Family of Outcasts by Aaron McLeod (best fantasy books to read TXT) 📕

Brendwin closed his eyes for a brief moment, taking a deep breath through his nose. He then opened his eyes just as the announcer lowered his hand to signal that they could fire. Brendwin pulled on the trigger of the gun. He held on tightly to the gun as it moved upwards after firing, keeping it from getting out of his hands. Donnic shot just before Brendwin. Brendwin dropped the gun and clapsed his hands over his ears. The musket had made a noise that was much louder than he had imagined and his ears were ringing with pain as a result. He covered his eyes to keep the smoke from interfering with his vision. The ringing was starting to disappear and as a result, he could hear the crowd laughing. The announcer ran out to the targets and began to inspect them. It wasn’t long before he called out again.

“Donnic is the winner!” The crowd started to applaud for Donnic, who was raising his arms in acceptance of the praise. Ariana was speechless and Jade was still covering her ears from the gunfire. Brendwin stormed passed them, completely ignoring them as he started to pull the tunic off. Ariana followed close by. She said nothing to Brendwin. He was barely holding back tears from that humiliating ordeal. The rest of the day was spent with keeping Jade happy and without Brendwin smiling. Ariana felt bad from what happened. She wanted to comfort Brendwin over what had happened, but instead remained quiet. Throughout most of the day, they continued on across the town, trying to keep Jade happy and having fun while the Brendwin and Ariana kept to themselves.

 *****

            Gregory was lifting two large sacks of potatoes into the wagon when he noticed Hanalos leaning against the side of the wagon. She was grasping at her knee and breathing heavily. Gregory placed the sacks down and went over to Hanalos, pulling her arm over his neck and holding her up on his shoulder. He lifted her up and placed her down onto the seat opposite his and went back to packing goods into the wagon. Hanalos wiped sweat from her forehead, still breathing hard. The pain in her knee began to subside and she managed to relax finally. She looked at her hands. There were a total of five calluses on them, two on her left and three on her right. A smile broke out across her face as she recalled the many years she had spent looking after all the children. She recalled back to when Ragosh was ten months old and he was scared of the thunder when a massive storm had been passing by. He kept on screaming from all the noise and would not quiet down. So Hanalos stayed awake with him for the entire night as the thunder roared on. Eventually, Arthur fell asleep at the crack of dawn and Hanalos could finally breathe a sigh of relief as she slumped herself into her bed. Unfortunately, barely five minutes later, Ragosh began to cry again because a bird had crashed into the window and scared him. As she thought about it, Ragosh, Athos and Jordan started to come back. Hanalos wiped away the tears that had started to develop and sat up straighter in her seat.

            Athos had finished explaining what had happened when they were walking around when Arthur, Hannah and the twins came back. The streets around them were finally beginning to clear as people started to enter the taverns and return to their homes. Shortly after, Ariana, Brendwin and Jade returned. They stayed silent about what had transpired with the firing range. As they all got into the wagon, Gregory handed Ariana a large bundle.

            “Something for you all when we get back.” He said, a big smile draped across his face. Gregory took his seat and started to lead the wagon away back to the main gate of Cathvas. Most of the stalls around them were closed and there were hardly any people left roaming around the streets. Laughter could be heard from some of the houses they passed, though most of it came from the occasional inn. Ariana looked back at everyone behind her. The twins, Jade, Jordan and Athos were asleep while everyone was just sitting quietly. They eventually went through the gate, which closed behind them as they left. Ariana looked to the side of the wagon again. She saw the same man from when they had arrived. He was no longer holding the bundle. Ariana let out a small sigh of relief, believing that someone had finally taken the baby from him to look after. Then she noticed the small mound in the ground with a wooden cross stuck into the mound. She put her hand over her mouth to keep herself from letting out too much noise. The man was sitting next to the mound, speaking incoherent words and holding his hands together as one would while praying. He then turned his head and saw Ariana staring at him. The man then broke down crying, burying his face into his hands. Ariana felt tears slowly drip down her face as the man slowly faded away into the darkness.

