Chapter 5 - Freedom of the Road

Vaan continues his journey from Onka and the rest of the Glades towards the Sutauddo aka Starwoods where his first trial as a Tsuki clan member will take place.

Chapter 5 " Freedom of the road

Vaan was excited, the sun was setting and he had covered much ground since leaving Onka that morning. He had stopped at lunch briefly atop a large hill to take in one last look of the village before it faded from view.

He liked to think he saw a golden eagle hovering high above the village watching him but he could not be sure. 

Still Grandpa Kane had been right, this was the right path for him to take. It was in his blood, his ancestry and with that thought, he marched on into the afternoon.

The glades themselves were a peaceful kingdom and had very little problems with the likes of bandits on the road. Vaan had estimated from looking at the map Grandpa Kane had given him, it would take him a full three day march to reach the edge of the Glades and cross over into the Sutauddo. From there a days travel would bring him into the edge of the area known as the Doireann forest, where his objective would be.

Then it would be a case of using the Dolkuun to find the shrine and accept his first challenge.

As Vaan walked, he thought to himself and realised he had never actually asked his Grandpa how to engage with the spirit at the shrine. He began to sweat a little at the thought of arriving and shouting at a seemingly empty shrine. Surely Grandpa Kane would have told him if there was a specific way of engaging the spirits within the shrine?

Vaan wondered this as he finally stopped for the night making a small shelter out of branches, leaves and earth. “The perfect wind guard for a fire” he said happily to himself.

As a boy, Vaan had fancied himself a bit of a survivalist and whenever he and Kane had ventured out on his 'little excursions', Kane had taught Vaan basic skills such as setting up a campfire with or without a tinderbox, a shelter to keep most of the rain out if a inn or cave was not available and most importantly what bits and pieces in the wild you could eat.

Once the fire was set and he pulled out some of the food he had brought with him, he continued to debate how the encounter at the shrine would go down.

Would the spirit speak the common tongue?

Would it attack him on site?

Would it even appear to him?

These thoughts continued to dwell with him but the same conclusion was there. “I'm going” he thought. “This is my opportunity to do something with myself and see the places I have always dreamed.”

Vaan began to smile under his perfect little shelter he had made, the fire was warm, he had food and water. Listening to the sounds of the wildlife around him, he drifted into a deep sleep.

The next day and the day after were much of the same. Up at first light, a quick breakfast if Vaan fancied it and if a stream was nearby, he would bathe.

Then he would continue, he passed neighbouring villages and did stop into one of them to acquire a few things that he thought he may need. In total Vaan had brought ten gold pieces with him to get started on his journey. A gold piece was made up of five silver pieces or twenty five bronze pieces. A silver piece would be made up of five bronze pieces.

He bought a small sewing kit for two bronze pieces in case his clothes needed repairing in the coming months. He also bought a small re usable snare trap for five bronze pieces. Kane had said while in the Glades avoid staying at the inns as the roads are safe, even at night so you may as well camp rather than waste money now that could be valuable later. The trap would be great for catching rabbit and other small animals to eat once his food supply started getting low and would once again leave him with money for later where food and shelter maybe a lot harder to come by.

The map Kane had given him was in Vaan's opinion okay but not the greatest. Kane had used it himself when he had travelled to the shrine Vaan was visiting but in the 40 odd years since then the road had changed slightly, there were small villages or farms where there should have been open land which at first confused Vaan but he soon began to piece together where he was and continued without too much hassle.

The map itself only covered the Glades and the Sutauddo. After that it would be up to the Dolkuun to find the way in the Doireann Forest and beyond that up to Vaan.

On the third afternoon since leaving Onka, Vaan finally came to the edge of the Glades. He came by a signpost carved out of Oak wood stating the path to the right would take him into Sutauddo itself, while the left would re direct him back around to the northern part of the Glades where the capital was.

He decided to set up camp early as he had made good time on arriving here. As he was rummaging in his travel sack, he discovered a letter that he had not noticed until now.

Van read aloud “To be opened once you are finished in Doireann”.

