Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Arrow, Bequeath my Heart ❯ Chapter 5
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Oreana Date 
Non Anime: Sonic Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Drama / Hentai / Fantasy | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 07.28.2013 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.1K | Visits: 200 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Sonic Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Drama / Hentai / Fantasy | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 07.28.2013 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.1K | Visits: 200 | Status: Completed
Troy found himself sleeping less and less the more he realized that he was getting his strength back. While Thunderhawk was kind enough to let Troy stay there in his bedroom, Troy couldn’t help but wonder how longer it would be till he was kicked out or put in some other stranger’s bedchambers. Usually at odds with the leader, Troy still appreciated everything that Thunderhawk had done for him in the past week. When the floorboards had stopped creaking under the guardian’s bodyweight later that evening, Troy knew that Thunderhawk had possibly passed out on the cot he had lain out on the floor near his alchemy table.
With the words of the elder ringing still in his mind about how Thunderhawk would find a use for him still, Troy sighed and removed the covers from his body to make it slowly to his bare, padded feet. Tiptoeing from behind the partial cobblestone wall, which obscured his view from the lilac echidna, Troy eventually saw the elder resting there on the cot, sure enough, with a few spell books sprawled out across the floor. The young boy was relieved that Thunderhawk was such a loud snorer that it didn’t make him too nervous about being caught trying to sneak out of the room and get a better look about the college.
Troy never realized how quiet and vast the college seemed at the late hours of the night. He would see the occasional student pass him by, but they were so buried into their studies that they didn’t seem to take notice of the young boy. His nostrils flaring at the smell of food not far away, Troy’s stomach was quick to remind him that he had missed dinner that day, as he got in a fight with Thunderhawk and refused to eat afterwards. Pulling the baggy shirt he was offered earlier tighter about his body, he hurried towards the smell to eventually find his way to the royal kitchen.
The door moaned on its hinges as Troy pushed it slowly open to reveal the kitchen’s interior a bit better. “Hello…?” he called, as he noticed there was something boiling in the pot behind the nearby counter, but nobody appeared to be in the area. Maybe they’re all asleep, Troy thought as he tiptoed up to the large cauldron he could see there in the room boiling over a fire. Getting a better look into the black cauldron, he saw, what appeared to be, an attempt to make vegetable soup. “But who would go to sleep when they have food cooking?”
Looking about the empty kitchen, Troy found a wooden spoon upon the counter that he saw was clean so he could dip it into the broth to at least have a taste of it. His maroon fur prickling, Troy gagged at how bland it tasted to him. It needs something else, he thought through his minor hacking as he put the spoon back where he had found it to think on what it could use. Moving through the containers of vegetables, spices, and herbs, Troy came across something that had been labeled ‘black pepper’. He hadn’t seen it much at his own village, so he poured a little bit of it on his palm to taste it. “That might work,” the boy muttered to himself as he made his way over towards the pot to grind some of it into the soup that was there.
Upon taking another sip, Troy hummed in disappointment still as he didn’t feel the soup was adequate even for his empty stomach. “Still missing something,” he mumbled, thinking on what it could use as his icy-blue eyes scanned the nearby counter once more lined with foods. “Onions!” Troy said excitedly as he hurried over to grab one. Just as he was about to place his fingers about the onion, he heard something cut through the air and heading for him, but before Troy could react, he found his grabby hand aching with pain when a wooden spoon smacked him harshly and with purpose. “Ouch!” he whined, pulling back his injured hand to hold close to his chest.
Ivan was quick to grab the onion that moved just an inch from its spot to put it right back where it originally was. “Who the hell do you think you are to try and take my food without my permission!” the polar bear growled disapprovingly as he crossed his arms above his round belly.
“I-I wasn’t stealing anything! I swear!” Troy said in his defense, trying to back away from the towering figure. “I was just hungry, and I stumbled into the kitchen!”
“How did a small boy like you make it into the college at this hour anyways? Where are your parents?” Ivan demanded to know as he leaned forwards to eye the child better.
“I’m staying with Thunderhawk!” He saw Ivan’s expression soften slightly, but not enough to keep the boy from cowering. “I was just trying to find something to eat, and I saw the vegetable soup there, so I was preparing it more—!”
“I don’t give a damn who you are,” Ivan interjected quickly as he pointed the kitchen utensil back at Troy. “You don’t come into my kitchen and start to mess with my food!” Turning his attention back to the vegetable soup, the bear took a sip of it to find that another ingredient was added when his back was turned. When his blue eyes fell back upon Troy, he looked agitated at first but his tone suggested otherwise when he spoke. “What did you add to this?”
“I just added that black pepper, and I was about to add the onions when you stopped me,” Troy admitted nervously, keeping his distance just in case Ivan wanted to smack him again.
Relaxing his stance a bit, Ivan twisted his mouth to the side in thought. “You’re the boy who Thunderhawk keeps finding an excuse to bug me about when it comes to more food, aren’t you? Troy, was it?” Kneeling down to the young boy’s level, he rested his arms on his thighs to show Troy he wasn’t going to slap him again. “That old coot has been muttering to me about what to do with you. How old are you?”
“I’m six…” Troy answered, still rubbing his sore hand.
“Six?” Ivan repeated, as if he wasn’t sure of the answer before laughing at the age. “Six! You are six-years-old, and you can manage to put two ingredients into my soup to make it better whereas men and women twice your age fail at that!”
The laughter, though seeming a bit sarcastic to Troy, relaxed the boy a bit as it made Ivan appear a bit jollier. “I didn’t think what I was doing was anything special. I like onions by themselves, but I know Thunderhawk told me they add more flavor to things, so I added it when I tasted the black pepper.”
