It’d been almost five minutes since they left and she was still silent. Too silent. Nero looked to his side and saw his wife fidgeting with her hands seeming lost in thought. Seeing her in this dress filled him with nostalgia. She hadn’t changed at all in those 10 years. With her slim features and caring brown eyes, she was beautiful as ever.

“It’s ok darling, Max is old enough to take care of Nox for an evening. Worst come to worst we will find him tied up in the closet because Max had enough,” he joked.

She didn’t answer but Nero saw her look away to try to hide her smile. He lived for those moments, that smile. Sometimes they were hard to get, but each and every single one of them was genuine and nothing in the world could beat that feeling.

After another minute of silence, he tried to change the subject, “The Keelans and Craddocks will be thrilled to see you, I think they wanted to know if you would be interested to start teaching again.”

“...Maybe,” she said absent-mindedly.

"..."

Growing desperate to start a conversation, he nervously added, “Last year, the chief said that the abominations seem to be migrating, encounters close to the village’s border were at an all-time low. Sure hope those spawn of the devil keeps the trend this year.”

“Yeah.”

Nero saw her trying to hide it, but she clearly tensed. Nice job dumbass… He then proceeded to the side of the road and stopped the carriage.

That caught her attention, she looked at him with a questioning look.

“What’s the matter with you,” he sighed, “all week you seemed thrilled to go out, but ever since you put that dress on, it's like you didn’t want to go anymore.”

“It’s not like that… I just… I have a bad feeling about tonight.”

Nero frowned, “Like what?” then comprehension flashed in his eyes, “Oooh, I see. So it was like that, Mrs.Evergreen is stressed out about seeing her old friends?” He gave her a mocking look.

“Yeah right,” she snorted, giving him an elbow tap to the ribs.

Nero chuckled, “Then what is it then? And since when do you believe in this kind of gut feeling anyway, weren't you the one that always says that those were as reliable as Mrs.Keelans’ rock-based remedy.”

“I know, I know. But this time it's different, call it…” she muttered something under her breath that Nero couldn’t catch, then quickly fled his gaze.

“Call it what?”

She turned to face him again, not meeting his eyes, then she said in a very low tone, “Call it mother’s instinct.”

Nero stared at her in disbelief. He was about to joke about the irony, but when he saw her vulnerable expression, his gaze hardened, “You're serious aren’t you?”

She shyly nodded.

After considering for a short while, he sighed, “Listen, If you want to go back home, go.”

Wide-eyed, she said, “But… what about the meeting and–”

“It’s ok, go. I will deal with them, but you better come along next time.”

“Deal, you're the best,” she gave him a kiss and jumped out of the carriage.

…

Nox was finally alone! If he wanted to, he could go into his brother’s bedroom and nobody would ever know about it. But now wasn’t the time, he had a mission and not that much time before Max’s return.

First was the key, after countless hours of careful spying he knew exactly where his parents hid it. They thought they were clever to put it on top of the fireplace –out of his reach– but little did they know that he had found a way.

Nox ran to the kitchen and chose the closest table chair to the fireplace. With a little more effort than he would like to admit, he pushed the chair all the way throughout the living room just under the fireplace. He climbed on the chair and almost laughed when he saw their choice of a hiding place. Of all the things they could have chosen, they chose a bowl. His view of them greatly reduced, he grabbed the key, climbed down the chair, and pushed it to stage two of his plan.

That one had taken a while to figure out, but he had great confidence in his solution. Dad thought he was clever to put the door of the attic on the ceiling, but once again they had greatly underestimated him. After two other back and forths between the kitchen and the bedrooms hallway, Nox was ready to build his solution.

