The sunset showed the coming evening.
The dark blue clouds shrouded the dirt path out of the forest in darkness.
Birger was for the first time, scared...he'd never went outside of the forest for his life...why did father have to exile him? For one failed raid? More than half of his people had failed raids! What was so important about this one that exile was the punishment of failure! And why did no one stick up for him?
Now he had to survive alone, and out of the forest. He adjusted his brown leather tunic and trousers, his worn leather boots, and felt his old, worn out scabbard, holding his stone sword inside, the only thing he had to his name.
He slowly walked forward on the dirt road, kicking rocks on his way, as he saw into the distance, the path seemed to be on a hill, looking over a large field...there seemed to be farmland...and what he could describe as...wooden squares placed all around the field... there seemed to be some sort of giant stone wall...and weird giant shapes with triangles on top of it...was this what tribes were like outside the forest?
As he walked along the darkening blue path, he across other paths...one leading towards the shapes...and another leading somewhere else...and he saw another person...a man standing there...he also seemed to be wearing a tunic and a brown pant, they seemed to be lighter than his own...he seemed to have a lightship brown hair colour and short hair...he seemed to be thinner...weaker...and shorter than himself...and seemed to have something strapped to his back.
Birger thought about what to do... he didn't know anything about the people or tribes outside the forest...but could he trust this man? Father and everyone used to say that the people outside the forest were untrustworthy...but he couldn't do anything right now...he needed help...to figure out these outsiders of the forest.
So he decided to speak the man.
"Hello?" Birger called out to the man.
The man looked startled as he looked at him, "Yes?" Replied the man.
"Uh...who are you?" Asked Birger.
"...Isaac. my name is Isaac." Said the man after a brief pause, as he seemed to be looking at Birger, and Birger himself had a closer look at him, this man seemed to have a younger looking face, like that of a child, and he seemed to have a half-grown beard...more than Birger's clean shaven face.
"I'm Birger. Birger Rageclaw!" Declared Birger proudly.
"... unique name." Said Isaac.
"Same to you!" Replied Birger.
"..." Isaac seemed to be looking at him with narrow eyes, did he say something wrong?
"What?" Asked Birger.
"You think...Isaac is a unique name?" Asked Isaac.
"Well, yes! I've never met someone named Isaac before!" Said Birger.
"...Uh-huh." Replied Isaac.
There was a brief pause between them.
"So...what are you?" Asked Birger.
"...I'm a traveller, I'm going towards the Kingdom of the Veldt." Replied
"Kingdom of the Veldt? Is that the name of the tribe which lives over there?" Birger points at the wooden squares and stone shapes.
Isaac just looks at shapes, and then back at Birger. "...I guess you could say that." Replied Isaac. "What about you?" Asked Isaac.
"Oh...um..." Birger went silent, he couldn't tell him the truth couldn't he? What if the people outside the forest did not like his people? What if his 'BrownClaw tribe' were a hated people here? So he decided to use the same reason as Isaac did.
"I'm a traveller too! Im also going towards the tri-Kingdom of the Veldt." Replied Birger.
"Mhm...so since we're both going towards the Kingdom...why not go together?" Asked Isaac.
"Wha-i mean yes! We should go together!" Said Birger.
"Well, I know the route, so come along." Isaac Replied.
"Yes!" Said Birger, as he started following Isaac, he'd need some help to learn of what his father called "The People of the Plain."
________________________________________________________________________
Isaac was thinking his decision to tag along with this Birger as they made their way to the closest town.
He seemed too naive and proud, he'd immediately bought his bluff as a traveller, and even told him his full name, and he seemed to have a limited vocabulary, calling a Kingdom a Tribe.
But he liked his presence...because Birger seemed to be big and strong. He had a toned, well built body under the simple leather clothing, and the hilt on his hip suggested he at least knew how to fight with a sword, which prove useful if a wild animal ambushed them...
He also seemed to definitely not be from one of the neighbouring kingdoms, if his vocabulary didn't give it away, he seemed to be way less educated than even the peasantry...must be one of the elusive tribals that live in the thick forests...
As they made their way to an entrance of a town, they made their way towards the nearest building.
The building was a little bigger than most of the others he could see, and the sign on the building read "Bard's Printing and Publishing" and a smaller sign at the side reading "Printers and Publishers of 'The Civic Eye' magazine."
This seemed to be a publishing house. Pretty rare outside of the higher circles of Veldt. He looked over at Birger...who seemed puzzled...
"What's the matter?" Asked Isaac.
"What are those colours in different shapes on the big wooden square?" Asked Birger.
"Those...are words...you know how to read right?" Asked Isaac.
There was a short pause.
"What's a read?" Replied Birger.
Scratch that, he just shouldn't ask anything of him. He saw that there was a light on the inside, meaning someone was inside...that someone came out...
He was an old man, he had a lean figure and an otherwise normal stature, he had big glasses, and was balding, he seemed to spot Isaac and Birger...
"Hey! Who are you two?" He called out to them.
Isaac gives a look to Birger which says "let me talk." As he approaches the old man with his hands folded as he spoke in a desperate and soft tone.
"Sir, the two of us are travellers who are looking for some work, we came here because it is the closest building towards the entrance of this town..." said Isaac.
"Hm..." mumbled the old man, and Isaac could recognise he was smart.
"Sir, please, just give us a place to stay and we'll handle everything on our Sir! We'll just handle the work!" Begged Isaac, as Birger looked on in confusion.
After a brief pause...
"...you two are not gonna rob me...aren't you?" Asked the old man.
"No! No! No! No! No! Of course not! We'll never!" Begged Isaac, as genuinely as he could.
Another pause...
"Alright...follow me...the printing press needs a few young men anyway..." said the old man as he walked past him.
As he walked out, Isaac nudged Birger at the side.
"Okay, I got us a job, don't do anything that makes me regret taking you with me..." warned Isaac.
"Okay..." said Birger as he sheepishly followed Isaac and the old man.