Six Warriors

An Unsafe Place For Children - (Fenrir)

There was Fenrir, now playing with the Merlina girl. They played a game with a ball and the boy didn't look very excited, unlike the girl. She looked very happy like she never had another child to play with. After that they played games like tag or hide and seek and after Merlina got tired of running around and looking for Fenrir who hid very well, they went to play a board game called 'Brandubh' which was a weird kind of chess, Merlina said it had been a gift from Adger. After a few games of the game that Fenrir was starting to like and learn, Merlina got tired and went to play with some of the girl's dolls and that's when she also brought some of the Action Figures that Alexia had given him as a gift.

"Hey, hey, hey, these aren't toys." Fenrir complained to the girl seeing his action figures there.

"They look like toys to me." Merlina spoke.

"Yeah, but they're not, they are, you know... just to be admired." Fenrir made a move to take the action figures, but the girl made a namby-pamby of a spoiled brat expression as if pretending she was going to cry or something... well, Fenrir didn't care, but he didn't want that sinister Adger figure there again, so he simply left the action figures with her, which seemed to make her very happy. After a while it actually seemed fun, I mean, not that Fenrir used to do that anymore, but playing with action figures and dolls was kind of cool... It was at a time when he was imitating the sounds of a power from one of the action figures that he realized someone was watching him with an expression of... rather, expressionless.

It was that weird girl who didn't talk from before, Othala or something, she was perched on one of the windows and Fenrir didn't know how long she'd been there. The boy quickly got up from the floor where he was playing and then cleared his throat.

"Uh, that... I was just doing it because of her, I mean, Alexia promised it to her for me" Fenrir smiled awkwardly.

But Othala just remained there, with the same expression and not speaking. Fenrir grimaced.

"Right…so, hey, where are the others? Why did they leave me here? Didn't we have some kind of mission or something?"

Othala didn't answer anything.

"Big bro Fenrir, don't you know this is the big sister who doesn't say anything?" Merlina laughed at him.

"She can summon a funny critter with magic! Hey big brother can you do cool stuff with magic too?"

"Of course he can, girl," said someone walking over there suddenly, coming from Fenrir didn't know where. It was that girl, who despite her peach-inspired perfume, a smell of seaweed and damp stuff still lingered on her, Evagore Sobek was her name, "but you don't want to see this, as far as I know he almost kills people when he do things with his magic."

Fenrir changed his expression when he saw her there and said those things. His gaze immediately turned cold. Merlina noticed and made an almost frightened expression.

"Okay, enough of this story, alright?" Alexia spoke and whether she wanted it or not, even if Fenrir didn't know her well enough, she was the person with the closest proximity to him there, that was what made the boy uncomfortable. In any case, Fenrir hadn't even realized that sunset had already arrived. Alexia gave him a lazy smile, "Looks like you've been having fun boy."

Before Fenrir could complain, more people turned up.

Then a young guy came into the house, over six feet tall and an old man maybe six feet tall. The young guy had a strong build but slender, looked to be around twenty-three years old, had long black hair that had the end of it caught in a rubber band or something, he was wearing a sky blue tunic, white pants. and brown leather boots, at his waist he had a sword and in his hands he had gloves, in the middle of the tunic was sewn an embroidery of a coat of arms, it was a two-headed black dragon on a yellow-gold background. The old man, on the other hand, had curly white hair, but bald in front of his head. He had a gentle face, clean-shaven, and wearing round-lensed bronze-rimmed glasses. He wore a kind of red surcoat, which had a white-winged sword coat of arms on a blue background, embroidered on the left side of his chest, as well as baggy blue-striped pants, like pajamas, he wore leather sandals, in his hands he had some box, which appeared to be from some game or toy. Merlina when she saw him gave a huge smile and ran to him, shouting "Grandpa!" She then hugged him and he laughed with that, soon after giving the gift to his granddaughter, who smiled very happy with the gift purchased.

"Look, big brother Fenrir, we can play with this later!" Merlina said showing the new gift to Fenrir with great enthusiasm. After that she ran around the house until she met Adger butler and showed the gift to him too and with entusiasm too.

