“No, I’ve outgrown those stories,” said the figure, sounding like a teenage boy. The voice sounded more than a mere human’s voice; it was more of a bear’s roar mixed with a gorilla’s yelling. “And you heard him, kids: it’s your bedtime. You don’t want the gods haunting this house if you don’t sleep.” Then the shadowy figure moved from the kids’ and Geraldus’s sight.
Suddenly the kids ran and went upstairs. However, the boys went up the stairs screaming while the girls went up the stairs laughing.
I wonder if he really wants to be alone away from society or if he really wants to find his parents, who left him here in my care, wondered Geraldus.
LIFE IN A VILLAGE
A
n orange dawn had arisen from the east. The morning came around the corner; shouts of playfulness were in the cornfields. Kids were playing with small Dragons. Dragon hatchlings (or Dragon Children) flapped their wings and chased the human kids in the grassy fields. Big grown adult Dragons watched from nearby hilltops as their young played with the human younglings. Amongst the playfulness, grown human adults were grinding in the wheat fields and weeding unwanted plants. A hard-working village was at work as full-grown Dragons watched from a distance.
Among this village, one of the twin boys was dropping sand in one of his sister’s hair. “Stop it!” shouted the twin girl. Her brother laughed and ignored her complains.
“Get back inside the house, Arron,” yelled Geraldus.
“But I didn’t…” said Arron.
“I saw you dumping dirt on your sister’s hair. So get back in here, or you will be doing some laboring in the cornfields this afternoon. Come on.”
Arron sighed heavily and went inside the house. The boy was annoyed by his punishment.
It was an average day in the village. Peasants plowing in the fields, knights in the watchtowers or riding on horseback, the children running and playing with sticks or working with their parents, little Dragons playing with human kids in the cornfields, and the great lord Geraldus was overlooking the hard working people and the young Dragons with the kids in the cornfields.
Geraldus Cornelius was the earl of the village and the head of his house: House Cornelius. His family consisted of four sons and three daughters; his wife had passed away from a sickness a year prior.
The eldest child and first son, Alaric, was the leader of his younger siblings and mostly spent his time at the village’s watchtower. His had dark, tanned skin and dark brown hair, like his three younger brothers. He was well built and lean and always wore rich, black clothing like a black knight.
The second eldest child and second son, Flavius, was always the sword trainer to the twin brothers and twin sisters. He had light tan skin and very much like his older brother: tall and lean but two inches shorter than him. He was usually dressed as a brown knight.
The third eldest and first daughter, Eliana, was very beautiful. She had pale brown skin and light brown hair. She always dressed as a noblewoman.
The twin brothers, Arron and Nerio, were the next oldest of Geraldus’s kids, and they were quite the troublemakers. They shared the same appearances with their eldest brother, Alaric, but they were smaller and younger. They pulled pranks on people and dropped cooked foods in the mud.
The two youngest were the twin girls, Naìra and Andrei. They had the same appearance as their older sister, but they acted more tomboyish than their eldest sister was; they liked to be more like warriors than princesses.
The family of the earl, the peasants, the knights, and everyone else in the village lived their daily lives like any normal human. The members of the House Cornelius were doing their responsibilities in their village as well as their big, mansion-like house.
The dragon hatchlings were friendly to the humans as well as their dragon parents. For generations, Dragons and humans lived quite harmoniously along with the other creatures of mythology: the eagle-headed, lion-bodied Griffins, the horned-horse Unicorns, the winged-horse Pegasi, the human-horse-bodied Centaurs, the small, female, winged-human Faeries, the human fish-finned Mermaids and Mermen, and the gigantic, scaly Sea Serpents.
For thousands of years, the humans and creatures had lived harmoniously with each other. Forever they lived in peace and they called each other peacemakers. In the modern day, after being called by his father, Arron came running into the dining room in a grumpy mood.
“I swear, I didn’t do it,” he argued.
Geraldus disapproved of his son’s attitude. “I saw you throwing dirt in Naìra’s hair. That is not acceptable in this household, young man. You are to wash the dishes this afternoon.”
“But, Daaaaaaad” protested Arron.
“Don’t ‘but dad’ me, Arron,” Geraldus said firmly. “Now get to work right now or else you’ll spend the whole day washing the dishes and working out in the cornfields.”
Arron gave a big grunt.
Geraldus shook his head in disbelief of his son’s bad behavior. When will that child ever think of people other than himself? he asked himself. Geraldus walked out of the dining room and into an open marketplace. Although he was the earl, his twin sons were the biggest problems of his life and his home. He always had to keep his eyes on them.
Geraldus had to leave most of his responsibilities with his eldest son. Alaric was the captain of the guards, a horseback commander and served as his father’s right-hand man. His father’s responsibilities became his own. Geraldus kept the rest of his duties as the earl in his own hands.
Geraldus was in charge of the villages’ growth, building homes, and trade routes. Even as they had peace, they still lived life as normal humans in anxiety and stress when something