Nox positioned two chairs to face each other just under the attic door. With great pride and a lot more effort than he thought he would need, he managed to put the third one on top of the other two. It was a closer call than what he had planned but the legs fitted, barely. But this was it, all his time planning, spying, and waiting to come to this.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Nox climbed the bottom chair. Very carefully, he started to climb the top one. He felt the whole structure shaking but didn't give up and achieved the top. On shaky legs, he slowly stood up and held one hand on the ceiling to keep his balance. He grabbed the key from his pocket with his other hand and inserted it into the keyhole. Holding his breath, he turned the key. *click*. Grinning, he turned the handle of the trap door.

It was at that moment that Nox knew he had miscalculated one small detail in his genius plan. When his father opened the trap, it seemed effortless; turn the handle, guide the door down and deploy the ladder. Simple. Yet now that he was the one under it, the trap was oh so much heavier than it seemed. He didn’t get the chance to push back, he felt something give in below. His fall was accompanied by his manliest squeal and a very loud *Bang*.

Yes, it was scary. Yes, his butt hurt like hell. But on the bright side, the trap was now open and the ladder deployed on its own. In his book, this was a complete success. It was time for stage three of his plan; exploring the attic.

Nox ran back to the living room and retrieved Mr.X from the couch. No way he was going to let him sit this one out. Now back to the ladder his whole body was shaking with excitement. He started climbing.

Gold coins, Shiny jewelry, a legendary sword, a forgotten legendary ring grandpa… If the stories his mother read to him ever taught him something, at least one of those must be in there. Halfway through his climb, he abruptly stopped and slapped himself on the forehead. Monsters of course… there must be a monster guarding the treasures. There was always one. How could he forget such an obvious thing? Once, he even saw his father come back with a huge wound on his hand. If this wasn’t proof enough, he didn’t know what was. He needed a weapon. After a quick trip to the kitchen, Nox restarted his climbing with Mr.X stuffed in his back pocket and a knife in his mouth; it was no sword, but this would have to do.

His hands on the last rung, Nox took a deep breath and did a quick peek over the edge. No monster in sight; it must be hiding behind something. The room was packed; wooden crates of all sizes, sharp tools, bags… Luckily, the room wasn’t dark yet. Some light from the setting sun still peered into the room through the window, giving it a reddish tint. But it was getting darker pretty fast. If he was going to do this, he needed to do it now.

Dropping back down under the edge, Nox reminded himself of his plan. Jump; the surprise effect, yell; to scare the monster, and kill; that one was self-explanatory. With his flawless plan in mind, he jumped, and with his knife in hand, he yelled. He had practiced that yell and it showed. He felt his pride rising when he heard how deep he managed to pitch his war cry.

That was until he caught something in the corner of his eyes. He looked at it, and it looked back.

They froze.

The monster was in the corner of the room in front of one of his father’s homemade mouse traps. Half the cheese bait was in its mouth. They made eye contact.

Nox’s war cry morphed into a high-pitched squeal. His plan long forgotten, he ran to the other end of the room and hid behind a big wooden crate.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

*Clap*

At the sound, Nox perked up.

At the sight of the monster/mouse’s corpse, Nox’s face grew red in shame. What kind of warrior was he? A warrior shouldn’t run from a threat, much less a mouse of all things. At least there was no witness to his blunder– Wait… He checked his back pocket to be sure, Mr.X… He grabbed it out of his pocket.

The gears in his head running full blast to find an excuse, he said “Ha… Haha, everything went according to plan…”

The stuffed horse looked at him with its two big X-shaped eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Nox fled its stare. Then his eyes fell on the numerous wooden crates all around him. If greed had a shape, then Nox’s eyes would definitely have taken that shape. His embarrassment now a thing of the past, he shoved the stuffed horse in his back pocket and said “Anyway, I defeated the monster, so the treasure should be mine.”

Nox started to search the room. Nothing was left unchecked. Bags and crates were opened and tools of all shapes and forms were sent flying to the other end of the room. After a short while of finding absolutely nothing of interest, Nox finally found a promising item. It was a small wooden chest with some metal reinforcement around it. It was hidden behind a pile of rubbish. This had to be it. He tried to open it, but it seemed to be locked by a weird puzzle. Nox felt his confidence rising, if they locked it, there had to be something of value inside.

