And now, the previously untold story of how Cay and Autolycus met. A story there would have been much demand for if anybody had asked for it : )
29 years ago, in Scyros Province....
The carnival was in town, and Scyros was bustling with activity. This was the largest of the annual festivals that came through Scyros Province. Most of them were slaphazard travelling shows, or thinly-disguised craft bazaars, or the result of random wanderings by gypsies; but the Festival of The Dragon's Eye was big.... really big.
It honored the sacred Dragon's Eye Ruby sceptre of the sovereign of Scyros, presently King Menelaus. Generations earlier, it had been acquired through great suffering from a rather reluctant dragon. It had been said that no one would successfully lead the Scyrosians without the stone, and several failed reigns had proven that point. Some saw the legend as a pale superstition, but Scyros was a province that prided itself on its attention to heritage and custom. Under the gleam of the Dragon's Eye, Menelaus's great-grandmother and later her descendants had led the province to times of prosperity.
Now --- in early fall --- was the anniversary of when the great warrior Malius the Mighty retrieved the stone in the first place.
The celebration grew larger with each year. One year, a shrewd carnival owner had realized the potential of this festival and arranged to have his carnival set up on the outskirts of town in time for the annual event. This particular year, the queen was heavy with child, and the festive atmosphere was more enthusiastic than ever.
Cay had loved the carnival as long as he could remember. Being six years old, his memory didn't necessarily go back all that far, but he did so love all the hustle and bustle. To promote his pugilism school, Cay's father had his best students put on demonstrations during the carnival, in between horse races and demonstrations of physical prowess --- many of which Caybr the Elder, being as strong as an ox and three or four times as stubborn, participated in as well.
Cay adored his father, and never failed to be there cheering him on. And Caybr the Elder doted over his young son, who he swore would be the finest fighter in the world one day. At the moment, Caybr was between performances, and had taken Cay to the game booths, where he tried to encourage the lad to hit the target in a game of darts.
In another part of the carnival, an 8-year old boy named Autolycus -- though known to almost everyone as 'Toly' -- was running back and forth frenetically down the midway, zig-zagging and trying not to miss a moment of activity. Toly's 23-year old brother Malakis thought he'd never catch up with the lad, until Toly's attention was finally drawn to a woman performing a snake dance. Being shorter than most of the crowd for this particular performance, Toly had made his way up to the front of the stage. As Malakis pushed his way through the crowd to retrieve his little brother, several men shoved back, almost starting a fight. Finally, Malakis reached out and grabbed Toly by the collar and pulled him away.
The snake-dancer waved goodbye and blew the little boy a kiss before continuing in her routine.
Back out of the crowd and in the center of the midway, Malakis eyed his little brother. "You really shouldn't have been watching that," he said.
"Why?" Toly replied.
"Because mom would pull out your eyeballs and wash them if she knew," Malakis replied. "And then she'd probably pull out my eyeballs and throw em away for letting you see that."
"Pull out my eyeballs?" Toly considered this. "Cool.. can you really do that?"
Malakis rolled his eyes. "C'mon, let's get somethin' to eat."
As they turned away from the midway and toward the food booths, Toly's head arched upwards... and upwards... and upwards. Malakis's did as well.
Most of the rides in the carnival were simple; ponies trotted in a fenced-in area, men paid to see how long they could ride a bucking bull, children slid down a watery slide to a wading pool below. But this year, something new had been added to the carnival.
It was an enormous contraption, fifty feet high and circular, made with thick darkened wood. People sat in small chairs on it and were lifted high into the air as the circle arced around, its gears operated by five muscular carnival workers. In a later century, with metal instead of wood and more strident attention to safety precautions, it might have been called a 'Ferris Wheel'.
Here, though, it was called 'The Dragon'.
Passengers hooted and hollered as they were lifted up where they could look around and see much of the carnival below. The chairs wobbled fiercely, and the framework of the whole contraption wobbled as it made its rotation, but people were intrigued and had lined up to get a chance to ride it.
"Whoa, can we go on that?" Toly asked.
"Not a chance in Tartarus," Malakis replied. He grabbed Toly's hand and pulled the boy toward a shish kebob vendor.
"Ya want chicken or lamb?" Malakis asked, trying to draw Toly's attention away from the ride.
"Chicken," Toly said absently, never turning his head. Malakis rolled his eyes and bought their food.
"Here ya go," he said, pushing a kebob into the boy's hands. "Tell ya what. When we finish eating, we can go back and watch that acrobat you liked so much."
Toly's head spun around for the first time. "Really???" he asked with a wide grin that revealed a missing tooth or two. "That would be great!"
"Sure, why not," Malakis replied. "That guy put on a good show... even if his banter was downright annoying. Such a cocky son of a crossbow."
Back at the game booths, Cay was trying his hardest to get the hoops he threw over the bottles lined up on the floor a yard in front of him. Caybr watched sympathetically, but could tell the boy was getting frustrated and a bit embarrassed. Caybr scowled at the man running the booth.
"Ya wouldn'ae be scammin' li'l kids wit' this game, would'ya?" Caybr asked menacingly.
