Chapter One - Thirteen Years Later
I
|
s that all you ever do Caroline -
read?” Jonas was once again pestering his older sister in that unique way that
little brothers seem to take so much pleasure in. Jonas was thirteen and acted
it, while Caroline was sixteen and acted anything but. So she ignored the
question and continued to lose herself in her book, sprawled out on the deck
near the river, enjoying the day. Of course, that didn't deter Jonas, it only
encouraged him to continue.
“So, what'cha reading?” He bent his knees and leaned down to
look at the book's title. “Akari the Dragonslayer.” That again? You know our uncle's not going to
rise from the dead just because you keep reading that book, right? Akari is
long dead.”
He then held his arms out straight and walked stiff-legged, as
if his legs were sticks -- imitating the way he imagined a dead person would
act upon returning from beyond the grave.
Caroline rolled her eyes. “Yes, I am aware, thank you Jonas.
Don't you have anything better to do? Why don't you go finish up your chores
before dad returns.”
“Don't have to. I made a bet with Mouse and he lost, like
usual.” Jonas walked onto the dock and plopped down in a sagging chair beside
Caroline. He gestured with his thumb, pointing toward a wooden building with a
thatched roof - their father's workplace. “He's sweeping up the foundry now.”
He took a handful of small stones from his pocket and
started flinging them one by one into the nearby Great River, acting as if he
did not have a care in the world. Caroline found this very obnoxious.
“Jonas, why don't you go help him? He's always doing your chores. It's not fair,” Caroline complained.
Jonas threw another stone into the river before responding.
“Well, he needs to learn how to fight better if he's going to be this great
warrior like that old wizard Wallary told him, don't you think? Even if we
were using broom handles instead of swords.”
Caroline blanched at the mention of the old wizard. During
her 14th birthday reading, an Ambrosian custom where one's Fate was
determined, the ancient Wallary told her that she was going to be married
to a great warrior - not a great warrior herself, but simply the wife of one.
The very idea made her sick.
Caroline shuddered but forced herself to move her thoughts
back to Mouse, a nickname he had earned the day that he came into their lives.
His real name, Alexander, never seemed to fit as well. “Mouse” seemed to
describe her adopted brother perfectly and there was no getting around it.
She looked at Jonas and sighed in resignation, conceding his
point though it pained her to do so. “I guess that's true, but that doesn't
mean you can't go easy on him once in a while - maybe let him win a contest
once or twice? Give him a little confidence? He hasn't had the easiest life,
you know.”
Those words caused them both to look back at Mouse, the
small boy barely taller than the broom he was using to sweep out the foundry
where their father made his living as a weapons maker. Caroline liked to think
of him as her brother by circumstance, no less of a brother than Jonas was, and
no less of a son to her father. She could not fathom how he would ever become a
great warrior, but her place was not to question the Fate that had been chosen
for him.
Or at least that was what she had been telling herself, as
difficult as that was. It would not do to let it be known that the more she
thought about the preposterousness of a system that told you what the rest of
your life would be at age fourteen, the more it made her furious. But what
could she do? There was no changing her Fate, as she had been tattooed with the
mark stating her lot in life -- and that was that.
Jonas felt a pang of remorse as he watched Mouse hard at
work and thought over what she had been saying. “Well, maybe you're right
Caroline.”
But Jonas being Jonas, his sympathy quickly passed. “All I
know is if that wizard told Mouse he would become a great warrior, I can only
imagine what they're going to tell me next week. Why, I could be Chief
Knight, like father!” He took another rock and threw it as hard as he could
- it landed halfway across the wide river with a small “plunk.”
“It's very possible, Jonas. I just hope you get a better
reading than I did. But you know they don't tell anyone they will be Chief
Knight on their birthday - that's up to the King when the time comes. No,
they'll just say you're going to be a great warrior or something, and while
you're off on great adventures I'll be waiting at home, hoping that I won't
hear bad news about you, or Mouse, or my husband, helpless to do a single thing
about it even though I'm as good as anyone with a sword or a bow. What a life!”
Caroline shot up from her chair and kicked at a pile of
sticks and leaves lying on the dock, then tried to compose herself as she
watched the rubbish fall into the water with Frogs diving deep to avoid her
tantrum. While looking into the water, she saw her expression and almost had to
laugh at her pouting face. She knew she was acting childish, and seeing herself
caused her to quickly regain her composure and act the leader that she was.
With that, she looked back at her brother Jonas.
“Jonas, father should be back any minute. Why don't you help
Mouse finish up real quick and as soon as you're done, come back down so we can
all meet him together.”
