Gods and Games Ch. 01

Writer's words: The following story is my stab at the fantasy genre and despite having sex in it, isn't necessarily a smut.

All names in the story are picked off a random name generator and any resemblance with anyone is purely coincidental.

All characters involving in any kind of sexual activity are over the age of 18.

Finally, I'm looking for an editor. So if you enjoyed reading my story and wish to edit them, hit me up.

That's all! Hope you guys enjoy. Do leave a comment so that I know what my readers feel and I may better my work in the future. Bye!

***

Midnight, Thirteenth Day of the Eighth Cycle of 3268, Mother Amalthea Cemetery.

It was a warm windless night of late summer. The cemetery was quiet as the dead seldom made a noise. Old Aldebrand was sat inside his shack on a rocking chair, reading a book in the light of an oil lamp. As the undertaker of the cemetery for the past forty-eight years, Aldebrand now stayed on the grounds in a little shack in the corner of the cemetery. Dead didn't bother him. They were great neighbours indeed, never complained or made a ruckus. Aldebrand especially enjoyed these warm, quiet nights, so he stayed up late and decided to catch up on the book someone had left at one of the graves.

Suddenly a loud thunderous noise was heard from outside. Aldebrand got off his chair and walked up to the window. There was nothing that he could see as the source of the noise. He looked up and saw that the sky was cloudless. It couldn't have been a thunder cloud. Perplexed by this sudden noise, he decided to go take a round of the grounds. He grabbed the oil lamp and his walking stick before leaving his shack.

Aldebrand walked around the cemetery, going through the rows of graves. Each hand dug by him. Despite his old age, Aldebrand had excellent memory. He recalled each burial and he especially remembered the faces of each of the corpses. It was a weird habit, but Aldebrand was a man dedicated to his work. His reverie was broken all of a sudden as some movement caught the corner of his eye. He turned and headed in that direction. Aldebrand froze when he neared an unmarked grave, he wasn't even shaking or able to scream at the sight. For fear froze his entire body down to his very core.

A hand had broken through the dirt and the hand was moving. The hand had burst through the ground upto the wrist and was now twisting and turning in search for some leverage. Soon enough, the hand was flat against the ground and veins could be seen on the back of the hand as it was straining with effort. Another hand broke past the dirt and then more dirt started to shift. A head full of black hair surfaced, followed by a pale forehead and then a pair of eyes that looked at Aldebrand. Only, the eyes were completely black. No iris or whites, completely blacked.

Aldebrand finally jerked from fear, the lamp fell on the ground. The glass broke but the fire kept burning. Casting a light at the grave. Aldebrand's legs gave in, the stick fell off and he collapsed on the floor, unable to look away from the horrifying scene unfolding in front of him.

By then the undead had pulled itself halfway out of the grave, upto it's waist. Aldebrand recognised the corpse, he trusted his memory yet he couldn't believe his eyes. This corpse belonged to a man. A man who was left dead near the walls of the grounds. Aldebrand had thought it was the work of bandits, he had informed the constable and when no one had come to claim the corpse for two days, he had himself buried him in one of the dug graves. By then the corpse had started to stiffen up and the skin had gone pale. Aldebrand couldn't afford a casket so he had wrapped the body in cloth and buried him as it was. Only... That was 20 years ago...

Yet, right in front of him, the man was crawling out of his grave, not looking a day older than the day he had last seen him. His body had not decomposed even a little bit, perfectly intact.

"Where..." the undead spoke in a deep raspy voice. "Where is... Yuta Kaede of the Kaede Tribe?"

Aldebrand opened his mouth, no voice came out. He had to force it and finally he screamed.

10:30, Seventeenth Day of the Tenth Cycle of 3268, Kaede Tribe's Settlement.

Roku Kaede woke up in his bedroom. He yawned as he sat up in his bed, lazily rubbing his eyes. All of a sudden his eyes grew wide.

"FUCK!" He yelled as he jumped out of the bed and darted for the clothes that were neatly folded over his chair. How could he oversleep on the day of his Awakening Ceremony! He saw the irony in that but didn't have any time to appreciate it. He got his clothes on in record time and was pushing past his bedroom door. "Mother! Grandma! Why didn't anyone wake me up?" He yelled as he ran into the kitchen. The kitchen was empty, the entire house for that matter was empty.

