King of Days: The Veiled Guardians

3. The Courage of Youth

It was finally morning. The three children in the cellar slowly began to wake from sleep. Karíto woke up first, and began to unravel himself from Fortìle and Hidía. He was at first bewildered as to where they were and how they got there, in his daze he could not tell what was dream and what was not. Karíto noticed how very dark it was; the only light was a faint beam coming from a crack in the cellar door, it fell upon the children and illuminated their faces. After coming to his senses he remained still, not wanting to rouse his two sisters. Nevertheless, Hidía slowly opened her eyes and looked at Karíto. She smiled and said, "Good morning, I slept well, how 'bout you?" Karíto rolled his eyes and smiled. She then looked around with a perplexed look in her eyes "Where are we?"

The smile on Karíto's face faded as he whispered, "The cellar, don't you remember?"

As he finished speaking Fortìle awoke, she looked around and began to panic. "That was not a dream? Oh I wish it was! What are we to do?!"

After waking all three children sat in their own corner, looking at each other as if they could provide answers to what happened, but no answer or remedy could be found. What occurred last night had truly happened. They didn't know all the details, although they knew their house had been attacked. But it was by who? Why would anyone want to attack a family of farmers? What did they have to gain to attack an innocent family, especially one with few goods of value? With many thoughts running through the children's minds, Karíto stood up as best as he could in the cramped cellar. He reached for the door, but Fortìle cried out, "Wait, what if they are still out there? Please be careful!"

Agreeing with her he opened the door slowly and looked out. There were broken things all over. He turned to his sisters and said, "Stay here, I will look around."

He pulled himself out of the cellar and closed the door. He saw some broken tables and chairs thrown around the ground. Walking around the house he saw his mother's rocking chair shattered into pieces. The door was broken off and laying on the floor, a fire poker lay a distance away. Clearly somebody tried to fight the invaders.

Wary of any intruder still around, he dared to call for his mother and his other siblings, but there was no response. He did not want the girls to see this. Thoughts ran through his mind as he walked outside and around to the back of the house. He bent down and opened the cellar, the two girls screamed. He had never felt so sick in his life as to hear their blood curdling screams. He tried to calm them down. Once they realized that it was just him they grew silent.

He helped them up out of the cellar, but was not ready for their reaction. Immediately on looking around the two girls began to sob. Karíto was crushed and felt like crying, but he convinced himself to remain strong for them. The three children clung together and began to walk around the house. Once in the house they spent several minutes scrounging around for any of their valuables, which was not much to begin with. However it became obvious that the thugs had cleared it out.

Karíto went back to the cellar to grab some flour and rice, he had no idea how much they could bring. While he was looking for provisions he heard a shriek. Jumping at the familiar sound he dropped what he was doing and yelled out "Hidía!" He climbed out of the cellar and ran back to the house. As he reached the front door he called out to Hidía "What is wrong?"

Hidía was looking at blood on the floor that was near the fire poker. Going to her, he picked her up. "Get your stuff, we need to go somewhere else, it is not safe here."

With tears running down her face, she looked into his eyes. "We need to wait for daddy! He will fix it all!"

"No" he retorted. "We cannot wait for dad, we have got to move!"