ANI still need to make sure that I have some place to post this on.
grin Read and Review please. All comments welcome.
Chapter 02: Suppressed By All My Childish Fears
[Flashback]
"He shall bring upon Troy its destruction," the words echoed through King Priam's head. His queen looked upon her second son in tears.
"He's naught but an innocent boy, Priam," Hecuba sobbed. "Don't leave him here." She looked around the forests around Mount Ida.
"He will bring Troy's downfall and, as the Trojan King, it is my responsibility to ensure my city's safety," Priam said almost heartlessly.
"Well, what of your responsibility to ensure your son's safety?" she retorted, clutching Paris to her chest. "Do you not hold true to THAT position?"
"It is for the best, Hecuba," he said before turning away. The Queen just sobbed into the baby's blankets. "Let us take our leave," he added when he saw her refusal to turn away and leave Paris on the ground.
"Can we not stay a bit longer?" she asked, helplessly, but Priam just shook his head. Hecuba reluctantly placed her child in the safety of the shadow of boulders. "Goodbye, my son. May the gods watch over you and bring you safely back to me." With a last kiss, she swept away, feeling her heart break with every step.
"... those scabby balls of fluff. Where have they gone to now?" a shepherd growled, shuffling his way through the trees. The wind blew almost perilously through the leaves and for a moment, he started. He thought he heard the cries of a baby for a second but shook his head in dismissal of it as nothing but the wind... Then he heard it again. He turned to look at the boulder gathered at a clearing and followed the cries that have made themselves apparent.
"Rauko!" another shepherd called from the distance. "Rauko! Where are you?"
"Here!" the searching one answered. His companion caught up to him.
"We found Randir..." Ceorl declared. "Rauko... Rauko, what are you doing?"
"Shut up," Rauko snapped. "Can't you hear the child?"
"What child?"
"If you would just shut up, you would know what child." Rauko started for the boulders again. The cries finally reached Ceorl's ears and his eyes lit up in realization.
"Oh... THAT child..." Ceorl grinned. Rauko bent over a crevice and finally found the source of the noise.
"Here ya are," Rauko grunted as he reached down and grabbed the child by the arm and brought him into the sunlight. "Must be an orphan... Wonder what's wrong with it..."
"Don't look defective," Ceorl inspected taking the child. "Let's keep him, Rauko."
"We gots enough mouths to feed. We don't need another, Ceorl," Rauko refused. He turned away to where Randir stopped to rest.
"Come on!" Ceorl chased after his older brother, carrying the child. "One more won't hurt! I'll share my part of the food. Let me keep him."
"You don't even know its name!" Ceorl thought for a moment.
"How about Alexander? See! I got a name for it..." Rauko stopped to look at the incompetent child before him begging to keep another child.
"Fine... But keep it out of my sight." And with that, the baby's life began with its finders. Alexander, as he was now called, lived with the family of two shepherds, Rauko, Ceorl and their wives.
At first, he was well taken care of. He was treated like a new pet, adorable, charming and yearning for attention but just like all new pets, Alexander lost his novelty and began to look like a burden they couldn't get rid of. At first, he was just pushed about by the four adults, neglected at the age of two. Alexander had to fend for himself, catching scraps from the table. Then, at twice the age, Rauko realized he could be made to work, though for only meager things like feeding each sheep with his hands or cleaning about the house. If he failed to do any chore, he was beaten raw... and that was how Oenone found him.
In the fields, hidden in grass, and bloodying the dirt was Alexander. A young little thing being taken into the arms of a beautiful nymph named Oenone. Oenone pitied the poor boy.
"So hurt, you poor thing," Oenone cooed as she took the child into her arms. He was unconscious and didn't realize that the nymph was pouring a shimmering liquid on his wounds and as the liquid evaporated into the night sky, his skin was left perfectly unscarred. His breath exhaled in relief. Suddenly, she heard voices calling his name from the grassy mounds behind them.
"Alexander... Alexander! Where are you, you nasty little runt?" a voice yelled gruffly. A switch could be heard, unmistakably, hitting a bush, its shaft whistling in the wind. Its sound seemed to awaken the child and Oenone heard him whisper.
