enjoy the breeze

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

i wrote Legend 16 at 4:04 AM for you.

Demetrius sat on the porch, watching his three older apprentices play on the grassland. It had started out as a friendly game of Tag; but, as expected, Virgil had provoked Alexander, and the game had been elevated to a fight.

Tobias sat beside Demetrius, his hands in his lap. He had been here for three months already. He watched his seniors in silence, his blue-green eyes wide and attentive. He was small and his feet dangled a good meter off the ground. He never played with his seniors. It was not that he did not like them; he simply did not understand the concept of play. Over the past three months, he had been taught to fight to defend himself. He had not been taught to fight for fun (what was “fun”, anyway? No one had explained the idea to him yet). His seniors actually seemed to enjoy hitting each other.

He turned to Demetrius. The master was almost twice as tall as he was, and the strongest person he had ever seen—but he had come to realize that Demetrius never meant anyone any harm.

Upon sensing the small boy’s gaze, Demetrius turned to look at him. “Yes, Tobias?”

Tobias pointed at his seniors. Alexander had just given Virgil a good whack on the head.

“He’ll be fine,” Demetrius assured him. “They’re just playing.”

Tobias looked at him.

“Oh,” he said finally, understanding the question. “That’s their way of having fun, I suppose. They enjoy these little fights, but they never mean each other harm. They hit hard, of course,” he admitted, just as Virgil lashed out with a flying kick, “but they don’t do serious hurt to each other. They’re friends, after all.”

Tobias nodded, the new word echoing in his head.

“They’re your friends, too,” Demetrius said to him. “You can play with them any time you like.”

Tobias did not move from his place on the porch. Somehow, hitting his seniors to play didn’t seem quite right. He wasn’t sure what “friends” were just yet, but if his seniors were anything to go by, he knew he was not going to like the games they were familiar with.

Demetrius watched him, his grey eyes serious. He had come to realize that, despite where he had come from and how he had been treated, Tobias knew how to love, even if the boy himself was not conscious of it. He never hurt anyone, or for that matter, anything. He never killed ants or beetles or shot stones at birds, which was what a lot of boys liked to do. He was always willing to help around the house (the “motives” behind each one had to be explained to him—he had not understood the concept of washing dishes), and always listened to his seniors’ instructions. He he was a born fighter. But Demetrius was almost convinced that Tobias would never be a threat to anyone.

Then again, he thought wryly, Tobias would go through the test. Things would change for him.

Tobias was examining a ladybug that had found its way on the porch. As Demetrius watched, the ten-year-old boy stretched out a finger and let the ladybug climb onto it. Any other boy his age would have found interest in crushing the little insect.

Humans are created in funny ways. Demetrius looked at the talented young fighter and it occurred to him that Tobias’s head was made for battle—but that his heart was made for peace.

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PROFILE

this is where i let rip, so be warned that you might not like everything that pops up here. but i do, so deal with it. (: .

loves

this is so subject to change that i'm not even gonna bother listing them down.

hates

too many, and the list would be extremely volatile, anyway.

wants

a place in Oxford University (good luck, jennifer.)
for someone to know that he has a special place in her heart!
to survive in HCJC next year
not to have so many wants (but who's counting?)

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