Chapter 2: Tall Tales...

At first, climbing the big, tall poplar tree in the middle of the grove seemed like a good idea to Fenix. He hadn't seen it in a long time and the mighty giant was rumored to be over ninety feet tall. He gazed up at it's magnificence, the wind blowing through his unkempt brown hair. He felt queasy at the sight of the tree's intimidating height, and this prompted him to try and figure out how to get out of this disturbing predicament he somehow got himself into. This climbing of this particular tree was considered a rite of passage, an initiation of sorts, where if one was succesful, he or she would then be accepted amongst their peers. He was dared to climb this tree by his room-mates from the nearby orphanage west of here in Beldorn, and they were all intending to watch him do it very soon, if not at this very moment.

This ritual had been going on for about a year now and there weren't as many attempts made to climb it as was told to Fenix when they were daring him to meet the challenge of the tree. Actually so far, only six people had tried, with four of them being succesful. Only one boy made it up about twenty feet, then froze. There were some tense moments as they tried to coach him back down, but he finally made it back. Another boy didn't even get a chance to start. He looked up at the tree from right underneath it and passed out before he even took one step up. Whenever they went to the grove, there was an unspoken agreement that they wouldn't tell anyone where they were going or what thet were doing. Yet, some of the townsfolk had caught wind of some of this activity of course, and there was some discussion about it which led to some talk about the mighty poplar being cut down.

The boys and girls ranged in age from ten to seventeen and these were prime years for establishing a 'pecking order'. Of course Jewellyn, a girl who was very fond of Fenix (unbeknownst to him), was present and he did not want to appear weak and helpless in front of a girl, especially one about the same age as he; she was sixteen along in years, and he was seventeen. From Fenix's point of view, he viewed her as simply a friend, though he frequently observed her long, brown hair and arresting emerald green eyes, along with a lithe figure as very pleasing to look upon. At times like this, he wondered if his appearance was impressive or not. He didn't think so. He was lanky, had too narrow of a face, and his flat, brown eyes as they appeared to him, were set too far down on his face. It was better to think more about her, so he did. All these thoughts inspired him to daydream yet again. During these times it seemed as if Fenix was totally unaware of what was going on around him. It was only a slight exaggeration to say that not even the finest of Valdemars' battle horns, when sounded at close range, could roust him out of this spell.

"Alright lets go!" they all chimed in unison . The leader of the bunch, Simon Dewwart, a lanky, freckled, bratfaced kid who always had a sneer on his face, motioned with a wave of his arm for the rest of the boys to follow him. Their shout startled him out of his reverie, and Fenix remembered with a sinking feeling of what he was about to do.

Fenix shifted his feet as all of his mates' eyes focussed on him. More and more now, this seemed like a very bad idea. Of course Jewellyn was watching too and with a growing sense of trepidation he managed to eke out a few words, "I shall do so tomorrow, when I am more rested and my hunger is assuaged." He paused and looked down at the ground feeling very uncomfortable, then resumed his oratory of evasion, "Indeed, after I have consumed some restorative vegetables and fruits I will perform this daunting feat after dinner this very next day, at the time of the mid-day sun." Fenix almost always spoke somewhat poetically and this too, of course, was additonal fodder for taunting him. Bookish to a fault, it was a wonder he socialized at all; as a result he learned more of his diction from the poetic arts instead of from 'normal' conversation. His roommates and other cohorts frequently taunted Fenix, trying to bait him, knowing that he wasn't athletic at all. He was a favorite target because the other boys knew he wrote that 'mushy' poetry for girls. The townsfolk all said he did indeed seem to have a budding talent for the poetic arts and storytelling.

Now, of course, it seemed that this was a good time for the boys to start in again. They joined hands and begin to circle around him chanting, "Chicken, chickeennnnn, never will he climb/ the big tall tree/ as we all shall see!" Fenix knew they, with Simon leading them, were poking fun at his poetic skills. Simon was always the one who invented little poems of his own in an usually succesful attempt at a parody of Fenix' own. Fenix always felt an inner fear, along with some anger, whenever he thought of or saw Simon. Fenix noticed Jewellyn, standing there in her long, faded green dress, watching wide eyed in the background, looking quite concerned.

Mercifully, they now stopped their tease, and all the other boys were grinning and laughing at him as they ran off back to the orphanage. Some of them continued their taunts, "Chickeeennn, bawk, bawk, bawk bawk bawk!" Some of the boys imitated wings with their arms hooked and flapped them, while others jerked their heads back and forth and strutted in a circle. Finally, they moved on and disappeared over the hill and headed back to the orphanage which was only a couple miles away. At least they didn't have to worry about classes today because it was the first day of the end-week. About a couple of candlemarks had to have passed by now, he thought mournfully. Fenix Morgaine felt two feet tall and highly embarassed as well as helpless.

Jewellyn Dumont was still there, watching him with a worried expression on her face. Tentatively, she walked over to him, and looked at him as she asked, "Are you ok? I mean...will you be alright?"

He finally looked up, noticing how pretty she was in her long green dress, and speaking with a droll, deadpan manner, said, "I shall be fine when I finally accomplish the daunting task of climbing that intimidating poplar tree over yonder." He gestured with a theatric sweep of his arm towards the direction of the legendary tree.

Jewellyn tried with a valiant effort not to laugh at him by covering her mouth with her hand, but she couldn't help it, she laughed out loud, then asked, "Why must you always speak so poetically?" She tried with some success not to laugh again.

