A/N) Here. Retyped. :)
This is based off a question my MS brother asked me. "What is a broken family?"
This, for one, is my answer.
:/Broken Family\:
Aruzel still had the picture of his family in his pocket. Every now and then, when he wasn't training, he would take it out and stare at it, staring at the rip that jagged in the center of it.
The photograph in whole was yellowed with age, the light peachy color of skin darkened to a grimy dirt-brown.
A lithe woman, with a bow strapped to her back, was next to him when the picture was taken. She was smiling, her emerald eyes still clear to him in his mind, and her laughter echoed emptily through his mind.
Between himself and the woman were two little children, six and eight respectively. Their tiny, chubby faces held such joy as they beheld the camera in its shining glory when they noticed it. The six-year-old had light green hair and twinkling emerald eyes, inherited from his mother. In his arms he held a shiny spear crafted from iron. The eight-year-old had soft brown hair and blue eyes, inherited from him, and he held a small wand in his hands.
They could have had such a bright future. They could have become a Dark Knight and a Bishop respectively, and they could have the experience of maturity and... everything. But their mother smashed it to pieces.
He could still remember his children's shrieks of joy as they chased each other around his long legs and almost making him fall over backwards whenever he came back home from training. He could still remember when he went home to greet his wife with a huge smile and gifts of many assortments behind his back.
They were a classic happy family - the kind that only lived in happily-ever-afters, the kind that only lived in fairy tales.
But all good things must come to an end.
00000000000
"Dad? Who's the guy that always comes to our house when you're not home?"
Aruzel looked up into his child's gaze, looking up from his work of sharpening his spear. He gave a one-shouldered shrug and picked up the spear, testing its weight and his flexibility. "I don't know, Descur. Why don't you ask your mother? For all you know, it could be Grampa Telluya."
"He looks like you, Daddy. Old Gramps Telluya's too old and too wrinkly and too slow to be that man," Descur murmured, staring at his spear and looking up at his father's. Giving his spear a few practice swings, his son walked out of the room.
"Don't let Grampa Telluya hear you call him that, Des!" he chuckled loudly, hefting his spear onto his back, using his son's nickname fondly.
He headed back home with a bushel full of apples, thinking of how his wife, Reshul, had loved them so much.
Aruzel rook one step into the house, but he never took the other. His Fairfrozen clanked to the floor.
"Reshul... why?" he croaked, staring at her in disbelief.
In front of him was his wife with another man, one that was young enough to be considered his twin. He recognized the weapon behind the male to be a double-handed blade, the ones that Crusaders and Heroes used. The strongest counterpart of the Warriors.
Reshul looked back at him.
"You're poor and stupid and weak! Why should I wait a lifetime for you to get rich? You're not worth living with at all!" she shouted, tossing her head once she recognized him.
"What about your children... our children?" he asked her softly.
"Rescur and Dinte are coming with me, not with you!"
"Their names are Descur and Rinte! You can't even remember their names! What kind of a mother are you!" he shouted back at her.
"I borne them into this world!"
"I can't tell why I ever loved you now!"
"Go to hell already!"
And outside the door, a small clank of a light weapon hitting the floor alerted the arguing parents of their son's presence.
"...Rinte?"
"Dad..."
Aruzel turned away from him even as tears formed in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Rinte. I'm leaving."
"...Dad..."
Aruzel ignored his son and walked away from him.
Rinte looked up at him after taking hold of his arm.
"Dad. One day I'll find you."
"Promise."
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His armor clanked loudly as he stood up. Picking up his spear - a newfound Pinaka - he made his way away from the river.
As far as he was concerned, his perfect family was broken - shattered like shards of glass. It can't be fixed. Not anymore.
"Dad!"
His eyes widened and he whipped around. "Rinte!"
A laugh as the small child crashed into him.
"Dad, I'm a Priest now! And I found you like I promised!"
They both laughed together.
Behind them, the tattered pieces of a ripped photograph blew gently in the wind.
0000000000
A/N) For your information, a broken family is a family in which the parents are divorced.
Maybe I'll write a side story for Rinte sometime. He seems like such a character with such a good potential.
Reshul ~ mom - bowmaster
Aruzel ~ dad - dark knight
Descur ~ son - spearman
Rinte ~ son - cleric / priest
Telluya ~ grandfather - ?
The names don't exist. Don't search 'em up ;)
