A New Life (Part 6)
#1 of A New Life
Brande jumped up quickly and stepped forward towards the exit, but was halted a the firm gasp from the elder behind him on his wrist. Turning around, Brande gave the minotaur a puzzled look. He merely shook his head slowly and motioned for Brande to sit back down. "Wait, give him a while to calm down. Rushing up to him and blurting out thoughtless apologies will solve nothing between you two besides most likely destroying your friendship," the bovine explained solemnly. Brande still wanted to go out there and talk to Tairn, but he saw reason in the elder's words. With a sigh, he slumped back onto the pile of furs. The elder lowered himself into the seat in front of him and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"He'll forgive you," he said encouragingly.
"But what if he doesn't?" Brande lowered his head into his hands and stared at the ground gloomily. I can't believe I let this happen. Tairn was the one friend I had, and I ruined it. Despair clouded the bovine's mind as he couldn't help but think that Tairn would stay angry at him and wouldn't want to speak to him anymore. Seeing the disappointment on his face as he left hurt Brande to the core.
"He will, I promise."
"What did I do wrong? I didn't think leaving out a small detail like that would make that much of a difference..." muttered Brande quietly into his palms.
"I don't know about where you come from, but here," the elder motioned, spreading out his arms, "we don't lie to the ones we love." Brande flinched inwardly as he heard the seriousness of his voice. "Trust is a sacred thing amongst friends. You cannot just abuse it whenever you please." He sounded more scolding than anything, but his words still made sense. Erasmus stared intensely at Brande for a moment before turning away and gazing off to the side. "You should think of what you are going to tell Tairn when you confront him."
And he did. He sat there, deep in thought, as the time slowly passed by. Brande had no clue what he was going to say, but he tried nonetheless. The bull snorted from frustration. What about earlier, when he lied to Cassius? Doesn't that make him a hypocrite? Glowering, he asked Erasmus about it.
"Tairn and Cassius? Friends? Hah!" the elder huffed with a smirk. "A cat and a dog are more likely to be companions." Confused, Brande let the tent fall back into silence, the only sound heard being the wind buffeting against the side of the tent. He thought long and hard on his apology, but found that he was still slightly angry that Tairn would be so upset when he had twisted his words to someone else not thirty minutes ago. And over nothing, too! Brande kicked at the dirt floor with the edge of his foot. Maybe there's something more to this. He must think I completely betrayed his trust. Sudden realization flooded through his mind at the thought. If Cassius really wasn't his friend, then I guess it didn't matter as much. He now knew what he had to say.
Standing, he addressed the elder, "Where can I find him?"
"Tairn? You think me telling you where he is is going to help you any? By any rate, you'll just be wandering around, getting weird looks," said Erasmus, shaking his head. "Here, I'll come with you."
"Uh... as you wish, I guess." Brande raised an eyebrow but didn't question it. The other minotaur stood and with a motion from Erasmus, together they left the tent. Brande followed him as he walked through the clusters of hide tents. As they walked, Brande tried to memorize the words he had thought up, but ever time he seemed to succeed, it slipped from his mind once again. He was nervous; if he didn't get this perfect, he might not have a friend anymore. At last, they arrived in front of a brown tent, slightly larger than the others but smaller than the tent he had eaten with Tairn in. Brande was nervous and his palms were starting to get sweaty. He stood with his hooves planted in front of the entrance, staring at the flap. He felt a nudge from the side and looked over to Erasmus.
"Well?" the elder stated plainly. Brande gave him a slightly confused look. "Are you going inside or not? I'm not going to wait out here all day." With a sigh, Brande nodded and stepped forwards, pulling aside the hide curtain and walked inside.
And inside, sat Tairn who seemed not to notice the bull's arrival. He sat off to the side, gazing seemingly at nothing. Brande opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself and looked upon Tairn. His expression was completely blank, and that slightly disturbed him. It was as if emotion itself had abandoned him. Tairn suddenly looked over and finally noticed Brande, who skirted his vision to keep his eyes from locking with the other bull's, ashamed. Brande stared at the ground, trying to work up the courage to say something, and Tairn kept his gaze fixed on the bovine who stood at the entrance of his tent. A moment passed, and yet the silence remained. He probably hates me right now... Brande looked up from the ground, expecting to see anger in minotaur's eyes, but instead was met with an expression he couldn't decipher. In the end, it was Brande who finally spoke up.
"Tairn... I shouldn't have lied to you. You put your trust in me and I betrayed it," he said, looking deeply into Tairn's eyes. "Will you forgive me?"
The bull let out an long sigh and stood up, stepping up in front of Brande. "Yes, I forgive you. I've been thinking about it, and I understand somewhat of why you lied. But just see to it that you don't do it again, okay?" Tairn said in a calming voice, giving Brande a pat on the shoulder.
Brande nodded and extended his arms outwards. "So, friends?"
Tairn smiled and the two embraced affectionately. "Friends."
Brande, Erasmus, and Tairn made their way back to the seclusion of the elder's tent and began discussing what they were going to do with Brande.
