Chapter 3: Crazy Dreams
Three months later…
Somewhere deep in the forest.
A race was occurring, the two figures moved like blurs and their movements fast and feral.
A roar echoed through the trees, the falling leaves kicked up with fury and a large robust beast of dark brown fur hustled through the grass. An angry bear had been chasing Teus, deeply engaged in pursuit.
"I thought this dragon said I didn't have enough resolve, my resolve to not die isn't enough!?"
The child with short dark hair and cerulean colored eyes and a tattered scarf kept his strides large and aggressive, his heart not missing a beat. His arms were full of wet, slimy, flopping fish that he held securely as he ran. Fish that he had stolen from the bear's lair earlier.
"Damn it all!... I'm almost there! It's just one more turn and I'm free!"
Grahh!
He heard the bear growling again, this time louder and more clear than before letting him know that it was closer than ever. The sweat dropped profusely from his brow and his adrenaline burst throughout his body.
The boy, against his better judgement turned his head at a ninety degree angle to steal a glimpse from the beast.
His eyelids stretched open as if his eyes themselves were threatening to pop out of his sockets and his pupils shrank.
The bear had lunged after the boy's body.
The shadow of the creature loomed over the child as he realized that within the split second of him turning his head, he was greeted with the sight of a blood lusted bear hovering over him.
The boy immediately tucked his body into a ball and rolled to the right. Successfully dodging the bear by just fractions of a second.
The bear crashed into a tree. Cracking open pieces of its trunk and sending broken fragments of its bark flying everywhere.
The child tumbled down a dirt hill, gaining knicks and cuts as he ungracefully tumbled down the terrain.
His body came to an abrupt stop as it bashed against the stone wall. Standing high in the sky above him and towering over his small frame. The wall was composed of large greyish stones, each one bigger than the boy himself. A flag flew on top of the barrier. Proudly presenting an insignia that marked the territory the child recognized all too well.
He grinned with glee as he mumbled to himself.
"I made it back to town!"
A loud crack was heard from the distance.
The child's smile quickly morphed into a panicked expression being etched onto his face. Without delay or second thought he ran towards a small fissure in the stone wall, an opening just barely big enough to fit himself through.
The bear growled again, charging down the dirt hill. This time faster than before and effortlessly closing the distance between them.
The frightful sight made the boy's face turn pale as he continued to bolt his way to the crack in the wall. Questioning his stamina.
"Shoot, am I even gonna make it!?"
****
Inside of the town was a dusty and undeveloped albeit, functional street marketplace.
Vendors from all over town had converged to this specific area to sell all kinds of goods. Such as low quality armor, food rations and other amenities for oneself to survive for day to day living.
It didn't need to be spectacular, it just had to keep you alive for tomorrow.
The street was buzzing with citizens buying and selling from one another, while strolling along the dirt road. Casual conversation filled the atmosphere as the day was progressing.
"Did you hear that the kingdom has sent Beast Breakers to inspect Thorinhil soon?" One shopkeeper said while carrying a haul of three wooden boxes into the back of a shop.
"Yeah, I heard that there may be a dragon around the town, I hope that the Beast Breakers are enough to kill it." His coworker replied with an unmistakable note of concern in his voice.
"We'll probably be fine. The kingdom's Beast Breakers are the highest ranking knights. They are overqualified for a job like this. I heard their captain even has a dragon core as his weapon. High ranking dragons don't usually cross into the human border anyway. I'm sure if we just don't do anything stupid, they'll get here before the dragon does, right?"
A loud and distinct boom was heard from beyond the walls. A shiver went down the spines of the citizens as the once lively chatter of the small town had become deadly silent.
"....you don't think that, that was a dragon do you?" Replied the coworker as he nervously turned his head towards the man.
Unfazed he continued to load his boxes into the back of the store.
"Nope. That my friend, is no dragon. He certainly is trouble though!"
From the distance a small silhouette began to form as the boy came rushing closer and closer to the city with arms full of fish.
"Phew I thought I was gonna die this time for sure!"
A shared sigh made its course throughout the citizens of Thorinhil as they watched the boy running through the streets.
"Oh it's just him again." One groaned.
"That rascal kid's always causing a ruckus!" One mother snapped while pushing her children away from his sight.
The confused worker dropped his jaw as his forehead creased. Clearly unaware of what was going on.
"I don't get it. Why is everybody so calm? And who even is that kid anyway?"
