"Claire, help set the table"
"Sure Mom" Claire turned to the dining to get the plates and table cloths.
"Liz, come on, Let's take a seat".
She nodded in response as she followed Uncle Mike to the table. He took his seat at the head of the table, Liz followed behind and occupied one of the chairs at the side of the table. She sat directly underneath the light which bathed her silver hair making it glow. Her was well washed and she looked a whole lot better than she did when she first came in about twenty minutes ago. She was grateful to Claire who did a great job in getting her cleaned up and lending her some of her clothes.
They had all settled down at the table, ready to eat when Jake walked in, all eyes turned to look at him. Something certainly felt different about him and it certainly wasn't the fact the he now looked more presentable. It was like he was bathed in a certain aura. Uncle Mike must have been the only one to have noticed because toe he looked at Jake more intently than the others did.
Jake looked quite dazzling in his white outfit, it was a simple white shirt with the gold pendant which hung around his neck reading on the face of the shirt. He approached the table and took a seat beside Elizabeth.
After they had cleared the contents of their plates. Liz helped Claire clear the table, when they were done clearing the table and doing the dishes. Uncle Mike motioned for them to return to the table.
"So, Jake. Tell us, what happened?"
After a long pause
"They killed Dad" his reply was solemn. It was as if the room was shrouded in a black cloak of silence. Nobody talked, nobody moved an inch.
Hilda struggled to get the words out of her mouth.
"They?" uncle Mike continued.
"There were three men dressed in black clothes..." generated the whole story. While uncle Mike nodded and shook his head at intervals. Claire just sat there a moving and silent throughout the narration. She squeezed Liz's hand in hers offering her comfort and sympathy.
"Must have been the elementals"
"What are the elementals" Jake questioned.
"They are a set of mages that can use at least one of the four elements. The elementals work for the dark emperor. So they must have been carrying out an order"
"Do you have any idea why they might have come to your house"
"No… But… Um. They might have been searching for something because some drawers were thrown out and a few things were scattered".
Mike propped himself up with his elbows on the table while his hand was wrapped around his head in deep thought.
"Your dad didn't say he was working on anything, so what could they have wanted?" he asked no one in particular".
"You both will have to stay here. There's no point in going back there". Claire let out a little smile of happiness at the news.
"We should get some sleep, we'll talk more tomorrow. Goodnight"
"Goodnight" Jake, Claire and Liz chorused as then headed back to their rooms with Liz shadowing Claire as usual.
"So what do you think about this" Mike questioned his wife.
"They'll have to stay here. Surely that" she agreed with him " but that's quite a story. Those lads are quite a lucky bunch, to have escaped death so much times in just a few days" she concluded feeling pity for the situation they've had to encounter at such a young age…
A week had gone by so quickly. Jake and Liz we are already adapting to their new home gradually though they were not completely healed of the emotional trauma they had undergone. Jake sometimes had nightmares and woke up in the middle of the night panting and sweating profusely. He usually kept quiet about them but his aunt, Hilda who had an eagle eye for such things always noticed the slightly faded bags under his eyes.
"Still having these nightmares, Jake?" she asked him as she saw him slip on a couch
"They don't come often these days"
"But we shouldn't ignore them" she handed him a streaming cup of chamomile tea to calm his nerves
"Thank you"
"I doubt this will do but it will suffice for now. Your uncle will have to take you to the healer"
"The healer?" a puzzled expression spread over his face. As if on cue, Uncle Mike entered the house
"Hey, Uncle Mike"
"Jake, what's up buddy" he returned. He walked round to the dinning table and gave Aunt Hilda a peck on the cheek.
"So, you get the screeder yet?" Aunt Hilda asked
"No, but it should be ready in a couple of weeks" he replied as he dropped his bag on the floor and sat beside Jake.
"You need to take Jake to the healer" Aunt Hilda said without raising her head from the vegetables she was cutting. "He's been losing sleep over nightmares".
"The Healer. Sure, I had plans on going there myself today."
"So that settles that for now…"
"So who's this healer person" Jake questioned Uncle Mike later in the evening as they walked to the healers place.
"She Isa talented doctor who specializes in any manner of illness. Her range of treatment varies from herbalist and natural mixtures to magic. She mostly makes use of her herbs, but depending on the scale of the ailment she might resort to magic."
Jake's eye gleamed in delight at the mention of magic. He had heard a few things about magic from his father and he had developed an unusual interest in it ever since then.
"Can I learn magic" he asked
"It doesn't actually work that way. It's bot actually something you learn, but something you develop. When people are born, they are born normal, but as time goes on some of them manifest their use of magic but some on the other hand are not opportuned to manifest the use of magic."
"So can you use magic?" Jake asked further
"No, I can't but my skills with a sword is priceless"
"Hmmm, I see" replied Jake who now sounded a little bit disappointed.
"Come on now, it's not that bad… There are some people without magic who are quite stronger than those with magic. In magic, there are the spell casters who are popularly known as wizards or witches, then there are the elementals, they are gifted with the ability to use the different elements. Fire, water, Air or Earth. Then we have the Healers, they specialize in healing with magic. Then we have the non mages, those without magic they are hardly recognized throughout the kingdom and they rarely hold positions of power because they are seen as weak."
"That's a lot, I usually hear rumors about things such as magic but I didn't know it actually existed."
"That must be because you live far North, it a place mostly for non mages. They are kept out of the loop in most of the country's matters. And they are also there's for their own safety. When there is war or an unrest. It is mostly the mages who participate in battle and in defending the country."
"Oh, I get it now"
They were just reaching the Healer's place. It was a small thatched hut standing in the middle of a square. There were not much houses around it, the front door was quite low such that Uncle Mike and Jake had to bend really low to gain access into the hut. The interior of the hut seemed far bigger than it did on the outside. Jake looked around, measuring the length with his eyes. He was trying to figure out if it was a trick of some sort or it was magic.
Looking around the hut, it was full of bottles of different shapes and sizes with different colours of liquid in them. To the left was a wooden cabined which seemed to contain over a hundred bottles, these bottles were arranged in order of sizes the smallest of them all occupying the top shelf and the ones a little bit bigger the next row and so on until the last row which contained the largest of the bottles.
There were a few empty bottles on the floor which were arranged beside a talisman. The talisman gave Jake the creeps. It looked like the head of a large lizard, with a black and red cloth tied around it's neck and eyes. The arrangement of the clothing and the obscene head of the lizard made Jake want to retrace his steps and instantly vanish from the hut but his curiosity got the better part of him.
Jake was completely absorbed in looking at the items in the hut, he didn't notice someone emerge through a curtain at the far end of the room
"Oh great ripper. To what do I owe the pleasure. Jake was completely mortified, he almost jumped out of his skin.