“Hey guys look, it’s that low-life Verglas,” sneered the boy in front who looked to be the ringleader of the four boys behind him.“Hi Cletus,” greeted Lucien. Cletus Adelson was a noble’s son, so naturally, many kids would flock under his leadership. He was a little taller than Lucien with combed blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles. He was dressed in fancy clothes that suited a noble’s son.“What do I keep saying peasant? You don’t deserve that bread. Now give it to me.”“Come on Cletus. This is my food. My family barely has enough as it is. I can’t be wasting it on someone like you. Besides, what did I ever do to you guys?”Cletus scowled in response to t

As the days went by, Kalin and Lucien became great friends. They accompanied each other wherever they went, to school, to The Tavern, on the way to each other’s home. They even took the same beatings. Although, Lucien felt bad about this because all of the beatings were only supposed to be for him, but Kalin refused to leave Lucien when those times came.Lucien’s father also hung a bag of dirt on the tree nearby their cabin. Lucien made immediate use of this and practiced hard. His father wasn’t able to teach him much during the week, but he had the weekends off, so his father was able to instruct Lucien then since Lucien had the weekends off as well.It was tradition in the country of Verglacia to not do any work during the weekends unless you were tending to your home. Lucien made use of these times to practice his s

Two days later, it was the start of the second year of school.“What do you think the new teacher will be like?” Kalin asked Lucien as they walked towards the school.Kalin looked to have gotten a little taller after a year. Lucien, however, hadn’t grown at all except mentally.“I’m not sure. I hope whoever it is teaches as well as Ms. Grell did.”“You got that right. All I want to do is pass. So they better be good at teaching. I don’t want to put in any more work than I have too.”“What do you want to do when you finish school?” Lucien asked.“Hmm. I’ve

Lucien woke up very early with his father the next day and headed out through the farmland towards the forest lying in the east.It was a nice cool morning and the ground was covered with a thick dew. The morning was barely lit by the light of the sun as it hadn’t risen far enough into the sky yet.After about a half an hour they reached the edge of the forest.“You ready?” his father asked.“For sure.” Lucien held up his bow and two arrows. His father only brought a couple loafs of stale bread for when they got really hungry. Unfortunately for the Verglas, they were always hungry.His father led the way into the forest and began to scan the forest groun