, face strained as his chest tightened. He didn't know if he could speak. Bringing up Bella made it harder as he realized what he was leaving behind. He remembered everything so clearly that he could even feel the pain again.