Duststalker Reforged

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

Duststalker Reforged: Chapter 1  The sun hung at its peak, its rays shining upon a glistening river that cut a town in half, and leaning on the edge on one of the bridges that stitched the settlement together, was Dek.   The young man took a moment to admire the view of the river dividing the town he was born and raised in, he once remembered a time, long ago, where the only thing across the bridge was a water wheel for the metal workers. How things changed, his youth spent watching a new half of a town being built before his eyes. His home had grown bustling, with people walking alongside the paths by the river and across the other bridges like ants in their hill.   Looking down at the ever-flowing water beneath him, past the glistening from the sun, was himself. The water reflected the hazel eyes of a man fresh to adulthood, wearing a green vest of the same fashion of nobility, with his brown hair peeking out under his steel-colored Stetson.   He breathed out a long sigh as he took it all in, Dek was glad that his grandfather sent him out to collect his mail for him, it allowed him to stretch his legs after being cooped up in his workplace for far too long. And surely it wouldn’t be a problem if he took his time? He wasn’t exactly eager to return to the mind-numbing work his grandfather had all but forced onto him. Work that he’d never asked for in the first place.   Yes, by the Survivor he would absolutely love nothing more than to take his time to savor this break.   But, if he took too long, then he would get an earful about it from his grandfather. With the times he’d left a lecture with aching ears Dek had to wonder how such an old man still had such a loud set of lungs.   He shook his head as he leaned off the bridge and finished crossing it, venturing through the town.   As he passed through the streets, the people around him parted from his path, he could hear their murmuring and whispers as he walked. This was nothing new to him, he had a reputation in the town, one that he’d long since lost any pride in. He was surrounded by people and yet felt like he was the only one on the street.   After a long walk that made him feel more lonely then he ever wanted to admit, he finally arrived at his destination, Isaeuc’s Bend Post Office. A quaint wooden building, that was nonetheless Dek’s only reliable source of anything outside of the town he’d spent his whole life in.   Dek pushed open the door of the post office, the bell linked to the door tinkling as he entered. An elderly lady at the counter turned to look at him, a kindly smile on her face as she welcomed him.   “Ah! Hello Dekkel, you’ve come at a good time, the new delivery of Broadsheets came in yesterday.”   Dek’s eyes widened, the newest copies had finally arrived? News was slow to reach this far out in the Roughs, especially in a town that had no Railway. With it needing to be delivered by travelling carriages. He knew that he shouldn’t, that business should always come first, but that didn’t stop him from wanting the broadsheet, as much as a man dying of thirst in a desert would want water.   “Yes, I’d like that.” But he reminded himself on why he was actually here, his grandfather wouldn’t be happy if he forgot, he quickly continued “I’m also here for a letter to my grandfather”.   “One moment”, she said as she turned and grabbed a letter from behind the counter, then turning back around and handing it to Dek. “Here you are, young man” The postwoman said as she handed Dek a letter stamped with an eight-sided seal, a symbol of the capital city Elendel. Along with the rolled up broadsheet, kept in place with a rubber band.   Dek stepped outside as he gently placed the letter into his green vest, he sat down on the seat right next to the doors, unfolded the broadsheet and started to read.   The front page was a picture taken in the city of Elendel, of an ironspire that was so tall Dek could only assume they scraped the sky itself. But that wasn’t the main focus of the article, the true subject was of a ship docked next to the enormously tall building, a ship that appeared to be floating. With the headline, with it’s massive letters, removing any doubt of the subject, ‘FLYING SHIP CROSSES OVER ELENDEL, CAPTAINED BY SENATOR LADRIAN’.   Dek read on, and was left with more questions than answers, the broadsheet was vague on any true details, seeming to be more focused on the who rather than the what and how. How was the ship floating? Where did it come from? Dek didn’t care about some political mishaps that happened in the Basin, he had already read far too many of those, he wanted to know more about the things the broadsheet barely touched upon.   It made bare mentions of a new people, a new civilization said to be from far to the south, untouched by Harmony himself? Dek cursed whoever wrote the article for being more interested in complaining about a lawman being senator than about something so incredible.   