The man shrugged apologetically and took a step back.
Cay concentrated on one particular bottle, a brown-tinted one with a tall thin neck. The boy examined the wooden two-inch wide hoop he was supposed to throw, then the bottle, then the hoop. He practiced tossing the hoop, trying to visualize what angle it should fly at. When he had it perfectly figured, he took a deep breath and tossed it.
Just as the hoop left the boy's fingers, there was a thunderous crashing noise and screaming.
Cay and his father spun around to see the 'Ferris Wheel' as it came off its supports, flinging riders to the ground. People were yelling and moaning. The wheel remained vertical, but barely. It wobbled precariously. On the front edge near the top of the wheel, a young woman dangled off one of the seats, holding onto the footrest for dear life. Above her, a two-year old dark-haired girl cowered in the corner of the seat itself.
The wooden sides of the wheel were starting to crack and splinter. Caybr made his way through the crowd, Cay following in his wake.
Several of the carnies were helping people up or carrying ones who had been injured to safety.
Caybr looked up at the woman dangling above them.
"Wha' aboot that one?" he asked one of the carnies.
"What about her? We gotta wait for her to fall."
Caybr glowered at the man. "We gotta catch'er!"
"How??" the carnie asked. "She drops from that height, she'll break your arms if you try to catch her."
"I have an idea," came a third voice from behind them. The two men spun around and saw Malakis, looking upwards.
A few seconds later, a distressed cider vendor watched as Caybr and two muscular carnies tore his tent down.
"I had to improvise something like this two years ago, when my little brother got himself caught in the branches of a worm-ridden old tree..." Malakis said, watching the men as they took the tarp and stretched it out. A few other men joined them, pulling it taut.
They moved under the front edge of the wheel, looking up and trying to position themselves so the woman would land in the center of the tarp. As the musclebound men did this, Malakis took a few steps back and looked up at where the woman was. His jaw dropped as he caught sight, for the first time, of the little girl.
"There's a kid up there too!" he called.
Caybr looked up, but from his angle couldn't see anything.
Meanwhile, at the front of the crowd, Cay and Toly watched.
"That's my brother," Toly said, pointing out Malakis. "He's really smart."
"That's my dad," Cay replied, pointing to Caybr. "The one with the long beard."
"Whoa, he looks strong."
"He's the strongest man in the world," Cay replied.
They heard a scream.
The young woman cried out as her fingers slipped and she fell downwards. She thought her last sight would be that of her child cowering in the seat above..
"As soon as she hits, let it go loose a bit," Malakis yelled. "But not too much, or..."
The woman landed in the center of the tarp, and let out a surprised yelp when she didn't splatter against the ground.
The Ferris wheel groaned as more boards splintered. It started to wobble more noticably, and a strong gust of wind could have knocked it over.
"My baby!!" the woman cried, scrambling to her feet. Like the child, she was dark-haired, with a Mediterranean tan and large green eyes. She looked like she might still be in her teens, though barely.
"There's a little kid in the seat still!" Malakis explained to the men.
"There's no way we can get to her," said one of the carnies. "Too much weight on this thing and it'll fall over."
"How about a little weight?" Toly asked, stepping forward.
Malakis looked at his brother and then back up at the Ferris wheel. "It's not safe, Toly. Get back."
"But I'm a good climber!" Toly replied.
Malakis nodded. "He is at that," he admitted. "I doubt it could support a grown man, but he might have a chance."
The massive wheel wobbled and another spoke of the wheel splintered.
"We dinnae hae much time," Caybr said. "Think the boy can han'le it?"
Malakis looked up again. "I don't see much choice," he said.
Toly started to climb the side of the wheel. True to his reputation --- Malakis had nicknamed him 'Squirrel-butt' -- the boy was a natural climber. But before he got too far up, the wheel started to sway.
Down below, the muscular carnies and Caybr did their best to steady it.
"This isn'a gonna work!" Caybr yelled. "Th' boy's weight is throwin' it off-balance!"
"The boy's weight?" a woman in the crowd proclaimed. "But he's so small!"
"That thing is like a measuring scale at this point," Malakis explained over his shoulder. "The tiniest amount too much on one side or the other and it'll... hey, who's that?"
Malakis and the others stared as Cay started climbing up the other side of the Ferris wheel.
Caybr quickly realized what his son was up to. "B' careful, Cay!" He yelled. "If ye fall, yer mother'll whup me somethin' fierce!!!"
Cay chuckled, his father's joke briefly taking his mind off the climb. Unlike Toly, Cay had never been all that fond of heights, to put it mildly. But his sister Ahoondra was about the same age as the little girl in the seat above, and Cay knew if she was in danger he wouldn't hesitate to save her. Once he was up at the same level Toly was at, the two boys looked at each other.
"If I'm on this side and you're on that side, it should stay balanced, right?" Cay asked.
Toly nodded... though he wasn't entirely sure. "By the way, I'm Autolycus, but everyone calls me Toly."
"I'm Caybr the Younger, but everyone calls me Cay."
The two boys nodded at each other, then turned their attention upwards and, with fierce determination in their young eyes, scaled the sides of the wheel, heading toward the seat above.
