The Silver Haired Boy {Silver Series Short Story}

Part One

               I pushed the cart ahead of me, my eyes cast downward, attempting to avoid the sunlight. I moved my silver hair in an attempt to shade my eyes from the blinding light. I watched the villagers as I passed, you could see the hope finally returning to their eyes. It's been forty suns since the Beast last attacked us, and it's been forty suns since I had my last episode. It had been my first episode in almost a kron. Seeing the Beast always brought out my episodes. Every time it attacked I'd collapse to the ground, I'd imagine that I could hear the Beast talking - but I could never clearly understand what I thought it was saying - and I'd want to follow it back to the woods. The Elders had told me long ago after I'd had my fifth attack, when I was just five krons old, that my episodes were given to me by the Gods as a way to deal with the stress that seeing the Beast caused in me.

               Looking ahead of me I saw that the castle gates were still closed. The guards must not have seen me coming from their towers yet. I felt the intensity of the Heat on my back. Looking to my left I saw the Charrach. In about twenty sunsets the Heat would end and the Cold would begin. Once the Cold begins, only the Charrach would survive. All the other trees would die and the Charrach would stand, tall and proud, the only tree to ever survive the Cold. Hundreds of krons ago King Horus had declared that the Gods had spoken to him and told him that the  Charrach was never to be harmed. Never has any Sanchian taken a blade to the Charrach for fear of death. Not even the Beast or any other dragon has dared to release their flames near the Charrach. The Elders say that the Charrach is an enigma, that the Gods have given it eternal life but no one knows why. A few Sanchians over the Krons have speculated that the Charrach was the immortal tomb of Jadepharis, the first Sanchian to rebel against the Gods. Mikrons ago he had vanished, just three krons after he first rebelled.

               I continued on the path to the castle gates. Suddenly there was yelling behind me. The gates, now only a few yards away from me, began to open. I turned to see one of the King's many knights riding towards me. Forgetting the cart with my mother's flowers I raced through the gates as they hurried to close the entrance.

               Knights raced past me to their designated stations. Being attacked by the Beast was not uncommon for these men. They'd all faced the Beast before and survived. The Beast had only ever taken five men from our village, each time it had been the knight riding from the forest to warn everyone that the Beast was coming. Other than those five men the Beast mainly took livestock from our village and the only damage it had ever done to any Sanchian was a severe burn or a lost limb.

               The Beast's booming roar made me look back through the small crack in the closing gates. The Beast soared, breaking through the canopy and into the air. The Knights rushed to get the catapults in place before the Beast reached the castle. Just as the Beast breached the castle wall the knights launched the first round of boulders but the Beast skillfully avoided them.

                As the knights reloaded the catapults the Beast flew closer to the ground. Its mighty roar filled the air and I waited for my episode to begin. Flames spewed from its jaws, demolishing the two nearest catapults. The knights abandoned the flaming piles of wood and joined the other groups to help reload faster. A knight spotted me cowering by the gates.

              "You fool! Get inside! This is no place for children!" He screamed before running off to another catapult to help. The beast pulled away and dodged the flying rocks before returning to destroy more catapults, this time taking three out of commission. This continued until half of our catapults were heaps of useless burning wood. The Beast latched its giant claws onto one of the castle towers.

               "Rooaaarrr! Rooaarrr! Roooo me! Give him to me! Give me the man who attacked me! GIve me the man who attacked my family and I will leave! Just give him to me!"