Chapter 50: Initially Landed

"Brother, mother is calling for you." Mikka interrupted her brother, Eliaz who was currently playing with his fellow youngsters.

They were all gathered around the forest, close to their village. Playing around with competitive duels, which they find very oddly fun. Their chief has thought them as young lads to always remember that strength is a need of one's body and mind, however, weakness is also fair.

It was yet but a day they would spend in a peaceful morning. Dawn has fallen into oblivion as the ground receives the decent heat it needs.

A little girl was asked to call her brothers for the food they should take in during the day. She is bothered, every morning and this is what she has to do. As a girl who lovingly obeys her folks, she does it anyway.

"Alright, alright, tell mother I'm coming."

"But, you're not."

"I will!"

"But—"

Theon heads in to interrupt them, "Let's go, Eliaz, or you'll go bald!" He teased and runs back to the village.

Eliaz was tempted and Mikka knew he would follow Theon wherever he takes off on his journey. Through the river streams, highlands, or simply the cliffs. They are similarly on with each other's lives. Makes Mikka think that she is being excluded, but as a girl she is, she enjoys her company among other lovely girls.

Mikka giggled with her sweet voice, too tender for her brother to ignore. "You're lucky you were born such an adorable and irresistible little sister or I won't ever listen to you, ever." He teased as she pinched her cheeks.

Mikka whined and they soon both followed Theon. However, they were confused. "Where has Theon gone?" Eliaz asked.

"I have no idea, he was the one to go off firstly," Milla replied, shrugging her shoulders while sitting on the wooden chair and resting her hands on the table.

Eliaz scratched his head. "Where's mother?" He went inside the kitchen where his mother usually is but not a single of her was there. Shadow, soul, and spirit? None.

So, he went to the back of their house and there he saw his mother and father sitting together on a log while having Theon in between them. He sighed in relief. It was the usual, it seems. He always caught them in a situation such as this and he truly knows why. He plastered a smile realizing at how loving and cherishing his parents are.

"Mikka, come over here!" He called for her sister and for a few seconds she appeared beside him.

"What is it— oh." Mikka halted what she was about to ask when she saw where Theon and her mother was. She runs towards them and hugs their mother from the back.

Eliaz chuckled after seeing his mother flinch. He then followed and pursued to walk. His mother probably felt his footsteps and she immediately turned her gaze to the back.

"There you are,"

Revealed the face of her smiling mother, Zynthia.

"What took you both so long?" Asked by Ganord, their father.

"Well, I was busy pinching my sister's squishy cheeks. That's to be expected, I don't get much chance to do it. Anyhow, aren't we supposed to be sitting in our kitchen chairs and eating at our usual table? Or am I missing something?"

Theon laughed and stood up. "Thank you, mother Zynthia. I should set the goods and head back inside." He initiated.

Zynthia smiled and nodded. When Theon had already headed up inside, his presence was no longer seen. Eliaz gave his mother the look, a look as if asking why they had talked about it.

Zynthia just teasingly snorted it all out. "Oh son, we just had a conversation with your cousin Theon. Sometimes, I see him looking lonely and it shatters us inside. We also feel the sadness inside."

"So that's what it is." Eliaz realized.

They were only about eight to ten years old and they were already aware of how people feel. Eliaz was raised to gain awareness of people's emotions and trained to deal with physical pain. His father was after all the chief.

There were things Eliaz was being told while Theon never heard such a thing. Eliaz was a son who knew about the past and how they end up in this village. He knew but refused to reveal it to Theon. He figured it was too early or his mother asked him not to.

They were in the kitchen eating and were chit-chatting about ordinary things. The training and the structure to build in enclosing their village. Theon was silent listening to all of their talks as he munched on his food. Later on, they were being trained again. As a boy of their village, they have adapted that congregation amongst their kind.

Theon was mesmerised the first time he held the bow. Eliaz was cackling up from afar while looking at how sparkly his cousin's eyes were.

What an adorable fellow.' He thought.

While Zynthia thought of them as the adorable ones.

