THE WIEKTS
Chapter 13: OARN - Going Back

The professor was sitting under the tree, looking very calm and content to just enjoy the breeze with the book opened on his lap. He was the newest addition to the faculty, but he was quick to become the favorite of every scholar there. He was funny, tremendously clever, and exceptionally witty. Only very few students and pre-scholars disliked him and even that was only done because of envy. It wasn’t that surprising to know that he was envied by a lot of people. He was nearly perfect. Every girl — and some of the guys — practically swoon every time he looked at them. Even his fellow professors would look at him in awe whenever he spoke to them about anything. He was just that charismatic. Smiling softly, I walked towards his still figure. I didn’t want to trouble him but he was the one who said that everyone could come to him to talk about anything anytime. So, I decided to use that opportunity. I didn’t have anything in particular to talk about. I just wanted to know about him and his story as to how he became a professor in the faculty. It was a story that he often told to the younger students as a motivational story for their future.

“Hello, Professor,” I said softly.

“Oh, hello. Didn’t see you there. What are you doing here? Don’t you have classes to go to?” he asked, surprised at seeing me.

“No. The last class was cancelled and the next one won’t start for another hour.” I sat beside him without asking for permission because I knew that he wouldn’t mind. “So, Professor. Since I didn’t have anything to do, would you mind telling me that story?”

“What story?”

“The one about how you came to teach here.”

He laughed but agreed to tell me his story. “Alright, alright. Make yourself comfortable then.”

And with that he began his story into the past. “You know, my homeland was quite far from here. It was in the Kingdom far North that people called Proscris…”

I always knew that I was different from the other boys. I didn’t like playing with wooden sticks and pretending that I was fighting a nameless enemy. I thought that activity was idiotic and vile. And I wouldn’t stand a chance against the other boys after all. I was too skinny for that kind of activities. I was tall, yes, quite tall, but skinny and small. I was also not one of those kids blessed with good-looking features. I was quite average. Moreover, I hated violence, because nothing good had ever come from it. I would rather sit at home together with my mind and imagination running wild and free. But sadly, it was almost impossible. My father wasn’t exactly fond of people who lounge around doing nothing with their time. He didn’t understand the joy that it brought me to let my imagination roam free, creating new worlds and creatures full of magical elements. It was nice to know that I could run from the harsh reality for a while. But every time he caught me lost in my mind, he would shout at me and told me to do some errands for him, usually delivering his harvested goods to the market or his friends in town. I would do it, grumbling the whole time.

I tried to be as resourceful as I could in learning things by myself such as reading and writing. I did it all without my father’s knowledge. I learned to write and read from the merchants that come to our town. They were so nice to everyone and so didn’t mind me asking a lot of questions. The problem was, those merchants never stayed in one place for too long. And so, my teacher was always changing. But I survived and managed to learn as much as I could from the various teachers that I had. I had a very a vast knowledge of the world compared to the other kids my age because I always listen to the stories that my teachers told me. I was so impressed with them that I decided — after I succeeded in mastering the reading and writing skills — that I would be a teacher myself. But first, I needed to be a scholar.

“Oarn!” A loud voice from the front door startled me out of my daydream.

I stood up and saw my father bustling through the door with a lot of things on his hand. He grunted because of the heavy things on his hands and frowned seeing me doing nothing to help him.

“Help me, Oarn!” he barked loudly. I helped him to put the things, which apparently were vegetables from his recent harvest, away.

“What are you going to do with all of these vegetables, father?” I asked him.

“Deliver this to the market in town, Oarn. Quickly now. They needed more vegetables.”

I sighed but did as I was told. “Yes, Father.”

He left me with those vegetables and went to the kitchen. I guessed that since Hart was killed during the battle, — I loved him and no matter what Father said about his death, I would always think that he died in battle — Roan was somewhere outside the city, — Father wouldn’t tell me anything — and Thoar was in the Capital being a soldier in the King’s army, Father only had me left to succeed his farm. He started to give me a lot of work to do regarding the care of his farmlands nowadays. I detested it. I didn’t want to be a land owner. I wanted to be a teacher but the last time I brought the subject up, it didn’t end really well. I could still remember that day well enough even though I wanted to simply forget it.

