Grant

By noon, the sun was really hot and all the men in Bawsi were ready to start moving. James and Cletus got a horse ready and put Varlom on it while guiding it and the journey began. After a few hours of silence, James and Cletus started discussing with each other.

"I will really miss this village though." James said while smiling.

"Of course this village was great and fun and besides this village is already a legend for being the first settlement that Borenard could not take over." Cletus said.

"What is Borenard you this man." As Varlom started laughing.

"So what are you going to do when you get to Fadian?" Cletus asked James.

"I am going there to meet my girl and start a new life there of course and probably get united with my father."

"That is nice brother. I have no idea of where my father is."

"Neither do I but I know that I will meet him very soon." As soon as he said that, the man in front announced that they were approaching the ruins of Dichan which was close to Derbias. The ruins of Dichan was terrible, there didn't seem to be any standing building or structure in the place and while they were passing, they saw someone moving through the ruins.

"Did you see that?" Cletus said while pointing his finger towards the direction of the person.

"That might be a spy! We need to get him. Immediately, James and Cletus followed the person and when they got sight of the person, the man tried to run away but Cletus threatened to shoot him with an arrow if he moved an inch. He was then told to turn around and they saw a man in his middle ages with full beards and blue eyes with red hair.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" James asked in a stern voice.

"Please spare me young lads, I mean no harm. I am Grant Noble the great blacksmith of Chanchan."

"Oh so you are the Grant. I have heard a lot about you."

"I hope good things boy." He said while forcing a smile through his suffering face.

"If abandoning your wife and daughter is a good thing to hear then no problem." Cletus added sarcastically.

"You don't understand what is going on here. It is not what you think."

"What do you even mean by that. Make me understand then."

"Well I lived in a village called Pinez in the south west of Chanchan with my wife Marrietta and my daughter Joy. When Benard started making attacks on Chanchanian cities and villages, I had the bigger job of making swords and weapons for the army. My workshop was the biggest in Chanchan. When Benard came to Pinez, he heard about meand because he wanted me to make him a sword that was literarily indestructible like the one I made for Dominic, he went to my workshop and took all the workers and brought down the workshop. I was devastated and I remember seeing the villagers running around for their lives and I saw his face and immediately, I started running and went to hiding with my family in Centri and I left them when they didn't know out of fear."

"But why did you abandon them and even pretended not to know them. Do you know that your wife was killed? You left them when they needed you the most." James said as they moved together.

"I left to protect them and give them freedom."

"Freedom? You left a family who needed you." At this point, James was getting really angry.

"See the thing was that Benard had promised people huge plots of land and gold if they could track me down and at that point, his men were moving around and were looking for anyone who was related to me so as to get to me. You don't know how hard it was for me to deny everyone I knew and loved. If Benard had an idea that Joy and Marietta were related to me, he would have captured them and then gotten to me and probably used them to force me to make weapons for them which would still eventually lead to the death of all my family members and I when he was done with using me. Father Ugu understood what I was doing and also pretended like he didn't know who I was." Immediately Grant started sobbing and James held him by his shoulder and patted him gently.

"It is fine sir. I now understand why you did all this. I thought you were just an irresponsible father but now I see that you were not even close to that." Cletus said while shaking his head.

"When I heard of Marietta's death I wanted to end it all but I had to be strong."

"Come on we have to catch up to the rest." James said.

"Don't worry sir, we are going to Fadian to see your daughter and you will be safe there." Cletus said with a smile.

Immediately, they rode their horses and raced towards where the others were and started moving with them.