A Younger Sister
1389 Words
"Do you need help with your baggage, mister? Welcome to Gracehaven, where more meets the eye. Where do you hail from?" the guardsman asked the two teens as they were ushered in after the barrier was raised to let them through.
"Ah... Its alright, Sir. My donkey here manages the baggage pretty well. There's nothing much here, really. Just my personal stuff I had been lugging around for some time."
"I am from Knottingley while this lady here had joined me up from Knaresborough a few days ago. We are looking for a town where we would be able to start our lives anew."
Samuel was the one interacting more with the guardsman while Isabella simply just nodded her head in acknowledgement. The two teens passed the rows of medicinal herb garden before they saw some flat-roofed buildings on the side of the town near the forest.
The two teens peeked their heads around the outsides of the first building and saw that it was empty and were filled with tables and benches and it looked kinda lively from within. "This is a classroom for the children here to receive their education." remarked the guardsman as he noticed their interest.
A little while later the teens saw another similarly sized building at the side of the classroom and the guardsman explained that it was being used as an infirmary for those who got injured during work et cetera. The two teens nodded their heads bobbing before they ended at the courtyard.
"Alright, this is the domain where our Lord lives. I leave you here and there would be people attending to you. I suppose they would be the pioneers of the town before. Alright, I'm back to my post then. You may inquire anything you wish from the pioneers later on."
The guardsman quickly explained to the two teens as he left them at the side of the courtyard where the nightly conference was still ongoing. There was an occupied bench so the two sat there along with their Donkey tethered close by. The guardsman then heads back to his position at the side entrance of town.
=*=
"I guess the two figures reported earlier has arrived, dear." Heather motioned to me as I glanced at them as they sat at the bench that was allocated to them earlier. I raised my hand I signal that I acknowledged their existence and saw them nodded their heads.
"That's right. I'm sure Penelope would be joining us later on to 'screen' which person is the one that had been awakened. Besides, I have a strong feeling that the one awakened would be the girl beside the lad."
I pointed out to Heather as Ben and Frank concluded the nightly conference before dispersing the citizens back and arranging the benches in the courtyard as before. Penelope, along with several Priestesses came along as they gathered before us.
"I can sense a strong aura from that girl. The lad beside her is not related and they might travel together by chance." Penelope explained after she made a discovery on the aura a witch would exude. Imelda and Farah were ecstatic because they discovered that they were no longer the young ones in the group.
"Hehe... At last. There's someone younger than us, eh? Hehe... She looks kinda cute. I wonder what her abilities are." Imelda was laughing gleefully next to Farah while Penelope tried to silence the two girls up.
"Don't bully our young sister when she pledges her allegiance to the Guild, yes? She might have not exhibited her abilities to the public before and she might get spooked easily. Come on, let's approach them, shall we?"
=*=
The courtyard had been cleared and Penelope and the rest went over to the teens to say some words to them before ushering them to the domain where everyone would be able to speak in confidence.
Once the two teens were comfortably seated in the conference room of the domain, they were quickly joined by the pioneers, the Priests and Priestesses as well as yours truly. The two teens were wide-eyed as they sat and observed their surroundings and the people who seemed to be excited about meeting them.
Someone had brought dinner into the domain to be served to the two teens as they sat there dumbfounded as piles of sliced bread and pottage were served on a large bowl with accompanying smaller bowls to eat from.
"Welcome to Gracehaven, lads. Go on ahead and have your supper. We would talk after this." I motioned to the two teens as someone fussed with them to serve the bread into their platters. The moment they started to eat, the look of surprise in their faces couldn't hide the fact that they were rather famished and at the same time surprised in how soft the bread was.
How would they experience eating freshly toasted bread, unlike the trenchers that were used as plates? The experience they got right there and then was rather explicable since they were used to hardship and never had the feeling of being treated otherwise.
In order to break the ice of silence beside the sounds of munching by the two teens, Imelda and Farah made a small 'icebreaker' session. Imelda made a small ice crystal appear at the palm of her hands, much to the astonishment of Isabela.
Imelda then flicked the ice crystal over the surface of the table over to Farah where she dissolved it into a wisp of steam in her hands. Samuel looked on with his mouth filled with bread as he witnessed the 'icebreaker' session happening before his eyes.
Isabela, however, was looking at the group of pioneers, priests and priestesses and wondered if she had entered a realm full of magic and wonder.
"Hmm... A... Are you all Witches and wizards?" Isabela managed to voiced out he mind in a squeaky and timid voice after she had hurriedly chewed and swallowed the bread that she had stuffed earlier in her mouth.
"Well, have you seen Witches flew on broomsticks before?" I asked after Isabela had taken the bait for the 'icebreaker'.
Isabela shook her head as she placed he half-eaten bread back in the platter and watched Imelda and Farah with interest. Her big round eyes betrayed her age that she was only about 12 years old.
"How about dancing, prancing about and howling to the full moon on nights around a bonfire?" I asked them once more and both Samuel and Isabela shook their heads. They somehow knew that the questions directed to them were to check their awareness of their surroundings.
"I have never seen such like those but I heard some of them are into herbs and potions. The herbs and potions would give the user some healing abilities as well as a buff to aid their strength, dexterity and health."
Isabela replied after she tore off a piece of bread, dunked into her pottage and placed it into her mouth before she grinned at me. Reminds me of Marcel the Merchant...! Maybe they were related somehow... Super distant relative I suppose?
We laughed off at the question that I had asked earlier to Isabela because no one had ever seen such an event occurring before in England. Besides, we had been 'indoors' ever since we had established this piece of land to call our own.
After the teens had done with their meals, we then took a formal introduction of ourselves to the two teens so the things could be straightened out in the earlier instances.
=*=
"My name is Penelope and with His Majesty's suggestion, we are no more referred to as Witches or Wizards but we are now known as Priests and Priestesses and let me introduce you to our brothers and sisters..."
So Penelope went round to introduce the individual Priests and Priestesses to both Isabela and Samuel and explained that a witch or wizard had an aura and only she would be able to detect once a person awakened.
"You lad is not a wizard but I can't put my finger on it. Somehow you dwell in the past, present and future, innit?"
Penelope queried to Samuel and when he was mentioned, he simply hung his head low and fumbled with his hands on the table.
- Writer