It was his Grandpa's writing without a doubt and for a moment his curiosity did get the better of him and he began to open the letter.

Inside Kane had wrote:

'Vaan,

I imagine upon finding this letter you will open it straight away rather than wait like I have instructed! Remind me to cuff you on the ear when you get back'

Vaan smiled and read on

'Once you have engaged with and acquired the form from the spirit in Doireann I will first offer my congratulations. The first trial any Tsuki member undertakes always seems the hardest. Secondly you will need to either acquire a map for the next leg of your journey from a village either in Doireann or another settlement in the Sutauddo.

I would advise your next shrine to visit would be for the form of the Golden Eagle. The form will serve as better transportation for you in the days that follow. Unfortunately the shrine is in the mountains in Voitek. From Doireann I would estimate it would take you a full months hard travel even with the wolf form in your arsenal. I would also ask that you stop off at Mungadon along the way but go alone.

If somehow you are travelling with companion's do not take them with you as you will risk exposure.

Good luck out there

Love Grandpa

p.s After you have read this please burn it! Its for your own protection lad!

Vaan stared at the letter for some time, then tucked it away as and began to grin. He was going to climb one of the highest mountains in the next leg of his journey. To say he was excited would be an understatement. It had been a childhood fantasy to say he had climbed Voitek's mountain range and now he was doing it for real.

With a smile on his face Vaan settled down for the night under the stars of the Glades as tomorrow he would no longer be able to see the open sky but instead the beautiful canopy of the Sutauddo, glittering in the moonlight from above giving the visual of a thousand tiny stars on each branch of every tree. Travellers would come from every kingdom in the realm to witness the spectacle.

Vaan smiled to himself as he drifted to sleep that night. “Maybe this journey wont be as tough as I first thought”.

Author's Note

This is again a draft which I will be reviewing later on. I am in the process of adding a companion or two into the story, perhaps a love interest but introducing them has become harder than I first thought it would be. Maybe I should have given Vaan a twin sibling or something- anyway enjoy!

Reviews

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"be able the open sky"?

I can't find much to say about this chapter in and of itself. It seems fine, so I'll say this instead: Real money made of gold or silver coins, or even copper for low value coins, is far more trustworthy than is the counterfeit currency which most modern governments simply spend into existence. Gold, silver and even copper have actual uses other than as money. It also takes real time and effort to mine them, which means governments can't just spend them into existence. That means governments can't dilute the value of gold, silver or copper through deficit spending on huge charity programs, on blowing up the middle east, or on anything else like that. That means you'll always be able to trade gold, silver and even copper coins for something. In contrast, whenever governments have issued counterfeit currency not made of anything useful but instead made only of paper or of numbers on a computer, they have never been able to resist the temptation to destroy the value of that currency by debasing it into oblivion through deficit spending. Unfortunately basically all currency in the world today is counterfeited into existence by governments, and consequently the entire world financial system is destined to collapse at some point. There has never been an exception to the rule that any counterfeit currency issued by any government, eventually collapses into nothing. Even though gold, silver and copper [or bronze] coins are thousands of years old, they would actually be a far better form of currency than anything in use today. If you want to know more, you can watch Mike Maloney's documentary series "Hidden Secrets Of Money". I can send it to you, or send you links to it, if you want. Also, the relative values of gold and silver have always tended to fluctuate up and down in relation to one another. Sometimes silver is one sixteenth the value of gold, sometimes one twelfth, sometimes one fifth, and so one. Whenever governments have attempted to legally regulate the relative values of the two metals, one or the other has always wound up being more valuable than the government commanded it to be, and so people have always tended to hoard that metal and use it for things, and to spend the other metal instead. This has tended to lead to shortages of whichever metal the government decreed was less valuable than it actually was. If the value of gold was in reality higher than the government commanded it to be, there would be a shortage of gold, and if the value of silver was in reality higher than the government commanded it to be, there would be a shortage of silver. I couldn't think of much to say about this chapter in and of itself, but I figured I might as well say something worthwhile anyway.