"Did you guys seriously leave me to go for MY Awakening Ceremony!?" Roku yelled at the empty kitchen before making his way out of the house. He darted towards the Great Hall, everyone always gathered there on the day of the Awakening Ceremony.

On his way, he saw Uncle Toro and Uncle Mitchi rounding up the settlement kids to go for a foraging trip. He said kids, but they were every person in the settlement under the age of 21. Kids were never allowed to attend the Awakening Ceremony but every adult in the entire settlement attended each year. It was Roku's first year itself as he too had Awakened, reached the age of 21, two months ago. None of the kids knew why they weren't allowed, but they had their theories. Roku's best friend, Yoshi, who too had Awakened this year, had speculated that all the adults came together once a year to take part in a settlement wide orgy. The thought of an orgy did excite Roku. Roku was a virgin and he wasn't great with the women in the settlement. Yoshi on the other hand was dating the most beautiful girl in the entire settlement, Quin. Roku wondered whether he might have a chance with Quin since it was an orgy, the thought of her being his first did excite him. It would be weird since his mother and grandmother would also be there but he was too determined and that wasn't going to deter him.

Running with a boner was a little hard but Roku made it to the Great Hall within ten minutes. He opened the closed doors and entered as quietly as he could. To his dismay, there was no orgy. Rather everyone was sitting fully dressed looking at the stage on the other end. Standing on the stage was his grandma with her eyes closed and her hands pressed together. She was praying. So was everyone else present in the Great Hall. They all wore a solemn expression, some women were even crying quietly in the back. His Co-Awakened were sitting at the front near the stage. They weren't praying, rather each of them had a look of horror and shock on their face.

Roku saw that the chair next to Yoshi was empty, he had saved a chair for him. Roku made his way over to the empty chair and sat down next to his best friend. "What's going on?" he whispered to Yoshi but Yoshi didn't reply.

After a couple of seconds, his grandma opened her eyes and looked at the crowd. His eyes met hers but she made no special gesture to acknowledge him. Instead she spoke to the crowd. "Thank you everyone for the moment of silence." Slowly everyone opened their eyes in the back and looked up at her. The Awakened were still a bit too shocked to pay much attention.

"We remember their sacrifices" Grandma spoke loudly, getting everyone's attention once again. "We mourn our losses and we learn our lessons. My father and his brothers were the lucky few who managed to escape and started this settlement for the Kaede Tribe. I was the sole survivor of the lost generation. Our great tribe had lost, not only it's glory but the great gift of the Angel Mother. The Blessing of the Angel, an ancient power bestowed upon our tribe by the Sacred Mother herself was lost. Lost for four decades, until my son... The Great Warrior of the Kaede Tribe, Shinichi was able to awaken the Angel's Blessing on the day of his Awakening Ceremony, twenty-four years ago."

A murmur began in the crowd but Roku sat dumbfounded. They rarely talked about his father in his house or anywhere in the settlement. His mother had told him that his father had gone hunting a little after Roku was born and had never come back. Now he was learning his father was some great warrior with some ancient power.

"My son" his grandma continued. "Was taken from us and since then no one has ever Awakened the Angel's Blessing in the last two decades. For our tribe to regain it's lost glory, we need you young ones to Awaken the Angel's Blessing. We need you-"

Screams of children were heard outside and everyone turned away from the stage. The door of the Great Hall burst open and Uncle Toro ran inside, panting. His forehead was bleeding and there was a shallow cut in his right arm which was staining his white tunic. "There's an intruder!" He yelled before collapsing onto the floor.

The men immediately got into action. Grabbing their short swords, the signature weapon of the Kaede Tribe. They started to pile out of the Great Hall, behind them the women and elders left as well. Roku saw his mother, Leah, the settlement's healer stay back however to look after Uncle Toro's wounds. The young ones were the last to leave the Great Hall.

Roku had to push his way past a small crowd to see the source of the commotion. An intruder. A young man, barely past his early twenties. He stood a little over 6' tall. He had a black cloak on so it was much harder to tell about his physique. He had short black hair, a pale complexion, shapely light caramel eyes, a thin nose and a sharp angular jawline. He had no facial hair which made him look even younger. He didn't look menacing at all, he had a boyish charm. His face was expressionless but Roku imagined he had a charming smile. He looked familiar somehow.

