Okay, this is pretty important. I didn't think that Fae and Casper's names fitted with the fantasy world I had in mind pretty well, (In particular Casper's sounded far too modern) So I've changed them to Tyra and Edward. If that bothers anyone I'm sorry, but I thought I should do it before the names stuck to anyone.
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Edward's point of view (why not?)
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My leg hurt.
After going around the whole marketplace and playing several games of hide-and-seek, I couldn't even jog. Noticing this, Tyra ordered us to sit down. We were in a clearing a little way into the forest. There were a few snowdrops dotted around, but other than that it was just a white blanket. We sat, eating the chocolate that Aza and Laurel had brought, and chatting about all the village gossip that had been happening. Our mum was friends with a lot of people, so she often got lots of gossip that she would share with us.
"Hey, did you hear? Nancy is having a child with James!" Laurel announced happily.
"About time, they've been married for like four years!" Tyra exclaimed.
"I know right!" Aza grinned.
"Do you remember their wedding? I can't believe they actually invited the whole village! I mean, I know we're small, but our population was still like 200!" Tyra asked.
"Oh, I remember that! They had a sponge cake and everything! Best thing I've ever tasted, no competition." Aza replied.
"Mmm," I nodded. I wasn't sure what the best thing I had ever tasted was, but it wasn't that.
"Sorry that you won't be able to shoot with us Ed," Laurel apologised.
"It's fine, not your fault. I will get another chance at it." I assured her, but I did actually feel a little left out . My ill leg was always getting in the way of things. When me and Tyra were travelling, I had found a mother boar. Being the naive ten-year-old I was, I had tried to feed it's piglets, not knowing how defensive boars were of their children. The mother had charged into my leg, breaking it. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of a forest, with no clinics nearby. Tyra had tried her best to heal it, but she was only eight, and only knew to put water on the would the boar's tusk had left. Luckily, the boar had sensed after that that they weren't dangerous, and didn't attack further. By the time we had gotten to a clinic, my leg had suffered permanent damage. Too much strain on it could still damage it.
I sat on a rock, eating the rest of the chocolate (which tasted absolutely amazing, I hadn't had chocolate since my birthday seven months ago), watching while Aza tried to teach Laurel and Tyra to shoot properly. They only had plain trainee bows, but Aza's bow was something else. It was made of mahogany (yep, actual mahogany!), and had intricate engravements of birds and spiral patterns engraved into it. It was Aza's prized possession, and she took great care of it, cleaning it by the stream that flowed through the forest and cut straight through the middle of town. She kept it inside a hollow tree when she wasn't in the forest in case the Royal Guard came to our house. They would undoubtedly take her bow if they found it.
"No, you're doing it all wrong, you have to have both eyes open, having one closed changes your perspective!" Aza whined to Tyra. Tyra royally sucked with a bow. Maybe it was because she was left-handed or something. Even Laurel was better than her.
"Come on Tyra, that didn't even hit the target, you're like ten feet away from it!" Aza shouted teasingly.
"Shut up!" She pouted. Tyra was trying to be angry, but she couldn't help but grin.
"Maybe you'd be good with a different weapon, like a spear or dagger or something?" Laurel suggested.
"Maybe, I should make some spears and try that sometime. I don't know how I'd get a dagger. They are made of metal, they're bound to be expensive." Tyra said thoughtfully. I would have to keep that in mind as a present to her for her birthday or something, I always struggled to think of birthday presents. I'm a guy, I don't do girl presents.
Laurel was doing fairly well. She was getting a few bullseyes, but she couldn't really shoot while moving. Then again, when would we ever really need to? Laurel was still a mile off of Aza, who could shoot every target dead centre with little effort.
By the end of the day, Laurel had hit seven bullseyes, and Tyra two. We had to be back home by nine o'clock, and a storm was coming for sure. I could feel the electricity in the air, it created an ominous atmosphere. I couldn't help but like something bad was going to happen, but then all storms had that effect. I was just being paranoid.
