Under One Banner

Chapter 15

Hey readers! Sorry I haven't posted for a couple days! I've been straight out and forgot about it! Sorry! I'll make up for it and post the correct amount I should be up too. :) Thanks for reading! 

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Sheridan nodded and fell silent again. 

“So who is this friend that we are going after?” he asked. 

Aryanna looked sidelong at him before answering. “His name is James, he is a very good friend, probably the only good close friend that Kalya and I have. Kalya considers him to be her brother. We have known each other since childhood, I ran away from the Woodlands once and ended up in the plains to the North, he was there also, after being allowed to leave his work in the lord’s castle. He and I met and talked for that afternoon. He convinced me to go home, much to the relief of my parents, who didn’t know where I had gone. After that I continued to visit him, he only visited once or twice, because he couldn’t get out of work and still make it to the Woodlands and be able to visit before having to head home again. He is a slave to the Lord of the Plains. Kalya grew up with him, and when our parents died, she had only us. Me really, we don’t get to see James all that often,” she said. 

“Ah, I can see why you would want to go after him, it seems he has played a big part in both of your lives,” Sheridan said. 

Aryanna nodded. “So what is your story?” she asked.

Sheridan shrugged. “Don’t have much of one. Still have my parents, but they aren’t very in on my life since I became an adult, they wanted both my brother and I to be independent, just like true Woodlander parents do.  I have an older brother, but we aren’t very close, he left one day and wrote once saying he was married and far away from the Woodlands. I was raised to be tough and callous, I have let my parents down and they don’t appreciate me not being rough and fighting my way to the top. What happened the other day with you and Adin, and me getting rid of him, they would have frowned at that behavior, they would that I help Adin in killing you, because at that moment, you were weak. I hate it,” Sheridan said, the feeling and strength in his words rising as he said each one, til the last sentence his voice was strong with all emotion he was thinking and feeling. 

“And that is why Kalya and I don’t get along with anyone, at least not the adults, my parents did not like the Woodlander way of thinking, in fact they wanted us to know about mercy and the different ways to live. Instead of us having to live in a constant fight against everyone else,” Aryanna explained. 

“I noticed, I wanted to talk with you when we were younger, and after your parents died. But I knew that my parents knew about how your parents raised you, and if I talked to you I’d get a beating,” Sheridan said.

“I understand, Sheridan, the Woodlanders don’t seem to appreciate it when their children talk with the looked down upon children,” Aryanna said with a sad smile. 

Sheridan shook his head. “No, not at all,” he paused. “I remember, one day I only mentioned the two of you in passing to my brother, mentioning I wanted to talk with you sometime. He told my mother, who told my father, who gave me a beating, ingraining in my mind that the two of you weren’t to be spoken too,” he said. 

“I wondered why we were avoided, but what you are saying makes sense,” she said. “Woodlanders are so set in their ways! My mother used to tell us that there had been a time where the Woodlanders and the Nobles lived together, peacefully. They were not broken into the two groups, Woodlanders and Nobles. But all lived fairly under two just kings. My mother said that hardly any one would remember, but it was a story that all of her relatives passed down through generations. She told it to us before she died so that the story would not die out with her,” Aryanna said.