Thing
04-23-2006, 07:04 AM
okay, people, as I said I would do before, It has been done. please enjoy this redone and additional parts to the story ^_^
Torin De Lance: The First Brother
By – Charity Long
I hope to do some artwork of this, a possible portrait of how the main character is going to look, but that’s for later… I’ve already decided on his hair color (crimson) and his eye color (light green) I would say more about other things, but I might spoil it or something, and we don’t want that, now do we?
Hopefully people will enjoy it, and think of it as a privilege to read, but I doubt it ^_^
--- Charity
Page 1
< ((Beginning)) >
“Sammy, Sammy!”
(((My name is Samuel Ford, I’m twelve years old and I have just fallen out of bed.)))
“Mum?” Samuel got up off of the cold hard floor, and rubbed his head, he could feel a lump there, something from the past, he couldn’t quite remember how he had gotten it; it was just something that was there ever since he was little.
“Mum, what’s wrong?” he asked her, his mother had just run into the room, startling him awake
“It’s your father,” she told him “he’s...” she trailed off, her face twisted up in sorrow and she began to sob
“Mum, what is it?” Samuel’s throat started to burn, he didn’t like this, seeing his mother cry, it was like a sickness that spread quickly from one person to another, tears formed in his eyes “What is it, what happened to dad?” his eyes were wide and his face a chalky white
“He’s dead, Sammy!” With those words, it was as if his mother’s heart had burst, hands over her face, she dropped down on her knees and began to wail, Samuel stood there, stunned by what his mother had just told him, then, in a hoarse whisper he asked
“How… how did it happen, Mum?”
“He was killed, while in the service of ‘The Cause’”
Samuel looked up from his mother to his bedroom doorway, a tall muscular man with glowing blue eyes and a strange uniform was standing there, his eyes flickered for a moment as if he were blinking.
Samuel looked back down at his mother and then back at the man,
“Who are you?” he asked, “What do you mean he ‘died in the service’, he wasn’t even in the army!”
The man looked at Samuel’s mother, “You haven’t told him yet, Judy?” he asked
“I couldn’t, Brim, I just couldn’t”
She looked horrible, her eyes were raw and rimmed with red, Samuel could tell his mother was somewhat frightened of this man, “Tell me what?” he asked
“Tell you about your father, and what he did for a living” Brim replied
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< ((Beginning)) >
“He was a doctor, I know already!” Samuel shouted, he was upset about his father, and
now seeing this man show up out of no where and start accusing his mother of not telling Samuel anything about his father made him feel even more upset.
Brim furrowed his brow “A doctor?” he asked, “Judy, you told your son his father was a doctor?”
Brim walked toward Samuel’s mother, thinking he was going to try and hurt her, Samuel walked in front of his mother, stuck out his arms as if to block the man, and said “Don’t hurt my mother, she didn’t do anything to you!”
Brim’s eyes glowed bright in surprise “I wasn’t going to hurt her, boy” he touched his hand to Samuel’s forehead, images flashed into Samuel’s head, he drew back from Brim and gasped “What did you just do to me?!”
His voice squeaked and then deepened, he felt strange, and when he looked down at the floor it seemed to be getting further away
He was scared, he wanted his mother to hold him and tell him everything was going to be alright; he turned to his mother and then saw the look on her face, her eyes were wide and her mouth was wide, shaped like an ‘O’, tears were sliding down her cheeks
“Mum?” he grabbed his throat, shocked by the sound of his voice; it sounded smooth, older.
Samuel ran to his closet, opened it up, and looked in the mirror and almost fainted from what he saw; his hair had grown out, from dark brown to crimson, his face had gotten older looking, and his eyes had changed color as well; his eyes, went from brown, like his old hair color, to a light green.
He looked at his clothes, noticing they were too small for his body, sticking to him and cutting into his skin, his feet had gone from eight and a half to a size eleven, the toe end was ripped open and his feet were sticking halfway out of his shoes.
(((My name is Samuel Ford; I have just gone from a short twelve year old kid to a tall twenty-five year old man in less then two minutes)))
“W-what did you do to me?” he stammered, his hands felt up and down his face, “What’s going on…?” he turned to Brim, “How did this happen…why…?”
“I had to” he said, “When your father died someone had to take his place, and seeing as you were his son, well…” he put up his arms “It only seemed right to pass his legacy on to his own child.” Brim could see Samuel was still confused, “Samuel, your father was a
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< ((Beginning)) >
great man,” he told him “he would have wanted you to follow in his footsteps”
Samuel felt like he was going to go crazy, all this talk, what was going on?