It was the middle of the afternoon. Two days had passed since they had gone to the carnival and now they were all working hard around the orphanage again. While Gregory had been in Cathvas, he used the money he had to buy materials and tools to help try and fix as much damage as they could. He had already fixed most of the roof shingles and some of the benches around the courtyard with the help of the boys. With Gregory dealing with the repairs, Hanalos could finally attend to the garden with the girls. Most of it involved pulling out weeds and harvesting vegetables.

            When they had gotten back, Ariana had opened the bundle for everyone and inside were specially baked buns that Gregory had made for them. They were made with a different kind of herb baked into each bun like sage, basil, rosemary and thyme. As a result, eating them left everyone a very cheery mindset.

            With all the other pressing jobs completed around Greymoor, Hanalos finally had time to continue the orphans’ lessons. Three times a week, she would take them to the chapel at Greymoor and they would learn to read and write, along with learning the history of their country, as well as the world around them. Most of the orphans’ enjoyed it, though the twins and Ragosh often times complained that the history part was boring and pointless. Hanalos quickly got them to shut up about it though when she explained how they would have to spend a lot of extra time depending on how much they complained.

            Sister Hanalos was standing beside Jordan’s desk, who was copying down notes on the history of the Church in its early days. She would correct him every once in a while on a spelling mistake he made, but overall he was doing well. She left him and continued on to Jade, who was writing down simple words. Her hand was shaky and her lines were very crooked, but she was spelling the words out correctly. Hanalos went up to the altar and looked up at the stained glass. It was of the founder of their church, a middle aged man who gathered followers, claiming that he had had visions of a great being who called itself the Holy Guardian. As the man grew in popularity, they began to form a religion around this vision and people saw the Holy Guardian as their true God. Eventually the man died, but the religion went on as the Holy Church. With new religion however, came many enemies. People opposed to the Holy Church tried to subjugate all people who recognized the Holy Guardian as their God. So a decision had to be made. The Holy Church decided to fight back and thus started the War of Religion. It was a very brief war and was decided in one climatic battle at the plains of Dumar, with the Holy Church as victor. After that day, the second branch of the church was created.

            “Sister Hanalos. What does the Inquisitorial Church do when compared to the Holy Church?” Jordan asked. Hanalos turned her attention back to Jordan and put her hands together.

            “Well,” She began, taking in a little breath. “As you remember after the Holy Church one the battle against the people who would see it destroyed at the plains of Dumar, the Holy Church decided that they needed something to help defend themselves personally should a regular army that belonged to the kingdom fall. It was decided that even though the ruler of the people would have his own army to defend them, the church would have its own army to defend itself and the people should the regular armies fall. Thus was the start of the Inquisitorial Church. It has two purposes. To hunt down and bring whomever defies the Holy Guardian to justice, and to protect us and the Holy Church. The Inquisitorial army is the best trained army in _________ and by far the largest, adding up to almost three hundred thousand soldiers. However, it did not fight in wars unless ordered to by the Pope or if the king’s army is defeated in battle. Does it make more sense now Jordan?”

            “Yes Sister Hanalos.” Jordan went back to writing his notes down. Arthur lifted his head from his book and looked at Hanalos.

            “Was the Inquisitorial Church’s army the one that burned down a large portion of the elves’ forest kingdom?” He asked. He immediately regretted asking when he saw the foul look he got from Brendwin. Sister Hanalos’s hands had tensed up and she didn’t answer immediately.

            “Yes Arthur.” She finally said hesitantly. “They were.”

            “What started the war? I don’t recall you ever telling us why.”

Hanalos leaned against the altar. She was at a loss for words. She had hoped that they wouldn’t ever ask what happened. Slowly, Hanalos stood up straight and looked back at Arthur, but saw that everyone was staring at her. She sat down in the chair beside her and took in a deep breath.

            “The war began ten years ago. There had been a dispute at the border between our borders and the elves borders. That dispute quickly turned to a brawl and that brawl led to bloodshed. I’m not sure what caused the dispute, but it sparked an immediate wave of anger across ______. Our current king’s father, King Astor, called the army to action and marched it to ________, the name of the forest. The first battle took place in a large clearing in the forest. I’m not sure what the name was. King Astor led the army into battle himself and defeated the elf forces. Afterwards, the King mainly had many small skirmishes and a few major battles over the course of a year. Fresh troops eventually arrived for them and at first it seemed like the war would be over very soon. But