Excerpt: Empyrean Chronicles: Farmer's son

Chapter the First:
It had come like a flash of lightning, partially because it involved a fair few of them. The night before a sudden storm had glided across the plains of Elysium. Hansel had woken up to the creaking of wooden boards and the pounding of feet. Quickly he had flipped off the quilt and put on his boots. He hadn’t changed out of his work clothes that night, which while it might upset his mother a great bit, he was sure his father wouldn’t mind him being out on the fields a little sooner.
Indeed, his father looked quite relieved when he saw the young lad of eighteen running across the field, the warm look was replaced by one of urgency as he yelled “Get the damn sheep into the barn! The storm is liable to blow one of the stupid beasts away, and last thing we need this close to the festival is a loss of livestock!”
Hansel didn’t argue or say a word and simply went to the field where the sheep were panicking in an organized follow-the-leader type manner. It was a horrible mistake that they were out now as winds of savage vigor whipped through and claimed a poor yellow sapling from the earth and into the masses of debris collecting across the system.
It should not have come this quickly, Hansel thought. There had been no clouds before bed, the day had a low level of moisture, and the almanac predicted fair weather. There was no reason this should be happening now. It was not natural, that meant the damned Pyramid was behind it in all likely hood. After a half hour of struggling with stubborn bull males and cursing at the collecting mud under his feet, Hansel collected them and put them inside. If there was a god, he hated farmers.
Hansel trudged back his muscles aching with the echoes of the work from the day before and now pushed without relaxation in between his periods of struggle. His black hair was now knotted and had clots of mud all over, but he was relieved to see his brothers had made it out and were now currently helping his father. His father, whose back was really getting too bad to be working at all, especially in these conditions.
Hansel joined his family and together they worked as efficiently as possible till all the crops were bound. With any luck on their side they would not lose any.
His father coughed and pointed towards the house “Get in and get a fire going, if it keeps going like this, it’s going to be a cold day ahead of us.”
Hansel’s youngest brother Sheroff spoke up. “If the weather keeps up like this Da’, is there going to be a harvest festival at all?”
Shrugging, the father pointed towards the house “Everyone in for now, no use worrying on the festival quite yet…”
Hansel stared at his mud licked boots as he walked back into his home. There was a use worrying for him, this year he would be eighteen, by Elysium law, an adult. That meant if he was to be recognized to start a farm of his own it would need to be this festival, or else he would need to wait another fourteen months before the next one to be recognized by the community as having the proper skills to work out of his father’s guidance.
Hansel loved his father dearly, but the home was growing too cramped for an eldest of five children. Especially when four of those five were male, and the one female was loud enough to drown any two of the males out. As much as he cared for them all and wished them all well, he would be happy to leave them behind for a life of his own.
He entered the house, Sheroff was getting the fire going so he didn’t bother to stay in as the others filtered through the house and began to trudge directly up the stairs. Originally, the house had been made for four, so Hansel had originally had his own room. Then his twin brothers Sherlock and Gregory came, and they shared the room opposite of him. Then they had a girl Bethany, and she needed a room of her own. So then the twins and Hansel had shared a room, then Sheroff came, and Hansel was kicked up into the attic.
He didn’t mind, not necessarily, he thought to himself as he pulled down his overalls and looked through the barren hay insulated room, specks of moonlight shining on his bare chest as he removed his boots. He laid down on his sinking hay bed and looked around the room. There was not much to look at, a pitchfork he had received for his sixteenth birthday, a sheepskin coat for when the cold winters came, a small copy of this year’s almanac.
At this point he reached his naked arm for the book and picked it up. The rough black leather cover was cracking in several places from frequent use. Silently, Hansel skimmed through the pages until he found today’s date. It read the following:
“Dius: The Autumn: Fifteenth, Festival scheduled fifteen days frome todaye, is scheduled for fair skyes for this day and of thise night. Two full moons, one waning crescent.”

With a decisive expression, Hansel closed the book “Damn pyramid and its cursed Guardians.” Everyone in Empyrean knew that the Almanac was based on the most accurate predictions of magic available. There was no way it could be wrong, unless someone made it wrong, the only people known to have such great prowess in the arcane arts were those Guardians that inhabited the Ebon Pyramid centered in Elysium. As a result, the weather in Elysium seemed to be wrong more often than it should be and it cause more than one troubled agrarian to snap a stick in frustration.