The only thing tiding him over was the articles promise of exclusive interviews in the next issue.   Dek rubbed his hand across his face, then froze as he realized that he lost track of time. How long had he been reading? Half an hour? More? He had no idea, but one thing he was sure of was that if he didn’t get his mail to his grandfather immediately, then he was in for the chewing out of a lifetime.   He bolted from the chair, frantically folding the broadsheet and stuffing into his front pocket. He grabbed a small glass vial from his trousers, he popped the cork off and swallowed its contents of cod oil and flakes of iron. He felt the metal, the iron, as it settled into his stomach, feeling it’s power as he began to Burn it. Dozens of blue lines spread from his chest, pointing to every bit of metal nearby, ready to be Pulled towards him with but a thought. The gift of his noble heritage, his Allomancy, the ancient power to consume and burn a single type of metal for a supernatural ability. But it wasn’t his only one.   Dek focused on one of the iron rings on his fingers, then began to fill it. He felt himself become lighter as he stored his weight away into his metalmind. The second gift he was born with, the cousin of Allomancy, Feruchemy. The ability to store away a trait in metal, in order to enhance it later.   Allomancers and Feruchemists, Metalborn as they were called, were rare in the Roughs, he’d heard they were an uncommon sight even in the capital itself. But Dek was of a rarer sort than even that, for he was born with the gift of both instead of one or the other, making him a Twinborn. A child descended from nobility and the Terris.   His powers, both fixated on the metal of iron, combined their effects to become far greater than either would be alone. Lurchers could pull metal towards themselves, so long as it was lighter than them, but if it was heavier than them, they got pulled towards it instead. Unlike their steel Allomantic counterparts, who could simply drop a coin on the ground to push themselves through the air, it was usually quite difficult for Lurchers to find anchors heavy and stable enough to lift themselves into the air.   Unless of course, one could control how much they weighed on a whim.   He felt at the blue lines around him, finding one that pointed towards the nails in the roof of a building further down the street back towards the bridge. Then, with his weight being reduced to so very little, he Pulled on the nails, his feet left the ground as he shot towards the roof of the building, Dek let go of the nails, still sailing through the air, and began to Pull towards another roof even further away, he zipped through the air and did it again and again.   As he pulled himself across the town, he could hear the chatter of the people on the street as they gasped and pointed at him. Even after doing this for years, the people of Isauec’s Bend never did quite get used to the sight of a man flying through the air. The feeling was quite old to Dek, their attention was something he almost disliked nowadays. He was tempted to flare his iron to pull himself away faster, but he decided he’d rather not slam into someone’s roof again.   He saw the river up ahead, the one that split his town into two, he focused on both of the buildings that lay next to it that he was about to fly between. He allowed himself to fall closer to the ground for a better angle, then Flared his iron and Pulled on both roofs with equal force. He launched himself high in the air, far above the town.   The wind whipped at his face as he rocketed through the air, but it couldn’t stop him from grinning. His heart raced as he ascended. Trying to reach the clouds that soared so high, but alas, his ascent slowed, as Dek turned his gaze downwards.   No amount of stares and mutters could stop him from enjoying the view, he could see the whole town from so high up. See the people walking all throughout it, like ants making trails around their hill. Seeing the river that stretched across the town and far into the distance, like a scar, only it added to the land’s beauty instead of marring it. While being so light, he almost glided back towards the ground, he gently tugged on the now faint blue lines, pulling himself to where he wanted to fall instead of allowing the wind to carry him adrift.   The wind whistled in his ears as the ground slowly came up to reach him, he aimed for the biggest building in the Bend, the Town Hall. All the buildings in town were built with wood, but the hall was built with stone brick for a foundation, and with a tiled curved roof. The fanciest building in town, just as the mayor liked it.   As his feet met the dirt once again, bending his knees into a crouch, he breathed out. Using his powers to slingshot himself like that was always a rush, and he took a moment to catch his breath.   He sighed as the experience was over and stood up, it was one that few people could understand, the feeling of speed and flight, and the beauty of seeing the world from the sky. It was something he’d done for years and was his greatest pleasure.   