"Sliver!"
"Eh?"
"Come on! We're about to leave!"
"Ehhh?"
"Slivvverrr!"
"What?"
"We're taking a trip to Fallador! Remember?"
"Oh! That. Give me a minute!"
"Hurry! Your Auntie Otaku is wai-ow! Ok, Otaku is waiting impatiently!"
'Auntie' was one thing that Otaku didn't like being called. She didn't mind it, but Aay used it wwaayy to often to bother her. Otaku wasn't even related to them, but for Sliver's beginning years he called her 'Auntie' Otaku. It stuck. Much to Otaku's dislike.
"I'm coming!" Sliver shouted to his parents. He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulders, running out of his room. He grabbed his wooden sword on the way out, swinging it as he left. He rushed to his parents who closed the door on the way out.
Sliver jumped onto his small horse and shouted to his parents, "Are you ready yet?"
Aay laughed at him. He was such a bouncing five year old. Aay wobbled out to the wagon, holding her growing stomach. Patrick rushed to her side and helped her up.
"When is the baby due?" Otaku asked Aay, who sat down next to her.
"Not for another five months or so. But I'm really excited for it!" Aay said gleefully.
Otaku laughed and looked over at Sliver, who was riding his tiny horse next to the wagon. "Planning on being a horseman?"
Kag grinned. "I'm gonna protect the wagon!"
"You do a good job."
"Thanks, Auntie Otaku!"
Otaku sighed and brought her attention back to Aay, who was eating a kebab. Patrick was currently on his fourth one, holding it in one hand and the reins in the other.
"You're talented, Patrick," Otaku said, her voice dripping from sarcasm. "How do you eat and drive at the same time?"
"Just as you said, talent, Otaku. Pure talent. Saradomin blessed me with the gift of eating while not looking but holding the reins while driving," Patrick said, mouth full of kebab.
"Ha ha," Otaku huffed.
"Saradomin just 'blessed' Patrick with a deep stomach," laughed Aay, gulfing down her third kebab.
"Same for you," Otaku pointed out.
"Hey! I AM eating for TWO, you know," Aay pointed out back.
"Oo."
"Pfff."
"Patrick, why does she do the 'pfff.'? Otaku asked Patrick.
Patrick swallowed and spoke in a clear voice, "That's one thing that Saradomin or Zammorak cursed her with."
"Aah! Patrick, if I wasn't pregnant, I would take you down!" Aay growled at him.
Patrick nodded. "I'm sure you would."
Sliver, meanwhile, was having trouble getting his horse away from the apples that had fallen to the ground. The horse kept on stopping and eating them. "HP! Get going!"
"HP? Is that what you named him?" Otaku asked.
"Hewlett Packard is what I named him!" Sliver responded, hitting his horse in the sides.
"Big name for such a tiny horse."
"Some day, he's gonna be the biggest horse around! Though, its just 'HP' for now."
"Does he have a middle name?"
"Yeah, I already said it. It's 'Packard.' His last name is Lasterjet," Sliver grinned.
"Sounds scary," Patrick commented.
"Like something that would produce something great for the whole world," Aay whispered.
"Inked Paper! His other nickname is Inked Paper. I named him that for his hooves, which look like black ink and paper because it felt like that," Sliver grinned.
"Hewlett 'Inked Paper' 'Hp' Packard Laserjet. I think you've overdone it," Otaku said.
Sliver stuck his tongue at her, who stuck her own tongue back.
"So what we gonna do in Fally, daddy?" Sliver asked, changing the subject.
"Well, I'm going to speak with the White Knights first about something that the King wants me to deliver. We could… visit… the garden, I guess," Patrick said, shrugging.
Sliver sighed. "The GARDEN?"
Aay laughed. "We'll visit it, but we'll also visit the bank, the sword shop and shield shop along the way."
"Why?"
Aay grinned. "You'll see."
Sliver grinned with her. He loved looking at swords. Maybe he could convince his father to buy him the new bronze brand that just came out! He heard from the other boys that it was long and shiny and sharp! Just as sharp as a steel sword! And the new shield to match it! His friend had brought home a set, and he was excited to get his own hands on one.
He had asked his father for a sword like his, but his father had said he wasn't ready yet. When he asked his father what it was, he wasn't even sure he had heard of the brand yet. The only highest sword he could remember was Rune. His father said something about a 'dragon'…
Oh well.
They stopped by the sword shop just as they were leaving Varrock, and Patrick went in quickly and came back out, carrying a long object wrapped in a blanket.
"What's that!?" Sliver asked.
"Something."
Sliver sighed. Whenever his father said 'something' you couldn't get it out of him.
It took around a few hours before they reached the barbarian village. They had been going at a slow pace to not bounce the wagon so much for Aay, who seemed to get motion sickness a lot when she was pregnant. If a person were to ride hard, they could reach the village in an hour and a half. Which was a very good timing.
Patrick then stopped at the helmet shop and walked in and back out carrying another thing in a blanket, and Sliver groaned once again that his father wouldn't tell him.
He was hoping that it was the bronze sword. But when he asked his father if he could walk into the stores with him, his father said he best go alone.
Sliver groaned impatiently. Mmm, French fries, he thought, but then stopped his horse. Where'd that come from? Shrugging, he urged his horse foreward, who had taken the opportunity to grab an apple from the ground.
Finally, at sunset, they arrived at Fallador. They went to get a hotel room, as Otaku went to go stay at the White Knight's Castle. Patrick went with her to talk to the Captain. Aay stayed with Sliver in the hotel room.
As Aay was fixing dinner, she turned and asked Sliver, "What do you want? A brother or sister?"
Sliver looked over at her from his corner where he was sitting. "Oh. Well. A sister."
"Really? I'd thought you would want a brother."
"Aw, who would want a brother that could possibly be better at fighting than me?"
"Don't you underestimate girls now, Sliver."
"Pfff."
Aay laughed. Patrick would sigh when he learned that Sliver started to say 'pfff.' She turned to Sliver. "Let's go surprise your father. I can't start to heat the food until he comes back."
"Alright!" Sliver grinned and ran after his mother. He grabbed her hands as she walked, excited to be going out of the building.
Aay started telling him a story of his father when he was younger. It was about his brother Dav, and how mean he was. Sliver always loved the story, seeing how dad came out alive of the ordeal. It was also how his parents met.
Sliver, looking at the gleaming castle, stopped walking when he heard his mother gasp.
"Mother?" he heard her say. He looked up and saw gleaming red hair and a flash of metal. He heard a sound of the metal piercing flesh, the intake of breath…
He saw his mother fall backwards, blood flying everywhere. He saw the woman grin coldly at him, and he fell to his knees in fear. Tears started to gather in his eyes and pour freely down his face. He watched the woman turn on her heel and leave, limping slightly from a past injury. But he didn't think about that. He turned, stunned and scared, to his mother, who was clenching her belly and holding a hand out to him. He took the bloody hand.
"Mother…?"
She tried to smile, she really did, but the smile failed and her eyes closed.
"Mom…?"
Nothing.
"Mommy…?
Nothing.
He screamed.