Circa the Lost 1790
The forest was completely still. All the woodland creatures paused, as if in waiting for something extraordinary to happen, before bursting out into an extravagant applause with their vocal chords.
Just then, a human boy disturbed the calm brush licking at the heels of every tree in the forest, bursting through it with the enthusiasm an eight year old has pent up deep inside him. His lungs took deep gulps of the heavy air around him, as his hair tousled up and down over his eyes, bringing the forest in and out of focus in a rhythm that matched his feet pounding against the earth.
As he pumped his arms, reaching for the space in front of him to get there faster, his shoulder blades ached from the strenuous activity of running through the humid forest.
His target, a small wooden cabin of only one floor, came into view, isolated amongst the growth of the forest. When he reached it, he slammed his fists against the door, a grin to rival that of a prince’s on his face, screaming the words, “Mother, Mother! Open the door! I have great news to tell you!”
A dozen fist poundings later, the door swung open and his mother stared down at him with wild eyes, freezing him in his spot. Her usually neat and orderly black curls were in disarray and matted to her forehead with sweat. On better days, she was the essence of beauty, at least, to human eyes.
“Dimitri, what are you doing home so early?” her voice quivered as she spoke.
“I have an amazing story to tell you Mo-“
“You must leave, Dimitri, go back out to the lake and play! Now!”
“But Mo-“
“No! There is no time to talk about this, you have to go Dimitri, please, I beg you, darling.”
Dimitri took a good look at his mother and in that instant, she saw a grown man in the boyish face. She pulled him into the cabin and closed the door, looking back down into his face, smoothing his hair back as she looked down at him.
“Your eyes...your hazel eyes...they’re so much like your fathers, if only you could have met him.” In that comment, time seemed to slow for the two in the cabin. They were in a trance, all worries forgotten, as if put under some kind of spell.
“Come here, Dimitri.”
He moved to his mother, and wrapped his arms around her waist, which was as high up as he could reach, burying his face into her stomach. He felt her hands begin to make deliberate movements through his hair, pushing the black straight hair out of his eyes and smoothing it back across his scalp.
She hummed a soft tune to him as she held him, swaying him softly side to side.
“I love you, my dear boy. You are the world to me...”
Dimitri’s eyes closed and his breathing slowed. He clutched the back of his mother’s shirt, whispering back to her, “I love you too, Mother.”
Dimitri broke away from his mother, dropping his arms to his side and looking up at her.
“Why are you so sweaty, mother?”
She shook her head, shaking off the spell she was under and answered, “I was cleaning the house.”
“Why?”
“Because I was expecting a visitor, which you shouldn’t be here for, it’s important that you leave, Dimitri.” She said, her voice monotone.
“Who are you expecting, Mother?”
“A man.”
“Why won’t you tell me?”
At that moment, Dimitri’s incessant questioning was cut short by two curt rappings at the door, and his mother’s eyes widened immediately.
A muffled voice questioned from the other side, “Tabitha? Are you there?” She looked around the house, her head spinning around the house, eyes scanning every surface for cover.
In the meantime, Dimitri made his way to the door and opened it, and was met by a tall man, with silver hair. He was built as a knight of sorts, yet wore only a gray cloak with the hood down.
He looked down into Dimitri’s eyes, and raised both his eye brows, frozen for a fraction of a moment, before regaining his composure.
“Who are you?” Dimitri asked the man.
“I might ask you the same question.”
“But I live here.”
“Do you now?”
“Yes.”
“Tabitha, you never told me you had a son.”
Both man and boy turned their head to Tabitha, who was wringing her fingers as she stared at the man, her mouth open and eyes wide.
As she stood there, they both waited for an answer, the man still standing outside the door, Dimitri blocking him from entrance into the house.
Instead of satisfying the man’s curiosity, Tabitha walked to Dimitri and pulled him aside, gripping his shoulders and holding his body close to her own, “Come in. I’m sorry that Dimitri is here. I have dinner over the fire right now. Soup, if you’re hungry.”
“Yes, thank you, I’m quite fammished. Dimitri, that is your name, isn’t it? Will you be joining us for dinner?”
