"Aureus (Abridged) Chapter Two" by Harrison (Aureus) Gordon

Chapter 2

“Aureus!  Aureus, wake up!  Come on, you’ll be late again!”

            “Huh?” murmured the still sleeping Aureus, eyes shut from the dust the sandman left there.  His mother’s words rang in his head, but he could make no sense out of them.  For him, it was just too early in the morning.

            “Aureus, if you don’t get out of that bed right now,” his mother warned.  She was a little disheveled herself, having woken up only fifteen minutes before, and having no time to do her hair, much less anything else.  She was more worried about Aureus’s tendency to oversleep only on days of the week on which school was in session.

            “Mom, come on…” said the half-awake teenage boy in the bed. “It’s only dawn, can’t school wait until noon?  Or maybe the afternoon?”

            “Not if you want to take this year over again, it won’t,” his mother scowled.  The idea of having to go to school for yet another year got Aureus out of the bed, into his clothes, packed and ready, and rushing out the door as quickly as possible, with a small loaf of bread in his mouth and extra school books in hand. 

            The walk to school wasn’t a long one.  The town was small, quiet, and peaceful for the most part.  Aureus never really liked it.  Influenced by the heroic stories told to him as a young child, Aureus longed for adventure, thrills, and even the occasional romantic interest.  Of course, his mother would never approve, at least for the adventures and thrills part. She, the matchmaker of the village, was always looking for someone special for Aureus.

            The school stood in the center of a courtyard, relatively distant from the bustling streets of the marketplace, which was the one place Aureus always felt he could go to find something to do.   He felt a surge of excitement with all the people around.  Upon reaching the school, he abandoned all hope of freedom of location and went to his assigned chair, in his assigned classroom, in his assigned building.  Aureus’s school life was as dull as the brick the school was made of. 

            At the end of every school day, Aureus would find himself wandering the streets of the marketplace, sniffing the brightly scented air, and talking with the local shopkeepers.  Many people filled the streets as well, and Aureus loved the fact he was in the middle of it all.  He didn’t have much money to spend, but every once in a while he would find a Nurine on the ground and buy himself something that looked good.  But today, he noticed something he hadn’t seen at the marketplace before.

            “Step lively,” shouted a voice just behind Aureus.  He quickly spun around to find an old elf, dressed rather strangely, with belts and buckles and sashes of cloth oddly placed around a white tunic and baggy pants, leading a small group of young teenagers, like himself, through the marketplace.  But what really caught his eye was very peculiar.  Just under the elf’s strange apparel, Aureus could’ve sworn that he saw something like a shimmering light. 

            Aureus slowly followed, undetected by the old elf, who led the group to the exact opposite side of the village from his home, a place that Aureus had never seen before.  The mountains that acted as the barriers of the country protruded from the fields, and lush, green trees stood tall amongst the bristling grasses and an occasional flower. Small rain clouds were forming above the mountains, but it didn’t look like they were going to pass over.  Sails with the insignia of the country floated in the breeze, anchored to the mountain with large strings.  The blue sky created a soft gradient with the red sun in between the seemingly purple mountains.  Nearby, Aureus saw a small, wooden fence surrounding what looked like a stone building. 

            The group of adolescents quickly gathered at the door and hustled into the building.  The old elf looked directly at Aureus.  He smiled, and waved his hand to Aureus, motioning him to come closer. 

            “It’s quite dangerous to follow a stranger,” said the old elf, in the same hoarse voice as before, this time slower.  “What’s your name?”

            “Aureus, sir.  Aureus… son of Auten,” he said, sheepishly, stammering over the words as he went. 

            The old elf froze, his eyes set on Aureus, and his jaw slowly opening. “Auten?  No…” the old elf had whispered to himself, half in disbelief, half in astonishment.  His gasp slowly turned into a smile, as he put his hand on Aureus’s shoulder. “Come, we must talk a bit over some hot food and good company.”