Ivan’s round belly shook as he continued laughing a bit at Troy’s choice of words. “You have a gift, boy! You have the ability to know how to make food taste better, and you don’t bother to use it to help Lord Thunderhawk for all that he has done for you?”
“That’s not all I can do,” Troy said irritably, as if offended by Ivan’s comments.
Ivan scoffed as he inched the spoon closer to the boy to move his sleeve up a bit more to reveal the jagged scar upon his upper arm that he saw earlier. He recognized the mark as a scar anybody could get from fighting a lightning mage or being a novice one themselves. “So you can—and poorly at that.”
Pulling away from Ivan, Troy growled at the statement. “I don’t need teachers! I am fine by learning on my own!”
“Relax, boy,” Ivan insisted with a narrowing of his eyes. “I could care less if you want to zap your fur off in your spare time. What I am talking about here and now is the fact that you can actually cook, and quite well for your age.”
Troy shrugged his shoulders, as if what he had done previously was nothing. “So…?”
Pointing the wooden spoon at Troy, Ivan watched as the young boy jumped back out of reflex. “If you want to come into my kitchen and make food, then I will allow it but under one condition: I am in this kitchen. If you try to mess with my food without me again, I will string you up by your tail!”
Troy didn’t see what was so great about cooking, but Thunderhawk did mention that he had to earn his stay. While he knew how to cast magic, he didn’t want it to be doted on and forced into classes with a bunch of old geezers claiming they know what is best for him. Still quite hungry, Troy fidgeted with the idea of what to do food wise. “So, umm… can I eat the soup after I add the onion into it…?”
Smacking the nearby wooden surface to discourage Troy from attempting to reach out to take another sip of the broth, Ivan shook his head. “No, we don’t eat the food prepared for the Royal Court!” Putting the ladle off to the side, Ivan motioned for Troy to follow him to the back of the kitchen. “Come with me.”
Upon following the bear, he noticed a locked door there in the back corner. This must be the room Thunderhawk mentioned, Troy thought, remembering Ivan kept his freshly grown items under lock and key.
Opening the door, Ivan stood at the side to nod for Troy to go on ahead and look inside if he wanted to. The maroon furred echidna hesitated at first until finally finding the courage to step towards. Moving through the archway of the door, Troy was greeted with an arrangement of foods. It looked like he had stepped into the woodlands for a moment, and he could have tricked himself into believing so if it hadn’t been for the stone ceiling and walls. “Wow,” he whispered to himself, as his fingers reached out to touch one of the tomato plants but stopped when he thought Ivan might whack him again. His wide, curious eyes looking up at the round bear, Troy made sure to get the chef’s approval before finally grabbing up a fresh tomato in his hand to have a bite.
“I don’t usually let people in here,” Ivan pointed out, as he closed the door behind him. “However, seeing as you’re quite talented for one your age, I think I will allow the exception.”
“Yeah, Thunderhawk told me about this room, but I didn’t think I’d get to see it,” Troy admitted, his voice sounding a bit bitter at just saying the jarl’s name.
Ivan couldn’t help but laugh. “He has annoyed you. I can sense it in your voice.” Moving to a nearby chair, he moved his tainted apron out of his way as he sat down to relax his feet. “What has that old man done now?”
“He’s always being so nosey,” Troy grumbled as he took another bite out of the tomato, wiping the juice from his mouth with the back of his hand. “Did he ever think that I ran away for a reason?”
“That’s Lord Thunderhawk trying to be nice and show that he cares.” Ivan said it in such a way that it almost sounded like he was being condescending to the young boy. “If he didn’t care what happened to your ass, he would have tossed you back out in the snow and told you to mind the dragons on your way to wherever it was you came from or were headed to before the cold got the better of you.”
Troy scoffed. More than anything he wanted to forget why he ran away and forget everything he could about his past life. A part of him felt that if he had died out there, it wouldn’t have been a horrible alternative for him.
“You have interesting markings,” Ivan said, interrupting Troy’s personal thoughts. When Troy looked at him with confusion, the bear motioned to the black marks going down on either side of his muzzle. “Those. What are those? I don’t see many echidnas with markings like that.”
“They’re from my grandpa from my mom’s side of the family,” answered Troy with a sigh. It seemed everyone was determined to unravel his past if they could. “He is a cheetah.”
“Ah ha.” Ivan almost sounded triumphant as he pulled off one of the nearby cucumbers to start eating away as well. “I thought they looked like that of a cheetah, but I wasn’t sure.”
Troy was silent. After being forced to dig around in his past again, he found himself not so hungry. “I don’t know if any of them are still alive, you know,” he muttered honestly to the chef from where he decided to sit. “I guess I just want to forget that they ever existed if that ever comes to be true…”
“Wait till you get older,” Ivan said in attempts to lighten the mood. “In several more years you’ll have a hard time remembering your own age.” Seeing the irritable glare from the young boy, he waved away his prior words with a smirk. “If you don’t know if they’re dead, boy, don’t sit around all day and night wondering about them. It’s going to drive you mad with worry. Besides, for any mother and or father, their one wish is for their child to be safe no matter what.”
While Troy knew Ivan was right, it was still hard to accept the news.
Ivan’s chewing slowed as he watched the sadness engulf the maroon echidna’s face. “You seem well enough to start working,” said the polar bear as he figured working Troy would prevent him from thinking on his past. “However, I think it is wise you talk to Lord Thunderhawk about this first before I start shacking you up in another part of the college.”