"Without any training, you could incinerate everyone here, including yourself, to ashes if you aren't careful," stated Erasmus, firmly, towards Brande.
"He's right, you're a danger to yourself and everyone here without some guidance," Tairn agreed with a short nod. "I think we might have to send you to the elven if we can't think of something soon."
Brande was appalled by the idea, and shook his head assertively. "But how has this not affected me before? Why am I just now starting to spray fire from my hands like some sort of dragon?"
The two bovines looked at Brande inquisitively. "Dragon?" asked Tairn, raising an eyebrow.
Brande chuckled softly, remembering that they had most likely never heard of such a thing. "Never mind. But still, why is it?"
Erasmus spoke up, "I would assume that the magic in your body was dormant until the artifact transported you here. The magic in the stone must have awoken it. Such is usually the case with the other magic using races. You are unique however, being the only Taurhe able to harness such powers."
Brande sat back further into the furs, understanding but not accepting why it had to have been him who was chosen to wield such ability.
"In any case, we need to have you trained to be able to control the magic. If the Magistrate finds out about you, they'll be sure to come marching down here and take you under their control," said Tairn with a grunt. "I doubt the shaman will be able to help any. Their powers come from the elemental spirits, not from within."
"Well then what are we going to do? I wont go off to some place and have some... Elves," Brande spat the name out, "poking and prodding me like some sort of specimen!" Brande crossed his arms and studied the faces of the two minotaurs, searching for some sign of disagreement. He found none, however, for they seemed to agree with him on this matter.
"I understand how you feel, but if we don't figure omething else out soon, we wont have any choice," said Tairn. "If you knew what the Magistrate is like, you would choose the Elves any day."
"I just don't know. Maybe we could" -
"I can train you," said Erasmus quietly, bringing the attention from the two over to him. Brande furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and opened his mouth to speak, but Tairn was faster.
"But how? Surely you cant" -
"I can, I've studied enough tomes and scrolls to know quite a bit about things like this. Surely you know that, Tairn. I have enough here that could be of resource to us. In fact..." Erasmus got up and walked over to a pile of books that lay neatly stacked on a gnarled, wooden desk, scanning over them with his eyes. He began rummaging through them, pulling a book out, reading over the title, and placing it back, until he seemingly found what he was looking for. He took the book, a thick, dusty old tome, wrapped in a leather binding with strange symbols etched across the spine of it and on the cover. "Here we are, 'The Arcana Practatorum'. In this book contains the many multitudes of arcane magics, each of which explained deeply into detail. With this, I will, no doubt, be able to teach you to at least be able to control yourself."
Relief washed over Brande; not only would he be kept from having to go to the Elves, he would also be taught by someone he was now vaguely familiar with. Tairn must have noticed this, for he gave him a playful slap on the back with a hearty smile on his face. "Hear that? You don't have to leave after all."
Brande and Erasmus stood side by side in the grass-less field, both looking at the straw dummy that had been set up a few yards in front of them. Tairn stood off to the side, watching them curiously. Erasmus looked over to Brande and pointed to the makeshift target. "Now, I want you to focus; focus with all that you can on bringing out that energy and scorching that thing until there's nothing left of it!"
Brande growled from frustration; they had been out here for what seemed like hours trying vigorously to get the slumbering energy in him to awaken. Attempt after attempt, they had failed; only succeeding in bringing anger and resentment from Brande. He had grown to despise that heap of straw that sat there, mocking him with its crude resemblance of what looked like an Orc. He wanted nothing more than to have every strand of straw seared to ashes. He closed his eyes slowly, reaching down deep inside of himself, searching for something; for anything at all. His frustration rose even more as he struggled to find the source. Suddenly, he felt something. It was small, and evaded his grasp when he reached for it. But he kept at it, pulling and tugging it until finally, he felt it racing through his blood, like the strange sensation he had had before. The energy pulsed in his blood, it building up inside his chest more and more, until he felt like he was going to explode if he did release it soon.
He opened his eyes, the first the coming to view was that wretched, straw dummy. Hatred clouded his mind, his eyes becoming a blur as he extended an arm outward towards it and letting out a loud roar. The energy released itself into a torrent of concentrated fire, sparks tracing along his forearm and connecting with his hand. Flames exploded from his outstretched hand and flew across to where the heap of straw lay, igniting it and sending it flying high up into the air, only to be consumed quickly by the fire that had attached itself to it, ashes quickly being blown away by the wind. The flames continued to flow out to where the dummy had been, blackening the ground from the degree of heat that was being poured into it. Brande attempted to cut off the energy, but panicked as he was unable to. His strength began to ebb away quickly, leaving him light-headed and weak. He heard shouts from off to the side, but they seemed... Distant. Brande's eyes fluttered and he tried one last time to sever the connection. The world spun around him and his legs gave out from under him, sending him toppling over onto the ground. The flames stopped just as he began to fall, and as soon as he touched the dirt, his mind slipped into the state of dark unconsciousness.