Gus Potentia

The Legacy Of Gus

Gus was born a peasant, on the streets of Viodoxa city. His mother had left him to fend for himself at the age of seven with only his wits. He had nothing, living off the streets, moving from city to city looking for anything he could find. Gus had become an experienced thief by the age of twelve and had become well accustomed to the way of life in Rathnir. Gus had gone from stealing food and petty items, to jewels of great value. Although Gus was not liked by many, he was still a good person at heart; he would always give what he could to people that needed it and was highly respected within a small circle of bandits that he had travelled with for a time.

Gus had been watching the bandits for a while, keeping close to them, quite intrigued by what they were doing. Gus also saw himself to have many qualities of a bandit, he was stealthy, cunning and quite good with his hands. The only downside was he was never good with a sword and had never really wanted to seriously injure anyone. After a week of following behind these bandits something happened. These bandits had a bounty on their heads from taking out someone quite high up in one of the many towns, the group had been returning to the town that had sent them there to take this person out to collect their reward, but there were still a good few days of travel before them.

The sound of horses running pierced through the surrounding woods that they were settled in. The sky was dark and the sun was far out of sight. Gus had set up his sleeping place atop a nearby hill that was looking over the bandits camp. All of them were asleep, quite foolishly, around a lit campfire; thus giving away their location. The horses were ridden by members of the Imperial Guard; a well feared group of mercenaries that had a high price and a good reputation for taking out their targets.

Gus knew that the bandit group was in serious danger and didn't have much time to do anything about it. Gus grabbed his bag and knife and slid down the side of the hill, towards the camp pulling a vine from a tree as he descended. Once he reached the bottom Gus went to wake the nearest of the bandits. The bandit was a man with long grey hair and a long grey beard; the man, however old he may have looked, was as agile as any of the others from what Gus had seen in his time watching the group. He also appeared to be the leader of the group, with a great stance and well built body, quite a fear inducing person.

The man woke up with a fast movement bringing a spear to face Gus. His body froze for a second until Gus mustered up the courage to say something. “Run… Imperials are coming.” The grey-haired man lowered his spear and went to wake the other four bandits. From what Gus could hear there sounded like there were three horses and perhaps a minute before they got to the camp. By the time all of the other bandits had awoken and taken any of the things they needed with them Gus had got up to the top of a tree like the leader of the bandits had told him to.

The bandits were hidden in the nearby shrubs as the horses came storming through the camp, running over everything that was there. The three Imperial Guards were dressed in all black armour with red capes adorning their backs; their horses were all huge white beasts covered in the same black armour that their riders were wearing. They were scary, more than the leader of the bandits. After realising that there was nobody at the camp, the three of them soon went looking for the people who had been sleeping there; Gus could see the grey-haired man through the bushes and was waiting for his signal.

A piercing whistle is produced from the forest. Three arrows come from behind a tree, one in each of the Imperials, one of the soldiers falls from their mount as the horse runs into the forest. The whistle being the signal for Gus to do his part, Gus jumps down from the tree, holding onto the vine which he had tied to the branch of the tree he had been sitting upon. Gus dropped down onto the head of one of the soldiers and tried to restrict their movement as much as possible.

Bursting through the ground came a huge beast, it was hard to make out due to the lack of light. But as much as could be seen, it appeared to be some sort of bear. Although it didn't look quite right. The beast went straight for the dismounted soldier, swiping its claws at the soldier's helmet; who retaliated by digging their axe into the bear. As those two battled more arrows flew through the air. The bandits leader had come through, followed by another of the bandits: A woman with green eyes, dark attire and held a large bag over her shoulder. The two of them ran towards the other soldiers. The Man went towards the one that Gus was on top of and the woman went to the one that had so far not been touched.

As Gus tried to take the helmet from the Imperial, the bandit leader worked at subduing the horse and stopping its erratic movements. As this was happening the bear was still in a brawl with the dis-mounted soldier, although the bear appeared to have a strong lead in the fight. The archer was running towards the horse that had escaped earlier and was trying to mount it. The green-eyed woman had dropped her bag, and out of it crawled a swarm of ferret looking creatures. Probably nine or so, the only strange thing with them was that they had the same green eyes as the woman. The creatures were aggressive and by the time the last one had got out of the bag, the first had already crawled up the leg of the horse and had started to find a way into the armour of the soldier that was mountain.

Three fights were going, it was clear to see that these bandits had been underestimated completely. Even Gus didn't know that they were this strong. The way they worked so well together against some of the best trained fighters in the whole of Rathnir. In each of the ongoing battles the bandits were seeming to come out victorious. Until the leader of the bandit group yelled above all of the noise,”STOP! LET THESE PEOPLE GO. THEY DO NOT DESERVE TO DIE!” His voice was old and gentle but still had the authority needed to command.

As he spoke his last word everything went silent. A cricket could be heard from the long grass nearby. “Leave now… Do not come back.” He continued in a much calmer tone, but still upholding his authority. The soldiers rushed to get away before anyone could change their mind and each of the bandit group did not move an inch until they had left.

The moon shone an iridescent glow onto the blood that had been spilled upon the ground. “Its Throog, my name is Throog Ulrach,” The leader said, “I like this boy. What is your name?”

