The journey back home was a long and stressful one, not at all how Bran pictured his morning, especially not today.
His ordeal at the community market of Edrighton was one thing, and to add to that he was forced to take the longer route home.
It was no secret the Julionios or the Julios family lived kilometers away from the kingdom of Edrighton, and this had been the case for as long as Bran could remember. He had often asked why, "why couldn't we live in the kingdom like everyone else?" And the reply was always "This is our home, this is where we belong and this is where we are safe". His mother, who had been a target of his questions, was quite meticulous with her answers, that no matter how many times he asked, her answers never changed. When he pestered, she usually gave him the "continue asking and your ass gets it" look, which was one of the scariest things Bran had ever seen her or anyone else did. It was always better to back off whenever she got like that, so he accepted he might never get a chance to understand why.
For now, his problem was beyond why they lived where they did. The western log crossing was over flooded thanks to the rise in the water level of the Sunkiss River, and that was the only safe route back home. This was not the first time such had happened, but this was the first time Bran witnessed it happen in the day. The log crossing never over flooded unless it was during the downpour season, which was still months away.
He stood there watching the river like he lost his rubies in it. Maybe, just maybe, he could swim across it, he thought, but the crushing sound of a log against the riverbank made him swallow hard. If he could find a dry log to toss across, then that would solve his problem, he glanced around.
In a few second of fruitless rigmarole, he came to the realization that there was no log that could support a baby antler, talk more of a boy or a grown man like him. All the logs with significant mass and length he found were on the other side of the river, seating at a spot as if someone had purposely gathered them around. The life in his eyes faded with all hope of crossing the Sunkiss river, washed away with the strong tide. There was only one thing he could do, and that, he fastened his grip around his basket, was a nightmare. He had to go through the dark hunted end of the murky woods, and try to cross the den of wild beast with the smell of fish on him.
If the rumors he had heard of the murky woods were anything to go by, then he was about as good as a dead boy if he dared stepped foot into it. He remembered however that he had crossed the woods a few times with his father and had never seen any of those monsters. But that was a long time ago, when he was a child and when his father was still alive.
"What would father do?" he wondered, but not for long. His father was only the bravest man he ever knew, and one day hoped to be like.
He pumped his chest and mentally convinced himself he could do it. As far as he could tell, it was either he took it on like a man or ran back to the market where he had just escaped a mad man to ask for help. Between the mad man and rumors about red-eyed beast, seven foot monsters, flesh eating humans and brain sucking witches, the mad man seemed to scare him the most..... he swallowed hard, or maybe not.
"Come on Bran, you can do this, you must do it, they are only rumors" he convinced himself and quickly ran off to the woods while holding firmly on to his basket like it was a weapon.
Silently he strolled through the murky woods, he would have been running if he knew his way around and if the woods weren't so dark all the time. The wind barely made any sound around here, and the foul stench from a nearby swap made it hard to perceive anything that was not remotely nauseating.
Bran increased his pace, while pretending it didn't matter at all. He swung his basket up and down and only followed the walk path carved into the ground.
"I'm going to ask ma for the biggest slice of pie, all this will be worth it once I get a pie". He nodded. He imagined himself seating on a table with a napkin on his chest while he held on to a silver fork and knife, glaring down at a big tray of pie. His face was full of smiles until he stepped into a puddle which had him throttling forward. "What the h*** was that?" he wondered
Bran looked down to his foot to take a look at the sooth on his sandals, but a footprint caught his gaze instead. He raised his foot when he found out he was stepping on it.
"What are these? Dog prints?"
He had a dog at home, so he knew what dog prints looked like. However, the prints he was stepping on was almost the size of his foot, even bigger since he smeared some parts of it. He quickly felt a chill run down his spine and had a bad feeling he was being watched by some sort of monster twice his size.
Bran immediately heard a cracking sound in the woods, which jittered him as he pulled his basket to his face as a weapon. He couldn't find who or what made the sound, but it happened so close to him that he felt like it couldn't be more than 5ft away.
"Who's there?" he called out in a loud tone, hoping to pull them out from hiding.
He felt the sound came from his back, so he knew what direction to face, while at the same time he prepared to take off should it be a monster.
The wind rustled the trees for the first time and behind a nearby tree came a big rat, half a foot tall, sniffing out food from the ground.
"A rat–", he dropped his hand, "it's just a rat." He giggled then exhaled with his hand planted on his chest. There was really nothing to be afraid of, he told himself. The size of the rat was indeed big, but he had seen bigger sizes sold at the market.
"I better just get home now–", "I can't waste more time here." he turned to leave and checked the pie in his basket to make sure it was still intact.
Just as quickly as he turned, sharp claws from a giant beast, snatched up the rat behind him from the shadows, leaving only a slight spill of blood on the ground.
Bran turned around a second later, wandering weather to drop some crumbs of pie for the hungry rat to feed on. To his surprise, the rat was nowhere to be found and the blood spill on the ground soaked into the earth that it completely missed his gaze. He immediately assumed the rat ran off because of him that he felt sorry for the poor thing, but there was nothing he could do to help him now. He continued his journey back home in a jugging pace, and this time he paid attention to the trees and stopped daydreaming.
