DIARY OF A BLACKSMITH
September 29th 2067
Dear Diary,
This is Zephyr, of the Yundath clan.
No one else is writing on this book anymore. Last person was my mother, who taught me how to read, and write. She always starts her diaries like this. I figured it's an important step.
My hands are shaky. Mom was writing because it helped her to calm down. I feel anything but calm. A decade of suffering has built up in my chest. I'm 16. Father, and many others too, they kept repeating to me that I am more mature than boys my age. That must count for something.
I used to live in that small village, built in the ashes of Manhattan. after the U.S. spiraled out of control, new towns like Gallows were built afterwards, as the states disbanded. It didn't take long for things to go to crap.
I don't need to remind myself of the big details. It's enough to know that Gallows was born.
It was one hell of a beginning. Just a few hundred people living in this place, seeking shelter from civil war and disasters. They wanted peace, and when there was no raging sandstorm outside, the sun was setting and the nights we're beautiful. I'm sure people we're having a decent time.
That didn't last for long.
Around 30 years ago, the village was in shambles. More bandits and adventurers were coming, thanks to the abundance of homes they could rob. Citizens left the village in droves, they feared for their lives again.
Despite all of this, one family of blacksmiths showed up and made Gallows their home: The Yundath family.
We, Yundath, specialize in forging weapons, combining techniques from past and present, creating all sorts of wacky gadgets, blades, guns and other tools to fight. They say some of us had superpowers, but at this point you believe what you want to believe about everybody.
Then Riley J. Smith came. He was famous in the world of science. I was very young when this happened. Any traces of him in Gallows were gone. Don't really remember his face or how he sounds like either. I only met him two or three times in my life.
experiments on animals, that was his bread and butter. He sometimes morphed animals into weapons, sometimes mixing them with plants gathered in the forest, outside the barrier, to create mutants that would help the village. These creatures were absurd and resulted in a vast production of fruits, vegetables, clean water, all sorts of stuff. Didn't see lots of his creations, for they were only used when the politics people authorized it. The few I saw were terrifying, out of this world.
Credit where credit is due, he contributed to Gallows and our development. If only he didn't stifle it.
Anyway, I was born and raised around this time by Father Lathe Yundath and Mother Catherine Pierce.
My father was a blacksmith, and my mother was a housewife who supported the family business while taking care of me. Father did his best to be around when I was young, but work forced him to constantly place the people's needs above his family. Still, it wasn't long before I saw my father in his forge building weapons. Other kids my age was scared to get close to the furnace. I never felt it was as hot as they described it. I never got burned, curiously enough.
For all intents and purposes, Lathe was not a safe worker. He had his own separate forge to build his own creations and was only called to help with family business when it was necessary. Other blacksmiths in the family used the forge, but he was an anomaly. That was the polite way to describe him. I still love my father regardless.
Someone I'm sure I loved more was my mother. She was always caring to me and took good care of me. She was also really warm and gave me lots of affection.
I can remember her face. Long black hair, orange eyes, cracked skin on her right cheek, she wore it like a badge of honor, and my father caressed it like you touch a beauty spot. You could tell both we're in love.
Some men, who didn't know she was taken, tried in vain to flirt with her. My father, as insane as he is, fought back against these men in very creative ways. That always put a laugh on Catherine's face. She didn't speak a lot of English, though she conversed with father and I in a language that, even for me, is still hard to understand. She knows both clear English and this dialect from some country she kept quiet about. I never questioned this mysterious side of her because father kept getting in my way.
Regardless, family business was good, and I was a happy child.
Then, one day, a coalition was formed. Some kind of alliance between my family and the mayor was formed.
The result was the Gallows Knights.
The Gallows Knights were a band of mercenaries, about 50 of them, composed of ex-military and civilians with previous battle experience, wearing armor, equipment and powerful weapons enhanced by Riley's methods.
The Gallows knights, for the short amount of time they were around, would surpass expectations. Already, controversial talks were scattering among Yundath members. Those mercenaries we're proud, ready to stake it all, discover the world, send shockwaves in other nation. Some were embarrassed that their weapons we're used for political gibberish. From what Father told me, there was lots of talk about expending our territory. That meant competition. The few Yundath members who dared to move on from Gallows into the black market were banished. We had our own pride too. That pride turned into the knights we formed.
They went ahead and tried to decipher, debunk even, some of the desert's biggest mysteries. For starters, that giant barricade around Manhattan.
It still baffles some to this day. This thing is at least 20 meters tall, and it just appeared in the span of weeks. No signs of who built it, but it has been there for decades. Magic? Superpowers? Again, you believe what you want to believe.
Afterwards, The Gallows Knights kept doing their thing and when the time was right, they decided to go further: investigating ways to explore the Bottomless Pit. They were backed up by the whole village, except for those who smelled trouble from a mile away. Again, all from father I got this info. The Yundath family were far from the ones prepared to celebrate their return. I was too young to care. I did see my father's concerns. After all, they were the Gallows Knights, homegrown heroes of the town, co-founded by a family of blacksmith legends.
There was no way in hell that they wouldn't comeback, right?... Right??
Would you be surprised if I told you that none of them returned, and that it has been 10 years since then?