"Alexander?" she murmured, pulling him up. "Alexander, is it?" The child didn't answer. He just began sobbing on the newfound shoulder.
"Don't let him find me," he cried.
"I won't let them... I promise... I won't let them..." Oenone whispered but she knew her promise was empty. She couldn't do it herself. She was bound to powers much stronger than hers and she couldn't take in a child. "But I know who can..." Taking light footsteps, silent to mortal ears, she swept away around the foothills to a hut, lit by a fire. She placed Alexander on the doorstep and knocked on the door. With that she whisked away into the darkness to watch the woman look out her door and see the child and then Oenone left.
"Who's there?" the woman answered the knock. When she heard nothing but silence, she opened the door and saw a tiny boy looking frightfully at the stranger. "Why... who are you?" The boy remained silent. Her eyes traced the boy's frame and saw the silvery remains of Oenone's healing drugs. Immediately, she realized that this boy needed help. "Come on in, my dear." Alexander hesitated for a moment, but then the sounds of Rauko's shouting reached his ears and he hurried inside. "Now will you tell me a name?"
"Alexander," he replied as he sat down by the hearth.
"Alexander... a beautiful name..."
"And you?"
"Me?" The woman thought for a moment and then smiled. "I am Maia." The smile seemed to affect Alexander for he smiled at her in return. "And what a beautiful smile as well." Alexander blushed. "What are you doing wandering in the dark, Alexander?" He shrugged. "Do you have family?" The word 'family' didn't seem to mean anything to him.
"Family?"
"People who care for you... looking for you right now..."
"People are looking for me... but I don't think they care for me..." As if on cue, Rauko came slamming on the door.
"Open up!" Rauko growled. Ceorl seemed to be whimpering in the background muttering overdue apologies for bringing Alexander into the household. "Open up! We are looking for a child!" Maia saw Alexander's frightened face and immediately realized the gist of the situation before her.
"Hide behind my bed," Maia said, pointing to a makeshift cot made by hay and a sheet over it. Alexander hid behind the straw and stayed quiet. Rauko slammed the door again and Maia opened it annoyed. "May I help you, sir?"
"We're looking for a child," Rauko answered. "And I have a feeling you have him in here so if you don't mind..." Alexander cowered in the shadows, fearing that his 'Uncle' would destroy a potentially good friend but nothing of the sort happened.
"Actually, I DO mind..." Maia snapped. She put her arms across the frame and glared at the much larger man.
"So he is here!"
"Yes, he is..." Now, Alexander's mind was racing... What if she's intimidated by him and she gives me up? "But you won't have him till tomorrow." The boy's lungs let out a sigh.
"What? You little...."
"Don't you dare lay a finger upon me..." Maia threatened, her stance radiating power that Rauko took a step away from. "Nor that boy. He will stay with me the night and he'll return to you tomorrow. Now please leave." Alexander peered above the sheets and was shocked when he saw Rauko's back retreating into the darkness.
Maia closed the door and looked back at Alexander and smiled again. She held out her hand for him and he stood up from his hiding place.
"I don't want to return to him," Alexander announced.
"I fear you have very little choice in that matter, Alexander," Maia sighed. "You'd rather stay with a stranger like me?"
"I'd rather stay with anyone as long as it's not them." Maia put on a sad smile and motioned him forward to a chair and table where there was some bread and cheese.
"I can't keep you," she said. Alexander started to eat as much as he wanted, a luxury he never experienced before. "You'll have to return..."
"But they use the switch on me!" Alexander cried out, his mouth full of bread.
"I promise they'll never hurt you again," Maia murmured, putting a caring hand on his head of brown curls but he just looked up at her skeptically.
"A man came and made that promise too. He was sent by the king, I think... but they kept hitting me anyways," Alexander said, dubiously.
"Let's just say I'm a little more powerful than that..." she smiled and he just shrugged to eat some more. That night he slept soundly. Without anyone shouting orders at him that night, the little boy decided to take advantage of the precious moments he was having being treated decently.