“Father,” I said at that time, trying to open up a conversation. “I would like to talk to you about something.”

“What is it, Oarn?” asked him, uninterested.

“I wanted to be a teacher someday, Father. And so, I needed all the training I could ever get and the best training in the whole land was in Erzieg, so I was thinking if I could —.”

“You wanted to go to Erzieg? To study?” he said, cutting me mid-sentence. He said the last word as if it was a poison in his mouth.

“Yes, Father.”

“Are you mad?”

I clammed up. There were just so many things that I wanted to say to him but I just couldn’t say it. My throat seemed constricted and no words would come out.

“What are you thinking, Oarn? Being a teacher? What good will it give you? As a man you don’t need to be smart to survive in this world. Look at your brother Thoar! He couldn’t even read but he’s the Captain of the King’s army. Besides, if you go to Erzieg who will take care of my land after I’m gone, Oarn?” he huffed and then sighed heavily.

“Listen. I know you’re smart. You’re the smartest from all of us, but you know what happened to this family. I’ve lost two sons. Two! Each of them had failed me and this family. Thoar was finally making our family name rose in the Capital’s society circle as one of the youngest Captain. I couldn’t simply ask him to leave all of that and go back here to take care of a land, could I?” He rubbed his temple and continued. “You’re my only hope now, Oarn. There’s no one left from our family to take care of this land that I worked so much for.”

I understood. I completely understood him, but understanding something and wanting something were two completely different things. I knew that Father had suffered a lot. Even though sometimes I thought that he brought that suffering to himself, but it didn’t change the fact that he suffered through a lot of deaths. No father should watch his sons leaving this world before him. And my father had experienced seeing two of his sons left this world. Sure Roan wasn’t really dead, but his body was just an empty shell, so that Father thought of him as dead all the same.

“I understand, Father.”

I walked out of the room and since then I had never talked about the matter anymore. Father had made his decision clear. As much as I didn’t like his ways sometimes, he was still my father and I understood his difficulty. This land was the result his hard work and so it wasn’t surprising that he would want someone from his direct bloodline to succeed him when he passed away. It made sense. But again, I didn’t have to like it.

Going back to the present time, I hauled the heavy vegetables with a grunt and left for the market. Once there, the sellers greeted me and helped me to put the vegetables on their shelves to be displayed. It was quite late and so the market wasn’t that crowded but there were still some people milling about the place trying to get their hands on the new batch of vegetables coming from the farms. One of them was my best friend, Ila. She was a girl several years older than me — and taller too. I met her when I sneaked into one of the merchant’s tents to learn more about reading and writing. Apparently, she shared my passion about the skills but her parents wouldn’t let her learn anything except if it was about taking care of the house and cooking.

“Hey there, Oarn! How’re you doing?” she greeted me cheerfully.

“Don’t be so loud.” I smirked at her knowing that it would grate her nerves. She hated to be reminded that she had an unnaturally loud voice and her parents often berated her about it. They would always say that it wasn’t nice for a girl to be that loud. I got a smack on the arm for that comment.

“Don’t try to be smart,” she said, grinning widely to let me know that she didn’t mean anything rude by it.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her.

“The usual thing. Mother told me to get more vegetables. Apparently, I need to improve my skill in cooking those green things.”

“You still can’t cook them, huh? Want me to teach you?”

There was one more thing that I hid from my father except my reading and writing skills. I could cook exceptionally well. Back when I was still a kid, I loved to watch Mother cooked in the kitchen and just sort of picked the skill up by observation, I guessed. There was no clear explanation except that I could do it and I liked it. It was almost calming. But I couldn’t imagine myself telling my parents about this. Father would be livid.

“Sure. Come on.” She quickly agreed.

“Where are we going to do it?”

“Is your father in the house?”