The coworker scratched his head for a little bit before raising his eyebrows in recognition.
"Oh that's right. I forgot you're new here." He replied.
The worker still maintained a puzzled expression.
"So...?"
The man pointed in the direction of the boy as he ran past the crowd of people in the town. Unceremoniously bumping into some of them as he trotted along, before answering.
"That right there is Teus the treasure hunter, he's also known as the town's number one trouble maker."
While Teus ran past the people he ignored their criticisms.
"What's wrong with that kid!?"
"You really should be more careful Teus!"
"You know you almost gave us a heart attack!"
Though as everyone expected, their words fell on deaf ears. He continued to speed through the people while running towards the duo of workers carrying the boxes into the nearby shop.
His legs came to an abrupt stop and his body hit a screeching halt.
The dust kicked up from beneath his feet. Slowly rising and wafting into view for the shop workers.
Still engaged with placing his boxes in the store, the shopkeeper called out to Teus with his back still turned to him. He already knew why he was here.
"Was today's looting for scraps successful, Teus?"
"Yup! I even had extra time to steal some fish from the bears on the way back after I was done with the dungeon!" Teus enthusiastically replied, whilst fervently nodding his head.
"Uh…I'm gonna go sort out the armory in the back." said the new hire as he excused himself.
Teus' face beamed with excitement.
"You won't believe what happened, mister shopkeeper!"
The worker took one good look at Teus' ruffled clothes, cuts, scratches, the twigs sticking out of his hair and the fish he was clinging onto so dearly before swiftly coming to a conclusion.
Teus began with a grin.
"I just finished looting before a-"
"You stole fish from the bears on your way back again and you almost died?" The shopkeeper was quick to interject.
"Yeah! Almost caught me this time!"
"It almost catches you everytime." The worker replied unfazed as he continued to load the last of his haul.
"Okay but this time, it like, really, really almost got me!"
A random passerby walking down the road gave Teus a common scowl moments before he shouted.
"Cut that nonsense out you lousy brat! You're scaring the town and one day you're gonna get yourself killed."
This had been a routine thing. Every time Teus went outside of the town. He had a habit of stealing food from a wild animal on the way back. Whether it was a portion of fish from the bears that lived along the riverside of the town walls or a bundle of mushrooms from a herd of deer in the bushes. He had a habit of enraging the animals around him to the point where they wanted his head. And whenever he just barely managed to escape the grasp of death, the commotion caused by the animals almost always made people fear that a dragon had found them, or at least that Teus was dead.
Teus shot the man an irritated frown.
"Why don't you stop getting scared by a nine year old boy..." He muttered.
The shopkeeper's expression softened as he exchanged glances with him. Halting his moving of supplies.
"Calm down treasure hunter, the town has a point when they tell you not to go out there doing these dangerous things ya know. They're only saying what they're saying because they don't wanna see you die."
Teus shrugged his shoulders and dramatically rolled his eyes.
"Oh please, if they didn't wanna see me die they would have given me something to eat while I was starving on these streets last winter."
The shop keeper was silent for a moment.
"They're just jealous of my crazy dreams and aspirations while the rest of them are all so boring! Anyway I think you'll be surprised with what I got today. Mind if I set my fish down?"
"Go for it. You haven't come to trade salmon with me have you?"
"Of course not!" Teus said with a grin.
He dropped the fish on the floor and emptied his pockets on the shopkeeper's table. Scattered across the wooden counter were dirty, broken pieces of armor, bladed weapons and other relics made up of miscellaneous metals and minerals.
Teus leaned in with anticipation as he awaited the shopkeeper's appraisal.
"Well, are any of them any good? Pretty impressive finds for a peasant, huh?"
The shopkeeper shot Teus an impressed look while allowing himself a small chuckle. The boy confidently grinned at the table. The shopkeeper broke the silence first.
"Looks like you got some good loot from the abandoned dungeon today. I can really use these for scrap."
"Really!?"
The shopkeeper nodded his head.
Teus grinned.
"Well… How much is the loot!?"
"About four purple coins. But I'll round up and give you five."
The shopkeeper shuffled in his bag that was securely tied around his belt and handed Teus five dirty dark magenta colored coins. Teus groaned.
"Hey! I thought you said I had good loot this time!"
Currency in the land was straightforward. Purple coins were the lowest of the low in terms of currency, most shops would not accept them due to them being so low in value and it would take ten of them to equate to a single copper coin which is the cheapest form of coinage that people would take. The order from least valuable to most was: purple, copper, silver, gold and then platinum.