“He’s not my father,” Troy scoffed, scrunching his nose up at the idea. “I don’t need to ask him if I can or not.”
Ivan rolled his shoulders. “Perhaps, but you know he’ll be going into a panic if you just randomly disappear into my bedroom.” Seeing Troy avoid eye contact with him, Ivan hit his fist against the nearby wooden desk to startle the young boy and get Troy to look directly at him. “You will do it!”
After nodding hesitantly at the idea, Troy finished the food he was allowed to eat before excusing himself out of the kitchen and back towards the bedroom belonging to the guardian. Troy noticed that Thunderhawk was still fast asleep—snoring away near his alchemy table still. Moving the doors quietly, he tiptoed back towards the jarl’s bed he was allowed to sleep within. Remaining upright in bed, Troy thought on what Ivan had offered. While he still planned on working on his own lightning magic, cooking was something he had usually dabbled with on the side of things when it came to his mother allowing him to help her make meals. Sighing with a shake of his head, he figured he would think more on it tomorrow, as he grabbed onto the covers and situated himself better for sleep.
“I want to, but it’s so hard to keep the spell from going away!” Sara-Li complained, discouragement found within her tone.
Troy opened his eyes further to the surrounding voices, which continued to echo about the walls. His icy-blue eyes landing upon the cobblestone wall opposite of him, he figured they must have been at the front of the room training in magic usage.
Thunderhawk sighed with a shake of his head. “Sara-Li, if you want to be a great healer, it requires a lot of work and sacrifice,” the elder reminded her, as he repositioned her hands in a way that looked like she was holding some invisible object before her to look at. “Focus your magic right here,” he instructed, jabbing at her empty palms gently.
“Sometimes it comes to me, and sometimes it doesn’t,” Sara-Li whimpered, feeling a bit disheartened that she couldn’t make her magic work as she had intended it to.
Kneeling beside her, Thunderhawk gently held onto her upper arms with a smile to her. “Sweetheart, magic is always with you. Anybody can do magic if they desire to do so. It doesn’t just go away.” Placing his hand upon her chest right where her heart was, he gently pushed upon it. “You need to think about what your goal is with your mind and your heart. If either one is unbalanced or not in sync, you’ll not achieve what you intend to.”
Sara-Li nodded at his words, closing her eyes to try and focus on the spell again. When Thunderhawk noticed that the ball of light was forming within her cupped hands, he kept his silence in hopes it would encourage it onwards the more she focused on it. He watched as the ball of light grew to about the size of an apple before remaining stabilized. While it hovered where it was in her hands, he moved his own off of her body to let her focus on the spell completely. “Alright, Sara-Li,” he spoke quietly, “try and do something with the ball of magic.”
Opening her eyes slowly, Sara-Li saw that she had the magical, healing light in her hands. Wondering what to do with it, she focused best she could to try and make the spell go forth and do as she asked. She watched as it moved about before it finally drifted behind her to latch onto the guardian—nearly making Thunderhawk fall over from the unexpected healing touch.
Turning quickly on her heels, Sara looked at the elder with curious eyes. “Did it work!” she asked, hurrying over to him with a tilt of her head.
“What did…what did you do?” Thunderhawk asked, raising his arms slightly upwards and about to see if he could figure it out. He had to admit that he was a bit nervous regarding a trainee using her magic upon him.
“I was hoping to heal your wound on your back,” Sara-Li admitted, fidgeting a bit nervously in the process.
Removing his tunic for her, Thunderhawk let her see the bandaged back. “It still hurts a bit, Sara-Li, but that doesn’t really mean you’ve not helped it a bit,” he encouraged, as he didn’t want Sara to give up in her healer training.
Sara smiled at his words before finding her attention turning to Troy, who was looking at the two from the slight curve of the wall. “You’re finally up!” Sara-Li practically cheered, causing the guardian to eventually turn and see the young boy as well.
“What took you so long to wake up?” Thunderhawk teased, as he headed for Troy.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Troy answered honestly, leaning against the curve of the wall as he was still feeling a bit groggy.
Thunderhawk twisted his mouth to the side in thought. He would have offered to help Troy with his lightning magic, but with how tired the child looked, he wasn’t going to press the idea any further. “Did you want something to eat? I was about to take a break here with Sara-Li to get something to nibble on.”
Troy remembered the exchange with Ivan last night, and he couldn’t help but shake his head. “No, I am fine,” he whispered. Feeling a bit uncomfortable with them both staring at him, he sighed and asked: “Can I look around the college for a bit? I’ve been stuck in this room forever, it feels, and I want to look around.”
“You’re not going to run away, are you?” Thunderhawk asked, as he didn’t want that boy’s death on his shoulders.
“No…!” Troy snapped angrily. Wiping his dreary face with his palm, he started to shuffle across the room with his head lowered to avoid their curious looks. “I’ll be fine. I just want to look around.”
If anything, Troy wanted an excuse to just step outside again. How long had it been, anyways? A week, wasn’t it? Keeping the baggy shirt about his body tightly, his padded feet crunched through the snow as he wandered about the circular courtyard just beyond the college’s doors. With his thicker fur, the snow was nothing to him as he ventured over to the powder covered walls to take a look out at the world of Skyrim. A part of him wanted to go against his promise to Thunderhawk and try and find his way back to his home, but the mere thought of such made him weak to his knees.
