Heug sat in what he considered to surely be one of the world’s most uncomfortable chairs. Out of curiosity, he tried to rock back and forth in it. Sure enough, it wobbled. The front left leg and the rear right leg were shorter than the other two. Which is better? He pondered. Hypothesis. Which of the two three leg configurations is most comfortable to rest on. Prediction. The right rear leg will be more comfortable than the forward left leg. Experimentation. Heug rocked forward, then backward. Conclusion. The right rear leg is indeed better than the forward left.

Heug let out a long drawn out breath, looking around the abbot’s office, he glanced at the religious iconography adorning its walls. He saw gold, silver, garnet and many other precious materials he could not identify. He wondered why he had been sent to the abbot’s office yet again. Perhaps the clergy had found another “forbidden” book in his possession. Perchance a novice saw him take the bread from the larder yesterday. Maybe… they just felt like putting him in solitude for no particular reason at all. 

As Heug sat there, alone with his thoughts. He heard the door open behind him and the follicles on the back of his head and neck sprang to attention. He knew by the thunderous creaking of the floorboards that abbot Auflang had entered the room. As the abbot stepped past him, Heug expected a whack on the back of his head with a knotted rope or perhaps just a standard slap across the face, but none came. The abbot instead continued onward, lying upon his gilded armchair. The chair seemed to wine and complain as the abbot settled in. abbot Auflang stared at the young man through soulless eyes, framed with layers of fleshy fat and years of cracked lines that spoke to his propensity for casting disapproval toward all he would deem lesser than himself. The abbot took a cacophonous breath inwards, comparable more to snoring than breathing. “Do you know why you’re here?” the abbot asked in his terrifying baritone voice. “Why… why, am I here? In…your office?” Heug replied, with all the subservient language he could offer. The abbot slammed his fist on the desk causing the young man to jump and clasp his eyelids tight in fear. “Here! In my abbey!” The man bellowed. “I…I was…I was caught stealing at the bazaar when I was a boy?” Heug replied, attempting to satisfy the abbot’s furious inquiry. “I was taken in by Brother Frost and…” abbot Auflang interrupted. “Yet you show your gratitude through, what? Theft? Weakness? Hiding these blasphemous texts in your room?” The abbot removed several books from a drawer and slammed them on the surface of his desk. The abbot sat there in his appointed throne, furiously breathing through his stuffy nose. Slowly catching his breath, he continued the crucible. “Do you know why you are weak?” Heug thought for a moment. Because I’m given half rations? Heug weighed. “I don’t know sir.” “You are weak because you will not accept God’s love.” The abbot stated obviously. Heug knew of “God’s love.” It was called upon and manifested itself anytime he was beaten with knotted ropes for leaving the larder door open, anytime he received lashes for failing to recall a verse, or locked in the catacombs, days at a time . 

Abbot Auflang placed his palms on the desk to steady himself as he began the arduous task of standing. Heug looked up at him, fear streaked across his face. “Come with me.” The abbot commanded. “And bring your blasphemous materials with you.” The abbot started toward the door. Heug gathered up the books the abbot had so violently placed upon the desk. The abbot opened the double doors wide, letting them swing fully open. One of the doors narrowly avoided Heug’s face. The abbot lumbered across the covered bridge causing it to sway from side to side and back again. Heug fumbled with his books in his left arm as he shut the double doors. By the time Heug had worked both doors shut, the abbot was already on the other side of the bridge. abbot Auflang started down the stairs then looked back at the young man. Look at him, the abbot thought. Scrawny little shit! Perhaps I should give him a punishment he’ll remember. The abbot stood there, staring at the young man’s body. He felt a slight tingle in his loins. He excitedly reached into his robe near the crotch, pretending he was simply adjusting himself. He checked his genitals, Bah! Nothing! He thought to himself. As flaccid as spoiled celery. Then, it occurred to him.  Perhaps the boy’s mouth would awaken my dragon. The prospect of mouth fucking this ungrateful, skinny young little man excited the abbot. 

Heug quickly made his way across the bridge, noting that the stream beneath it was running at a trickle. Unusually dry this time of year, he noted to himself. As he approached the stairs leading into the courtyard. He put his head down and grasped the books as though they were his own newly birthed infant. The abbot let out an unsettling groan of…pleasure? It sent a chill down the young man’s spine. The two of them made their way down the first flight of stairs to a landing, where the abbot rested, putting his hand on the railing to steady himself. Heug looked up at the man. The blubbery mountain of a man was resting against the creaking railing as he caught his breath. He gestured for Heug to head down the stairs and proclaimed, “We are going to the forge.” Heug nodded sheepishly and proceeded down the final flight of stairs, with the abbot following directly behind him. At one point, as they made their way through the courtyard, he truly thought the man was going to step on his heels. Heug looked into the sky, it was late afternoon. There wouldn’t be anyone in the forge this late into the evening save for a few of the boys working the bellows. Ensuring the fires would stay hot late into the night. He felt a void growing in the pit of his stomach. 

