A week passes uneventfully, mostly due to the fact that Owen rarely leaves the mines. Save for the occasional errand for Ramsey or visit to see Luke, he remains in his own world in the pitch darkness. Not a word or visit from Molly, or, anyone for that matter. Only Chloe, Ramsey, and Luke speak to Owen throughout the week's entirety.
And not a word from the Harvest King.
Owen, though able to escape the public eye long enough for the whole punching thing to roll over, can't seem to push the thought of his "father" out of his mind. When he sits and takes a short break from his mining sessions, he constantly tries to convince himself that it was all a dream.
I'm not a half god, He thinks to himself. This is all a huge joke. I had a strange dream and that's that.
And each time he thinks this, he can feel the ring grow hotter on his chest, to the point that it nearly burns him. He'll pull it out of his shirt and look at it, and an overwhelming sickness forms in him. It seems as if the ring is reminding him: 'Yes you are.'
Another time that week, he is walking with Chloe to the mines so she can use her new hammer. He spies the grooves in the mountain, just as they were the night he saw the King. While Chloe is distracted by something, he walks over and places his hand over the grooves. Closing his eyes, he thinks:
I want nothing more to be away from here.
No bright glow meets his eyes. No cold breeze brushes his face. The hot summer sun remains mercilessly burning his back. He opens his eyes, and puts his forehead to the cool rock, disappointed. Why would it not work? It really must have been fake after all. Only when Chloe pulls on his shirt does he come back to his senses.
"Watcha doin', Owen?" she inquires with big green eyes.
Owen takes one last look at the rock before responding. "Nothing." He sees her concerned expression and puts on a smile. " It's nothing to worry about. C'mon. Let's go try out your new hammer."
The little orange haired girl's eyes light up and she skips to the cave entrance, hammer in tow.
Owen sits in the cave, taking a short break after an hour of mining. A lantern burns brightly next to him and as he watches the flame, he thinks about his encounter with the Harvest King.
Me? A half god? There's absolutely no way! I don't care what he says about me being fire resistant or super strong. There's got to be a time I burned myself, but I just forgot it.
Owen sits back, a smile creeping across his face.
Yeah. That's it. I just forgot about- GODDESS THAT'S HOT!
He quickly pulls the hot ring from his shirt and immediately his smile disappears. 'Yes you are.' The ring seems to say. 'Yes you are'.
Owen thinks for a moment. But, if this is true, could he tell me about her?
Despite Owen trying to deny what the Harvest King said to him, a small, teeny tiny part of him hopes it is true. If he is truly his father, then the King could tell him about his mother. He has answers about himself he wants answers to. Ones that can only be explained by how his parents were. Ones about where she was and why did she leave. Ones that Ramsey refuses to talk about.
Owen can't help but think to himself in a disgruntled manner.
If I can't be burned, then why the hell does this ring hurt so much?
He freezes. His eyes drift to the flame in the lantern and he has a twisted idea. He pulls the lantern close to him and opens the panel on the side. Taking a deep breath, he takes his finger and puts it over the flame. Because he expects pain and unbearable heat, he is taken aback as he feels nothing more than a warm sensation over his finger. Startled by this, he jumps back against the wall of the cave with enough force to cause his hammer to fall over with a loud BANG.
"Hello? Is somebody in here?"
Owen's heart only pounds faster as he hears that voice. Oh no. Molly.
He jumps up and shuts the panel on the lantern before picking it up, only to drop it again. The light goes out on impact, leaving Owen scrambling in the dark.
"Shit," he mutters under his breath. He quickly pulls out a matchbox from his pocket and tries to light a match, only for it to fail.
"Come on! Light!" he mutters. Too late he realizes that a light has come up behind him.
"What are ya doing there, Owen?" Molly asks.
Owen jumps at the suddenness of her arrival. He keeps his face low.
"My, um, lantern went out and I was trying to relight it."
"Oh," Molly says. "Well, let me help."
He hears her put down her hammer and walk closer to him. She kneels next to him and places her lantern on the ground.
"Match?" she asks.
Owen, still holding the matches, silently hands her one.
She puts the match to her lantern's flame and lights it, then quickly moves it to Owens lantern. Upon lighting it, she blows out the match and shuts both panels on the lanterns.
"Ta Da!" she states dramatically, smiling.
Owen gets up, muttering a "Thanks" and picks up his lantern, leaving Molly sitting there.
"Now wait a minute Owen!" she says.
Owen turns around to find her standing up, an aggravated look on her face.
"I haven't seen you in a week and now you won't even talk to me? What's with that?!"
Owen turns his face down and picks up his hammer, and begins to walk away.
"I don't care that you punched Gill. I think he deserved it," she states.
Owen stops dead and turns around to look at her. She stands there in her work outfit with her golden hammer glinting over her right shoulder. Her damp hair is held back in a bandana and her expression is almost unreadable. Something between aggravated and hurt.
"You're serious?" he inquires. "You don't mind that I punched your boyfriend at all."
She shakes her head. "The fights Gill gets into aren't anything I concern myself over. I also don't agree with having to stand in while you apologized. Even though he did deserve it."
Owen's face grows red at the thought of how embarrassing that was.