Troy wasn’t sure how long it had been since he had been out in the courtyard, but his ears caught the sound of someone coming up behind him later on in the day. Turning his head quickly, he saw that it was merely Sara-Li attempting to join him. “What do you want?” Troy asked, sounding a bit agitated that she was there.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Sara-Li answered, keeping a bit of distance between her and Troy for the time being. Her hands folded behind her back, she swayed slightly from side to side while struggling to think of what else to talk about. “I heard you can do magic too, yes?”
Troy honestly couldn’t say he was an expert. “Sort of.”
Smiling at his answer, Sara-Li made her way closer to the courtyard’s wall to look out at the misty world beyond the college. “Why don’t you ask the mages here for help? I am sure even Thunderhawk could help you.”
“I don’t need anybody’s help.”
Sara-Li let the comment roll off her back. “You wouldn’t be learning alone,” she encouraged with a slight wag of her tail. “I will be there learning magic with you.” When she saw Troy look at her, Sara extended her hand to him. “I’ll help you too! I might not know much, but I can still try!”
Seeing her extended hand, Troy hesitated at first but eventually accepted it. When he saw the triumphant smile spread across her muzzle, he pulled his hand back slowly with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’ll…think about it.”
“Sara-Li!” Cyrus called to his sister from where he stood near the door leading to their living space. “It’s time to come home!”
Turning to her name, Sara-Li waved to her brother before pushing away from the stone divider to head towards him. She gave a sweet look to Troy one last time. “I’ll see you later then!” Running to her older brother, Sara-Li opened her arms to hug him tightly about his leg before following him inside.
While magic was on his mind, Troy couldn’t help but wander back to Ivan once more. If anything, Ivan could give him a place to live, and he wouldn’t be forced to remain in Thunderhawk’s room much longer. Realizing he had to bring it up with the jarl first, the winter echidna headed back towards the royal chambers to discuss it with Thunderhawk.
Thunderhawk was reading at the alchemy table with his reading glasses resting upon the slope of his nose. When he heard the door open, he glanced over the rim of the round specs briefly to see it was Troy, before going back to the letter in his hand. “It is good to see you’re back.” Upon not getting a response, Thunderhawk looked back up to see that Troy was looking as though he wanted to talk about something but was having a hard time doing so in how he was rubbing his right arm nervously. “Something you want to tell me?”
“I saw your chef,” Troy whispered as he came a bit closer to Thunderhawk. He almost walked in a way that signified he was guilty of something.
The guardian released a brief laugh. “Did you now?” he asked, keeping his nose buried in the letters he continued to shuffle through. “What did that sarcastic bear say about me?”
Troy shrugged his shoulders, “Nothing, really. He did offer to teach me how to cook, though.”
Thunderhawk had to look up at Troy again to see if the boy was serious. Removing his reading glasses and placing them off to the side on his desk, he overlapped his hands beneath his chin. “Did he? Well, you must be something special, because he normally is very choosey about whom he allows in his kitchen.” When Troy didn’t respond, he continued. “Are you sure you want to do this? You obviously have an inner desire to wield magic too if it has left you with scars.”
The young echidna winced. “You’re making it sound like I have to choose.”
“I am not,” answered Thunderhawk, “but I am pointing out that both will be very taxing on you. Are you sure you could handle that if you desire to even allow someone to help you learn to handle your lightning magic better?”
“Can’t the ‘someone’ be you?” Troy hated to ask that, but at least then he wouldn’t have to worry about Ivan going after anybody for him being late—it would be the leader of Winterhold, who apparently was used to Ivan’s straightforward attitude.
Thunderhawk was surprised to hear the boy say that. Slowly, he lowered his hands to his desk to see that Troy was indeed serious. “If you want me to be, I can be your teacher. I don’t know lightning magic very well but, like I told Sara-Li, I can help you get the basics down, and perhaps you can go from there.”
“I won’t need to bother you with living here in your room anymore,” said Troy as he finally relaxed his stance a bit. “Ivan offered me some place to live with him.”
“He probably meant the servants’ quarters.” Rolling up the multitudes of letters he had looked through, the guardian used his magic to transport the parchments elsewhere. “I don’t really request the use of servants regarding bathing me and what not, so that area of the college is pretty empty and only has the cooking servants.”
“I thought you guardians always had servants to boss around,” Troy stated boldly, not feeling any regret for his words.
Thunderhawk shrugged as he stood beside his alchemy table. “Most of us do. However, I am just fine without mine.” The guardian crossed his arms over his chest as he ventured closer to Troy. “Alright, I will teach you in the mornings with Sara-Li, and Ivan can teach you about cooking at night. If he has a problem with that schedule, he can take it up with me, if he likes.” Honestly, the guardian was hoping more than anything that Ivan wouldn’t have the courage to do so as Thunderhawk knew he would easily lose.
While liking the idea of living in his own space for a change, Troy couldn’t help but desire one more night in the jarl’s room. “Until I talk to Ivan about my decision, can I stay here?”
Well, aren’t we finally being friendly? Thunderhawk thought to himself before smiling at the request. “You can, and while you’re here—.” He gestured for Troy to follow him back to his bed as he began to shuffle through his spell books. “—I want you to read these to get a better understanding of how magic works.”
Jumping from the three tomes falling on his lap, Troy furrowed his brow in wonder. “All of these…?”
Thunderhawk nodded. “You can read, can’t you?”
Troy hesitantly responded with a drawn out, “Yes.”
“Alright then, I plan on you reading all of them before your lessons can begin,” Thunderhawk instructed with a smile. “If you have any questions about the books, you know where I am.”
“How am I going to read all of these in ONE day!” Troy exclaimed, baring his teeth at how much of a difficult teacher Thunderhawk was already being.
