Chapter 2: A Home

The morning sun burnt across the land, a woman worked alone scything at the wheat crops, collecting them and storing them in a nearby basket. She wiped the sweat from her brow and held her hand up, blocking the sun and casting a cooling shadow on her face, closing her eyes she took in a breath lost in her moments rest before starting back at the work she faced. Opening her eyes she saw a hazy object in the distance, as it drew nearer she recognized that it was her husband returning from his yearly journey to the holy men.

She waved with both arms, smiling, "Jeremiah!" she called out with glee

Her husband waved back from his horse, he couldn't wait to show the child to his wife, the child that they had both longed for. He drew up beside his wife and dismounted from the horse carefully, as she made a move to embrace him,

"Erin, my wife, wait" he softly said, as he laid his hand on the side of her face

"Please tell me they have finally granted us the favour of the Gods" Erin replied hopefully

"The Holy Men, the-they could not grant us what we sought" he replied solemnly, as the sadness he had seen so many times before tinged his wife's face, "but the Gods themselves have heard me this time"

His wife looked up wondering he could possibly mean, "What do you mean? What has happened?" she replied, as her husband smiled

He opened his cloak, to reveal a child laying quietly in his arm. He motioned the child to his wife as she took him in her arms holding him close, looking at her husband she replied,

"How Jeremiah?"

"It was in the desert, I resting last night thinking of all the times we have been turned away by the Holy Men and my anger got the better of me" he replied regretfully, "I cursed the Holy Men and I cursed the Gods they claim to server"

"Why?" she asked never knowing her husband act as he had described

"I could not face coming back to you once again, to tell you what you have been told every year before...that they would not bless us, that you would never know what it was like to hold a child of your own" he continued looking into his wife's eyes with the same love that he had done the first time they locked eyes, "It was in that moment of despair and anger, when I thought that those who we fear and respect the most had looked that us with blindness...it was then they answered"

"What are you saying Jeremiah?" she asked somewhat confused

Jeremiah placed both hands softly on either side of her face and smiled,

"The Gods sent this child for us" he answered with joy, "I have never seen anything like it, he was delivered in fire and light...and that sound, only a God could do such things my love...the-there is no other explanation"

Erin looked at the child, as he smiled back content in her arms,

"A child of the Gods" she said softly, "Why choose us? We are nothing but simple farmers"

"Perhaps that is exactly why" Jeremiah replied putting his arm around her, and looking on the child's face, "If we raise him he will learn what it means to be a good man, that to earn something you must work for it...that not all things are given to those who deserve it and to show those people the compassion they deserve"

Hearing the strength, warmth and virtue in her husbands words, Erin found the doubt that was in her slowly leave, love and a mothers instinct began to replace that uncertainty and doubt,

"What will we do if someone asks where he came from?" Erin replied fearful that if they went ahead with raising the child, one day someone would come along and take him from them, "I have been to village regularly...I have never shown any sign of being with child"

Jeremiah turned and looked into the distance thinking of what they could possibly say if anyone asked where the child came from,

"We will say that the child...that the child was my brothers" Jeremiah replied,

"But you do not have a brother", Erin continued, questioning his response

"I know but my family is not from around these parts, there will be nothing to disprove what we tell people" Jeremiah answered cautiously, "We will say that he was orphaned, that his mother died in birth and my brother murdered by a lowly beggar before the child's birth"

Jeremiah took the child and held him out in the morning light, inspecting his new son. Erin wrapped her arms around her husbands chest, kissing his shoulder as she rested her head on him. She smiled realizing that there was one more thing on which they had to decide, she stood on her toes bringing her mouth to his ear,

"So what are we to call him"

"I have no idea" Jeremiah laughed

"You said he arrived in light and fire" Erin replied, "What about Helios?"

"What do you think? Is it to be Helios?" Jeremiah playfully asked the child, the child smiled, "Helios it is then"

Erin looked on with a smile as Jeremiah span around with the child, a family at long last. A child of the Gods, what great future has those Gods planned for him? To give him to a family where he would have such humble beginnings, so many uneasy thoughts ran through her head but did it really matter? Look at the good the child had already brought to this world, the love and happiness she saw in Jeremiah was enough to convince her...truly this was the work of the Gods, they had listened and answered. She joined father and son and he wrapped his arm around her,

"A son of our own" Jeremiah beamed, looking down at his wife, "I see a great future for us"