"One midnight gone!" The gleeful cackle startled Scott so much that he nearly lost his nerve. So much had happened today that he'd had no idea he'd wanted to do. The night before he'd been accosted by a fearsome wizard that lived next door, and it had been revealed his parents hadn't died in a baking accident.
Far from it. There was the query of why his mother had wanted beans, precisely, but his father had stolen them for her, aging the wizard significantly. Then there was the question of her having four more children-all scattered now, save the one born at the time of the beans incident. The whereabouts of that brother were very clear.
He'd been able to recall the bright, bean green eyes of a red haired spring infant, bawling his heart out, just before the wizard had laughed and told him: "he's mine now, and you'll never find him!" Scott's heart curled uncomfortably. Those little boots…
The more he wandered the woods, however, the more he found that he could remember his childhood. There had been a lot of walking. His father had gone out with a black haired little boy and a golden haired baby and not come home with them, and wouldn't tell Scott however much he had asked. Then there'd been another golden haired baby, which had served to confuse him, but then he'd disappeared too.
His father had buried their mother under a willow tree, in the woods. Then, receding like a shadow, he had gone out one day and never come home, and little Scott, twelve years old, had fended for himself since.
How he'd forgotten all of that…
Glaring at the spot the wizard had been, he weighed finding his family against his want for a son, and found there was no difference. And then:
"There are giants in the sky!"
/Line Break/
Gordon hadn't quite figured out how to deal with money but he was willing to do what he could to get Milky White back, so five gold coins in exchange for five magic beans. Yeah, that made sense.
Handing them to the man who'd taken the cow, he was confused; where was it? 'At home, with my wife.' Unaware that the cow had gone and run away, and the wife had stopped a young man with golden slippers…in vain.
It was now stories weaved and tangled; but let us focus on their view of each other.
Scott didn't want to break the golden haired child's heart. He didn't want to make him cry, and tell him that his cow might be used as a sacrifice to break the curse to allow him a child. After all, that was all he wanted. He didn't want his family back-his father had split them up for a reason, hadn't he? But the golden haired child looked so familiar that it hurt and Scott was tongue-tied.
Gordon, gazing at Scott and trying to discern if he was pulling the wool over his eyes, found that he looked a lot like the man who had given Milky White-and him-away. "You…you didn't buy the cow back because you'd loaned it to the old woman on the side of the woods, did you?" Scott's pool blue eyes widened slightly.
"We did have a cow, like Milky White. Back when I was very small." They gazed far away. "But he left with it one morning and…never saw it again."
Gordon frowned. "Do you have a brother you never knew about, then?"
Scott wanted the child, not the family. But he knew he was desperate, and selfish, and yet…if this was one of his brothers, then there were more out there. The black haired one who'd gone with him, the little baby golden haired…the red head that the wizard had taken away. He straightened. "I have four, and I think you're one of them."
And Gordon couldn't believe his luck. Although it seemed that fortune favoured him, this reveal left Scott with a decision to make, and he didn't know how to, especially after the raucous day he'd had, and the red cloak now in his bag…
/Line Break/
Alan had at first doubted the man who'd tried to make off with his cloak. That much had been clear. He'd screamed and screamed and stamped on his toe and run away-only to encounter a wolf.
And then he'd gotten to his grandma's house and found her eaten by the wolf, and been eaten himself. Not nice; yet the Baker had been there, and saved them both. So in the end, the cloak had been handed over and Alan had been left at his grandma's feeling strange. The man seemed too young to be his father, but they shared the same deep blue eyes, that was clear enough.
"Are you alright, young man?" His grandma asked, as he stared out at the woods she lived in. He thought he saw a horse riding from left to right, deeper into the forest, but he wasn't sure.
"Yes, grandma.' He replied. "I gave my red cloak to the Baker. He wanted it, for some reason."
"I'll make you a new one from the skins of that wolf. Come on, I'll show you how to be a real hunter, lad."
