Cultivating Heroism

by Ray Torrens

  Chapter Six

  Mack leaving without saying goodbye to Kaarina definitely wasn’t something she needed to worry about. It was the sound of her and her father arguing that woke him from a groggy sleep the next morning.

  He barely processed what they were actually saying as he stumbled to the door, wearing his shirt and boxers, and wrenched it open.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, voice harsh with sleep.

  He didn’t expect the immediate flinging of something in his direction. Raita had hurled the earthenware mug he’d been holding very tightly in his right hand toward Mack with more strength than the old man looked capable of.

  It was easy enough to sidestep and avoid, but Mack was now thoroughly awake from the surprise of the situation. “I—"

  “Father!” Kaarina hissed. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Raita must have heard them last night after all. The old man stood there like a stone statue of a bull now. All that was missing was some steam coming out of his nose to complete the look of sheer agitation.

  Flabbergasted, Mack opened his mouth to apologize, to spout some bullshit about how in his culture it was normal to sleep with women just after having only known them for a few hours, or to make promises about how he would marry Kaarina right then and there. She spoke before he got a chance, thankfully.

  “I’m not saying I want to go away forever!” she said, catching him off guard. “I’m not even saying I want to go away for a long time. I just want to see some of the world. And how dare you blame our guest without understanding the situation. A man of your age and wisdom ought to know better than that! He doesn’t even know I was going to ask. Mack might not even let me.”

  “Let you? Let you what?” Mack mumbled, the shock from nearly being beamed with an earthenware hand-projectile fading and being replaced by the grogginess.

  “You are not putting yourself in danger like that! I will not allow it.”

  “I’m an adult. I don’t need you to allow it.”

  “You—”

  “No, dad, I mean it. I’ve been an adult for two years now, I’m not as green as you think I am. Stop sheltering me.”

  “This world isn’t one you can survive in unless you’re sheltered.”

  “Mack isn’t sheltered—and look at him! He is more powerful than any man in our village. How am I so safe here? What, is a creep like Okko going to keep me safe? Mack wiped the floor with him.”

  Mack cringed at the focus being thrust back onto him. Raita was fixing him with a murderous glare that he wanted to shrivel away from. “I don’t know—”

  “Shut up,” Raita hissed, and Mack was happy to obey.

  “He just saved our lives! This is not his fault!” Kaarina snapped in his defense.

  “He has been a terrible influence on you already. I don’t want that influence to grow.”

  Kaarina closed her hands into fists and opened her mouth like she was going to lash out before closing it again. She straightened her back and softened her face. “I’m not going to argue with you about this anymore. I’m going to go and speak to Mack, and you’re going to let me without interrupting. Please dad, at least wait to see if he will allow me to go with him, then you can start shouting all you like.”

  The look Mack received from Raita told him exactly what else would be happening if he even considered letting Kaarina come with him.

  They retreated into the room he’d slept in. Kaarina closed the door and assured him that this room was as sound-safe as her own bedroom. Mack just looked awkwardly at the bed. He hurried to pull his slacks back on. He was going to have to get some new clothes soon.

  “I want to come with you,” Kaarina said, standing with her arms folded. “Though I’m sure you already gathered that from the conversation.”

  “You can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t even know what I’m doing yet.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  Mack did up the belt on his pants and then stuffed his hands in his pockets, pretending like he was trying to find something in there to try and buy himself some more time. He couldn’t tell Kaarina everything. He had no guidance to go off. “I can’t say.”

  “You can’t say?” she demanded, taking a step closer. “Or you won’t say?”

  “It’s not that easy.” He snatched her hand from where she looked ready to poke him in the chest and ran his hand over her knuckles. “I don’t want to hold anything back from you, but I’m still in the dark about some things too and I’m scared to go saying too much before I know what the consequences might be.”

  Her face softened immediately. “And you swear that’s it?”

  “That’s it. I swear it.”

  “Then you have to at least let me come with you to find out what you can and can’t tell me. I can help you. I know you’re good, I know it, and if it’s really something that big then I know you’re going to make a difference. I want to help you.”

  He’d gone this far trusting his gut on what the right thing to do was, and his gut trusted Kaarina. It at least trusted her potential as a powerful healer.

  If he returned to the temple and Jakke told him he had to carry on with whatever his quest was on his own, then he’d have to tell Kaarina that was that, but who knew what he’d run into on the road back to the temple. He’d be safer with the keiju by his side.

  “Okay,” he said.

  She let out a small squeak and flung her arms around his neck. “Thank you!”

  He held her back, hands resting on her lower back. When they pulled away their cheeks brushed against each other, and his breath caught.

  But then Kaarina pulled away. “I have to tell my father. You should probably run away. I’ll hold him off before I tell him you said I can come so that he doesn’t try and murder you.”

  “You really think he might try?”

  “He already kind of did, a little at least?”

  Mack rubbed the spot on his forehead that the mug would have slammed straight into. “Oh, yeah.”