In a pleasant surprise, Jonas said nothing and walked up the
hill to join his brother. In between his frequent obnoxious spells, Caroline
thought, she really liked her brother. But he sure did not make it easy at
times.
Caroline shifted her gaze from Jonas to down river, where
she was eagerly looking to see her
father -- standing on his canoe as it came around the bend -- using a pole to
push off the bottom of the river to propel himself upstream. It was tough work,
she had tried it herself, but somehow her father made it look easy. Though he
was getting older, he remained surprisingly strong.
Seeing no sign of her father, she returned to her book. It
was her seventh time reading it, yet she still found herself enthralled. Good books
were often that way, always happy to be cracked open and read again, revealing something
new each time.
It was a perfect late spring afternoon for reading - the air
was warm and pleasant and the sun was
shining down from a clear blue sky after seemingly being lost forever during
the cold, dark winter. There wasn’t even a hint of chill in the light breeze
that blew over the Great River and into her face.
As she sat at the edge of a dock, with her feet dangling
over the swells of the river, with her chores over and her mind fixed on “Akari
the Dragonslayer,” -- she couldn’t ask for a better day. All was right in
the world.
That sense of
wellbeing almost always seemed to be the case in their pleasant little town of Frogpond,
named after what seemed to be an endless supply of sleepy little pools of water
that gave home to turtles, otters, and of course, frogs.
Caroline sipped from her iced tea and stretched her legs
out. As perfect as it was, she had a hard time focusing on the printed words
because of what awaited - her father had promised to bring back an especially
interesting book when he returned. Caroline could not recall him having made
such a promise before, so naturally she could not wait to see what was in store.
She especially hoped that it was the second book about Akari, one which would
cover his later adventures as Chief Knight of the Ambrosian Army. But Caroline
tried to put those thoughts away and turn her attention back to the book she held
in her hands, awaiting her father’s gift.
After she had read a chapter or so, Jonas and Mouse arrived
and sat beside her on the deck. She
closed the book and greeted them. “Hi Mouse. See Jonas, that didn't take long,
assuming you really are all done with your chores?”
“Yep, everything is
cleaned up,” Mouse answered for the two of them. He craned his neck to peer
down the river, hoping for a sign and found nothing. “Don't you think dad
should be back by now?”
Caroline looked in the sky and noted the sun's placement. It
was a little later than normal for her father's return, although not unheard
of. Nothing to get worked up over.
“Oh, he's probably just running a little late today. He'll
be back soon. So, everything look good up there? You know how father can be
about keeping the shop clean.”
“It’s spotless!” Mouse replied. “Say, are you reading that
book again, Caroline?” Mouse winked at Jonas, who had put him up to asking her
about it.
Caroline put down the book and threw up her hands in
exasperation. “Geez, yes, I am! What's the big deal? I like it! So what?” She
stopped as Jonas and Mouse both laughed, realizing they were just teasing her.
Caroline sighed. “Ugh, you guys!”
“Sorry Caroline,” replied Mouse, smiling. “But it does seem
like you're always reading that book. Anyway, I hope dad is back soon - hey,
there he is now!”
Mouse pointed to a figure coming around the bend, standing
on a canoe and making his way very slowly against the current of the river. He
was using a large pole, dipping it in and out of the water to push forward.
They watched the figure intently as it drew nearer.
Excitement filled
Caroline, giving her a light giddy feeling. Yes, she was excited to see her dad
as he had been gone all day, but she'd be lying if she was not even a bit more
excited to see what he had brought for her.
As the figure drew nearer, her mind began to race as she
realized there was something unusual about it. She rubbed her eyes as the image
she expected to see did not jibe with the one she was seeing - there was no
familiar cloud of smoke and no beard. Soon, the figure was close enough for
there to be no doubt - the man using a pole to push her father's canoe was not
her father.
Dread instantly filled her heart. Her desire for a simple
book was cast aside, as an awful, terrible feeling pulsed through her body. Her
legs felt so weak she could barely stand. Worse, there was nothing to do but
sit and wait for the canoe to draw close enough to find out what was going on.
The suspense was
terrible.
“Jonas! Mouse! What’s happening? Where's dad?” she called
out.
She took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. She was the
oldest and her father had impressed upon her numerous times that it was her job
to set an example for her younger brothers. It was not always easy to do, but
now was the time to prove that she could lead the way.
The canoe was nearly there and Caroline watched it,
disbelieving. An old man was slumped over as he dipped the pole in and out of
the water, panting heavily and perspiring profusely. An old man, but not her
father.
Caroline was beside herself. It was their father’s canoe, but
he wasn’t there. What had happened to their father?
No comments:
Post a Comment