I nodded. She cursed under her breath and I laughed again. That was what I liked about her. She would swear and curse no matter what the people said about her. It wasn’t that I particularly liked cursing myself, but the implication of her action, the rebellious strike in her, was the thing that I admired from her the most.

“Can’t we do it in your house?” I asked her.

“Don’t be stupid. Mother told me to go here to buy vegetables, you know. She would be waiting for me to come back. It’ll be like walking into a lioness’ den.” She shivered.

“Well, where else can we go then?”

“I think I know a place. But I’m not sure they’ll let you in.”

“Where is it? Who’s ‘they’?”

She looked at me dubiously and then seemed to be determined enough. She nodded. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay, sure.”

I waited. I didn’t even question her, because I trusted her. There was nothing she did that would put me in danger. She wasn’t that kind of person. So, I waited for her. After quite a while, she came back with a big grin on her face.

“They will allow us to use their kitchen?” I asked her teasingly.

“You’re right! Come on.” She started walking but then stopped abruptly. “Oh wait. I almost forgot. First you need to promise that you won’t talk about whatever you see in that house to anyone, especially your parents.”

“What? Are you a part of something fishy? Planning a rebellion perhaps?”

I laughed hard but then realized that she didn’t join me in my laughter. Instead, she looked awfully serious. I looked confusedly at her for a few seconds then it dawned on me that perhaps my joke hit straight at the point. I gaped like a fish out of the water then.

“Shut your gaping mouth, Oarn. Come on.” She dragged me to follow her into the direction of the outer part of the town.

“Are you really a part of a rebellious group?” I asked her in a hushed tone.

“I promise I’ll tell you everything you need to know once we reached the house. It’s not safe to talk about this here.”

So I followed her, as always. She brought me through some very confusing alleyways in the town. I didn’t even know that they were there before she showed it to me. After a while of walking in the maze of alleyways, we stopped in front of a rather nice looking two-storey house. It was painted white but the paint started to peel off in some places. But all in all, the house was looking like the usual house owned by a normal family.

“So, Oarn. Promise me you will never tell anyone about this house or whatever you see inside. Yes you’re right. We’re planning a rebellious movement, sort of. It wasn’t a rebellion per se. We just want to change how people think about what we should do in order to fit in.” She had stopped in front of the door and started to explain.

“Change how people think? What do you mean?”

“Don’t you get tired with your parents and the people who didn’t even know you tell you what to do with your life? Don’t you get tired with the way they forced the custom and tradition to you in order to fit in with their standard of normalcy? And don’t you get tired with them punishing you just because you’re a bit different from them? Well, I do. And they do too. So, we come up with this plan of a movement to make the people see that everyone should be able to choose for themselves instead of just following what the society wants!”

By the end of her little speech she was positively glowing with excitement. But I wasn’t convinced. I got her points and even agreed with them, but I still couldn’t follow her train of thoughts. There would be repercussions from her ‘movement’ and the people would see it as a rebellion against the King himself no matter what she called it. The risks were too great. So that was what I said to her.

“I get your point, Ila. And I promise that I won’t tell anyone about this matter. But I don’t think that I could support you in this. The risks are just too great. If I know that you won’t listen to me no matter what I said, I will stop you from going too far with this movement.”

She looked grim for a second but then gave me a small smile and a pat on the back. “I know that you’ll understand. It’s fine if you don’t support this movement. I wasn’t asking you to join me or anything. I just wanted you to promise that you won’t tell anyone else about this because it might put our plan in jeopardy.”

“I know. I promise.”

“Thank you, Oarn. Well, to be honest, I did want you to join. We could use a skill like yours in our diplomatic area, but well if you don’t want to, I understand. They will understand too. And if someday you want to join the movement, we’ll accept you with open arms.”

“Thanks, Ila.”

We shared a fond smile and a hug. Then she grinned at me and gestured at the house with her head. “Now, ready to teach me how to cook those vegetables, Mr. Oarn?”

“Ready when you are, Miss Ila!”

She made a face at the title miss but then laughed hard and loud. With a light hearted feelings, we entered the house.