The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow while looking at the child.
"It is… compared to yesterday, you only got three purple coins. Haha!"
"Oh, come on!"
The shopkeeper gestured to his own throat and looked at Teus with mild curiosity.
"Ya know you would get a lot more than purple coins if you sold that scarf of yours instead of these scraps. It's all battered sure, but the quality of the material is actually pretty high for around these parts."
Teus instinctively grabbed the scarf around his neck tightly with an ember of determination welling up within his eyes.
"Absolutely not! Mister Fluff and Puff gave it to me, He'd chew me out if I ever sold it!"
The shopkeeper had a confused frown before continuing his guffaw of laughter.
"Well then if you don't wanna disappoint that hairy wild friend of yours, I guess you'll keep earning purple coins for the rest of your life! Haha!"
"What a rip off!"
Teus shouted as he poured the coins into his pockets. He stared at the back of the shop and observed their merchandise. It was an armory. There were swords, shields and pouldrons that all appeared majestically, even though they were collecting dust in the back of the market. His eyes were glued to a particular suit that stood out to him, with gold engravings and a blue hue as its base. He redirected his gaze to the shopkeeper and pointed at the armor set.
"Am I any closer to getting that suit over there?" He asked brazenly.
The shopkeeper began to guffaw as his body spun in the direction where Teus was looking.
"What are you, dull? The thing is easily worth 30,000 gold, no one in Thorinhil can afford this."
"Even a dull blade cuts if you swing it right. One day I'll be the first."
"At this rate, if you save every single coin you make, hopefully you'll have enough money to buy one by the time you're old enough to fit in one."
"Hey! Don't underestimate me! I'll bring back a treasure so big you'll have to take it seriously and give it to me!"
The shopkeeper snarked at the boy, almost immediately.
"Oh yeah? And after you've blown your savings on the armor, what weapon would you wield along with it?" The shopkeeper placed a closed fist over his lips as if trying to trap his laughter from escaping.
Teus grinned before pulling out a shiny, slightly glowing, blue gem from his pocket. Proudly presenting it to the shopkeeper.
"My weapon? I'll use this! My super-awesome-ultra-spectacular dragon core! Awaken, my dragon!"
"…"
"..."
The shop was engulfed in a quiet atmosphere. Nothing happened. Teus blushed, completely embarrassed.
"Damn it! I really thought it would at least glow a little or something that time! I should have known my resolve to not be embarrassed wasn't enough!" He thought.
"Wait, you have a dragon core!?" the shopkeeper asked.
Teus' face turned red as he began to stutter.
"W-whatever, I'm working on it! I'm gonna make my next stop for delivery to Mister Fluff and Puff. Just make sure you save that armor for me, alright!"
Teus frantically scraped the fish from off the ground and began to continue running through the town. The new hire peaked through the doorway and stole a glance at the young boy.
"...So does the town hate Teus because he keeps making people think a dragon's about to attack.?"
The shopkeeper watched Teus run off in the distance while his light smile slowly faded into a solemn demeanor.
"...Yeah," he piled the dirty relics and weapon pieces from his table and placed them in a wooden barrel with a mound of other loot that Teus had given him before he continued. "You can never be too careful in this town, especially after the dragons took over. So people always fear, and that kid adds to their anxiety like crazy."
The new hire scratched the back of his head and squinted as though he was finally coming to an understanding.
"Okay, and he wants the armor really bad because he wants to become a Beast Breaker when he grows up?"
"Nope, even worse, once he's a Beast Breaker the kid says he dreams of hunting for the King's Crest in the future."
The coworker took a step back in recoil. Jaw dropped and aghast.
"What…that's insane! You mean going straight into the heart of dragon territory!?"
"Tell me about it. What a lunatic…" the shopkeeper replied coldly.
Whilst tilting his head to the side and stroking the hairs on his chin, the new hire pondered the thought as he watched Teus run into the distance.
"I mean, now that I think about it. Isn't someone who is willing to constantly put themselves in danger without fear like that, the exact kind of person that you would expect to end up finding the King's Crest though?"
The shopkeeper clicked his tongue in response.
"Don't be dumb. Peasants like us in Thorinhil can never accomplish something like that, it would basically be a death sentence…"
He spared Teus one last melancholic glance before going back into the shop.
"He's already a wild kid, if you want him to live to see his tenth birthday, don't encourage his crazy dreams…"