The Gatekeeper: Chapter Two, Part Two

 

____________________________________________________________________

Chapter Two

The Craftsman, Part Two

 

Ben Constantine got up bright and early, as he always did — he saw no reason to continue sleeping when he had had enough rest and was ready to begin another exciting day. He dressed quickly, for spending too much time on clothes was just a waste of time, and turned his attention to his grand shelf of action figures, each different from the rest. Each with its own story. He picked out two that he hadn’t used in a while; an elven ranger and a fanged vampire. Smiling, he got to work thinking out the story of these two adversaries, and left his room.

He whistled to himself as he walked downstairs and to the dining room, before letting out a gasp. There, on the table, sat a collection of brand new figures, all for his taking. Excitedly, he dashed forward, the house only partially lit by the warm morning light, and slammed the ranger and vampire down on the table, next to the new additions. 

“Woah,” he whispered, awed. Gingerly, he picked up these new figures, careful not to hold them too firmly, lest they disappear like the mirages they appeared to be. These were fresh, new, a little... rough around the edges but, overall… totally awesome! 

“Mom? Dad? Where’d these come from? Thank you so much!” he called joyously, almost jumping up and down but careful to keep his voice down so as to not wake up anyone.

“Actually, Benjamin, these were of my making,” came Janus’ voice, and Ben jumped, startled. 

“Ah! Mr. Vampire!” Ben shouted, as Janus’ shadowy form became evident, resting on a couch in the adjacent living room.

“I told you, I’m not a vampire,” Janus reminded him. “Would a vampire make you these figures?”

“He would if it was a trick!” Ben cried, his eyes flickering between Janus and the figure on his desk. “It’s a trick!”

“I assure you, no trick,” Janus replied. “Your father has a 3D printer in his garage. While I was printing out some parts to repair his window and prototype his computer chips, I saw some leftover filament, and I decided to make these for you. There are also some things for your sister and parents. To thank them, for their hospitality.”

“Are you sure this isn’t some evil supervillain plot?” Ben accused. “That these don’t have bombs in them?”

WIth a chuckle, Janus answered, “I promise, Ben, there’s nothing in there that can harm you in any way. Just some figures for your collection. Do you like them?”

He got up from the couch, where he’d been resting, and walked over, taking one of the figures in hand. It was an armor-clad warrior, a girl who wielded both a long broadsword and a whip, long enough to entangle any enemy who came close enough. 

“This one, I call… Willia," Janus stated, looking over at Ben as he waved the figure around. "She looks strong, doesn’t she?”

“I guess,” Ben replied with a shrug. “I don’t think she’d be any match for this Ranger, though. He could just shoot her from 200 yards away, and she’d never know. That’s what you get for may-lee weapons.”

“A Ranger, yeh?” Janus asked, putting down his figure and examining Ben’s. “I used to know a guy like this. All pride, all style, no humility at all. Perfectly happy to keep stepping on the downtrodden, the weak. Say, speaking of the weak…”

He reached over to the other side of the table, to a special figure — whereas the others had been painted quickly, with basic colors, this one was adorned with all sorts of metallic flourishes and highlights. The figure was of a bearded man, of about average height, and wielding a hammer just as tall as he. 

“This one is based off of an old legend from my town. We call him Sir Gimgornlas Legornli, God of Hammers, Perisher of Weak,” described Janus, watching Ben’s eyes go wide.

“Why do they call him that?” Ben asked, sitting down at the table.

“Because he was a knight. One of the greatest in the land. But unlike his fellow knights, Sir Gimgornlas never used a sword, or a bow, or any of those things. He used…”

“A hammer!” Ben exclaimed excitedly. “W-wow, he must’ve been really good with hammers then. All the knights I know used swords.”

“Well, there’s the thing. Every knight on the field with Sir Gimgornlas was a sword-wielder. They were all the same. Except Sir Gimgornlas himself. His hammer made him different, unique — unpredictable. One moment, he’d be parrying with the shaft of the hammer, the next, he’d be using it to crush his opponent’s kneecaps. And all the knights were so used to fighting against swords, against the people like them, that they couldn’t defend against his hammers,” Janus retold, smiling as he remembered the old tale from his home. “He had so many hammers, see. That’s why he was the God of Hammers.”

“And why did they call him Perisher of Weak?” Ben asked.

“Because he perished all those he saw as weak. All those he thought were squandering their potential but still had the arrogance to think they weren’t,” Janus explained, before picking up Ben’s elven ranger and making him face the Gimgornlas figure. Deepening his voice, he imitated, “You! Ranger! How dare you be so prideful? Excessive pride makes you weak! And the weak must perish!”

“No!” Ben shouted, also getting into character and swiping his ranger away from the God of Hammers. “You can’t beat my arrow volley! Pew, pew, pew!”

As Ben mimicked firing arrows at Janus’ figure, the older man made his figure dodge, moving side to side quickly. Then, he raised Sir Gimgornlas’ hammer-holding hand, and, removing the tall hammer, threw the weapon towards the ranger. It struck Ben’s elf directly to the face, and knocked him over. 

“Hey! No fair!” Ben protested, but he was grinning.

“That’s what you get for being weak and facing SIR GIMGORNLAS LEGORNLI, GOD OF HAMMERS!” Janus shouted boldly. “Because THE WEAK MUST PERISH!”

And the two of them laughed, and picked up some more of the new figures, letting them clash and fight and do battle all morning long, till the sun properly came up and the rest of the Constantines woke.

_______________________________________________________________________

Author's Note: Thanks for reading once again! Please do let me know what you think... fun fact, Gatekeeper was originally written as my pieces for Articulation is Power Vol. 2, which is why this one might seem a bit... off. I still like it though and I think it works for the characters and the lore, so I left it as is. No real updates this week, but I'll leave you with an image of a Gatekeeper character this week. No, it's not Janus again, or Ben. But instead:

 

Thanks of course are in order to the Lord of the Rings movies, Avengers: Infinity War, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, Andúril, Chris Hemsworth, and not Viggo Mortensen. I hope you enjoyed, everyone! I'll see you next week.