E.V. North
Origins
I hit the metal deck of the airship with a dull thud, sending the components of a new tail attachment for my metal homunculus, Alfonse, skidding across the floor. I brushed my blond hair out of my good eye and glanced quickly around. It would be intensely embarrassing for someone to spot a world-famous inventor tripping on a perfectly even floor. To my dismay I saw Marius, my tall, hooded, necromancer friend striding quickly toward me from across the deck of the lounge.
"Hey!" a voice said from behind me "Watch who you're kickin'." I sat up and spun around. Crawling backward out from under a levi-hocky table was a gnome girl dragging a wrench. She had a red spot on her leg from where I had tripped over her.
"Arpen." Marius' stern voice reminded me he was still there. "Are you two girls alright?" His gravely voice held no concern, but his eyes told he was interested, which passes for concern for someone like Marius.
"I'm fine." I said, rubbing the elbow that had tried to break my fall. "How's your leg?" I asked the gnome who was fixated on Marius.
"Huh?" she shook her head a little and looked back at me.
"How's your leg?" I repeated more clearly. She stood up and tested it by hopping.
"It'll be fine." She reached down and helped me up. Marius sighed heavily and fixed me with his wolf like stare.
"You should pay more attention to where you're wandering." He said
"I wasn't wandering." I grumbled, "I was trying to find the engine room."
"So you were wandering around lost." Marius countered. "And you didn't even apologize to this young lady for kicking her."
"I was going to. I just-" Marius cut me off with a raised hand.
"Just try to be more careful." He said "I'll be over there if you need me." He pointed to an armchair on the far side of the room. With that, he walked away from the gnome and me.
"Sorry for kicking you." I said, feeling silly saying it after Marius had already told me to.
" No problem. It actually happens all the time. Boss doesn't even apologize to me any more." The gnome said, helping me collect my spilled components. "My name is Roywin," the redheaded gnome said with a wide grin, offering her hand to me "Roywin Aurix, you can call me Roy."I blinked. Her good mood was refreshingly contagious. I smiled in return and took her hand.
"Aurix huh? That's my last name too, I'm Arpen Aurix." 'Small world,' I thought, "You're related to the Aurix family on Callen aren't you?" I asked. Roy locked her vibrant gold eyes with my matching right eye. The red pupil of my black, left eye prosthesis roved over her face, searching of it's own accord.
"Ha! Yeah, Callen's home, such as it is. As you can see, I left that sea rat trap." She gestured lovingly out the wide picture window to the clouds drifting by outside. We were cruising over a chain of green islands. I could see their pale blue reefs stretched out just under the water level around each island. The pale blue dropped sharply off to deeper blue as the sea floor fell away from the surface. A ship with tattered white sails scooted carefully between two of them. White foam was being swept out to sea.
"The Aurix clan was my adoptive family a long time ago. They raised me," I said, following the progress of the battered little ship below with my real eye. Roy's eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Really? I thought Aurix was a weird name for you. Your obviously not gnomish." She said, chuckling. I laughed.
"You'd be right. You are truly a master of deduction." I said with a little bow. Roy giggled at my antics. It felt nice to make someone laugh. She continued grinning and looked out the window at the sailing ship too.
"Why did the Aurixs adopt you?" Roy asked, glancing at me briefly for signs of offense.
"Who knows?" I answered, "I guess they thought I was reasonably adorable."
"What?" Roy looked momentarily confused "No, no, I mean what happened to your parents? Why did you need to be adopted in the first place?"
I sighed, "It was a long time ago and its such a long story." Roy placed an encouraging hand on my shoulder.
"We have time." She said, "And we are family, aren't we?"
Well, when I was nine, the forest where I was living was tainted by a terrible plague. It spread like a wildfire through the river that we had used for drinking water for eons. First, all of the plants along the riverbanks died, then the fish disappeared and it spread to the animals living in the forest too. I remember, as my parents and I were moving further downriver, we came across a white rabbit. It was lying on its side and its stomach was a dark, sickly blue. The unnatural azure tint radiated out from the gut and spread even as far as the rabbit's gaping mouth. Blue veins stood out visibly through the snowy fur and crept up the neck, invading the face.
