Holy cow, those were probably the quickest reviews I've gotten yet. Thank you all!
Some of you have questions about characters and such, and I am going to start responding to reviewers.
Animalcxing: The ending was very hard to come up with. Blaize is my cousin's character. Don't steal him, cuz she's trying to get him published. :D Anyways, he's an Exelian. I can't give out more than that at the moment.
AnimeWildfire: Hey, I'll give you a hollar if I am in need of your expertise :. Thanks for your support!
Chapter 6
Though the sun was shining ridiculously bright, a black cloud hung over Shea's home. Even the horses seemed depressed; Epona hung around in her pen, ears and head drooping, refusing to wolf down her feed as she normally did.
Shea's eyes were glued to the road, the image of his mother riding away still shimmering in the daylight heat. He didn't know how long he sat on the ground, watching the horizon; he didn't know what time it was, or what day it was. All he knew was that his mother was gone.
"Momma..." he whined to no one.
And he continued to sit.
Shea squinted his eyes: a figure was climbing the path. His spirit's soared, Momma! He wondered if maybe she had changed her mind, and decided that the best thing was to stay with her family! Momma!
The figure waved obnoxiously, "Shea! Hiya!"
Shea blinked, and within a second he realized who it was. He lowered his head and shuffled his feet. He knew he shouldn't get his hopes up like that... and he knew that one thing was for certain: his mother wasn't coming back.
Subconciously, he reached up and grasped the amulet that was now around his neck. It felt strangely warm, and lighter than what it appeared to be.
Claire's green eyes suddenly filling his vision once more brought the boy back to reality, "Hello-oo!! Earth to Shea! What's with the long face?" She grinned, "I have something for you."
Shea sniffed, forcing himself to not cry in front of Claire. "Alright." If only you could bring my mother back.
Claire grinned, "TA-DA!!" She whipped out from behind her back a (poorly) crafted chicken made of twigs and wire. Obviously, she was overtly proud of it and was grinning from ear to ear, "Happy late birthday! I couldn't find the wire to bind everything together yesterday."
Upon sight of the twig-chicken, Shea couldn't help but smile. Gingerly, he wrapped his fingers around the chicken... when it burst into a cloud of twig and wire. Claire screamed and started yelling, "NO no no no no no no no! Stupid thing!"
But the gift was scattered in the ground, the wire and twigs laying in a heap. Claire's shoulder's fell, "Ah well. It was stupid, anyways."
Shea looked at Claire's face. He felt really grateful for what she had done, even though her efforts 'broke.' Without thinking, Shea gave the girl a friendly hug. "Thanks, Claire."
The girl was stunned, but eventually relaxed, "Happy birthday."
"Hey, guess what? I saw Blaize again!" Claire announced as she and Shea sat in Epona's now empty pen. The sounds of a hammer and Epona's grunting came from inside the barn.
Shea raised an eyebrow, "Oh, really?"
Claire nodded enthusiastically, "Yup! He seemed very distant this time, like he was insanely lost in thought. He was still wearing those clothes that we saw him in the other day: torn, dirty, burned, and bloody."
Shea looked down at the ground, remembering one of the conversations he had heard from his parents; of the 'dangerous Exelian child,' murdering... and there had been a fire a few days before that... and he was so distant, especially when Claire mentioned 'home.'
"Shea? Shea? Are you listening to me?" Claire poked him, hard.
"Wha? Oh, yeah." Shea plastered a grin on his face.
Claire gave him a skeptical look, "You're still not upset about that night? So what if Blaize is so much cooler than-" she stopped at Shea's hard look, "well... he is older. I'm sure you'll be as cool as him in a few years!" She fixed her mistake. "Anyways, I've been practicing that chicken-catching technique he used..."
But Shea wasn't listening. He had put two and two together: Blaize had something to do with that fire.
"Bye, Claire!" Shea waved goodbye as Claire bounded off back towards the village. Seeing her run off into the sunset brought back a pang of sorrow. Momma...
"Shea, come inside." Link appeared from around the corner. Despite his overwhelming sorrow, Shea couldn't help but snicker. His dad was covered in dust and there was a huge bruise on his cheek.
Almost hearing his son's thought, Link smiled. "Been trying to break that bay colt."
"The skittish one with the hock knees?"
"That's him."
Shea smiled and was about to step into the house when he remembered the remains of the chicken that Claire had given him. "One second, Dad." He bent down and began to scoop up the wire and twigs.
The subject of Zelda was completely out of the question. Either of them refused to talk about her, for the moment anyway. The hour of which they would all normally eat together was silence, and Shea poked around on his plate with his fork. "I'm not hungry." He whined.
Likewise, Link had barely eaten anything, but said indifferently, "Eat, Shea."
"You're not eating. Why should I?"
"Because you are still growing."
"So?"
"Eat your dinner, Shea."
"No!" Shea threw down his fork and sat back against his chair, folding his arms with a huff. He stared his father down in the eyes, determined to win this staredown.
Link gave in with an exhasperated sigh. He rested his head in his hands, eyes closed. Shea took that as a sign that he was excused. He hopped down from the chair and climbed up to his loft, where he fought tears of despair until his father called up to him to go to sleep.
Shea should have been asleep. Instead, he was attempting to put the chicken back together. And so far... he wasn't having much luck.
"Just like the live things... stupid!" Shea hissed as the wire snapped for the up-teenth time that night. Exhasperated, he threw the twigs and wire to the floor and climbed in bed, scowling. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
He drew the blankets up to his chin, but didn't close his eyes. He was afraid that when he did, images of his mother would come flooding against him like an opened dam against a river.
Shea sat up again when a dim glow from downstairs was made visible. He quietly got down from his bed and looked over the small railing. His eyes were adjusting to the glow that came from... the secret room.
He wasn't aloud to go in there... his father had forbidden it. Shea had always wondered why; time to time he noticed his dad going in there and not coming out for a while. Once, he had asked about it, but his father only reminded him once again to not go in there.
...he could just sneak a look. He could be really quiet and just see what was in there.
No. He could get in huge trouble. He was talking big. REEEAAALLLY big. Mountain size big.
Aww... It was just one look.
No! Huge trouble.
One look.
One look.
Shea nodded to himself and quietly went down the ladder. He winced once when it gave a loud squeak, but no one came out of the room. He successfully reached the bottom of the ladder and tip-toed over to a wall. He pressed himself against it, and waited; no one came out of the room. His heart pounding, Shea inched himself closer to the door-frame. His blood was pulsing in his ears, drowning out any small noises of the night.
Something from inside the room moved... it sounded like an item was being picked up. Gathering up his courage, Shea took a deep breath, and leaned his head over the corner to look into the room.