Thunderhawk tilted his head slightly downwards to get a better look at the young echidna. “I suggest you find the time to do so. You can even find a moment to read them in your free time when learning under Ivan. He’ll give you a break from cooking now and again.”
“But I—!”
Before Troy could start complaining, Thunderhawk opened the top book to the first page and, literally, buried Troy’s nose within it. “Read. You can whine later.”
With the words of the elder ringing still in his mind about how Thunderhawk would find a use for him still, Troy sighed and removed the covers from his body to make it slowly to his bare, padded feet. Tiptoeing from behind the partial cobblestone wall, which obscured his view from the lilac echidna, Troy eventually saw the elder resting there on the cot, sure enough, with a few spell books sprawled out across the floor. The young boy was relieved that Thunderhawk was such a loud snorer that it didn’t make him too nervous about being caught trying to sneak out of the room and get a better look about the college.
Troy never realized how quiet and vast the college seemed at the late hours of the night. He would see the occasional student pass him by, but they were so buried into their studies that they didn’t seem to take notice of the young boy. His nostrils flaring at the smell of food not far away, Troy’s stomach was quick to remind him that he had missed dinner that day, as he got in a fight with Thunderhawk and refused to eat afterwards. Pulling the baggy shirt he was offered earlier tighter about his body, he hurried towards the smell to eventually find his way to the royal kitchen.
The door moaned on its hinges as Troy pushed it slowly open to reveal the kitchen’s interior a bit better. “Hello…?” he called, as he noticed there was something boiling in the pot behind the nearby counter, but nobody appeared to be in the area. Maybe they’re all asleep, Troy thought as he tiptoed up to the large cauldron he could see there in the room boiling over a fire. Getting a better look into the black cauldron, he saw, what appeared to be, an attempt to make vegetable soup. “But who would go to sleep when they have food cooking?”
Looking about the empty kitchen, Troy found a wooden spoon upon the counter that he saw was clean so he could dip it into the broth to at least have a taste of it. His maroon fur prickling, Troy gagged at how bland it tasted to him. It needs something else, he thought through his minor hacking as he put the spoon back where he had found it to think on what it could use. Moving through the containers of vegetables, spices, and herbs, Troy came across something that had been labeled ‘black pepper’. He hadn’t seen it much at his own village, so he poured a little bit of it on his palm to taste it. “That might work,” the boy muttered to himself as he made his way over towards the pot to grind some of it into the soup that was there.
Upon taking another sip, Troy hummed in disappointment still as he didn’t feel the soup was adequate even for his empty stomach. “Still missing something,” he mumbled, thinking on what it could use as his icy-blue eyes scanned the nearby counter once more lined with foods. “Onions!” Troy said excitedly as he hurried over to grab one. Just as he was about to place his fingers about the onion, he heard something cut through the air and heading for him, but before Troy could react, he found his grabby hand aching with pain when a wooden spoon smacked him harshly and with purpose. “Ouch!” he whined, pulling back his injured hand to hold close to his chest.
Ivan was quick to grab the onion that moved just an inch from its spot to put it right back where it originally was. “Who the hell do you think you are to try and take my food without my permission!” the polar bear growled disapprovingly as he crossed his arms above his round belly.
“I-I wasn’t stealing anything! I swear!” Troy said in his defense, trying to back away from the towering figure. “I was just hungry, and I stumbled into the kitchen!”
“How did a small boy like you make it into the college at this hour anyways? Where are your parents?” Ivan demanded to know as he leaned forwards to eye the child better.
“I’m staying with Thunderhawk!” He saw Ivan’s expression soften slightly, but not enough to keep the boy from cowering. “I was just trying to find something to eat, and I saw the vegetable soup there, so I was preparing it more—!”
“I don’t give a damn who you are,” Ivan interjected quickly as he pointed the kitchen utensil back at Troy. “You don’t come into my kitchen and start to mess with my food!” Turning his attention back to the vegetable soup, the bear took a sip of it to find that another ingredient was added when his back was turned. When his blue eyes fell back upon Troy, he looked agitated at first but his tone suggested otherwise when he spoke. “What did you add to this?”
“I just added that black pepper, and I was about to add the onions when you stopped me,” Troy admitted nervously, keeping his distance just in case Ivan wanted to smack him again.
Relaxing his stance a bit, Ivan twisted his mouth to the side in thought. “You’re the boy who Thunderhawk keeps finding an excuse to bug me about when it comes to more food, aren’t you? Troy, was it?” Kneeling down to the young boy’s level, he rested his arms on his thighs to show Troy he wasn’t going to slap him again. “That old coot has been muttering to me about what to do with you. How old are you?”
“I’m six…” Troy answered, still rubbing his sore hand.
“Six?” Ivan repeated, as if he wasn’t sure of the answer before laughing at the age. “Six! You are six-years-old, and you can manage to put two ingredients into my soup to make it better whereas men and women twice your age fail at that!”
The laughter, though seeming a bit sarcastic to Troy, relaxed the boy a bit as it made Ivan appear a bit jollier. “I didn’t think what I was doing was anything special. I like onions by themselves, but I know Thunderhawk told me they add more flavor to things, so I added it when I tasted the black pepper.”
Ivan’s round belly shook as he continued laughing a bit at Troy’s choice of words. “You have a gift, boy! You have the ability to know how to make food taste better, and you don’t bother to use it to help Lord Thunderhawk for all that he has done for you?”
“That’s not all I can do,” Troy said irritably, as if offended by Ivan’s comments.
