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

he moved his arms and hands around swiftly, taking control of the fire his apprentices created. Merd continued to speak, closing his eyes and his movements slowing down. The fire flowed around him in circles, moving slowly just inches away from his skin. Finally, he stopped speaking and took hold of the flames in his hands. Without a second thought, he began to move the fire around like a wipe, dancing along with its movements. For a short time, Merd continued to dance with the flame, until he finally let it go, spoke one final word and extinguished the fire. The crowd cheered wildly as the spectacle, while Merd and his apprentices bowed to the crowd. Merd returned to the other mages and the man in white and black walked up again.

“Next Michael and Mary, the brother and sister illusion magic duo!”

The magic show went on for what felt like an eternity. Michael and Mary showed off multiple magical illusions, some of soldiers in a long forgotten war, others were simple animals living in the forest. After the sibling duo, there was Werneck, the ice mage who turned boiling hot water into freezing ice and created giant ice statues out of nothing. Finally, there was only the woman in the middle left. The man in white stepped forward yet again, but this time there was sweat on his brow and he seemed to be stuttering over his words.

“Final one,” He said normally. “Talya, Nature Walker of the elven forest kingdoms.”

Talya pulled her hood down, revealing her long, silken blonde hair, brown eyes and pointed ears. Booing sounded from the crowd, along with curses, threats, and insults. Athos, Ragosh and Jordan were completely dumbfounded. Not once had they expected to see another elf in Cathvas, especially not after recent events. Tayla was unfazed from all the negativity surrounding her. She lifted her arms and hands up at her sides, most of the crowd quieting down as she did. She began to dance slowly, stepping gracefully with each step she took and holding her arms up, her eyes closed and her expression unemotional. Suddenly she stopped, looked at the crowd and spoke a single word in the elven language. She lifted her hands up and slowly but surely, the grass from the ground began to rise up into the air, completely undamaged. She spun around suddenly and the grass spun with her. Talya lifted her arms up and clapped her hands together. The grass blades collided with each other above her. She turned her hands slightly and began to speak sentences in the elven language, forming the grass into the shape of feminine hands. When the grass completed turning into hands, Talya moved her hands around, making the grass hands move at the same time in the same way.

Throughout her display, Talya turned the grass into many different shapes. She formed it into doppelgangers of some of the people in the crowd who mimicked every move those people did, into small and large animals that she interacted with. Finally, she formed the grass into a house, which she entered and sat down in a chair in the middle, without it collapsing. Talya stepped out of the house and split the grass apart back into the way it was when she began. Slowly she lowered the grass back onto the ground, exactly where each individual blade had been.

Most of the crowd stood in silence. Only some children who were watching clapped at the spectacle of magic they had seen from the elf. Athos stepped forward and began to clap along with the children, followed by Ragosh and Jordan. They were given disapproving looks from the rest of the crowd, but they did not care. They had just seen something they didn’t think possible, even with magic. Talya looked at Athos and bowed her head at him. Athos stopped clapping and smiled wildy. Suddenly, a man with a messy black beard, long hair and a dirty face ran out from the crowd, a massive dagger in his hand. Many people began to run away and a few women screamed.

“Elf bitch!” The man yelled out, pointing his knife at Talya. “You took my son from me!” The man began to run towards Talya, who was starting to mutter a spell while everyone began to flee. Ragosh ran out from the rest of the fleeing crowd and tackled the man to the ground. He took hold of the man’s arm and began to smash it against the ground, trying to make him drop the knife. The man punched Ragosh on the right side of his face twice, causing him to fall back a little. Athos punched the man across the face, as he had followed after Ragosh when he saw him run at crazy man. Both Ragosh and Athos started to punch him all across the body and face. Blood began to fly around from the cuts on the man’s face. Ragosh pushed the man down onto the ground. The man finally dropped his knife and struggled to stand up. He spat out multiple yellow teeth and looked at Athos and Ragosh in disgust and hatred.

Suddenly, the man began to scream and cry as he fell down onto his back. Tears started to fall down his cheeks as he cried out in pain and sadness. He curled up into the fetal position, still crying when the guards showed up and dragged him away. One guard thanks Athos and Ragosh, looking at Ragosh with disapproval just before he left. Talya then began to approach them.

“Thank you.” She said bluntly. “That was very brave of you two. But I could have taken care of it myself.”

“Well, it was better that we helped just in case you didn’t take care of it yourself fast enough.” Athos replied.

“Either way, I thank you. Now I must go. Your young companion over there looks like he’s alone.” She pointed at Jordan. Ragosh ran back to Jordan.

