When the soldiers came to his village, to ask for men to bolster their ranks, they had found him hiding amongst the pigs. The other villagers were all too happy to be rid of him, they had even cheered when they put him up against the flogging poll. The soldiers only gave him fifteen lashes, for trying to avoid the call, they had shown him mercy, or so they had claimed-but it was true; any other man they would have been given forty. But it could be that they had taken a liking to him when they heard him squealing with the other pigs. Ogdhil was not clever, strong, handsome, or brave. He had been pox-ridden and gnarly of frame in his childhood, and now-in his adulthood-he was pox-ridden and gnarly of frame. The only thing time had changed, was his growing fleshier around the waist with each passing year.

Griin's people were the ones who found the weapon. After journeying through the great mountains; and through the places cold and forgotten, they found it-resting amidst the roots of a great old oak: a timeworn flail. They saw it as a sign of the gods to settle. Around it they set up a shrine, and built a grand wooden temple to house it. But neither the oak, nor the grass around it, nor the flail itself were touched. And they made that place their homeland.

"There are laws in this world, an example of one such law would be the following: If man or natural object exert force upon a man or natural object, these will exert an equal amount of force in return. As an example; if a man pushes a boulder, that boulder, unbeknownst to the man, will also push back against him with equal strength. Even the ancients have observed and garnered-if at the very least-a primitive understanding of these natural laws. For the millennia that they have been recognized and quantified, they have held to be true; and so I decree that these laws are universal and cannot be changed under any circumstances-under any circumstance except those that pertain to magic. That which separates magic from the laws of our world, also allows it to overwrite those very laws. That is its wonder.

There is a war, and a peasant girl is anguishing over whether she should intervene or not-with powers she was born with, but doesn't quite understand. --- Trying to become a professional so if you find any mistakes/typos/or have any comment or suggestions don't hesitate to let me know! This is part of a series of works set in the same universe. You can read the rest in my profile(https://www.wattpad.com/user/DarklyWh), they have a numerical attached to let you know in what order they were written. No need to read them in order, but it's there if you'd like to. Feel free to DM me here or on discord at DarklyWhite#2277. Thank you so much for reading. All art done by me.