Endless Shadows

Chapter 2

"What are you doing Amarth?" Pallando asks in a cold voice, setting the candle onto the table. 

"Would you believe me if I told you that I was walking in my sleep?" I ask fiddling with the box in my hands. Pallando narrows his eyes and folds his arms across his chest; seeing that there's no point in trying to get out of this (besides running but I'm saving that for if things get violent) I sag my shoulders in defeat and lower my head.

"Alright I was trying to see what was in this box but as you are probably aware," I shake the box for emphasis, "there's nothing in here."

"I saw you staring at the box all through our conversation earlier Amarth," Pallando mutters walking towards me, "I took the contents of the box out after you went to your room." I flinch as Pallando plucks the empty box from my hands and storms over to the fireplace. Pallando is one of the few people who can intimidate me; and it's not because he's a wizard who could probably do all sorts of things to me if I upset him, he could turn me into something unnatural if he wanted. 

I'm actually not certain if he can do that but I'm not about to ask and find out, especially when I've clearly upset him. Once Pallando has a fire made he motions for me to come sit down. Grudgingly I comply and sit down in my chair beside Pallando who looks both tired and frustrated at the same time.

"Why Amarth? Why would you try and go behind my back like this?" He asks and I shrug in response, much to Pallando's frustration. Honestly, I feel like a child being scolded. 

"Amarth, please answer me, and be honest."

"I wanted to see what was in the box. And you never told me that I couldn't look inside it."

"That gives you no reason to do what you just did tonight Amarth!" Pallando practically jumps out of his chair, blue eyes blazing. "You are old enough to know better than this! For Eru's sake Amarth you are nearly a thousand years old!"

I hold up a finger to silence him, "I'm actually 1,704 years old."

"Amarth! I am in no mood for your sarcasm!"

"That wasn't sarcasm, I was just telling you my age."

Pallando does something between a groan and shout as he pulls at his hair. I think I've upset him...

"Why is it whenever I tell you to do something you never listen? I may not have told you with words not to look in the box but you are old enough to know that I did not want you messing with it! You did not think Amarth! You never think about what the consequences of your actions will be!"

My fingers drum rapidly on the arm of my chair as I glare up at Pallando. "I'm sorry but I don't remember asking you to be my father. Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do?"

"Because you don't know everything Amarth! There are just some things that you cannot understand."

"So now I'm a dumb elfling?" I stand abruptly from my chair, my entire body tense like a bowstring waiting to be released. Pallando is at least a head shorter than I am but he doesn't back down.

"I never said that Amarth, but seeing your behavior tonight has certainly caused me to start questioning your maturity." Pallando is just as tense as I am, it's only a matter of time before one of us snaps.

"I am old enough to make my own choices Pallando! You may have forgotten this but my parents died when I was a child leaving me to raise my baby sister, I have spent more than half of my life fending for myself, I have fought in wars and even helped defeat an enemy that not even you could kill and you? You spend your days living in a fantasy world while I am out in the real world searching for some evil that you claim to have found, and after three years of searching this blasted earth do you want to know what I've found?!"