6077 Years After Unification

“Conjured chains held me by my hands and a metal spike jutted out of my chest. I heaved to break my chains, to go help my home, but all I got was pain.” – Crown Prince Etolan Roan.

Adan skipped along the cobblestone street, a broad smile on his face as the first drops of water fell on his head. He loved the rain. Especially the first of the season. His mother, apparently, did not, for she grunted loudly, quickly opened the big yellow umbrella and hurried towards their home, tugging Adan along with her.

“Ma! I want to stay in the rain,” Adan cried, trying to pull away from her and the shelter of the stupid umbrella.

“Don’t be crazy, Adu, You’ll get sick,” his mother said, navigating around the potholes in the street. Adan saw one right in front of him and, taking his opportunity, he jumped into it, splashing muddy rain water all over him and his mother.

She shrieked in annoyance as Adan chortled. Looking at her son’s toothy grin, Dorene gave a smile as well.

Adan tried jumping into several more holes filled with water along the way but Dorene was successful in stopping her son’s plan. Soon their home was visible at the end of the road and a slight hill; a tiny brown cottage with a red oakwood roof.

Standing in front of the fireplace, Adan dried himself with a giant towel. Furiously rubbing his hair, as if it were a game.

“You do such shenanigans again and I will hang you upside down from the ceiling, mister,” Dorene said, her wide smile betraying her feigned anger. She sat near the fireplace, getting rain water out of her long curly hair.

“I would make a great bat, ma.” Adan tossed aside the towel, rolled on the ground and stood on his head, upside down, balancing against the wall and making shrill noises, mimicking the creatures from the Daamun woods.

“Stop it, you naughty littlebittle.” Dorene pulled Adan straight and began tickling her son, who laughed uncontrollably.

A loud bang on the door made Adan freeze. Silence filled the room, the only sound coming from the crackling of wood from the hearth and raindrops pelting the roof. A second knock came at the door but before Dorene could move, it burst open, sending the rain rushing in.

Adan’s heart clenched in his chest as he saw the silhouette of a giant person, shrouded in shadow, standing at his doorstep, holding something in his hands.Adan rubbed his eyes to check again because he thought it was another person!

Dorene stood and pulled Adan behind her, who tried peeking at the stranger. “Let me put him to bed,” she said and picked Adan up, moving upstairs. Fear gripped Adan as Dorene made for his room but he quickly dismissed it. Ever since his father’s death the previous year he was the man of the house. He had to be strong.

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“Let me stay, ma. I’ll protect you from the stranger,” Adan said, his eyes full of determination even as his voice shook from the cold, and a smidge of fear. He may only be eight winters old but he was strong for his age.

Dorene kissed his son on the cheek as she tucked him in bed, a smile on her face, her voice soft. “My little guardian. Ma doesn’t need protection, Adu. The man…he’s a friend. Go to sleep now.”

His mother’s smile always made Adan relax and yet he could now see a tightening around her eyes, her tone wavering.

Dorene looked back at her son from the doorway, smiled reassuringly before turning off the light and leaving. Shrouded in darkness, Adan thought of the stranger downstairs. Maybe it’s Reeyu, though it didn’t look like it, he thought but that didn’t make sense. His ma wouldn't have sent him to bed if it were Reeyu.

Moments passed but Adan couldn’t sleep. He got off his bed, picked up the tiny sword— more of a wooden stick—he had by his bed and slipped out of his room, determined to find out who the person was. The bat was just for safety. He moved silently down the stairs, he was good at sneaking around. Reeyu had taught him.

Voices drifted to him as he stepped closer to the living room.

“Where was he?” Dorene was saying, her voice ragged, as if she’d been crying, “All this time?”

“I don’t know,” a man’s voice came. Adan recognized it. He hurried down the rest of the steps, got down on his knees and peered around the wall. His mother sat on the lone couch, her back to Adan, her head resting on her palms. The man sat in the chair opposite her, drenched in rain and sitting in a pool of water constantly dripping from his clothes.

It was Norandun Stormaxe!

Adan wanted to run towards Nor da and tug on his long flowing white beard, like he had done numerous times but the somber look on the old Mage’s face stopped him. Adan’s eyes fell on the sack on the ground in the corner which Norandun had been carrying.

It wasn’t a sack but indeed a person, lying down, unmoving. Adan saw the figure’s face and all life drained from him. It was his papa.

A shiver ran down his whole body as he saw the pale, gaunt face, lying in his living room. Nothing made sense. His father had died a year ago in war. How was he here? A thousand questions rushed to his mind as he stood there, the sound of his beating heart ringing in his ears.

His mother’s cries brought Adan’s attention back to her.

“You were to protect him,” Dorene hissed, contempt clear in her voice.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry won’t give me back my husband!” Dorene shouted. Norandun shrank back in his chair, his shoulders slumped. The giant man had never seemed so small.

“We need to go, Dorene. Odarin needs to rest,” Norandun said after a long pause.

Dorene said nothing for a long time. Eternity seemed to pass but Adan couldn’t bring himself to look at his father again, as if not looking would make it not real. And yet he wanted to run to him, shake him, wake him up.

The last year had been dreadful and lonely and sad. Days had been filled with random people of the village coming and going, offering condolences, carrying food and the nights had been filled with an eerie silence, only broken by his mother’s muffled sobs coming from her room. Adan wasn’t supposed to know his ma cried herself to sleep every night. Still did sometimes.

He wanted his papa back. His father, who laid in front of him and Adan couldn’t make himself go to him. Adan kept staring at his mother, tears flowing down his cheeks.

“Let’s go.” Dorene sighed and heaved herself off the couch, her shoulders slumped, as if tired from carrying a huge burden.

Norandun picked up Odarin. Dorene opened the door to their home and both left in the dark night, the sky filled with thunder and lightning, the rain falling heavier than Adan had ever seen.