Chapter 24:Nine Years-I
One day, on a bright afternoon in a small town located in Runalia, Elise lifted her chin and had her blue eyes directly shone by the bold light of the sun. Seeing the sun that was swallowed by dark clouds for more than a week, she smiled at the sun to have her red burning hair sparkled along from the light above her head. She folded her long sleeve to her forearm and bent her back to take the laundry basket on the backyard which was made of grass. Placing the heavy basket down she took some white fabrics and flapped it to the side for the excess water to sprinkle out from it and hanged it over the wooden frames. In the middle, as she was about to take a new one to hang, Elise swept the sweat on her forehead with the back of her palm and heard a voice calling her name from afar.
"Elise!" A young man jumped over the wooden fence around the backyard with a shovel on his hand. Although his appearance at the moment was covered in dirt, he looked rather charming and adorable, his name was William Scott, Elise's younger brother at her adoptive house, the Scotts.
Elise wiped her drenched hand on the apron over her skirt and wiped the dirt on William's cheeks gently. "What have you been doing? You look very dirty." She glanced over the shovels and slanted her head. "And what's that?"
William giggled, showing his rabbit-like front teeth as he replied, "I have been helping Mr. Wade asked me to help him and exchange my work with this." He pulled a sack filled with turnips that Elise loved.
She patted her adorable little brother to praise, "Good boy, thank you for your hard work."
William received the praise that he had been waiting eagerly to wipe over his face with his hand that only smeared more dirt. "I will help you with that." he glanced down at the laundry to have Elise rejected his offer.
"You're dirty now, so no thank you. How about you go to wash your face first and change your clothes mother had been searching for you the entire morning." as she finished saying, her mother Diana appeared from the backdoor to see her two children in the backyard.
"Elly! I have said not to do any more work today and rest, didn't I?" Diana placed her hand on the waist, scolding Elise the daughter she adopted nine years ago with adorness still visible at her eyes. "Move and take a rest. I will do the rest."
"Mother it's only a light laundry, I can do it on my own." Elise chirped but Diana wouldn't take it easy and noticed her son standing beside Elise with dirt covering him.
"And what have you been doing, Mr. Will?" She turned around to see nothing but mud on his clothes. "Have you been rolling in the mud, for the long afternoon?"
"I haven't!" William puffed his cheeks and showed his shovel to his mother before she began her scoldings again. "I have was lending my hand on Mr. Wade's vegetable crop in exchange for these turnips."
Diana glanced at the turnips but still looked rather unimpressed by his words. Taking the chance, she bent down to dust off the mud on his pants and warned in a hushed tone. "Haven't mother told you not to be acquainted with Mr. Wade? He's working with the dark sorcerer and we do not want to be involved with him for our safety, do you understand?"
William gave a disbelief sigh. As the youngest child of the house, he was the children with the least understanding of the world where they lived. In Runalia, most townfolks are human and sorcerer. Although sorcerers are still seen as normal beings, dark sorcerers are in a different category than the other.
They had been using their magic to corrupt the mythical beings to their use and destroy the towns to make their own lands. For the past three years, the dark sorcerers that everyone thought had disappeared had begun to make their move again. It started by Kisten, the small town that wasn't too far from Alexa, the town where they were living at.
Gossips had found their way and said that Mr. Wade, the old bachelor man who had been living in his house alone for years as a dark sorcerer, the creatures that massacre humans in order to have them as a sacrifice and secure their own land. People claimed to see him bringing the dead to his house, but no one dared to voice up anything out of fear.
Diana being protective of her family, wasn't the type to believe empty gossips but she prioritized more on her family's safety and choose to avoid before anything they didn't want to happen to occur.
"But mother, I don't think he's such a person. He's a very kind man." William insisted to have Diana tweaking his ears.
"You couldn't see the inner heart of a person from their appearance. Evil may come in a pure look. But black is always black." Diana warned not only to William but Elise beside her.
"Do you two understand?" Diana released William's ears and have her son nodding in surrender.
"Anyway, I received the letter from Russell that he would come from the neighboring city today. Let's have a celebration tonight." The children nodded to his mother's words and William went to wash his grimy body.
