The Shadows of the Four Realms [BOOK TWO]

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"What might this be, aye?" Grandma looked at the object he had carved for her.

"What does it look like, grandma?" Sol said, trying to keep his excitement in check with a voice loud enough for her ears, which were worsening more and more.

He knew not how he knew so much about... stuff. The blanks of walnut wood he had collected were lain with dirt, mold and probably bird droppings. And he cleaned them all, evened the surface with adze and knives, cut out redundant splinters and spikes... lengthened it according to grandma's height. He had known that a pumice stone would smoothen the final product, highlighting the wood's natural color... the bark marks, rings and whitish whirling patterns. He just had known it.

Sol watched her looking at his handiwork-a walking cane.

"Did you buy this, Sol? It's better than I've seen at the handicrafts market." Her light green eyes, looked at the cane all over.

"Come on, now, grandma. You know I made it, but that's not all." Sol took it back from her hands and twisted the handle of the cane, which according to him looked like a fisherman's bushy moustache.

Grandma's eyes widened, as the cocoa-hued handle's hidden end, lodged inside of the cane, now revealed a shiny dagger.

"How you make these stuff, I would never know!" She breathed, turning the cane in her hand a wrinkled smile on her lips.

Sol smiled sheepishly. "You trust strangers too easily, grandma. Please promise me that you'll keep this cane close to you. Would also help you to walk with a little more ease, your knees won't hurt much and outside, if anyone makes you uncomfortable... you just have to unscrew this handle and you have a weapon. Scare them off."

Grandma was peering at him as if she had never seen him before... "But why do I need this when I have my big, smart boy to look after me, aye?" She ruffled his hair, with the softest smile and shimmering eyes. "You are not leaving me, are you?"

Sol's heart clenched tighter. He felt selfish. Selfish, for wanting to move on from the comfort of her warm home, to find about himself. The thoughts gnawed and thrashed at him, forcing him to keep his mind and body occupied.

"You'll always have me, I promise." Sol said, averting his gaze.

***

"Ever since you've taken up these extra errands for the neighborhood, the cattle folk misses you, my dear," said grandma.

As if seconding grandma's statement, the newly purchased bull gave a bellowing grunt from the barn.

Sol sighed, halting in the middle of hammering a tiny nail into a metallic table-something he was fixing for Mistress Alice or Ally two houses down. He looked up to find grandma picking up her half-finished needlework onto her lap, having settled on the armchair he had mended for her a month ago. She pointed at the mess in a corner, where lay a mess of a pocket tool box he was creating, with six different tools wedged inside.

"I promise, I shall fence a new shed in two days, and clean that too," said Sol, wiping his greasy hands on his trousers, dirtying everything. It wouldn't be surprising if Sol had been a pig before being punted onto the Autumn Realm's seashore out of nowhere.

"Oh, no, no, mister, you are not going anywhere. There is said to be a royal parade hitting the streets anytime today."

Sol glanced at his distorted reflection in the silver metal, the greens of his eyes stark against the surface. Was even a disguise not enough to blend in?

What if someone from his past couldn't recognize him because of the disguise?

Grandma's wrinkled mouth gave a twitch, before she gently put her needles and thread on the small table beside her armchair and pushed up her weight, groaning. "Come on, then. I'll show you something better."