“It’s Gus, sir”

“Sir?” The archer woman laughed, “That is outrageous. Sir! That's amazing.”

“Leave it out,” A voice spoke out from the tree line, as a figure approached the group. “That fool we call Quilis. I am Pharl. I'm supposed to be the intelligent one of the group, but everyone seems to forget that sometimes.”

“Gus, we know you have been following us for some time. We would like to thank you for alerting us of those soldiers. I don't think we would have made out of that as well as we did if you had not have done so.” Throog explained

“It's no problem, it's not like I could have run away. I may be weak, bit I am no coward” Gus responded

“This kid is good, we should keep him around.” Pharl announced quite proud of himself. It was clear that Gus liked this idea by the massive grin that was starting to infect his face.

“Well. Pharl. We can't just drag some random kid we find around with us.”

“Why not?”

“Well… WE JUST CAN'T”

“LET HIM JOIN”

“Alright”

“Really?”

“Yes”

“Well then, that is that. Gus, welcome to the group!”

Gus spent 7 years with the bandit group and they taught him how to live, how to be a fighter and how to keep his morals when he is losing everything else. The group split up after a big incident. Gus had to make his way on his own, with only the clothes on his back and food to keep him alive. After a year of moving from town to town, trying to keep his head down and out of trouble he finally came across a clearing, with the sun beating down upon his battered skin. He sat by a nearby lake to refresh himself for the following day of travel he had ahead of him. A red scaled fish brushed against his hand and in that moment he let his mind carry itself away into the clouds, away from the rest of the world.

“HEY! YOU THERE!” A voice beckoned from the distance. Gus swung his head around to see a figure on a mound behind him. Gus stood, saying nothing, just looking at this person stood there with the sun shining down behind them making them look almost angelic. “WELL? ARE YOU GOING TO RESPOND TO ME? AY?” The person continued.

“What do you want from me?” Gus asked, just loud enough from them to be able to hear him. “WRONG QUESTION, MY FRIEND!” The person bellowed, coming down the hill to approach Gus “WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU? THAT IS THE REAL QUESTION!”

“Ok then, what can you do for me?”

“You, my good man, look like a man that needs a purpose. Am I wrong?”

“Explain”

“See all of this land here?” The man stuck out his arm pointing towards the empty fields in front of them

“I can see that, yes”

“It's all yours, make a prosperous town here my friend and I am sure, with my help, you can go places… So, what do you say?” Gus stood to ponder his proposition, he had never been a man to jump to conclusions. “I'll do it.” He said. A smile spread on the man's face.

“You can call me Cass.” He said

Gus had a sense that these green meadows would be rich for him, he would prosper here and so he did. He had always wanted to be a farmer, in his city he constructed vast farms. Wheat as far as the eye could see, he grew a mighty tree, a tree that could reach the clouds and housed the people of his city. Voitshenheiger. He got married to a person called Spitfire, they had a happy marriage at first, but things did not stay that way. They had a duel to the death and Gus did not come out with his life. That is it Gus was no more, he was gone, dead, rotting under the earth. Gus ascended to the afterlife, but he was alone, only him, nobody else. Why? He thought, why was he alone? “Gus,” A voice spoke, “Gus, you will not end here. Go back to Rathnir, go back to your home. You will be Greg, but your soul will stay with me. Your soul will take my place Gus.”

Greg returned back to earth in his former body, but he was not himself. He did not think the same, he was not the same person. He was not the pacifist that Gus was, although he knew that Gus was watching him and he could not stray far from the path of righteousness. He continued to rule over Voitshenheiger, it was prosperous, with Cass he made a great town. But great things cannot last forever, he could not be the baron of this town any longer. Greg passed his town on to his only son, Predator, who with his guidance continued the town as well as it has been.

Greg took his time away to a swamp south of his old home. It was small and to an inexperienced eye, it was nothing but a useless swamp. But Greg saw something else in it. There were sharp rocks sticking up all around it and Gus turned this into his second town. He called this Molacarth, the swamp city. Molacarth brought to Greg two of the most important characters of his life. Prapto and his pet parrot, Mohammed.

Not much time had passed, until Greg was required to leave Molacarth and help rebuild the town of Wordesh that had recently been taken back from the J-hoard squatters. Greg helped to repopulate this town with Cass. Not much after this himself and Prapto started a newspaper company called the beacon, building their headquarters in the capital of Shaloma, Rican. They wanted only to supply the news to the people and have their name heard throughout the world.

The beacon was doing well, the building looked spectacular and they were getting great reviews from their readers. Grge had found his path, his life, his purpose. Then everything went wrong. Greg had gone to visit Mohammed who was having some time out from jail, he had changed his ways and Wordesh decided to let him out for a while. A decision Greg would go on to regret for the rest of his life. On this day Mohammed was slain in cold blood by a monster, they called him Skill. But his name was satan. With no reason whatsoever Mohammed was taken away from the living world. Greg couldn't come to terms with what had happened, then the fury set in. He brought a group of his most trusted friends to slay his murderer. An arrow to the back of the head was enough to finish him off.

Greg had become a killer, but he had to protect Mohammed's honour at all cost. The group held a funeral for Mohammed and they buried his body where he was slain. They all grieved the loss but Greg most of all.