Russell was their father, Gilbert's brother, or in the other word her uncle. He was married to a woman six months ago and have come to celebrate their upcoming son that was still in his wife's stomach.
Elise flapped the rest of the laundry with the help of Diana. By the time night came, Elise was in the kitchen to cook a warm soup that would go well for the freshly baked croissants. Stirring the wide spoon on the stove, she heard a merry voice came from the living room and blew out the fire to greet her uncle's and aunt's arrival.
A woman with a swollen belly was her aunt named Sharon and Russel standing beside his wife. They were currently talking with Gilbert and Diana. Spotting the red-haired young lady passing by from the kitchen, Russel and Sharon called her for a greet.
"Aye, young lady! The flower has bloomed prettily! My eyes nearly got blinded for a moment there." Russel praised with his heavy accent making a laugh to slip out from Elise's lips.
"You blockhead, what are you saying? you sounded like you haven't seen her in years. You returned here last month and had seen her face." Rusell and Sharon returned with a laugh.
"But, Elise is very beautiful. I have to agree with my husband." Sharon wrapped her hand on Russel.
"Aunt Sharon is shining far brighter to me." Sharon patted her arm, "You and your uncle here are the only people who have said that to me before."
"Their eyes must be blind, my love." Russel playfully danced with his brows making his wife shyly cover her mouth.
Having their dinner that night, Elise brought the dessert after their main course and cut it in slice to distributed it with her families. Sharon is the first one to taste the cake cupped her cheek and praised. "This is a delicacy!"
"aye, I agree with my dear." Russel replied having Gilbert and Diana proudly laugh.
"It's Elise's new recipe, it's specially made for you two who are allergic to nuts." Diana explained to have to look at Elise's capable hand.
"As expected of my daughter." Gilbert's nose was about to grow long as he praised.
"Aye, aye, whatever you say, you doting father." Russel shrugged off his shoulder and saw the young man who had taken the second serving of the cake.
"And, how are you, Will?" William looked up and swallow his food with the help of water to reply.
"I've been living in perfect health, uncle! I've been living bouncily." the elders laughed at his expression and remembering something Russel spoke.
"The town beside us was once again attacked by a Catoblepas." hearing this, the people in the dining table held a frightened expression.
It was a mythical being with a bull-like appearance but neck longer than normal, making it hung down. From what Elise had heard, Catoblepas could kill someone by his poisonous breath.
Gilbert took down his glass in confusion, stressing something that his younger brother said, "The Catoblepas suddenly appeared in the town? How could that be?"
"What is Catoblepas, sis?" William asked from the side. Being the youngest, he was the less knowledgeable member of the house.
"It's a mythical being that could attack people with their poisonous breath or gaze. They have a head like an aged bull. But, they are supposed to be in Marshforth but there's no way they could travel and reach Runalia before being found by the sorcerers." Elise twirled her fork and pondered.
Marshforth are by far the most frightening land with ferocious mythical beings living in it. The land was barren and filled with drought, making nothing possible to live in it. As most of the frightening creatures came from Marshforth, the land is surrounded by magic barriers made by sorcerers. There was no way that the Catoblepas could escape from the land.
Russel fixed his slouched position and whispered, making more ears gluing to his words. "It's the dark sorcerer's magic, they transferred them to the middle of the town. The Catoblepas raged and killed more than a thousand victims."
Feeling chill running down, Elise shivered and rubbed her own arms to create some warmness. William had also begun to place down his fork in the word of the dark sorcerer. Diana in worry gave a suggestion, "Shouldn't you two move town? If it's near yours, I'm afraid they'll come to you two."
Gilbert agreed with his wife especially it also concerned the safety of their soon-to-be-born nephew. "That's right. You can stay at our place until the dark sorcerers are captured."
"Nae. Don't worry brother, the sorcerers are protecting our town now. From what I heard, the dark sorcerers are attacking different towns in scatters. No one could guess which town would attack next. Instead, I think for now our town is the safest one with many sorcerers protecting us from the dark sorcerers." Gilbert and Diana nodded in understanding.