After the handles were made and the knives finished Gerd escorted the child out of the workshop and finished the pot of stew together, silence filling the room save for the cracking of the fire. As the bowls were emptied and cleaned by Gerd using a dry cloth the man glanced at the child. He was so silent and calm… Quite the opposite of what he'd expect from other children his age
"You know? You remind me of a kid I met once" said the man, sitting down on a stool near the fire, The child also sat down near the fire, his eyes silently looking at the man "I take it you are interested, I can't fault you for that, there's little to do in this cabin and I imagine so much sleeping has left you well rested and sadly for me, I haven't really done so much as to be tired myself"
"Well, this kid you remind me of… I met him when he was on his third year at the academy, I was a teacher at that time. Very boring job to be honest, too many noble kids trying to learn how to forge weapons without even knowing the difference between steel and iron" the old man let out a defeated sigh "From time to time some commoner kid from a blacksmith family would show up and I'd have a good year but it was not the norm. Then one year a kid shower up, noble, energetic and with a way of walking that made you want to follow him. He had the same black hair you do, maybe cleaner and straighter, you know, in the south dark hair is not as rare as around here"
"I was already thirty when he appeared in my class" he explained, his gaze fixed on the fire that lit up the room and his face "taught him everything I knew, little stuck, he was more of a fighter than a crafter. First of his class, I've never seen a better exam in all my years of teaching, even if I only did for a decade and a half"
Gerd caressed his beard as the fire reflected on his green eyes, a nostalgic look on them as he looked back at the child
"Do you know how to play Storm?" Asked the man, the kid shook his head and twisted his head in question, Gerd let out a soft laugh as he sat up, taking a wooden board and a little box from the shelves, its contents resonating as the box was shaken when the old man brought it to the rug and sat down in front of the board
"This is storm" said the man, the board was a perfect square with an 11x11 grid burned on one of its surfaces, each corner square was black, the same as the square at the center of the board, some of the squares had different symbols, one that looked like a circle with two bows pointing at eachother and other that looked like a vertical eye. The ones with the first symbol were on squares in the middle of the edges of the board on groups of six, five along the edge and one on the next row, heading for the center of the board, the rest of the special squares were forming a diamond of two squares in width around the center.
Gerd opened the box, 24 dark wooden pieces and 12 light ones, with a bigger one of the same light wood material "Theese are the invaders" he explained, setting the dark wood pieces on the squares with the circle and the two bows. "And this ones are the defenders" as he said this he put the defenders on the diamond of the center of the board and finally he pointed at the largest piece "And this is the king, the objective of the game is to capture the king for the attackers and for the king to escape to one of the corners without being captured on his way, taking all the attackers is also an option but not many go for that strategy" he said, taking two white pieces and a dark one
"You capture a piece by surrounding it with a minimum of two of your own pieces" he put down the pieces in a row, the white ones to the sides of the brown "But, you can also capture a piece by using one of the dark squares as if it were one of your pieces" he explained, moving a white piece and the black one next to one of the corners "Whenther the king is on his throne, the black square in the middle, or not, the attackers need to position four of their pieces instead of two, and once the king leaves the throne he can't go back. Save to say you can't Put any pieces on the black squares" Gerd put the pieces he had moved back to their original places
"You can move your pieces in the cardinal directions for as many squares as you want" with the rules explained, Gerd looked at the child with a smile "So, little one, which one do you want to be, the attackers or the defenders?"
