No Man's Right: Thicker Than Blood

Who Am I?

The moon glowed down upon the forest illuminating the forest floor and the side of a cliff. The branches and leaves shook and swayed in tandem with the movement of the crisp night air. The animals huddled together as they slept on the lush grass and plants on this warm summer night. Moss climbed up the rocky side of a cliff into a hole in the cliff face, a cave, that's opening was illuminated by the glow of the moon. As the cave grew deeper the light from the moon became dimmer but a small flicker of a flame was still visible. A candle? Or maybe a fire? It would make you wonder about what kind of a person would be in a cave in the middle of nowhere at this time of night.

"Joe.....?" asked a small tired looking boy, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and using the stone wall to hold himself upright.

"You're still awake Rollo?" replied the tall, frail-looking elderly man who stood in the arched cavern. "You should try and get some rest, you've got a big day tomorrow." He clicked his fingers and the glass in his hand began to slowly fill with water until it reached the rim and began to trickle down the side. "Come on now, drink this and get back to bed." The man placed the glass in the boy's small hands and began to guide him back to the stack of hay on the stone floor containing one old, tattered pillow and discoloured blanket on it. The cavern danced with the flicker of the one flame lamp lighting it.

"Tell me about my parents again?" asked the boy as he drank the water and climbed back into his shackled hay bed.

Joe's frail torso seemed to jiggle as he laughed. "Okay Rollo, if you promise to go to sleep afterwards," he said as he ruffled Rollo's long brown hair

"Yeah...... I promise," whispered Rollo with a forced, half smile as he looked off into the distance.

"Well, I'm not sure that there is much I can tell you that I haven't told you a million times before." began Joe,

"Your parents were two of the very few people I hold close to my heart. I've met a lot of people in my time on this planet but your mother was definitely one of the most loving and caring. Though she died during your birth, she never stopped loving you or your father until the end."

Joe's face became sterner, his eyebrows lowering as he lamented on the past. "More than that she believed in you and she believed in this world even though she saw it all crumbling around her. As for your father, A man who died fighting in a war of elemental masters when he didn't wield an element of his own. Many called him stupid but I consider him one of the bravest men who set foot in this world. They both died fighting for you, Rollo. They wanted to make this world right for you and for that I will always respect them."

Joe looked down to see Rollo's eyes full of tears on the brink of coming out.

"Joe...." said Rollo, his brown eyes looking through strands of his long unkempt hair and getting lost in the stone wall, "I don't want to go tomorrow. Why can't I just stay up here with you?"

"No, it's good to go to a proper school" explained Joe "It's just a test anyway, you might not even get into any of the houses and then you can become an apprentice and learn a fun trade. Your parents couldn't wield any elements so there's a high probability you won't be able to either. I thought you would be excited to move into the Kingdom. It's illegal not to take the test anyway."

"Since when do you care about the law?" Said Rollo, turning his head away from Joe

"Look," sighed Joe again. "I promised your parents that I would take care of you and going to school is a part of that. You need to make some friends, you can't just stay up in this cave forever."

"But all I've ever done is stay up here." snarled Rollo as his eyes turned back to Joe "I mean in these 15 years I can remember leaving this cave and forest about 10 times."

"That's different." replied Joe, "There's nothing left in that place for me and it was too dangerous for me to let you go alone at such a young age. What's this really about? I thought you would be excited to see if you had any wielding ability in you and to go out, see the world, adventure, make friends?"

Rollo's head dropped, his eyes no gazing into his lap "It's just... What if the other kids think I'm weird They probably all already have friends and live in normal houses I bet they all have parents who already started to teach them about their element. Why can't I come from a lineage of fire wielders? Everyone knows exactly where they come from and who they are and it's just not fair! I just want to feel like I belong somewhere. I want to understand. This is the only place I've ever had and now I have to leave it? Why do I have to be the only piece that doesn't fit? Who am I?" Rollo's fist was now clenched tightly.

Joe placed his hand on Rollo's shoulder as he gently began to smile, "Since when did all of that make a difference. You're Rollo and that's all that should matter. Let me tell you something that an old friend of mine once told me. Some things are thicker than blood."

Rollo let off a little smile as he sunk into the bed of hay, covering himself with the blanket "Okay." he said, "I'll give this school thing a try."

"Now that's the Rollo I know." replied Joe with a smile as he started to tuck Rollo into bed, "Now get some sleep, you've got a big day ahead of you tomorrow."

"Joe... Thank you, for everything." said Rollo as he began to ease his eyelids letting them close.

"It's been my pleasure." said Joe, as he walked out of the cavern in the cave. He extended his arm with an open hand then slowly began to retract his fingers, as his fingers began to close the flame in the lamp began to die. By the time he had a clenched fist the flame was completely gone.

"Good night Rollo." whispered Joe as he disappeared into the darkness of the cave.

The next morning Rollo woke up as the sun began to rise just as he always did. He scaled down the cliff with ease and began to do his morning rituals which consisted of gathering wood for the fire, hunting for some form of meat to cook and collecting some fresh water from the stream. On his way back up the cliff Rollo thought to himself how much easier his accent up the cliff got in these past 15 years. He thought back to when he was much younger and could not make the climb himself, how Joe used to have to carry him the whole way up the mountain as well as the food, wood and water.

He would never forget about the first time that he could do it all by himself, how he had to get up before the sun rose to get all of the jobs done before Joe woke up to surprise him. How he went out and stalked a wild boar and how he wasn't very stealthy. Every time he made a move the boar would evade him and it took what felt like decades before he could land a decent strike on the boar. Collecting water was a complete other story. They had a method of collecting rain water from the cave but Rollo and Joe both much preferred the sweet, fresh water from the stream in the forest but with Rollo having such short legs it would take him hours the day to get there and back while carrying a full container of water. He would never forget that the amount of wood that he had to chop to keep the fire going. It was so big that it blocked his field of vision while carrying it. Things really had changed fromway back then.