"Momma, what's wrong with it?" I looked up at my mother. "Why is it blue like that?"
"It's very sick, honey." My mother answered. I walked forward and stroked its silky fur. The rabbit kicked its large back feet in fright, trying to scamper away. Its frantic movements disturbed the brown prickly grass around it. It wheezed a little and I pulled away, not wanting to scare it further.
"Can't we help it at all? I could make it feel better." I pleaded with them. Momma looked over at Daddy and he nodded.
"Its alright Arpen, I'll take care of the rabbit. Just be a good girl and go with Momma. I'll catch right up." He smiled and tucked my unruly golden hair behind my ear. "Go on." He said to Momma.
Momma and I continued on and about five minutes down the path Daddy jogged up and hugged Momma. He looked rather pale.
"Is the rabbit OK?" I asked
"It's feeling much better." He said, "Lets keep going. I want to get to set up camp before dark." He walked passed me to lead the way, holding Momma's hand. Only when he was in front of me did I see the blood smeared on his right boot as though he had tried to wipe it off in the grass.
A couple days later my parent's decided to stop moving down river and take a break. It was only supposed to be for a few days, but I was grateful. It was getting harder to keep up with them and none of us seemed to be able to keep anything down for long.
Daddy showed signs first. Early one morning, I was woken up before either of my parents by Daddy's snoring. He was sprawled out on his back and his sleep shirt had ridden up so his stomach was exposed to the pale light shining through the tent walls. It was the same sickly blue as the white rabbit. He died three days later when his lungs just couldn't find the strength to keep him breathing. Momma followed two days after that. I couldn't bring myself to look at her stomach to check, but the blue veins crawling up to her face from under her dress were enough for me.
I stared at them for a while, trying to get rid of the stupid surreal feeling. I knew they were dead. I knew they weren't coming back. So why was it so hard to shake the feeling that they would get up like they had only been asleep? I begged to a carefully listening nothing that they would wake up or that this was a dream. I promised the nothing that I would be good for the rest of my life if it would only bring them back. After the nothing had listened and then decided to ignore me I dragged them both into the tent and put them together and never went back in again. The last time I ever saw them was curled into each other's arms, lying in that tent together, daddy slightly more decayed than mommy. Who knows, maybe they're still there.
I wish I had been able to give them a proper burial, but by that time I had whatever they had too and barley had the strength to walk, let alone dig a hole big enough for them. All I could do was find a stick and sit outside the tent and defend my parent's bodies from scavengers. I didn't even care about the smell or the flies because I knew they were still my parents and they weren't rancid on purpose.
"Wait, so you just sat there and guarded your parents' dead bodies? Weren't you sick too?" Roywin asked, her eyes wide.
"Yep, when I rolled up my sleeves I could see the insides of my upper arms turning blue." I answered, remembering the moment when I considered going into the tent so that I could die with my parents.
"Well why didn't you do anything about it?" Roy asked, placing her hands on her hips.
"What could I have done? There weren't any clinics in that area and I couldn't walk far enough to get help. I tried yelling for help until I was hoarse, but only one person ever came across me."
About three days after Momma had died I scared off a fox that had been sniffing around the tent. I lurched to my feet, yelled and waved my stick around. The fox thought I was dead and my sudden movement scared it back into the brush. I collapsed back down onto my butt and sighed. I leaned on the stick to help keep me in a sitting position. I hunched forward and panted, trying to get my ragged breathing back to normal. The brush the fox had run into rustled and, thinking the scavenger was back for another shot, I sat up straight and readied my stick. From behind the trees came, not a fox, but a very tall man wrapped in a black cloak and hood, despite the heat of the day. His hood obscured most of his face, but I could see a scrubby, dark brown beard circling a mouth bent into a slight frown. He walked forward without a word and stared down at me. I was still brandishing my stick, but the thought of hitting this man never crossed my mind. The hooded man looked around the neglected campsite and I heard him sniff the stinking air. He walked over to the tent and reached for the flap.
