Family of Outcasts by Aaron McLeod (best fantasy books to read TXT) 📕

            “Just keep doing this until you get some embers from the bark. Then pour the embers onto the tinder and blow on it gently to spread it around. As the fire gets bigger, add more wood. Have fun.” He explained to them, leaving Ragosh, Athos, Jordan and the twins to try and start the fire.

            They had been trying for ten minutes and still hadn’t been able to start a fire. Azoth suggested that they add more pieces of bark into the notch and then try again.

            “Arthur, come here. I need you to help skin and gut these rabbits.” He called. Arthur came and sat down in front of him. Azoth gave him the smallest rabbit. Arthur just sat there with the rabbit in his hands.

            “I don’t know how to skin and gut a rabbit.” Arthur said quietly. Azoth stopped in place and then let out an irritated sigh.

            “Here I’ll show you. Since we don’t have a knife and I don’t want to accidentally cut off their legs with my sword, we’ll have to break its back legs at the knee until the bone pierces through the hide. You push the bone one way and pull the skin the other way Think you can do that?” Azoth explained.

            “I can try.” Arthur said, unsure of himself.

            “Okay. Try it now.”

Arthur pushed the back knee bone out and pulled on the skin, and heard a little crack. He closed his eyes at the sound, but opened them quickly. He had managed to break the bone through the skin.

“Now,” Azoth said as he started to pull the skin away on the legs. “You work your fingers around to skin to separate the rest of it at the original puncture and try to pull it away from the skin until you’ve separated it from the knee joint and the rest of the leg. Then you do the same with the other leg. With that done, you move your hand beneath the rabbits balls and work your way under the belly, where you loosen the skin from there. After you’ve loosened that, move your hand around the rabbit’s backside and loosen the skin there, pulling onto it so you take the skin off the tail and its belly. This next part is easy. You just pull the skin down until you get to the arms. Once you get to the arms, break the hide with your thumb, which shouldn’t be too hard. With your thumb through the hide, pull the skin off the arms and keep going until you get the head. When that’s done, you break the spine and I’ll cut off its head. Finally we make a cut in its belly and pull the rabbits guts out. That part stinks a lot so I’ll do it for you if you prefer.”

Arthur had tried to pay attention from there, but was sure he wouldn’t be able to remember it all.

“You’ll have to walk me through it as I do it myself.” He said.

“Fair enough.”

He retold all of the instructions again as Arthur pulled the skin of the rabbit himself. There were a few hiccups along the way, as he accidentally ripped off the entire tail instead of the skin. Eventually he was able to complete skinning his own rabbit. He even decided to gut it himself, using a sharp rock to cut the belly open. When he did gut the rabbit, the stench as he pulled out the stomach, lungs, heart, intestines and liver nearly caused him to throw up. Arthur also almost hit Jade with them when he threw them away.

Just as Azoth finished gutting the last rabbit, Jordan let out a cheer. “I did it!” They had finally managed to get some embers started, which they quickly placed into the nest of tinder. The tinder caught fire very fast and they slowly added smaller sticks as it grew. Azoth started to build a makeshift spit for the rabbits to sit on while they cooked. Arthur ripped off his sleeve and made it into a little cloth for the skinned rabbits so they wouldn’t get dirty after he had cleaned them. He took great measures to use as little water as possible. After he cleaned the rabbits, he shook the water skin to see how much was left. There was still enough for another day or two if they were careful.

The fire was now much bigger, so Azoth took two of the rabbits and forced a stick through where their heads used to be until it stuck out of both of their backsides. He placed the stick with the two rabbits on between the little posts he had made to form a spit and left them to cook over the fire. The last one he stuck another stick through, but held it over the fire with the stick in his hand, turning it on its sides every once in a while.

The sun had almost completely set by then and there were only snippets of light were left in the blackening sky. Their fire was the only light source they had now and all of them gathered near the fire to stay warm. The smell of the cooking rabbits kept them from falling asleep.

Soon all three rabbits were cooked and Azoth took the rabbits off the fire and placed them on the cloth Arthur has set up. He ripped off a leg for himself and started to eat.

“Help yourselves.” He said with a mouth full of rabbit meat. Everyone quickly gathered as much meat as they could from the rabbits and returned to where they were sitting. They all started to devour the rabbit meat ferociously. No one said a word; there was only the sound of chewing, their delightful moans at eating something that wasn’t old, the cracks of the fire and crickets.  