As soon as he was gone, two red eyes pierced through the shadows and from it came a bloody jaw with a dead rat stuck between its sharp jarring teeth. It stepped out into the light to reveal its 5ft height and silky black furs before spitting out the rat. Its bloodlust gaze focused on the boy and was stuck on him as he hopped along through the trees. Regardless, it didn't follow, instead it went back into the shadows with its bloody jaw snapping at the boy.
Bran approached the last bend on his journey to spot their little farmhouse with its waist level gauze fence. The hens walked around within the protection of the fence and their chick followed behind. Beyond the protection of the fence was a farm, or little garden as they called it. It covered a good 50 meters to the east and west wing of the entrance to their house and hand an assortment of crops in it. They grew mostly vegetables, and fruits. Nothing big enough for commercial purposes.
It felt strange none of the twins were outside at the moment, picking vegetables from the garden or fetching water from the well. They were usually the first to always spot and welcome him home whenever he came back from the market. Then again, they might have been in the kitchen cooking up something with mother.
He also noticed the muddy walkway leading to their little farmhouse had fresh horse tracks on them. 'So maybe they had a visitor' he imagined.
Stepping into the compound Lou, their little puppy dog ran up to him for her usual welcome pet and a treat. Bran locked the fence behind him to see her moping at him with tongues out and a wagging tail. He knew exactly what she wanted and knew ignoring her would not get rid of her, so he squat down to her level to give her a brush on her grey and white fur. If he didn't have a basket in his hand he might have as well lifted her into his arm to further cuddle her.
"There you go girl, go fetch" he threw a rock to the corner of the house to get rid of her.
Stepping up to the well by the side of the house, Bran dropped his basket at the foot of the well, and quickly scooped a hand full of water from a nearby bale to rinse his face. The touch of water on his skin felt like melting ice, and after the second and third time splashing it on his face, his sense started coming back to normal.
He could now hear laughter, echoing from inside the house. Someone was actually here, he confirmed to himself.
He couldn't pinpoint the voices, but they felt vaguely familiar. The laughter echoed out once more and when he heard it the second time he knew exactly who it was. "Uncle Declan" the boy ran to the door forcefully opening it to see his Uncle and his mother laughing the afternoon away. The twins were still nowhere to be seen but who cared at this point when his long-missed uncle was standing in front of him.
"Oh there he is! Come in here." the Uncle uttered on seeing him. He opened up his arm and the boy quickly ran into them for a warm hug.
Sadly the mother didn't get any greeting from Bran and just stood there watching the two. She understood their bond so she did not attempt to interfere in the reunion between his brother and son, at least not yet.
"Look at you…" "You've grown stronger." Declan teased as he cushioned him in his arms. "Yes, Uncle–" Bran nodded, "-I will soon be as strong as you." he smiled while stepping back to look at the man's face.
Both laughed as though they practised, while they further checked each other out.
His uncle had the most perfect jawline he had ever seen with a pair of his mother's blue eyes. His hair was short, permed and always well combed. He could not remember ever seeing a hair out of place on his uncle's face and today was no different.
"Your hair, it's grown way taller," his uncle uttered, "we should do something about that."
Bran grabbed his hair by the root and nodded, "maybe I could get yours" he replied.
His mother, frowned at his reply as she could recall trying to get him to cut his hair multiple times and failing multiple times. She was almost under the impression no one could get him to cut them if she couldn't. She couldn't have been more wrong she sighed.
To Bran, his uncle was both a role model and a second father to him. Considering he was also a royal guard, a dream of Bran, it didn't take much for his Uncle to get him to do anything. As it stood he was willing to give up his long wanted trip to the rainbow waterfall in other to spend more time with his uncle.
"You're not wearing your armour?" Bran asked a little disappointed he didn't see the silver plating of the kingdom's guard armour on him. "Did you leave them somewhere?" "Didn't you come with them?" "I would like to…" before he could finish, his mother interrupted.
"Ok, ok, that's enough."
"Mother" Bran finally recalled she was standing there, with her hands folded in front of her.
His mother just like his brother was also very beautiful, her blue eyes and her pale skin were probably the better of the two, but she was nowhere near her brother in height 6ft 2in (1.88 meters) compared to her 5.5ft (1.68 meters), and the hair and eyebrows texture was something she couldn't match even though her hair was longer.
"Before the two of you get into that, why don't you go and freshen up Bran, we have a birthday party to plan, remember?"
The uncle taken back by the mother's timely interception looked up at her and back at Bran, almost lost for words. "Well, let's continue this later, go do as mother said".
Bran nodded and nearly ran up the stairs when his mother called him again, this time in a tyrannical tone. "Branden Ikenna Julionios, where is the pie I asked you to buy".
Bran felt a sudden shiver run up his spine when he heard his mother call his full name. She never did that unless he was in big trouble. At that moment he felt the sun's heat drained into his mother's voice and in his eye the world suddenly turned dark.
"It is? Uhm, it was, Uhm, let me go get them." he stuttered before running outside to go grab his basket. Hopefully, the hen and her chicks hadn't devoured it yet.