"Wait! Stoppit!" I yelled, "Leave them alone." He paused and turned his head to stare at me once again.
"I won't move them." he said in a deep, gravely baritone that sounded like he was a bit out of practice with speaking. He lifted the flap and looked inside. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head away. I didn't want to see my parents like that. The tall man closed the tent flap gently and carefully tied the tent closed. He then walked over to where I sat and knelt in front of me. He reached up with one skeletal hand and tugged the hood off his head. Long brown hair fell around his shoulders and into his red eyes. He glanced up at me then tugged my shirt up, exposing my stomach. I squeaked in surprise and tried to force my shirt back down. He ignored my struggling and touched the bare flesh with his free hand.
"How long has it been since you started to change color?" He asked, not looking up at my eyes.
"I don't know, four or five days maybe." I said. "Please let go of my shirt." He released it and raised an eyebrow at me. "What? Why are you staring?" I fidgeted uncomfortably.
"You're still very spirited, considering…" He glanced over at the tent. I looked down at my feet to keep from looking over. "What's your name?" he asked frankly.
"It's Arpen." I answered, fingering a leaf on my stick.
"Arpen…" He repeated, committing it to memory. "I need to take you with me Arpen."
"Why?" I asked, a bit startled "I can't leave Momma and Daddy."
"They aren't going anywhere." The man assured me. "Can you stand?"
"For a while." I said
"Can you walk?" he pressed
I lowered my head in embarrassment, knowing what was coming. "No." I admitted. The man bent down and picked me up in his arms and carried me away. I kept my eyes on the dismal little tent where my parents lay until it disappeared behind a tight group of trees. I never saw it again.
He walked for some time in silence, always following the river downstream. I caught him glancing down at me on occasion, and feeling my forehead for a fever but he always quickly looked away. Finally it occurred to me that I did not know anything about this man.
"What's your name?" I asked. He looked down at me, contemplatively, then looked back to the path.
"It's Marius." He said, and offered no more information.
I must have fallen asleep after that because the next thing I remember was being jarred awake as Marius slid a bit on a sand dune.
"Sorry." He said, seeing that I had woken up. I looked around. We were on a beach and the moon shown down and lit up the white sand like snow.
"Where are we going?" I asked. He was walking straight toward the ocean.
"I have a ship out here." He answered, "I was chasing someone, but healing you is more important than my errands."
"Who were you chasing?" I asked. He gave me a quick glare and I did not repeat the question. As we got closer to the surf I noticed a small jollyboat beached on the sand. He placed me gently onto the floor by the bow and pushed us into the waves. The salty spray tickled my nose as Marius took up the ores and began rowing. About a league from the shore the dark, hulking ship loomed over us and Marius steered the little boat up alongside the hull. We rocked gently in place as he pulled a tiny silver whistle out of his sleeve and blew a high-pitched note over the whole ship. A lantern appeared at the railing above us, and a rope ladder was thrown down. Marius replaced the whistle and took out a small length of rope. He bound my wrists together in front of me and put my arms around his neck so that I hung off his back like a cape. In this manner he climbed the ladder with me dangling behind him. Lurching over the railing, strong arms pulled me off Marius and went to untie my wrists.
"Don't touch her, Harthwood." Marius said firmly "She's sick and we can't risk spreading it to the crew." The man called Harthwood dropped me onto the deck like I had suddenly turned into a poisonous spider.
"Wa' 're you thinkin', brinin' diseased passengers on my ship?" He said, his voice squeaking a bit from outrage.
"I'll take responsibility." Marius said calmly, untying my wrists and picking me up. "Are you alright?" He asked me.
