midgardian-prologue
SCIENCE FICTION FANTASY

Midgardian Prologue

Midgardian Prologue

by leayfaucit
19 min read
4.79 (2500 views)
adultfiction

*Note: This is the "Pre-story" Oliver has some growing up to do:

-Edgemont: Jontral, Vera, Ivana, Janse, Jeremy, Jacob, Oliver, Etanya

-Sea Witch: bosun:Maurice, helmsman:Liam, quatermaster:Noah and mate: Ezra, mate:Arturo and mate:Theo, nester:Adrian, crew: Morgan, Daly, Cabin:Hurly

My 10 minute break was almost over, I can't believe I ended up working at Starbucks, in the Mall of all places, doing closing shifts, while during the day I worked as a cook at the Silver Diner. Trying to save enough money to, do what exactly, not really sure as in one minute, I'll be taking out the garbage.

As the only male, garbage, and objects on the top shelf were mine to get, I was asked to be a manager, but that was too much work for not enough of a bump in pay to care about managing teenagers and shifts.

Walking down the back room hallways regular people never see in the mall, they smell like pee near the back door, scurry through the misting rain, try to lift the lid while heaving the bag in.

On the way back the security guard not only hit me while backing up, he never stopped and rolled both sets of wheels over me, I was going to die smelling like garbage and pee, he was late getting to the bank drop box at the edge of the parking lot to watch over the people dropping the day's tallies.

No family to tell, nothing really owned, what a waste.

----=====----

"Wake up! Wake up, you promised, wake up."

Opening one eye, the other is glued shut, Blaine did a number on me with that mall truck, I'm surprised I only hurt all over.

"Wuh"

"Yay! Oliver, you scared me." I hear the girl say, she sounds, young? And I'm not Oliver, I'm Roland Anderson, getting the second eye open and looking at a black haired little girl under 10yrs old, and a room that isn't a hospital, things aren't adding up.

"Who are you?" I asked, her eyes got wide and her head jerked back.

"What!? Silly, me Etanya, did you die?" She asks with the same look.

"I think so," I answered truthfully.

"Then you came back?" She asks climbing on the bed next to me.

"Uhh, what are you doing?" She feels my head.

"Mom said to tell her when you wake from the fever."

"Mom?" I haven't had a 'Mom', for a decade, my hands and arms are so puny. What the hell is going on?

I see a nagging three flashing dots upper right top of my vision no matter where, looking at the dots caused them to open.

Name: Oliver Edgemont

Age: 16

Occupation: Child

Health: 88

Mana: 176

Stamina: 88

Attributes:

Strength: 3 Wisdom: 3 Vitality: 3 Constitution: 3

Intelligence: 6 Luck: 3 Endurance: 3 Dexterity: 4 Charm: 6

Skills: Cooking: F,

Fast Learner: E,

Sixth Sense: Locked

Melee Affinity: Locked

Magic Affinity: Air-F

"You're up?!" I hear a woman's voice and shake my head to get the screen to go away, what guy doesn't know game stats when he sees them, and mine fucking suck, 3's? Holy shit.

"Yes, water?" I reply, she is wearing a flowing blue and white dress, also with black hair immaculately done up, and she practically glows, "you look beautiful," I say before my brain catches up.

"Aww, you always say the nicest things," She comes over and I get a kiss on the forehead, "no fever anymore." She hands me the glass of water from the side table, mmmmm, room temperature water.

'Duchess Vera Edgemont', comes to mind, okay, good, at least I'm not going to have to pretend I have amnesia. Oliver, Oliver, Oliver, I repeat a few times as I'm going to have to answer to that name now.

I spent the next few days, a prisoner in my room, going through my, his, memories, Jontral Edgemont was my father, I had three older brothers, Jeremy, Janse, and Jacob, hey, why is my name Oliver? Did Mom put her foot down and tell him no more J's?

Doesn't seem like there are many problems with the family other than the city Droisha currently being rebuilt after the last siege, and the lands around us being so bad, we are not allowed to go outside our compound.

Well, 11 years in the Army might pay off, spent some time in Sinop Turkey for a year, South Korea for a year, and 4 in Germany, though I'm guessing they don't have M16 rifles, tanks, or A10s for support here based on my room.

The food is bland, I miss the Silver Diner food I made and ate most days, a lot of soups and stews for me in bed, Etanya visited me several times a day, she was 8, Mom is popping out babies like crazy and still looks that good?

