Tales of PulchraGea, Vol. 1

8: Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch (Final/3469)

Families work a little differently in PulchraGea. If something happens to your parents, your relatives have no moral responsibility to raise you. That responsibility is instead given to the Crown. Wards are generally placed into military service and train their whole lives for the protection of PulchraGea. PulchraGea doesn't have a standing army, and those lifers live gruff, Spartan lifestyles.

When the infamous collapse happened in the Mesa Grande caverns, Gavin Rinnal put his best effort into saving people. However, he was already long past his prime and losing his once-vaunted strength even then. He didn't have the ability to prevent the collapse at all and every life was lost except one. A four-year-old Katy Greyson escaped almost completely unharmed after her parents, and even several strangers, shielded her with their own bodies. It was too late to save anyone else, but Gavin Rinnal vowed to adopt her and raise her as his own. They shared a special bond as father and daughter, and Katy was terrified of losing another parent.

She had begun to have nightmares of his death every day after the Stewards' beacons first lit up. She knew that they signaled the numbering of her father's days. Even so, she woke up a little early every morning so she could take an extra long, hot shower and be dressed in the latest fashions. She wanted badly to hide the pain her fears caused her. She knew she had to lose him eventually, and she was angry at yours truly because I was to replace him as King. But who could replace him as her father?

Gavin Rinnal loved her equally and didn't want to leave the world without seeing her become a woman, though it might pain her at first. His days weren't long, and he'd already put it off far too long. With that in mind, he called her to him at home just after our crew had returned from Big Rock.

She was shocked to see her father standing in the living room with a backpack and a long wooden case in his hands. She wasn't sure what it meant until she saw Robin White, the Law Officer of Argentum, to the left and slightly behind him. Katy's eyes began to water and the center of her chest tightened up. Burning bile rose up in her throat and it became almost impossible to breathe. She'd prayed this day wouldn't come but knew in her soul that some day it must. She also knew that it meant Gavin was letting go of her, his last connection to the world, before he passed.

Gavin began the traditional speech that every father gave to his child when it was their time to become an adult.

"I tell you now, Katherine Elizabeth Greyson, of the Silver Tribe -the Narakhkonara- your family history."

The King spoke of her birth parents. He honored and praised them for creating such a fine young woman. He spoke of her ancestors through the ages, their achievements in both peace and war all the way back to the foundation of the Silver Tribe, before even Gershom's reign. Her bloodline was royalty in itself, even before the Chosen Kings' arrival.

She closed her ears, sacred though the history was. It was too much for her to think that he was forcing her to let him go. She tried to keep the sobs from escaping. She couldn't do it. The tears fell freely. Her cheeks were soon wet and the tears fell onto her blouse.

She tried to refuse when Gavin presented the case to her, but couldn't defy him. Inside was a gorgeous rapier with a jeweled basket-hilt and four shorter but much thicker blade surrounding the longer main blade in the center. It had been passed down through her mother's line for over a century.

"Take ye this gift of me, that ye might bear protection from the hand of evil." Gavin held his head high, and his voice swelled with pride as he said this. He patiently waited as she laid the box by her feet.

Katy steeled herself now. Her tears still flowed, but she was resigned to fate. She knew her father had already decided the same. All she could do is hold onto this final moment together while it lasted. She accepted the backpack he handed her without hesitation, embracing it in her arms with all the feeling she couldn't express out loud. Gavin spoke again; being her only parent it was necessary for him to take her mother's place in the ceremony as well.