Mother came charging down the stairs as we slammed the medieval door shut. "Adam isn't infected, thank the sun!" She exclaimed happily. We all smiled with glee. "Did you get everything we asked for?" Mum added, wiping the grins off of our faces in an instant. Dad came down the stairs, sighing at us.
"Edward?" He called, grabbing my attention. I looked at him inquisitively. "You're grounded."
"But it wasn't his-" Tyra started.
"I don't care for excuses. Is there anything you actually managed to get?" Dad snapped.
"We got the chicken and milk, but Az-"
"I said I don't care for excuses! Now give me whatever else you brought."
"Um..." Laurel started, looking nervous.
"We already ate it!" Aza finished, looking pleased with herself. Typical. Aza was far too rebellious.
"You're all grounded then, you know better than that, that was a selfish thing to do." Mum finalised. Tyra, Laurel, and Aza all shouted in indignation.
"WHAT?!"
"That's not fair!"
"This is all you're fault Aza!"
"ENOUGH!" Dad bellowed, shocking us into silence. "Go to your room and sleep, it's nine o'clock anyway, and you have your first day back at school tomorrow. This will teach you to not answer back!" Laurel and Tyra backed down and walked upstairs, upset. Aza, however, was still furious."
"BUT IT'S TOO EARLY TO SLEEP!" She shouted, basically having a temper tantrum. We weren't kids anymore, she needed to grow up.
"DO WHAT I SAY!" Dad yelled.
Aza stomped up the stairs, making as much noise as possible. "I HATE YOU!" She shrieked, slamming our bedroom door.
"Sorry about her, she really needs to learn to behave. And sorry for not getting what you asked." I apologised sheepishly, walking up the stairs and into our room. Everyone was on Laurel's bed. Her and Tyra looked calm but still upset and angry at Aza. Aza meanwhile was still riled up, sulking. Tyra was reluctantly trying to get Aza to settle down.
"It's so unfair, why should we go to bed this early?" Aza whined. "I wanted to draw!" If her pens weren't downstairs, she undoubtedly would draw anyway, but they were stored in a cupboard in the living room. I sat on Laurel's bed with them.
"Just stop complaining, this is all your fault anyway. If you didn't buy that chocolate in the first place this never would've happened." Tyra said, trying to reason with her. She puffed out a cheek in indignation, something she always did when she was annoyed.
"You have to apologise to dad tomorrow, Aza," I added.
Aza climbed up to her own bed eventually, but she was still pouting. I got onto my own mattress, lying down. I wasn't even slightly tired, but I had to set a good example for Laurel and Aza, who were both reluctant to sleep. It was then it hit me.
"Hey, Tyra?" I asked. She was just getting ready to climb the ladder to her bed. She looked at me.
"Hm?"
"What about your homework?" I asked her, expecting her to have forgotten. She leant over to me, motioning to come closer. I did, and she put her mouth to my ear.
"I'm not really going to sleep, I'm getting up again as soon as the twins are asleep. I want to read The Legend of the Night Orb." She whispered. I grinned.
"Good idea, I might do the same. Are you going to do your homework, though?" I asked her quietly. She gave me a mocking look.
"Keep dreaming!" She replied. I gave up, knowing that there would be no convincing her.
Half an hour later, and I was pretty positive that the twins were fast asleep. Aza was curled up in a small ball, and Laurel was spread out like a starfish as usual, snoring loudly. Dad had come to check on us once, but we pretended to be asleep. Him and mum were downstairs talking now, Probably about us.
"Are you still awake?" I whispered.
"Yep!" She replied, getting up and climbing down from her bunk. We grinned at each other stupidly.
"So, The Legend of the Night Orb, right?" I asked her. She nodded eagerly. We both loved to read mythology, wondering if any of the myths we read about were actually true, and if so, to what extent. The Legend of the Night Orb was her favourite. It was one of many myths about the night sky, all inside a book titled: "Myths of the Night."