Day 7 of my incarceration, sneaking around early mornings before everyone else is up I am able to get down the halls, the kitchen, there is a courtyard with a big wall surrounding the back of the house. The house is mansion-sized, which is freaking great considering I'm used to the barracks and a my single bedroom crack apartment.

Day 8 of my incarceration I found the soldiers training in the courtyard before dawn, I stood well off to the side and mimic their static stretching, I'm guessing it was 2010 before dynamic stretching was a thing. I decided to do some pushups, was struggling at 3 when called out.

"What are you doing?" came from behind me that caused me to scream like my younger sister.

"Oh my god! You scared me to death," I say rolling over, it's Sergeant Jamison.

"Answer me, you are too sickly to be out here," he says sternly and then looks around, "Master Oliver."

"I'll never be as strong as you if I never get out of bed and breathe real air," I answer. "Please, I'll stay over here, I won't get in your way."

He stared at me for a moment, "what were you doing?"

"Push-ups, they help build arm strength," I answer and do another one shaking like crazy on the way up, and say, "Four, I want to get to twenty, eventually."

"Hmmm, don't get hurt on my watch Master Oliver, or you'll be banned."

"Yes, sir!" I answer and he smiles at that and walks to his troops.

A few moments later they are all doing pushups, 'I'm sorry guys,' I think, but then I watched, sword grip, foot movement, never stand still, ready position, when to step away from a cross-cut or to parry, hips facing opponent, the sparring was cool, they were using wooden swords, but people were going down left and right, those swords look like they hurt. Once it was done, I walked around until I found a stick that I could bring tomorrow and went back to my room.

Stick under the bed, I spent the morning with Mom watching how she cooks breakfast, we have servants, but she cooks for me and Etanya.

Cabbage, beans, eggs, oats, and brown bread, "the brothers too big to eat with us now?" I ask and Mom freezes, and then says yes. "Good, I like to keep you to myself." Got me a smile and a hug, I think I saved that slip-up.

The day, like every other day was absolutely nothing, I found a library that had some books, and this is the reason I like audiobooks, especially when it's all history-related.

"You can read?" Etanya asks as I was sitting in bed with a book, shit, am I not supposed to be able to read?

"I know enough to read a little," I answer.

"Mom! Oliver is reading!" Etanya screams from the bed next to me.

"Shhhhh, I'll teach you if you shut up," I answer but it was too late, Mom hearing is a magic all of its own, I hear the slipper steps coming down the hall.

"What happened?" Mom says walking into the room, taking one look at us on the bed, checking the fireplace and then walks over. "Books are expensive Oliver, you can't play with these." I think she thought I was feeding the fireplace with the pages.

"I'm not, really, look, I show her and read a few lines, making sure I do it slowly and sounding out the words like I figured a child would do it.

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"Huh, who, when," she looks at the book and me, "how?"

"This is just the first time caught with a book," I nudge Etanya who nudges me back. "I have nothing else to do all day."

"He promised to teach me," Etanya says to Mom.

"IF you didn't tell on me," I answered and she pouted.

"Well, young man, if you don't want me to tell on you, teach her to read," Mom said sternly and when I looked shocked at her, she winked and walked out, "and your favorite pie."

---===---

The next morning, I started watching the big blonde guy, he was winning all of his matches, I would mimic his moves and realized it was random movements until the person stepped back with their weight on the back foot and then it was a fake lunge forward to move them more onto the back foot, feign at the front leg to get him to lift it, the others sword coming down to block, but the fake move swiped across the elbow and then back around to the head.

No matter how many times he fought, that move worked, until he tried it against Sergeant Jamison, who feigned his back step and instead stepped forward and pommel struck him in the chest. Okay, don't use that too many times.

There were a couple of times, when I practiced other moves until I was in a full-on flop sweat, exhausted, and sat against the wall, just watching them continue on for another hour.

Checking my Melee ability, it was still locked, though back in my room I was able to repeat the various combinations. "What are you doing!?" Mom says causing me to scream again, why do people keep doing this to a frail little kid!?

"I'm saving you from a dragon," I say turning around.

"Oh, really, how did it go?" Mom asks.

"I'll keep practicing," I say sadly, shaking my head no, causing a shocked laugh from her.

"Well, thank you for trying, but breakfast is ready." Mom says and ushers me out, "Don't get dirt on your bed with that filthy stick, ohh, look at your hands."

Looking down, my hands were filthy and bleeding in some places where the blisters popped, I hadn't thought about the fact my hands were baby-soft.