Nox started inspecting the small wooden chest from all its angles, expecting a great challenge. There was no keyhole. He picked it up, it was very light. He betted on the ring grandpa, this had to be that. He probed the chest, fantasizing about learning forgotten magic from him, defeating dragons, saving princesses… *Click* His eyes grew wide.

His hand shaking, he slowly opened the little chest. Praying with all his heart for the ring, he inspected its contents. It turned out, that step wasn’t long. Around two dozen coins… Silver coins… nothing else… What kind of crap treasure was that! He turned the chest upside down to be sure. The tingling sound of the coins hitting the floor was satisfying, but Nox was too deflated to care. As he was about to go back to his research, he caught a piece of paper flying at the edge of his vision. As he went to inspect it, another thing caught his attention. In the middle of the pile of silver coins, there was a small object emballed in tissue the same color as the chest.

His eyes flashed with comprehension. A false bottom, clever, but obviously Nox was smarter, wasn’t he? Patting himself on the back, he grabbed the sheet of paper first and looked at it. Frowning, he looked at it harder, then it hit him. He hadn’t learned how to read yet… Shrugging, he went for the true prize.

The tissue was now loosely enrolled around the object. He picked it up. From a distance, it seemed small, but he felt it was even smaller. The prize was light, very light. He started unpacking it, “Be a ring, pleeease be a ring grandpa.”

His heart thumping, the prize revealed itself. It wasn’t a ring, but Nox didn’t even care. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was the size of a small round pebble. It was a white-ish translucent crystal with black veins coursing through it. The veins pulsed and changed patterns at seemingly random.

Without any hesitation, Nox knocked on it, “Hello?”

He knocked on it again and held it close to his ear, “Hello? Someone in there?”

Nox heard the sound of a door opening, he froze.

“... Yea, just for tonight,” said a familiar female voice.

“Nice,” said his brother’s voice.

“Noxi, I’m hom–” There was a pause, then Nox knew he was in trouble, “Noximilius Evergreen! What the hell are you doing up there!”

He heard a quick series of hard footsteps hit the floor in his direction. It was as he heard her climb the ladder that Nox realized the state he left the room in. It was like a natural disaster went through. Not one crate was left unopened, tools sprayed everywhere on the floor, and to make matters worse, a small pile of silver coins at his feet.

When Nox saw the daggers in her eyes as she rushed to him, he understood. He wasn’t just in trouble, he was in BIG trouble. Nox looked down, defeated. He had a great life, he hated to go down this way, but he had it coming. His mother was so much more ahead of him than he thought.

Cursing she grabbed his arm hard, “15 minutes… We left you alone for 15 minutes,” she waved at the state of the room as if to ask for an explanation.

He didn’t even try to defend himself, what would be the point? She had seen through his whole plan, didn’t she? She had even faked her departure just to catch him in the act. So smart, he thought in awe. He still had so much to learn from her.

Then her eyes fell on the small crystal in his hand and her eyes widened. Nox flinched, expecting the beating of his life. But unexpectedly, she carefully went for the crystal and said in almost a whisper “You found it.”

Her eyes were welling up. Nox’s expression shifted to the textbook definition of a question mark.

As if to answer his question, she said, “You found my father’s inheritance! I thought we lost it years and years ago.”

Scanning the floor, she grabbed the sheet of paper. As she read, tears started to fall down her cheeks. She then looked at Nox with an all too familiar expression. Oh no… He took a step backward, but his mother was faster. She grabbed him in a bear hug. Nox’s entire body tensed. What the hell was going on today?

Nox heard his brother climb the ladder and when he saw the state of the room, he said, ”Holy crap! Dad is gonna kill you– Mom?”

Max looked at him with a questioning look. Nox –still stuck in the bear hug– did his best impression of a shrug.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally released her hold on him. She dried her tears with her sleeve and said, “Thank you, but don’t think this will save you. Double the chores for 2 weeks and you will spend the rest of the evening in your bedroom.”