"So you're Fenrir boy" said the old man, approaching Fenrir, "you're the one who's been taking care of my granddaughter" the old man put his hand on Fenrir's shoulder gently, "thank you" the old man smiled very gently, " my name is Hosten Fallfrsky, I am the lord of these lands."

"Alexia has told us a lot about you," said the young man, taking two steps forward, "I am Knight Percival Will Guttlin, hailing from Gelberschield, to help an old friend of my father's, Lord Fallfrsky."

"Alexia told us what you came here for," said Hosten, "I think you can help us and get what you want as well. But first let's just rest here and wait for dinner, okay? After all, we'll let you know the situation, after all, from what Alexia said, you are a young man with great potential."

...

After they had eaten and Merlina was put to sleep by the butler Adger, then Fenrir, Alexia, Evagore and Othala were reunited with Hosten and Percival. They were pretty serious. Evagore still seemed to be annoyed with Fenrir, and the mood was not the best, unlike a few moments ago.

"There is a village not far from here," Hosten said, in a serious voice, "where three children disappeared in a week's time. Another village not too far away, before that, also had three children missing in a week's time. Me and my trusted men started to investigate, but we made no progress, Percival's father, hearing the news, sent him to help me as the young man was already nearby with an entourage."

"Yes, we helped with the investigations, but we didn't find much out," Percival said, "we don't know where the kids might have gone, but I believe we have a suspect. A mysterious man wearing a brown hooded cloak was seen many times in the towns where the children disappeared. People didn't see much of his features, but he had a wart on his left hand."

"It's a clue, but I believe this man is nothing but a poor bastard," said Lord Hosten, "I still believe it was the beings of the woods who took the children, there were many old legends of chaotic fey in the Grizzly Bear Wood, they traded children for changelings."

"These fairy-folks haven't been seen for thousands of years, Lord Hosten, and we haven't heard from changelings in centuries, the Grizzly Bear Wood shouldn't even have any faeries anymore, they're extinct. I still believe in the theory of human action, all that remains is for us to know why and if there is someone else behind it and who is this guy with the brown cape and the wart on his hand."

"What worries me is that, if we're right, the next city to fall victim to is Childangelvill and in two days' time we'll have the Patron Festival, those... beings behind the missing children can take advantage of that."

"The festival has never been canceled before...maybe..." Percival tried to say, but Hosten cut him off.

"Never! We would never dishonor our angelic patron in this way! Only the people of Childangelvill could understand, no offense, young knight."

"So we have about a day to complete all the investigations...or at least find this guy with the wart on his hand." Alexia spoke.

"I can't believe we're taking that risk" Lord Hosten gritted his teeth, "to think that my other grandchildren would come here..." the old man looked at Fenrir, "Fenrir boy, thank you for keeping an eye on my granddaughter for today, I would trust Adger with my life, but he has many other obligations and you've been keeping an eye on Merlina all along, thank you very much."

Fenrir looked at Alexia, who gave him an approving look. So that's what she was planning, Fenrir thought, Alexia didn't just want to leave me here and play with that girl, I was some kind of bodyguard…or maybe a babysitter.

"What Lord Fallfrsky had said before was interesting." Said Evagore with a half-smile on his face, "the Faerie-folk thing, if that were true...then our investigation would kill two birds with one stone."

"What do you mean, Evagore?" Alexia wanted to know.

"It was Othala who told me, or rather Bard told me. Maybe she... he... anyway, THEY can explain it better."

"Othala?" Alexia asked to the girl, and she nodded. Othala's runes glowed again and that purple smoke began to rise again taking shape from that weird little imp named Bard.

"Hey, hello, hello everyone again, wow, well I was already asleep so I wouldn't say it's good to be back... and, yeah, well, I'm not happy to see you guys again either. What is now, then?" The little imp nodded as if he were listening to his mistress, which in turn the girl Othala slightly changed her expression, it was an expression of false disapproval at the imp "hey, no, it has nothing to do with when I'm not here I am all the time sleeping, that is irrelevant. But very well, the sooner I communicate what my mistress wants, the sooner I get back to my sleep of ugliness."

