A Tale of Four
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Prolog
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The man was pacing the room. In the next room his wife was giving birth to his first child. He could hear her screams. He loved his wife, but while walking around the room he couldn't stop thinking whose life he would prefer in case that saving both would prove to be impossible.
'Stop thinking like that,' he ordered to himself. 'Both are going to live! I will have an heir and a wife!'
He continued to pace up and down the room.
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Another man was walking around another room. His wife was giving birth too, but this was their third child and he wasn't sure she was going to live through it.
'Oh, darling,' he thought. 'How I hope you both will live. How I hope to see you again. How I love you.'
This man was restless. His other twin boys were asleep on the couch.
When his eyes rested on them a new thought crossed his mind- 'How am I going to feed everyone now?!'
He definitely began to panicking then.
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'O my lord, O My Lord,' a woman far away was thinking. She looked at her midwife.
'You don't have to suffer long, lady,' said the midwife.
The woman weakly took the midwife's hand. 'If it is a boy,' she said. 'I want the Lord to be in his name.'
'Yes, lady,' said the midwife. She lowered her eyes. She loved her lady.
'Take good care of him,' said the lady.
'I will, lady… '
'Lady, it's a…' But the lady was dead.
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'Come, Marie,' said the nurse. 'Just one more push.'
'I can't,' said the woman. 'I have no more strength in me.'
'Yes you do!' said the nurse. 'I don't have much time for the likes of you, so get moving. There are other women who need my help.'
The woman screamed.
'There you go,' said the nurse. 'Was it that hard? And look at your beautiful baby. Your husband will be pleased.'
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Some years have passed since that day.
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The man was sitting on a bench in his garden.
The boy was playing with the dog his father had bought him for his seventh birthday. It was a large bulldog.
The man thought that the dog would teach his boy a lesson but he turned out to be very kind and caring, only to his son. If anyone else would get near it the dog might bite to kill.
The man sighed. He was satisfied with his son. His wife had died the previous year, which he believed to be fortunate because she was starting to annoy him. He was wealthy and respected. But it wasn't enough, he didn't know why.
He called for his son.
The boy came running. 'Yes, father?' he said.
'Let's go into the house,' the man said. 'It's getting late, we should go in now.'
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'Daddy! Daddy!' cried the little girl.
'Yes, pumpkin?' said the other man.
'Frank said that he won't let me play with the cart because it was his and he won't lend toys that won't be returned to him,' answered the girl.
The father smiled. 'Dear, you never return any toys you take from your brothers. And you know we can't afford any new toys.'
'Yes, daddy,' she said.
'Now,' the man looked at his youngest child. 'What would happen if you all went inside, ate your dinner and played together there?'
'All right,' answered the little girl brightening up.
'And don't forget to let Henry play too,' cried the man after his daughter.
He watched the sun set and thought to himself. His doughtier always managed to lose her brother's toys and find them again as if with magic. 'But that's not possible,' he thought. 'Or is it?'
He shrugged and went home.
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The woman's name was Samantha. She wasn't rich, but she loved her masters dearly. Her grief was as bad as the lady's was when the lord had past.
Samantha thought about the day the lady had passed away too. She gave birth to her son, her only child, and died. The lady had only one wish, and as Samantha thought about it, it became more and more funny. The boy's first and surname began with the same letter.
As a matter of fact she was sitting with him now eating dinner. She had to take care of him, no one else would have done it in her place. And anyway she loved the child as if he were her own.
And from sitting with him and looking at him she knew, he would be known for great things.
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Marie was sitting at the head of the table and looking at her children. The kids were eating their way through the mountain of potatoes she put on their plates.
Marie regarded each child closely. Her eldest son was sitting on her right. He was tall and thin. He had his father's black hair and brown eyes. His magical abilities were unquestionable. He was surely her favorite child.
Her triplets sat next to him. They were noisy, careless and, as far as she thought, stupid. Each had brown hair and green eyes, just like aunt Narcissa.
Across from them, on the left side of the table sat her oldest daughter. She was beautiful. She had flaming red hair and deep blue eyes. Just like her. Marie didn't like her at all. It was true, she was her doughtier, but still. Marie sensed she was more powerful than she was and she was more beautiful than she was. That always sent people to her black list.
