He was their savior, their teacher, their mentor, their father. There was no one like him
~oVo~
She stood quietly among her many associates, who were not actually peers, and awaited his instructions.
He'd heard of her in her youth and watched from afar as she grew. He'd been aware of her less-than-ideal home life circumstances, yet he never interfered, leaving her to grow and learn to work like all the children of her time.
Her family had been fortunate in that their humble home was near to fresh water. A clear running stream was less than a hundred meters from their door, so hauling buckets of fresh water dangling from the yoke stretched across her shoulders made her strong. As soon as she was tall enough to keep the buckets from brushing the ground, it became her job to supply the family with their daily water. As she grew stronger, she was able to fill the buckets closer to their rims, so she didn't have to make as many trips.
Those excursions to the stream and back offered her the opportunity to study and collect the plants her mother had spoken of. She'd gather crisp greens in their season, pick berries at their ripest before the birds took them all, and when the weather grew chill, meaty nuts the squirrels had not yet taken and buried would be bundled into the deep pockets of her apron. All carried home to help round out their meager yet filling fare.
When her father's hunting expeditions were not so successful, which, when he was deep in his cups happened more often than not, what she had contributed would form the bulk of their meals. There had been times when they were hungry, but most times, they were not.
Her brother found eggs and snared birds, and tended their small fields of barley and wheat. Too often, they would have a small but successful harvest when their neighbors would not. Resentment grew.
It soon became her and her brother's job to haul their bags of grain to trade for items they could not make themselves or to pay their land taxes to the lord of the manor as their father would suddenly be "taken ill" and would be unable to drive their one horse and wagon to town.
When a sickness took most of their neighbors' pigs and left them without meat, their own sows had huge litters, and the piglets grew healthy and fat. It was a good year for their small family, but rumors of curses and hexes began to circulate, and when they took their young pigs to market, though all were eagerly bought, the dark looks and hateful, suspicious comments could not be ignored.
Their father enjoyed the fruits of their labors, but the beatings increased as he was all but shunned from the town's only tavern. Their clothing covered all of the bruises, except the ones marring their young faces. The townspeople looked on them with disdain, yet continued to trade with them or buy their offerings, ending the dealings quickly and shooing them away.
It became worse after their father had made a trip into town, miraculously returned home, stumbling and reeking of brewed spirits, and soon thereafter died of a mysterious illness.
They thought their lives would be easier to bear without him, and in their isolation, it was, until the spring of their thirteenth year when they made a trip to the village with their mother. Unbeknown to them, many in the village had died of the illness that had taken their father.
They were pulled from their wagon, along with all the goods they had brought to sell, and locked away in a small stable at the edge of town, under accusations of witchcraft and evil. Their mother pleaded for them, but she couldn't deny that while their small family prospered, even after the death of their father, the villagers and people in the surrounding lands suffered through disease and loss of family members and crops. Their mother argued that she and her children had not known the sickness had spread and did not know that their neighbors had been without food and hungry through the last days of the winter as no one had come to tell them, but the townsfolk would not listen. Convinced she and her brother were the cause of their many woes, in one voice, the town decreed they would die at the following dawn. Burned with fire to eradicate their wickedness from their homes and lives.
She could almost feel the constricting tightness of the ropes around her body and the heat of the flames growing higher and hotter and hotter at her feet.
"Dear one, Jane."
She heard his voice and blinked away the centuries-old memories that sometimes intruded. "Yes, Master?"
"We've heard news of a small disturbance in the United States. In Seattle, Washington."
He'd saved her. He'd saved her beloved brother. He'd slaughtered half the town before he'd ripped through the thick ropes binding her and her brother to the post buried at the center of town. He apologized for not arriving sooner.
She never knew what had happened to her mother. She couldn't even remember her face.
He was their savior, their teacher, their mentor, their father. He protected them and guided them, and gave them a home where no one could steal the fruits of their labors or steal them from the arms of their family. Their mother had been too weak to save them, but no one was as powerful as Aro. She owed him her life.
"A disturbance, Master?"
"Yes," Aro smiled benevolently and clasped his hands in his lap. "There are rumors of a newborn army near to where my dear friend Carlisle Cullen lives. You and Alec, along with Demetri and Felix, are to go there and report back to me your findings. If such rumors are true, you know that newborn armies are to be eliminated."
"Yes, Master."
"And Jane?" Caius leaned forward in his throne and held her gaze with his deep red one. "When you've handled that, do find out if the Cullens' pet remains human."
A small smile graced her lips. "We will, Master Caius." She looked again to Aro. "Will that be all, Master?"
"I believe that will do for now, Jane. Have a safe journey."
"Yes, Master. Thank you."
~oVo~