  She giggled, obviously a lot more used to casual violence in her reality than Mack was in his. Okay. Get ready to storm out looking angry that I even considered asking you to take me with you.”

  Mack steeled himself and did as she’d said when she opened the door, striding past her with his best face of thunder and going straight through into the blacksmithing shop. He resisted the urge to stay and look around once more, and left the house altogether.

  Breakfast was a more subdued affair than dinner had been the night before. People were again gathered around the table, but not as many, and not nearly as loudly. They munched on meager rations of what looked like more of the same bread from the night before. The meat stew must have been a rare treat for them.

  Minna beckoned him over and patted the seat beside her. “You can at least fill your belly before you get on your way. I’ve packed what rations I could spare, for you and Kaarina.”

  Mack froze. “Me and Kaarina?”

  “Well I have to assume that she’s already asked you if she can come along on your adventure judging by all the shouting this morning.”

  “Well, yes—”

  “And that little smile when you were leaving the house definitely tells me you said yes.”

  “Well…”

  “She has wanted out of this village since she was old enough to understand that it was not permitted. You are the first opportunity she has had. If I am being truthful, I am glad you agreed to take her with you.”

  Mack gave Minna a smile. “Yeah, I’m glad I’m taking her with me too.” He just hoped that he would get to keep her with him. Jakke could say anything. She could turn out to be anyone, with any kind of motivations.

  “Saila has offered to swap you some clothes for the ones you’re wearing right now,” Minna continued. “She’s intrigued by your fabrics. She can give you two outfits in exchange for your one.”

  “Deal,” he said, without bothering to
wonder what kind of clothes he would be getting. Two outfits would at least mean he could keep himself clean, and they would likely be better for fighting in than his office clothes. “Thank you.”

  Minna was about to point out Saila, when someone else joined the group. He walked in from around the side of one of the houses with a bloodied face and a limp. He was carrying two halves of a broken hoe. Mack sat up straighter as the man struggled to sit down at the bench.

  People rushed to help him, but no one seemed at all surprised. They also didn’t bother to ask what had happened. It was as if they already knew, but the blood was fresh. Who—or what—ever had hurt him must have done it recently.

  Mack waited a second longer before speaking up. “What happened?” he asked no one in particular.

  “Hooligans threatening the village,” Minna said dismissively. “It’s just a fact of life now. Going to tend fields is a dangerous task at times, especially alone.” She gave the man a sideways glance then, as if reiterating a point she had made to him many times before.

  “It’s normally fine this time at a morning,” the man grumbled. “But they’re getting bolder.”

  “They’ve got to realize that there’s no more to take soon,” said a woman tending to the man’s wounds who might have been his wife.”

  “They said we had this coming … at least I think that’s what they were saying. I took a pretty bad knock on the head right after they broke my good hoe. I guess they aren’t happy with our crops this season.”

  “Who would think innocent farmers possibly deserve this treatment?” Mack asked. “What do they want?”

  “Anything that can turn them a profit,” Minna said. “They’re bandits. Mercenaries. Not officially under instruction from the Lord of the Land but certainly not opposed by him either. I’m sure there’s a mutually beneficial relationship there somewhere, that they’ve been allowed to operate for so long.”

  “You’re all so powerful.” Mack couldn’t get his head around it. “Why don’t you fight back?”

  “Our magic wasn’t meant for fighting, and there are too few of us. If we fought, we might win, but we would lose many in the process.”

  “Isn’t that better than being bullied?”

  “No,” Minna said. “It isn’t. Surviving with friends and family is always better.”

  Mack watched the beaten-up man as the woman villager healed him. At least the pain was only temporary for them.

  After he’d finished eating, he went to change into the new clothes donated by Saila and to collect the spare ones, and then down to a freezing cold stream with a soap bar donated by another villager to clean himself.

  When he got back to the village, wet hair dripping around his face, he could see Raita pacing up and down the town square.

  A group of nervous looking figures were stood watching him. Kaarina was one of them. She had a large rucksack slung over her back.

  An increase in the murmuring among the villagers let Raita know that Mack had reappeared, and Raita turned and started striding toward him.

  Mack clenched his fists and then released them. The last thing he wanted to do was to start punching until he absolutely had to. He would let the old man attack him—to a point—but he wasn’t about to get beaten senseless.

  Raita came right up to him, took hold of the front of his comfy new tunic with both hands, and pulled him closer. Raita had more strength than he’d anticipated, and there was a disarming intensity in the old man’s eyes.

  Mack barely held himself back, waiting for Raita to either go for a punch or let him go. He did neither, but moved his own face even closer to Mack’s and said, “If anything happens to my daughter, it will be your doing.”

  “Nothing is going to happen to her,” he promised, though he had no right to. He didn’t know enough about the state of the world right now to say that.

  “You are responsible for her,” the old keiju added, and then released Mack’s tunic and strode away.