When he awoke though, the cottage was empty. Alexander looked around sleepily and saw some fruit were laid on the table for him. He scrambled up to a chair and ate the sweet juicy fruits, eating them for the first time in his life. When he had finished, he looked around and saw the Maia wasn't home anymore. Not being use to having leisure time, he impulsively started to do some work, tidying up the tiny house as best as he could and time began to waste away until the sun was starting to come down from its peak in the sky.
'Where is she?' he thought, and at that moment, he saw Maia's figure coming down from the hills holding a basket of food out to him. Alexander ran to the woman, both smiling at each other.
"Maia!" the boy yelled putting his arms around her legs.
"I'm sorry to have been gone so long," Maia laughed taking his hand and walking him back to the cottage. When they passed the fence, she stopped and laid out the basket for the both of them to enjoy. "I had to go into town for some things and I had to talk to Rauko. It took longer than expected." If anything could kill Alexander's appetite, it was Rauko's name.
"I'm going back, aren't I?" Alexander said sadly.
"Yes... I'm sorry," Maia replied.
"Why?" Alexander whined. "Why must I go back?"
"I can't answer that but I promise you, Alexander. It'll be better." Alexander looked at Maia. At first his look was one of cynicism but Maia projected such an aura of promise and trustworthiness that Alexander just couldn't help believing her.
They ate their meal at a relaxed pace and when it was over, the sun was dipping into the horizon and Alexander knew it was his time to leave.
"I promise to visit when I can, Alexander," Maia said reassuringly, his small hand in hers. She looked down at him and smiled but he merely nodded. "And you can come over and visit whenever you want." They arrived at Rauko's hut and Rauko and Ceorl still looked as surly as ever.
"Get inside," Rauko said gruffly, looking down to the ground. Alexander looked up at Maia, pleadingly but she just bent down to one knee to give him a light kiss on the forehead.
"You'll be fine, Alex," she whispered and pushed him gently into his old home. Alexander watched from the back of the room the faces of Rauko, Ceorl and Maia. He couldn't hear their words but he could tell someone was telling the other off but it was hard to tell because they both had expressions that could be interpreted as either stern or annoyed. After a few moments, Maia turned away into the darkness and left Alexander fearful of what would happen.
A hundred scenarios raced through Alexander's mind again. He would take a beating for running to someone who actually cared. He would be thrown out to the pigs because Rauko was in a bad mood for being told what to do by a woman. He would be... sleeping on one of the cots?
"Get your things from the shed," Rauko told Alexander.
"What?" Alexander opened the eyes that were shut tight, in fear that his upbringers would use the switch on him for running away.
"Your things, you little runt! Put them in the empty cupboard by the fire! Don't make me say it again!" Rauko shouted. Alexander scurried to the outside shed that was mostly used for their tools but had a little nook in which his little possessions were stored. Alexander followed the orders and stood by the cupboard, looking down, still waiting for the worst. "You now sleep inside."
Alexander didn't have the ability to say anything else or move anything else for that matter. Rauko pointed towards the other side of the room and Alexander, for the first time saw the newly made cot with blankets and a pillow at one end.
"I... I sleep inside?" Alexander stammered. His brown eyes widened in shock. "You... y... You mean it?"
"Yes... Don't make me change my mind, runt." He stomped away angrily leaving Alexander staring after. His eyes went to the door where he saw Maia last and a smile grew on his face. For the first time, someone cared.
Alexander woke up the next day, at sunrise as he usually did to start his daily chores. The cocks were crowing outside as Dawn began her ascent into the heavens and Alexander dragged his seven-year-old frame out of his new cot to tend to the gardens outside. And yet another surprise was before him in that morning.
"Uncle Ceorl... What are you doing up?" Alexander asked, confused. His founder was usually still in bed snoring. NEVER, in his years in that household, had he seen Ceorl up before the pigs. Now he was on his knees shooing away the crickets as he turned the soil over.
"What's it look like I'm doing?" Ceorl snapped. "Go back inside and get back to sleep. You don't have to wake for another few hours..."
"But that's my job... I take care of the soil everyday," Alexander continued. "And I'm already awake..."
