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He woke up not knowing his name. His mother barked at him to get out of the wagon and help her unload the wares into the safehouse. "These aren't easy times, boy!" the poor woman shouted at him, driving him to take hold of a crate. Then, he began carrying it to a...
What he's seeing didn't quite make sense. It's a house but circular with a domed brown roof. This was...
"Hurry up!" his mother shouted once again. She was already at the door, carrying three crates at once. His sister lagged behind her. "The Sentries wouldn't let us up much longer."
Sentries?
"You heard your mother, boy," his father said behind him. "Get inside. Stop dawdling."
He nodded mutely and ran towards the house, the glass bottles in his crate clinking against each other in shrill tinkles as he ran. It's lighter than he thought it would be. Huh.
"Boy, what a nice day to trade, huh?" his uncle passed him by with a wink. He watched the older man bend and deposit a crate filled with glistening red fruits. A smile crept to his lips.
"Yeah," he said before running out of the circular house to help with more crates. The five of them soon unloaded everything off the wagon. The coach, seated behind the dagrinis in a wooden plank attached to the main wagon, nodded to his father. His father smiled and tipped his head in a respectful gesture. Without a word, the coach whipped the dagrines pulling the wagon, the sound like lightning during a stormy night to his ears. The animals neighed and disappeared into a line of fairies dressed in brown uniforms.
Sentries. That's what his mother was talking about. They lined the length of the border with grim expressions painted into their faces. They carried all assortments of weapons but some didn't have any. Hard eyes stared followed his family like they were game meat after a long season of drought.
"Come on, boy!" his mother yelled at him from the house's door that was propped open. "Get in here!"
He stepped back from his place before turning and running as fast as he could towards the circular house. His mother shut the door as soon as he was through. A sigh muffled the sound of the door clicking shut. "It's safe now."
Rhys's brain swirled as memories slammed into it. He...what happened?
His eyes rested on Airese, who had a hand propped by the door's handle. That's Airese, not his mother. He turned to a nature fairy with light brown hair striding towards the house's hygiene area. His father...No. That's Eldan. Who's supposed to be his uncle turned out to be Marthiaq.
So Reeca...
"She's truly your sister," Airese touched Rhys's elbow as if to steady him. "It's the one thing I didn't change."
Change...
Marthiaq groaned, massaging his forehead. Eldan was retching into a moldy basin somewhere to Rhys's left. "Damn, why did I ever agree to this?" Marthiaq shook his head in an attempt to clear it. "Damn, that's nasty."