Ivan scoffed as he inched the spoon closer to the boy to move his sleeve up a bit more to reveal the jagged scar upon his upper arm that he saw earlier. He recognized the mark as a scar anybody could get from fighting a lightning mage or being a novice one themselves. “So you can—and poorly at that.”
Pulling away from Ivan, Troy growled at the statement. “I don’t need teachers! I am fine by learning on my own!”
“Relax, boy,” Ivan insisted with a narrowing of his eyes. “I could care less if you want to zap your fur off in your spare time. What I am talking about here and now is the fact that you can actually cook, and quite well for your age.”
Troy shrugged his shoulders, as if what he had done previously was nothing. “So…?”
Pointing the wooden spoon at Troy, Ivan watched as the young boy jumped back out of reflex. “If you want to come into my kitchen and make food, then I will allow it but under one condition: I am in this kitchen. If you try to mess with my food without me again, I will string you up by your tail!”
Troy didn’t see what was so great about cooking, but Thunderhawk did mention that he had to earn his stay. While he knew how to cast magic, he didn’t want it to be doted on and forced into classes with a bunch of old geezers claiming they know what is best for him. Still quite hungry, Troy fidgeted with the idea of what to do food wise. “So, umm… can I eat the soup after I add the onion into it…?”
Smacking the nearby wooden surface to discourage Troy from attempting to reach out to take another sip of the broth, Ivan shook his head. “No, we don’t eat the food prepared for the Royal Court!” Putting the ladle off to the side, Ivan motioned for Troy to follow him to the back of the kitchen. “Come with me.”
Upon following the bear, he noticed a locked door there in the back corner. This must be the room Thunderhawk mentioned, Troy thought, remembering Ivan kept his freshly grown items under lock and key.
Opening the door, Ivan stood at the side to nod for Troy to go on ahead and look inside if he wanted to. The maroon furred echidna hesitated at first until finally finding the courage to step towards. Moving through the archway of the door, Troy was greeted with an arrangement of foods. It looked like he had stepped into the woodlands for a moment, and he could have tricked himself into believing so if it hadn’t been for the stone ceiling and walls. “Wow,” he whispered to himself, as his fingers reached out to touch one of the tomato plants but stopped when he thought Ivan might whack him again. His wide, curious eyes looking up at the round bear, Troy made sure to get the chef’s approval before finally grabbing up a fresh tomato in his hand to have a bite.
“I don’t usually let people in here,” Ivan pointed out, as he closed the door behind him. “However, seeing as you’re quite talented for one your age, I think I will allow the exception.”
“Yeah, Thunderhawk told me about this room, but I didn’t think I’d get to see it,” Troy admitted, his voice sounding a bit bitter at just saying the jarl’s name.
Ivan couldn’t help but laugh. “He has annoyed you. I can sense it in your voice.” Moving to a nearby chair, he moved his tainted apron out of his way as he sat down to relax his feet. “What has that old man done now?”
“He’s always being so nosey,” Troy grumbled as he took another bite out of the tomato, wiping the juice from his mouth with the back of his hand. “Did he ever think that I ran away for a reason?”
“That’s Lord Thunderhawk trying to be nice and show that he cares.” Ivan said it in such a way that it almost sounded like he was being condescending to the young boy. “If he didn’t care what happened to your ass, he would have tossed you back out in the snow and told you to mind the dragons on your way to wherever it was you came from or were headed to before the cold got the better of you.”
Troy scoffed. More than anything he wanted to forget why he ran away and forget everything he could about his past life. A part of him felt that if he had died out there, it wouldn’t have been a horrible alternative for him.
“You have interesting markings,” Ivan said, interrupting Troy’s personal thoughts. When Troy looked at him with confusion, the bear motioned to the black marks going down on either side of his muzzle. “Those. What are those? I don’t see many echidnas with markings like that.”
“They’re from my grandpa from my mom’s side of the family,” answered Troy with a sigh. It seemed everyone was determined to unravel his past if they could. “He is a cheetah.”
“Ah ha.” Ivan almost sounded triumphant as he pulled off one of the nearby cucumbers to start eating away as well. “I thought they looked like that of a cheetah, but I wasn’t sure.”
Troy was silent. After being forced to dig around in his past again, he found himself not so hungry. “I don’t know if any of them are still alive, you know,” he muttered honestly to the chef from where he decided to sit. “I guess I just want to forget that they ever existed if that ever comes to be true…”
“Wait till you get older,” Ivan said in attempts to lighten the mood. “In several more years you’ll have a hard time remembering your own age.” Seeing the irritable glare from the young boy, he waved away his prior words with a smirk. “If you don’t know if they’re dead, boy, don’t sit around all day and night wondering about them. It’s going to drive you mad with worry. Besides, for any mother and or father, their one wish is for their child to be safe no matter what.”
While Troy knew Ivan was right, it was still hard to accept the news.
Ivan’s chewing slowed as he watched the sadness engulf the maroon echidna’s face. “You seem well enough to start working,” said the polar bear as he figured working Troy would prevent him from thinking on his past. “However, I think it is wise you talk to Lord Thunderhawk about this first before I start shacking you up in another part of the college.”
“He’s not my father,” Troy scoffed, scrunching his nose up at the idea. “I don’t need to ask him if I can or not.”
Ivan rolled his shoulders. “Perhaps, but you know he’ll be going into a panic if you just randomly disappear into my bedroom.” Seeing Troy avoid eye contact with him, Ivan hit his fist against the nearby wooden desk to startle the young boy and get Troy to look directly at him. “You will do it!”
