5: Tor's Story

5

TOR’S STORY

 

 

 

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.

 

-Eddie Rickenbacker

 

 

 

 

 

Tor Alandia Khellesctherh was born on December 1, 1145. His trader train happened to be in Wales at the time of his birth. His mother was the leader of that train, a fierce woman named Andria, and wife of Tanner Khellesctherh.  Most people knew her as “Dove”.

          This is because when Andria was 15 her mother told her that she was to be married off to another trader and that she could never hold the rank of Master Glass Maker, which she had earned. In rage, Andria shot an arrow into the air, and the arrow took down a mourning dove. She picked up the dead bird and left the trader train with nothing but her bow and the bird. She later wove the dove’s feathers into her hair, starting her own train and calling herself Dove Glassweaver.

          Tor was a member of this train, where anyone could hold any rank if they could earn it, be them male or female. He was the first born of four children, the other three all girls. The oldest was Laura, then Tia, then Cara. Cara was sixteen years younger than Tor.

          Tor was taught all the skills and secrets of Glass Weaving, as his mother called it, and by the time he was nineteen he could “spin” a vase just as well as his teacher.

His father was a quiet man. If Andria was day then Tanner was night. He never said much to Tor, who was always much more deep of thought than he. Half of the time he couldn’t figure out what his only son was saying. Tor had always been in love with books, parchment, quills. Tanner had always thought he should do something more than just read. He had always thought to himself that his oldest child should learn to wield a sword. But, as was Tanner’s way, he told no one.

But Tor felt his father’s disapproval, he felt in the air around him. And one late night when the train had stopped to let the animals rest, he told this to his lover, Sarah.

“I just can feel it, Sarah. He thinks nothing of me. It doesn’t even make him happy to see me do so well in the craft. He hates me.’

“Tor! Of course he doesn’t!” She’d said, her large blue eyes filled with dismay. “Your father loves you, just as he loves all of us.”

“That’s my point, Sarah!” Tor said. “Of course he loves all of us, like a good leader should, but has he any love for me as a son?”

 

Tor’s only rival, when it came to who was the best apprentice, was Samantha, Sam, for short. The two traders were the same age, were even born in the same month, but they had two completely different personalities. Sam was overly confident, and a little stuck on herself to tell the truth. She possessed a dark sort of beauty; dark hair, dark complexion, and deep brown eyes.

          Raul was obsessed with her, much to Tor’s dismay, as the two were best friends. It had been a long day, and they knew they had to get up early the next morning, but even so, the boys lay in the grass near the woods, Tor rolling his eyes as Raul pined over Sam.

“She’s just so gorgeous!”

“She’s a hag.”

“She’s not! She’s just prideful of her skills, which she has every right to be!”

“You sound like a girl.” Tor informed him. Raul punched his shoulder.

“Anyway, maybe if she starts to like me she’ll tell me how she does it.” Raul said.

“Does what?”

“How’s she so good at glassweaving!” He said, as if it should be obvious.

“I’m better at glassweaving than she is!” Tor said angrily.

“Yes, I know.” Raul assured him, “But somehow it’s just not the same coming from you. I mean, can you imagine it? A quiet moonlit night, the stars shining…”

“Ick.”

“What do you mean, ‘ick’?”

“’Ick’ as in ‘you have mental problems if you think she’s cute’, ‘ick’.”

“You’re crazy. If I had one night…”

“What is that?” Tor interrupted.

“What’s what?” Raul said, looking around.

“Around your neck, stupid.”

“Oh, this?” He said, and turned the strange bauble up so he could look at it. It looked like a slightly charred, twisted piece of glass.  “This is my newest creation.”

“What was it supposed to be?” Tor asked him, not sure of whether or not it was okay to laugh.

“A vase. It kind of turned out different than I expected, though. But your mother liked it! See? She even stamped the bottom with her seal of approval!” And Raul showed him the bottom of the creation. Sure enough, there was the train’s approval stamp: a dove spreading its wings behind a vase that said GLASSWEAVER.

Tor had to laugh, he couldn’t help it.

“Are you really gonna wear that?”

“Sure I am! Until I pass it on to my children, of course. Samantha the second maybe…”

 

Time passed. There were happy nights around a warm fire, and there were long, dreadful days when it rained the whole way to whatever town they were trying to get to.

          It was the end of April, on one of those gloomy days, and the horses were nervous and fidgeted constantly. The oxen did not want to move forward. Andria called the train to a halt.

“There’s some horses up ahead, coming this way. Let’s wait for them to pass before we move on.”

The horses were coming their way. Fast. It didn’t seem natural. This road was small. If they didn’t slow down they would run into the carts, which should be easy to see.

          Everything fell into place for Tor when the first arrow sped through the air.

“MOM! Mom, we’re under attack!”

But it was too late for anything to be done. The humans came down on them like a wave crashing down onto the unsuspecting shore.

          Andria had grabbed the sword she kept in one of the carts, and she had killed one of them already. Tor reached for his dagger and found his hand held back by a human. Two had come up behind him and held him back away from the fight.

“Watch, wretch. Watch them die. Don’t worry. We won’t kill ya. Your punishment is to live!”

Tor could do nothing but watch in horror as the humans killed them, everyone he had ever known. They tipped over the carts, glass spilling everywhere, coating the ground in its shards.

Andria was the last one standing. She fought them until she was surrounded, and she had no way to escape. They ran her through.

Tor was screaming so loud he couldn’t hear himself doing it. The humans laughed, threw him onto the ground and left him, alone with the dead.

He crawled over to his mother’s body, the glass cutting through his clothes and into his skin. He didn’t care.

“Mother,” he cried, and held her close to him, “please don’t go.”

Dove Glassweaver smiled at her first child.

“It’ll be alright, child. I’ll be okay.” She lifted a hand to his face and wiped away the tears that were streaming down his cheeks. “You could be so great. You could be…” Her voice faltered.

“Mother!” Tor yelled, and shook her. “Mother, don’t go, Mother! Don’t go!”

Andria smiled at her son, but her eyes were closed. “Don’t ya see that I have ta? Don’t worry about me, Tor. Go to Tanackniatah. It’s not far from here. Learn all you want to know. You could be so much more than just a trader. Go.”

“I won’t leave you! I won’t!” He yelled, just like a stubborn child.

“I love…” Her voice faltered again. “I love you.” And Andria died.

Tor let out a horrible sob, and held her limp figure up next to him. “I love you too” He kept saying. “I love you too.”

          He lay there like that for a long time, just sobbing. And the sky cried too, cried for him, and for the doomed races of the Mythics.

          It was hours before he realized that there was some other noise to the right of him. The humans had left one horse alive, still hooked up to one of the toppled carts. The mare’s name was Ruby, and she had belonged to Raul.

No, his mind screamed, and he did not realize he was screaming out loud. I will not leave!

          Tor crawled across the glass-covered ground, not feeling the sharp pieces cutting into him. He picked up a dagger that someone had dropped and cut the horse lose.

“There!” He yelled at it. “Go! Get!”

But Ruby did not move. She stood there, staring at him, just like her former master would have.

“GO!” Tor yelled again, “GET OUT OF HERE! Go…” But the horse would not go, and Tor leaned against its strong frame and sobbed even harder than before.

          Yes, he would go. He would go like his mother had said, and learn all he wanted to know. Yes, he would go to Tanackniatah and become a knight, just like his father always wanted of him.

          Tor pulled himself up onto Ruby and moved it forward into the woods and towards Tanackniatah, and away from his shattered world.