As the days moved onward Gunnar showed a curiosity towards everything that he saw. The boy's natural inclination towards movement and adventure brought no small amount of stress and entertainment to the women who looked after him.
From the moment that he learned to crawl, Gunnar was adventuring into the kitchens or out to his mother and grandmothers forge. He had a particular affinity for attempting to pick up and play with every blade, weapon or hammer he could wrap his hands around. From the tiniest jewelry hammers and chisels as an infant, to a forge hammer, short sword and short spears as he grew. Gunnar would never let a chance pass to get his hands on and play with all manner of tool whether of war or of forge.
As he aged, he grew to look more and more like his mother, a true beauty with red hair blue eyes and a muscular but slim physique, but with his father's brown hair. Gunnar never gained the prodigious height of his father's family, unlike his brother and sisters. He remained of smaller stature but with a tenacity that astounded his siblings. While he would often hurt himself playing or trying to roughhouse with his 9 year older and tall older brother, Hart, he would always cry for a moment then get back up and try again, seldom or never repeating the same mistakes again.
His older sisters Alexis and Ria, six years and three years older than him respectively, adored his smaller stature. Often telling their mother that he was like their doll to dress up and carry with them. While Risa found this amusing, she didn't often let the two girls run off with their younger brother, much preferring to keep him nearby both as a necessary measure to make sure he did not harm himself but also to watch for an age and size where she could teach him the basics of their world.
At the age of 12, all children of the Forgeworlds would be placed into The Forge for training and teaching. The training would consist of physical conditioning, weapons training and unarmed combat, the teaching portion of The Forge was to teach basic survival skills as well as basic reading writing and arithmetic and eventually smithwork. Advanced training in all subjects, both martial and scholar, could be selected after the basics of all subjects were completed. the stages of learning had titles to them. the basic stage kids were called Ore, while the advanced stage were called Refined. The final group were the Forged, the group of graduated that return for more studies or training.
\Children would move up in levels of skill or accomplishment rather than age out of a class. When a child closed in on mastery of the basics they would awaken the first of the three innate skills they could learn throughout their life, its name appearing in their minds.
Usually a boost in attack or defense for those inclined to be warriors or in craft completion for smiths or even a boost in metal facility for Scholars, These skills varied in effect but the strength and use of the skills were all in how you choose to use and apply it. But once you completed the basics and moved to advanced classes, you had to fight for everything, from better food to better classes and even better material for forging in the smithy.
The best of the best of the advanced level teachers were available at The Forge, even a few masters were here to teach or look for disciples. But it was a dog eat dog world in the school, a preparation for the Harshness of the Forgeworlds dangerous environment and deadly fauna.
Once a child turned fifteen or at least around that age, the pores of their skin would seem to open and the energy of the world could begin to be felt. This energy, called mana, could then be circulated through the veins and used to improve their bodies. There were stories of worlds where this energy could be accumulated and coalesced into a core that could be used to cast magics and learned skills. but a basic refining skill would be taught to all children in The Forge so that their bodies could withstand the environment of their planet without help or protection from the adults.
Different clans had their own energy and refinement techniques. With differing effects and strengths, some focused on strength, some agility and some simply potential.
Every child could either forge their own weapons or could trade materials and food for a weapon to be made. they then would enter contests or challenge their peers for their needs or wants. one could only challenge with limits though, if you challenged a basic tier student as an advanced one then it could lead to a teacher showing you your place very quickly, and newly advanced student had a grace period of a month where they could only compete among themselves before being opened to the older or more skilled advanced students.
If you gained all the skill that could be taught at the Advanced level of your chosen path, martial scholar or smith, you would receive a tattoo or brand to show you had graduated. Then the name Forged was given to you, a title to show you had passed. You could at this time if you still were young or interested enough then pursue another of the paths available, though not many other than the gifted or those of the Named Clans did. But most would then leave to find a master teacher or to get a job among the many cities or strongholds of the three planets that made up the Forgeworlds.
Gunnar learned all this from his brother and oldest sister first, then eventually from his mother who led him through the most basic summary so that he could properly understand the world around him. Three times a year, the students were sent home for two to three weeks to spend time with their families, and most children went home for a day or two on birthdays, both of themselves and their immediate family.
By age 3, the adults of the House began training him with games that would train his motor skills such as small obstacle courses, scavenger hunts and hide and seek. This training was something Gunnar enjoyed immensely, even as it was physically grueling. The games trained him to be mentally tough as well as physically tough because his gramma Sheila would push him til he dropped. These games and training were done with varying degrees of difficulty for each of the Children that lived in the big family house, from the ladies who were employed to help in the forge toes men who hunted for the House, all of their children were able join in these "training games" as the children knew them.
Once he was physically exhausted after morning training Gunnar would be fed and then put down for a hour long nap. After which he would be taken and taught to read and write by his mother along with his older siblings who had their own work to do when they were home from The Forge. When they were not home he would be by himself til he accomplished his task.
Upon completion of his time attempting to read and write, he would then have free time to wander the surrounding fields and forests of the immediate surrounds of the collection of buildings that were the House and grounds of the Forge clan, a small village unto themselves.
