The Real Master

Outside a trading village in the Great Noir Mountains…

“Aaaaaaaagggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh”

The inhuman scream shattered the merry sounds of villagers at work and play. All the village people turned to the blacksmith’s shop at the end of the busy street. In the opened space in front of the shop, where villagers gave a wide breth, lay an assortment of tools, horse shoes, rope and other instruments of trade.

“Aaaaaaaagggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh”

An ax flew by to hit the sign of the shop across the street. Some visitors to the town where shocked in amazement but not the villagers themselves. They knew exactly why the tools of trade where being thrown without care to the innocent. Natalia was sick.

Natalia, the blacksmith’s daughter, was sick. Again. Natalia had been bed ridden off and on the entire year. This time with the fall flu. The village healer had already been by to check up on Natalia. She had secretly told Blacksmith Makal that it was a bad omen for one person to get sick so suddenly and so many times this year. “The Mother is resting this year and can’t take care of us properly. This is bad, bad indeed. Makal was working in the front of the shop and doing a marvelous job of dodging projectiles. One passing the shop could almost think it was a live show with how effectively and graceful Makal dodged the instruments and still managed to work.

“Darlin’, the more you struggle, the longer you will have to stay abed.”

“That doesn’t make it anymore tolerable, father. Cruse this horrid season, cruse this bloody sickness, and cruse you as well!”

Makal ignored his enraged daughter knowing her tempers came as quick as they went and she would be sorry for any unkind words she spoke while under them.

‘She has a bad temper. I wonder where she gets it from.’ Makal said to himself with a slight grin.

“Just the same, love.”

Makal could hear Natalia shift around in her bed for awhile before sub coming to a fretful sleep. Makal and the rest of the village resumed their work and the day peacefully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Good day, Makal. May the night be as pleasant to you.”

“And as to you my friend.” Makal returned the age old greeting.

All the people had returned home to rest, but Makal would still be up till the crow called his last hour. The old economy was dying. People and hard work were being replaced with machinery. It was hard to make ends meet with more and more people trading their horses and weapons for space flight and tasers. Makal sighed missing the good old days and got to work on the next days shipments to a few loyal customers and protesters against the new technology.

As Makal finished another horse shoe and threw it into the pile with the rest. A stranger walked into the room.

“We’re closed traveler. Come back on the morrow.”

“Have peace my neighbor, I have come to trade and spread my goodwill.”

“May your goodwill spread into my family and double in yours, businessman. By what means does a business man darken my door after the shop is closed?”

“Forgive me blacksmith, may I come into your home and partake of your hospitality and my business will be known to you.”

The man at the door smiled at Makal. He was dressed plainly in a tunic, pants, and boots though they where of an expensive cloth. All in shades of blue that matched his piercing blue eyes. A taser gun hung at his hip beside a well made machete. His blond hair ran loose over his shoulder tied with a piece of leather. But even with his simply dress Makal could tell that this was a very wealthy man. He had rings made of the purest form of Trinity. A weighty metal made from gold, silver, and platinum that only a master mage could make. And it was very pricy. The same Trinity dawned his neck and ears in great quantities. Makal momentarily wondered how the man stood much less walked with that much jewelry on. But walk into Makal’s shop he did do and quite gracefully at that.

“I am sorry to disturb at this late hour but I came to make a proposition that should benefit the both of us.”

The man paused but the blacksmith said nothing.

“You have in your possession a great treasure that I would like to acquire for my master.”

The blacksmith looked confused.

‘What treasures can this man seek in a blacksmith shop of a backwater town?’ Thought the blacksmith and he said as much.

“You must be mistaken traveler; I hold no priceless weapons nor hide any rare jewels. What riches could you seek from a dying blacksmith trade?” Makal turned to his tool shelf placing the tools in their proper place. ‘It seems like I will not get anymore done tonight. Best to clean up then be rid of this business man quickly so I can sleep.’

The man continued to smile at Makal which he thought was more a cover for his real scheme or a well hidden secret.

“The treasure I seek is not silver or gold but something closer to your heart. The thing I am looking for is not an object but a person, Nexus Lafarel.”

Makal dropped his hammer he held in his hands. His gaze fell toward the backroom where his daughter slept restlessly.

“Nexus Lafarel. The Merciless Mercenary. Wanted in thirteen star systems, thirteen planets and thirteen cities. Otherwise named as Mr. 13. You really didn’t think that you could hide out here in a remote planet forever, did you?

“But as I said before I have a proposition that will benefit us both. There is a rumor in your markets of a very beautiful girl living here in the back planets. One who is currently sick as it seems and causing quite a stir among the town. A girl not like the other villagers. Her skin is mahogany brown where the weather is to cold to tan. Eyes the color of fall and hair the color of the purest onyx. Tall, curveous, huge…”

The stranger held his hands in front of his chest and smiled widely to Makal. Makal picked his hammer up and moved toward his work table.

“And don’t forget her sharp tongue and wit. She will be a beautiful wife for my lord…or a nice addition to his harem.”

Makal threw the hammer at the traveler, going for his knives. The traveler dodged the hammer easily and held a taser gun to the blacksmith’s head before he could arm himself with the knife.

“Nexus, my friend that was a silly thing to do. I am offering you freedom and here you are throwing it away.

“Get out. You are no longer welcome here stranger. Leave, before the night watch finds you.”

“As you wish Nexus, but I will be back. One way or another, your daughter is coming with me.”

The stranger left Makal still kneeling on the floor. Silently he turned off the workshop lights and headed for bed.

The men came out of no where one moment the streets where empty; the next men in cloaks where running down them. The men sneak up behind night watch men and killed them silently with no one the wiser. The men walked in and out of houses grabbing whatever they could before disappearing back outside.

The men moved to the door of the blacksmith’s shop, moving into the room as silently as a whisper. Moving past the workshop into the main house, they went into corridor that held many doors. They opened the first door and saw the fugitive Nexus sleeping form. Other doors revealed a bathroom, a kitchen, rooms that held tools and stored scrap metal. At the last door they discovered the sleeping Natalia. The men stared in wonder at the beautiful woman sleeping fretfully on the mattress. A cough from the door drew the men back to their present mission and they set to work binding the back planet beauty.

With no one the wiser they slipped through the sleeping village to a ship on the outskirts of town. The ship was ready to take off.