O' children

Chapter 2: Youth (Fate)

When Caysa was six, he had been playing near the river. The safe part of the river, where the water didn't rush too fast, and the forest was thin so that calls of distress could be heard even in town. Luella Abalain had seen him alone, light brown hair, harsh blue eyes, and 10 years older with a mean throwing arm. The Abalain's, like most of the town, had never liked Caysa, they called him unlucky to his face, that he was a 'sinister child of preternatural origin", the Abalain's were crueller about it than others, curses and foul language, Master Uris had called them "ignorant and cowardly", Sola had called them "inbred pig fuckers."

Luella was not different to the other Abalain's and Caysa knew this as fact that day when he was five and Luella had hurled a grey stone right at Caysa, through luck or some divine intervention, such an aggressive throw that hit right above his right eye didn't knock him out into the river, though the skin still split open from the force and the blood still dripped into his eye.

"It's what you deserve for polluting the water, demon!" Luella shouted out to him, stooping down to pick up another stone on the riverbank, Caysa turned and fled into the tree line. Luella called something out after him, but Caysa was already too far away to hear whatever curse she had intended to call him.

At some point Caysa had to stop, the blood was dribbling into his eye and even though Caysa hadn't stopped crying, his eye still burnt. Sinking down on exhausted legs, Caysa drew his knees up to face and squinted around him, this area of the forest was dark, and Caysa didn't know how to retrace his steps back where he came, nor could he hear the river from wherever it was.

Caysa let the sobs take over his body now that he realised, he really was completely alone. Of course, that meant that not long after the loud crunches of heavy footsteps began approaching. For a moment Caysa almost let his hope get ahead of him and he almost called out Sola's name before he shrunk himself back down and pressed himself further back to the tree trunk as the heavy steps approached.

A tall figure dressed in dark red and black, carrying a dead deer over his shoulders marched out of the darkness. Caysa pressed even further into the bark. The huge man stopped in his tracks, shadowed eyes wide with surprise, the rest of his face covered by some type of scarf. Kneeling to drop the deer from his shoulders, the man leaned towards Caysa slightly.

"What happened to your eye?" the man said, he had a deep clear voice, close cropped blonde hair.

"Fell out of a tree," Caysa's voice felt very small in the dark of the forest and in the shadow of this mysterious man.

"Right... this part of the forest is quite deep; do you know how to get back home?"

"Uh, no?"

"Come here, that injury looks painful. You should get that fixed up as soon as possible,"

"How do I know if I can trust you?"

"I once met the Grand monk of the Imran monastery, Master Uris,"

"You know the Grandmaster?" Caysa whispered, Master Uris was well travelled, he probably had many friends from all across the lands. The man nodded, he lifted the sleeve of his undershirt to show a wooden bead bracelet, the kind worn by Imran followers. Caysa swallowed nothing, his mouth dry from fear and exhaustion, but slowly stood up to take the man's wrist in his hands. Slowly and with undue gentleness from such a great man, he lifted Caysa into his arms. "But your deer!" Caysa gasped, the man just shrugged and started walking.

"The wolves need it more than I do," was all he said. Caysa figured a man who didn't seem like a talker probably would live in the deep woods.

"Are you sure?" Caysa, looked up with his good eye, trying to catch any more details of the man's face. Caysa felt the overwhelming presence of the forest lay over him and the man as they navigated through the undergrowth, Caysa lay close the man's torso and tried to fill out the heavy but vigilant silence. "I'm Caysa"