Sirus VanTeel

The Long War

 

Chapter 1

            Landing Day was coming up and the day was waxing late.  Carson Vanteel was working with his youngest son Sirus around his home, in order to prepare for the visiting of his two oldest sons and their families, and the coming holiday.  Carson understood the significance of Landing Day and always made a point each year, of teaching it to his six children.  Of course, his two oldest sons Dolson and Adam already new the history, and probably where efficient at teaching their own families about Landing Day.  However, Carson enjoyed every opportunity to teach and instruct his children, even if they heard it a hundred times before, and he looked forward to the end of the holiday, just before the gifts would be exchanged, when he would be able to give a brief history of why the day is celebrated.

            Carson looked over at his youngest son Sirus struggling to pull a metal spike out of the ground that was once used as wedge, to hold in an old fence post.  Sirus was only fifteen, but he was already as big as his older brothers were and probably just as strong.  Sirus still was a little bit guaky, as most teenagers are, but Carson knew that would pass with time. Carson watched Sirus kick and pull at the metal spike, with frustration, trying to loosen it in the tightly packed ground, but Sirus was having a hard time at it.  Carson was thinking about going over and helping him, but he knew Sirus would not give up on the spike.  It wasn’t in his nature.  If that spike were welded to a metal anchor buried 20 ft. below the ground, Sirus would work on it till it came out.  Sirus seemed to be able to out-endure any task given to him.  Carson watched Sirus, with interest, straddle the spike bend over, grip it with both hands and begin to pull with all his strength.  Sirus’s muscles tensed and bulged as he pulled.  Carson thought he was about to give up and try something else, when the metal spike slipped out of the ground so fast that Sirus didn’t have time to react.  Thuud!  The spike came up hitting Sirus right below the eye making an awful sound. Carson hurried over to see if Sirus was all right. 

“Sirus are you alright?”

Sirus looked up at his dad, with a painful smile, and a big flap of skin hanging from his cheek just beginning to bleed and said, “ Ya, I’m fine dad” completely ignorant to the severity of his injury.

“Sirus stand up. Let me look at that... Yep, you’re going to need some stitches. Let’s go take care of it.”

            Sirus wasn’t to worried about his wound, after all his dad was a Healer by trade.  His dad got most of his healing experience when he was a soldiers fighting in the war against the Shamel, and his dad had fixed up people who were a lot worse off than himself.  His dad had a knack for helping the injured and sick.  His reputation was well known and he was probably the most respected Healer in Pronduke City.  And besides, Sirus’s cheek didn’t hurt to bad, at least not yet.

            Carson took Sirus into his lab, which was built on to the back of the house, where he treated many of his patients, when he couldn’t make house calls, and stitched Sirus up with 17 stitches.  When he finished Carson declared, “ That will leave a nice scar”, then almost as an after thought he said, “be careful when you show that to your mother... you know how much it hurts her when she sees one of you kids hurt.”

 “All right.” Sirus responded, “Dad are we done working yet?  It’s getting dark.” Sirus continued, not wanting to pull any more spikes out of the ground.  

Carson thought for a moment and said, “I guess so... I guess things look good enough for Landing Day.  Go and get cleaned up for supper.  Dinner should be done soon and your mother won’t want us to be late.  However, we have a lot of work to do after dinner, in order to get the house ready for Dolson and Adam and their families.  So I don’t want you skipping out after dinner.”