(Note from the author, I made a mistake with this chapter, so I had to delete it a d then reupload. The content is the same, if you already dead it ignore it and skip to the next.)
Mary carried Robert on her back; she did not want to fall back. But her six-year-old legs were not strong enough to carry Robert for a long distance. Very soon, she had to give up and set him down on the ground.
To both of their luck, the people who walked towards a hill that was past Mary's house further into the north-west Mary walked with everyone from the line of people to Robert's hand and walked with him towards the others.
The weather has been unchanged since earlier; the blue sky, the soft wind, and the shadwos worked in perfect balance and created the weather that Mary called. Perfect weather. At a distance, however, dark clouds were seepable. Mary hoped that they would not reach them when they stood on the hill.
"Hello Mary, do you enjoy the weather?"
Mary shifted to the voice she heard next to her and saw the cloaked man. He had removed his hood by now, and his wrinkled, old face was good to see. The man had, for a man of his age, surprisingly very good posture. His entire posture was straight, as if he were one of the nobility in the fairytales her mother told her.
As she remembered this, Mary turned around and searched for her mother. She looked at the fare distances; however, her mother was nowhere to be seen; there was no shilling coming towards her. Or not even in the village was a trace of her.
Mary turned towards the old man and asked, "Where is mother? She was the last time with you."
The old man showed a soft smile on his face and bent down a bit in order to come closer to Mary.
"Yes, she talked to me and said that she would go with your father to your grandparents."
Mary and Robert's eyes widened as they heard that. Mary was the first to ask, "Wait, I have grandparents; why don't I know them?"
"Because your grandparents are in a place far away from here, and because of that, it could be that you won't see them for a long time. But I am sure that will show by tomorrow."
The old man looked toward the sky. The man was too tall for Mary to see his face while he said these words, but she still had questions that needed to be asked.
"What do you mean with that it will show by tomorrow that something is going to happen?"
The man looked down at her again and gave his answer: "By tomorrow, it will show if you stay with me or go to your parents; this of course applies to your little brother too."
Robert pointed at himself. He did not get what the man meant but said nothing for now; he was more interested in the insect on the ground.
"Would you mind doing that, Mary and Robert, staying with me?"
The old man's gentle smile seemed to invite Mary to come with him. She opened her mouth and said, "Of course, what is that?"
As she wanted to give her approval, a gust of wind came up and blew a lot of leaves all over her. Mary hurried and removed the leaves one by one from her clothes. Robert wanted to help and stroked the leaves out of her hair.
As Mary held the last leaf in her hand, it appeared strange to her. The leaves were bright red; she found it strange that there were nearly no trees around this place, and the far more confusing thing was that they were in the middle of spring, Mary's favorite season.
The leave, however, felt warm and was the most beautiful one she ever found. Mary decided to keep the leave in the pocket her mother sewed on her clothes.
Mary forgot the man's question; however, as she looked into the face of the old man, she began to remember the question. She felt bad for making the old man wait for so long.
"Sorry for not answering, but for your question, I would love to come with you, but I am fine with both nice uncles."
Mary's face shone, and her eyes, which could melt an angel's heart, shone. The old man grinned and looked pleased with her answer.
As Mary looked towards the hill again, she had to discover how all the people had already reached the top of the hill. As she saw that, the others turned around and saw them.
A young man sprinted towards them and greeted them.
"Mary, Robert, where have you been? Did you talk too much to the old man?"
"Hey, that was rude. Apologies. What if the man is dry now?"
Mary stomped with her right foot on the ground. The young man realised his mistake and apologized.
"I'm sorry for being rude."
"Don't worry, young man. I am not mad at you, but I think we should get going now."
As the man said that, the young man crouched down and told Mary and Robert to get on his back. Both of them took the offer and chimed on his back.
Even though the young man was one of the fastest runners in the village, the old man still managed to be there before the three of them.
The young man's pride was hurt by that a little; however, this vanished as the old man clapped into his hands and said, "All of you are in the circle, and no matter what happens, don't be afraid."
As the man said, pitch-black clouds gattered and fell on the ground right at them.
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Back in the present
"And that is the story about how I became a grim reaper."
Thanatos tapped with his index finger on the desk. "And?" There had to be more; everything else would have been stupid.
"I don't know; my memories have a hole in this part. But they continued a week later. When I woke up and got told to be a grim reaper, Morgana said
"And what did you do then?" Thanatos was persistent; he needed to know each and every detail.
"This will come now. Listen."