If you don't want to know what happens read no further
*Spoiler Warning*
Last Chance, if you don't want spoilers turn back now.
Conan the Barbarian, by Micheal Stackpole.
Chapters 1-5
We find ourselves transported to the land of Cimemria, high in the hills, ground covered with hardpacked snow. The boys are practicing swordplay while Corin makes his young son Conan fetch wood. Anger at his father is fleeting though, as he knows the man's strength should be respected. Many also respected Corin's young son, though he be only a boy, for he was Born on the Battlefield. He also had lofty ideals to hold himself up too. His grandfather Connaught was a great warrior and had wandered far afield into the world and told of many exotic locales. Conan dreamed of one day seeing them, but for now he must check traps and fetch wood. Such was the lot of a boy, even one born in such special circumstance. After finishing his chores and finding several rabbits in his traps he sets off back to the hut he shares with his father. He knows it must soon be time for supper as he can no longer hear the clanging of Corin's blacksmith hammer. As Conan spoons food into his mouth his father expounds on the lessons a boy need learn to become a man. That the sword is as like to slay its owner as its opponent. That learning just one weapon is a sure way to die. many other such platitudes roll from the mouth of Corin, and Conan absorbs them all.
Over the next weeks Corin regales Conan with tales of the boys mother. How she died fighting the Vanirman to protect her unborn child. How she chose to name the boy Conan, and how she expected great things from him. He also begins to teach Conan the ways of the blacksmith. How to smelt and temper iron, how to make steel, how to quench a blade to keep it from being too brittle. Soon Conan knows enough to make his own sword, forged with his own hands. No armed, Corin beings to teach his son how to use the sword.
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