FTFOW Chapter 2 - My Hands are Small and Weak

The children were tumbling and tripping as they played on the lush, summer grass, laughing as they uncovered every stone and insect. Lauri (the peddler from last chapter) couldn’t help but let his eyes droop. But, as he turns his sight, those eyebrows go back up.

Children lined up in a row, mostly boys, were taking turns throwing stones at targets about five paces from them.

Marco was the first to go, not at all to Lauri’s surprise. After picking three pebbles, he practically flicked them at the targets in rapid succession. The children observed him with mysterious expressions before moving to imitate his feat.

Marco, meanwhile, took five steps back and picked up three more pebbles, before attempting the challenge again. He repeated his feat until he was square out of pebbles.

“I didn’t know you were here, Mr. Lauri,” he greeted Lauri.

“Hello, Marco,” Lauri replied.

Lauri had gotten so invested in the boy that he made frequent trips to the village just to meet him. He was sure that the boy would become something, something big, in the future.

“Are you training an army? Perhaps for the defense of the village?”

“No way, this is just for self-defense.”

“Huh. You could probably use them as an army. They’d be a real threat.”

“True, but if that was the case I’d have them use slingshots instead, to imitate bows. They have a longer flight distance after all, and have some accuracy correction. I’d also train their discipline…”

“H-huh.”

“So, do you have what I asked for?”

“Yeah. I checked the battlefield out and, indeed, I found it there.”

“It’ll make getting through winter easier.”

“I guess, but how did you know it was there?”

“Naturally there’d be some if two armies passed their winter there.”

The two talked as they walked to the village chief’s home. Once Marco opened the gate, a bunch of soil and seeds littered around appeared in his sight.

“Did you carry the soil too? It must have been a ton of work.”

“Well, I’m not so knowledgable about farming. Better safe than sorry.”

“I see. My thanks.”

Marco picked up one of the seeds. It’d been found in a large battlefield where the armies of Athria and Eberia had campaigned against each other for months.

“This is fodder for warhorses, right? Quamp, I think it was called.”

“It’s a root vegetable; sown in the fall and harvested throughout winter. It makes good fodder, but it can not be preserved. Thus, it’s common in the military. If you know how to cook it right, it’s also edible for humans.”

“...I’m guessing you know ‘how to cook it’, as well?”

Marco’s eyes narrowed into a smile as Lauri peeked at his face to confirm.

“You know me well, Lauri.”

“...What is your reason for going so far just for this village?”

The question rolled out of Lauri’s mouth accidentally. Classrooms, self-defense, and now quamp. Most of this wasn’t necessary either; the only person who conducted negotiations within a village was the chief, the rest didn’t need to be educated.

“I’m short... of limbs.”

Marco answered his question by raising his right hand up to the sky.

“I’m too weak. My arms are too weak to hold a sword or spear, while my legs are too short for a horse. I can’t do anything about this at this age. I’ll have to wait, to age.

“I was originally thinking of leaving the village as soon as possible, but I have parents. My father is old, as is my mother. I can’t just leave them alone.”

While he spoke as if he were troubled, the expression on his face was strangely warm.

“So I decided to help this village prosper as I grew. Killing two birds with one stone, basically. I hope this village prospers, that it’s people prosper. When I’m on the battlefield, I don’t want them to follow me.”

“That is why I’m sowing seeds here now,” Marco concluded, as he rolled the seeds around his fingers.

While Marco went on his explanation, Lauri grew more in awe of the young boy. He was only six, but he was thinking further ahead than adults like Lauri.

Most of what Lauri knew about Marco came from their interactions. What was he hiding in his heart, in his mind? Lauri would probably never know.

“...War, you say?”

“As long as Athria and Eberia both exist, they will go to war. And the fields of disaster will be dyed red.”

“Hah. I know those lyrics. That song’s gotten quite popular nowadays.”

“Has it? I quite like it.”

Laughing, the two sang the lyrics of a song composed a half-century ago.

“Ah! There you are, boy! Right in the middle of nowhere!”

But the laughter was interrupted by a woman.

“...This is my house’s backyard, Hannah.”

Hannah was a widow, and now took to caring for Marco’s mother. But she also seemed to take ‘care’ of Marco as well. It was reasonable given his physical age, but otherwise, Marco considered her mostly annoying.

“Come now, you mother’s waiting for you. And let’s wash your hands too,” she demanded as she pulled Marco up with great vigor.

Lauri swiftly grabbed all the seeds Marco handed him before he was pulled away and gathered them into a bag.

“I suppose this is my chance,” he remarked as he gathered a pair of cute clothes he’d prepared for just this case. Marco’s mother had been coveting them for quite some while.

With that done, he made his way over to the village chief’s house.