"Yew can do it, Cay!" Caybr yelled in as encouraging a tone as he could muster. "Make me proud, boyyo!"
Malakis, meanwhile, held his breath as he watched Toly climb higher. What would mother say if something happened? Deep down, Malakis knew that Chionne would approve of her son's attempt to save a life, but he also knew that her heart would break. After Malakis' father had died of a fever, and Toly's father had impregnated and abandoned her, Malakis wasn't sure if she could handle any more grief. He had no intention of finding out.
As Cay climbed higher, he could hear the little girl whimpering.
"Don't worry!" he called. "We're coming!"
The girl leaned over the edge to see Cay, then her big green eyes widened as she saw how high up she was. She started screaming.
"Oh, good one," Toly muttered as he started to shinny across a broken spoke, then wrapped his legs around a beam to get higher.
"Calm down!" Cay called. "I'm almost there! Look at me!"
The girl turned her attention back to Cay; she was still sniffling, but at least she had stopped yelling.
Cay tried to climb higher, but the wood splintered on the plank he was standing on.
"Toly, I don't think I can get any higher!" he called.
"I think I can make it," Toly replied.
"What's your name?" Cay asked the girl in as soothing a voice as he could manage.
"Shan," the little girl stammered.
"I'm Cay. I have a sister your age, her name is Ahoondra."
The girl considered this. "Hoonda." she tried to pronounce it.
Cay smiled. "Close enough. She likes frogs. Do you like frogs?"
The girl wrinkled her nose.
"I didn't think so," Cay said with a laugh. "Not many little girls do."
While Cay had her distracted from her deadly situation, Toly was getting closer. He leaned forward, almost able to reach the footrest on the front of her seat.
"C'mon," he said, trying not to be nervous. He reached for it again... as the plank underneath him came loose. Toly tumbled forward, grabbing hold of the footrest.
The seat spun forward, and the girl started to fall.
Cay cried "Shan!" and started to lunge forward.
Toly dangled in mid-air, one hand on the footrest and the other holding the screaming little girl, who dangled below him.
He strained as he pulled her toward him. "We're ready down here!" Malakis called.
Toly looked down and gulped. "Here goes nothing..." He pulled the girl up to his chest, and she wrapped her arms tightly around him. "Here we come!" Toly called as he pushed away from the seat, tumbling backwards. He was careful to keep his back toward the ground; if they spun the other way around, he might crush her when they hit the tarp below.
They landed safely, and the impact knocked the wind out of Toly.
Cay started to scramble down the wheel. By the time he was fifteen feet from the ground, it was teetering more precariously than ever. Caybr ran under him and reached his arms out. Cay leapt, and his father dove to catch him.
Still gripping Cay tightly, Caybr got to his feet and ran, narrowly getting out from under the wheel before it fell over on its side.
The woman hugged her daughter tightly, weeping with joy, as Malakis helped Toly get to his feet.
"You're a hero, Squirrel-butt," Malakis said.
"That thing is a menace!" a new voice bellowed.
Everyone turned as King Menelaus's entourage made its way through the crowd. Menelaus was a thin man with a thick greying beard and ornate robes of state.
The carnival owner was beside him. "It never broke before," he stammered. "And we used it at three other festivals before---"
"Once is all it takes," Menelaus said harshly. "You'll pay for any medical care for the victims of this so-called 'ride' out of your own pocket."
The carnival owner, knowing better than to argue with the king, bowed his head.
"And from what I saw, these boys and those men are heroes," Menelaus continued.
"Aw, I didn't do anything special," Malakis said. "But my brother Toly here..."
Menelaus smiled down at Autolycus. "Perhaps someday you can join my constables," he said warmly. "They could use someone so courageous."
Toly nodded enthusiastically.
Caybr set Cay down and the two knelt before the king.
"Ah, you're the pugilist, aren't you?" Menelaus asked. "The one who trained some of my men awhile back."
"Yea, yer maj'sty," Caybr said humbly. "At'cher service."
As the king shook hands with Caybr and then Malakis, a figure moved through the crowd.
It was the vendor of the game booth Cay had been at. In his hand was a stuffed Pegasus doll.
He handed it to Cay. "You got the ring on the bottle," he explained.
Cay looked down at the toy, thought for a second, and handed it over to the little girl. She hugged the doll, then reached up with her other arm and hugged Cay around the neck. When she was through, she reached up to hug Autolycus.
He was a bit embarrassed at this, but knelt down and let her hug him. The little girl kissed him on the cheek and giggled, then stepped back.
"Kids," Toly muttered, wiping his cheek with the sleeve of his shirt.
The girl's mother embraced Autolycus so hard he thought she might break his ribs, then reached out and grabbed Cay into the same embrace. "Thanks so much," she sobbed. "I don't know what I would've done..."
Toly gently patted the woman on the back and looked over at Cay.
"It was kinda fun climbing around on that thing, wasn't it?" Toly asked quietly.
Cay rolled his eyes, though when he thought about it, he had to admit... "Yeah, it was."
"Cool," Toly said. "Cause I know some great places we can go climbing and exploring..."
END