"It's okay Mom, it toughens me up so I can protect you two," I say and then cringe as she wipes my hands with a wet rag at a scale of 10 out of 10 on the pain scale.

"Who are you?" Mom asks sitting in a chair in front of me. "Are you a demon? What did you do with my boy?"

"What?" I ask looking up into her eyes.

"You can read, you are sneaking out to learn sword fighting, you think I don't know what my kids are doing?"

"I'm sorry, but I feel so much better after I go outside, I uh, have an air affinity that makes me feel so much better when I'm outside than when I'm in my room."

"Air Affinity?" Mom asks.

"Yes, mana filled me up during my fever and then said it was air-based, when I go outside I feel so much stronger."

"Still, you are way too smart for my boy," Mom says, what does someone say to that?

"I spent a lifetime when I was in that mana fever, it felt like years, I learned a lot of things, it says I'm a fast learner with air affinity and a sixth sense that is locked, I don't know what that means."

Etanya walked into the room, mom let go and went back to breakfast.

"Mama, I promise you I'm not bad, I will always protect you and Etanya above all other things," I say from my chair when breakfast was over.

"You use words Oliver never uses," Mom says with her back to me.

"Some are from when I was gone, and some are from the reading," I answer.

"Oliver died and then he came back." Etanya says trying to be helpful, "I kept telling him he promised not to do that and then he woke up." That set Mom to sobbing, she looked at me and I could only nod, she got up and left.

Well, I guess it was impossible to pretend to be a child in a strange world for very long.

That evening Mom came in, her eyes were still red, she was much more professional, "do you know where your good clothes are?"

"Yes."

"We are going to see your father, put them on." She walks out and I figured this was it. Walking down the hallway I put my hand in hers, she squeezed it a little and it made me feel better.

Father was a big man, taller than the other people in the room, it looked like a meeting hall, with tapestries along the walls, a large table in the middle with chairs around the room.

"Father," I say when he looks at me.

"Uhhuh, sit," he points to a chair and I climb up into it. "Your mother informed me you said you died during mana sickness and came back?"

"Yes, sir."

"Drink that," he nods to a cup, not having much of a choice I drink it.

"These lands are fraught with demons, what you drank was holy water mixed with a potion to make sure you tell the truth, as you are still upright shows you are not possessed."

I nod, I don't feel any different.

"What is your name?" he asks staring into my eyes, so I stare back.

I am now, "Oliver Edgemont," I say and am relieved I didn't say Roland Anderson.

"Your fever was mana sickness?"

"Yes sir,"

"You have mana?"

"Yes, sir,"

"You have air affinity?"

"Yes sir."

"What is that?"

"I don't know, I think it means I can control the wind."

"You said you felt stronger outside?" Mom asks.

"Yes, Mom."

"Well, he's not reacting to the water and he's telling the truth."

"How did you learn how to read?" Mom asks.

"During my other time in the fever," that stuff is not a strict truth serum.

"How long were you there?" Father asks.

"Twenty-nine years." I answered and they were both shocked.

"And you remember all that time?" Father asks.

"Yes sir,"

"What did you do there?" Father asks.

"I was a soldier for a good bit of it, and a cook," I answered.

"A man comes over and hands him a small crystal ball-looking thing, it was a pale yellow," when father took hold, it was still a pale yellow, but not as bright.

"Hold this." Father hands it to me and it glows with a white light, everyone in the room gasped.

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"White, Divine, it's true" was said around the room.

"What does this mean?" I ask.

"You are not a demon." Jontral replies, 'Divine light, gods, he spent half the night preparing himself to watch his youngest boys agonizing death from the holy water, not this.'

"Oh, that's good." I say looking into the ball, the white was swirling around, "It's pretty." I say and Father chuckles.

"It is good, Sergeant Jamison says you picked up sword fighting just by watching them?"

"Yes sir, some, it's only been a couple days."

"From your fever time?"

"No sir, there was a soldier that was winning his sparring, so I did what he was doing," I answer.

"If we could only teach everyone to do that," Father said sarcastically.

"What do you plan on doing." The man who handed him the crystal ball asked.

"Get strong and protect my Mom and sister," I say to him.

"What about me," Father asks.

"You should protect them too," I answer.

"I agree," he says solemnly.

"Anything else?" Father says to the room.

"What other skills do you know about?" The other man asks.

"Fast learning and sixth sense," I answer.

"He was reading a book in his room," Mom says quietly, his father's eyes widened.

"You can read?" he asks.