"Okay, Bard, tell us what Othala wanted to tell us about what she found out about the scroll we were looking for." Alexia ordered.

"We have made a long tracing of the said pages of the Metaphysical Configuration and the scroll we are looking for belonged long ago to an ancient and learned Elvish king, by the name of Fingon, who researched and traveled through countless elven lands for learning and then traveled to the faraway lands as well Faerie lands, in magical dimensions beyond the earthly dimension, Fingon wanted to know where he came from, his origin, the link between the elves and the fairy folk, and much more. In one of the realms of that magical dimension where the fairies lived, Fingon met a fae queen who was even worshiped as a goddess by many fairies and also by elves of the terrestrial dimension, the queen's name was Clíodhna and she was very fond of curiosity, thirst of Fingon's knowledge and adventurous spirit, so the two ended up entering a romantic relationship. It turns out that Cliodhna's realm was constantly at war with a rival queen known as Aoibheall, out of sheer rivalry, but Aoibheall knew that too, and that Cliodhna owned one of the pages of the Metaphysical Configuration and wanted it for himself. Cliodhna knew that the object she possessed would be very dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands, so she entrusted it to Fingon, who promised to protect it, so Fingon went on his journey and took the scroll with him..." Bard interrupted the story a little, for he gave a lazy yawn and then continued the story as if nothing had happened, "Fingon studied the object a lot and was so fascinated that he began to study all the other scrolls that also made up the Metaphysical Configuration, legend has it that the magician Dagda Spellon only managed to gather three of the scrolls by having as reference the writings of King Fingon. Anyway, even though the elves are powerful and live very long lives, they are still mortals and the knowledge that Fingon held the scroll did not go unnoticed by some demons, who soon acted to try to take the object from the king. Soon, the demons made alliances with neighboring kingdoms that wanted Fingon's territory and a war was fought, Fingon was not king of such a powerfully warlike kingdom and he found himself attacked from two fronts, although he was an excellent strategist, whatever he was could do was postpone its inevitable end. He tried numerous alliances and truces, which would only be granted to him if he delivered the scroll, which he did not, as he wanted to fulfill to the end the promise he had made to Cliodhna. When he saw that his kingdom would fall, Fingon entrusted the scroll to his youngest son and assigned him the mission of delivering it to another fairy folk who were Fingon's friends, and who lived far away, between the material world and the magical dimension. . The prince then came near the place that is now known as the Brown Bear Wood and handed the scroll to the little beings known as lutins. The Lutins mourned the fall of Fingon's kingdom and vowed to protect the scroll until one as worthy as the king sought it. A long time later, little is known about the fairy folk who lived around here. But the research done by me, my master, and Miss Evagore makes us think that a few lutins still live in the woods and that they still have the scroll with them. In other words, these fairy folk who are maybe disappearing with the children, maybe they're also the holder of the scroll that you... I mean, we're looking for."

At the end of the whole story, the fatigue of the day and the good narrative made Fenrir start to yawn. He liked a good story, and before sleep then it was wonderful. Maybe that fantastic fairy story made him have sweet dreams, though, maybe these little fairies weren't all that nice.

"That's an amazing story, little imp," said the old Hoster, "but... well, I don't really believe in this theory that they have such a powerful object to themselves, if they did, they would have already risen up. . Yes, in my theory, the main reason they are catching with the children is that they want to be able to take back what they think is theirs, the woods and all the land of Childangelvill. But the good thing is that at least you've discovered that they really are, these lutins, are still in our woods."

"Still, maybe wart guy has something to do with these so-called fairies." Percival thought, "Anyway, we'll look for more tomorrow, if we don't get it, my men will be on hand to help the guards of the Fallfrskys and Childangevill in the safety of the little childrens in the city."

Not realizing that he was that tired just from having spent the whole day playing with a little girl, Fenrir began to fall asleep in that comfortable armchair in the meeting room of that mansion...

...

