The Legend legacy

Chapter 3: "Grandfather's house"

The four citizens returned from the exploring. It seemed everything was safe enaugh around, but not inside, where boards and materials were swinging and falling around. There were no signs of fire, but also no signs of survivors. Everyone who couldn't escape burned just like the buildings. After some time people around decided to call firefighters, police and ambulance, but there was no way to call because no one had a phone, not even cars. Everything burned down. Suddenly, apparently the only savior broke through the crowd. It was Mr. Thompson who managed to save five of his horses that he had. They could now be the only savior for all the survivors because there was no car, no phone, and no signal. He offered to go to the capital city for rescue, but on the condition that one more person would go with him, given that he was old and did not know what could happen on the nine-hour journey to the capital.the problem was that almost none of these people knew how to ride a horse. But out of nowhere, a man appeared, a little younger than Thompson, offering to go with him. That was now agreed, none of them were thrilled with what was waiting for them, but still they had no other choice but to wait in the meadow, next to the river now in the middle of nothing but a burnt city, without food, without anything that maybe someone would see them and come to their aid or else die. When he already despaired of the situation and saw that Thompson still had three more horses, my father decided that he refused to uselessly wait eighteen hours for help to arrive if it arrived at all, he began to beg the old man to hand over the three remaining horses in exchange for the ten gold coins he had.

"Thompson, you still have three more horses. Please trade me them for this ten coins. It't the last I have. Please, this is our chance to escape to a new house... Please." My father begged him.

"Isn't that a little selfish, Randall, don't you think?" My mother stopped he's beggin'." Just to leave all of this people alone here with nothing left while we go to a warm home."

He turned to her despairedly: " Maya, if they don't have place to go it really isn't our problem." He said annoyed but also a little sad. He turned back and handed Thompson a hand full of gold coins waiting for him to trade but he gently refused, pushing his hand away.

"Please Tomphson, we have to get out of here." He couldn't stop. My mother looked at him very dissapointed as he only cared about the three of us, but he didn't mind at all.

"I don't need your money," he said politely in a dry voice."I'll trade you horses if you accept my grandchildren into your new home, and promise me they will have a good life, just as one as I would give them if I could." The old man gave my dad an innocent look in hes eyes and hended him three horse leashes. Now my dad really couldn't refuse the poor old man, as he understood he's words so he grabbed the leashes and asked: " So, where are the children?" As the old man called them, the two children stopped next to him. It seemed as if they understood what was happening, but they were not the happiest. I honestly had no idea that Thompson had grandchildren, I had never seen them before. Next to him stood an eleven-year-old girl with a sweet expression on her face, she smiled at me and offered me her hand: "My name is Ela." I smiled back at her and shook her hand: "I'm Endriguelle." Her brother was standing next to her. He was older than her, I guess my age, about fifteen. You could see on his face that he was very angry and at the same time very sad. He looked around, not interested in getting to know us so I just talked with Ela. When it was time to leave, the little girl turned and asked: "grandpa, are we going to see you again?" She asked sadly."If there was a hope for surrender, there surely is hope for reunion, dear." He hugged her and her brother and prepared to leave.

"What did he ment with surrender?" I gasped to myself.

"What was that?" My mum heard me.

"Nothin', mum don't worry." I replied in shock that she heard me.

"If it's like that then go help your new friends prepare for the trip. It will be long and tiring." she told me, reminding me that the trip would take five hours, which already made me hate it. I helped Ela get on the horse and handed her the two small bags they had. No one had a lot of things. Maybe five bags in total. She and her brother had one horse, mom and I had another, and my dad had a third. I have never ridden a horse before, we had a car like everyone else and I only saw horses in movies. When we started, we saw Thompson and waved at him. He and the young man went to the right and we to the left, straight into the forest we greeted all the townspeople and wished them luck, even though that was what they would need the most. The road was terrible. we went through some wretched forests the whole time. everything was so lifeless, withered, and the smoke was still felt kilometers away from the city. The hours passed very slowly and the journey seemed more and more tiring. For four and a half hours it was as if we were walking the same way, but when we got closer to the town where my grandfather's house was, everything started to change. It was very dark and we could see a beautiful landscape. Everything was full of life, totally the opposite of the previous forest we were in. The trees were tall with rich crowns and flowers were blooming everywhere. The city was guarded by five mountains around it. Each one was beautiful, but not as high as the one in the city where I lived. On entering the city, we passed between two of the five mountains, which was very cool and magical. And finally we got closer to the house when I noticed something very strange. all the lights were on. my grandfather's house was lit up with a full glow, as if someone was expecting us. It was strange because no one had been in that house for the last three years, and it was impossible that the lights had been on since then. I was surprised that it was not strange to the others, especially my parents, but they were so tired that they did not care. They could barely keep their eyes open while tying their horses to the fence a few steps away from the house. I was the first to head home while the others nearby took and arranged the little luggage while Ela almost fell asleep. I headed towards the brightly lit house to check if anyone was there. I stood in front of a strange door with a very strangely shaped doorknob. It had some symbols carved on it, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I looked through the half-open windows into the lighted rooms, but there was no one there. After a few seconds I decided to open the door without thinking that it might be locked. I pulled the handle and suddenly the door opened. All the lights went out and the cold wind passed over my face. I almost screamed but I didn't want to scare the others who were so tired and in a bad mood. I ran to them, still in fear when I saw my mom looking for the key in her bags."I have the key, I already opened the front door." I pretended not to find out about the already open door. While they continued to put things around in their bags, I decided to go back to the house now to really find out who or what was playing with us. I entered the dark room of the living room, which led to a small narrow corridor. The house looked as if a hurricane had passed through it. All the things were on the floor. A million books lay scattered around. Not only books, there was everything from books to plates, some kind of black liquid, I guess for writing. I was walking around some wooden armchairs when I saw a large fireplace in front of me right in the corner of the room. It was an absolutely unusual fireplace. It was full of dust and I could see several pieces of wood inside. I tried to remove the dust from the figure that was carved right in the middle. It was a big tree and five silhouettes of some kind of people. When I blew the dust away and crossed the figure with my hand. As soon as I touched it, the silver figure began to sparkle, turning into a combination of gold and silver. The people were silver and the wood turned into gold. I touched the figure again when the fire lit up from nowhere. I jumped in fear, but I still couldn't even think of screaming. .I stared deeply into the fire, which was held by only three logs. I could hear some quiet voices behind me, but I paid no attention. The fire was burning stronger and stronger. A fiery hand stretched out in front of me as if it wanted to shake hands. I set off according to her, totally unaware of what I'm doing. "Endriguelle!" I heard a voice that tapped me on the shoulder. It was Ela." W - what happened?" I continued to look confusedly at the fireplace where there was no more fire. "Come help us with the horse, quickly!" she pulled my hand. I followed her, still looking at the cold fireplace.