After nodding hesitantly at the idea, Troy finished the food he was allowed to eat before excusing himself out of the kitchen and back towards the bedroom belonging to the guardian. Troy noticed that Thunderhawk was still fast asleep—snoring away near his alchemy table still. Moving the doors quietly, he tiptoed back towards the jarl’s bed he was allowed to sleep within. Remaining upright in bed, Troy thought on what Ivan had offered. While he still planned on working on his own lightning magic, cooking was something he had usually dabbled with on the side of things when it came to his mother allowing him to help her make meals. Sighing with a shake of his head, he figured he would think more on it tomorrow, as he grabbed onto the covers and situated himself better for sleep.
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“You can do it, Sara-Li,” Thunderhawk’s voice encouraged, rousing Troy slowly from his slumber the next morning.“I want to, but it’s so hard to keep the spell from going away!” Sara-Li complained, discouragement found within her tone.
Troy opened his eyes further to the surrounding voices, which continued to echo about the walls. His icy-blue eyes landing upon the cobblestone wall opposite of him, he figured they must have been at the front of the room training in magic usage.
Thunderhawk sighed with a shake of his head. “Sara-Li, if you want to be a great healer, it requires a lot of work and sacrifice,” the elder reminded her, as he repositioned her hands in a way that looked like she was holding some invisible object before her to look at. “Focus your magic right here,” he instructed, jabbing at her empty palms gently.
“Sometimes it comes to me, and sometimes it doesn’t,” Sara-Li whimpered, feeling a bit disheartened that she couldn’t make her magic work as she had intended it to.
Kneeling beside her, Thunderhawk gently held onto her upper arms with a smile to her. “Sweetheart, magic is always with you. Anybody can do magic if they desire to do so. It doesn’t just go away.” Placing his hand upon her chest right where her heart was, he gently pushed upon it. “You need to think about what your goal is with your mind and your heart. If either one is unbalanced or not in sync, you’ll not achieve what you intend to.”
Sara-Li nodded at his words, closing her eyes to try and focus on the spell again. When Thunderhawk noticed that the ball of light was forming within her cupped hands, he kept his silence in hopes it would encourage it onwards the more she focused on it. He watched as the ball of light grew to about the size of an apple before remaining stabilized. While it hovered where it was in her hands, he moved his own off of her body to let her focus on the spell completely. “Alright, Sara-Li,” he spoke quietly, “try and do something with the ball of magic.”
Opening her eyes slowly, Sara-Li saw that she had the magical, healing light in her hands. Wondering what to do with it, she focused best she could to try and make the spell go forth and do as she asked. She watched as it moved about before it finally drifted behind her to latch onto the guardian—nearly making Thunderhawk fall over from the unexpected healing touch.
Turning quickly on her heels, Sara looked at the elder with curious eyes. “Did it work!” she asked, hurrying over to him with a tilt of her head.
“What did…what did you do?” Thunderhawk asked, raising his arms slightly upwards and about to see if he could figure it out. He had to admit that he was a bit nervous regarding a trainee using her magic upon him.
“I was hoping to heal your wound on your back,” Sara-Li admitted, fidgeting a bit nervously in the process.
Removing his tunic for her, Thunderhawk let her see the bandaged back. “It still hurts a bit, Sara-Li, but that doesn’t really mean you’ve not helped it a bit,” he encouraged, as he didn’t want Sara to give up in her healer training.
Sara smiled at his words before finding her attention turning to Troy, who was looking at the two from the slight curve of the wall. “You’re finally up!” Sara-Li practically cheered, causing the guardian to eventually turn and see the young boy as well.
“What took you so long to wake up?” Thunderhawk teased, as he headed for Troy.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Troy answered honestly, leaning against the curve of the wall as he was still feeling a bit groggy.
Thunderhawk twisted his mouth to the side in thought. He would have offered to help Troy with his lightning magic, but with how tired the child looked, he wasn’t going to press the idea any further. “Did you want something to eat? I was about to take a break here with Sara-Li to get something to nibble on.”
Troy remembered the exchange with Ivan last night, and he couldn’t help but shake his head. “No, I am fine,” he whispered. Feeling a bit uncomfortable with them both staring at him, he sighed and asked: “Can I look around the college for a bit? I’ve been stuck in this room forever, it feels, and I want to look around.”
“You’re not going to run away, are you?” Thunderhawk asked, as he didn’t want that boy’s death on his shoulders.
“No…!” Troy snapped angrily. Wiping his dreary face with his palm, he started to shuffle across the room with his head lowered to avoid their curious looks. “I’ll be fine. I just want to look around.”
If anything, Troy wanted an excuse to just step outside again. How long had it been, anyways? A week, wasn’t it? Keeping the baggy shirt about his body tightly, his padded feet crunched through the snow as he wandered about the circular courtyard just beyond the college’s doors. With his thicker fur, the snow was nothing to him as he ventured over to the powder covered walls to take a look out at the world of Skyrim. A part of him wanted to go against his promise to Thunderhawk and try and find his way back to his home, but the mere thought of such made him weak to his knees.
Troy wasn’t sure how long it had been since he had been out in the courtyard, but his ears caught the sound of someone coming up behind him later on in the day. Turning his head quickly, he saw that it was merely Sara-Li attempting to join him. “What do you want?” Troy asked, sounding a bit agitated that she was there.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Sara-Li answered, keeping a bit of distance between her and Troy for the time being. Her hands folded behind her back, she swayed slightly from side to side while struggling to think of what else to talk about. “I heard you can do magic too, yes?”
Troy honestly couldn’t say he was an expert. “Sort of.”
