Howl was merely 10 years old when he killed his first ever Demon on the chaotic battle field.
Using only a big heavy rock he smashed and pulped the skull of the Demon who was just as small as him into meat paste, he couldn’t remember how the Demon looked like as the only thing he could see was red when the Demon had suddenly attacked him through an ambush when he was running through the forest, he could still remember the absolute frenzy he was in though, with the adrenaline pumping through his veins like a raging water stream.
He hadn’t realized the Demon was already dead until completely turning it into mush and having its blood covered all over him.
When he did realize that it was already dead, Howl abruptly dropped the rock and collapsed onto the ground powerlessly whilst catching his breath thinking about what he just did and how his consciousness reacted to it.
Lying inside a dense forest he could hear fighting all over the place and see kids similar to his age fight all sorts of small Demons like the one he had just killed.
The children who fought were exactly like him, orphans whose parents had died by one of the rounds of invasion caused by either the Demons, Devils or Angels, wearing only the basic hem clothes with almost no protection they used everything they could get their hands on to kill those Demons like sticks and stones.
Some like Howl succeeded in killing their opponents, but almost half of them didn’t, they couldn’t get over the heavy psychological barrier called murder as they were too young even if what they were against was their natural enemy and sworn nemesis, the Demons.
The Demons of course had no such hesitation when it came to killing since it came to them as naturally as breathing, they killed those children in a brutal manner, some doing it swiftly and others doing it slowly for the fun, sometimes even eating those children alive their Demonic faces contorting into absolute pleasure as if what they were eating was the highest of Delicacies.
When Howl saw all of this, watching his fellow friends and compatriots of the orphanage getting slaughtered and eaten, he felt rage, rage and hatred for all of Demon and Devil kind alike, he wished he could kill them all and as painfully as possible at that very instant, but alas he could not, the only thing he could do was raise his rock once again and storm into the fight to help his fellow orphans.
The fight ended in the next hour, not because the children were able to defeat the Demons but because the adults finally decided to come and clean up after them, holding all sorts of weaponry from swords, spears and maces, they made quick and easy work out of those small Demons they struggled so much with as if they were just a bunch of trash while collected all of the remaining children who were still alive and not too beaten up inside a big carriage that would lead back home.
They abandoned those who were heavily injured or disabled and left them out to die, no amount of crying or begging could influence the adults who abandoned those children.
Howl remembered how cold the faces of those adults looked when they gave up on those children, one particular case especially comes to mind when he thinks of this very event, it was a blond boy, a caucasian from what he recalled, who had one of his eyes blinded in the battle, but everything else about him was fine he could still see with his other eye, but the adult at the time didn’t even consider it and immediately abandoned the idea of taking him back.
Howl remembered the expression on the face of that child, as of his entire world had collapsed all of a sudden with nowhere left to go but to fall, all sorts of emotions he didn’t know of kept playing on that face of that child.
The kid tried to reason with the adult telling him that he was fine and that he could still see, but the adult had none of it and simply ignored the kid doing his job like always treating the kid like he was empty air or something.
Finally the kid couldn’t take it any longer, if begging didn’t work he would try anything else, but that was his mistake, because as soon as the kid even touched the leg of the adult while crying out and making his snot fly, the adult immediately responded with one cold and ruthless action.
A stab.
Raising his spear he skewered the poor child right through his other eye that could still see, the kid didn’t die instantly either, he still struggled a bit continuously repeating himself like a broken radio.
-I can see, I can see, please I can still see..
Finally he breathed in his last breath before the adult swiftly retrieved his blood covered spear.
All was silent when he killed that child, be it adult or child alike everyone was watching that scene with mute horror, the adult who had just killed the kid so heartlessly swept his gaze over everybody, it was as if the air itself had frozen, nobody dared to meet his cold bloody eyes that were like sharp daggers and it was then that the children including Howl understood.
So this is what the adult world is like.
And just like that Howl including those who had been picked up had passed their Blood Baptism.
Their coming of age had been completed and by the law of the world they were now official adults who were responsible for themselves and only themselves.
Soon enough they returned back to their hometown Arwinger, back to their orphanage, it was a big town surrounded by a huge wall with soldiers on it no Demon or Devil Howl had ever seen cross before which protected them all along ever since they were little.
As they rode the carriage back to the orphanage, Howl noticed through the curtains slit that many children who were not of age yet watched the children who had just experienced the Blood Baptism return with curious and excited eyes.
Howl remembered that he also used to be just like that whenever he saw the older kids return from their Blood Baptism, he never saw those kids ever again neither did he see how they were whenever they did come back from their Blood Baptism since the curtains, just like now, were always closed and he would be too far away to hear them from the carriage as they would always enter a far away building out of sight escorted by the adults.