The child raised his eyebrow, clearly measuring which of the two to select, then, slowly, the black haired kid pointed and grabbed the king, making the old man smile
"Alright then little one, defender it is, I must say you've chosen the most difficult one to play as, not only are you clearly on a disadvantage when thinking about numbers, you are facing a much experienced general than you, and I also have the initiative" With one swift motion, Gerd moved up one of the pieces that lead his battalions to face one to one the nearest tip of the diamond. The child thought for a moment, if he threatened to take that piece with one of his, the old man could easily take the threatening piece with one move
The child decided to take one from the old man's book and taking one of the second line pieces, the one that cornered the throne, he moved it forward, flanking the northern squadron leader, Gerd smiled, nodding as he used one of the western squadron pieces to take the threatening piece
"Be careful kid, my pieces have less value than yours" advised the old man, The child looked at the board, deep in thought, his objective was not to attack his enemy, but prevent him from taking his king before he could escape to one of the corners, a clear objective, yet a difficult one to clear, then, a spark lit up on his head, the kid moved his western main defender, the one that had been defending the king's cardinal position until that point and put it where he had taken the previous defender from
Gerd raised his eyebrow and swiftly moved the piece that had captured the previous defender to face the newly appointed corner defender. The black haired kid moved his western cross tip and captured the assailant, Gerd moved his most external Southern's squadron piece and threatened the killer, But the kid's king made swift work of the piece. Gerd moved one of the Southern squadron member towards the edge of the board, just by the dark square
The kid slid the king's piece to the side, meeting the western squadron leader face to face, Gerd moved up one of the western members, surrounding form two sides the king. The child felt the pressure and captured the threatening piece using one of the defenders, with another movement, Gerd threatened one of the defenders of the eastern side with one of his pieces. With a shine on his eyes, the kid slid the king's piece up, standing on the corner diagonal to the north-western dark square
Gerd moved up one of his western squadron, blocking the main way and leaving only one way to the square, the king met the eastern side of the dark square and the kid smiled, having blocked the path for the defenders on the south side to surround him, this was the last move
And it was when Gerd moved one of his eastern squadron pieces and surrounded the king, in the north, the edge of the board, in the east and south, pieces and to its east, the dark square, the same that had been his objective Gerd smiled and extended his hand
"Good game little one" He said "Another?" The child shook his head and Gerd nodded as the kid reached out and took his hand, shaking it weakly "Then I suppose I will put this back" The kid grabbed the wooden box and started taking piece by piece and gently putting them inside, the less than detailed heads of the pieces up as they were organised nearly the exact way as they were in the board before starting, Gerd watched as the kid closed the box and put it on the wooden board, then he took it and left it on the lower of the shelves, the kid would not be able to reach it, but at least he could see it and point at it if he wanted to play again
Gerd looked at the child whose gaze had returned to the flames once again and sighed, what would he do with him? He couldn't play storm with him for the rest of the winter, there were at least a month and a half to go
"So, kid" he said sitting right next to him, the child didn't make any attempt to widen the distance between them, which, in part made Gerd happy and worried at the same time, although, if he has wanted to do something bad to the child he'd have done it a lot earlier so maybe his auto preservation system was not as broken as he may have thought at first "I cannot keep calling you kid, do you have a name?" He asked
The child didn't answer, instead he pointed at the fire "Fire" said the old man, the kid shook his head "Flame" tried again, it was met with yet another shook of the kids head, Gerd's green eyes looked at the child again "Yeah, I'm not playing charades tonight, for now you are Bal, that's the name of the kid I told you earlier" he said, the kid didn't respond with words, but nodded in acceptance. Gerd crossed his arms and filled his lungs with air
"You better carry that name with pride, that kid turned into the best general of the empire, alright?" Bal nodded and Gerd let the air out "Good, now, the storm might rage on for the rest of the night, and there will be more and stronger ones until winter ends" he explained, Bal nodded again, at least the kid was understanding what he was told
"When it ends and the snow melts we will go to the nearest village to see if we can find someone who knows you or can take care of you, I am sorry but I am far too old to raise a child that came out of the woods" Gerd was met with Bal's signature blank stare accompanied with a nod
"Until then you will help me with some chores, those who don't work don't get to eat, understand?" Bal nodded, enough for Gerd "Good, then now go sleep in the bed, I guess I will be making another one tomorrow" Gerd pointed at a bed that was near the door that led to the workshop, it was more four legs that were put together by a rectangular frame with tables that joined the longer sides together, all of it covered with heavy rugs and blankets, no pillow on sight, this was not a noble house
Bal stood up and started walking towards the bed, Gerd was fast to grab his wrist "Please put some of your clothes off, I don't want a naked child on my cabin" He asked, pointing with his thumb to the clothes hanging near the fire pit, The kid did as he was asked and put on the clothes save for the heavy boots he had been wearing on his feet when he had been found by Gerd and the thick coat which was still wet in some parts. After that, he went to the bed and laid there
Gerd also stood up and went to the workshop and checked on the fire of the forge, it was already barely embers, but if fueled they could become a fire easily once again. He closed the door after making a pile of the embers inside of the forge and left for the main room, he'd sleep near the fire pit that night, his bed was otherwise occupied