CHAPTER 34: HE’S NOT READY

In the village of Varnmoor, Aeron had become a name on every tongue. He’s being praised both in secrecy and in public as the news that he rode a dragon has spread like wildfire. Some said they saw it themselves. Others repeated the tale they heard. They say Aeron had become a symbol of power and mystery.

Children would look at him from afar and point at him. Older ones would see him and nod their head, some would call him a savior. "Thank you, Aeron," they said. "You saved us." Some even knelt, calling him "the Chosen One." They gave him all sorts of gifts and presents, though he rejected most of them.

But not everyone welcomed him with open arms. Some would whisper in secrecy. "He’ll bring ruin," an old woman said outside her hut.

"He has the blood of destruction, that boy is cursed," another spat. "He’ll attract the wrath of the realm."

And those words... they reached Elarya’s ears.

Elarya stood by her window with her arms folded. She had heard all the chants of celebration, the cheers and praises. She had seen the children dancing. She had watched the villagers bring gifts to her son.

But her heart wasn’t calm. It was very disturbed. She wasn’t smiling. Not even a little.

Yes, they had won the battle. Thanks to Aeron. But Elarya knew the war was far from over.

"They’ll come for him," she said to herself.

Her eyes were filled with a pain she had kept buried for sixteen long years. Pain that hadn’t healed. Pain, she thought, she had buried with the past.

"They’ll want him," she said again, louder this time.

She knew they would want to control Aeron. Or worst still, silence him.

He had ridden a dragon.

That alone was enough to shake the foundations of the kingdom.

She knew Aeron wasn’t ready. Not for what was coming.

She was thinking of what to do, every possible thing. Should she tell him to run? To disappear before they found him? But till when?

Still, she couldn’t sit and watch them take him. Not after what happened to her family sixteen years ago. Not again.

But she had no idea what to do... Then she remembered something all of a sudden. She remembered someone, Varek.

She remembered how he fought.

At first, it was when the nomadic raiders attacked them weeks ago. She remembered how Varek stood against them and fought them. How he moved his body and swung his sword.

When she heard how he fought in the war, they said he was even stronger than some of the generals, that he pulled a lot of enemies down at once, and so much more.

She had seen soldiers fight. She had seen guards and hunters and warriors. But that of Varek was so different that the type of sword-fighting techniques was very rare. In fact, she had only seen such once... The Royal Phoenix Guard techniques.

Elarya saw that he moved like them as she had seen them fight before. At that thought, she rushed to his blacksmith shop.

As she reached, he was right there making swords as always. Inside his little shop, which was surrounded by metals and weapons.

Elarya didn’t say a word at first. She just stood there in the doorway and watched him make the swords, how he knew how a good sword was made, how he was perfect in making different types of swords, cause she looked around and saw varieties of weapons.

She had known Varek to be a blacksmith and was good with weapons, but hadn’t really observed him carefully. This was something else and then she figured Varek was no ordinary blacksmith... He was trained.

Now she was amazed at how Varek worked, and then broke the silence

"You know," she said with a light voice at first, almost teasing, "blacksmiths like you are rare. Especially in a little village like this that’s far from the capital."

Varek paused immediately, hung his hammer mid-air, and slowly turned around, raising his eyebrows as if he was surprised by her presence. But he didn’t speak.

She stepped closer and fixed her eyes on his. "It’s strange. A man with hands like yours, hands that made weapons better than most of the King’s own smiths, chooses to stay in Varnmoor? Why? Why hide your talent out here when the capital would throw gold at your feet, when men with half as talent as yours are working for high lords?"

Varek gave a small, casual shrug, pretending to be unaffected. "Elarya. Hey. Nice of you to drop by." He forced a smile, and clearly dodged the question. "What brings you to my little workshop?"

She narrowed her eyes in deep suspicion. "You heard me, Varek Drenn. And you know I don’t like repeating myself."

"That’s how talent is, Elarya. Fortunately for me, I made good use of mine," Varek said with a smile.

"Vareeeek," Elarya called and gave him the angry eye.

He gave a short chuckle, dropped his hammer down, and leaned back against the workbench. "You really want me to answer that?" he asked. "Well, this village made me who I am. I have built a life here and I don’t need the capital."

"Bullshit," Elarya snapped immediately. "Don’t lie to me, Varek. I’ve seen you fight. I watched you in battle. The way you moved, the way you handled that sword, it’s not something a ’peaceful village life’ teaches. You’re no ordinary blacksmith. And these..." she waved at the rows of unique, gleaming swords. "No common man makes weapons like this."

Varek’s face grew serious. He didn’t argue. He didn’t even deny it. He just stood there.

"You seem to forget," Elarya continued... but her voice was now softer, "I didn’t come from around here either and you’ve never once asked me where I’ve been all these years... who I really am."

He glanced at her now, more curious than defensive. "And you seem to forget, I respect people and their boundaries. But since you’ve said it, I’ll ask. Who are you then?" he said quietly.

She tilted her head. "I won’t answer that, not until you tell me who you are first."

A tense silence settled between them for a short while. Finally, Varek sighed. "You know what? Forget it. Let’s not begin to dig up our pasts. It should stay buried." He turned back toward the anvil, picked up another blade he had forged halfway, lifted his hammer, and continued.

But Elarya didn’t back down.

She stepped forward again and continued with a soft voice. "Why avoid my questions if there were pointless accusations. Your silence tells me that I’m right, Varek. But since you don’t want to answer, I’ll leave that. I didn’t come here to talk about the past. I came here for Aeron."

That name made Varek stop in the middle of what he was doing. His hand trembled slightly.

"You know they’ll come for him," Elarya said, and her voice cracked slightly. "You know what he did won’t go unnoticed. The people may celebrate him today, but tomorrow... the wrong eyes will turn toward him."

Varek said nothing.

"Both of us know what will happen to him," she whispered. "We know that they’ll try to use him. Or kill him. Or worse. I’ve lost everything before and I can’t stand to lose him."

She stepped closer and placed a gentle hand on Varek’s arm.

"Please, Varek. I don’t trust anyone else. You’re like a father to Aeron and he trusts you as much as he trusts me. You saw what he can do. You’ve seen the power he has and he doesn’t even know what’s coming, nor how to survive it. He’s just a boy with a dragon and that makes him a target to the nobles and lowborns."

Varek looked down at her hand, then finally met her eyes.

"Did you know? The fact that he owns a dragon. That he rides a dragon. Did you know?" he asked her.

She shut her eyes and replied. "No, I didn’t, not a single idea until..."

"Until when"

"Until rumors about a dragon appearing at the shore surfaced. It all came to me and then I remembered 15 years ago when Ronan told us something about a dragon and took us to the cave Aeron frequents.

"Wait, with just that? You mean you figured it out with these little details?" Varek cut her midstatement.

"Only if you’ve seen the things I’ve seen, heard what I heard, about the mysterious things, about me and Aeron and where I came from, then you’d know that such little details are indeed enough for me to figure all these out."

Varek looked away for a long moment. He stared at the forge and then asked her. "So what do you want from me, Elarya?"

"I want you to train Aeron. I want you to prepare my son for what’s coming for him." She pleaded.