Inheritance

Chapter 8: A New Friend

Kori arrived in her charge's room to see him looking dead-in-the-face and staring up at the ceiling. He was reclining on the sofa. Rain was pattering out in the hidden clearing where Eory's tower was sequestered. Kori had accordingly been wearing a cloak to keep herself warm from the chilly weather, but she removed it now that she was indoors. Eory rolled on his side to face her with tears gracing his strange, rosy eyes.

Kori tried not to cry, herself, when she saw her beloved son in such pain. She placed her pack on the ground and forced a smile as she remembered she was about to tell Eory something very happy.

"Eory, I am happy to inform you that you may be the only fairy in the Arrozan family line who is deemed to be of good character and not a threat to society." Kori reached her wrinkled, blue hands into her travel pack as Eory sat up in shock and disbelief.

"I'm to be free, then?" Eory asked.

"Well..." Kori said, clearing her throat, "on the condition that you attend the king's ball with no mishap and demonstrate yourself to be a fine asset to society, you will be set free."

Eory breathed in deeply with a face that told her he couldn't believe his ears. In a moment, he couldn't contain himself and he wrapped his caretaker in his arms and easily lifted her off the ground.

His caretaker, like all waifs, was a tiny, four-foot-tall woman with a stick-thin waist, long, pointed ears, and the wrinkled skin that all waifs had regardless of whether they were six or sixty.

Kori giggled for a moment as she returned his embrace and then demanded he put her down when she realized how far off the ground she was.

Kori finished digging through her pack and fished out many beautifully packaged presents for Eory. The first was a golden headdress that belonged to his older brother, Gershom. Kori brought a waif-sized, rectangular mirror with her which she balanced against the wall so Eory could get a good look at himself. Kori put the headdress on him which complimented his white skin beautifully; it was a circlet which draped across his forehead and wrapped around his giant ears. It had lovely, clear crystals hanging from it.

Eory cocked his head to the side. He had not seen himself since he was six-years-old—there was no reason for him to have a mirror, after all.

His eyes were a rosy ponk, his skin was snow-white, and his ears were gigantic and shaped like a butterfly's wings; they allowed him to hear even the tiniest of noises. He thought he looked odd since the only person he had to compare himself to was Kori.

He saw Kori clap her hands in the mirror and she told him, "you look so handsome!"

Eory blushed a little and looked away.

"Let me show you what you'll be wearing!" Kori said excitedly as she handed him the next package which was tied up with a rope in crinkly brown paper.

But Eory was weeping.

I can't believe I thought she was a bitch... He sniffled and wiped his eyes as Kori came to his side. I'm such an awful person!

"Don't cry, this is a happy occasion..." Kori said as tears came to her own eyes. "I know what will cheer you up!"

She handed him a blue-and-white striped box with a green bow tied prettily around the cap. Eory opened it and a panting dog with bulging eyes licked his face. Eory smiled cheerfully at his new friend and lifted him out of the package; the dog was small enough to hold and Eory thought it was a funny looking thing.

It was colored black and white with a white stripe that traveled up from its chest and onto its forehead. It had small, upright ears and a tiny, round black tail. Its bulging black eyes stared back into Eory's as it panted with a stupid look on its face.

"I love him!" Eory exclaimed.

"Happier now?" Kori asked as Eory's new friend licked his face.

Eory nodded and buried his face in the terrier's fur. "What should I name him?"

"Whatever you want, darling." Kori said with a nod. "You've earned the right to pick."

Eory looked into the creature's bulging eyes and he felt as if its dark eyes bored into his soul. "I think... Gershom."

Kori's mouth melted into a deep frown. "Your brother's name?"

Eory nodded. "He was my best friend!"

Kori's face was twisted into one of white fear. She had hoped he would have forgotten about his family; she needed him to forget. His family was no good—he had to separate himself from them entirely if she were to save him. "How about something else? Robert or Larry?"

Eory turned his spiral nose up and stuck out his tongue. "Larry? Bleh..."

Kori was sweating buckets. "Eory... You know you have to separate yourself from your family. After all, you're..."

Eory looked away as his dog panted and licked his face. "I'm good—I'm different from them, I know. It's just... My brother—he was... So kind to me from what I remember."

Kori, who had always been so strict to her surrogate son, relented this one time.

It was not an easy choice.

She had mulled it over in her mind for a full thirty seconds which had felt like thirty hours.

She had never allowed him to think well of his family; she had spent extensive time showing him precisely why they were to be reviled, in fact.

"Your family figured out a way to conjure magic so vile and disgusting that they dropped a ball of it upon the human kingdom of Maribel and took it over—killing thousands. Why is this wrong?" She would ask.

Eory would sometimes take a moment to think which would worry her, but for the most part he would immediately answer, "because I wouldn't want to be hurt like that; because so many people lost their families because of mine and I know it would hurt so much to lose mine like that—including you."

"And how does this fact make you feel about your family?" Kori would go on relentlessly.

Eory would have a sad frown dawn on his sweet face and it would break her heart as he said, "I hate them. They disgust me."

But just this once, on this happy occasion, Kori gave in. She thought she owed him for turning him against his family because, even though they were evil people, she had no doubt that they loved him and he loved them—and she wanted her surrogate son's complete adoration more than anything. If that included giving him this one boon, then so be it. "Very well. You can name him that."

Eory thanked her with another hug.

"Now, gather up your things, let's get going. Are you ready to see the world?" Kori asked elatedly.

Eory nodded and quickly gathered up his clothes in a sack along with some of his drawings and his pen. He scribbled some letters on the back of a piece of parchment and then tucked it away in his room.

Kori looked at him with pride before she revealed the cursed door she had hidden from him with magic for so long. He never thought he would cry at a door, but he did. He sniffled and, with his new dog tucked under his arm, set out to freedom.