Family of Outcasts, Aaron McLeod [best book club books for discussion txt] 📗

baker who had travelled around a great deal and had run into a variety of recipes. Aldus and Oldus had bought some of the man’s potato bread, quickly scarfing down the delicious delicacies. Arthur and Hannah had taken some small loaves of bread which had been baked with ginger into the dough. They ate theirs slowly while they proceeded to the animal display area nearby. There weren’t many people around the area this year. Most of the townsfolk had seen them many times before. The twins had not, however, so Arthur indulged them.

            Arthur paid for the four of them at the gate and they began to walk around the cages. Many of the animals were fairly standard and native to the local area. There were three wolves, five rabbits, two goats, a large variety of birds of prey in cages on display, and one giant brown bear. Aldus and Oldus avoided the bear as much as they could. The bear was sleeping, but the two of them were still scared to go near it, even with the cage securely sealed. There were a few other animals that were separated from the regular ones. They had never seen the likes of any of them.

            “Excuse us sir, but can you tell us what these animals are?” Aldus asked, tugging at the sleeve of one of the men watching over the cages.

            “Aye lad. That I can.” The man said smiling. His teeth were all a rotten yellow color and there was a foul stench of a pigsty about him. The man walked up to one cage, which had a small, dog like creature with a hunched back, which was lying down on its side. “This ‘ere is called a Svukek. It’s basically like a dog, but with a few difference. Their legs are only about half the length of a bloodhound and their teeth are much sharper. They have trouble seeing but that’s made up for, I think it’s extremely powerful nose. Finally,” The man poked the Svukek in the back and the creature jumped to its legs and out came a series of very thin quills on its back. “It has these spiky things on its back to hurt things from jumping on it. They come from the more eastern parts of the kingdom, scavenging on whatever meat they come across.” Aldus and Oldus could barely take their eyes off of the Svukek, which was now staring directly at the both of them, growling fiercely.       

            “What about the rest?” They both asked.

            “Well over here we have something called an ostrich or something like that. We found this one even further east…” The man continued at length about the different animals for a long while. They saw the ostrich, a flightless bird with a long neck that could carry a man on its back. There was the giant lizard, which was apparently used by the riders in the eastern deserts to carry supplies and people across the sand dunes. Finally, there was a special surprise behind a curtain that everyone could see. Arthur, Hannah and the twins had sat down in front of it, away from the other animals while people gathered around.

            “You two better be thankful. I paid extra for this you know.” Arthur stated as he fidgeted where he sat.

            “Ladies and gentleman!” The man with the yellow teeth called out finally. “Thank you for waiting patiently for this special surprise. First of all, I must tell you it is not a live animal, for-” Some of the crowd cut the man off by booing at him. Others stood up and started to leave.

            “For if you had seen it alive, you would most likely be dead just seconds later.” The man continued, hushing the crowd and winning back those who were leaving. “I present to you…” The man pulled the cloth off of a giant cage. There were multiple gasps as people could not believe what they were seeing in front of their eyes. “A dragon skull!”

            The skull was about as high as horse and as long as a small river boat. The two spikes on the back of the head were seven feet long. Most of the teeth had been broken. However those that remained were at least twelve inches long, gradually getting smaller down to the front until they were only the size of a man’s index finger. The eye holes, only slightly bigger than a grown man’s head.

            Arthur was completely speechless. All his life he had heard about dragons and never once had he imagined seeing the skull of one. The skull was even larger than he had imagined. Finally, the crowd stood up and began to clap their hands together. Aldus and Oldus were jumping up and down, yelling excitedly while holding onto each other arms. Hannah went over to them and tried her best to calm them both down. Pushing something gently to his left, Arthur walked forward to help Hannah with them both.

            “I see the little lads are excited.” The man said, pulling his cap off and scratching his forehead, revealing his balding head and messy, tangled black hair. “Pay ten extra silvers for each of them and they get to touch the skull.” The twins grabbed Arthur by the arms and started to tug on them.

            “Please Arthur? Please? We really want to!” They kept saying while Arthur was trying his best to respond between their begging.

            “Quiet!” He yelled out. The twins calmed down. “Yes, you may.” Arthur reached for the pouch on his side and pulled out twenty silvers. He walked over to the man and handed them to him.

            “Much obliged young man. Come on lads. Everyone else who wants to touch it, step right up!”

            Aldus and Oldus ran circles around the skull. Compared to their size, it was gigantic to them. Aldus stuck his head into a hole in the teeth while Oldus looked into it from the back.

            “Echo!” He called out. There wasn’t much of an echo from the inside.

