Caspian's Legacy: Rodney Matthews
Are all tutors short?
Rodney had been waiting inside his cottage all day and nothing had happened. His mother had been gone all day looking for a tutor for him as she was getting old and too busy to teach him.
Before she left she left him a note reading:
Rodney,
I have gone to find you a tutor. Be back soon.
Oh. Feed and water the horses.
Mom
He had gone out to feed their horses Destriar and Laenny. Three years earlier when he was 10, they had gone out and saw a brown and white horse grazing on grass. Rodney begged his mother, Heather, to let him keep him and she gave in. He named him Destriar. And as for Laenny, she told Rodney she had owned Laenny since before he was born.
After he fed them, he gave them water and groomed them. He saddled Destriar and put a bridle on Laenny and led them around their field. His mother told him his grandfather had learned to no use the reins but hold on by pressing your knees on each side of the saddle.
After leading them, he got off and took them in the barn. He put them in their stalls and gave them each some apples from his apple tree.
He went back in the cottage and grabbed a book off the shelf and looked at the cover. He read: Talking Beasts: Fact or Myth? A picture below the title showed a beast that looked half-man, half-horse. The book called it a Centaur. It also showed a man with furry legs and goat hooves and horns coming out of his head. The book also stated it was a faun.
After reading for a few hours, he heard a noise coming from the front door. His mother warned him about people sneaking into houses and stealing things. He ran to his shelf and grabbed his pocket knife. He flipped out the blade and made his way down the hall. He got to the end of the hall and peered out and saw who had entered the cottage. His mother and a short man.
His mother had long black hair and light brown eyes. She looked about 5'9" tall. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white button up shirt. The short man beside had short red hair and a small red beard. He looked about 4'2". He looked like someone he had seen in a book about King Caspian X of Narnia, the neighboring country to his own.
He tried to remember the name of the man when his mother said, "Rodney. Meet Cornilium. Your new tutor."
Cornilium walked over to Rodney. He extended his hand and Rodney shook it. "Nice to meet you Mr. Matthews."
"Nice to meet you tooCornilium. But please don't call me Mr. Matthews, Rodney's fine."
"Of course, Rodney." Corniluim said. "I have some things to talk about and show you Rodney. If you'll just follow me out the door."
"Umm. Okay." He followed his tutor out the cottage door and Rodney saw a horse tied to a tree. It was a brown in colour and had a black mane.
"Ah. You see my horse Maylu, you mother said she could stay in the barn, but I don't know where in the barn to put her."
"You want me to put her in the barn?"
"Yes."
"Fine." He hopped on her Maylu's back tightened his grip with his knees. Then he lead her to the barn. He opened the door and lead her through.
He got here down the hall and jumped off. He opened a stall door and got her through. "Now sty here. I'll move you when I get some hay in you stall."
He hopped over the stall door and ran the lenghth of the hall and saw some hay with a rope knoted around it. He picked it up and carried it over his shoulder. He walked past Maylu and found a stall by Destriar's. He opened up the door and threw the hay in. Grabbing for his jackknife, he saw Destriar putting his head in the stall, looking for an apple.
"Sorry, Des. I don't got any apples." He bent down and flipped out the blade and sawed the rope. When sawed all the way, the hay scrambeled on the floor and he picked up the rope and threw it in a barrel marked: Trash.
When he was totally finished, he moved Maylu into her stall and ran to a barrel. He reached insige and grabbed a few apples and threw them in a bucket. He jogged to the barrel ajacent to the apple barrel and grabbed a few carrots. He threw them in thae bucket and grabbed the handel. He jogged to Maylus's stall and dropped the bucket on the floor.
Rodney was then finished. He jogged out of the barn and saw Cornilium sitting under the apple tree. He was munching on an apple and reading a familiar looking book.
He ran over to his new tutor and saw that he was reading a book called: The Last Caspian: The story of Caspian X. Cornilium was reading a page with a picture of a short man with a beard. He was a half-dwarf. His name was Cornilius.
"Cornilium. You're short and your name sounds oftly like a half-dwarf in your book."
"Yes."
"Are you a dwarf?"
"Yes and no."
"What does that mean?"
Cornilum sighed. "Yes I am a dwarf. No I am only three quarters Dwarf. "
Rodney looked puzzeled. "How?"
"My grandfather was Cornilus, the tutor of Caspian X. He was a half-dwarf. His son, my father, was a third dwarf and now I am three quarters dwarf."
"That explains why your so short!"
"Now. Time for today's lesson."