21's Legacy

Epilogue

"What year is it now?" waiting for her to answer. But before she could make a sound I felt weak again, and started feeling pale. I don't feel any pain but I can feel my weakness as my feet started to tremble. Crumble.
I fell to my feet. And then fell down the cliff.
By the time she tried to save me, its too late. My back hit the ground with a thud.
"What the?!" She now slide down the cliff like a surfer and retrieve me to a sitting position checking my injuries. Darkness started to creep my vision again and started blocking my hearing too.
I think she placed me inside the car because I'm starting to feel dizzy and I'm not so sure.
I spat red liquid into her already crimson car.
"What the hell did you?! Urgh, This is one of my favori-guhhh don't worry, I'll just have that cleaned." She says while entering the front seat.
She drove as fast as she could while my head hit almost every corner of the back seat. Amazingly the bumps never hurt me.
She looked at me through the front mirror and her assessment of my current condition boils down through the words she spat "N-n-n-no! This is not good. This is not-"
Then I'm out into the darkness again.
My vision flicker as I feel that I've been push onto some sort of a metal table with wheels.
The smell; alcohol plus blood. The sound; thud of doors being bumped plus some scientific words being enumerated plus beeping of a small machine to my right side. The sight; a series of fluorescent lights indicating our velocity plus some guys in white plus Dee muttering apologetic words. Equals a Hospital. Then (I'm hating this already) into darkness again.

By the time I woke up, I'm in a room. A big room. The mixture of alcohol and blood smell is now long gone, that makes the hospital out of the equation now.
Or was the hospital just my hallucination?
I don't care for as long as this room looks WOW! I stood up to check out the entire room. It's as if I'm living in a very extravagant home in America.
The windows are built with some sort of a veranda overlooking a vast ocean and white shore. The curtains are a blend of gold and black so that the atmosphere feels elegant. The floor is wooden and is properly waxed to make it shiny and it gives a feel of antiquity. 80% of the room's wall and ceiling is made of wood so that every sound you create resonates to every corner of the room. A couple of the wall is built as bookshelves, two 10-foot bookshelves filled with a thousand of books.
There is a big mat on the center of the room. At the middle of it is a center table I'm guessing is hand carved because of the details of its feet, surrounded by antique looking sofas.
There is a vintage TV set and radio-also vintage- placed on a shelf a few yards away the center table.
I find the fire place across it awkward since it never snowed in the Philippines and never will there be snow in here, except if I'm no longer in Philippines now, although the breeze tells me I'm still in PH.
I looked back to where I was lying a while ago and noticed that the bed is queen sized. And by the looks of it, I can tell that it's literally made for a queen. I don't know why they make these poles on the four corners of the bed in support for a roof, all I know is that it's marvelous.
And at the far side across the bed is a one of the most wonderful sight I've ever seen in this already awesome room. A mini grand piano and a cello resting on its side. I noticed a glassed cabinet containing classical pieces. Under it are drawers. And when I opened one of the drawers, I found an antique red violin and a bow, impressively well maintained. Then I opened another and find another violin, this time it's golden brown with delightful shades on the belly.
Four more drawers contained a violin each, different in shades and all well maintained. A series of drawers on the next cabinet contained other musical instruments. I saw at least three violas in three different sizes. Three oboes in one drawer and a box of reeds. Four flutes sharing a drawer together with two piccolos. A drawer contained a Tuba. Another some clarinets and another an unassembled trombone.
This place is heaven for an aspiring musician like me.
I know I'm not supposed to touch anything but I'd rather kill myself if I'm not going to try out one of the violins. So I took the golden brown ones and silently tuned it with the piano so that no one would notice me touching these babies.
I played the first violin part of the "Air on the G string" by Bach. The first note is a long F# so I played it as quietly as possible. But when the sound of this violin resonated inside my ears, I know I'm intoxicated by the clarity of its sound. I've never played such a beautiful sounding violin, there is warmth in it but not lacking in volume. Sweet sound is easy to produce with a simple legato bowing. There is a piercing quality of the E string that I liked, a quality that can subtly "hurt" the listeners' hearts until they will rest when the resolution note is played. The violin has a very soprano sound yet has a beautiful body and shape.
I played it with all my soul, erasing the magnificence of the whole room, and vanishing to a world only I know where. A perfect world like Lor..
I stopped before I could enter the minor part.
I stopped because, one, I hated the word "Lorien" or "Loric" or whatever word assimilated to that alien race. I hate my family. I hate my mom for letting me go through all of those things. I hate myself for what happened to Threin. I hate my Dad for not being there for me and I hate the Lorics for making my life miserable.
I stopped because, two, yes two, I've managed to draw two audiences in this unlikely concert hall. Dee and a guy about her age appeared to be listening in my playing at the doorway.
"Hey, Why did you stop?" Says Dee like I've robbed her candy, for there was a hint of tears formed on the corner of her eyes.
I fixed my eyes on the guy when he said "He's got a very bitter past." I hated him instantly for penetrating my already hateful thoughts, and by that I know he's a Loric. He flinched as I gave him a stop-reading-me-or-i'll-wipe-out-your-entire-race look.
"You can't do that," he rebounds. "They're already dead."
"Hey hey hey hey! You two better stop that or I'll roast your asses like hell, and you won't like it. We haven't met the enemies yet so you two better behave." Says Dee scolding us.
"He already hates me. Look." He said to Dee referring to my fixed gaze. He now turned to me and said "You're welcome."
Confused I finally spoke a, "What?"
"Johann, he just healed your ever-flowing-with-blood wound that stained my back seat." Dee says annoyingly more than sympathetically.
I already recognized his face when I heard that. He's one of the guys dressed in white when I was being pushed on a cart inside the hospital.
"He's not grateful. He says 'I don't care' at the back of his head" he said.
With that I thought his mind reading is not as accurate as it sounded the first time. "I'm actually resolved that you healed me so I thought to myself that 'I don't care if he's Loric or not but I owed him my life', so thanks." That's exactly what I thought while he just read the 'I don't care' phrase. He seemed to be surprised with that.
"Okay tough guys, you need to stop. Seriously." Dee says. "We have more important things we need to discuss," she nods at my now gone wound "...does it hurt?" And when I gave her a shrug she said, "It's 2013 by the way. July 3rd of 2013."

