My second story on here. Yay! This one is pretty cool. Fayt gives Albel a surprise gift out of the blue. And Fayt learns a little more about Albel's past. I corrected whatever factual errors that I could find, but please let me know if any of the Native American stuff is wrong. I admit that there was no research involved. Read and review. Thanks.
Disclaimer: It's on the bottom, don't sue me.
Birthdays and Dreamcatchers
Fayt stepped out of the transporter with a huge grin on his face. He had a wonderful idea. It was such a great idea that he even surprised himself. He walked the short distance into Kirlsa and headed to Woltar's house. He hoped the old man would have the answers that he needed. He was the one who knew Albel the best, of course.
He knocked on the door of Woltar's mansion. "Excuse me, I'm coming in." Fayt said as he pretended that just walking into people's doors uninvited was totally normal for him. He was still getting used to none of the doors having locks. This old timey place was totally relaxing, but a little too relaxed for his "double lock all doors" lifestyle. It just wasn't what he was used to.
He went up to Woltar's study, assuming he would find the aging man there. When he got no answer, he walked into the room. It was empty. Fayt stopped a passing servant and asked where Woltar might be located. The little servant girl said that Count Woltar could be found out in the garden and led him there.
Fayt had never seen the garden before. It was beautiful. Roses and some other flowers that he was sure he had never seen on Earth were growing on the fence. There were a surprising number of lilies and daffodils growing near the benches sitting in a large circular pattern in the middle of the garden. There was a well in the far corner, and Woltar was sitting on the side of it. It was surrounded by the pothos plants that Fayt had given him on the last holiday.
"Woltar! Hey. What are you doing sitting out here? It took a lot of work to find you." He walked over to the old man. "I wanted to talk to you about something. Can I sit?"
"Sure. I was just out here admiring the plants and the sky. It's a wonderful summer day. The weather rarely gets so warm here."
"Yeah."
"So, I assume you didn't come out here to talk about the weather. What is it you wanted to discuss?"
"It's about Albel, sir. I wanted to know when his birthday is. I have something that I want to give him for his birthday, or the nearest holiday, but I have no idea when that might be, and Thanksgiving is still a month away. I just hope to give it to him before then."
"Well, believe it or not, I don't know when his birthday is. We are never allowed to celebrate his birthday because his mother died giving birth to him, and his father died on his birthday 16 years later. He believes that there is something bad about his birthday. He thinks that something bad will happen if he acknowledges it."
H. So he's been alone since he was 16. Who took care of him?"
"I took care of him as best I could, but for an old man, raising a 16-year-old is difficult to do. If you absolutely must know when his birthday is and you don't want to ask him, you can go look at his parents' graves and look at the date of death for both of them. Do you know where it is?
"Yeah, I have seen the graveyard a few times. Turn down this street and hook a left, right?"
"That sounds right."
"'Kay. If I can't find it, I'll come back here."
"Sure."
Woltar waved to him as he walked away and went back to his pondering silently. Fayt was glad that he had a way to discover what he wanted to know. It was a little less direct than he had hoped, but not difficult. He started down the next street and found the graveyard quickly.
He remembered the first time that he had seen it. He had walked in on a secret meeting between two spies in an enemy country. It was so cliché, but to them it was a way of life. He was happy that the war was over now. Airyglyph and Aquaria were at peace once again, and the graveyard was quiet. That was the way it ought to be.
Fayt wandered around the graveyard reading the graves and finally came upon two with the last name Nox. These were Albel's parents. They had both died on March 5, 16 years apart, just as Woltar had said. Fayt had guessed that he would be right. Who could forget the date of his best friend's death, and the birth of his godchild? That must have been a tough day for him 9 years ago. Fayt could not imagine how he would feel if he lost his best friend, and he took a moment to be thankful that he had only experienced the death of one friend, 3 years ago. It felt like forever, a whole lifetime, ago. He had gotten over it long ago.
So, his birthday was March 5. Fayt would have to find some other holiday to give his gift. He wanted Albel to be happy, and he would not be happy on his birthday. Anniversaries of losses were always hard. He could not expect anything else, especially from Albel. He walked back to Woltar's mansion and the garden. He found Woltar in the same place he had left him. When Fayt walked up, he moved to the benches in the center and patted the seat next to him. Fayt sat.