The sound of birds and wind in the trees could already be heard, but that was not the first sound Fenrir heard upon waking. The first sound Fenrir heard upon waking was:

"Big brother, big brother! Come on, wake up! It's time we have a lot to do!"

"But what..." Fenrir mumbled as he woke up still sleepy. He saw Merlina's face that had a big smile, "so it's you... isn't it a little too early to wake me up?"

"No it's not! We have a lot to do today!

"Sure... like... sleep, nap, rest, lie down, doze, drowse..."

"No, no, not that!" Merlina pouted, "we're going to do much nicer things!"

"What can be better than this?" Fenrir yawned.

"Let's go swimming in the lake!" The girl smiled.

Fenrir looked at the girl with his sleepy and bored look, indicating that he wasn't that excited to do it, on the contrary, he preferred to stay asleep anyway.

In a chariot driven by Adger, Fenrir was still looking out the window at the road, not saying anything, Merlina looked quite excited, and Evagore was with them, looking at Fenrir in an unfriendly way. When they arrived at a lake surrounded by green grass, trees that gave a cool shade on that sunny day, and fields of colorful flowers that looked like an impressionist painting, Merlina got out of the chariot and ran excitedly to the water, in which Adger told her to be patient and wait, and then followed after her.

Fenrir and Evagore stayed behind, Fenrir got down and covered his face with his hand to protect himself from the strong sunlight, Eragore got down on the opposite side and then walked over there, watching the landscape for a while.

"Look, I don't like this as much as you do, okay?" she said suddenly.

"An? What are you talking about?" Fenrir asked, still sleepy and with his face bored.

"I come up here with you and keep an eye on the girl, if you were more trustworthy maybe I would be doing something more productive and..."

"Look, I don't care if you're here or not, whatever." Fenrir shrugged and walked away with his hands in his pockets to where Adger and Merlina were. Adger set up a picnic spot under the shade of a tree, while Merlina in her bathing suit excitedly invited Fenrir to the lake. The boy postponed his going a little bit and said that to the girl, Evagore then said he would go with her and Merlina seemed similarly excited, after all, Fenrir believed it was her knowledge that Evagore had water powers. Fenrir sat leaning against the trunk of the tree, and then yawned looking at all that beautiful and peaceful landscape, the shade combined with the fresh breezes made the climate pleasant. He could easily sleep there, he thought.

"You're too young to be such a tired guy." Adger said politely as he watched Evagore and Merlina have fun on the lake. "She really sees him as a friend, you know? Merlina, I mean, almost like a big brother. She's the sweetest and kindest girl I've ever met, I can't imagine anyone getting hurt her feelings, but that's what constantly happened. Amongst Lord Fallfrsky's grandchildren, she was always closest to me, while other grandchildren used to mock me for looking like a raven. The other children didn't like her either, she had some habits... different, not even the other grandchildren of the lord used to play with her, she was always so isolated, even among family members. With other children the thing was much worse..."

"Wait, what do you mean by that? What peculiar habits?"

"She used to spend a lot of time in the woods, talking and being friends with what humans call fairy folk, but most people didn't believe that, they thought she was a liar and worse."

"And you? What do you think about that?"

"I guess it doesn't matter, in front of the sweet and kind little girl that she is, she doesn't care what you look like on the outside, she always treated people kindly, even those who treated her badly, she never wanted revenge or some rematch, she just wanted to have friends she could really count on. Do you understand now the importance of what you did? She was a lonely girl, now you can tell she was happy and cheerful."

Fenrir gave a brief smile.

After that the boy was sitting on the lake's wooden walkway while Merlina and Evagore had fun in the water, Evagore made shapes in the water or lifted the girl with her magic, which looked quite amusing, Fenrir just watched everything, the sunlight hitting on his thin, pale body.

"Big brother, why are you just feet in the water?" Merlina asked looking at Fenrir, as she had asked several times since he had been there, "hey, why don't you come in here with us?"

"I'm... I'm going." That's just what Fenrir said.

"You annoying! You've told me that many times!"