Heug and abbot Auflang entered the forge and the abbot grabbed the young man by his arm, pulling him towards the largest of the crucibles. “Out!” The abbot shouted. “Everyone out!” His deep voluminous voice filled every wall and crevice of the forge, echoing over the booming chaos of the fires hissing, chains clanking and molten iron bubbling and spurting. The three boys, wearing expressions of surprise and terror, immediately made for the exit. “Shut the doors!” The abbot blasted in their direction. 

The two stood at the precipice of a large sandy pit. Below them was an old volcanic crucible holding molten bronze. Heug glanced over the edge, it was as though he was granted a glimpse into the very underworld the abbey’s religion was so fond of invoking. “Now!” The abbot demanded. “Throw them in.” My books. Heug thought. He wants me to burn my books. Heug looked at the spines on the three books he held. There was no title on any of them, but he knew them well. The first was an engineering book that mostly focused on the construction of bridges. It didn’t actually have a title, which Heug always found curious. The first page just got right into the principles of bridge building. Heug liked that it never tried to wax poetic about any of it. Tension and compression, keystone arches, but natural bridges created by root systems were his favorite. The way a woman named Arianellis would gently coax nature to serve her purposes. The second book was just page after page of alchemical recipes. Heug would go over and over them in his spare time. Once, he was locked in the catacombs for three days, a punishment for what he no longer knew. He recalled sitting on the cold stone floor in the darkness. Reaching into his mind, dredging up each recipe in the order in which the text presented them. With his eyes shut, he would mimic the movements of combining the ingredients. There were moments in the darkness, he thought he really was creating potions, cataplasms and fuels. The third and final book was all about weapon design. Heug didn’t think much of it. He only read it a few times. He recalled his favorite chapter. It spoke to various short range weapons and their respective weight distributions. Short swords and daggers were often well balanced, so they would be accurate. Hammers and axes were quite the opposite, they were extremely unbalanced. They would sacrifice accuracy for sheer power. He would compare a person’s build and personality to these weapons. He thought about abbot Auflang and how he was not unlike a massive warhammer. A hammer so heavy, none could wield him. Heug thought about what kind of weapon he would be. A short sword perhaps? Like a gladius or maybe some kind of rapier? No. Perhaps he was a dagger! Small and slender, easily concealed. No. He was more like a reed, thrown around this way and that in a gentle breeze. Snapped off at its roots by a thoughtless child, paying no mind to where they were stepping. 

Heug fell to his knees. Better to get it over with all at once. He advised himself. Heug felt tears building in his eyes. Then, he let go. The books fell for what felt like ages, before finding the intense heat of molten bronze. Upon reaching the surface, they incinerated almost instantly. Heug leaned over the edge a little further and watched as a tear fell from his face, evaporating long before it even reached liquid metal. He could feel his eyebrows getting singed. For a moment, he thought he would let go. Death by vat of molten metal would not be a pleasant way to go, but it would inevitably end his suffering. 

To Heug’s surprise the abbot was now next to the boy. Completely naked. “You did well my little boy. Now, I will cleanse your filthy mouth with my essence.” The abbot stated joyfully, gesturing to his genitals, barely visible beneath his belly flesh. Heug fell backwards from his knees. Now, looking up at the man, Heug took note of the abbot’s top-heavy build. He could see that he really was a hammer. He was like a hammer resting precariously on the tip of its handle. He stood, stiffening his arms and with what little strength he had, the reed tipped the hammer into the forge. But the hammer took hold of the reed in an ill fated attempt to save himself. The reed took hold of a chain as he fell. At first his hand slid down the chain, the pain was intense, but he held tighter and felt a strong jerk to his left shoulder as the hammer’s hand yanked the boy’s left arm. The hammer fell over himself, landing head-first into the fiery metal and abbot Auflang was no more. Heug dangled on the chain for a moment, his felt like they were on fire. He looked down to see that they were on fire, or at least his ill-fitting hardened leather boots were giving off some smoke. He tried to move his left arm, but his shoulder hurt too much and it just layed there motionless. His hand was getting sweaty and he knew he couldn’t hold on much longer. Heug lifted his legs as high as he could, then pinched the chain between his feet. One advantage to being weak, he thought, was that you could lift your body’s weight easier than most. 