I got out of bed, and me and Tyra sneaked over to the door. I prayed it wouldn't squeak, and pushed it open. It did. I gulped, listening for any sign our foster parents had heard it, but they were still talking. Tyra sighed in relief. We tiptoed across the landing to father's study, where all of his books were, and where he made smaller wooden objects. Our books were also there, so we didn't spend all night reading them. Little did he know that was exactly what we were going to do anyway.
As usual, the study was a mess. Half the books weren't on a bookshelf and were in piles scattered across the cramped room. Father's desk was covered in blueprints, tools, and wood. Sawdust stagnated the air, so dusty it made you cough. Normally, the window was open, and father had a blankety-like thing over his mouth and nose, but tonight the window was locked firmly shut, and we had no masks. We would have to be quick, or else we would catch a cough.
Tyra looked at me worriedly. Her expression was obvious. Maybe we should just go back before we get into more trouble. She had a point, we weren't even allowed up here without mum or dad when we weren't in trouble and supposed to be asleep.Then again, we had come too far to just bail. I shook my head. Dad and mum were still downstairs, oblivious to what was going on. Tyra still looked doubtful, so I motioned for her to stay there. Her smile radiated gratitude. She hated the study, the sawdust always got up her nose and made her sneeze. She had even gotten a violent cough from coming in here once, which had cost money to get medication for.
I snuck inside. To the untrained eye, this room may look horribly unorganised, but each pile on the floor was actually a different genre. The mythology books were in a small gap between father's desk and the wall. I crouched down and started to dig through the pile, being careful not to make any noise. It was probably right at the bottom of the pile, how typical. No, Myths of the Night, not The Tale of Pendragon! I thought, getting impatient.
After minutes of searching, I found it. As I suspected, the book had been crammed right at the bottom of the pile. It had a leather cover, which had been dyed midnight blue, and careful embossments of gold patterned the front and back cover. It was around 200 pages long, but the pages were made of thick paper to make the book durable, so it looked twice that. I picked it up and carried it with me out of the study, following Tyra back into the bedroom.
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Edward's point of view (why not?)
-----------------------------
My leg hurt.
After going around the whole marketplace and playing several games of hide-and-seek, I couldn't even jog. Noticing this, Tyra ordered us to sit down. We were in a clearing a little way into the forest. There were a few snowdrops dotted around, but other than that it was just a white blanket. We sat, eating the chocolate that Aza and Laurel had brought, and chatting about all the village gossip that had been happening. Our mum was friends with a lot of people, so she often got lots of gossip that she would share with us.
"Hey, did you hear? Nancy is having a child with James!" Laurel announced happily.
"About time, they've been married for like four years!" Tyra exclaimed.
"I know right!" Aza grinned.
"Do you remember their wedding? I can't believe they actually invited the whole village! I mean, I know we're small, but our population was still like 200!" Tyra asked.
"Oh, I remember that! They had a sponge cake and everything! Best thing I've ever tasted, no competition." Aza replied.
"Mmm," I nodded. I wasn't sure what the best thing I had ever tasted was, but it wasn't that.
"Sorry that you won't be able to shoot with us Ed," Laurel apologised.
"It's fine, not your fault. I will get another chance at it." I assured her, but I did actually feel a little left out . My ill leg was always getting in the way of things. When me and Tyra were travelling, I had found a mother boar. Being the naive ten-year-old I was, I had tried to feed it's piglets, not knowing how defensive boars were of their children. The mother had charged into my leg, breaking it. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of a forest, with no clinics nearby. Tyra had tried her best to heal it, but she was only eight, and only knew to put water on the would the boar's tusk had left. Luckily, the boar had sensed after that that they weren't dangerous, and didn't attack further. By the time we had gotten to a clinic, my leg had suffered permanent damage. Too much strain on it could still damage it.
