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The Obsidian Tree

Book 1: Odessa

By Hester MosesPublished 2 years ago 17 min read
2

There weren't always Dragons in the valley. There was a time, perhaps 20 years ago, that the people in the valley did not even know that Dragons existed. Now it was impossible to live without some form of influence from a Dragon touching the everyday lives of most citizens. Most people seemed happy with that in any case. The Dragons brought prosperity to the places they settled. Towns flourished and became cities, small villages became mercantile hubs, and even the smallest hamlets without their own resident Dragon reaped the benefits of their neighbouring Dragondens.

Torrin was from one such hamlet. He also didn't pay much attention to the happenings at nearby Lundstentown, which was the Lundsten Region Dragonden. All he knew about Dragons was that his grandmother was wary of their supernatural powers, and so he steered clear of them and their business unless he absolutely had to. He was quite happy with his simple life as a dumbleberry farmer from the Hamlet of Dumble Creek. He had a small house that he shared with his grandmother Dessa and younger sister Nerys, and a modest 15 acres of lush rolling hills, from which he nourished his berry shrubs. Standing tall and broad shouldered from the years of hard farm labour, Torrin was an imposing figure. His dark wavy hair was chopped haphazardly, and his dark olive-green eyes were flecked with golden yellow shards. He had his fair share of interested maidens to say the least. He was a ripe marrying age after all, but Torrin's mind couldn't be further from the thought of marriage. He had eyes only for his dumbleberry fields, and his devotion remained with grandmother Dessa and Nerys. He had to provide, and so he had no time to court or be interested in the maidens of the town.

Year over year he brought his bushels to the Lundstentown market where he sold his crop to the general population and the local wine makers. The Lundsten region was well known for its dumbleberry wines and juices, and Torrin's berries were the very best. It was even said that the wines made from his berries made it right to Cassian Dragon's very own dinner table. Torrin couldn't care less. Whether it was Cassian Dragon's bedazzled cup, or the trough of widow Sesta's donkey from Dumble Creek, he did not bother as to where his berries ended up. When he got his pay out, he was happy to amble on home and start the process all over again.

It was on a morning at the market like many others before it, when Torrin's peaceful existence would begin to change forever. He had just finished unloading his last dumbleberry bushel in the market square. He was the first vendor as usual, so the morning light was just beginning to touch the pillars of the town hall. Torrin liked being early so he could relax a little before the market filled up with the bustling crowds of heckling buyers. He was just getting ready to have a morning cup of bumbleberry tea, when he spotted a figure in the dim light walking across the market square. It was an elderly woman, relatively short in stature and of unremarkable looks. She was wearing a deep green dress, with a moss coloured cloak. Her hair was grey and pulled back in a neat bun. She walked right towards Torrin's stall and stopped. He continued to sit in a reclined position sipping his tea, hoping that perhaps she would get a hint and come back later. She stood there without saying a word, just staring at Torrin, until eventually he got up. The woman could have been in her late 70's, but still held her posture tought and erect.

For a few seconds they just stared at each other. She seemed to be intently studying his eyes. At one point her eyebrows raised and she gave Torrin a slightly confused and perturbed look. Torrin never broke eye contact, and eventually asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Yes." Said the green clad woman. "I'd like to buy your whole crop". She said it so matter of fact that it caught Torrin off guard. "Oh, I can't do that for you. Most of my goods are spoken for." he said.

"Name your price. I'm sure I can out bid them." She retorted.

"I'm sorry. I'm not interested in undercutting my existing customers. They have my loyalty as a supplier" Torrin responded with the same tone. The small wine and spirit makers in the town depended on his crop for their livelihoods afterall.

The woman cocked her head slightly to the side. She continued to look at Torrin. There was something unsettling about her demeanor, but he couldn't quite place it. Something about the way she moved was almost bird like. And her eyes; they were bewitchingly chilly. It was like looking at an open door that led into darkness, and the more you looked, the more you started to see things that weren't there.