Often Gunnar would go to the forge and watch the beautiful crafts the blade smiths, blacksmiths and jewel smiths would forge. HIs mother was a very skilled blades-woman as well as a Named Swordsmith. While he loved to watch his mother wield her blades, a paired dagger and scimitar, he also dearly loved to watch her forge the longswords and short swords that were her specialty.
His mother always shone with pride when she received a commission for a sword and often told him that making a blade for someone needed to be treated with the greatest attention and care that one could muster. Any weapon that a smith forged would be a partner to its wielder. It needed to be able to be counted on in the most dire of times, for if you could not place faith in your weapon, then how could you ever go into a battle with confidence. Anyone who trusted you to forge their partner was someone you needed to always treat well.
His Gramma Sheila, an almost carbon copy of her daughter or rather whose daughter was a copy of her only differed in her green eyes and trickster like behavior, was a spear specialist and a bowyer of immense reputation. She had even been commissioned to make a bow for the elven princess's first daughter not long after Gunnar was born. While the child would not be able wield that bow til she grew much older and stronger, it was still a fantastic boost to the reputation of the Forge clan that Outworlders were coming to have weapons forged at their clan.
It was in this environment that Young Gunnar grew, learning his reading nearly to an advanced level while his writing was at best "Chicken Scratch" as his Gramma always said. He also learned that his skill with swords, axes and bows was considerable, with his hand to hand combat skill and his hunting skill following just a hair behind. While the hunters of his clan kept the larger or more ferocious beasts hunted away from the clans, there were still smaller prey for the ever stronger and more resilient hidden scion of the Forge clan, Gunnar Everforge.
By the time he was turning twelve and getting ready to be turned over to The Forge, Gunnar could fight his youngest sister Ria on a level playing field even though she was much taller than he was. His skill at the forge also showed great talent though he favored knives axes and some more delicate work, he was better at this than Ria whose skills were more towards scholarly pursuits and fighting.
As a gift on his mother's and grandmother's birthday he gave a pair of necklace and a bracelet both inlaid with small emerald scraps for his grandmother, scrounged from the old master jeweler and goldsmith who was his grand uncle as well as his mentor, and for his Mother a necklace and earrings made with small pieces of sapphire. while he could not forge full sized weapons yet or wield a full hammer himself he could use the weighted and geared press hammer and delicate tools to make fine pieces of craftwork. while rudimentary these piece showed much promise.
From his birth to the present day Gunnar had rarely seen and never spoken to his Father, though his Gramma Jemma and Grandpa Marcus often came to see him and his siblings, showing none of the overt pride that had infected their son. They often blamed this pride and ever increasing irritability that showed in Ron Baldur on his uncles, who believed too greatly about the importance of the respect and appearance of their clan and its name.
While the Forge clan were known for their red hair, powerful but slim builds and their skill is weapons of war and their making, The Baldur clan was known for its great height and bulky builds as well as their skill in arms and defense tactics and talents. The Forge clan's skills and talents lay in the offensive and in metalworking.
As the man showed no interest in his youngest child, much if not all of Gunnar's growth and skill were hidden from him. not showing the talent Gunnar had even though he remained much shorter than his siblings at his age.
His grandmother, when he would cry to her about his height and smaller build, would tell him of his namesake Grandpa Gunnar. An Outworlder who had to return to own clan shortly before young Gunnar's sister Ria was born. He was told of the great and cunning fighter who fought his terror of a grandmother to a standstill and won her respect and the right to pursue her. Gunnar was shocked, after hearing the tales of the battles and contests that his grandparents faced together, to find out he had inherited his height from his Grandpa Gunnar.
This knowledge brought hope to Young Gunnar's heart, if his Namesake could do so much with out the great height of most Forgeworlders, then he would not stop until he was just as strong and skilled as his Grandpa.
Now, on his twelfth birthday he stood before his family, his siblings his mother and his grandparents as well as the whole of the Forge clan that his Gramma Sheila headed.
His mother handed him a wrapped sword as a present, telling him only to unwrap the longsword when he could easily wield it. His grandparents all agreed to give him the full selection of skills available to their houses as a gift once he was able to practice them, and his siblings gave him a ticket for food and materials, which they had all pooled together as a starting package when he began his advanced classes.
Gunnar stood and looked at his family after receiving his gifts. His ashy grey-blue eyes stung a bit as he hugged them one by one.
"Mom, Grammas and grandpa, Hart, Alex, Ria. Thanks for everything!" His little fist balled as he held it up to his chest. "I promise I will make you all proud when we go to The Forge next week!"
As he lay in bed that night he swore to himself. "I will not let them down. I will not let my size be the end of me, and I will overcome."
Only time would tell wether his determination would bear out or if he would buckle under the cruel pressure of the inhospitable world that he lived in but Gunnar knew that he would give it his absolute all. If after that he failed then so be it. But before he asked for help or came to his elders for assistance he would do everything he could first.
After thinking this and affirming his will the young boy closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.