I sat on a rock, eating the rest of the chocolate (which tasted absolutely amazing, I hadn't had chocolate since my birthday seven months ago), watching while Aza tried to teach Laurel and Tyra to shoot properly. They only had plain trainee bows, but Aza's bow was something else. It was made of mahogany (yep, actual mahogany!), and had intricate engravements of birds and spiral patterns engraved into it. It was Aza's prized possession, and she took great care of it, cleaning it by the stream that flowed through the forest and cut straight through the middle of town. She kept it inside a hollow tree when she wasn't in the forest in case the Royal Guard came to our house. They would undoubtedly take her bow if they found it.
"No, you're doing it all wrong, you have to have both eyes open, having one closed changes your perspective!" Aza whined to Tyra. Tyra royally sucked with a bow. Maybe it was because she was left-handed or something. Even Laurel was better than her.
"Come on Tyra, that didn't even hit the target, you're like ten feet away from it!" Aza shouted teasingly.
"Shut up!" She pouted. Tyra was trying to be angry, but she couldn't help but grin.
"Maybe you'd be good with a different weapon, like a spear or dagger or something?" Laurel suggested.
"Maybe, I should make some spears and try that sometime. I don't know how I'd get a dagger. They are made of metal, they're bound to be expensive." Tyra said thoughtfully. I would have to keep that in mind as a present to her for her birthday or something, I always struggled to think of birthday presents. I'm a guy, I don't do girl presents.
Laurel was doing fairly well. She was getting a few bullseyes, but she couldn't really shoot while moving. Then again, when would we ever really need to? Laurel was still a mile off of Aza, who could shoot every target dead centre with little effort.
By the end of the day, Laurel had hit seven bullseyes, and Tyra two. We had to be back home by nine o'clock, and a storm was coming for sure. I could feel the electricity in the air, it created an ominous atmosphere. I couldn't help but like something bad was going to happen, but then all storms had that effect. I was just being paranoid.
Mother came charging down the stairs as we slammed the medieval door shut. "Adam isn't infected, thank the sun!" She exclaimed happily. We all smiled with glee. "Did you get everything we asked for?" Mum added, wiping the grins off of our faces in an instant. Dad came down the stairs, sighing at us.
"Edward?" He called, grabbing my attention. I looked at him inquisitively. "You're grounded."
"But it wasn't his-" Tyra started.
"I don't care for excuses. Is there anything you actually managed to get?" Dad snapped.
"We got the chicken and milk, but Az-"
"I said I don't care for excuses! Now give me whatever else you brought."
"Um..." Laurel started, looking nervous.
"We already ate it!" Aza finished, looking pleased with herself. Typical. Aza was far too rebellious.
"You're all grounded then, you know better than that, that was a selfish thing to do." Mum finalised. Tyra, Laurel, and Aza all shouted in indignation.
"WHAT?!"
"That's not fair!"
"This is all you're fault Aza!"
"ENOUGH!" Dad bellowed, shocking us into silence. "Go to your room and sleep, it's nine o'clock anyway, and you have your first day back at school tomorrow. This will teach you to not answer back!" Laurel and Tyra backed down and walked upstairs, upset. Aza, however, was still furious."
"BUT IT'S TOO EARLY TO SLEEP!" She shouted, basically having a temper tantrum. We weren't kids anymore, she needed to grow up.
"DO WHAT I SAY!" Dad yelled.
Aza stomped up the stairs, making as much noise as possible. "I HATE YOU!" She shrieked, slamming our bedroom door.
"Sorry about her, she really needs to learn to behave. And sorry for not getting what you asked." I apologised sheepishly, walking up the stairs and into our room. Everyone was on Laurel's bed. Her and Tyra looked calm but still upset and angry at Aza. Aza meanwhile was still riled up, sulking. Tyra was reluctantly trying to get Aza to settle down.
"It's so unfair, why should we go to bed this early?" Aza whined. "I wanted to draw!" If her pens weren't downstairs, she undoubtedly would draw anyway, but they were stored in a cupboard in the living room. I sat on Laurel's bed with them.
