Five years later::Chapter 2

Must hide. Must hide. Father is home. I dived under the bench and behind the radiator. He is angry. Mother must have told him about my shirt covered in tar. I love the smell of fresh tar.

"Kong!! Frost Kong!! Come here boy!!" Father roars. He passes the bench I'm hiding under. "Where is that boy. When I find him." Father mumbles.

The fear for my safety is palatable in the dust. My bladder suddenly wants to empty. I cannot move from here. If he finds me here I can forget about using it again.

As he enters the next room I scoot out and race for the stairs. I'm about to make the tenth step when the vine whip catches me from behind. The vines thorns cruelly bore into my flesh. "Got you Frost Kong" my aunt gloats. The thorns cruelly bite into my skin as I tried to wiggle away.

My aunt calls my father over. His stern face a mask of disapproval. "Kong, my son, why do you not learn to leave tar alone? Must my only son not only not study but play in the mud like some vagabond's child?"

"Father, I don't want to study sorcery. I want to study garden alchemy" I said this as resolutely as a boy just turned five could. His stern gaze bored through that resolve.

"Hmm. Then names the seven elements used in alchemy with three examples of each element." I looked at him and said "Fire, water, wind, earth, metal, light and the void are the seven elements that make up the world."

"That's fine and now three examples of each."

" Ah. Saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal are earth. A torch, the moon and lightning are light." I proudly announced.

"Anything else? If that is the extent of your knowledge then you will study sorcery" Father boomed.

I ran from the room as I heard the hissing sound of his belt escape his trousers. Father was very strict and will use his whip, belt or the blackthorn stick to aid in educating me.

Making it through the door before him I cast pass without a trace and ran into its fog. Silence, blessed silence and then I dove out the window. I landed in the flowerbed, tucked my body and rolled through the soft flowers. I'm not afraid of getting hurt from my own action as much as getting beaten by others.

I ran to the far edge of the lawn when I had the weirdest feeling of being watched. It came from overhead. Looking around I spotted a shimmer above and to the left.

Unseen servant, ghost or magic eye? Who was watching me?

"Hello" came a disembodied voice. I nearly jumped. It was just before me slightly visible was a teenage girl.