The Memories Of Which I Must Find

Chapter 7 - My Family

Growing up, I knew my father was never normal. After all, I've heard it too many times, my mother was a mermaid, the more fish like relatives to sirens. But I've always thought it was just because my father was the 'weird one' in his family, why wouldn't I? My uncle was such a normal person! He played with me and taught me how to fight, his favourite food was apples and no one who likes apples can be weird!

But, it seems I was wrong.

I still remember that strange incident that happened over one week ago, my knees buckling up because I was so scared. And.. my uncle… I never knew he could look so.. so.. dead. It was as if he only lived to fight, to follow an order or something. My uncle.. his eyes were always… strange, to say the least. They were full of life, trust me on that, but they looked so cold. Like- like- like one of those.. uh… those really really cold places with a lot of snow! … Perhaps I should work on my geography better.. but that's off the point! You know how you should never play with knives? Or how cold ice is? Well uncle Alex was like the safest yet pointiest knife made of ice. I've heard so many stories from uncle Tobias and uncle Erin about the greatest warrior of L'vrijburg.

The hero of the story, the hero and his king. The king gives the orders and the hero shall achieve. Graceful as a swan, deadly as an assassin, this was the tale, the tale of L'manburg's great warrior.

So here's my family tree.. my mother, a salmon scaled mermaid. And my father, a human. I've seen pictures of my other uncle, who always looks angry. I don't know his name, I don't even know if he knows I exist. There's so much I don't know…

Ever since the incident, father has been going to the inner kingdom hoping to end the war. And it seems he's finally done it, or at least he was closer to the goal. It was decided that the war would end in a duel.

"The rules are simple," the enemy spoke, his large round tinted glasses covering his eyes. He was definitely the most average of the dream team, even I could defeat him in battle.

"Dream and Alexander, you will both take ten paces facing in the opposite directions. At pace ten, you will both turn around and shoot," Veron, the most average member, concluded. Father continued with the instructions, "Dream, should you win, you will take Alexander's prized possession. An item he had early on as he lived in this place, his music disc, Lullaby."

The hooded man nodded, "Alexander, should you win, you will earn L'vrijburg's independence," Alexander nodded in reply.

The already tense atmosphere seemed to be even more tense than before, I could hear my heart beating in my ears. As I heard the countdown, I held my hand– or paw I guess– to my chest.

"One," Alexander and Dream stepped forward.

"Two," Tobias clutched my coat as he watched the duel.

"Three," the sky's heavy overcast seemed to predict the worst for my uncle.

"Four," I could remember it like yesterday. My uncle staying in the campervan with me as he made us hot cocoa to escape the cold stormy night.

"Five," closing my eyes, I began to pray. Let's hope we could do that again today, not having to worry about the fall of L'vrijburg.

"Six," I returned Tobias' gesture. The two of us, clutching each other's coats as if our lives depended on it.

"Seven," I could see my uncle's already pale skin turn paler around the knuckles, he was scared. Oh so scared. I wanted to turn away, I just couldn't ruin the image of my fearless uncle.

"Eight," how was my father so calm? As he spoke, his voice was stable. Always calm and collected, I aspire to be like him.

"Nine," I paid close attention to the two, too afraid to blink as I might miss the final results.

"Ten paces fire!"

At that moment, three things happened at once.

One, my uncle and Dream turning to face each other.

Two, their hands pulling back to charge their bow.

Three, an arrow falling to the ground and missing it's intended target.

I stood shocked and agape as I saw the pierced body, red and blue mixing together to form a sickening brown as the scent of blood reached my nose.

Run

I need to help him up-

I'm scared

Move!

"... the winner is Dream.."

Why? Why isn't Father helping him? He's going to bleed out!

Alexander sat up slowly, he pressed down on the wound in a pathetic attempt to stop the bleeding. My knees buckled once more, refusing to move as I saw another one of my uncle's lives taken away.

"Dream…" he huffed. The hooded man turned to look at my injured uncle, "I have a deal, I'll give you my other disc, sunshine. Grant L'vrijburg independence."

And thus was the bittersweet day, the day where my home became independent. However, at the cost of one if my uncle's three lives.

But the worst was yet to come. Everything we worked for would disappear, the lands father had conquered would be tainted. Ruined by a disgusting man.