“But what did he DO?!” Samuel asked “and what makes you think I even WANT this?”
His confusion soon turned to anger, how could this be happening?
If his father wasn’t a doctor, then just what was he?
How come his mother had been feeding him lies about his father all this time?
His father would always come home at least two or three times a week, sometimes bringing him and his mother a gift and then rushing off again, he would never talk about his work, and whenever he asked his mother about what his father did, she would always tell him that his father was a doctor
While all this was going on Judy, Samuel’s mother, was watching, she finely spoke up, “Your father,” she said, slowly rising from the floor, surprising both Samuel and Brim, “wasn’t a doctor, Sammy, I know that you’re angry at me for lying to you” she hung her head, looking down at the floor “and I’m sorry for not telling you the truth”
“Mum, why did you lie?” Samuel bunched up his fists in frustration, “What was so important and such a secret that you felt you had to lie to me all the time?”
His mother looked up at him, “I couldn’t tell you, because…” she frowned, Brim stood there, looking at them both, waiting for Judy to tell her son, but she said nothing of Samuel’s father, what she said was:
“Sammy, you…” she looked him over “You should go change your clothes… the ones you’re wearing,” she chuckled “you seem to have outgrown them”
“Mum…” Samuel started to say something else but, almost as if he were reading his mind, Brim interrupted Samuel before he could finish talking, he could tell she was trying to keep it so she didn’t have to say anything about it “Way to change the subject, Judy” he crossed his arms “One of us is going to have to tell him, and I would prefer you do it.” Judy looked at Brim, she looked angry, the nerve of him, she was trying to get her son’s mind on something else but he, Brim had brought it up again…
“I know what you’re thinking, Judy, but it’s not going to work, he just grew another two feet for God sake!” Brim pointed his finger at her “And if you think he’s not going to notice then he’s as dense as you are, now out with it”
Judy waved her arms into the air “FINE, you want me to tell him?” she walked up to Brim, got right in his face, and shouted “I’ll tell him!” she turned around to face Samuel,
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< ((Beginning)) >
“You want to know about your father?” she said, she turned around to face Samuel, who was now behind her, the look on her face startled Samuel, “Your father was a Guardian, a protector of one of the many Dimensional Plane Gates, he got so wrapped up in his work that he couldn’t even spend much time with his own wife” she bit her lip, “it sickens me, something like this happening…” she paused, and motioned for Brim and Samuel “come, I’ll tell you more in the living room. But first, Brim, my son needs to change his clothes” Judy pointed to her bedroom, “Samuel, in the closet you’ll find some of your father’s old clothes, go in and put something on.”
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While Samuel changed his now torn and undersized clothes, Judy and Brim went into the living room, Judy made Brim sit down; she then went into the kitchen and made some drinks for Samuel, Brim and herself, figuring she may as well make her unwanted guest comfortable, because explaining things was going to take some time
“Mum,” she heard Samuel’s voice, at first not realizing it was him, then she called back to him, making a mental note of his now pubertized voice
“Yes, Sammy?” she shouted, just to make sure he could hear her
“um… could you come here for a moment?” his tone of voice was urgent, yet embarrassed sounding
“I’ll be right there…”
When she entered the bedroom she had to do a quick search, until she heard a muffled “Over here, mum” and noticed Samuel’s arm sticking out of the closet, waving
“Oh, there you are” Judy said, she started to walk towards the closet, when Samuel poked his head out and yelped
“Mum!” his voice crackled, “don’t come any closer, please!”
Judy stopped, dead in her tracks, realizing why her son had stopped her
“Umm…” Samuel smiled, sheepishly “where are dad’s underpants?”
After the little incident, and help from his mother, Samuel was dressed, wearing his father’s pair of blue jeans, a white shirt, some old white sneakers and a grey over-shirt
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< ((Beginning)) >
Samuel walked into the living room and sat down in a chair across from Brim, then Judy walked in and sat down
“There are some drinks in the kitchen, on the counter, in case anyone gets thirsty” she said, Brim opened his mouth to say something, no doubt something about Judy stalling, but she held up her hand to stop him from speaking, and gave him a look that said she knew what he wanted.
“Okay…” Judy sighed, “First off, Samuel”
Samuel knew, right after his mother used his complete name rather then calling him Sammy, like she would usually do, that this was either going to be something bad, or he was in trouble
“I really didn’t want to tell you this, but due to the circumstances…” She shot a look at Brim, “I’m forced to” Judy pulled her chair close to Samuel’s
“Yep, this is something serious…” Samuel thought
“You aren’t really my son, nor are you Michael’s son, he and I were married though”
Samuel stood up “no, that can’t be right!” he shouted, “I remember things from when I was a child, all those times I was sick, you cared for me, dad would visit me!”