Zynthia was currently on her bed after she made her children fall to sleep. Ganord went inside and slumped himself on the soft fabric. Their house evolved and instead of huts and weak structures. They chose to put the timber to a good and wise use. They built strong ones and created a lively atmosphere on the inside.

Zynthia loved how their village turned out.

"I was wondering," Ganord looked at him and placed her head in his arm. Zynthia was ready to listen. "Why don't we just tell him about the cursed creature? What is it with the seal of this cure? You told me that all we need to do is for Theon to realize the truth."

Zynthia stood up and took something from the near drawer just a few inches from their bed.

It was the ornament. Her father gave it to her for a long time ago, the time that they spent in a once peaceful forest.

"Do you see this? The cure their mother studied and attempted to create never worked no matter how hard she tried. She even used our abilities to add to the spell, yet nothing happened. There was something missing. And before she died and Lyzelle also did, it was her child, Theon. They handed me Theon, right in these arms."

Eliaz never got any hint in those sentences. So, Zynthia laid down on the bed and gave him the ornament. "Theon is the key, and that's why we can not tell him as the spell itself indicates a realization. Theon, alone, should realize his purpose."

Ganord finally acknowledged what Zynthia was trying to tell him. "I see, so we are his direction then? His indirectly said pathway."

"Yes, we are," Zynthia said. "One thing that I also found out while exploring my abilities for these past years is that Ravyn will soon be back."

Ganord was stunned. "Is that our fate?"

"Yes, I have no regrets, Ganord. How about you?"

"Me neither. Ever since I've met you, that alone was a gift and it still is. So no matter where you go, I follow."

"Are we being selfish, then?" Zynthia's heart was fulfilled. She knew it was such a selfish decision knowing there are many lives they are leading up until this point. If they chose to give in to the creator's fate instead of changing it then it would risk not just theirs but the people they love the most.

"We're not, but we indeed are getting sleepy. You should head to bed." Ganord fixed their position and Zynthia soundly slept beside him.

After that, he couldn't catch his sleep so he stood up and went outside. He was in between closing the door when he discovered Mikka was outside. He jolted and sighed in relief.

"Mikka." He uttered her name. "Why are you still awake? A little young girl like yourself should be in bed by now. Even your brothers are asleep."

The girl was standing there and scrubbing her eyes. "The bed was uncomfortable."

Ganord checked if Zynthia was still in deep slumber before gently closing the door. "Let's head outside and you tell father what's in your mind, alright?"

"Alright, father."

Gamord grabbed a chair from inside and gave it to Mikka. They were outside and the house's candles were all blown off.

"You may start now, you only have a few jiffies left before I would lead you to bed." Ganord initiated.

"Father, why is Theon different from us? I kept calling him brother but I heard Eliaz calling him cousin." Mikka shared her thoughts.

Ganord cleared his throat and plastered a smile. "You see, he is no different from you nor your brother Eliaz. It's alright to call him brother, still, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. But, Theon is..." He thinks twice about whether to tell her or not. "Is a brother from another mother."

Mikka looked at him. She seems to be lost in her words but this girl ought to not pry harder, her mind is too small to understand trivial things. On that night, before she gave in to the depths of the darkness and fall into oblivion. Her mind was filled with the ornament she saw in her mother's hands. She heard all their conversation without having any thought about it.

And now that she's awake again, inside the forest on a sunny morning. Rays flashed through her pupils. She saw Theon talking to her father while wearing the exact same ornament from that night. The carved leaf was vivid and bright as this day.

"Mikka, to whom are you looking at with those sharp stares of yours?" A fellow girl she was with, implored with a pitch in her voice. As expected from a girl.

"Naught, Kiatri. Just a necklace." She replied in a lackadaisical manner.

"Huh?" Kiatri followed where she was looking and it laned on Theon. "Oh, if it isn't your brother wearing a necklace. Are you jealous? My mother knitted me a beautiful dress, do you wish to-"

"No, thank you. I am not jealous. Moreover, it is more fit to label it as confusion. Anyhow, shall we head in to join Bernadette?" She turned her back and Kiatri look back at Theon's ornament before following Mikka.

Meanwhile, Theon sighed in relief after they were gone. Their stares were taunting me, what have I truly done for them to be acting that way?'