"That's not the only bruise that endangered your life, you know? You've got a broken leg, three broken ribs and a dislocated jaw. Not to mention about thirty gravels went inside your back when you fell from that cliff. Took me the whole week to fix you up." He said as we sit at the center of the room. Dee excused herself first to grab some snacks I'm guessing would be consisting of hot tea and cake or pudding.
"That was a very long time." I said fiddling the violin I'm still holding while he reads a book.
"Nah, it's actually very short. There was this widow that I fixed last year. She's broke her right ankle and the whole of her left hand was dislocated. I worked her out for one and a half months." The answer made me think he stopped mind reading. Only to confirm that he left my mind alon, he seemed surprised when I replied.
"No, I mean I've been sleeping in that pond for a very long time."
"Oh I see. Man, you must be around 30-50 years old by now." He make a soft whistle. Now he's returned to annoy me with his mind reading stuff. "What have you been doing out there? Waiting for the guava fruit to drop in your mouth?" He chuckled.
I shifted my thoughts to music, so I could protect my past from this punk. "Where'd you get this violin? It's magnificent. I've never touched anything like this before." I asked trying to be trivial.
"I don't know where Dee got those." He said back to reading the book he's holding.
"So you're not the owner of this house? Is this not your home?"
"YES and partly YES and partly NO. Yes, I'm not the owner of this house. Partly yes and partly no because I used to live with Dee when we were younger but I left. Don't get me wrong, I mean I was allowed by her parents to live in one of their houses here in PH ever since my parents died. That makes this place and all the other places Dee's family owns, my house but not entirely my home." He looked at me and read me. "You're not sorry to hear that my parents had died, are you?"
Honestly, NO. I'm not sorry. I've witnessed a lot of death, that seemed to be a very natural thing to me now. But I thought it'd be fun to test his reading abilities, "Read me." I try to make my mind blurry for him.
He seemed to be confused, "I uh..don't get it. I need to confirm it from your lips. You're not sorry, are you?" There! He accepts he's not used to his Legacies yet.
"No, I'm not. I'm so sorry."
More confused by my answer he just shook his head and diverted the conversation. "I think those things belonged to her grandfather." Pointing to the violin I'm holding. "I remember asking her about her parents and she kept talking about her grandpa. She then said she wanted to be a music teacher. But I don't think she knows how to play those things. She's just feeling ambitious."
"I taught her the basics of the piano when she was four." He seemed to have left my brain alone. Again. For the mean time I guess.
"Really? Well she's good at playing the piano. I came to one of her recitals, she didn't sound as awful as her other classmates do. Maybe she's that good coz' she got a loud applause from the audience. She's Loric, you know? She must have inherited a Loric musical talent."
I wanted to tell him that she learned because I taught her to play, it is not some 'inborn' legacy that she developed instantly. And for what I remember she wasn't that great of a student either. I didn't bother telling that to him though.
I'm starting to be annoyed by this Loric thing again when Dee went in the room with a few bags of chips, a plastic of McDonald's take out and a 6-pack canned sodas.
"Whoa, so much for a royal cuisine." I whispered.
"Shut up." Dee said annoyed by my whispering and the guy's laughing out loud.
Oh! Right! I don't even know this punk's name.
Dee made it easy for me.
"You haven't exchanged your names, have you?" She said and I shrugged while he waves his head. "What's wrong with you guys?" She said in disbelief.
He was the first one to introduce himself. "Okay, I'm Willie. And as far as the census is concerned I'm at the eleventh generation. I am number 25."
I remember the census. I remember that I don't have a place in that census neither in Lorien. I am not a part of the Loric citizenship. I hated the system. I hated not being recognized. I hated my mom again. I hated my fate. But I remember the prophecy.
And then I had the guts. I had the answer.
"I'm from the 9th generation."
25 choked the word "obviously" but I don't mind him.
I know that the prophecy was for me.
"I am not supposed to be number 21,"
I know I must be recognized.
"...but I am now."
They don't know me and they won't see me coming.
"I am number 21"