Fenix attempted an answer, "Well I venture it is because I immerse myself in the literary arts and I want to write poems and tell stories, so as a result my manner of--"

Jewellyn waved her hand, cutting him off in mid-sentence, "Do you mean to tell me Fenix that you wish to become a Heraldic Bard someday! You and I are both of the lowborn class, and unless a Companion chooses you, you have no chance of getting into the Collegium!" She sat down on a huge boulder which was nearby, waiting for him to say something. She had seen an example of one of his poems, but so far he had shown very few of them to anyone. She noticed the sun was well on its' way down, closer to the horizon of the deep blue sky.

Fenix almost started to daydream again. He thought, then said, "Well you see, I think--"

She cut him off again. She tapped the boulder with her hand and totally out of character for her, she boldly proclaimed, "Come Fenix, sit down with me and we shall be able to talk more"--

This time he cut her off and thundered , "Why do you always cut me off when I am trying to say something! " He had yelled so loudly and abruptly he shocked himself, and he noticed how negatively that affected Jewellyn, who now had her head down and was staring at her feet. He walked over near her and sat down on the boulder, and offered, "I am most sorry, I uh, normally don't raise my voice in anger. Please accept my apologies?"

She looked up at him with a kind of dazed sense of wonder and felt a little hurt as well. "I, I never knew you had it in you to become angry like that. I am the one who should be sorry. I 'm not exactly sure why I acted so rudely, it wasn't intended that way. I guess I was excited about the way you were talking and I was hoping to encourage you and I-" Unable to finish, she began to cry.

"Jewellyn," he attempted to explain, "I think I was extremely angry because of the manner of ill treatment inflicted upon me by those ruffians, and I kept it bottled up inside of me. Verily, I was so embarassed, and I didn't want to appear weak in front of you. So I attempted to be stoic and aloof and unfortunately that didn't work, as a result you became the target of my bottled up outrage. I am very sorry." Fenix felt a little better now. Yet, an uneasy silence formed between them...they both were thinking and feeling conflicting emotions.

All of this prompted him to remember of why he was very afraid to let the dark demon of anger loose from within himself. It was because of the way his parents had treated him when he was about three years younger, and this memory darkened his current mood even more. He remembered them constantly fighting, with verbal and physical violence being an all too common denominator. Almost always it seemed, he was caught in the middle of these arguments and sometimes he was the target of their violence. He came to view anger as a monster that needed to be repressed, almost at any cost. He also recalled how the appearance of unexplained bruises appearing now and then on his body inspired the townsfolk to be suspicious, and to speculate as to how these bruises came about, and why they were located upon areas of his body ordinarily not susceptible to bruising from normal day to day activity.

Something had to be done.

He was later told that finally, a wise relation whom he never did learn the name of, or ever saw for that matter, having not heard of this ill treatment before, spoke with the Heraldry and demanded a court edict to be issued whereby she could legally take custody of the poor child and then bring him to the orphanage. And so he never forgot the one day the Heraldic Guards came to his home upon their beautiful white horses bearing the official court orders. How quiet, powerful, and efficient these elite Guards seemed to be. When they took him away he recalled that his parents had hardly even noticed his departure...and they were still in there fighting amongst themselves after he did leave. The Guards later told him about when they showed his parents the court orders, of how they only seemed irritated by this intrusion upon their privacy and of how quickly they signed the court docket.

Finally, Jewellyn looked up with moist eyes, turned her head to look at Fenix and said, "I accept your apology Fenix, I know how kind and pleasant you normally are, and given the trying circumstances here it's really no wonder you reacted the way you did. So please, accept my apology too okay?" She always seemed to have a calming effect on other people...She was feeling an odd mixture of feelings, some new to her. It had to do with her concern for him...She looked at him expectantly and hopefully, awaiting an answer.

"Well, Jewellyn, it would appear that we both are reconciled for now," he said, feeling a little less tense now. He stood up from the boulder as he looked at her with a slightly amused expression upon his face. "Mayhap next time when we display our weaknesses to each other, we can both apologize again, it would be something to look forward to. It was kind of amusing, thinking about it now."

She winked at him and said, "Yes, the best part of any misunderstanding is making up afterwards. It's a lot of fun!" She smiled at him. Fenix also felt an odd stirring within himself...and he tried to wink back at her, but could not. He only succeeded in making an exaggerated furrowing of his brow, and in closing both of his eyes with the wink attempt. He did this two or three times with no success.

Jewellyn laughed uproariously, hardly able to contain herself. "You should have seen your face," here she tried to show him what it looked like by contorting her face and closing both of her eyes a couple of times, " you really make me laugh!"

Fenix couldn't help it, he began laughing himself. And then, noticing the darkening sunset, they looked at each other with startled eyes and said almost simultaneously, "Aunt Tildy! We have to get back to the orphanage!" And that had the effect of sobering them up a little.

She hoped that Aunt Tildy, the matron of the orphanage, wasn't too worried about their whereabouts. They hadn't told her when they would be back because they thought they would be back home by the usual time. Jewellyn knew better though. She knew that was one of Aunties' pet peeves: not being informed. Again, she hoped, Tildy hadn't taken drastic action yet. So far she figured, they were late for supper by at least half a candlemark or so already, and the walk back would take approximately half a candlemark. Some said she was the crabbiest woman alive, but those who knew her viewed that as kind of an intended front; a behavior modification technique of sorts. To them, she was about the most loving person they had ever met. She knew very well what tough love was all about.

The sky now had become an amalgam of colors, with soft purples, deep blues mixed with bright orange, cinnabar, and crimson. The clouds nearest the crimson orb of the setting sun took on a flaming aspect, like clouds not with a silver lining but a fiery one. The delicate clouds furthest from the sun took on a pastel pink color swirled in with different shades of grey. The ragged gray mountains to the far east took on a pink tint. It looked like an impressionist painting. Of course, nature could do a much better job than the artists. In the fastest walk they could manage, they hurried back home towards the orphanage as the setting sun began to disappear behind the horizon.