"Just get back inside and make yourself breakfast," Ceorl interrupted bitterly. Alexander went inside to cook for his housemates, a task he'd done a million times before but Demi, Rauko's wife had beat him to it, already stirring the porridge in the large pot in the fireplace. It looked like she had been crying in the night and she was muttering her indignance under her breath.
"Aunt Demi?" This day was getting stranger by the moment and the sun hadn't even fully revealed itself over the hills yet!
"What, you scrawny little bug?" she shrieked. "This is suppose to be your job you know? Then that beguiling woman opened her mouth and suddenly ME! I'm the one cooking for the cottage!"
"I'll do it, then!" Alexander exclaimed going for the pot, afraid that Rauko would wake up and hear Demi's cursing words but it was too late. Only a few steps were taken before he felt the back of his shirt being pulled up by the giant man. He thought that Rauko, of all these crazy relatives of his, would regain his iron fist against Alexander but he was wrong. Instead of throwing him to the ground, like Alexander thought he would, Rauko just turned his direction away from the pot and put him back down... gently... GENTLY!! The world must be going mad!
"You're not to do anything strenuous, Alexander." Alexander just stared up at her adopted uncle in pure shock. It was strange enough to hear these words coming from the man that almost beat him to death on a regular basis but these words were still said in the gruff, threatening, malicious voice that came to Rauko so naturally.
"What?!"
"Do you have to question everything I say, you little maggot?! Now get out of my sight before I change my mind!" Rauko boomed pointing out the door. Alexander scrambled out of the door terrified at everybody's seeming change of heart. With nothing to do anymore, he walked around the hill that he stumbled over two nights before and came to Maia's little shack.
"Maia?" Alexander called. Her home was still darkened but at the sound of his voice, as if by magic, a fire lit up inside and beckoned the boy forward. He knocked at the door tentatively. He wasn't quite sure that his saviour would be so eager to see again so soon but he had no where else to go. Maia opened the door to him and smiled.
"Alexander? Back so soon?" she greeted stepping aside to let him in. "You're not in trouble again are you?"
"No... no no..." Alexander shook his head as he stepped inside and their friendship bloomed from there. Everyday Alexander would wake up at sunrise and head off to Maia's arms, and everyday he would return to Rauko but since that moment, it ceased to be his home. With Maia, he was perfectly comfortable and free. He would go with her to the market and help with her daily chores. He could play in the meadows as much as he wanted but he still felt lonely and Maia could see it.
One morning, a few months after they'd met, Maia waited for Alexander to come outside on the steps. She had a mischievous smile and Alexander wondered what his surrogate mother was doing.
"Why are you outside?" Alexander asked, trying to peek inside but Maia moved her hip to block his view.
"I don't know how you'll take this, Alexander," Maia said a bit uncomfortably. She shuffled on her aged feet and looked down at him, worried. "I haven't been entirely truthful to you..."
"What do you..." Alexander started but was interrupted by a holler from inside the cottage.
"MAMA!!!" a girl screamed from inside. Alexander started at the scream and Maia just ran inside. Alexander followed Maia and saw a girl about his age pointing at the corner, babbling about some spider but when she looked up and noticed Alexander, she hid behind her mother's legs. Maia grinned down affectionately at the small girl and pushed her forward.
"Katri, this is Alexander," she said soothingly. "Alex, this is Katriana. Katri, for short. She's my daughter."
"Daughter?" Alexander asked confused. "You're married?"
"In a way," she answered. "My husband is a sailor so he has to live by the ocean and can better care for Katri there. I like the hills best so I stay here but I take her when he goes off on some trip..." Maia nudged Katri forward a bit more and suggested that they play outside while she got breakfast ready.
Once outside, Alexander started to kick around the wet ground. Katri just clutched her doll, looking at the new boy.
"Mama said you stay with her a lot," Katri started.
"Yea... so?" Alexander was feeling a little bitter with this new friend and his tone showed it.
"She says I can be friends with you and that I should play with you like the children by the harbour," Katric continued.
"I don't want to play with you! You're a girl!" Alexander gave Katri a shove, and ran only hearing the loud splat of the girl falling into mud.