"I assume you found the graves. They are not too hard to locate."
"Yeah. He was born on March 5."
"Did you know that Albel's father used to train him to be a soldier here in this very circle. Albel was always thirsting to become better than his father. He wanted to be the best and take his father's place as captain of the Dragon Brigade when he retired. When his father died, he had no interest in dragons anymore."
"The Dragon Brigade!? I would think that you would have given him a job in the Storm Brigade. I'm kind of surprised he ended up the captain of the Black Brigade. It's the only branch of the military that he didn't have ties with."
"The king appointed him to that post. He was angry at first too."
"Well, the king's command would have put that issue to rest for anyone but him. I guess he only respected his father, and after he died, Albel respected no one, not even the king."
"He respects you."
'Thanks. Anyway, I came back to ask if there were any holidays that Airyglyph celebrates that are closer than the middle of November."
"Nope."
"All right. Thanks anyway. I'll just give it to him. Who needs a holiday anyway?"
With that, Fayt said goodbye to Woltar and left the garden. Woltar watched him go and wondered how Fayt and Albel could even be friends. They were so different. They had nothing in common, except saving the world a year back. Now they were living together. It was so strange.
Fayt walked back to the transporter and back to his car. He drove the 20 minutes to the house and ran in. Albel was in front of the TV of course. He sure loved that technology now that he was used to it. Fayt wondered briefly if he could go 24 hours without it. He decided it was probably best not to question it. He couldn't live without it 24 hours either. It was definitely an addiction for a lot of people on Earth. He guessed that was probably one of the things he liked about Kirlsa. No technology, not even electricity. It had total simplicity.
"Albel, hey. Follow me for a second. I want to show you something."
"Sure," Albel paused the show he was watching and got up. When they got there he was confused. "You brought me to your room? Why?"
"There is something in here that is for you. I've noticed that you have nightmares a lot. I think I have the remedy for that. Would you be interested?"
"You are never to speak of that, do you understand? Now what remedy are you talking about?"
"Are you familiar with Native American lore?"
"No."
"Okay. Simply put, these objects here are for taking away bad dreams. They're called dreamcatchers. Supposedly, the dreams get caught in the string that is netted in the middle. When the dream gets caught in the net, it is caught there and can't assault you again. I have 7 of them, all over the room. Choose 2 that you like. They're yours. Although, you cannot have this one. It's my favorite." Fayt pointed to a dreamcatcher hanging on the door with white feathers hanging from it and blue netting. Albel looked at it and concluded that he understood why it was Fayt's favorite.
"So why should I take two? Would one not be enough?"
'It would be plenty, but six is bad luck. I need to have seven or five, not six. You'll just have to take two of them. Otherwise they would not work for me. I had horrible nightmares when I only had six. Anyway, take two. The worst thing that could happen is nothing happens. So try it."
"Fine." Albel looked around. He grabbed one with blue and purple feathers on it and another with red and turquoise feathers. They appealed to him the most,
"Good choices. Those are two of the authentic ones. Some of these were made by fans of the lore, but those two were made by a person who still lives the Native American lifestyle. He's a friend of mine. Anyway, those ought to work great."
"Do you really believe that these things will work?"
"Well, they might. I can't deny that even though I don't believe in it, some of the traditions that they hold have not been disproven. I have never seen any evidence that these work or don't. But I think the authentic ones may work better. Maybe it's like voodoo, where only the person casting it has to believe in it, so only the person making the charm has to believe in it. I can however say that I won't travel without at least one of them, and I hardly ever have nightmares. I can also see that you may not say it, but you are always tired. We need to get you some more peaceful nights."
"All right. Well, I'll try it out."
Fayt stayed up late that night to read and listen to see if Albel had any nightmares. He heard nothing and finally went to bed. When they got up the next morning, Fayt was only half surprised when Albel declared that he had had no nightmares that night.
"I'm glad. I hope that that trend continues for you."
"Thanks."
Fayt was exhausted though. He went to sleep so late. He decided that from now on he would just trust that Albel would not have nightmares. At least as long as no one mentioned birthdays and dreamcatchers.
Well, I couldn't figure out how to put it on the top this time, so I gave up and put it on the bottom.
Disclaimer: I don't own SO3, don't sue me.