Brim pinched the bridge of his nose “I would hate to shatter your ‘memories’, kid, but—“
Judy coughed loudly, “Brim…” she leaned forward in her chair, her eyes had a fierce glint in them, something about them… they reminded Samuel of someone or something, almost as if he had seen them before, it sent a chill down his back
“Okay, okay, you win,” Brim put his arms up in a playful block “still got those eyes I see”
Judy leaned back into her chair and took hold of Samuel’s hand “Samuel, those memories are real, for you at least, but, for us, Michael and I, they were just part of our jobs, we were to implant those memories, so you wouldn’t remember previous ones, in other words, it was arranged, staged.”
Samuel shivered “what do you MEAN ‘staged’?” he asked
“you were a guardian, like Michael, the guardian of the fifth gate, Michael was guardian of the tenth gate, they were dimensional gates, they led to different worlds and such, you were fine, but…” Judy sighed sorrowfully
Samuel’s eyes widened “but?”
“Something unexpected and horrible happened, when Brim touched your head you may have gained some of your memories back,” Judy took hold of Samuel’s hand, her grip was tight “of course, you may not be able to remember them too well for now, but in time
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they will all come back, as clear as before” Judy looked so sad, Samuel couldn’t stand it, he leaned over and tried to hug her, but she pulled back, almost as if she were afraid of him, Samuel leaned back into his chair, feeling slightly hurt, that she would cringe from him, when before she would have willingly accepted this token of comfort
“Hum…” Samuel looked over to Brim “once you regain your memories you’ll be needed at the gate” Brim examined his fingers for a moment, as if their were something extremely interesting underneath the nails, then got up from his seat “I have some things I need to prepare, so, Judy, I trust you to give him a detailed account of things in the past, and things to come, just to jog his memories a bit faster” He smiled at Judy then walked out of the room, Samuel heard the back door slam, Brim’s retreat seemed a bit too hurried
“Wait…” thought Samuel, then he said “Mu—I mean, Judy, didn’t Brim say something about it being only right to pass the ‘legacy’ onto his own child?” then he asked “What did he mean by that?”
Judy sighed, “Brim talks too much about things he doesn’t know so much about” she answered “we adopted you before he even knew us, so he naturally assumed that I gave birth to you, of course he knew about what had happened with you before, because he was stationed on the field at that time”
Samuel interrupted her, “Judy, please, tell me what it was that happened, what I did, tell me about the incident you mentioned earlier, while Brim was still here, I want to know what it was, please”
Judy got up, pushed her chair back to it’s original spot and sat down in the chair Brim had occupied only moments before, so she was directly across from Samuel now
“twenty-six years ago, when we first found you, we knew there was something about you,” she told him “you were ten years old at the time, living by yourself on the streets, we decided to take you in, Michael and I, that is, we kept you as our own, at first you were quiet, but as time passed, you gradually warmed up to us, eventually Michael started training you, the only problem was, he was unable to train you as much as he would have liked to, it seemed you knew a lot of things about fighting tactics before we found you, which was a little more then four years before” she paused and took a breath, then continued on “of course, if I had gotten my way, he never would have trained you in the first place, two months later, on your fifteenth birthday, since we didn’t know the actual date, we set it up on May 23rd, we were called in on a job, and we
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< ((Beginning)) >
brought you with us”
Samuel felt a small throb on his forehead, an image of a little boy standing on a corner, shivering in the cold flashed into his mind
“you did a fine job in battle, the only problem was, you were a bit too violent, battles are violent, I know, but you were worse then most of the mercenaries, which is what brought you to the commander’s attention at that time, he told us, if we could calm you, tame your anger, before we went out into battle then he could use you, you would make a powerful asset to the battle force” Judy crossed her legs “do you have anything at all you need to do or say, questions maybe, before I continue, because this could take a while”
Another throb, the boy was standing in a dimly lit room; he could make out the shape of someone or something on a bed in the corner of the room
“Torin…” the thing on the bed spoke, it was a woman, “Torin, you must run away, before Sol returns” the woman coughed
“Yes, mother, I know, but…” Torin replied, he started to cry
“do not worry for me, Torin, I will not be here when he returns, I will be in a better place” the woman coughed again, this time harder and worse sounding then before, she held out her hand and Torin took hold “Let me come with you, mother, please” he sobbed, the woman let out a weak chuckle “oh, Torin, I wish you could, really I do, but it is not your time yet, you still have your whole life ahead of you” she shook her head and smiled as she spoke, suddenly, her face contorted in pain, breaking the precious smile Torin loved so much, the smile Samuel loved so much…
“Mother!” Torin and Samuel shouted in unison “Mother, please!” they shouted
“He is coming, Sol is coming back, hurry, hurry my son, leave this place, you are in danger if you stay any longer!” she shook him
“Torin, Torin!” she shouted as she shook him
“Samuel, what has gotten into you?!” Samuel opened his eyes, not realizing he had shut them, Judy was shaking him, he fell to his knees, and tears began to stream from his eyes “I remember my mother,” he said “I am Torin, not Samuel, Sol…” Torin bunched his fists in anger, “Sol, my own brother, he killed her!” rage burned inside of him, a familiar feeling “He killed her, and I couldn’t do anything to help her!”
