Enrico's journey toward finding his true love

Granny was a Romany gypsy. She was a clever and feisty little old lady. She was educated and could speak and read at least 4 languages. The village she came from wanted her out as the custom with Gypsy's at that time was if you're old and has no family to back up your name and rank in the caravan you get kicked out. ' I , have done nothing to you lot, what's the reason you want to chuck me out .' Granny cried. ' It's not you Ma, you know the score , that's how things are done in the Romany Klan. ' the Leader of the Romany's said with feeling. 'We decided to give you a nice cabin and seeds and money, Ma you will be OK , it's just we can't do it anymore. ' . It's heartsore to do so much for your people, when you do all you can and still they were never going to appreciate it. 'Oh my what am I going to do by myself, I ain't never had to be by myself and be all alone, what am I to do , no ,no. ' she muttered painfully. That's when she came up with the idea to create her own family. Find a baby somewhere then she can have a child of her own. A while back she came to the village of the werewolf people the last of the ancient people who where descendent of an ancient Luna King. The Luna's where people that had shapeshifting power's and could change to any creature but only the wolf remained so all power's are limited now. It's in this village she gets to know a family unit that is about to have a brand new baby. She knocks on the door,. 'Hi would you like to buy some of my goodies.' she said.'I have some nice things here, even some stuff for your coming baby. Get a look at these cute pants and the lovely quilt to keep baby warm when it comes, sweetie I will give you a discount if you buy two of those.' as she held up a lovely bright quilt. She had a plan dancing in her mind . Get the baby and go live a life in the woods. Needless to say she got right what she was planning because she made off with me. I am the baby my Romany " Granny" took. The sad truth is she was a sweet loveable person. I was just an ordinary boy in Granny's world. The hideaway cabin in the woods was one of the most picturesque places in the world. I had the view of the Sea and their was mountain slopes with wonderful flowing waterfalls all year round. We were poor folks that's for sure as there wasn't enough money to buy food so Granny improvised and planted lot's of different veggies. She knew herbs and spices that grew in the nearby mountains. The mushrooms that were edible was her forte as her knowledge of specific plants was quite large. I learned a lot from her,. In the beginning she was the one that chopped the wood for sales in the nearby village. One day she came home excited about the skirmish in the village. 'Ricky', she shouted 'Where are you, boy?' 'I , am here Grammy.', that's what I called her. 'O, let me sit down here by the table.', 'Son I got bad news for you from that God forsaken village, they are planning to come and burn our home down.!'. she said with disgust. Frown lines etched on her forehead made her look angry and agitated. 'The nerve of those people, to say that I am a witch , they are a crazy bunch of nitwits. ' she said with feeling. 'Why, my friend in the village puts up with her husband I don't know. Listen laddy, I trust her and know she's told the truth. '. The wagon we made last week ,let's just put what we can for now in there and go to the cave by the waterfall and hide there till tomorrow. "Common boy let's go," 'Theres that stuff, these here.' She gave orders after that and I hopped and did as she said. No use in arguing with her as she always won them all. Best case scenario tomorrow morning I will be the one to unpack everything. 'Ok, Grammy you win.' I said with a .sigh. She always got so excited and wanted it all done now. I was 8 years old at that time having lived so long in our little home I just thought she was a bit daft and. would be wrong as we would probably be at home again tomorrow. Needless to say I did it quickly and urgently packed a lot of stuff in the wagon. After an hour of packing we started toward the waterfalls when we heard them. In the distance behind us at the cabin they were shouting and screaming for Granny to come out of the house. Thank goodness we packed so fast and were a good distance away. We could hear them but they couldn't see us. We made that poor donkey run as we pushed in hast to get to the waterfall. I heard a man shouting here's a trail guys come see this is the way. Fast they are getting away. So with those large village buffoons after us we were lucky to be a good way in front of them. As we got to the waterfall Granny said we must wipe away our tracks as we pushed the wagon in the cave. That blasted donkey made so much noise he was sure to give us away. I suggested that we hide behind the waterfall as I new as a child climbing up there was a space behind the curtain of water. That would dim any noise of the nervous donkey. We got in the back of the falls just in time. Behind a large boulder of rock. 'Hope they can't see us from here.' ,said Granny. My chest was burning from the exhausting chase we had to make us here. With nervous energy ,blood pumping loudly in my ears I listened to what was happening. The rider's that were looking for us was at a dead end. They were looking and checking the ground for signs of our wagon. 'Grannys eyes were big and she had her finger on her lips saying a silent sh , sh. We were so nervous and holding our breaths that it felt as if a great weight was lifted when they turned away and went back to the cottage . Those assholes burned the cottage and trampled the garden with their horses. A great sadness overcome both Granny and me as we cried holding hands in the back of the waterfall. After a while we realized we had won the day and had survived the onslaught made against us by those moronic monsters. When we looked around us we were surprised to find the space behind the falls to be much bigger than I had first thought as their was more space and even trees growing up there. The mountains were extended to the side where no one could see from the front of the waterfall. Granny was so dumbstruck that was the first time I saw her speechless. We both spoke at the same time. 