Floating Stars

Chapter 41: Puppets

Within the Southern Village, Deastolis, Òrelia became desperate as she saw the rising darkness all around her land. She tried her best to shelter the animals that were under her family's care. She locked them up inside protected barns and kept some by her, inside her house.

She huddled inside her dimly lit living room. The sky outside was strangely dark for the time of day it was and an unusual howling wind tore through the air. It was so loud that it startled poor little Gilly, the youngest and smallest lamb under Òrelia's care. She leapt into the terrified woman's trembling arms and hid her tiny face within a thick woolly jumper.

"Mum…" a faint voice was carried upon the rushing gale. Òrelia scrunched her eyes tight together and hid her face in Gilly's warm, fluffy hide.

"Mum…" 

She couldn't be sure if the voice was real or just her own deep desires tricking her. Of course, she assumed that the hope she held onto would adopt the voices of her three missing sons. 

"No, don't you dare! Don't you dare do that!" she scolded her own mind with a quivering whisper. Bitter tears fell from her eyes onto the lambs soft woollen back.  

The same voice then rang out much clearer - so clear that she couldn't doubt it any longer. "Mum it's us, we're back, let us in!" She heard Òrum-Lius, her eldest son, call from her front doorstep.

Taking slow, wary strides, Òrelia made her way towards the voice, squeezing Gilly tightly to her chest. She then peered through the small window that sat neatly in the top centre of the wooden door. 

There stood her three boys, Òrum-Lius, Killian and Drake. Their three faces looked just as she remembered them. With a delighted gasp she rushed to open the door, making the poor lamb jump out of her arms in surprise, and run back into the house. 

She hugged each one of her towering sons, one-by-one and pulled them into the house and closed the door.

"I knew it! Your father wouldn't believe me. Nobody would believe me!" she celebrated with a beaming smile. "I knew that you three would escape! You are so strong! So brave!"

The three lads gave their mother small smiles in response. She glanced at the three of them, her delighted grin not leaving her face. But, with a shake of her head she decided to break the awkward silence that took over.

"Tell me, how did you get out? How did you get away from Noir-Astra's grasp?"

"Determination, mother," Òrum-Lius answered plainly, his brothers nodded, not adding a word. "Determination to fight for the light. Mother, we want to fight for the light!"

"Yes, of course, my brave sons! I would expect nothing less!" Òrelia gushed. 

"Mum," Killian spoke up, making her turn her head swiftly to look into his young face. "We want to join the ones fighting for Illuminare-Trabem. Where can we find his army? We need to join, before it's too late."

"They're in the Night Forest, your father and your aunt, Airgid, have left me to fight," she answered without hesitation, but then quickly cut in with a new thought. "But don't you go and leave me! Not now! I just got you back!"

When he heard his mother's voice break on that last word, Drake quickly threw his arms around her in a tight hug. The feeling of her baby boy holding her, made her shake with a sudden wave of despair. "I don't want to lose you again…" she sobbed into his shoulder. "I can't… not again... It's been so long!" 

"I'm sorry, Mum," Drake spoke gently into her ear. "We must go. We must make you and our ancestors proud!" 

Suddenly the same rushing wind as before flew through the house, and before the great howl died down, the three lads disappeared from their childhood home.