Judy’s eyes widened, “Sol is your brother?” she covered her mouth “You’re a De Lance?” she then realized, the burning anger Torin was feeling at this moment, it was the same
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< ((Beginning)) >
anger as before, the cause of the problem, the cause of that horrible event,(excuse my horrid typing skills…) thinking fast, she got up out of her chair and ran across to him, she attempted to hold onto his hand again, but Torin pushed her away so hard that she was knocked to the floor
Torin blinked, “Judy, oh god, I’m so sorry!” he stood up and helped her off of the floor “are you ok?”
Judy rubbed her back “Don’t worry about it, you need to calm down, your anger is what got you into trouble in the first place” she grabbed a hold of Torin’s shoulders “Just sit down and try to clear your mind” then she pushed him back into his chair “I know you might not be feeling too well right now, Torin, but…” she sighed “I absolutely have to finish telling you about the accident, then you can tell me what you want to say”
Torin nodded and rubbed his shoulders where Judy had pushed him, it was painful, he wondered if she had done it so hard because of the force of the push he had used on her “Yes, okay, I can wait”
Judy sat down and settled herself in, she folded her arms over her chest and began talking again “Well, now that I know you’re a De Lance, I know where you got your temper from” Torin noticed Judy was really looking at him now, right into his eyes, almost coldly “anyways, the commander wanted to use you, which now that I think about it, wasn’t such a peachy idea, just a very big mistake, of course the results of the battle did show us that mistake, you were fine in the beginning, then after we had you out there for a while you started acting strange, thankfully we finished it up within the week, it was a short battle, I remember the look in your eyes,” she said “your eyes… they were so cold, all the joy you had gained while living with us, it was as if that battle had drained it out of you, you did have a small smirk on your face though, it really bothered me, but, Michael, as usual, said not to worry about it, ‘Judy,’ he would say ‘he’s just nervous, that’s all’” Judy shook her head “to me you didn’t look nervous, you looked like you were having fun, too much fun, you were twisted, when you weren’t on the field you were a quiet person, not really a talker, sometimes you would talk to the commander, he liked you, when you talked to him it was mostly about battle strategies he would use, and you would examine them with him and make suggestions, if he liked your ideas, which he usually did, he would change them, you would come up with some pretty useful ones too” Judy was getting tired of sitting down so she got up and started to pace around the room as she talked
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“Then, a few months later, like the commander, another group of people took interest in you, these were the elders of the Dimensional Gateways, they decided that they wanted to use you as a Guardian, they said of course that you could return to the battlefield whenever you wanted, so you agreed” just as Judy was going to tell Torin more, he jumped up out of his seat, interrupting Judy, Torin had felt another throb
“I…” he looked nervous, “may I use your bathroom?”
Judy frowned “you live here too, why bother asking?” she nodded “go ahead”
Torin ran into the bathroom, dropped onto his hands and knees, breathing heavily, he griped his chest it had started to burn, he lay on his side, but the burning continued to get worse
“Let me out, please, Torin” said a deep, crackling voice “It’s so boring in here, I’ve had to wait so long for you to wake up again, please, Master Torin, just for a little while, I promise to be good, really”
Torin rubbed the butt of his hand on his forehead “who ARE you?”