"Hey little girl" Evagore called to Merlina and then whispered in her ear, the two of them shot Fenrir mischievous looks as they whispered something to each other. The boy didn't like that.

"So, big brother Fenrir, aren't you coming?" Merlina asked with that smirk.

"I'm trying to get a bronze, have fun there for now."

"You is sure?"

"What you mean?"

"This here, little boy!" Evagore laughed as he threw a torrent of water at Fenrir, harmless as an attack, but strong enough to knock him off the walkway and into the water. Fenrir found himself diving into the water against his will and then sinking... and sinking... and sinking... The truth was, the boy couldn't swim. It was only when Evagore thought it odd that the boy was taking so long in the water that she dove at her fast speed and rescued the still sinking boy, pulling him out of the water and back onto the wooden walkway. The boy coughed and sucked in as much air as he could, Merlina went there too, looking worried. "What were you doing? Why did you sink like that?"

"It is not obvious?" Fenrir asked with a frown, but without changing his tone, "I can't swim."

"You don't know how to swim..." Evagore stammered in disbelief and for a moment she and Merlina didn't say anything, but only until they started laughing a lot about it.

"Yeah, that's right, laugh while you almost have killed me." Fenrir complained and the girls laughed even harder.

"It's just…now I understand why you don't want to come swimming." Evagore said while still having spasms of laughter.

"Hey big sister, you're really good at swimming aren't you? Why don't you try teaching him to swim?" Merlina asked.

"I…teach him?" Evagore then looked at Fenrir, who looked back without changing his expression, "okay boy, you better pay attention ok?"

"I don't think it's a good idea."

"Nonsense, knowing how to swim is crucial to an adventurer's survival."

"In this I fully agree." Spoke someone appearing there and then Fenrir and the others saw Adger wearing nothing more than a little fishy-print swim trunks. He, who had always looked very serious in that butler outfit, now looked at the very least... hilarious. Fenrir and the girls laughed a lot, Adger remained unfazed. He cleared his throat and showed Fenrir a buoy. "Here, Mr. Fenrir, if you had told me right away that you couldn't swim I would have given you that right away."

Evagore and Merlina laughed at that. They swam more there, with the exception of Fenrir, and although Adger's body was covered in feathers, he was a good swimmer. They had a chickenfight in the water, where Fenrir climbed on Adger and Merlina on Evagore, the girl used water magic to win the 'fight'. Fenrir said it was cheating, so in the second round Adger used a wind spell and they won this time. After that they changed teams, Evagore and Fenrir even teamed up once and when they lost for lack of rapport, Evagore blamed Fenrir, but no longer with that old grudge, it was something more... 'friendly'. After that they ate under the shade of the tree, while talking about various subjects, Merlina told some stories, Adger imitated the sounds of birds as well as other animals and played a sitar songs he had known since he was a child. The late-afternoon sun had already set as they followed the road in the chariot driven by Adger, the young Merlina was sleeping with her head resting on Fenrir's shoulder, while the boy looked out over the landscape he had passed through before, but now under the light of a solar less warmer and orange sun, which preceded nightfall.

"You're not as bad as I thought before, I admit it" Evagore said to Fenrir, because now they were practically alone, Merlina was sleeping and Adger was driving the chariot, "maybe what happened to Aita was just an accident after all."

Fenrir looked at her. It hadn't been an accident, he thought. In the desperation that was that fight, Fenrir actually thought about killing his opponent, but he wasn't going to say that.

"Yeah, I didn't mean to, my bad for what happened with your friend."

"Aita he... he wasn't really my friend" Evagore gave a smile that looked melancholy in the light of the late afternoon solar, "actually he... wasn't one of the dearest of our team, he was maybe weird, but what happened to could have happened to any of us, you know? By the hands of you, who we thought were imposters or thieves."

"I get it." Fenrir didn't make much of it, but asked something right away, "Still think like that?"

"On the part of others, I don't know…on my part…well, I managed to prove the worth of some of you." She gave a brief smile "which doesn't mean it's you." She laughed, Fenrir accompanied her out of politeness.

...