The market began to bustle, and early shoppers began to mill around the stalls. A woman gasped and quickly dashed over to her friend at the vegetable vendor. They began to whisper and glance in Torrin's direction. They were clearly speaking about the strange woman. As if shocked out of her trance, the woman changed her countenance instantly. She smiled warmly, the creases at the corners of her eyes outlining her now seemingly genuine and kind eyes. She said, "Torrin of Dumble Creek. I had heard you were noble of heart and loyal in character. I'm glad to see for myself that these were not exaggerations. I'm so very honoured to meet you. My name is Kazimira Molach. You may have heard of me."

Torrin was taken aback. This was Kazimira, the Dragon of Lundstentown? He had heard of her of course, but for some reason he hadn't imagined her to look this way at all. His thoughts must have been written all over his face, because Kazimira chuckled and continued, "I guess you had not imagined a Dragon to look as unassuming and normal as me. That's a common misconception many people have. Us Dragons...we are just people with gifts, but that's it. Just a person like you."

"Yes. I guess you could say I'm a little surprised. " Said Torrin. "But I'm mostly more confused about your interest in purchasing my whole crop of dumbleberries. I'm still not open to selling them to you, Dragon or not." He continued.

"Oh of course not. Forget about the whole thing." the Dragon said. " I do believe I'll be seeing more of you soon though" she added with a small smile curling up on one side of her mouth. The words came out warm and sickly sweet, but the delivery seemed off kilter again. She then turned around and walked away through the market square, quickly disappearing into the now busy morning market. Torrin was left standing there, staring blankly into the crowd. "What did she mean she'd be seeing more of me soon enough", he thought to himself. He shook his head and decided it was probably best not to dwell on what just happened, and so he started to pack the bushels into crates for his customers.

Most people may have been excited at the notion of being noticed by a Dragon. It was said that Dragons were experts at reading people and had a sense for when someone held greatness within them. That is why when a Dragon brought someone into their circle, that person always succeeded. Even though this personal visit from the Dragon Kazimira may have been a suggestion that Torrin was on her radar, he just wasn't interested in changing anything about his life. As far as he was concerned everything was just the way he wanted it to be, and no fancy high flying Dragon was going to change his mind.

At the end of his market day, Torrin quickly stacked his empty baskets and crates back into his wagon, and hitched up Hony, the old family Donkey. As he was just about to jump up to the wagon seat, Deva ran out of her father’s bakery to hand him a basket. “I made you some food for you for the ride home, “she said. “I made extra treats for your grandmother and sister too, so don’t go eating all the dumbleberry twists you hear?” She added jokingly. “Oh, thank you Deva. You know I do love your baking. Tell your parents I say hello. “Replied Torrin, peeking inside the basket and smelling the delicious aroma of fresh pastries. Deva really did know how to bake he’d give her that. With basket in hand, Torrin hopped up on his wagon with one swift step and rode off down the busy main road of Lundstentown, turning to give a quick wave and smile to Deva, who stood there with a hopeful look in her eyes.

It's not that Torrin wouldn’t be interested in Deva, or any of the other young ladies showering him with baked goods and flirtations every time he visited town. It’s just that Torrin was very fond and protective of Grandmother Dessa and his sister Nerys. There was no one else to look after them right now, with Grandmother Dessa at such an old age, and Nerys just finishing her studies. Only until Torrin felt that his family was taken care of, would he allow himself to devote his time to a love interest. When Torrin and Nerys were young, their mother and father died during the great sickness that swept the valley. Torrin and Nerys were both taken ill too, but they pulled through. Unfortunately, what they awoke to was the new reality of orphan life. This is when Grandmother Dessa took them both in. You see, Dessa was not their real grandmother. She was an elderly childless widow that was a neighbour and employer to Torrins's family when the times were good. She had owned the majority of the dumbleberry acres in the area and had hired Torrin's father to take care of them. She had a lame leg and had trouble walking for long distances, so in a way she also depended on the family for a lot more than just farm labour. Torrin's mother often visited with Dessa, and the two would talk and bake together with the children playing around the kitchen table, or outside with the chickens.