Reviews and feedback ALWAYS welcome!
Chapter 02: Suppressed By All My Childish Fears
[Flashback]
"He shall bring upon Troy its destruction," the words echoed through King Priam's head. His queen looked upon her second son in tears.
"He's naught but an innocent boy, Priam," Hecuba sobbed. "Don't leave him here." She looked around the forests around Mount Ida.
"He will bring Troy's downfall and, as the Trojan King, it is my responsibility to ensure my city's safety," Priam said almost heartlessly.
"Well, what of your responsibility to ensure your son's safety?" she retorted, clutching Paris to her chest. "Do you not hold true to THAT position?"
"It is for the best, Hecuba," he said before turning away. The Queen just sobbed into the baby's blankets. "Let us take our leave," he added when he saw her refusal to turn away and leave Paris on the ground.
"Can we not stay a bit longer?" she asked, helplessly, but Priam just shook his head. Hecuba reluctantly placed her child in the safety of the shadow of boulders. "Goodbye, my son. May the gods watch over you and bring you safely back to me." With a last kiss, she swept away, feeling her heart break with every step.
"... those scabby balls of fluff. Where have they gone to now?" a shepherd growled, shuffling his way through the trees. The wind blew almost perilously through the leaves and for a moment, he started. He thought he heard the cries of a baby for a second but shook his head in dismissal of it as nothing but the wind... Then he heard it again. He turned to look at the boulder gathered at a clearing and followed the cries that have made themselves apparent.
"Rauko!" another shepherd called from the distance. "Rauko! Where are you?"
"Here!" the searching one answered. His companion caught up to him.
"We found Randir..." Ceorl declared. "Rauko... Rauko, what are you doing?"
"Shut up," Rauko snapped. "Can't you hear the child?"
"What child?"
"If you would just shut up, you would know what child." Rauko started for the boulders again. The cries finally reached Ceorl's ears and his eyes lit up in realization.
"Oh... THAT child..." Ceorl grinned. Rauko bent over a crevice and finally found the source of the noise.
"Here ya are," Rauko grunted as he reached down and grabbed the child by the arm and brought him into the sunlight. "Must be an orphan... Wonder what's wrong with it..."
"Don't look defective," Ceorl inspected taking the child. "Let's keep him, Rauko."
"We gots enough mouths to feed. We don't need another, Ceorl," Rauko refused. He turned away to where Randir stopped to rest.
"Come on!" Ceorl chased after his older brother, carrying the child. "One more won't hurt! I'll share my part of the food. Let me keep him."
"You don't even know its name!" Ceorl thought for a moment.
"How about Alexander? See! I got a name for it..." Rauko stopped to look at the incompetent child before him begging to keep another child.
"Fine... But keep it out of my sight." And with that, the baby's life began with its finders. Alexander, as he was now called, lived with the family of two shepherds, Rauko, Ceorl and their wives.
At first, he was well taken care of. He was treated like a new pet, adorable, charming and yearning for attention but just like all new pets, Alexander lost his novelty and began to look like a burden they couldn't get rid of. At first, he was just pushed about by the four adults, neglected at the age of two. Alexander had to fend for himself, catching scraps from the table. Then, at twice the age, Rauko realized he could be made to work, though for only meager things like feeding each sheep with his hands or cleaning about the house. If he failed to do any chore, he was beaten raw... and that was how Oenone found him.
In the fields, hidden in grass, and bloodying the dirt was Alexander. A young little thing being taken into the arms of a beautiful nymph named Oenone. Oenone pitied the poor boy.
"So hurt, you poor thing," Oenone cooed as she took the child into her arms. He was unconscious and didn't realize that the nymph was pouring a shimmering liquid on his wounds and as the liquid evaporated into the night sky, his skin was left perfectly unscarred. His breath exhaled in relief. Suddenly, she heard voices calling his name from the grassy mounds behind them.
"Alexander... Alexander! Where are you, you nasty little runt?" a voice yelled gruffly. A switch could be heard, unmistakably, hitting a bush, its shaft whistling in the wind. Its sound seemed to awaken the child and Oenone heard him whisper.