“So, you all know about me. What about all of you? I don’t know anything about any of you.” Azoth said out of the blue. Everyone stopped what they were doing and sat in silence. “What? It’s only fair you tell me that sort of thing seeing as I told you.”

“Why so sociable all of a sudden?” Ariana asked.

“I realize that I was rude earlier this morning and I apologize. Being rude in the eyes of others is a particular quirk I’ve seem to have acquired. How about this? I’ll answer the question you’ve all be wondering,” Azoth pulled up his sword and held it in front of him. “I’ll tell you about this sword. But only if you tell me about yourselves. Sound like a fair trade?”

They all thought about it and one by one they nodded.

“Good. You first.” Azoth pointed at Hannah, whose mouth was stuffed with food. She quickly chewed and swallowed her food before clearing her throat.

“I’m not sure what to say.” She said nervously.

“Tell me your name. Some things about you, where you come from, who your parents were if you know about them.”

“Okay then. Let’s see. My name is Hannah. I am seventeen and my mother was a whore. She had many…well let’s just say clients, so she’s not sure which one was the father. She wasn’t allowed to keep me, as much as she apparently wanted to. But it is Church law that any whore woman who bears a child must give that child up to either the nearest church or an orphanage. If she didn’t, I would have been taken away by force and my mother would have been flogged in public. So she gave me to Sister Hanalos at Greymoor, left Cathvas and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.” She explained, taking the occasional small bit of meat in between words.

“And you?” Azoth nodded towards Jade. Jade didn’t respond. Instead she continued to eat.

“She doesn’t know. Arthur and I found her abandoned in a field of purple flowers when we heard crying. We don’t know where her parents are.” Hannah said as he put her arm around Jade.

Azoth asked each and every one of them their story. They all told them it as best as they could. Jordan spoke about how his farm was taken by his uncle, Ariana about the hunter who found her alone in the woods, Aldus and Oldus about how their mother was disowned and how she was killed by a black bear. Azoth listened to all of them intently, letting a little pause go by as each one finished. Ragosh’s and Jordan’s stories kept him silent the longest though. He took the last leg of rabbit, ate it quickly as everyone sat in silence. Once he was finished, he cleared he throat and then pulled his sword up for all to see.

“You’ve all told me that you’ve never seen a sword like this. Well this is a weapon that not a lot of people use anymore. It’s not that useful against a man in full plate armor unless you’re very creative and fast. This type of sword is called a falchion. While originally designed to have the versatility of a sword and the power of an axe, this one in particular is inspired by the sabers that the desert people of the east use. It’s meant more for slashing that for stabbing, but it does a good job at stabbing someone.” He explained to everyone as he passed it around. It was still wrapped in its cloth to no one would cut themselves. Eventually Ariana was holding it.

“It’s much lighter than I thought it would be.” She said.

“That’s because it’s not made of regular steel.” Azoth said, smiling. The falchion finished passing through everyone’s hands until it returned to him. He undid the bindings of the cloth and held the blade close to the fire so they could see easier.

“When I was with the elves, I was given a task to find something called star steel. Star steel is a metal that comes from the shooting stars you see in the sky. Sometimes they come down and crash into the ground. I managed to find one when I was searching. Normally there is enough star steel to make a sword and in this case, there was. However, not only was there enough to make this falchion, there was enough to make a full suit of armor.”

“Because I had found it, I was allowed to have the armor made for my size and to be suitable for the type of weapon I wanted. I can’t remember how long it took to make, but I do remember waiting for a very long time. Forging star steel is a long and difficult process. If you’re not careful, it can shatter. But once it was finished, combined with the training I had received, I was near unstoppable. Star steel is much lighter and stronger than regular steel when forged by a smith who knows how to work it. I think the only things that would have been able to kill me in battle would be being trampled by large animals, a cannon shot, or a dragon.”

Everyone remained silent.

“Why didn’t you wear the armor when you came back?” Aldus asked.

“I went into battle with that armor a lot. I would have been too easily recognized in it. So I left it with the elves. So there you have it, that’s what my sword is.”

“Thank you.” Ariana said.

“We should get some sleep. We have a long way to go.” Azoth said as he kicked a little dirt into the fire. It dimmed down to a few flames and some bright coals.

Thankfully there was enough room for all