Everyone who was older than the age off thirty in the crowd either had a look of disbelief, shock or disgust.

"How could it be!? You're supposed to be dead!" someone from the crowd yelled. "Impostor!" someone else yelled from the other side. "Kill him! He attacked Toro and Mitchi!"

"Wait!" one of the village elder yelled out and stepped in front of the crowd. "We don't know! It could be him!" he turned to Roku's grandma. "Yuta! It could be your son, Shinichi! Our Shinichi."

Grandma Yuta stepped towards the elder and barked at him. "Are you out of your damn mind, Zabel!? Look at him, just look at him. Shinichi died two decades ago at the age of 24. That man doesn't look a day over 25, even if I was being generous. He merely looks like my son. He isn't my son. My son died-"

"But you don't know that, Yuta! We never found Shinichi's body. Maybe it is him who has come back."

"My son would never abandon his tribe. His family. The only reason he never came back is because he must've died or some other ill had fallen upon him. He couldn't have been alive and that man" Yuta pointed angrily towards the intruder. "Is not my Shinichi!"

Throughout all this yelling, the intruder had just been stood there watching. Finally he spoke in a deep raspy voice, a voice that didn't suit his looks at all. It sounded like it belonged to a much bigger, larger man but it came from the young man standing in the cloak. "So, you're Yuta Kaede of Kaede Tribe? I've come looking for you. I need to talk to you."

"We will talk, Impostor. But after you're behind bars." Yuta spoke to him, her words dripping with anger. "Arrest him!"

A man dressed in leather armour which was adorned by the Kaede Tribe's military rushed at the intruder. The intruder didn't seem to move at all but the very next moment, the charging man was flying off his feet and landing on the dirt face first. His body slid a small distance in the dirt and then became motionless. A loud gasp went around the crowd, followed by loud screams as two more men charged the intruder, with their short swords drawn.

They too had a similar fate, a moment later lying in the dirt on either side of the intruder. He never even moved but somehow he was now holding their short swords in each of his hands.

"L-Look at him! Look at him!" someone yelled from the crowd. "Look at his eyes! They're all black." The intruder's eyes were both completely blacked. "He's using the Angel's Blessing! That is Shinichi!"

A fear went through the crowd and no one dared make another move. A loud murmuring started to go around. Even Yuta and the elders looked dumbfounded. Roku couldn't take his eyes off this intruder whom everyone was calling his father. How could this man who was barely older than him be his father?

"Shinichi!" Roku heard his mother's voice as she pushed past the crowd and ran towards the intruder. Scared that a similar end might befall his mother like it had on those men laying on the ground. Roku ran after his mother, trying to catch up to her but she was too fast. "Mother! No! Stop!" he called after her.

He was too late. She reached the intruder before he could reach her. However, the intruder didn't send her flying. Instead he let the woman hug him tightly and cry into his chest. The intruder dropped his swords and ended up hugging his mother back. Roku stopped in his tracks and looked at this scene. Was it really his father?

Yuta was watching the entire scene unfold. Gritting her teeth and boiling in anger. Her daughter-in-law had mistaken this intruder for her lost husband and was now hugging him in front of everyone else. The situation was getting out of hand. She marched over to the hugging couple. She grabbed her daughter-in-law's hand and pulled her away from the man. Leah looked confused and appalled at Yuta's actions but knew not to question her. Yuta had always been the matriarch not only of their family but of the entire tribe. Now, she was glaring at Shinichi and Leah couldn't understand why. Shouldn't she too be crying and hugging her son?

"You wanted to talk to me? I'll talk to you. But not here. Let's go back to my house." Yuta hissed at the intruder who simply nodded. She turned and marched back home, holding Leah's hand who was dragged along. The intruder simply followed. The crowd parted and let the group through. Roku was left there standing in disbelief at what was happening in front of his eyes.

***

Yuta sat opposite the intruder in her living room. She could tell that Leah was standing by the door, unable to take her eyes of this young man. How could she not understand that this wasn't her husband. Her husband has been dead for years.

"So" the matriarch spoke. "Who are you? Why do you look like my dead son? Why have you come here and what do you want from me?"

