Midas slowly woke up to the sound of the doors house opening. He looked outside to find that the sun had went down hours ago and it was midnight, so why did the door open, was it his father leaving for business, or was it an intruder? He grabbed his wooden practice sword that his father had gifted him only a year ago on his 12th birthday. Could it be the first time he would have to use it for actual violence? He was scared but he steeled his nerves, slowly peeking out of the door, only to find a robed man at the entrance.
He slammed the door open and rushed with his wooden sword, adopting the most effective stance for when it came to fighting people caught out, hoping to ambush the intruder due to the short distance. As he got closer he saw his parents were sitting on the dining table looking at the intruder as he pulled down his hood. Why wasnt his father doing anything? He ignored the weird reaction and continued rushing the man, only for him to spot the mans eyes whiz by and zone in on him. Damn it! How did he react that quickly? There was no going back now, Midas continued on his charge, only to be stopped by a wall of flame being erected right infront of him, barely avoiding his face ans singeing of the front hairs. He stepped back with caution, this was a mage, he couldnt beat him. He would die with his family now. If he was going to die, he would die trying to fight off the Mage to give time for his parents to escape. Right when he was about to charge again his father shouted a command for him to stop.
"Stop at this instance Midas! How dare you carelessly try to attack our esteemed guest?" his father said with clear fear in his eyes, his mother too. Were they scared that the mage would kill him? Sure enough his Father and Mother dived to the mages ground and grovelled beneath him like dogs to their owner. "We deeply apologise for our suns transgressions Mage Ashen! Please do not punish him for he is slightly slow in the head, punish us in his stead!" Midas looked at his parents in horror, he knew that Mages were very powerful with a lot of influnece, but to the point where his parents woulg grovel at his feet like he was a god? It hurt to see his parents wound their pride for his sake, so he too bowed down as well. He couldnt bare to see his parents at such a state.
"I apologise Mage Ashen! As my parents have pointed out i am quite slow in the head, please take your punishment and consider it as simply whipping a dumb draft horse!" he exclaimed, hoping to save his old parents from the harsh beating that was to come which could may well kill them. His parents looked at him in horror, they were about to object when the mage lifted his hand in a sign to stop. "Do not worry yourselves, for i am magnanimous and will forgive you. After all, i have come to talk with the both of you in good terms, i wouldnt want to ruin it."
Midas was dumbstruck. A kind Mage? Such a fortunate occurence surely meant they were blessed. His parents quickly rose, turning around to Midas with a scowl. "Go back to your room son, we have something to discuss with Mage Ashen." said his fahter. Without further ado Midas ran back to his room and pretended to go to sleep, however he stood at the door to hear the conversation. As he listened it seemed the mage wanted to marry his older sister, surely they would say yes to such a benevolent person? Imagine how much their life would improve? Full of content that his parents would accept he went to his bed to sleep.
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He awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of crackling fire. He removed his blanket, walked over to his bedrooms door and slowly opened it with a creak. What he saw sent chills down his spine. The whole living room was lit with fire, carpet burning and chairs melting from the intense heat. He was scared, he didnt know what to do, so he tried to find his parents, they would know what to do. Despite the fire raging in the living room and the smoke invading his lungs he still knocked politely, waiting for his parents to rise so that they could give him permission to enter.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
He waited, then knocked again, no reply. He knocked once more, still no reply. He started to worry, he knew his parents were light sleepers so they would wake up at any small sound, even when he would secretly raid the pantry in the night he would encounter his mother who would scold him, or when his father would also concidentally sneak out at the same time, only to join his child in the raid. Now however, they didnt reply, so with manners out the window, he opened the door, quickly inhaling in the so far untouched fresh air, only to find the sheets of the bed untouched and neatly done.
He began to panic, he slammed the door behind him and dived into the storage room, still no sign of his parents. As he was about to go into the only other room, the vacant guest room, he smelt something putrid, he tried to remember when he had smelt it before when a memory of him watching ghouls being burned in a small wooden pyre that the village made to burn the undead. It was the smell of charred flesh. His hair rose, was there ghouls nearby? If so he had to inform the village, but when he realised the smell came from inside the house, the living room to be specific, he froze. He began walking slowly to the living room, coughing as he inhaled lungfulls of soot. As he walked closer, the smell intensifoed, until he stopped right at the edge of the fire where he could feel the fire heating up his skin but not enough to burn him.
He looked around the living room with his limited vision being clouded by the bright fire, until he landed on two charred figures on the floor. He began tearing up, please dont be his parents, please be ghouls, even another human, anything but his parents. Unfortunately, as he focused even more on the corpses, he finally saw the familiar features of his parents faces, the only thing not completely turned black from the fire. He dropped to the ground, heart aching and beating with the strength of a cavalry units march.
How did this happen? Did someone accidentally burn it, was it the lantern that he forgot to smother? His heart clenched even more at the though of his carelessness being the cause of the death of his parents. He couldnt dwell in it however, as the smoke began building up even more, to the point where Midas could barely see a meter ahead of him, coughing violently. If he didnt move now, he would die too. He couldnt do that, he needed to find out how the fire happened, he also needed to find his sister which was training to become a mage in the Kingdoms Phoenix academy. He tried to get up, only to find that he didnt have the strength to get up, too emotional from seeing his parents corpses.
He opted to crawl, moving towards the closest window which was at the other side of the corridor as quick as possible. Due to poor visibility he hit his head against unknown objects many times, fervently touching around to find his bearings. He crawled around for a few minutes, too long to find a window only a few seconds away from the living room, but he couldnt see, he didnt even know if he would find the window at all, it was almost as if god had removed the window. The smoke was getting even thicker, making it even harder for him to see. Right when Midas was ready to give up, on the verge of accepting his fate so that he could join his parents, he felt the bottom of a glass pane. He pushed hard, the window still didnt push. His father must have locked it so that he couldnt sneak out to play with his friends.
Without any hesitation he slammed his hand on the window once, twice, three times until the window broke and his fist was covered in glass shards dug deep in his skin. He quickly jumped out the window and ran to the front of the house, screaming his lungs out for help. Sure enough the village was already awake and had noticed the fire, bringing large buckets of water to put out the fire. Midas collapsed on his knees, tears overflowing into his mouth which tasted like salt. How did thisd happen? Why? He looked around the house with no purpose, only dead eyes. As he looked around he found a robed person leaning on a nearby houses wall, staring at the burning house with a mad look. Midas focused further, finally noticing the facial features of that mage. The mage turned as if noticing the glare then smiled maniacally at him. That was when Midas realised it was him.