The children didn't know too much about Dessa’s personal life, but she had aways been kind and attentive to them and appreciated the company of the young family. In a way, apart from the deaths of their parents, everything else remained the same for the children when they were under the patronage of Grandmother Dessa.

Torrin was 12 years old when his parents passed, and that was old enough to understand the gravity of the situation. He had always been so grateful to Dessa. He vowed to work the fields and make Dessa's dumbleberries the pride of Lundsten region. And so, he did. When he became old enough, Dessa gave the farm to Torrin and Nerys. Offcially this left Dessa with nothing worldly left to her name. She didn't mind. She sat in her swaying chair, and read passages from her Elden Book, looking forward to when Torrin would return home from the fields, or when Nerys came back from school.

Nerys did not take to farming the way Torrin did. She tried for a little while in her early teens, but under Grandmother Dessa's tutelage, Nerys flourished academically. It was decided that she would attend school in Lundstentown and pursue a path in that direction. She excelled in her studies and developed a keen sense for the botanical healing arts. She often joked that even though she didn't have an ounce of sense to grow plants, she always knew how to cut them up and use them to help relieve ailments and sickness. Nerys hoped that one day she would be able to save people from untimely death, like what had happened to her parents.

It was on this day, after Torrin's market meeting with Kazimira, that Nerys divulged her exciting news. Torrin was just putting the donkey away when Nerys got home.

"Oh Tor, I have the most exciting news! I can't wait to tell you and grandma!" Nerys yelled, as she hugged Torrin. "Come inside and I'll announce it to both of you at the same time." She said. She ran into the house, her long dark brown hair flailing behind her. Torrin smiled to himself as he finished putting the donkey away in the stable for the night. He was happy for Nerys' successes. He felt that they were a direct reflection of his years of hard work on the farm.

He was just locking up the stable doors when he heard raised voices inside the house. "You can't tell me what to do with my life, you’re not even really related to me! This is the opportunity of a lifetime!" Nerys' voice carried through the cracks in the window frame. Torrin walked inside quickly to see why what seemed like was going to be a good night, had suddenly taken a turn for the worse.

Dessa sat in her swaying chair as usual. She held her Elden book, and her facial expression looked grave. Nerys stood at the head of the dinner table, her cheeks flushed and angry tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "Tor, it's just not fair. There's no talking sense to her." Nerys burst out.

"What's not fair? What was this ‘great’ news you had?" Torrin responded.

"I've been selected to work as a healing apprentice directly for Dragon Kazimira herself in her Apothecary and Healing Center! Can you imagine the experience? And everything that I would learn from her? And grandma is just going on about her usual *Dragons are not to be trusted* nonsense. Come on! Everyone trusts them!" Nerys said, her hands clenched into tight fists by her sides.

Torrin remained silent for a little bit thinking it through. Then he said, “Grandma Dessa is old and wise. Maybe she knows best when it comes to matters regarding dragons. Although I…”

“Look, I even received my own Obsidian herb dish as a welcoming gift.” She said, cutting Torrin off mid-sentence, as she reached into her bag and began to pull out a black and shiny midsized dish.

In a flash something flew across the room. Grandmother Dessa’s walking cane was the object in question, and it knocked the black mirror right out of Nerys’ hand, and down on to the stone floor, cracking it into multiple fractures that travelled across it’s shiny surface like a web. Nerys’ jaw dropped as she processed what had just happened. She looked heart broken, horrified, and just completely distraught. Torrin didn’t know how to respond to this. On the one hand, he always advocated to listen to Grandmother Dessa. After all, she only wanted what was best for the two of them and loved them like she would have her own children. However, this seemed a little more complicated to him. What’s more, he thought that throwing a cane across the room was a bit too intense, even for grandmother Dessa. While Torrin stood there at a loss for words, Nerys’ distress quickly evolved into anger.

“How could you! You had no right…You know what? I’m sick of it. I’m finally good at something. Really good at it. And now I’m not allowed to take the leap I need to become self-sufficient. You’re just scared that once I leave, you won’t have anyone to boss around!” She yelled at both Grandmother Dessa and Torrin. With that she ran down the hallway and into her room, slamming the door behind her like an indignant child.