He entered the town hall and put it behind him. It was time to get back to his task.   The inside of the town hall was, as it always was, organized chaos. Clerks busy reading through all sorts of forms, from complaints from the citizenry, to taxes for the Basin, and other such administrative duties. The scratching of pencils on paper filled the air, as did the murmuring of the clerks.   Dek stepped through the circus, careful to avoid interfering with their work or worse, being dragged into it.   He arrived at his grandfather’s private office at the end of the hall. He knocked and soon after, a gruff voice told him to enter.   As he opened the door, his grandfather called out to him as he stepped in, “Dekkel, finally! Pass me my mail.” Hubrins Huris, the mayor of Isauec’s Bend demanded. His aging face in a perpetual state of frowning.   “Got it just like you asked.” Dek said as he reached into the pocket of his vest, pulling out a paper and placing it on the desk between them. His grandfather’s frowned deepened as he looked from the paper he placed and back to him. Dek stiffened as he realized that instead of putting down the letter, he placed his own broadsheet onto the desk. His grandfather’s scowled as he snatched the sheet before Dek could take it back.   The mayor took one look at the headline and scoffed, “Nothing but Sensationalist Basin garbage, don’t read this rubbish Dek, it’ll rot your brain.” he told Dek as he crumpled up the sheet and threw it in the bin next to his desk.   Dek winced, he hadn’t finished reading that, he hoped that the post office might have another copy. But upon his grandfather’s glare being redirected at him, he plunged his hand back into his pocket and took out the letter.   He handed it over to his grandfather, the mayor tore open the envelope and took out the form within. While peering at its contents, the usual frown on his face began to slightly lighten as he read on. Dek even saw a very small curve on his lips grow on his face, a rare sight from the old man. Just what was in that letter if it could get Hubrins Huris in a good mood.   He slammed the letter down on his desk, “Finally! Rust and bloody Ruin! They’ve finally seen some damn sense!” His grandfather shouted with some growing excitement in his voice.   “What’s it about?” Dek asked, though he already had an inkling from his grandfather’s constant chatter over the previous weeks.   “It’s correspondence from True Madil, they finally want to build a Railway out here, to my town! Oh, the business this’ll bring, the river has always been a bottleneck, but with a proper Railway built this town will be a fully-fledged city in the next decade!”   The older man stood up and walked towards the office’s window, looking over the town as he continued to speak, “I’ve been building up this rusting town for years since my house of bastards kicked me here to be forgotten, but I’ll be having the last laugh!”   Dek just stood back and let his grandfather have his say, for the first time in quite a while Hubrins Huris was in a good mood, and he wasn’t going to be the one to spoil it. Maybe he could slowly slip out while he was distracted?   Hs grandfather was cut off by the door being opened, the mayor turned towards the intruder, ready to give them a piece of his mind, only to cut himself off at the sight of the sheriff of the town, Timall, standing at the door with a cigarette in his mouth. As the man entered Dek could see that he didn’t look so happy either.   “Howdy, gents.” the sheriff said, breathing out a puff of smoke.   Whatever was left of the excitement on Hubrins’s face slipped away as his scowl returned, “I’ve told you once, and a thousand times, knock before you enter!” he yelled at Timall.   The sheriff gave the mayor a small smirk as he spoke, “Well, just thought I’d ask if you want to come down to the station to pick up your little problem child”.   Hubrins gave a frustrated sigh, his good mood vanishing like the mist in the morning, “Now what has he done? You know what, I don’t care.” He stated offhandedly as he sat back down behind his desk, giving Dek a small wave of dismissal, “Dek, go with Timall to pick up your good for nothing brother, I have work to do.”   Dek just sighed as he followed the sheriff out of the office, he really shouldn’t have been surprised, his brother Nid always did tend to spoil good things.

 

Author's Note

Spoiler

I'm back!

My god it's been way too long. But I'm here for a rewrite of this old story. After going over my old outline, I felt dissatisfied with it, so I redid it and now I'm far more satisfied with this new one than the old one.

Changed some character roles, expanded on some other characters, etc,etc.

So we'll see how this goes, no promises on when the next chapter will be, still struggling with consistent effort in this. But here's hoping it won't be terribly long.

Ciao.

 

Edited June 3, 2025 by JustQuestin2004