            “Alright little lads, get going. Other people want to see.” The twins groaned with frustration.

            When the twins got back to them, Arthur and Hannah led them away from the crowd back to the merchants. They let Aldus and Oldus run ahead of them a little. Arthur kept staring at the ground as he walked beside Hannah. He folded his arms and let out a small sigh. Hannah looked at him, putting her hand on his shoulder. Arthur looked back at her and smiled slightly.

            “Why didn’t you go up with them? You’ve talked about dragons for as long as I’ve known you. That was a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Hannah said as she took her hand off Arthur’s shoulder.

            “I outgrew them.” He replied hesitantly. “I can’t always keep on liking something from my younger years.”

            Hannah frowned slightly, but turned her attention back to the twins. She ran ahead to catch up to them as Arthur kept walking slowly in between the people around him. He decided to stop where he stood and looked up at the sky. Scratching his head, he started to imagine flying dragons in the sky. In his mind, he felt the wind blowing through his face as he soared high above everyone below him, the gigantic wings on his back flapping a few times to lift himself up higher. Gliding on the wind currents, he looked down at the ground and saw a large cow in a field. Pulling the wings in closer, he began to swan dive down to the ground. His speed picking up, he closed his eyes for a brief moment.

            “Arthur!” He heard a girl’s voice call out. Arthur returned from his daydream and saw Hannah glaring at him. She was out of breath and had some dirt on her nose, breathing heavily whilst the twins were laughing at her.

            “Sorry.” Arthur said humbly, wiping the dirt off of Hannah’s nose. “Come on, let’s keep looking around.”  

 *****

“That hurt you know.” Athos said, rubbing his arm.

“Get over it. I didn’t hit you that hard.” Ragosh replied.

“If you call that hit not hard, then I’d hate to see what a hard hit from you is like.” They both laughed together. Jordan was behind him, looking down at his feet and walking just in pace with the others.

“I heard there was a magic show this year. Let’s see if we can find it.” Athos said cheerfully. Jordan lifted his head and smiled.

“Might as well. The things I want to see and try are apparently close to the magic show.” Ragosh responded. “What about you Jordan? What do you want to see?”

Jordan’s smile turned to an expression of shock and confusion. He hadn’t expected them to care or ask him anything related to the carnival, so he was rather dumbstruck.

“Um, I think there was a fortune teller around. Maybe we could go see that?” He answered shyly and quietly.

“Sounds good to me.” Athos said.

They continued to walk through the crowd. The part of the town they were in was busy and overloaded with people who had come to see all the magical spectacles. This made it difficult to find where they were going. Ragosh kept Jordan close by as he followed Athos, who was leading them towards the magic display that was ahead. He gripped onto Jordan’s hand tight to keep him from letting go and losing the boy in the crowd. Jordan tried his best to keep pace with Ragosh, often stumbling slightly or bumping into someone else. Finally, they broke through the crowd and reached the area that had been cleared for the magic display. It was a large circular area that the crowd surrounded and there ten people in the circle, most dressed in fine silk robes of many different colors. They were dressed in bright red, violet, blue, and green colors, but also darker colors like black and deep blue. The robes had gold laced into the stitching the buttons along the wrists were made of pure silver. However, not all of the mages were dressed in such fine clothing. Some were dressed in regular every day peasant’s clothes, most of which had been tattered and were falling apart. In the middle of all of them was the one drawing the most attention. It was a young beautiful woman, clothed in a simple blue dress which had a simple, flowing pattern sown into the side of her dress. She wore a hood over her head, which hid most of her face.

One of the mages stepped forward. His head was bald, but he had a giant red beard that hung down to the middle of his stomach. His robe was white and black with hints of silver color around the collar. In his hand was a staff that stood up to his shoulder height. He cleared his throat, shushing the crowd around him.

“Citizens of Cathvas! The magic display will now begin. I bring you talented magic users from the different lands around. First! Merd, the master of fire magic and his apprentices!” The man spoke out.

Merd stepped forward, folding up the sleeves of his robes. He had no hair anywhere on his face, his hands or his arms. His hands, arms, and face were covered with burn scars, both minor and severe. Merd looked at the crowd, smiled widely and lifted up his right arm. He spoke a word in a language unknown to everyone around him and a small fire sprouted from his hand. Two men and one woman dressed in peasant clothes from the group moved forward, spoke the same word and began to walk around Merd with the fire in their hands. Merd nodded at them and they spoke a series of words in synchronization, fire now in both of their hands and beginning form into a shape around them. Merd spoke more words, making the fire in his hands bigger as