But now he understood why it was all like that and why he was always kept in the dark by the caretakers who would avoid answering his question about the Blood Baptism, whenever that happened Howl including the other children would always be disappointed and more expectant about the future thinking about the Blood Baptism to come even one day sooner so they could become a adult quicker.
Ironic really.
Leaving the confines of the carriage they finally entered the mysterious building they were never allowed to enter all those years, the moment they came inside a adult also came along and immediately explained to those children that they now had only 3 choices to make as they were now official adults.
These choices were.
- Leaving the town and finding somewhere else to live.
- Signing a 20 year long contract with the town and doing everything the town tells them to for exchange of food, shelter and protection.
- Signing a 5 year contract with the town to repel the frequent Demon attacks.
Keep in mind that the children had just returned from their coming of age ceremony the Blood Baptism.
Everyone was still shaken and traumatized by the entire ordeal, some were still crying or shaking uncontrollably in a corner, which is why nobody was in the right mind to make a serious objective decision based on their psyche alone.
Howl was exactly the same, but at the same time he wasn’t completely disturbed by the bloody events that had just occurred since he wasn’t crying nor shaking, he was just still like a rock, it was as if a mental switch had just clicked inside his head that allowed him to be more resistant to all of this cruelty.
Sitting inside the warm cozy building together with the other children next to him, he pondered about those 3 choices as they would decide his future from here on out.
Most of the children had already chosen what they were going to do immediately while Howl was pondering about what to chose.
Almost everybody chose the second option even though that essentially meant that they were going to be a slave to the town until they were 30, but it was better then the first option since nobody knew where to go or how to live outside and regarding the third option nobody wanted to experience what they just experienced ever again since they were still traumatized.
In some sense it was a extremely premature decision, but also a wise decision since at the very least they were going to continue on living even if it was going to be under bad conditions.
Only 3 children out of the surviving 15 from the original 32 who participated in the Blood Baptism chose to join the militia, they were 2 boys and 1 girl, the children were astounded by their decision but none of those 3 children elaborated why they chose to join the militia and nobody really dared to ask either.
Ultimately Howl became the last person to make a decision, after contemplating everything and remembering how he had killed that Demon with that stone, the rage and hatred he felt for them and how cruelly the blond boy died under the spear of the adult whose gaze was like a pair of cold daggers..
He too decided to join the militia.
Howl didn’t join out of hotheadedness either, no, Howls mind was completely placid when he made that decision, there was no petty revenge in his motives, if he hadn’t seen that adult stab that boy like that maybe he would have chosen what everyone else had chosen and became bound to the town for the next 20 years working his ass off, but Howl realized something very intrinsic for his age when he considered why the adult killed that boy and why he looked over everybody like that with his cold gaze.
That adult was trying to tell the children something.
Howl wasn’t completely sure what he was trying to say, but he was confident in his judgement that the adult didn’t really need to kill the child like that since the other adults didn’t treat the heavily injured or disabled children roughly either even when they were being abandoned to die.
Some of the disabled children were grabbing some of the adults too but other then pushing them away they didn’t do anything else, underneath that cold facade the adults still felt pity towards those children and they didn’t want to cause more harm to them then they already had.
So why was that particular adult so different ? Why did he kill the child in front of everybody and made that face ? Was he just different or cruel by nature ?
No, Howl shook his head, if that adult really was cruel and enjoyed the suffering of others so much then he wouldn’t have stopped just there, he would have done more, Howl was sure of that.
Then what was it ?
Howl thought, and thought, the gears in his mind churning and turning as he tried to find an answer to a question that may not even have an answer at all, but finally a ray of light ignited within his mind.
The helplessness he felt being forced into the battle field he didn’t want to be in, how the adults decided who would live and who would die, how he was only allowed 3 choices from somebody else none of which he made himself.
-Only the strong…have the right to decide ?
This was the conclusion he came to, through everything he experienced, he put those puzzle pieces together and figured out a answer.
Whether or not the adult meant to convey such meaning was now meaningless for Howl as a shapeless desire for something started to brew within his chest.
Howl wanted strength, he wanted power, he never wanted to feel like he did that day ever again, he wanted to control his own fate and not let anybody control him.
It was like something that was unknown to him suddenly awakened that told him that it is what he wanted to do.
And Howl followed declaring his decision to the adult who answered.
And with that 1 more child joined the militia in total getting another 4 new recruits, the town had a total of 6 orphanages each one having between 60 to 80 children, it was rare for the militia recruits from the orphanages to be over 30 each year and that time it wasn’t different as only a total of 14 kids decided to join the militia.
A Place Of Legends 