Like she knew Nox would try to rebuke, as he opened his mouth, she looked at him with her predatory look. His words died in his mouth.

“Wow, what is that?” Max asked as he saw the small crystal.

For the second time that day, Max asked a very good question. Nox looked at his mother with an expectant look.

Looking at them, Livia gave in, “Fine, but not here, It’s getting dark and somebody is not supposed to be up here. Remember?” She said, staring at Nox.

Nox could only sheepishly look down.

His mother repackaged the crystal, paper, and coins in the small chest. Then, chest under her arm, she dragged Nox toward the ladder.

He climbed down and as his mother was about to do the same, his brother shouted, “Mom! Look. Dad’s trap finally worked.”

Nox heard a short laugh then his mother said, “Well let's hope this will distract him from all this mess.”

After Max came down, Livia closed the trap. They dragged the chairs back to the table, then sat on them to listen to her story.

She reopened the chest and took out the crystal. Nox was once again mesmerized by the moving and pulsing black veins. It was the first object he ever saw of this kind. It was definitely magical. The veins seemed to form little shapes at times only to shift into another unordered mess an instant after.

“So, What is it?” Max said, “Is it magical?”

“Well, yes and no. This crystal has been passed down from generation to generation in our family. From what my father told me, legend says it is supposed to be some sort of a key. Some key to escape from hell or something like that,” She rolled her eyes at that, “But as far as they could understand, its only value or utility was in its peculiar look. We don’t know who found it, when, or where, but ever since we kept it in the family as a good luck token.”

“So if we get stuck on the other side of one of those gates, this could get us out?” Nox asked with stars in his eyes.

“Nox… the gates are nothing else but that; Gates. They must be a prank our ancestors played on us to confuse future generations.”

“But in the stories, they lead to–”

“How many times do I have to tell you, even if “Hell” is written on it, it doesn’t mean it's the truth. Anybody could have written that on them. Even then, when I was younger, before we reached this village, my father and I saw one of those "Hell" gates. Some idiot even went through it and guess what? He came out on the other side just fine. They are just some overdesigned big doorway leading to nothing. Perhaps in the past, they were the gateway to a city or something, but since then nothing remains. Nothing beats nature’s hold.”

“So, it's just a rock,” His brother asked, visibly very dejected.

“A very beautiful one at that,” His mother said inspecting the crystal with a smile.

Nox looked at his mother with wide eyes. She went on an adventure when she was younger? She had never told him that before. Did she see a magus too? Or even better, did she ever meet a dragon? Nox’s admiration for his mother rose once again. He too one day would go on an adventure, just like her.

As Nox was about to unload all his questions on her, she started to repackage everything, “Anyway, that’s all on that subject for tonight,” She turned to Max, “Now, how did your first day of school go? Tell me everything.”

The next hour was spent with his mother asking and telling Max everything he should know about all his subjects and all his teachers' preferences.

Hoping that his mother would forget him, Nox tried to make himself as small as possible to delay his punishment. To his credit, it worked for more than an hour and a half.

His mother just finished explaining how to get on the good side of Mr.Keelan when she looked toward the pendulum, “Crap! I forgot about the Ellises,” she said abruptly standing up, “I crossed them on my way back and invited them to take tea.”

“They aren’t going to the meeting?” Max asked.

She shook her head, “Their son is going and since they were going to spend the evening alone, they gladly accepted. Be sure to greet them and offer Mrs.Ellis help to sit. They aren’t young anymore.”

As she grabbed the tea kettle, she said, “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you Nox. Your punishment starts now. Change into your pajamas and then, to your bedroom.” she then filled the kettle and put it on the stove.

“But–”

“No buts. Next time if you want to spend the evening with us, maybe you’ll think twice before disobeying.”

With a loud grunt Nox reluctantly went into his bedroom. His mother– still in her princess robe– went to the bathroom to change into a more fitting outfit for the evening.