Tales From The Emerald Isles: Hope Chest

5

"I never thought to..." Ash began "think! Ya bloody fool," the boy interrupted. You never thought to think for yourself." The boy finished.

Blood dripped more rapidly from his hand as he clenched his fists. "Come now, let you put away that heart ya be squeezing in ya hand before ya lose such a dear prize to pride. Do ye have something to put it in?" Ash continued toward Selene, to her saddle bags and pulled out from the largest of the bags an earthen gourd-like container. It had alternating panels of translucent cardinal red glass and deep highly glazed mud-like brown. "Here." Ash held up the container. "According to Marric, this container was made for just such a thing, It's enchanted. It will keep the heart from drying out."

"You certainly put a lot of stock in this Marric, Ash." Ash drummed his fingers on the container's lid, it glinted cardinal beams of light as it moved atop Selene's back. "Aye, I do. He's a Cleric of The Order. He knows such things. It's his job to know such things as is mine to protect my people." His thoughts momentarily turned to his father.

The boy moved toward Ash. "Might I see this enchanted container of yours?" The boy asked, "I know I look like just a boy, but I assure you that I am wise well beyond my appearance."

Ash thought about the boy's request and decide against it. He wasn't really sure if he could trust this strangely old, yet spritely boy. "No. You cannot."

The boy furrowed his eyebrows and pressed his lips together, his smile faded away. "Aye, if that is your choice. So be it." replied the boy.

He snapped his fingers and in an instant the container was in the palm of his left hand. It looked as if he was a peddler presenting his more prized ware. He held it up to the sky, allowing the sunlight to pass through it as he inspected it. He spun in in his hand. He examined the bottom. He lifted the lid and looked inside. He flicked it. He knocked on it. "Enchanted it be, but there are things that you fail to see. There is weakness in the bonds." Ash shook his head. "What? Boy, I. Give me back the container. I've had it with your games.

My patience only extends but so far. Magic or no, you've insulted me and now you've stolen from me. I've half a mind to..." Ash gritted his teeth, biting off the end of his sentence. "Okay, okay...I'll behave. Here is your container back. It was wrong of me to take it from you." Said the boy as he tossed the container to Ash, "I see that know. I do, at times, forget myself."

Ash scrambled around Selene to catch the container as it soared through the air. He somehow made under the airborne vessel just in time. The boy sneezed and it pulled Ash's attention for an instant. He felt a gust of wind across his face as the container grazed his fingers before meeting the hard dirt below. It shattered into pieces.

"Dammit!" The heart remained safe, held tightly to his chest. "You Loki loving, mischievous, little god forsaken brat. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to shove my sword so far up your arse the blade will come outta your mouth." Ash said, his eyes burning with contempt.

He had an important matter to attend to. He now had to stop to entertain this child. A stop that had not only cost him valuable time, but the vessel that would keep the heart safe until it could be delivered to Marric. Ash leapt toward the boy. He wasn't far away and so closing the distance was easy for him even in his exhausted state. He wrapped his left hand around the boy's throat, thrusting him upward into the air.

His azure and gray gauntlet less brilliant in the fading light. The rest of his armor was awash with the blood of the dragon and in that instant, he looked like a demon about to devour the small child that was writhing in the air above him while he held tightly to the heart, dripping yet more blood from his right hand.

"I." The boy coughed "I. See. That." A gently breeze blew blowing from the east across the back of his sweaty neck. His left hand closed around nothing but air. "I've angered you, young prince. That was not my intention," said the boy who was now behind Ash rubbing his throat. Ash turned to see the boy behind him in astonishment. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"We should start over. I can see that you've got some fire in you. That's good. You'll need that. I am Euan of the forest. I'm sorry about the container. That truly was not my intention. I can offer you another if you'll let me."

Ash's anger began to cool. I don't really have a choice. I can't bloody well carry this heart in my hand all the way back to the castle. "You just so happen to have an enchanted container in, where? I don't see any pockets nor are you wearing a pack. Unless you live close to here." Euan smiled and interjected "Aye, live close to here I do. I live everywhere that I wish within the woodlands. That, is not foolish of you to ask Ash. But, you've seen me pull the container from you hand and into mine." He motioned into the air as if to pluck the petal from a flower and suddenly between his fingers was a gold coin, which he then rolled across the tops of his fingers and flicked to Ash. "Surely, you don't think I am limited to the banality of bags." Euan stood there pensively for a moment before twisting his right hand in the air as if he were feeling the underside of a sphere and as he opened his up-turned palm a wooden chest appeared.

Ash eyed Euan and the box in his hand skeptically. The box was about two fists wide and three high with a rounded top case. It had no catch or place for a lock and so Ash wondered how it would remain sealed. The wood was beautiful. It was knotty, but whomever crafted this box knew how to work with those knots because they only added to its beauty. There were trees, runes, and what Ash thought must have been fairies or elves etched across the face of the box. The entire chest was lacquered dark, and shone with deep rich tones.

"How will that chest keep the heart from drying out and dying before I reach the castle?" Ash asked, "I see no way to seal that box. What will keep it from opening and spilling its contents upon the ground?" Ash asked, still not happy with the recent turn of events.

"Aye, 'tis made of me mother, the finest of Yew. It 'twas made of all her hopes and it will guard the same for you. 'Tis made of a mother, her hopes for a daughter that she never bore, and so it was passed down to a son she never intended. Ash, I will not lie and say that I never lie, but in this a tell you true. Place the heart within this and hope will keep it safe until love will birth it anew." Ash opened the chest. It felt sturdy. He placed the heart within. He paused before closing the lid. "How will this remain sealed without a lock Euan? asked Ash. "On your closure of the chest, it will seal itself, until love will birth its contents anew.

When you're ready, close it and think on the box for a moment. You will know when it is done." Ash closed the lip and left his hand upon its top. He closed his eyes. He thought on the box; it's beautiful dark lacquered finish reminded him of the dark mahogany toned hair of the woman he met last night. The shine of the box in the fading sunlight drew his attention. The last hues of blue dancing with oranges and reds in the dusky sky, reminded him of her sapphire colored eyes in the firelight. A flurry of images flashed in his mind of the night they spent together, the preceding morning before they parted, and he readied himself to battle the dragon. A warm white light ran the circumference of the chest ending in a brilliant flash. Ash opened his eyes to see that the hope chest was sealed all the way around. Not even a blade of grass could find a home to slide into. He tried to open the chest. It would not budge.