He shimmied his way up the chain and climbed back onto the deck. The pain in Heug’s left shoulder was subsiding, though he still found himself unable to raise his arm. The pain now shifted back to his right hand. He quickly inspected it. No blood, but it was beginning to look quite bruised. Heug rounded up the late abbot’s clothing from the floor and threw it in the forge. Now, he needed to escape. Looking around, there was a coal chute he could possibly make his way up. Unfortunately, it would prove quite a challenge with two burnt feet, a bruised, and now, throbbing hand, and a useless left arm. Still, the coal chute was his only real option. The front doors were out of the question. The first monk he saw in the courtyard would immediately ask him where the abbot was. Even if the young man lied and told them it was an accident, it would still be highly unlikely he would be believed and likely it would end in his execution. No, the coal chute truly was the only real choice. And, it would take him outside the walls of the monastery. “Outside” the young man whispered. He felt his heart flutter at the thought of leaving this horrid place. 

Heug had considered attempting a daring escape via coal chute several times in the past, however; the forge was always manned day and night. He decided there was no time to waste. He made his way up the two flights of stairs until he reached the third and highest floor. He had gone through every step in his mind before, although his pre-rendered plan had always assumed both his arms would be in working order.

Now, on the third floor and still overlooking the mass of liquid bronze far below, Heug took hold of the very same chain that saved his life only moments earlier. This is the scary part. Heug recalled, though considering everything he had just been through, maybe it wasn’t quite so scary anymore. He took hold of the chain with his battered right hand and took two paces back. He swung across the pit and let go, landing on the chute. He hit the chute dead center, his feet began to slip on the chunks of coal. He panicked for a moment before grabbing the edge of the chute. The thin metal edge pressed against the puffy flesh of his black and blue hand. It hurt more than it would under ideal conditions, but he held his position and stabilized himself. His landing was rather louder than he would have liked, but no one was likely to have heard it all the same. He made his way slowly and cautiously up the chute until it was completely enclosed signifying that he had successfully made his way out of the forge. He was now in what amounted to a metal pipe. He stealthily made his way up the pipe with his back pressed against one side and his feet braced against the other. The coal would occasionally fall smacking Heug on the head. The pipe was nearly oriented vertically when he neared the other end. 

He could hear two men making small talk as they shoveled coal into the opening of the chute. He held himself there for sometime waiting for the men to leave on a break. His legs were close to giving out when he noticed the men’s chatter was growing more distant. He shimmied the remaining distance up the pipe and took a nearly ninety degree bend now laying horizontal on his stomach. He rested ever so briefly before crawling the small distance until the upper half of the chute opened back up on the top once again. It was night now, but the twin moons hung full in the sky, bathing everything they touched in a silver-bluish hue. He looked around to find the area devoid of human life. He attempted to stand up, but his legs protested. He rolled his body off the chute and dropped a small distance onto the ground, landing on his left shoulder. He let out a muffled yelp of pain and laid there a moment attempting to massage his leg muscles. He finally stood. His legs felt shaky and nearly useless, but he began walking towards the edge of the city. 

Heug saw a man walking towards him and he did his best to appear as unassuming as possible. The man took a look at the soot stained boy and shouted “Hey!” Heug’s heart jumped into his throat at the sudden sound. The man approached him. “Break time’s almost over,” the man proclaimed. “If you can’t get to the cantina on time, well that’s just too damn bad for…what in the…what did you do to your arm?” The man grabbed the boy’s arm and he let out a loud yelp in anguish. The man, gesturing behind him, “You can’t work with an arm like that, get yer ass to the infirmary!” “Yes…yes sir.” Heug replied. The two began to part ways, but the foreman grabbed Heug’s left arm again. The boy flashed a pained expression across his face. “If you think yer gettin’ paid for time spent in the infirmary, you better think again.” “Yes…sir. I understand sir.” Heug meekly replied. The foreman allowed a light smirk wash across his face. “Yeah…well, we could use more respectful kids like you.” The foreman hunched over looking Heug in the eyes. “What’s yer name?” The foreman asked. “Kemal…sir. I just started last week.” “Kemel huh? Like the bridge builder.” “Yes sir.” Heug replied. “Hmm…I could do with more respectful young men like you. Here…” The foreman reached into his pocket, revealing two silver pieces. “It’s not much, but get yerself something to eat when you finish up at the infirmary. He placed the two silver pieces into Heug’s coal stained left breast pocket. “Oh uh, thank you sir.” Heug replied with genuine gratitude. 

