A Demon's Past Chapter Four: Family History
"Come on!" Alaina yelled after Sebastian.
"No!"
"But I just want a hug!"
"No!"
Alaina was chasing Sebastian through the clearing around the tree. All of the leaves had fallen onto the grass, the flowers had wilted, and the chill in the air blew all around them.
"Last time you did that I got in trouble!"
…..
Sebastian had begun his training with Sir Brom three months ago. Every morning he had to be in the fields right when the sun rose where they trained for two hours. Mostly it was Sir Brom practicing while making Sebastian run laps or do push-ups.
"You need more muscle. You're too small." Sir Brom would say in his deep voice.
Occasionally Sebastian would become tired of the conditioning and challenge the knight.
"I'm tired of running around in circles! I want to learn to fight!" Sebastian had yelled after a few weeks of growing impatient and angry at the rate of his training.
"You need strength and endurance before you become a good fighter. That is the point of training." Sir Brom replied.
"At this rate all I'm going to be able to do is run away!"
"You are not the type to run from a fight." Laughed Sir Brom.
Sebastian looked up angrily at the knight.
"You want to learn to fight so badly? Fine."
Sir Brom quickly hit Sebastian in the head and swept his leg causing him to fall onto the hard ground.
"Ouch!" Sebastian yelled rubbing the side of his head as Sir Brom laughed. "What am I going to learn from something like that?!"
"First you will learn to take a hit. If you cannot take a hit, you will not be able to continue to fight. Second, if you get hit often and hard enough, you will eventually learn to dodge."
The first time this happened he had come back to the castle covered in scrapes and bruises. When he saw Alaina later that week she was upset.
"Your all hurt!" Alaina squealed.
"I'm fine!"
"No you're not!"
"Ouch!" Sebastian yelled angrily.
Alaina had poked one of his many bruises.
"See!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him into the closest empty room.
Alaina began to scrunch up her face as she held sebastian's hand within hers.
"I don't think so!" Sebastian said to her as he tugged his hand away.
Alaina looked up at him with her big green eyes.
"I just don't like you getting hurt." She moped.
Sebastian sighed.
"Look I'm fine, really."
Alaina came closer to Sebastian and wrapped her arms around him.
"Really there is nothing to be sad over." Sebastian said after a few seconds.
"I know." She grinned.
When she pulled away Sebastian saw that she was covered in blue and black bloches. He looked at his arms to see that all his bruises had disappeared.
"I told you not to do that!" Sebastian yelled.
"Hehe!" Alaina looked up at Sebastian smiling.
"Give them back!"
"What? No!" Alaina shouted appalled at the thought.
"Why?!"
"Because you're my only friend. I don't like the people I care about being hurt." Alaina said hesitantly looking at the ground and shuffling her feet.
When they saw Lord Henry next he was surprised at the state his daughter was in.
"I tripped." Alaina had told her father.
Later that night however, Sebastian received a scolding from his father about letting the Young Lady of the house become covered in bruises while in his care.
….
"You didn't get into that much trouble last time!"
"I said no!"
"Fine." Alaina conceded.
She dropped down into the grass breathing hard.
"Why do you always try and make me better anyways?" Sebastian asked.
"Because you're my friend and I don't want you to be hurt."
"Yeah, but why?"
"Why what?"
"Why do you hurt yourself instead?"
"I don't know. My mom always says I should be em-pa-thet-ic." Alaina had trouble pronouncing the last word of her sentence.
"What is she like?" Sebastian had rarely seen the lady of the house.
"She's wonderful! She is pretty, and smart, and nice, and always tells me a bedtime story! Want to hear it?"
"You want to tell me your bedtime story? No." Sebastian scoffed.
Ignoring Sebastian's reply, Alaina went on to tell her tale.
"It's about my grandpa. My mom said that he was a Young Lord of a castle and was never doing what he was supposed to. One day he went into the village and met a beautiful peasant in one of the shops. She was carrying buckets of water, walking in the road when a horse drawn cart came and my grandpa pulled her out of the way. After that he went down every day to see her and talk to her. Soon his father found out where he was going and banned him from ever seeing her again. But my grandpa never listened to his father and went down to the village and asked the girl to marry him. When she said yes, he brought her up to the castle as fast as he could, got the priest, and married her. After the wedding, he took the girl to his father and said "This is my wife." His father was very angry with him and they began yelling. The girl stepped between them and looked at the Lord of the castle and said with tears in her eyes, "I'm sorry about the sudden death of your wife. I'm sorry for all the pain you must be in, but I love your son more than anything in this world and I would do whatever to make him happy and I know you feel the same way!" After that the Lord of the castle left them alone and they lived happily ever after!" Alaina finished her story smiling.
"Wait. Your grandmother was a peasant?" Sebastian asked.
"Yep. My mom is always telling me stories about her and how she would visit her grandparents in the village and play with the other kids."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"My mom tells the story better than I do. I'm cold." Alaina said.
She crawled over to where Sebastian was sitting and curled up next to him. Her long hair fell over her face. Sebastian looked down at her, his own breath blocking his view.
"Me too. Lets go back." Sebastian said as he stood up.
Together they headed back to the castle.