"Just stop complaining, this is all your fault anyway. If you didn't buy that chocolate in the first place this never would've happened." Tyra said, trying to reason with her. She puffed out a cheek in indignation, something she always did when she was annoyed.
"You have to apologise to dad tomorrow, Aza," I added.
Aza climbed up to her own bed eventually, but she was still pouting. I got onto my own mattress, lying down. I wasn't even slightly tired, but I had to set a good example for Laurel and Aza, who were both reluctant to sleep. It was then it hit me.
"Hey, Tyra?" I asked. She was just getting ready to climb the ladder to her bed. She looked at me.
"Hm?"
"What about your homework?" I asked her, expecting her to have forgotten. She leant over to me, motioning to come closer. I did, and she put her mouth to my ear.
"I'm not really going to sleep, I'm getting up again as soon as the twins are asleep. I want to read The Legend of the Night Orb." She whispered. I grinned.
"Good idea, I might do the same. Are you going to do your homework, though?" I asked her quietly. She gave me a mocking look.
"Keep dreaming!" She replied. I gave up, knowing that there would be no convincing her.
Half an hour later, and I was pretty positive that the twins were fast asleep. Aza was curled up in a small ball, and Laurel was spread out like a starfish as usual, snoring loudly. Dad had come to check on us once, but we pretended to be asleep. Him and mum were downstairs talking now, Probably about us.
"Are you still awake?" I whispered.
"Yep!" She replied, getting up and climbing down from her bunk. We grinned at each other stupidly.
"So, The Legend of the Night Orb, right?" I asked her. She nodded eagerly. We both loved to read mythology, wondering if any of the myths we read about were actually true, and if so, to what extent. The Legend of the Night Orb was her favourite. It was one of many myths about the night sky, all inside a book titled: "Myths of the Night."
I got out of bed, and me and Tyra sneaked over to the door. I prayed it wouldn't squeak, and pushed it open. It did. I gulped, listening for any sign our foster parents had heard it, but they were still talking. Tyra sighed in relief. We tiptoed across the landing to father's study, where all of his books were, and where he made smaller wooden objects. Our books were also there, so we didn't spend all night reading them. Little did he know that was exactly what we were going to do anyway.
As usual, the study was a mess. Half the books weren't on a bookshelf and were in piles scattered across the cramped room. Father's desk was covered in blueprints, tools, and wood. Sawdust stagnated the air, so dusty it made you cough. Normally, the window was open, and father had a blankety-like thing over his mouth and nose, but tonight the window was locked firmly shut, and we had no masks. We would have to be quick, or else we would catch a cough.
Tyra looked at me worriedly. Her expression was obvious. Maybe we should just go back before we get into more trouble. She had a point, we weren't even allowed up here without mum or dad when we weren't in trouble and supposed to be asleep.Then again, we had come too far to just bail. I shook my head. Dad and mum were still downstairs, oblivious to what was going on. Tyra still looked doubtful, so I motioned for her to stay there. Her smile radiated gratitude. She hated the study, the sawdust always got up her nose and made her sneeze. She had even gotten a violent cough from coming in here once, which had cost money to get medication for.
I snuck inside. To the untrained eye, this room may look horribly unorganised, but each pile on the floor was actually a different genre. The mythology books were in a small gap between father's desk and the wall. I crouched down and started to dig through the pile, being careful not to make any noise. It was probably right at the bottom of the pile, how typical. No, Myths of the Night, not The Tale of Pendragon! I thought, getting impatient.
After minutes of searching, I found it. As I suspected, the book had been crammed right at the bottom of the pile. It had a leather cover, which had been dyed midnight blue, and careful embossments of gold patterned the front and back cover. It was around 200 pages long, but the pages were made of thick paper to make the book durable, so it looked twice that. I picked it up and carried it with me out of the study, following Tyra back into the bedroom.
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