The Hidden City

Epilogue

Epilogue

"Grandpa, tell the story again please!"

Luca sat in his chair of his home, knitting a sweater for his grandchild, Thomas. He loved when Thomas came over, he liked to see his face bright with youth. It reminded Luca when he was a boy, a long time ago.

"Grandpa, can you pretty please tell the story again?" Thomas asked, showing his smile that was missing a few teeth.

"Oh... I suppose..." Luca smiled back, his hands working fast on the sweater.

Thomas sat down eagerly on the pillow Luca had sat down for him. He loved when his grandfather told the story of the dragons and the sickness and the boy named Rem.

"Well, it started a long long time ago, when I was a teenager. Way before I had met your other Grandfather. I had a best friend named Remus, but everyone had called him Rem. We lived in a small village, not too far from here. It was called The City Of The Moon. It wasn't an ordinary village, but filled with werewolves," Luca told, watching Thomas's face to see his reactions.

"But something was wrong. People were dying from a terrible sickness, my own mother included. Rem wanted to fix it, he wanted to help everyone. He was brave," Luca told, his eyes glistening with sadness, like they always do when they tell the story, "So he snuck out one night and I followed him. At first he told me not to, but I didn't listen. I never did as a kid."

"We set off to go find a cure. He told me how he heard a prophecy from a man in the village late that night. I trusted him and I followed. We set up a camp after a while of walking and we slept. We had a big fire that night and I made dinner for him. It was truly a memory I'll never forget."

Thomas felt the story was fake, he had never seen another creature besides humans. What he didn't know was the werewolves and fairies and vampires and every other creature existed, just dead now. In their resting place in the ground, the old gods forgotten about. They learned about the creatures and gods as if they were fairy tales and nothing more.

"After we had slepts and rested, we set out again. Eventually a young dragon named Sobek came and tried to kill Rem. They were only protecting their territory, but I never had a good feeling about them. They just put me off the wrong way. I stood there sitting on the forest floor as them and Rem talked. Rem agreed to go off with him to find a cure in the city of the dragons. I fell asleep along the way so Rem picked me up and went on."

"I can't remember the journey, only that I woke up to realize Sobek had lied and they didn't live in the city of the dragons, but was cast out a long time ago. I was so upset, upset at someone who felt they could just lie to us like that and at Rem, for leading us to a place to die. I cried and cried, until a palace guard caught us. Rem dragged me along as Sobek fell behind and was killed. I was so afraid, I can't remember much of the run. Only that eventually we were surrounded by dragons."

Thomas only stared at Luca in amazement. He loved the stories his grandpa would tell, about magic and the fairy tale creatures. He hoped one day he would also have stories like his grandpa.

"Rem was killed, his head lying on my stomach. I can still remember his eyes. He was so scared, that was the first time I saw him cry. The way he fell down lifelessly almost killed me too. I was so sad I didn't talk for years, until I met your papa James. I'm still not sure how I escaped the dragons, but I know I did other your dad wouldn;t be here and neither would you. I learned a lot that day. Maybe things just... aren't meant to work out in the end. That some things are destined and we can't escape destiny. But hey, I'm old and what do I know? Go play now Thomas."

Thomas scurried off to go play with his toys in the other room, leaving Luca sitting on the couch remembering Rem and the best time of his life.