O' children

Chapter 4: The Past is Smoke

In spite of his best attempts, Caysa had always found himself with an affinity for unfortunate circumstances. Although in hindsight he might consider it an affinity for knights and hunters, who themselves tended to make extraordinary circumstances of the world around them.

Caysa was fourteen when an instance such as this occurred, it was a humid summer morning, and the local crab-apples were going to be ripe and hopefully the wild mint and rosemary hadn't been plucked to death. Baskets in hand, Caysa closed the monastery doors behind him and saw Aron unhappily lurking by the chicken coop.

"Aron? Don't you have somewhere to be?" Caysa called out as he walked up to Aron. Aron turned; brows furrowed against the mid-morning sun. Caysa smiled and waved Aron to walk beside him, "Well, come on then, before they start looking for you,"

Caysa and Aron walked to the forests edge in silence, only punctuated by the drone of cicadas and the twittering of birds. Like every spring and summer, Caysa followed the best path to forage in the woods, stopping every now and then to pluck whatever herbs and leaves caught his attention, mindlessly talking about the illustrations he had been working on, based on the drawings of another monk's writings he had been studying. Aron grunted and hummed at the appropriate times, lagging behind Caysa.

The best clearing for apples was quiet, the breeze stirred up little more than the scent of fruit and the freshness of the understory. Caysa placed the baskets on the ground, reaching up to pluck the heftiest, rosiest of the fruits. Aron followed suit, picking randomly from the trees with little interest in ripeness or size. Until each basket was brimming with produce, Caysa and Aron lay down under the shade of the trees, early afternoon sun was rising to take her place in the centre of the sky.

The fragrant silence broke, twigs and branches snapping nearby. Both Aron and Caysa sat up, Aron's body tensed, readying himself. Bounding and twisting through the trees, Caysa only registered the dark green glinting in the sunlight before he shoved Aron out of the way. Careening towards Caysa, small sharp teeth snapping towards his face, Caysa blocked the dragons attack with his arm. Although it looked thin and small for a dragon, its narrow teeth easily pierced Caysa's skin, grinding down on his bone with intent to break it.

Its jaw stilled, hot air blasting from its nostrils as it stopped moving before it slackened its mouth incrementally, Caysa's heart fluttered as he held his breath, keeping his body as still as possible. The moment felt like it lasted an eternity, his heart about to give out from how hard it was beating.

Aron's golden head reared up behind the small dragon, a sharply cracked branch clenched in his fist. Caysa shut his eyes as Aron swung the end of the stick towards the dragon's eye, immediately with a hellish screech the dragon let go of Caysa's arm fully, sharp claws ripped into skin and clothes as the dragon darted back into the forest thicket, its cries echoing through the trees.

Green eyes, wild with fear, Aron yanked off his vest, stifling the blood flow from the bite wound. And with wiry strength, Aron pulled Caysa up, clambering through the thicket of the forest to get back to the town, Caysa senselessly getting dragged along. The stinging pain, Aron's harsh breaths, the cracking of twigs underfoot, the light as they broke through the tree line. Between one blink and the next, the village centre grew closer until Sir Beratta was marching towards them, face thunderous.

The haze over Caysa, broke away as Sir Beratta grabbed his shoulder, kneeling on the ground in front of Caysa. It was like his arm had been shattered, piercing bruising pain shot up and down Caysa's body and he doubled over, heaving just to breathe in past the infernal agony.

"It was a juvenile; it came out of nowhere." Aron voice was far away, muffled by the blood rushing through his body as Caysa struggled to think about something other. Sir Beratta bundled Caysa into his arms, squeezing Caysa tight.