Chapter III Years Later It was now November 21, in Tarus’ second year of living among the Britons. After a very long sleep, he was awoken by a woman with blond wavy hair and ocean blue eyes. Her hair was braided in a ponytail and she wore a Ireland green dress with pictures of sunflowers and other plants on it. She looked kindly at Tarus, as if he had been her child forever. “Wake up Tarus,” She said,”Breakfast is almost ready.” “Who are you?” Asked Tarus drowsily, “My name is Hildegard,” the woman replied,”when I heard that you were an orphan, I adopted you, you are now a part of the family here.” Hildegard smiled at him lovingly. Tarus was confused, but happy that he had a family to look after him. He assumed that a few years passed, but, Tarus did not know how those years flew by. The only thing he could remember is falling asleep on the bed in what used to be his tent. Then a shower of memories washed over him, the sword that was secret, the sheath, the voice, and how he ran away from the orphanage. Hildegard had a very small family with one son, and one daughter. Their names were Ivan and Andromeda. Ivan was a black haired boy, about the age of eight. Tarus was guessing that Ivan was four foot, while Tarus was four foot eleven. Andromeda was a blond girl with pigtails braided on the sides, she looked twelve years of age, and about five foot exact. Their father was not around the house, Tarus had no clue why, but soon his question inside his head was answered by, surprisingly, Andromeda. “Father works at the sword forge,” she said,”he makes swords and armour in there behind the oak doors, I never got to see his creations though. I heard from mother that you used to make swords for the Arius tribe, before you ran away. You and father would get along very well then.” Tarus was amazed on how much she knew, but he was even more excited when she said that,”Father works in the sword forge.” Good, Tarus thought, first similarity of my new family so far. Tarus approached the table, there was a large square food holder of Shepard’s Pie, and a medium size plate of peas. Tarus ate happily with his new family, everything was quiet when they were devouring the food, until there was a knock on the door. Andromeda opened it without hesitation, Tarus couldn’t see the person yet, but he heard a deep, jovial, and soothing voice, “Finally some time off from work!” Said he relaxingly,”You’ve grown so tall! Almost as tall as me, good to be back!” The man came in the dining room holding hands with Andromeda, who was half his height. The man was maybe six foot, Tarus couldn’t tell exactly, but that was his best estimation, the man had wavy black hair like his son, and brown eyes. He had scruffy stubble and dimples, he was white in complexion, but his nails were smashed, just like Tarus’. His face was black with soot. “Why don’t you clean up dear?” Asked Hildegard, while hugging him. “True,” replied the man in Agreement,”that would feel wonderful.” Without looking at Tarus, their father walked away into another room. “That was Patrick,” described Andromeda,”he is our father, as you already know.” Tarus nodded, he didn’t really want to talk until he knew his family better. Can this family read minds? Thought Tarus, because his new mother answered what he wanted. “Why don’t you kids go down to the beach?” Asked mother,”so that you can know each other a bit better?” “Okay, come on, let’s go to the northern beach on the right of the forge.” Ordered Andromeda, they went in a line automatically and raced out the door. It was good feeling fresh air again, a huge weight was carried off of Tarus’ shoulders. He forgot all about the voice. He never forgot the sword, but he was less tempted to hold it, probably since he had other good distractions now that he had a family. Tarus was interested in Ivan’s life, because he seemed like a pretty nice eight year old. This family had special powers, seriously, once they reached the beach, it was Ivan that spoke for the first time. “Hey,” he said,”Tarus, hungry for some adventure?” He said enthusiastically,”There’s a cave just right over there.” “I rather forges,” exclaimed Tarus,”but a cave sounds fun and mysterious.” They sped toward the cave together. Unknown to both of them, there was a door leading to the cave. Ivan tried his best to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. “The gate is locked,” he said,”the gate was never there before.” Disappointed, Ivan slouched over and walked lazily back to the other side of the beach, meanwhile Tarus was thinking about breaking the door with his sword, but it was all the way back at the house. “Use your power,” said a hissing voice,”use your magic.” Tarus didn’t understand, but almost immediately, his eyes turned pale gold. Green light came for his hands as if his was producing acid, he was breathing unnaturally fast, his voice was deeper, his fingers were clawed as if he were a dragon, he started shaking and the sword appeared in his hand. The weight of the sword was still too heavy for him, but he used all his strength and swung it clumsily and the gate broke as if it were paper. He was breathing hard after that, his sight was blurry. “Wow!” Ivan shouted in awe, and Tarus could see why. A massive mountain of shields, armour, swords, and even bows and quivers were in the right corner of the cave, chests probably filled with what the Britons found in their raids and travels, but Tarus wouldn’t dare to open them. “Take what you want.” Said Ivan, as if these warfare tools would not be useful to anyone, “No,” Tarus shouted, his voice reverberated off the walls,”your parents will be in a row if they know that you have taken something. These swords and shields are truly valuable to all of the soldiers here. Come on now, let’s get out of here.” Tarus summoned Ivan quickly away. Once they reached the beach, Hildegard and Patrick were sitting together talking and Andromeda was skipping rocks on the coast. Tarus wanted to be introduced to his new father, he heard that they both have a lot of similarities. So Tarus went in front of them, Patrick was smiling at him kindly, “So you’re Tarus.” He said,”Hildegard just told me what she knows about you, she said that you used to work at the forge in the Arius tribe’s camp.” He seemed like he was asking it as a question, as grown up like as he could Tarus replied, “Yes indeed. I heard that you also work at the forge for the Briton’s. Andromeda has spoken highly of you.” “Ah,” Patrick said with a slight smile on his face,”tell you what,” he began,”why not you come with me to work tomorrow? I can test your skills in sword making.” “I would be happy to.” Said Tarus with extreme excitement. He got to go with his new dad to work, this was the best day so far. Soon, Hildegard called them for lunch, Tarus forgot how hungry he was, he nearly ran to the dining room, there in the middle of the table was a big bowl of Turnip and a plate full of potatoes. When they sat down, Tarus’ new father asked him questions about his recent past at the other camp and his old past. “Well,” Tarus began,”all that I remember from my past is that...” He paused, scratching his head,”I think I was four year old when my father died, he said,’look after mother for me okay, I love you,’ and then he just never moved again. But I have no clue where my mother is, I never got to see her after my father past away.” The table was silent, Andromeda was the first one to say something after the quietness, “Do you remember the day when you were sent to the orphanage?” She asked. Tarus could tell that none of them wanted to bombard him with questions, but they just couldn’t resist, “I didn’t totally forget that memory,” Tarus said dreamily,”I remember that I was on the edge of ding of lack of liquid while grieving near my father’s body and in a few days time, His Most Annoying Lead Of The Orphanage Mr. Willabald tried to pick me up and failed, he tried again and dropped me again, he decided to drag me along with him after a long term of trying to lift me several times.” Tarus felt glad that he was free to say bad things about the head of the orphanage now, he was never able to say anything before. His new family around the table laughed, some of them even smashed the table. Well, Tarus thought, a really good day with the new family.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 00:02:23 +0000