That was when the village hit its second, and current, rock bottom. The Yundath were considered scum who sacrificed innocents' people in vain. This prompted the family to leave to flourish our market elsewhere. At the same time, Riley J. Smith left the village in silence, being considered a traitor by many.
It was back to square one. Although a few of the Yundath stayed to repent, the backing of the family gone and the doctor fading into nothing meant that there was no progress. It was stagnant ever since.
I could end there, but I still don't feel calm. Besides, that's not the full story... That's not the story I want to talk about. That was just the backbone.
There is a story that agonizes me, every, day.
One night, the same day Riley J. Smith leaves, my mother is nowhere to be found.
I see my father read this note, both written in English and in my mother's weird tribal tongue.
Lathe, he didn't look like my father.
My father never looked like he could rip the core of the earth apart.
Catherine was kidnapped. He suspected Riley took her with him. I believe that theory.
I was just six years old. I wanted my mother back, but I couldn't do anything.
The other kids refused to play with me. The adults who were once nice to me now looked at me with contempt. Some people we're saying that what my mother received was the fate she deserved for marrying a bastard.
Liars.
My mother did nothing wrong marrying that man! My mother deserved a better fate then this! They are just a bunch of filthy lies born after more lies!
I became very reclusive.
I am still very reclusive.
I want revenge.
I want my mother back.
I need my mother back.
I spent the last decade, wondering, screaming, throwing tantrums, beating myself up, asking why haven't left this dumpster fire already and search for my mother?
Why? because she's dead? At least I could confirm that theory, find that piece of filth and torture him until he dies a painful death!
But no! Instead I had to just stay put! Why!? because the pain was too hard to handle!?
Oh look at me! I can't handle suffering so I'm going to let my revenge uncalled for, unanswered for 10 god damn years!
Wow Zeph! Way to go bud'! You had to bring in your A-game for this one!
And what about your father huh!? You abandoned him to the village like the poor fucking man that he is!
He needed his son and instead you sheltered yourself like a rat, unable to answer his call for help! He was a walking talking S.O.S sign and you left him to a slow death!
It shouldn't have been him!
It should have been me...
No.
NO!
It should have been RILEY!
Yeah, Riley J. Smith, you scientist scum! For all the accolades that you possess you can't stop yourself from kidnapping an innocent bystander, who did nothing more then take care of her son!
Oh what, was her body that amazing to you!? What kind of experiments did you do on her!? Was it tame, or did you find an excuse to abuse of her!?
You COWARD!
You TRASH!
You would be a nobody without those pathetic papers!
You would be a nobody without the Yundath family!
It's because of us that you were forced to go back into birthing dogs that could squirt water out of their tails!
You even dared to do our job before us! What is that all about huh!?
Got a fucking problem!?
Well, I got one with YOU!
WHERE IS MY MOTHER, ASSHOLE!?
WHERE IS SHE!?
IF I HEAR THAT YOU DID ANYTHING TO HER, I WILL RIP YOUR HEAD WIDE OPEN, SPLIT YOUR GODDAMN GUTS, AND SHOWER IN YOUR BLOOD, AS PEOPLE RUN AWAY, YELLING IN TERROR, FOR THE MIGHTY ZEPHYR YUNDATH, REAPER OF GALLOWS, HAS SHOWN UP AT THEIR DOOR, AND HE WON'T STOP UNTIL HE DIES HIMSELF!
#
September 30th, 2067, 4:00AM
Good. Now I feel calm. I needed that.
I went and took a nap. I heard noises near my cabin. Saw some dozen explorers yapping' about. They seemed excited. Probably idiots wanting to dive in the Bottomless Pit.
I need to vent. I'll go and say hi.
And to the next person reading this, I'm going inside the Bottomless Pit now.
Goodbye.
#
LETTER FOUND OCTOBER 20th, 2067, BY OLD YORK AUTORITIES.
THEY SEEM TO HAVE INSPECTED THE WHOLE AREA, LOOKING FOR THE WHEARABOUTS OF RILEY J. SMITH WHEN THEY FOUND THIS LETTER IN AN ABANDONNED SHACK. THEY DEEMED IT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO KEEP THE LETTER WITH THEM FOR A WHILE, PROBABLY TO LOCATE THE SCIENTIST. HE EITHER JUMPED OR RAN SOMEWHERE ELSE.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS CHILD. ZEPHYR YUNDATH. THIS ENTRY MADE HIM A RIGHTFUL CONTENDER FOR THE ARCHIVES. THE CHANCELOR AND HIGH GUARDIAN ARE GONNA FIND THIS GUY TO BE A NUTJOB.
ALSO, INCONSISTENCY: THIS BOY LEARNED HOW TO WRITE ENGLISH FROM A WOMAN WHO DISSAPEARED WHEN HE WAS SIX YEARS OLD? DOESN'T SOUND LIKE HIS DAD IS SMART IN THAT DEPARTMENT. WHERE DID HE GET THE REST OF HIS EDUCATION, BECAUSE THAT'S PRETTY FLUENT WRITING FOR SOMEONE LIVING IN A GHOST TOWN.
ALSO, CATHERINE PIERCE. SOUNDS FAMILIAR, HEARD THAT NAME BEFORE. MAN THIS INVESTIGATION IS GETTING WEIRDER EVERY SECOND.