Heug made his way along the outer edge of the monastery wall past the rundown worker housing. Three chimes sounded and the miners and coal shovelers began to leave the cantina and headed back to work. Heug thought it best he not be noticed by the men. He leaned up against the wall of the monastery and let himself slide down to the ground. He had hoped that the men would assume he was little more than some drunk vagrant obscured by the shadows of the night. It had worked even better than he’d expected. The men seemingly took no notice of him at all and went about their night. 

Heug painfully rose up and hobbled his way toward the cantina just as they were about to close up for the night. “Excuse me.” Heug let out as he entered the cantina. A young barmaid just a little younger than Heug looked up at him with a smile quickly turning to a look of horror. Heug froze, he had not seen a girl since he had become sequestered within the confines of the monastery as a child. And even then, girls were far from his mind at that young age. Now, he believed he was looking upon the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The feeling, however, was not reciprocated. “My god.” The girl whispered under her breath, still loud enough for Heug to get the general gist of it. “You poor man, you look awful. Rough night in the mines huh? Here, Have a seat.” The barmaid pulled out a chair for him. “We were just about to close, but here, let me at least get you some water.” Heug gratefully sat down at one of the tables. The barmaid returned with haste, placing a tankard filled with water down in front of him. She stood there for a moment, looking down at him as he drank every last drop. She subconsciously began biting her upper lip and weaving her bar cloth between her fingers. Heug set the empty tankard down on the table. And began coughing uproariously. “Oh!” The girl squeaked. Quickly grabbing a pail from under the table. “Here, cough into this.” Heug coughed and choked until a thick black liquid came up. He spit into the pail over and over. The girl, wearing an expression of concern and understanding, placed her hand on his back. Heug felt his body grow several degrees warmer. When his coughing fit subsided, he just sat there, doubled over wheezing for a time. He reached into his shirt pocket, pulling out the two silver pieces the foreman gave him. The girl saw the silver pieces and said “Oh! No. No charge for the water you silly man.” “Do you…have anything…to eat?” Heug asked between labored breaths. “Oh. Let me see.” The girl sprang behind the bar. “The miners pretty well cleaned us out.” She muttered, her eyes scanning the shelves. “Looks like we’ve still got a couple sweet rolls and a few scraps of salted meat.” She rounded up the items and placed them on a sheet of well creased and crumpled waxed paper.

Heug practically inhaled the first sweet roll. Though it had gone stale, he didn’t care. It still tasted better than just about anything he had been fed at the monastery. He considered saving the second roll for later, the sands of Lybra were a harsh place and he would need all the food and water he could get. Then again, the first sweet roll was so good, and he was so hungry. He reached for the second roll. “Careful, you could make yourself sick eating that fast.” The girl stated as a matter of fact. Heug looked up at the girl and then back down to the sweet roll. She was right at that. He thought, nodding his head. He slid the two silver pieces across the table to her. “Oh no.” She said, holding up a hand. She leaned in, looking around for a moment ensuring no one was around. “We would have just tossed it to the pigs anyway.” She said in hushed tones, followed by a wink. Heug felt his heart flutter. Under different circumstances he would have followed this girl to the end of the world. “I need a bladder, for water.” He further specified. “Hmm…” the girl pondered, looking down at the silver on the table. “For one silver, I’ll give you my water bladder.” “Oh, I…I couldn’t–” “No, no. It’s fine. For one silver I could buy two, maybe even three more at the bazaar tomorrow. Don’t you think twice about it. I’ll be right back.”

The barmaid filled the bladder with as much water as she felt it could withstand and brought it to the young man’s table. “Here you are.” She fit the strap of the bladder over his right shoulder and neck. Stringing it across his chest. She grabbed the silver pieces, slipping one into her apron and the other back into Heug’s pocket from whence it came. She thoughtfully wrapped his remaining sweet roll and salted mystery meat in the well used wax paper. “Th–thank you. For all this.” The young man stammered as he carefully stood up. “Oh don’t think twice about it. Besides, thanks to you, I made almost three days’ wages with this.” She said, proudly displaying the silver piece. Heug smiled and nodded politely. He gazed into the girl’s eyes. “Here.” She said, “Hold still.” Ever so gently she wiped the soot from the young man’s face with her bar cloth and gave him the slightest kiss on his cheek. Heug thought he may fall unconscious for a moment. The gentleness of her lips was almost more than he could bear. “Thanks, again.” Heug whispered under his breath. The girl leaned forward and in his ear whispered, “You be careful down there okay?” Heug nodded, then turned and left the cantina. 

As Heug left for the cold of the desert night, he thought about how if only things were different, he would gladly work down in that mine just for the opportunity to see that girl’s face, everyday, for the rest of his life.