'Grammy we can build a better house here.'I said. She said the same thing. We were overjoyed and took out our overnight tent we set up camp and were sure not to make fire's as that might give our place away , where we were hiding. Our first night in our new life was thrilling and exciting. I was glad to be alive. I was glad we were alive. Granny was more talkative and happier than I had ever seen her. We started building the very next day. Firstly going to the cabin to see what we could salvage was a good idea as there was quite a lot of stuff we could carry back to the new place. The village people where occupied with their own problems so we didn't see much of them. Only from a far distance thankfully as they had proven to be grave enemies. I was once again subjected to Granny's education plan. She made me learn to write and speak all the languages she could. Especially English as this was the language she enjoyed speaking the most. So most of the time that is what we spoke to each other. My Granny's knowledge astounded me as she was much more than the person I thought and with so much to talk about it was a pleasure to learn all she had to teach me. I was always grateful for all her help. Days went by and we went on with life. Things were much better now as we were closer to everything that we usually used to walk far to collect. We discovered there was a trail leading down the mountain on the side we were on. We even found our own private beach. Such luxury and comfort we never had before as the one fantastic discovery was a hot springs with bubbling hot water and warm cave walls as the opening of a smaller cave this water was clear and yummy. Granny said she saw something like it when she was a young kid and that water had healing properties. She was sure our spring also had the same healing properties. In the evenings we would go and sit in the hot springs and rejuvenate. So each day we found more treasures and fun things about our private little world. As life would have it nothing lasts forever even paradise come to an end. As surely as I have seen some pretty strange coincidences the strangest of all was when one night a year later we heard a massive upheaval coming from the village. Granny woke me up and put a finger to her lips sh. 'Son, wake up can you hear what's going on down there.' she whispered. In the candle light I saw here worried expression. 'What do you think is going on there.' 'Dinno Grammy', I said. The following day she asked me to go to the village. We have to find out what is going on down there. 'They don't know you so you will be safe', she said. . I was not impressed about this whole business . I told her so and was rewarded with an angry shout 'YOU will do as I say !' she screamed at me I was shocked to say the least as this was the first time she got huffy with me. Off I went to the village. What I encounted there will stay with me to this day. I had never seen so many dead people before and all the gore and blood everywhere was quite gory. I rushed back to Granny's and told her what I saw in the village. She was surprised and rushed down the mountain to the village with me. What we found there was so much death and destruction it was crazy to think these were the same guys that terrorized us that day a year ago. First we looked for survivors and checked each person. Granny had a mirror that she held to the person's nose and checked for vapour on the mirror. That and checking for a pulse on the wrist . Although this wasn't always accurate she said. We first found twenty people from almost 400 oh my that was so much human life that was a great loss. As things would have it at least 40 survivors was found. Three of the largest men where gravely injured. Granny had her healing herbs and made poultice to put on wounds. As luck would have it her friend and husband and son survived the onslaught. We placed people on tables and put rolled up blankets under their heads. Then came the unenviable task of burying the dead. The task was distasteful and bizarre but someone had to do it. First the hole Granny and two of the more able bodied guys dug the large grave we placed them all into. .It was then that the 'friend' of Granny's said 'What if they come back to check if everyone is dead.' Oh my Granny's expression you could read the shock and disbelief that the possibility of this happening was definitely a factor to be considered. She pulled me to one side and said whispered softly 'We have to take them to our home', I said 'no , definitely not.' Granny won that one as usual . We put the villages on our donkey cart and took them up a few at a time. Then with her friends help supplies where carted up too. Serendipity that is what happened because surely we were just about to go down to the village for the last lot of goodies when the marauders came back , just as well we moved them or everyone would have been killed. Everyone recovered and we all built the cottage bigger now we were 43 souls altogether as Grannys friend had a baby a year later. Those monsters took over the village but we managed to get out all the stuff we wanted. As the assholes went back to their village and only came back two days later. We were living up in the mountains very comfortable now as with the work load spread out we could accomplish more. We had to be very quiet as too much noise could alert the new occupants of the village to our existence. That we didn't want. Granny was thriving as she was now once again wanted and needed. Everyone made her feel very special. She was the 'little mother ' of our new Klan. The next few years flew by the same blissful way. Growing and maintaining our crops we were doing well. The fear was always there that we would be found but it never happened. Someone died of mushroom poisoning so the Leader of the ',new ,' village forbid anyone to go into the mountains. That was so scary it was strange. I was fourteen years old when I eventually found myself really wanting some adventure. I think if things are mundane and you do the same things all the time it gets to become boring. This was to become my greatest falicy and also my greatest strengths as I have always wanted adventure above all else.Things were not always what it seemed and my Granny was always so happy now I was glad to see her smiling. It started with me seeing the sailboats out at see and wondering what happens on them that started me on my adventure. Granny saw me looking out to the see and new exactly what was up with me sitting pensively looking out there with longing. 'Oh my laddie your getting bigger now and you will soon want to do more things than be here in our tiny village. That is what we built in three years a very lovely little village in the mountains. Our own haven away from the world.