"Yes sir, sitting in bed all day," I say and shrug.

"You can work with Sergeant Jamison and this man, Alarek will help with your mana."

"Yes, sir, thank you sir," I answer.

"You call her Mom and me sir?" Father asks.

"I thought I was in trouble," I answer.

"You were, and now you are not," he answers, "go back to what you were doing,"

"Yes, father," I say and then smile.

"Are you still mad a me," I ask Mom on the way back.

"Worried, I was worried," Mom says taking my hand.

"Are demons that much of a problem around here?" I ask.

"Yes dear, divine light" she whispers and squeezes my hand, "what does sixth sense mean?"

"I think it means I can sense when something wrong is going to happen." Like Spiderman, I think to myself moving my arm off to the side I flex my wrist to see if a web comes out of my wrist, it doesn't.

Etanya ran into my room, "are you okay? They kept me in my room all day."

"Yep, everything is better now," I say.

"Yep," she repeats and laughs, "I like that." She spent the night with me.

Waking up at 5am was so ingrained into me, that I never needed an alarm clock, grabbing my stick, I walk out of the bedroom through the kitchen and Mom was sitting at the table.

She hands me a skin of water and a biscuit, "Be careful." I hug her and say thanks running out the door.

I'm still not ready to join them, but it's nice to be able to watch from my spot without worrying about being run off, their stretching routine, I practice my 6 pushups, 20 situps, and then watching them go through the fundamentals, and the sparing, I noticed they don't employ any kicks or punches when the opening presents itself, I was a big fan of watching MMA where they kick the leg so hard your base is gone, or a quick jab to the face when they are literally shoulder to shoulder and both swords are off guard.

Then again, I'd probably get a leg or arm cut off if I tried it, so I'll just keep watching...

"Spar?" Sergeant Jamison asks calling me up.

"Really!? Uh, sure, don't kill me, though." I say to a lot of laughing.

Sergeant Jamison looks like three of me.

"Feet look good, hips and shoulders, guard is up, but, you are too stiff."

"Scared." I squeaked out, it's me against Andre the Giant.

"What should you do next?" He asks.

"Run?" I answer and he nods.

"Probably your best option, never be afraid to run, if you can, Master Oliver." His guard goes up and I take a step back and to his off-hand side a bit.

'Are you left-handed?" he asks looking at my stick.

"Oh, uh, for some things, right-handed for others." I was a southpaw until I started firing an M16 and the ejection port discharged the hot shells right at my face, the deflector wasn't great, so I switched to right-handed, but pool, darts, and throwing a baseball was left-handed.

"Come on then," He waits as I feign down at his knee, he blocks it easily before I could move to another point, and touches his blade to my sword arm, tossing the stick to my right hand I tap him on the side, saw that on game of thrones.

"Not a bad idea, but, not sure you could to do that if I really hit that arm," He says and backs off. "Still, just the fact that you thought of doing that shows you have potential if you end up your father's height."

"I'll get right on that," I say and he shoos me away and gets back to the soldiers.

"Two days you dogs, two days and he has a better stance than half of you! Get back to it! You," he points at me, "go get breakfast."

"Yes Sergeant," I say and do just that, realizing I was a lord but old habits.

Father and Janse were standing just outside the door as I turned and walked out of the courtyard.

"Yes Sergeant?" Janse says mockingly.

"Of course, he's earned it with his actions and he's teaching me," I reply without thinking and wince inside.

"What?" Janse says trying to comprehend.

"Besides, you are the heir, I have no responsibilities," I add to the end to make sure I don't piss him off.

"You are healthy enough to do this?" Father asks.

"Now that my mana is under control, I feel much better Father."

"Good, go on and get that breakfast then." He says ushering me through. Jontral came out to see what was going on and was shocked to hear two days and to see the proper forms and that swapping hand trick was unexpected.

"You might want to spend more time out here also," Jontral says to his eldest.

"Father? I can best all of them," Janse replies. Not calling him Sergeant Jamison never bothered Jontral before, now though, it seemed disrespectful considering that man saved his family single-handedly during the last raider siege.

Oliver's declaration to his wife and daughter changed the way he looked at his youngest boy, and how he handled Sergeant Jamison and Janse shows he understands political situations, most boys including himself when he was Oliver's age only thought of themselves.

'That was tense,' I say to myself walking the hallways to our rooms. I have to keep the older boys off my back until I can handle myself, I've watched and read too many stories of the oldest getting rid of the rest of their competition to take over the Dukedom.

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