"Alexander?" she murmured, pulling him up. "Alexander, is it?" The child didn't answer. He just began sobbing on the newfound shoulder.
"Don't let him find me," he cried.
"I won't let them... I promise... I won't let them..." Oenone whispered but she knew her promise was empty. She couldn't do it herself. She was bound to powers much stronger than hers and she couldn't take in a child. "But I know who can..." Taking light footsteps, silent to mortal ears, she swept away around the foothills to a hut, lit by a fire. She placed Alexander on the doorstep and knocked on the door. With that she whisked away into the darkness to watch the woman look out her door and see the child and then Oenone left.
"Who's there?" the woman answered the knock. When she heard nothing but silence, she opened the door and saw a tiny boy looking frightfully at the stranger. "Why... who are you?" The boy remained silent. Her eyes traced the boy's frame and saw the silvery remains of Oenone's healing drugs. Immediately, she realized that this boy needed help. "Come on in, my dear." Alexander hesitated for a moment, but then the sounds of Rauko's shouting reached his ears and he hurried inside. "Now will you tell me a name?"
"Alexander," he replied as he sat down by the hearth.
"Alexander... a beautiful name..."
"And you?"
"Me?" The woman thought for a moment and then smiled. "I am Maia." The smile seemed to affect Alexander for he smiled at her in return. "And what a beautiful smile as well." Alexander blushed. "What are you doing wandering in the dark, Alexander?" He shrugged. "Do you have family?" The word 'family' didn't seem to mean anything to him.
"Family?"
"People who care for you... looking for you right now..."
"People are looking for me... but I don't think they care for me..." As if on cue, Rauko came slamming on the door.
"Open up!" Rauko growled. Ceorl seemed to be whimpering in the background muttering overdue apologies for bringing Alexander into the household. "Open up! We are looking for a child!" Maia saw Alexander's frightened face and immediately realized the gist of the situation before her.
"Hide behind my bed," Maia said, pointing to a makeshift cot made by hay and a sheet over it. Alexander hid behind the straw and stayed quiet. Rauko slammed the door again and Maia opened it annoyed. "May I help you, sir?"
"We're looking for a child," Rauko answered. "And I have a feeling you have him in here so if you don't mind..." Alexander cowered in the shadows, fearing that his 'Uncle' would destroy a potentially good friend but nothing of the sort happened.
"Actually, I DO mind..." Maia snapped. She put her arms across the frame and glared at the much larger man.
"So he is here!"
"Yes, he is..." Now, Alexander's mind was racing... What if she's intimidated by him and she gives me up? "But you won't have him till tomorrow." The boy's lungs let out a sigh.
"What? You little...."
"Don't you dare lay a finger upon me..." Maia threatened, her stance radiating power that Rauko took a step away from. "Nor that boy. He will stay with me the night and he'll return to you tomorrow. Now please leave." Alexander peered above the sheets and was shocked when he saw Rauko's back retreating into the darkness.
Maia closed the door and looked back at Alexander and smiled again. She held out her hand for him and he stood up from his hiding place.
"I don't want to return to him," Alexander announced.
"I fear you have very little choice in that matter, Alexander," Maia sighed. "You'd rather stay with a stranger like me?"
"I'd rather stay with anyone as long as it's not them." Maia put on a sad smile and motioned him forward to a chair and table where there was some bread and cheese.
"I can't keep you," she said. Alexander started to eat as much as he wanted, a luxury he never experienced before. "You'll have to return..."
"But they use the switch on me!" Alexander cried out, his mouth full of bread.
"I promise they'll never hurt you again," Maia murmured, putting a caring hand on his head of brown curls but he just looked up at her skeptically.
"A man came and made that promise too. He was sent by the king, I think... but they kept hitting me anyways," Alexander said, dubiously.
"Let's just say I'm a little more powerful than that..." she smiled and he just shrugged to eat some more. That night he slept soundly. Without anyone shouting orders at him that night, the little boy decided to take advantage of the precious moments he was having being treated decently.