They didn’t care about any of them, the humans that is. The new Emperor of Empyrean had been in power for a year. He was human, and when people heard this all across Elysium they thought their race finally had found a champion, someone to guide them out of the dark times that they had found ever since their birth on Empyrean.
Instead what did they get? A buffoon, he did nothing, nothing at all to aid his kin! It was appalling to think that when one of their own kind finally after years of oppression managed to make it to power, that person did nothing to stop said oppression. For this reason, Hansel and much of the rest of the human population despised this Emperor. He was no worse than the most cold hearted lizard.
Hansel set down the almanac and brought the covers above his chin. Shivering from the cold, the fire would take a while to reach him, he pondered what god would give such a man power over the storms. It seemed inherently wrong that the farming class of Empyrean, that relied on the weather, must bow to a man who refused to help them.
It was not though as if Hansel had met him personally and Hansel had to admit that as a child he had often played mages and soldiers with the other boys and always played the mage, but maybe it was different then just having powers. He had noticed most magical dwellers were snobbish and rude, maybe the magic itself destroyed their character.
He chuckled “Come to close to a gods domain, and I guess you lose some humanity in the process” With that thought echoing in his mind, he curled up, closed his eyes and went to sleep.
The next morning, Hansel awoke to the sounds of birds chirping and sun dancing through the slants in the roof. It seemed, the storm had passed in the night. He quickly got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast.
As he came down the steps he was welcomed by the smiling face of his mother working over a hot stove with little Bethany at her side. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “Good morning Ma’”
She flipped the meat on the stove and grinned at him “Good Morning dear, you’ve beaten even your father up this morning.”
Hansel sighed and shook his head as he took a seat at the table. “I had rough time sleeping last night, I think the storm upset me. Saw dreams, of cold daggers and fire.”
His mother looked slightly perturbed at this thought but Bethany laughed and pointed at her brother. “Well we always knew big old brother Hansel must have a few screws loose, maybe you finally lost one of them.” She then bumped her elbow against the stove and mother swiped her away as Hansel laughed
“That’s what you get for fooling around while doing your chores little one.” He smiled as she scowled at him.
“It’s not fair, I get hurt and she swipes at me, yet you can laugh and not get so much as a blink of an eye. That…that is hypocrisy!” She crossed her arms and Hansel pulled the raven haired girl to his side at the table and then tapped her on the nose.
“Only Hypocrisy little one if she said she was not going to do it, but I earned my right not to be swat at. One time, I came home late after bowling in the fields with some friends. Mom spotted me coming in and well. My bottom shone clear through my pants and I could not sit for the next few days.” He tapped her lightly on the head “Being swatted at means she likes you more enough, besides, you didn’t think about the burn now did you?”
She had a perplexed look before responding “No…I didn’t, did I?”
He shooed her away “Now go back and help Ma’, five hungry mouths will be awake any moment.”
“One already is…” was heard from the hall before revealing the slimming figure of Hansel’s father. “Though, I don’t suppose I could convince you to speed up so I could eat before the twins…they eat like locusts.”
Hansel stood up and went to the cupboards and began setting the table for the stampede that would be happening any time now. As he laid the napkins down on the table he commented “Well, some type of vermin, locusts tend to leave evidence. When Gregory and Sherlock come through, nothing is left, including the bone.”
Father nodded “True enough, true enough.” His head swiveled to look out the window “Amazing how quickly the weather cleared up.”
Hansel frowned “The damn Emperor must have had his fill of torturing us a little early then.” This comment was received with a swift smack to the back of his head.
“We do not insult the Emperor in this house, despite all his eccentricities-“ His father began
“Despite them all, he is still a kin-traitor who would sell us out to the highest bidder if he saw the need to do so!” Hansel cut him off.
“Now wait one second here young man, you know nothing-“
Bethany cut in holding a plate to her chin so her voice was muffled “That Pierrot though..” Pierrot had been in the news quite often, a vigilante with a penchant for taking down slave drivers. Most humans admired him, Hansel’s father in contrast…
“A menace causing more trouble than is necessary…” Father said as he corrected his napkin
Not too soon after the Twins and Sheroff came done and the rest of the meal was had in silence.