Fantasia
Arc3: The Heir of Ardneria
Chapter13 (Finale): The truth about Juan
Mel Rocux, she was a simple Ardnerian beastwoman in her early thirties, after a mysterious fever aborted two babies in their early months after her first birth of Demetri, the woman totally lost hope of giving birth to another kid, but God had another plans for her, because her baby survived until the dawn of his predictable birthday.
Her husband's happiness was as immense as her, he even asked from the sage to bless this new baby at the moment of seeing the light of the day, and so the old man did to be present along with his wife Clara who happened to be a wisewoman.
And the time went quickly as the moon raced the sun, and the night dropped its darkening veil over the sky, with the Clara ordering the men to leave the bedroom for Mel was about to give birth.
With the moans of the pregnant women filled the house, the husband was anxious that neither all the smoke in the world nor the sage's consulting words were capable to calm him down, and his mind was lost enough to ignore his sole son who felt worry about his mother's fate and left outside under the heavy rain and the raging thunder.
But suddenly they heard violent knocks catching the men's attention rushing them to open the door to check out who's this visitor; he was Demetri helping a cloaked figure to stand, Rocux and without questions set a chair for the mysterious person who was about to collapse.
But the visitor wasn't alone, because it carried a large straw basket wrapped with a sight catching band; it was red and green decorated by a golden jewel with the shape of two intersected diamonds.
The sage brought hot tea for the unexpected guest whose shivering hands told that she was a human woman of untellable age, the woman was shaking from cold keeping silence, despite the father wanted to examine her face she refused by leaning her hood down, whilst the sage prevented him from tiring her even more.
Mel's moans of birth suddenly stopped, and instead it was replaced by a baby's cry…The baby lived! Rocux shouted with happiness and ran toward his wife to witness his newly born child with the sage trying to halt him down.
He was a male cub, with red locks like burning carbuncle, and yellow glowing eyes like two sparking ambers, and sharp screams that pierced the ears of the presents.
"Congratulations it's a boy" Clara said handing the baby to his father.
"Honey…He lived, isn't he a beautiful? He got his grandmother's eyes, I wished he had yours but…" the woman wanted to say but the father stopped the mother asking her to rest.
In this joy, Rocux and Luffine totally forgot about the guest down stairs, but Demetri was watching her, she somehow smirked upon hearing Roné's cries:
"You are their son, right?" she asked.
"Um, yeah" Demetri nodded.
"You are happy for having a brother, are you not?" she asked to get the same response.
"Then you are a good boy." she removes the veil over the basket.
She revealed the content of the basket! A human baby was sleeping in it; he had a fairly dark skin, with a small scruff of orange hair covering his forehead, and opposing to Roné he was as calm as the breeze of spring.
"Listen kid (she coughed) I can no longer take care of this kid, I believe I'll go soon, so please, take care of him like…a brother" the woman said reeling slowly to reach the door.
"Miss! Wait! What about the baby?" he asked innocently.
"Please take care of Juan…" she said before leaving the house, and Demetri followed her but nothing was there, nothing but a pearly feather that disappeared slowly like a mirage.
He then turned to the basket, he approached it slowly, he saw humans before, but he never saw a human baby, his skin was softer than beasts', and his body was almost naked from hair, and even his scent was more appealing, he reached the handle of the straw container and carried it to the upper floor of the house.
Everyone was happy up there, as the sage started to pay prayers on the newly born baby surrounded by the happy Rocux and Clara while Mel was laid on the bed looking at them with immense joy.
"Dad…she's gone, and she left her baby…" the kid claimed naïvely, breaking the moment calling for everyone's attention.
"This is…a human baby! Had she left a baby?" the sage asked taking the basket from his hand.
"Um, and she called him Juan…" he added.
"This truly is a human child" Rocux said while taking the baby from the sage.
"He's a beautiful…like an angel" Clara described.
"Let me…see him" Mel told her husband.
The moment Mel carried the baby, something in her heart moved toward him, she was a mother after all, even with a human she felt the warmth of parenthood with him, and so she put him next to Roné.
"Darling are you…?" the husband asked.
"Yes, Lord Luffine, Lady Clara, you wouldn't mind, would you?" she asked the sage and his wife who tilted their head allowing her to do what she wanted.
"Then Demetri, please come here… (And the son obeyed mounting the bed where his mother laid between him and the babies) These will be your brothers: Roné and Juan" she said with an innocent smile covering Juan with the scarf that covered his basket which later became the garment that he never took off.
…
And so the human baby grew under the roof of Rocux family, by the age of four he started asking about himself, but the parents and the older brother convinced him like what the sage did with the rest of the clan that his father fought with a sorceress once causing her to curse him that one of his children will be born deformed.
The kid didn't argue with this story, on the contrary the parents found him easier to raise, he was a smart quick learning child, the only thing he lacked was physical skills, which embarrassed his father many times, but under that scary strong appearance of his lied a loving father who didn't care what people thought as long as his family is happy, and with time his mysterious ability of taming animals lead him to be the most trustful grazer in the village.
…
This simply was the story of Juan, who was that woman? And was her arrival intended or a mere coincidence? This was the unrevealed mystery that his family stopped searching for its answer.
Juan is now the sage of his village, and under his demand this story was told by his older brother, every word was like a knife pierced through his aching heart, realizing that every moment in his life was a lie, but being the leader of the clan he tried as hard as he could to suppress these feelings, jailing his tears under the mask of solemnity.
