Fantasy : Untitled (Part 2)

"Daxon"

A tall lanky youth of perhaps sixteen, scrambled up the slope to sit down beside Daxon.

"What are you doing here? Your mother's making life difficult for everyone at the inn looking for you."

Daxon gave his friend a wink.

"Why, I'm just relaxing, Kel. Just relaxing. How's your apprenticeship with the smith coming along?"

"Argh, it's tough, it's hot, and it's dirty. Sometimes, I wonder what came over me when I decided to become a smith. I don't seem to have the muscles required."

"You'll do fine. Give it some time. You don't learn to walk on the day you are born."

"Perhaps"

Kel, short for Kelian, was an orphan. His mother died bringing him to this world, and his father took to wandering the world as a vagabond. He left behind Kel, as Kel resembled his mother too much, and painful memories were always revived whenever his father looked at him. He was left in the care of an uncle, who struggled and tried his best to act in the capacities of both father and mother to the bereaved boy.

Kel's uncle, Cobrien, was a merchant dealing in rare and exotic artifacts. Although business was sporadic at best, he nonetheless earned enough to feed and provide for the needs of Kel. Unmarried, he devoted his years to Kel's upbringing. He was the father Kel had never had. It was too much for Kel to bear, when Cobrien died unexpectedly when Kel was twelve years old.

The day after Cobrien's somewhat quiet funeral proceedings, Kel sat down numbly beside his uncle's grave, and stared with haunted eyes into nothingness, oblivious to man and weather. And for two days he sat thus, unmoving, uncaring, until Daxon's mother, Illena, eyes brimming with sympathetic tears, took steps and persuaded Kel, half dragging him home with her. Thereafter, with almost inhuman patience, she slowly but determinedly picked up the shattered pieces of Kel's life and glued them back together with tender loving care. The cracks were still there, but slowly, Kel regained a fraction of his former vitality and cheerfulness.

Inevitably, Daxon and Kel became the best of friends, inseparable like brothers. Daxon's carefree manner had captivated Kel, and even more able than Illena, he was able to breach the defences Kel had set up against other people.

So where Daxon was, Kel was certain to be somewhere nearby.

(To be continued ...)

Tags: Fantasy, Story, Dreams