When he awoke though, the cottage was empty. Alexander looked around sleepily and saw some fruit were laid on the table for him. He scrambled up to a chair and ate the sweet juicy fruits, eating them for the first time in his life. When he had finished, he looked around and saw the Maia wasn't home anymore. Not being use to having leisure time, he impulsively started to do some work, tidying up the tiny house as best as he could and time began to waste away until the sun was starting to come down from its peak in the sky.
'Where is she?' he thought, and at that moment, he saw Maia's figure coming down from the hills holding a basket of food out to him. Alexander ran to the woman, both smiling at each other.
"Maia!" the boy yelled putting his arms around her legs.
"I'm sorry to have been gone so long," Maia laughed taking his hand and walking him back to the cottage. When they passed the fence, she stopped and laid out the basket for the both of them to enjoy. "I had to go into town for some things and I had to talk to Rauko. It took longer than expected." If anything could kill Alexander's appetite, it was Rauko's name.
"I'm going back, aren't I?" Alexander said sadly.
"Yes... I'm sorry," Maia replied.
"Why?" Alexander whined. "Why must I go back?"
"I can't answer that but I promise you, Alexander. It'll be better." Alexander looked at Maia. At first his look was one of cynicism but Maia projected such an aura of promise and trustworthiness that Alexander just couldn't help believing her.
They ate their meal at a relaxed pace and when it was over, the sun was dipping into the horizon and Alexander knew it was his time to leave.
"I promise to visit when I can, Alexander," Maia said reassuringly, his small hand in hers. She looked down at him and smiled but he merely nodded. "And you can come over and visit whenever you want." They arrived at Rauko's hut and Rauko and Ceorl still looked as surly as ever.
"Get inside," Rauko said gruffly, looking down to the ground. Alexander looked up at Maia, pleadingly but she just bent down to one knee to give him a light kiss on the forehead.
"You'll be fine, Alex," she whispered and pushed him gently into his old home. Alexander watched from the back of the room the faces of Rauko, Ceorl and Maia. He couldn't hear their words but he could tell someone was telling the other off but it was hard to tell because they both had expressions that could be interpreted as either stern or annoyed. After a few moments, Maia turned away into the darkness and left Alexander fearful of what would happen.
A hundred scenarios raced through Alexander's mind again. He would take a beating for running to someone who actually cared. He would be thrown out to the pigs because Rauko was in a bad mood for being told what to do by a woman. He would be... sleeping on one of the cots?
"Get your things from the shed," Rauko told Alexander.
"What?" Alexander opened the eyes that were shut tight, in fear that his upbringers would use the switch on him for running away.
"Your things, you little runt! Put them in the empty cupboard by the fire! Don't make me say it again!" Rauko shouted. Alexander scurried to the outside shed that was mostly used for their tools but had a little nook in which his little possessions were stored. Alexander followed the orders and stood by the cupboard, looking down, still waiting for the worst. "You now sleep inside."
Alexander didn't have the ability to say anything else or move anything else for that matter. Rauko pointed towards the other side of the room and Alexander, for the first time saw the newly made cot with blankets and a pillow at one end.
"I... I sleep inside?" Alexander stammered. His brown eyes widened in shock. "You... y... You mean it?"
"Yes... Don't make me change my mind, runt." He stomped away angrily leaving Alexander staring after. His eyes went to the door where he saw Maia last and a smile grew on his face. For the first time, someone cared.
Alexander woke up the next day, at sunrise as he usually did to start his daily chores. The cocks were crowing outside as Dawn began her ascent into the heavens and Alexander dragged his seven-year-old frame out of his new cot to tend to the gardens outside. And yet another surprise was before him in that morning.
"Uncle Ceorl... What are you doing up?" Alexander asked, confused. His founder was usually still in bed snoring. NEVER, in his years in that household, had he seen Ceorl up before the pigs. Now he was on his knees shooing away the crickets as he turned the soil over.
"What's it look like I'm doing?" Ceorl snapped. "Go back inside and get back to sleep. You don't have to wake for another few hours..."
"But that's my job... I take care of the soil everyday," Alexander continued. "And I'm already awake..."
