From Bones to Birth: Puzzle Piece (Chapter Two)

by Daniel Kwadwo

The town of Folhavanc was the most delightful place in the world by Jomcara’s estimation, and he wouldn’t stand that viewpoint being challenged. 

He lived in a marvelous bright and well-decorated house, nearly as big as a mansion with all of the space and coziness he needed. Not to mention his mother lived there! Hortensia was one of the two things the two, and soon to be three, members of the Gordeau family could both agree made every day a million times more brilliant than it would be otherwise. 

So it was no easy thing to pack their carriage outside the town’s wall for Jomcara. In his mind, there was no business that far outside of Folhavanc so demanding that he couldn’t simply visit to take care of it before coming back-yet, he knew well that his feelings on the matter and reality had no business coming together. 

Especially in light of the fact it was his own desire that made him want to do this!

Jomcara sighed as the last crate with food supplies was placed into the carriage. It was a big thing; they weren’t taking everything with them across the road, but Jomcara wouldn’t allow his mother to be seated in anything less than the height of comfort. An entire room inside it was twice the size of a kitchen and filled with pillows and every amenity needed to make sure a pregnant woman would face no issue or trouble. Big or small. After crawling inside, arranging the pillows and bed and desk, and every little aspect of the room from the way the pictures hung and onward, Jomcara left to gather his own final necessities. 

He walked into the home of his friend, Leilah. A comfy warehouse in the back of the town, one step inside of it led into a world of paper. Scrolls and books and tablets made of every mineral and metal one could imagine off the top of their head filled the space inside. Piles taller than a man, shelves bursting at the seams, and walls covered in disorganized letters and historical information that detailed everything one could wish to know in a ridiculous amount of fields. 

Primarily, magic. 

Leilah had a book floating next to her head as she read from it, while she was sitting on a pile of books in the left corner of her home. 

“So you need to draw blood from a frog’s eyes using a swallow’s claw, not a chicken’s, or else your tongue will spill out lies for a week…? Hm, I wonder what would happen if I used a fulgrim fish’s teeth instead?…no one would need to know I did it, right? Worst that could happen-”

“-would be someone’s eye turn’s purple and their fingers turn into fat sausages too clumsy to pick so much as pick up a fork?”

Leilah squawked like a bird and in her surprise, tumbled over into the pile behind her.

“Jomcara! What are you doing here? I didn’t call for you!”

“No. But you were apparently fine for calling down a new curse on anyone unfortunate enough to come to you for…what’s in that book? Throat healing tonics?”

Jomcara stretched his neck to try and get a peek but Leilah hid the tome too well behind her back. “You’re not to poke your nose into business not for your eyes. That’s the distinction between us, last I heard? Someone whose job it is to swing a big hunk of metal around isn’t quite made of the stuff it requires to spend your time in front of a spellbook and throw out spells to make the cement between bricks dry or make get the wind to help you find out which way you need to go to get out of a forest full of fiends?”

“Alright. I get it. You can throw around whatever you want for the hell of it. That’s not why I needed to get such a lovely lady like yourself laying it out with me. Nah, what I came here for is some help getting the last pieces of my gear out of Dilluton.”

“Well why didn’t you just say so?”

Dilluton was the name of the fortress near Folhavanc. The base of operations for the militia of the country the town laid in, Mangrath. Jomcara took Leilah inside and they walked into the armory within it, where Leilah unlocked the seal on the more restricted items. 

Jomcara took what he was due, special surprises meant to make their passage through the roads and wilds much easier on both himself and his family. He made amends with Leilah, Stelgotta, and all the merry bunch he called family in his little slice of heaven. 

When that was done, it was time to leave. He brought both his mother and his weaponry, the regalia of a servant of Mangrath indebted to her defense, into the carriage, whipped the horses, and was on his way. Eager to catch up to a caravan that was visiting a nearby settlement. 

While on the road, just before leaving, Jomcara closed his eyes and sent out a prayer to the lord in heaven and upon the Ciaceratam Ring, asking for benevolence. 

Should eager step reflect unkempt personage, I can but lay arm and heart upon the hearth of the empyrean reaches, and give upon hope all my dreams and all my love. That and more, is, has been and forever will be yours oh king beyond kings. May this song give your merciful heart comfort, as I ask only for safekeeping to be the fate of myself, my mother, and my unborn sister. 

Amen.