He didn't know how he spent his night, nor his family did, because he just locked himself in his room, they were somehow used to these phases of depression, his parents somehow prepared themselves to this event because he was going to know it sooner or later, while Roné was just as depressed as his brother, not believing that his parents hid this truth all those years.
Zolu, Tsuki, and Nimmy also somehow shared this mental pain with Juan, because despite they were old enough to realize that the kid was a complete human they just followed his faith and didn't want to break his heart, and since he always faced them with the shy cheerful face, seeing him broken like this was a hard sight that left a bitter taste in their life.
The morning after that, Mel woke up earlier that she used to be, she prepared a fancy breakfast for her sage son, she mounted the stairs hoping that the man is at least ready to eat, but suddenly she confront him in the middle of the way.
"Morning mother, oh you brought me breakfast, but you know, even if I am the sage, you don't have to treat me like one, I'm still Juan" he grabbed the salver and kissed her on the cheek heading down to meet his father who was preparing his tools and keys to open the smithery workshop.
"Morning father, heading late today? But you should remember: early bird gets the worm" he said with a pale smile while sitting to the table.
The father looked at the mother with exclamation, while the latter shrugged her shoulders answering that she didn't understand their son's weird attitude, the father and out of curiosity sat facing his son:
"Here you go father, I know you like the crunchy ones" he handed his father two cookies after dipping them in honey.
"So ye're okay? I mean, ye're not sad, are ya?" the father asked taking the sweets.
"Oh about yesterday, well, I was kind of depressed, but I know you guys had good intentions so it's okay no need to worry" he said while drinking his hot honey milk.
"Bro!" Roné yelled entering the house violently, and like every time his mother surprised him with a pan in the head, but this time he ignored the pain being happy for seeing that his brother's depression is gone.
"Oh you are here too! Sit down bro!" the young sage said with a smile.
"That meteor must've hit ya hard, I barely know ya, Juan" Demetri noted while entering too.
"Hmm, I think I'll be goin'" the father said trying to avoid contact with his older son.
"No father, please stay, since the whole family is here I want you to sit to the table" Juan suggested, and his family gathered around the table.
"So, first I wanted to thank you for everything you did to me, for every single moment you flooded me with your love and care…Father, I know such an embarrassment to you so please forgive me for every mistake I did…Mother, if God granted me ten lives I'll never be able to repay your kindness to me…it's as simple as this…Demetri, I didn't spent that time with you but thanks for showing me how to be a beastman despite I failed big times in that…and Roné, there are many things I want to tell you but the most important thing I wanted you to know…is that I never felt proud like when someone says that I am your twin even though most of the time they were insults…" he told them making everyone drop tears fearing of what's coming…
"But…I am a human…and I want to know who truly I am, so I want to le…" he was about to add but Demetri patted the table violently:
"You can bloody forget it! This is insane!" he yelled.
"I know, but maybe my mother is out there, and maybe her heart is broken so…"
"Nonsense! We are your family!" Roné said in anger "Dad say somethin'!" he added.
But the parents stood in silence; the mother headed to the kitchen and emptied a pile of flour in a large bowl, while the father pulled a large trunk to the table, and picked a silver chest plate veiled by leather vest.
"This one was made by my grandparents, I know it's a weird contraption but it protected me many times" the father gowned his son shutting the belts.
"You okay with this?!" Demetri asked in anger.
"Dad! You can't be serious!" Roné argued.
"What can we do? He has all right to do that…" the mother claimed with a sad voice while kneading the flour and water into paste.
Though they looked like they did, the parents weren't agreeing in anything with their son's decision, but they somehow felt guilty about their lie and that he needed this trip in order to find his origins so they had nothing but to help him to set for this long quest.
And by the midday the beastmen of Ardneria gathered in front of the great halls to listen to the words of Juan:
Everyone was attentive noticing that their newly crowned sage was serious, more serious that anytime they ever seen:
"Dear brethren, today I've gathered you to excuse you, for I'm bidding you my farewells, that I am leaving the village to seek my real home and my real origins, I wanted you to know that…I loved every moment living with you, you probably are the best gift that God had bestowed upon me, and so by…"he was interrupted by a beastman who started shouting his name taunting the rest of his mates to do the same.
Juan stood amazed; his whole clan was calling "Juan! Juan! Juan!" his family, the sage's family, his non beast friends, and every single person was repeating his name, this somehow touched his sensitive heart, but a word must be said, so he signed with his hand to stop them:
"So until I return, I shall give back the leadership to Lord Luffine, for I trust that his wisdom is greater than mine and he's the only one capable of leading this proud clan, now after you, I am standing here, I am telling my farewells, and I am praying that God protects this blessed tribe…" he finished his words.
Then the beastmen without hesitating arrayed themselves in two parallel lines clearing a road that led to the frontier of the village, asking Juan a safe trip with every expression they had, whereas the young man walked with tears dropping on the ground beneath him.
His family was waiting for him in the end of the road, while remembering every moment this young one spent with them; his teething, his first steps, his first words, his home life, his graduation, his days at the field, his adventures against the ragons, and every single reminiscence bitter was it or sweet was revived in their mind.
The man reached his family that gave him a long tight hug; his father was hiding his tears when the mother couldn't, his twin embraced him like he never did, while the older one just looked away trying to stop himself from crying.
He knew at this moment that if he talked he'll just cause more pain to them so he mounted his horse and headed slowly toward the gate of Ardneria, then flexed his right fist shortly before facing it to the sky; it was a sign that Ardnerians do when they are heading for a great battle, and so every single beastman mimed him releasing a spark to the sky where he calmly crossed the limits of his village into a quest seeking his real family…
To be continued