She was so focused on how she would use her daughter that she didn't notice that all the children went to sleep.
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Nights followed days, spring came after winter and the years went by.
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The man's son reached his manhood. He was tall, with a broad shoulder. His hair was black and his eyes dark. He was popular among his friends and he listened to his father.
No one could ask for a better son.
But the man wasn't happy.
He watched his son growing up. The changes he went through showed him he was very powerful. The man didn't like that much.
When his son reached his eleventh year, the man started teaching him the craft. The boy was a very dedicated student, but he also acquired new hobbies.
He started studying snakes. He would spend hours with them. Sometimes the man thought that the boy could talk to them, but he didn't really believe that.
As the boy grew up the man saw he was becoming more and more powerful.
A week before his son turned eighteen, reaching manhood, the man decided that he would have to let him go. He had to give him space to grow, and the mansion was not going to provide him with that.
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The second man was looking at the mountains in front of his house. He found that he did that a lot lately.
His only daughter was a grown woman now and he knew that he should marry her to someone. But he knew it wasn't going to be simple.
His daughter wasn't a regular girl. She had powers.
As he gazed at the mountains he remembered the many times when flowers grew just because she wanted to, the times she made her brothers fly in the air, the times she lit fires by speaking a word that later she herself didn't remember.
He put his head in his hands. There were so many times!
'She can't stay here,' he thought. 'If someone found out about her, they would kill her.
'Or at least try to.'
But he loved his doughtier very much, and he knew that she had to grow. She had to search for the meaning of her powers. She had to find out the reason they were given to her. And it would never happen th, in the glen.
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Samantha was watching her adopted son.
He was very beautiful. Each he went riding to the village the young ladies would come out of their houses to marvel at him. His brown hair, which he had from his father, together with his broad shoulders and tall figure and his shining green eyes, made the girls forget everything in an instant.
He was wise. He had read every book in his parents' library by the time he reached 14.
And he was restless. He had traveled his property up and down, by foot and by horse.
It finally reached the point he wasn't interested in it any more.
Samantha watched him ride his favorite horse, Storm. She was thinking about the last time he asked her to leave.
'But please!' he begged. 'Dear Nurse let me go! I'm old enough to live on my own. You taught me well. Please, Good Mother let me seek my own destiny!'
She said no, like always. Of course she knew he was right, but she couldn't let go of him. As much as she was his only family, he was her only family too.
But she knew she would give in eventually.
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The eldest doughtier of Marie and Tom, who weren't that popular if I may say, was currently in the kitchen. Her mother told her to clear out the dishes, prepare her brothers and sisters beds, warm up her room, and not use magic.
'That's probably the reason I hate her so much,' she thought angrily to herself.
In another room in the house Marie herself was sitting by the fire with her favorite child.
'…And then I went to that stupid farmer and showed him how he should speak to someone with our kind of blood,' he was saying.
'That's right, my dear,' said Marie.
But she wasn't really listening to him. She was thinking how perfectly she succeeded in taming her oldest daughter.
'She isn't going anywhere,' she thought with a smile. 'I have her in my right hand and she will give me her powers when I ask for them.'
She didn't know how wrong she was.
'Do you like the drink, dear?' she asked the boy.
'No, mother,' he said. 'There's just something wrong with it, but I can't put my finger on it.'
Marie smiled and called for her daughter.
'Yes mother?' said the girl coming in.
'You stupid girl!' said Marie. 'Why is it you can't do anything right? You messed up my dear Tom's drink again!
'Go to the kitchen and prepare a better one for him, NOW!
'And you're sleeping in there again, did you hear me?'
That did it. She wasn't going to take it anymore.
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A/N- he, he, he. I'm writing another story. But this time… wait, wait, wait, you really think I'm gonna tell you what's it about? No, no, no. Read the next part and find out yourself.
Sooooooooo, like always, who do you think those people are? And the most important, and a little bit tricky, who are the heroes of this story? The title might give you a hint, or maybe not. I don't think you can guess what the title stands for, but if you want to try, be my guest.
Disclaimer- since you don't know anybody, I own everything. *Stares at screen* wow, I actually own all that? Great! *Goes away skipping* bye.
*Runs back immediately* you won't forget to review, would you?
Love & Kisses always,
Cat Samwise.