Dessa and Torrin didn’t even get a chance to start a discussion of their own before Nerys came out of her room with a few bags in tow.

“Wait, where are you going now?” Torrin asked. He was feeling helpless in the whole exchange.

“Kazimira has offered me bed and board during my apprenticeship. Initially I declined, but now I think I’m going to take her up on her offer.” Nerys said with a nonchalant air.

“Oh Nerys, please listen to reason!” pleaded Grandmother Dessa. “You don’t understand what you’re dabbling with. It seems promising I know, but it’s not worth it! Believe me!”

Grandmother Dessa’s pleas fell on deaf ears. Nerys had walked out the front door briskly and shut it as quickly as she could behind her. The cracked Obsidian dish was all that remained laying broken on the stone floor of the kitchen. By the time Torrin gathered his wits and followed Nerys outside, all he caught was the dust settling and the sound of hooves pattering down the road and around the bend.

He walked back into the house to find that Grandmother Dessa had thrown an old dish rag on top the Obsidian dish. She was sitting back in her chair, hands clenched and wringing together, looking towards the window. He pulled up a chair to face her, and gently reached out to hold her hands in his. Her hands were trembling. She turned to look at Torrin, her eyes were filled with tears and an intense sorrow that he had not seen before.

After a while in silence, she said, “Torrin. I have failed you and Nerys.”

“No Grandma, you mustn’t think that way. Nerys is just young and spirited. She will realize in time. Please forgive her.” Torrin replied.

“It is not as simple as it may seem my dear Torrin. If she is taken into the fold of Kazimira, it will be too late. She will be lost. I fear that more is at stake now than I would have ever imagined possible....I always thought I was being so careful, “She trailed off. Her gaze slowly turned to the dish rag on the floor covering the Obsidian dish.

Torrin didn’t quite understand what she was saying. He was however surprised at hearing Kazimira’s name come out of his grandmother’s mouth. She never called them by name.

“Grandma. I’m afraid I don’t understand in full what you are saying. I also want to say that perhaps it isn’t so bad that Nerys gets to do this apprenticeship. Being a part of the world is important to her. You know she’s always wanted to travel and see beyond the valley. This will give her the chance to travel through Zem. She’s been well prepared by you. She won’t fall for the tricks of Dragons or evil beings, she’s smarter than that.”

Grandmother Dessa’s trembling hands were no longer shaking. She now leaned forward in her chair and took Torrin’s large and callused hands into her own frail and wrinkled ones. She said, “No Torrin. Any time you allow yourself to fall into the temptations, however minimal, presented to you by Dragons, you fall deeper into a pit that you cannot climb out from. At least not without great personal peril and sacrifice. It is a dangerous game to play. It starts out wonderful, but leaves you empty. Soon you do not feel like yourself. You lose your soul Torrin. You become someone…something else.”

This was the same warning his grandmother always had. Torrin believed her, but he also saw why Nerys would begin to question the repetitive old-world views. In practice the dragons were good luck, and most of the people in towns were excited by their presence. People even wished they could be Dragons themselves, but that seldom happened. Torrin thought back to his encounter with Kazimira at the market earlier that day. She looked so normal with her green cape, and her bun of grey hair. There was something unsettling about her though he had to admit to that.

He continued in saying, “I think the issue is that Nerys just wonders how you know for a fact that Dragons are bad. There is no actual proof in hand for her to understand why. If she just saw it with her own two eyes…”

Grandmother Dessa’s expression turned very serious. She said, “Torrin. I know for a fact that Dragons are pure evil. I know this because…I used to be one.”

Fantasy
2

About the Creator

Hester Moses

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Outstanding

Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!

Top insights

  1. Easy to read and follow

    Well-structured & engaging content

  2. Excellent storytelling

    Original narrative & well developed characters

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Comments (1)

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  • Brin J.2 years ago

    So, I saw your title, and it was very simple yet captivating. Then I read your story. It's very well made. I love the dialogue, the interactions, and the build-up to the potential plot. :) If it doesn't win don't be discouraged, you definitely have talent and I see it.

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