  Mack tried to make himself look busy as Raita and Kaarina said goodbye to each other. He should have had things to pack into a backpack too. He should have had a rucksack at all, rather than just the barely held together knapsack he’d been given by Minna to carry the food and clothes in.

  His entire apartment was filled with things that would have been perfect for adventuring. A flashlight, thermals, camera. He even had a gun in the apartment. No one he’d seen so far looked like they had a gun. The magic was a wild card though, he didn’t even know how effective a gun would be against the people on some fantasy-like planet.

  Instead he had just a few items of clothing, food that looked like it would last the two of them about three days, and an improved ability to punch.

  Raita and Kaarina finished up saying goodbye to each other, and then she was by his side and waiting for him to lead the way, as though he had any idea how to get back to the temple he’d left Jakke at without explaining what he was doing.

  He really hoped that Jakke had some supplies to give him when they got back to the temple, otherwise he was screwed.

  Chapter Seven

  “I have no idea where we’re going,” Mack said as they headed away from the village in what he was fairly certain was the same way they’d come in. “We need to go back to the temple that I met you outside of.”

  Kaarina bounced as she walked. “Great. We are going in the right direction then.”

  “How well do you know the whole area?”

  “I have a map in my bag, but I haven’t actually seen much of it in person. I’m not sure how accurate the map will be anymore, but it should give a gist.”

  “Maybe Jakke will be able to give me a better map.”

  “Who is Jakke?”

  “This hologram guy inside the temple. He’s who I need to go back and speak to.”

  “I can’t believe you not only got into the temple, but you spoke to the guardian and everything?”

  Mack frowned. “What do you mean? It didn’t seem like it was locked or anything.” He didn’t add that he hadn’t exactly walked through the front door, but had rather been teleported.

  “Only someone with the right lineage, or who has passed the right tests, can enter the Protector’s Temples. There haven’t been any entrance exams for Protector training for years now. That fell apart so long ago. Which means you’re a Protector.” She wrapped her arms around his right one. “You are a Protector, aren’t you?”

  “I’m not a Protector.”

  “You have to be.” She tightened her grip on her arm. “That’s crazy. I can’t believe a Protector even came to my village, never mind agreed to let me come with him.” Her face went serious for a second. “Thank you. I mean, really. Thank you. You’ve saved my life. I would have wasted away in that place.”

  Mack smiled down at her. She was so beautiful. He just hoped it would be that way and that the second he got back to the temple he wouldn’t be told to send her back to Avalu and carry on his journey—whatever that entailed—by himself.

  They walked and chatted for a while, but Mack was paying more attention to his surroundings than anything. He was intrigued by every little difference that was different to Earth. The temple appeared in the distance as they came over a low rise. It felt good to be back there.

  Then Kaarina stopped still, her eyes wide and peering to the side of their path toward the temple. “Hold on,” she whispered. “Listen.”

  “I can’t hear a thing.”

  “Shh.” Kaarina gestured for them to move away from the path and behind some crumbled stone walls that might have been a house once. They were so close to the temple, walking through the same abandoned village that Mack had fought the lizard creature in that had set him and Kaarina on the same path. “There’s someone coming in the direction, a small group, armed,” she whispered.

  “How do you know?”

  She wiggled her elongated ears. “I can hear them.”

  “Let’s try to avoid them and get to the temple.” Mack fo
und himself barely making any sound, but Kaarina seemed to be able to hear him perfectly. Those elf ears of hers did a lot more than just look cute.

  She recoiled. “Are you kidding me? You saw what these bastards did to Urpo, the farmer, this morning, and now you want to run away? It’s finally time to fight back. We can do something about it.”

  But Minna’s words rang in Mack’s ears as he scanned the area for a safer route toward the temple. It’s better to survive with your family and friends. He and Kaarina had only just left the village. It was the start of their adventure. He wasn’t going to risk it coming to an end unless he had to.

  Especially not when he still wasn’t sure exactly how much power he had—or how much everyone else had.

  “Follow me.” He grabbed her by the arm, and although she resisted at first, she was soon right behind him and keeping pace. Soon after they’d made a run for it, heavy footsteps sounded not for away—the sound of several people running.

  He took them to a half-destroyed house that had no roof or door, but a high enough wall that they would be obscured from view.

  He opened his mouth to ask something, but Kaarina pressed a finger against his lips, shaking her head. They crouched together behind the wall, waiting for something to happen.

  “They’re here,” a voice said confidently. “Lurking. I can smell that tasty elf bitch. Find them.” Mack felt a pang of rage surge through him.

  Kaarina quivered and he wrapped his arms around her. He wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or nerves that were making her suddenly shaky. She leaned further into him, her cheek against his chest. It was easy to be brave from a distance, but things were different when a group of thugs were practically right on top of you. He was stiff as a board, ready to fight the second it was necessary. It had been so tempting to stay out in the open and take the fight head on—it would be a much better environment than the cramped house they were currently stood in, but if they could get away with being undiscovered then that was definitely best.