Free Paper by Kell Inkston

 
    Paper
    Kell Inkston
     
    I

    Finally, the day of the Hero’s
Celebration has come. It’s warm, just as it should be. Ralic gets
up next to his wife as usual, but now dawns the garb of “the hero”.
It was delivered to him yesterday evening to put on, passed down
from generation to generation–and now it is his turn.
    It fastens on easily. Ralic’s
surprised; the clothing fits him perfectly, as if it were meant for
him. In a way, it is meant for him–just as it was meant for his
great , great, great, great, great grandfather; each generation of
men given the same task. He leans over to his wife, the daughter of
the blacksmith, and kisses her lightly on the cheek.
    “ Good morning,” he
says.
    Her features clench and she opens
restful green eyes and stretches forward her pregnant
center.
    “ Mornin’, Ral’.” She gets
out of bed herself, returns the kiss, and prepares for the big
day.
    Ralic walks up to the mirror, a symbol
of his great wealth, and looks himself over. Long, clean, handsome
features–he looks just like his father at that age, who looked just
like his father, and so on. He smiles the way most handsome men do
in front of a mirror, and Tenay notices.
    “ Must be nice knowing you’ll
look like your pa’, huh?” she nudges him gently with a snide look
about her, the main reason he chose her to be his bride.
    “ Eh, yeah. I gotta’ say,
it’s kind of a cool feeling knowing you’ll be handsome until like,
eighty.”
    She kisses him again on the neck.
“Well, I wouldn’t know. So, do you feel any different putting them
on?” she glances over to his armored garb, a black chainmail fitted
with a brown tunic, all over a thick white
padding. Ralic waves his head about in uncertainty
and raises his brows.
    “ Well…Well kinda, not
really. I’m sure once dad gives me the sword I’ll be feeling it
though.” He puts his arm around her and nudges into her neck,
causing a quick squeal from his wife.
    “ Your nose is cold!” she
says.
    “ Should have been ready,” he
says.
    “ Shut up.”
    “ You shut up.”
    “ Spoiled hero kid,” Tenay
says, pushing him back playfully.
    “ Angry smith’s girl,”
Ralic returns with another nudge.
    “ Go get ready,
gnave!”
    “ I am ready!”
    “ Then leave me alone to get
ready!”
    “ Okay smith’s
girl.”
    “ Whatever, cur.”
    This is the extent of their
conversation until Ralic gives a loud “goodbye” from the
door and takes his leave to the grand plaza.
    The grand plaza is a wide place
surrounding the great tree the town was built around hundreds of
years ago. People have already gathered around the hero’s pedestal,
where Ralic’s father, a man that is both the previous hero and
now the mayor of the village, waits with the Sword of Destiny in
his hands.
    A few pleasantries are exchanged, his
father gives him a great big hug, and then turns to begin the
ceremony just as Tenay arrives.
    “ People of our town, welcome
to the day of the hero!” Ralic’s father begins just as the
people uproar in applause and cheering. “The
young Ralic the Twelfth, my son, has come of age.
Now that he is twenty, he will go off to the forbidden forest of
the dark lord and slay him. As you all know, the dark lord
returns every twenty years, and as such must be dealt with by
the noble line of heroes that live in this very village. I know
that times have been hard, and from some recent mistaken
experiments the harvest has been lower than ever this year, but
with the hero off to destroy the Overlord, let this feast serve as
a ringing in of new prosperity. Join me in delivering the Sword of
Destiny to him!” Ralic the Eleventh says amidst
ear–churning applause.
    Ralic embraces the
older Ralic. “Thank you, father,” he says, allowing one moment
to gaze into his father’s eyes before he takes the sword from the
pedestal, “I won’t disappoint you!”
    The father gives the son a strange
smile and says “You won’t.”