The intruder looked at her with a vacant look for a couple of moments before he started to answer in his deep raspy voice. "I don't know who I am or why I look like your son but since I do, I'll let you call me Shinichi." His answer made Yuta tighten her fist. "As far as why I'm here. I've come here to ask you of the location of your Tribe's Ancient Inscribed Tablet."

The mention of the tablet made Yuta's expression turn from anger to curiosity. "Why do you ask of the Ancient Tablet? What do you want from it?"

"My desires are beyond your scope of understanding."

Yuta slammed her fist on the table loudly, Shinichi didn't react. "Goddamn it! It's OUR tribe's ancient relic. Why would I tell you, a stranger, it's location!? Especially since you don't want to answer any of my questions!"

"I know you don't have it." He spoke calmly and Yuta was taken aback by his knowledge of this confidential information. "And I know" he continued, "Your tribe really wants it. So I'm offering a compromise. Tell me the location of the tablet and once I'm done with it, I'll return it to your tribe."

Yuta sat dumbfounded. They did want the tablet back but it had proven to be an impossible task. Her own father with a bunch of her uncles had perished in an attempt to recover it. Then, 21 years ago, her own son had disappeared while on a quest to retrieve it. Now this man, who looked like her son was claiming he'll get it back. Moreover he possessed the Angel's Blessing. Maybe he was sent by the Sacred Mother herself. Yuta kept looking at the face of her young son and kept thinking of the possibilities. Finally, she gave in and sighed. "The tablet is hidden in the shrine, located in the cave of Dren Mountains. This cave in particular is located in the heart of the Ragnvaldr Tribe's settlement. You won't be able to get it." Yuta slowly got up, feeling parched from all that yelling and anger.

She turned and walked towards the kitchen, seeing her get up, Leah immediately ran away from the door to go to the kitchen. Yuta walked in and looked at her daughter-in-law trying to look busy.

"You know that's not him, right?" she asked him calmly.

Leah looked up at her and spoke excitedly. "It is him, mother! I felt him. You know I can-"

"I know about your abilities, Leah but they deceive you. How can our Shinichi who left 21 years ago come back one day looking not a day old since the day he left." Yuta's tears finally surfaced and Leah walked over to her to hug her. She knew that as the leader, Yuta tried to be strong but she missed her son just as much as Leah missed her husband.

About ten minutes later, both women composed themselves and returned back to the living room. Only Shinichi was no longer in the living room. He was just gone.

18:30, Fourth Day of the Eleventh Cycle of 3268, Kaede Tribe's Military Training Ground.

The members of the newly formed Team Forty-Eight of the Kaede Military were lounging under the old tree that grew next to the lake on the Kaede Tribe's Military Training Ground.

Roku was lying on the soft grass that was slightly wet from the setting evening dew. A soft wind was blowing and he felt at peace. Aimee was sitting to his right, near his feet. She had her back to him and was currently looking at the setting sun. Aimee was someone Roku didn't know very well, growing up they did attend the same school but she was kind of a recluse. Now that he knew her a little well, he realised that she had a tomboyish nature. It was a bit of a waste because she did have a rather attractive physique with great feminine gifts. Tall, athletically built, pale skin and long straight black hair. Deep blue eyes and lush lips. She had the softest face of an angel masked by a resting bitch expression she wore at all times. Aimee always wore full black clothes that hid her entire body, but even they did little to hide her very evident curves. 'Nice rack, great ass.' She was the complete package, Roku thought. Yet she showed absolutely no interest in him. Maybe she would warm up to him in the future.

From an almost stranger on the right, to his best friend on the left. Another member of his team was Yoshi. Tall, dark and handsome. It wasn't a surprise that he was able to get his hands on the most beautiful girl in the entire settlement. The final member of their team, Roku's childhood crush and Yoshi's girlfriend Quin.

Roku grew up always admiring Quin from afar ever since they were kids. She always felt way out of his league but he was determined to let her know his true feelings one day. That day never came. On the day of their graduation, Quin proposed to Yoshi and they had dated ever since. Roku simply accepted his fate and smiled for his best friend's sake even though it broke his heart seeing them together. Even now she looked like an absolute beauty.

Quin was on the shorter side, slim but quite top heavy. She had flawless porcelain skin with a radiant glow. Chest length blonde hair, beautiful hazel eyes and a smile to die for. She wore low cut tops that showed off her ample cleavage and skin tight leggings that simply couldn't have been regulation approved.