a hobby. Not for their life’s work.”
“I guess,” she replied. “Winston, look at it this way, you’re twelve and your future is a long way off. Who knows, there could be something unexpected that comes up and you’ll discover you have new amazing hidden talents,” she said trying to be supportive of her brother.
“You’re right Will, I’m getting a head of myself. At my age I’m sure nothing life changing is going to be happening to me anytime soon. I’m obsessing for no reason. There are lots of years ahead of me to figure what I’m supposed to do with my life,” he nodded to his sister. “Besides, we’re here. I can see Godfrey and Pru. By the way, thanks for being a great sister.”
CHAPTER THREE
Godfrey and his younger adopted sister, Prunella, otherwise known as Pru waited for their friends on the grounds of their home in the countryside near the university. Godfrey, a tall, muscular, boy of twelve with shoulder length, dark blonde hair hurled the valessphere in the air, trying to master yet another game. He threw the round weighted sphere straight up. No matter how hard he tried to control it, the sphere would land several yards from where he was standing. “I hope we get to be pirates today,” he thought to himself as he waited for his friends. Godfrey considered the idea of swashbucklers the epitome of adventurous games. Finding buried treasures, swinging on a rope across the bow of a ship, sword fighting, it all intrigued him.
Pru twiddled with her long French braided raven hair entwined with lavender ribbons and wondered what part she would get to play in their adventure game today. Her green eyes were filled with excitement as she scanned the distant horizon awaiting a glimpse of the malgrids that would carry their two friends here for an afternoon of fun. She loved the fact that even though she was about a little over a year young than the other three, they always included her in their activities. The reason they liked having her around Willow once told her, was because she was funny, thoughtful, precocious, fearless and probably wiser than the lot of them.
Pru liked Willow and thought she was sweet, very pretty but kind of girly unlike herself who she deemed to be more like one of the boys. Except for the ribbons she always wore in her hair.
She took the burled wood and brass spyglass from her pocket, a gift she received for her eleventh birthday. Although the gift was from Winston and Willow, Pru preferred to think it was Winston’s idea to give her what she considered to be such a unique and spectacular gift. As far back as she could remember, Winston has always been her favorite of all of Godfrey’s friends, but since her party Winston was looking a little different to her. Butterflies seemed to flutter in her stomach. She could not quite grasp the cause. But it usually happened when Winston was around and her heart sometimes began beating a little faster.
Pru always had a great sense of humor and was never at a loss to quickly think of something funny to say. Nowadays her brain seemed to go numb when he was around. She liked being considered one of the boys. Competing with them to see who could climb higher or run faster. Though lately something else definitely seemed to be going on inside of her. “Maybe it was the new responsibilities she was given not long ago,” she reasoned. “It couldn’t be Winston. No! He’s just my buddy,” she groaned to herself feeling slightly befuddled over the possibilities. “Who would have the answer?” she wondered. “I couldn’t ask Mama. No, absolutely not, she would tease me and want to know, ‘When is my little rough and tumbler going to become a young lady?’ Willow’s the young lady, not me,” she thought.
Gweneen, her adoptive mother, taught ancient history at the university and took pleasure in the rugged lifestyle digging in the dirt and camping out at remote archeological sites with her husband, Jonathan, an archeology professor. Occasionally they would bring Godfrey and Pru with them to the sites. She enjoyed seeing and sharing with her children what she referred to as ancient history coming alive at these digs. While her mother was an attractive, petite woman with beautiful long red wavy hair, she was most comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. Pru did not consider her mother as particularly lady like. She saw her as a grown-up type of rough and tumbler and could not understand why her mother seemed to want her to become a young lady?
She wondered if her teacher, Staishya, a Butterflian Shapeshifter, would have the answer. “Yeah, she might know about butterflies fluttering around in my stomach, after all she’s a butterfly who changes into a woman.” These thoughts quickly left her mind as she spotted two tiny specks in the distance flying towards them. “I think I can see them,” she said to Godfrey handing him the spyglass and pointing to the sky.
They watched, as the specks grew larger until they were able to make out the shapes of the two malgrids. As they landed, Pru, feeling a little awkward about her recent thoughts, ran directly to Willow, trying to pay as much attention to her as possible while attempting not to focus on Winston.
“What’s the adventure going to be today?” Winston asked polling the group for suggestions.
“What about being archeologists looking for a new civilization?” Willow replied as the four friends headed down the long winding path leading to an extensive series of caves and tunnels which ran beneath Godfrey and Pru’s house and the nearby university.
Jonathan would often remind his son, daughter and their friends that some of the tunnels in these caves have been deemed safe for them to play in, but others are considered dangerous. He told them, “Rock slides have been reported in some of the deeper recesses of the caves. One tunnel was found to have a foul smelling, toxic bubbling substance erupting from some cracks on the floor.” Knowing that both children and adults would explore the tunnels, the university sent in a crew of geologists to clearly mark the areas safe and unsafe for entering. As an extra precaution, Jonathan, periodically would walk the youngsters through the tunnels making sure they all understood which areas were safe and which areas they were forbidden to enter. Everyone has to adhere to the rules. Especially Pru, who he always describes as his little fearless rough and tumbler, mixed with a bit of a daredevil because she was constantly looking for something to climb up, to jump off of or run to.
Jonathan took great pleasure in stimulating young minds. Godfrey and Pru were never aware that while they were at school their father, would occasionally go down into the caves where they played. He would salt parts of the tunnels with lots of brightly colored stones, beads, fake gold coins and replica of various artifacts he either found or purchased, for them to find. His children and their friends knew their finds had no real value but were always delighted with their endless discoveries.
“What about pirates? We could be pirates and hunt for treasure.” Pru chimed in. “What do you think, Winston?” she asked. She looked at Winston waiting for a response to her suggestion about a pirate game. “He’s cute,” she thought, “Ick! What am I thinking?”
Knowing pirates was Godfrey’s favorite Winston smiled and asked Pru, “What kind of bribe did Godfrey give you to suggest pirates?”
“Can’t tell you, it’s a secret,” she teased.
“We just did pirates just last week, what about going to the mystical land of…hmm…of Trope,” Winston suggested as his imagination thrust into full gear creating fictitious names, places and a scenario for their make believe adventure, “to retrieve the sword of Har and save the world from the Accus. We’d have to cross the land of the boiling mud and go through the caves of the Invisibles. I heard there are some nasty creatures living in that mud. It’s gonna be a dangerous mission, are we up for it?” he laughed.
“Sounds like a good one,” Godfrey said punching Winston lightly on his upper arm and nodding to the rest of the group. “We’ve got a sword to find, let’s get moving,” he shouted as they all moved faster down the path towards the caves.
Later