"I have a contagious disease." I said grinning at him through the orange glow of the lantern. "Of course I'm alright." Marius smirked at me and walked to his cabin. He laid me in the only bed in the tiny wooden room and expressly forbid me to leave the room or answer the door to anyone. At daybreak we began to sail south, around the Ardorian continent to the northern edge of Callen. Marius rarely left the room and we spent our days together. He taught me chess, and fed me horrible concoctions he made with a myriad of disgusting dried ingredients from his truck. I even had to drink it from the hollow shell of a silver dragon's egg. He said that it was to help combat the negative energy by opposing it with equally positive energy, but most of his technical talk was gibberish to me then. He also read to me from some of his books, but they were almost all spell books, encyclopedias and field guides. It fascinated me more than I thought that a story without princesses and daring feats of rescue might and I took to reading them on my own when Marius was busy with his own work.
Early on in the trip I thought to ask where we were going.
"We are sailing to Merrigar on Callen." He said. I picked up the geography book that was sitting open at the foot of the bed and flipped until I found the world map. Callen was a continent two countries south of my island. Marius had pointed my island, the Sylvan Nation, out to me only a few hours ago. I traced my finger down the map; across a country that it looked like Marius had drawn in himself called Ardor and down to Callen. Merrigar was the northernmost port city.
"Why don't we go here?" I asked, pointing to Ardor. "It's closer."
"It's a hidden country." Marius answered. "Mr. Harthwood would not want to land there. Besides, I think that I've found a good family to adopt you in Merrigar."
"A-adopt?" I stammered, a momentary wave of panic sweeping over me. "Why can't I stay with you? I won't get in the way, I swear!"
"There is a good reason I don't have children. I'm not very good with them and my lifesty-"
"I don't care!" I exclaimed through rapidly welling tears. "I want to stay with you." I felt like and injured animal that had been nursed back to health and then told to leave. Now that I think about it, that's not too far from the truth.
"I've already sent them a messenger bird with my request. I chose a nice gnomish family called Aurix." Marius cut through my tears. "They know me. They have five boys, but I know for a fact that Ellywick, that's your new mother, has always wanted a girl." I thought for a second that taking new parents was a betrayal of my real parents, but I quickly dismissed it. They would want me to be happy, rather than loyal to a dead lineage. I nodded my agreement and continued to pump Marius for information on my new family.
By the time we landed Marius had cured me completely. Fonkin Aurix (my new father) picked me up at the dock. He pulled me into a hug that popped some of the vertebra in my back and held me at arms length. He looked me up and down with his golden eyes and grinning, looked up at Marius.
"You didn't tell me she had the Aurix eyes." He said merrily, his nose wrinkling a bit.
"They're what gave me the idea that she would fit in best with you." Marius answered. Fonkin nodded happily.
"Come on then Arpen." He said, tugging my hand. Ellywick is waiting. She wants to take your measurements for some new clothes. Marius said you didn't have any luggage." The mention of Marius made me realize that I had forgotten to say goodbye. I broke away from my new father and bolted down the street after the tall hooded man. I tackled him from behind in a blur of tears and gasping. He swayed a bit at my impact and pried me off so he could face me. He knelt down and ruffled my hair and gave me the first real smile that I had seen all trip.
"Th-thank yooou." I sniveled as I clung to his robe. If it hadn't been for this man I would have died in the woods and nobody would have missed me. He pulled away from me and waved over his shoulder and he continued walking down the busy street. I saw his head weaving between other pedestrians he only glanced back at me once right before he disappeared around the corner of a brick building down the street. Living with the Aurixs were some of the best years of my life. I had siblings for the first time and five gnomish brothers to compete against. Each of them delighted in teaching me their own favorite art or pastime. They would tackle me and yell, "Pop quiz!" and if I didn't answer correctly then they wouldn't let me up. Marius even looked in on me from time to time and that's how we became friends." I finished my story with a satisfied smile.
"Really? Wow…" Roy looked across the recreation deck to the squishy armchair in the corner. Marius, feeling her gaze, looked up from his book and stared over at us. We waved and he continued reading. "So he's not just a creep in a hood. He can cure people and everything." Roy said in a whisper.
"Yep." I agreed. "He's my creep in a hood."