“N-“
“Yes.” Dimitri answered, beating his mother in response. He walked away from his mother’s embrace, and sat at the head of the table immediately, with a chair across from himself.
The man entered the one story cabin and closed the door behind him, his boots thumping against the wooden floor and sat directly across from Dimitri, leaving the open space between the two of them for Tabitha.
“The house looks quite clean, Tabitha.” The man with the silver hair said, but his eyes never left Dimitri.
She returned with two bowls, setting one for Dimitri and one for the man, before she gave her thank you to the comment, and left the room once again.
“So tell me Dimitri, what is it that you did when I visited all the other times?”
“I didn’t even know you came. I would have been here if I did.”
“Like a loyal son.”
“Yes.”
Dimitri began sipping his soup with the spoon that was given to him, looking down at his bowl as he ate.
“Where were you just now?”
Dimitri didn’t respond, continuing the sipping of his soup and the man with the silver hair finally smirked at this action.
“Stubborn, are we?”
“I was at the lake.”
At this point, Tabitha returned from the other room with another bowl, setting it down and grabbing a stool for herself. She sat down and began eating her food, sitting right between the man and the boy.
The room had grown quiet. The only thing that could be heard was the tinkering of spoons hitting the bottom of bowls, two pairs of eyes down on their bowls, and one icy blue pair staring at the shaggy head of a little boy.
The awkward silence became overwhelming to Tabitha and she dabbed her lips with a napkin set on the table. Her eyes wandered over the two faces for a moment and had no idea what to say. The silence became another course in the meal, something any one of them could have bit into and digested if they so pleased.
Tabitha’s mouth opened once then closed before the proper words came to her, “Dimitri, what did you do... by the lake today? I noticed you decided not to go fishing.”
“But I did go fishing.”
Tabitha dropped her spoon, just as she lifted it off the table, it fell back to the spot that it first lay.
“W...what?”
“I did go fishing. With my hands. I caught loads of fish, mother, that’s the news I was trying to tell you!”
The man with the silver hair raised both his eye brows once again, directing his intent gaze at Tabitha, but spoke to Dimitri.
“Fast reflexes...Humans normally don’t have reflexes that fast...to be able to see the fish past the trickery that the water plays on your eyes is amazing in itself...”
Dimitri nodded, “Yeah, bears are one of the only animals that can do it.”
“And how did you know this?”
“I read it in a book.”
The silver haired man for the first time seemed on his guard. A visible shiver ran over his body as he spat out the word books. Dimitri only nodded.
Tabitha reached for Dimitri’s plate, “Dimitri, I think it’s time you g-“
“No. He will stay.”
Dimitri grabbed his fork off the table and held it as a sword, staring the man in the eyes.
“Don’t talk to my mother that way! I’ll kill you!”
The Silver haired man raised his eye brows yet again, a slow smirk spreading across his lips as he focused on the fork, letting out a slow, melodic chuckle.
“How exactly will you kill me? With that fork, I suppose?” The man slouched back in his seat, at ease in the new situation.
“Dimitri, put the fork down and leave...please, Dimitri, I beg you.”
Dimitri held his ground, his arm stiff, the fork at the end of it, held with an iron grip in his hand. His knuckles starting to ache from the metal digging into his fingers. The man’s eyes seeming to mock him, looking as if to goad him into stabbing him with the fork. The slouched position all together making Dimitri feel violated and derided.
The man’s icy blue eyes closed slightly, the eyes themselves smirking at the boy.
“You wouldn’t anyway. Your dear mother told you not to. And you’re a loya-“
It all became too much for Dimitri. Before the man could finish his statement, Dimitri lunged over the table, knocking over hot bowls of soup through his flight, lunging the fork into the man’s shoulder, though, it didn’t pierce his jacket, nor his skin.
The man balled his hands into a fist as Dimitri drew his arm back for another lunge and with reflexes twice that of Dimitri’s punched the boy right in the temple sending him sprawling off the table onto the floor. The world became black, then came back into focus. The last thing he saw before going unconcious was the man grabbing his mother’s shoulders and forcing her towards the next room. But, his mother’s blood curdling scream rang through his entire depart from the world.
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Submission Name: Knight of Darkness: the lost Blood Line