"Just get back inside and make yourself breakfast," Ceorl interrupted bitterly. Alexander went inside to cook for his housemates, a task he'd done a million times before but Demi, Rauko's wife had beat him to it, already stirring the porridge in the large pot in the fireplace. It looked like she had been crying in the night and she was muttering her indignance under her breath.
"Aunt Demi?" This day was getting stranger by the moment and the sun hadn't even fully revealed itself over the hills yet!
"What, you scrawny little bug?" she shrieked. "This is suppose to be your job you know? Then that beguiling woman opened her mouth and suddenly ME! I'm the one cooking for the cottage!"
"I'll do it, then!" Alexander exclaimed going for the pot, afraid that Rauko would wake up and hear Demi's cursing words but it was too late. Only a few steps were taken before he felt the back of his shirt being pulled up by the giant man. He thought that Rauko, of all these crazy relatives of his, would regain his iron fist against Alexander but he was wrong. Instead of throwing him to the ground, like Alexander thought he would, Rauko just turned his direction away from the pot and put him back down... gently... GENTLY!! The world must be going mad!
"You're not to do anything strenuous, Alexander." Alexander just stared up at her adopted uncle in pure shock. It was strange enough to hear these words coming from the man that almost beat him to death on a regular basis but these words were still said in the gruff, threatening, malicious voice that came to Rauko so naturally.
"What?!"
"Do you have to question everything I say, you little maggot?! Now get out of my sight before I change my mind!" Rauko boomed pointing out the door. Alexander scrambled out of the door terrified at everybody's seeming change of heart. With nothing to do anymore, he walked around the hill that he stumbled over two nights before and came to Maia's little shack.
"Maia?" Alexander called. Her home was still darkened but at the sound of his voice, as if by magic, a fire lit up inside and beckoned the boy forward. He knocked at the door tentatively. He wasn't quite sure that his saviour would be so eager to see again so soon but he had no where else to go. Maia opened the door to him and smiled.
"Alexander? Back so soon?" she greeted stepping aside to let him in. "You're not in trouble again are you?"
"No... no no..." Alexander shook his head as he stepped inside and their friendship bloomed from there. Everyday Alexander would wake up at sunrise and head off to Maia's arms, and everyday he would return to Rauko but since that moment, it ceased to be his home. With Maia, he was perfectly comfortable and free. He would go with her to the market and help with her daily chores. He could play in the meadows as much as he wanted but he still felt lonely and Maia could see it.
One morning, a few months after they'd met, Maia waited for Alexander to come outside on the steps. She had a mischievous smile and Alexander wondered what his surrogate mother was doing.
"Why are you outside?" Alexander asked, trying to peek inside but Maia moved her hip to block his view.
"I don't know how you'll take this, Alexander," Maia said a bit uncomfortably. She shuffled on her aged feet and looked down at him, worried. "I haven't been entirely truthful to you..."
"What do you..." Alexander started but was interrupted by a holler from inside the cottage.
"MAMA!!!" a girl screamed from inside. Alexander started at the scream and Maia just ran inside. Alexander followed Maia and saw a girl about his age pointing at the corner, babbling about some spider but when she looked up and noticed Alexander, she hid behind her mother's legs. Maia grinned down affectionately at the small girl and pushed her forward.
"Katri, this is Alexander," she said soothingly. "Alex, this is Katriana. Katri, for short. She's my daughter."
"Daughter?" Alexander asked confused. "You're married?"
"In a way," she answered. "My husband is a sailor so he has to live by the ocean and can better care for Katri there. I like the hills best so I stay here but I take her when he goes off on some trip..." Maia nudged Katri forward a bit more and suggested that they play outside while she got breakfast ready.
Once outside, Alexander started to kick around the wet ground. Katri just clutched her doll, looking at the new boy.
"Mama said you stay with her a lot," Katri started.
"Yea... so?" Alexander was feeling a little bitter with this new friend and his tone showed it.
"She says I can be friends with you and that I should play with you like the children by the harbour," Katric continued.
"I don't want to play with you! You're a girl!" Alexander gave Katri a shove, and ran only hearing the loud splat of the girl falling into mud.
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