Smiling at his answer, Sara-Li made her way closer to the courtyard’s wall to look out at the misty world beyond the college. “Why don’t you ask the mages here for help? I am sure even Thunderhawk could help you.”
“I don’t need anybody’s help.”
Sara-Li let the comment roll off her back. “You wouldn’t be learning alone,” she encouraged with a slight wag of her tail. “I will be there learning magic with you.” When she saw Troy look at her, Sara extended her hand to him. “I’ll help you too! I might not know much, but I can still try!”
Seeing her extended hand, Troy hesitated at first but eventually accepted it. When he saw the triumphant smile spread across her muzzle, he pulled his hand back slowly with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’ll…think about it.”
“Sara-Li!” Cyrus called to his sister from where he stood near the door leading to their living space. “It’s time to come home!”
Turning to her name, Sara-Li waved to her brother before pushing away from the stone divider to head towards him. She gave a sweet look to Troy one last time. “I’ll see you later then!” Running to her older brother, Sara-Li opened her arms to hug him tightly about his leg before following him inside.
While magic was on his mind, Troy couldn’t help but wander back to Ivan once more. If anything, Ivan could give him a place to live, and he wouldn’t be forced to remain in Thunderhawk’s room much longer. Realizing he had to bring it up with the jarl first, the winter echidna headed back towards the royal chambers to discuss it with Thunderhawk.
Thunderhawk was reading at the alchemy table with his reading glasses resting upon the slope of his nose. When he heard the door open, he glanced over the rim of the round specs briefly to see it was Troy, before going back to the letter in his hand. “It is good to see you’re back.” Upon not getting a response, Thunderhawk looked back up to see that Troy was looking as though he wanted to talk about something but was having a hard time doing so in how he was rubbing his right arm nervously. “Something you want to tell me?”
“I saw your chef,” Troy whispered as he came a bit closer to Thunderhawk. He almost walked in a way that signified he was guilty of something.
The guardian released a brief laugh. “Did you now?” he asked, keeping his nose buried in the letters he continued to shuffle through. “What did that sarcastic bear say about me?”
Troy shrugged his shoulders, “Nothing, really. He did offer to teach me how to cook, though.”
Thunderhawk had to look up at Troy again to see if the boy was serious. Removing his reading glasses and placing them off to the side on his desk, he overlapped his hands beneath his chin. “Did he? Well, you must be something special, because he normally is very choosey about whom he allows in his kitchen.” When Troy didn’t respond, he continued. “Are you sure you want to do this? You obviously have an inner desire to wield magic too if it has left you with scars.”
The young echidna winced. “You’re making it sound like I have to choose.”
“I am not,” answered Thunderhawk, “but I am pointing out that both will be very taxing on you. Are you sure you could handle that if you desire to even allow someone to help you learn to handle your lightning magic better?”
“Can’t the ‘someone’ be you?” Troy hated to ask that, but at least then he wouldn’t have to worry about Ivan going after anybody for him being late—it would be the leader of Winterhold, who apparently was used to Ivan’s straightforward attitude.
Thunderhawk was surprised to hear the boy say that. Slowly, he lowered his hands to his desk to see that Troy was indeed serious. “If you want me to be, I can be your teacher. I don’t know lightning magic very well but, like I told Sara-Li, I can help you get the basics down, and perhaps you can go from there.”
“I won’t need to bother you with living here in your room anymore,” said Troy as he finally relaxed his stance a bit. “Ivan offered me some place to live with him.”
“He probably meant the servants’ quarters.” Rolling up the multitudes of letters he had looked through, the guardian used his magic to transport the parchments elsewhere. “I don’t really request the use of servants regarding bathing me and what not, so that area of the college is pretty empty and only has the cooking servants.”
“I thought you guardians always had servants to boss around,” Troy stated boldly, not feeling any regret for his words.
Thunderhawk shrugged as he stood beside his alchemy table. “Most of us do. However, I am just fine without mine.” The guardian crossed his arms over his chest as he ventured closer to Troy. “Alright, I will teach you in the mornings with Sara-Li, and Ivan can teach you about cooking at night. If he has a problem with that schedule, he can take it up with me, if he likes.” Honestly, the guardian was hoping more than anything that Ivan wouldn’t have the courage to do so as Thunderhawk knew he would easily lose.
While liking the idea of living in his own space for a change, Troy couldn’t help but desire one more night in the jarl’s room. “Until I talk to Ivan about my decision, can I stay here?”
Well, aren’t we finally being friendly? Thunderhawk thought to himself before smiling at the request. “You can, and while you’re here—.” He gestured for Troy to follow him back to his bed as he began to shuffle through his spell books. “—I want you to read these to get a better understanding of how magic works.”
Jumping from the three tomes falling on his lap, Troy furrowed his brow in wonder. “All of these…?”
Thunderhawk nodded. “You can read, can’t you?”
Troy hesitantly responded with a drawn out, “Yes.”
“Alright then, I plan on you reading all of them before your lessons can begin,” Thunderhawk instructed with a smile. “If you have any questions about the books, you know where I am.”
“How am I going to read all of these in ONE day!” Troy exclaimed, baring his teeth at how much of a difficult teacher Thunderhawk was already being.
Thunderhawk tilted his head slightly downwards to get a better look at the young echidna. “I suggest you find the time to do so. You can even find a moment to read them in your free time when learning under Ivan. He’ll give you a break from cooking now and again.”
“But I—!”
Before Troy could start complaining, Thunderhawk opened the top book to the first page and, literally, buried Troy’s nose within it. “Read. You can whine later.”