"Theon are you listening? Eliaz is somewhere in the forest. This lad is a pain in the head. He hasn't been coming back." Ganord called out to him and answered his question when he implored about where Eliaz was.

"O-oh, right. I should wait for him then. Thank you, father." He replied.

Instead of actually waiting for Eliaz, he head in and took the courage to find Eliaz. Earlier this morning, he was with Zynthia and asking him several questions and she suddenly gave him an ornament, a necklace with a carved leaf on it. Saying that it was a long gift for him. He accepted it without any fuss.

"Maybe, that's why Mikka was staring a lot. Should I give this to her?" He held the pendant in his fingers. "Hmm, that would not be a good idea. Mother gave this to me then she should have one for Mikka and Eliaz too."

He was currently wandering around the deep forest with no clue where Eliaz was. He can still recognize the area he was in. He reckoned he won't get lost.

"Did he get lost, probably? Knowing he is older than me, he should be more knowledgeable, isn't that right?" He roamed his eyes around. "I'm alone."

After he realized that he was lingering in the forest carelessly and without any direction indicated. His heart slowly started to palpitate hastily. He has gotten anxious over many aspects of the forest. Gigantic trees appeared before his eyes. Then he started running. Running inside the woods, he glanced left to right and there was no inkling of Eliaz's presence.

"Where is he? Where am I?"

After roaming around the forest in jiffies he gazed at a familiar sight. Nervous, he walked into it and he was right, it was the specific cliff he fell. He stood at the edge of it and he heard slight noises from below. Even though he was frightened he filled up his courage and went down.

When he arrived down the cliff, he silently thanked chief Ganord for teaching him how to climb up and down a tree or a mountain. He wandered his eyes around and continued walking. He felt someone from his back and he almost stumbled when a hand reached out to his shoulder.

"Goodness, Eliaz! There you are!" He yelled.

Eliaz laughed hard while placing his arm on his stomach. Mocking his surprise. Theon wasn't pleased seeing the look on his face with his brows swarming to an arch as his chest went to heavens and hell.

"Oh, you will be the reason for my death." He said in between his laughs.

"Don't say such a thing and such your stuff. We've worried about you and yet you're this far from the village."

"Were you scared again?"

"S-scared? Didn't you hear me? I was worried. Who's scared? Not me." He glanced elsewhere.

"Anyway, follow me. I will introduce you to a friend of mine." He went and surpass Theon's standing. Heading towards more of the surrounding trees.

"Friend? A friend inside a deep forest? Not a good idea, Eliaz. We should head back." He warned him.

"Oh don't be such a coward. I know my way around. Now, let's go before he heads elsewhere." Eliaz run and left him alone.

"Eliaz!"

Now, he started to feel anxious about whether it was a good idea to follow Eliaz and as he was drowning in his never-ending reveries. Eliaz's presence was gone. When he tried to follow him what he heard was a vicious roar, spread throughout the forest.

His heart almost pumped out of his chest. Then, he saw Eliaz who was standing straight almost froze to his skull. Theon was brave enough to silently go toward him, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him out of the place.

Whereas, the possessor of the ferocious vociferation was actually settled on top of a branch in a tree. The reason Eliaz was standing still was all because he saw this possessor shaking its head telling him to not do what he was ought to.

Now, he quietly watches them run away. But, before that would ever happen. He was that lad. A lad whose hands felt cold as they trembled with his roar. His heartache at the thought and he asked himself. What might these raging feelings be? For what reason did it have to act like that.

Little did he know, that that was the first-ever encounter in the past years he has never seen him. It was an encounter in which he thought he has forgotten.

An encounter that may as well flip the state of his life.

Ambroz panted as he placed his hand on his chest.

"What was the boy's name?" Came out of his mouth.

Well, Ambroz, it was Theon Bartleby-Everson.

———————

ABYSSCESS

(A/N)

And here it ends! Finally! The flashback through Ambroz's retold story has come to an end. The following chapters would be the present day where Theon uncovers his reaction to all of it.

What will it be?

Freedom of the Truth? Or the consequences of the lingering lies?