The deep voice laughed “you’re joking, right?” it laughed again “it’s me, your little faithful servant, Abel” he said sarcastically
“If I were to let you out, what would you do? Torin asked
Abel sighed “I’ll set on your shoulder, as usual, and give you advice on things, that’s about it…”
The pain in Torin’s body was subsiding, he was able to get up off the floor and stand against the wall “Yes, ok, fine, you can come out, but if I tell you to go back, you have to”
There was a loud popping sound, and a short man with silver hair, a streak of red going through it and six golden spikes sticking out from his head stood in front of Torin, he gave a fancy bow to Torin, his little four fingered hands, one in the air, and another at his chest, he was wearing a brown coat, with long tails and some brown and white puffy striped pants, he pointed at Torin “Laugh, and you’re a dead man” Abel’s voice had changed from it’s impressive deep and crackling voice, to a squeaky grinding voice “ah, right” Abel went back into a bow, but this time, it was nothing like the first, it seemed slightly exaggerated and sarcastic, “Here I am, at your service, Abel, Abel Lemur” he hopped onto Torin’s shoulder
“Well, I should think we’re done here, eh?” Abel giggled “aren’t we?” his voice really annoyed Torin, it had a tinkling quality to it
“Yeah, uh… sure” Torin rubbed his head “Abel?” he walked out of the bathroom with
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Abel on his shoulder
“Torin, are you ok?:” Judy shouted, she had started to worry about Torin, wondering what had happened to him, she needed to finish telling him about his past, Torin walked into the living room “ah, yeah, I’m fine” he answered, as he sat down
“Yep, he’s fine, always fine” Torin heard Abel murmur
Torin slapped his shoulder; he felt a small pinch on his hand “ouch!” Torin rubbed his hand and winced
Judy looked at him, “right, then, I’ll just continue with the story, anyways…” she sighed “you agreed to the deal, a few years later on your 25th birthday, you had to go off on another assignment everything those past eleven years had gone fine, you grew into a fine man, unfortunately, your temper hadn’t improved much”
Abel tapped Torin on the shoulder “Yep, she’s right, had a temper like your brother you did, but that’s okay” Abel chuckled “I liked that about you”
“Shut up” Torin snapped at Abel
“What?” Judy said, “were you talking to me?”
Torin’s hands shot out, he waved them around, “Nothing, nothing, please continue…”
((Damn little elf biting me…))
“Okay, so, as I was saying, you still had your temper, you didn’t really like to show it, but that day, your 25th, when you were called into battle, I didn’t want you to go without anyone you didn’t know, so Michael, after some talking to, agreed to join you, and I came too, we were all out on the field, when the enemy commander stepped out, at first, you were ok, but then when you saw him, it was like you snapped, the commander was your brother, Sol De Lance, I didn’t know it at the time, you went berserk trying to get to him, Sol just stood there for a moment, then when he saw you, he got a giant smile on his face and sent his men after you, you ripped through them, Michael had to go and get you back, unfortunately, some of the people who were in front of you were our soldiers, you killed them, Michael was able to catch up to you, and he had to knock you out, what was left of our troops we gathered and retreated”
Torin’s mouth hung open “I killed our men too?” he heard Abel giggle, what had made him let Abel out, he would never know
“Yes, you did, after we retreated, you were punished for killing your own men, you lost
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your privilege as a Gatekeeper and they covered your memories, after that, they gave you back to Michael, and he had you returned to a child’s form, until you would be needed again” Judy got up and stretched “and that’s how it happened, any questions you have, Brim can answer them better then I can” the day had gone by in such a short time, Torin was amazed, night had already fallen, it was around 8 ‘o’clock, time to start getting dinner ready
“What did you want to eat?” Judy asked, Torin felt another tap on his shoulder, it jolted him back to reality, he had been thinking about something
“Tell her you want chicken, Torin” Abel said as he rubbed his belly “I love chicken and I haven’t been able to eat it for a while, just set me on your plate when it’s ready” he winked at Torin for no apparent reason
“Chicken please” Torin answered
“With garlic” Abel added
Torin sighed “with garlic too please”
Dinner had gone by without any major problems other then Abel knocking over the pepper shaker, things were fine
“Shew!” Abel exclaimed, as he rubbed his belly, “That woman can cook!”
“Abel…” Abel looked up at Torin, they were in his bedroom now, so they could talk without having to worry about Judy wondering what was up
“Hmm, I kinda know what it is you’ll be asking” Abel got off of Torin’s shoulder and hopped onto the nightstand next to Torin’s bed “I really don’t know much about your brother, other then he wasn’t a very nice kid, my brother, Kain, would know more about him, but…” Abel flopped himself down against a lamp
“But?” Torin asked, expectantly
“But he’s with your brother, that’s the way it went,” Abel answered “I’m with you, Kain’s with Sol, he’s Sol’s guide, I’m your guide” Abel stuck his hands on his hips, “And that, as they say, is that”
To be continued
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