“You’re welcome, my lady.” Athos complimented her. Tayla had already started to leave when he said that. Athos walked back to the other two, holding his head high.

“I’m fine Jordan. You needn’t worry.” Ragosh said as Athos approached.

 “Come on. Let’s go see if we can find the fortune teller.” Athos said to Jordan, putting his hand over the young boys shoulder.  

*****

            Ariana was walking slowly past each of the food vendors, holding onto Jade’s hand while eating a small blueberry tart. Brendwin was behind them, quickly stuffing his face with as many tarts as he could chew. This was his first time at carnival and never had he seen or heard so many different things in one place. Despite not being able to speak, he had been able to express so many things throughout their time in Cathvas. It was also the most Ariana had ever seen him smile. Jade was equally as excited. Ariana had bought her a doll made of a very flexible straw from the local toymaker and even got to play with a little beagle dog while they were waiting for food to be made.

            Suddenly, they heard a series of banging noises come from the other side of one of the stalls. Ariana, Brendwin and Jade were all startled by the noise, but the people around them seemed to ignore it. Jade was holding onto Ariana’s leg tightly, frightened by the noise.

            “What was that?” She asked while holding her hands up to her ears.

            “I don’t know.” Ariana responded. Brendwin ran off to the direction of the sound. Ariana chased after him, holding Jade close by. They ran past the stall, bumping into people along the way, slowly working their way through the crowd. Finally they broke through the edge of the crowd and came across a cleared out area that had the looks of a shooting range. There were targets lined up on the other side of the clearing, leaning up against a wooden wall. On the other side of the clearing, there was a line of people, each of them armed with matchlock rifles and with fresh smoke floating through the air. A man from behind them ran out towards the targets and began to inspect each of them. Quickly he moved from one target to the next, inspecting them thoroughly for a hole from the shots. Finally, he stood up.

            “Donnic is the winner!” He spoke, pointing at a man in the middle. Donnic held up his gun as the crowd cheered for him, while the other men put their guns down and walked back with their heads held low. Another man stepped forward, took Donnic’s hand and lifted it up in the air.

            “Who here has the stomach to go up against our champion shooter? Only ten gold for the chance!” He called out, pointing and turning his at the crowd. Ariana held Jade close. She could not see Brendwin anywhere. He had disappeared in the crowd when Ariana chased after him.

            “Ten gold coins! Take a chance!” The announcer called out again. Donnic leaned his gun on his shoulder and started to walk along the edge of the crowd, studying them carefully. He stopped, lifted his hand and pointed.

            “You!” He said. “The one in the hood.” The crowd started to part as they looked where Donnic was pointing. A person walked forward, a hood covering his face. He lifted his head and looked at Donnic. Ariana had gotten closer by then and was trying to get a better look at the stranger. Adjusting her head to the left slightly, she put her hand over her mouth to help hide her shock. Brendwin had stolen a hooded tunic o hide his pointed ears.

            “Do you know how to use one of these, boy?” Donnic asked, handing him a musket. Brendwin shook his head. “Alright then, I’ll show you.” He put down the second musket and held his up.

            “Watch and learn.” Donnic began to explain how to load the musket. First, he took one of the containers attached to a leather strap that went diagonally down his chest and poured the black powder down the musket. He then took a little ball from a pouch, put it down the barrel, pulled out a ram rod, or scouring stick as he called it, from the bottom of the musket and rammed the ball down the barrel. After placing the scouring stick back in its proper place, Donnic reached for a little rope called a match cord that was burnt slightly at one tip. He blew on the match cord, making sure he saw it glow with head, and put it into the jaws cock on the gun. He pulled the trigger to make sure that the match cord would be able to make it to a little pan on the side. Finally, he took a larger powder keg, poured just a little bit of powder in the pan, covered up the pan with a little cover, blew off any loose powder and took the cover off the pan.

            “Now you’re ready to fire.” Donnic said, passing the gun to Brendwin. Brendwin aimed down at one of the targets. Donnic started to load his own gun. “Do not fire until I’m ready.”

Brendwin started to get nervous. He could feel his hands shaking slightly as he was worried about worrying too long and that something could go wrong. Luckily, he noticed that Donnic was loading much faster than before. That put him at ease. He looked down the sight of the gun again, taking in slow breaths and easing his muscles.

“Now be ready for the kick back of the gun. It can be painful.” Donnic said, aiming down the gun. The announcer walked in between the two of them and raised his hand.

“This final match shall determine the winner! Donnic, the master marksman, versus…what’s your name lad?” Brendwin kept his eyes focused down the gun when the announcer asked him. “Very well then. Donnic, the master marksman,