"So," she says, walking over to him, "No hard feelings?"
Owen looks at her smiling face, and feels uplifted.
"What hard feelings?" he says grinning.
"That's more like it, Red," she says. "Now that your lantern's lit, want to come with me to mine?"
Owen looks at his watch. 15:00. I've got a few hours.
"Well, I don't know," Owen says playfully, "You know how busy a schedule I have."
Molly smiles. "I'm sure you can make a little time for mining."
Owen puts his hand to his chin as if he's thinking. "Well, alright, but only a little while."
Molly picks up her lantern. "Great. Let's go!" she says.
Owen grabs his hammer and lantern before joining her and they begin their walk into the mines. There's a comfortable silence for a little while before Owen notices Molly eyeing his hammer. It's nothing special. Just an old iron hammer Ramsey gave him a few years back.
"Hey Owen," Molly cuts in.
"Hm?"
"You work as a blacksmith, right?"
Owen eyes her curiously. "Yeah."
"And you mine all the time, correct?"
"Most of the time, yeah."
"Then why is it that you don't have a more, how do I say this?" she pauses as Owen looks at her. "Well, a more updated hammer?" She looks at him with curious amber eyes.
"Well," the red head begins, "normally when I mine, all the ores I get are sold to pay for different things like food and utilities, so I rarely get to keep what I mine. Also, I stand over a forge for 8 hours a day usually, so at that point, I'm really sick of it." He looks to see her still looking at him. "Did that answer your question?"
"Kinda. " she says thoughtfully. "Then how did you make Chloe's hammer?"
Owen laughs softly. "Now that's something different."
"You could have used those materials to upgrade your own hammer. Why not?"
"Because," Owen states, "that hammer was all she asked for. She didn't want anything else but that hammer." Owen pauses to look at Molly. "How could I deny her the one thing she wanted?"
Molly grins. "You can't, that's what."
There's another silence before Owen speaks again.
"Now I get to ask you a question," he says.
Molly laughs. "Oh really now? Alright then. Shoot."
"Why did you move here? To Castanet?"
Owen sees her smile falter before it returns to its natural state. Had he crossed some imaginary line?
"I hated the city," she answers simply. "It was so loud. So full of stupid, evil people. I saw the brochure for this place, and decided then and there that I was leaving." She looks over at him. "So, in short, I was given an escape. And I took it."
Owen wants to know more, but something tells him not to.
"So, anyway," she says, grinning, "It's my turn to ask you a question."
They continue on talking on various subjects, such as work, funny childhood tales, etc. They find a mining place and mine while still talking. Every once in a while, there's a laugh, and a lot of smiling. Owen watches Molly's face as she laughs and as she swings her hammer. He can't help but think how easy she is to talk to, how understanding she is. He can tell she's been through a lot, but doesn't let it faze her.
On their way back out, they sit in another comfortable silence. A sudden thought strikes Owen.
Would it be so bad to tell her?
He looks at her walking next to him. Her hair now drenched in sweat from the mining, her hammer hung over her shoulder. Amber eyes glowing in the lantern's bright light. She is his closest friend other than Luke, and he trusts her.
"Hey, Molly," he says a lot less confident than he wanted. "I need to tell you something."
She looks over at him, head cocked to the side. "Anything wrong, Red?"
No. He thinks sternly. She'll think I'm crazy. What would I say? "Oh, nothing much, just that my dad's the Harvest King." No! That's a horrible idea! And I… I just can't add any more stress to her life.
At this point they reach the entrance of the cave. The sun is setting, and already a few stars are showing. The air is beginning to cool from the hot summer afternoon to the cool evening. Lights are visible in the windows of the shops along the street.
"Um," he says, turning towards her. "I just wanted to tell you that you never told me about your honey hole you found last week."
"I really didn't?" Molly asks, looking confused, "Well, I could show you really quickly right now. What time is it?"
Owen glances at his watch.
"Nineteen o'clock." He answers.
Molly's eyes widen. "You're kidding. I have to get home!" she says, turning to hurry to her house. She only walks a few steps before turning back around. "Thanks Owen. I had a really nice afternoon," she says, flashing her smile. "See you tomorrow?"
Owen smiles discretely. "Yeah. See you tomorrow."
With that, she turns away and heads on toward her house. Owen watches her until she gets too far away to see, and thinks about their afternoon, before remembering how he tried to burn himself. He pulls out the ring and looks at it.
"So," he sighs, "I guess I really am Owen, Son of the Harvest King."
The ring's stone glows at the words, shocking Owen. He looks around to see if anyone us around and notices something even more shocking.
The rock is glowing.
Getting over his shock, he walks cautiously over to it and places his hand on the faintly glowing grooves.
"I am Owen, Son of the Harvest King. Take me to the mountaintop."
Owen shuts his eyes tight as the light grows blindingly bright, and when he opens them, he's a little surprised to find himself right where he asked to be taken. The mountaintop.
Hey! So I'm in a super creative streak right now, so I'll probably be posting a fair amount of chapters for this story. Please don't forget to review (constructive criticism please) because I love to know how I can improve! If you've still got a problem with Kathy, please read my author's note on the previous chapter. Love you guys!- Beetle