Minstrel

Chapter #15 ~ Stans

Springing up from her crouch, Aria ran out into the storm whistling. Shaking his head, Stans stood up. The cave had a low ceiling that forced him to duck his head to avoid hitting it.

'She's way to mysterious.' He told himself. There was so much he didn't understand about his companion and it frustrated him. He didn't even know anything about her kind.

Peeking out of the cave to look for Aria, Stans felt like his eyes would frost over and he would go blind. White snow was all he could see and it gave him a headache.

"Aria!" He called slightly worried. "I swear if I have to come out and look for you I'll..."

"You'll do what?" Aria emerged through the white wall, a man at her side. He was a half a foot shorter than Stans which would make him an average height, but that was the only thing average about him. He was covered in an intricate steel armor with swirling patterns of blue. Stans had no clue what the designs meant or whether they even had any meaning at all; it was possible they were just for decoration.

The man pulled off his helmet just as Stans began to ask, "Aria, who is this?"

Holding his hand out he looked at Stans. "I guess you must be Stans Caliway. Sir Core at your service."

Without his helmet on Stans could see Sir Core bluer than blue eyes and shaggy black hair. His face, covered in a five o'clock shadow, broke with a perfect smile.

Tentatively Stans shook his hand. "How do you know my name?"

"Oh," Sir Core said without losing his smile. "Queen Isabelle sent me to get you, but it would appear my sister beat me to it."

Stans looked from Aria to Sir Core and he couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before. They looked exactly the same with the same; blue eyes, black hair, average height, and pointed ears.

"Twins?" Stans asked curiously.

Aria smiled at him and threw herself into her brother's arms. "Obviously."

"Great. Now there's two of them." Stans mumbled under his breath.
Aria's eyes narrowed before she broke into another smile. The way she smiled reminded Stans of his sister, but he wasn't sure why. "Oh don't be like that Stans, honey."

Stans eyes widened and a blush crept across his face. He hadn't meant for them to hear his comment. He shook his head. "Elves and their insanely powerful senses."

Sir Core nodded. "It can be a problem. We tend to eavesdrop without trying to."

Aria laughed and pushed him playfully. "Lier! You like to dive into other people's business."

Sir Core looked at Stans. "Like I said, it can be a problem. Sure gets me into a lot of trouble."

Stans hadn't realized he had slowly been back away from the twins until he hit the cave wall.

"Great!" Aria yelled smacking her brother. "You've scared him!"

"Me?" Core shook his head. "He was scared long before I got here and I'm pretty sure that would be your fault, not mine."

"Wh... what's happening right now?" Stans stood pressed against the wall hoping it would just swallow him whole. The twins turned to him, cocking their head the same way as if they were just one person, not two different ones.

"Don't do that!" Stans yelled at them his voice shaking. He wasn't quite sure what it was that made him so scared. Sure he somewhat trusted Aria, but now there was another one. It felt like if there was a fight the odds were suddenly against him.

"Do what?" They said at the same time. Their voices blended together in perfect unison. It was as if their voices had combined to make one and it didn't sound too pretty.

"Are you okay?" They asked in the unison voice. It was a husky, musical sound; dark and imposing like a black hole coming to consume him.
"No, no, no." His muttered shaking harder than he had ever shook before. "Please... please."

The twins crept forward with the movement of one.
Stans sank to the cold, stone floor with his hands on his head. "My sister needs me. Please whatever you are... please..."

His eyes were closed and he rocked back and forth. Back and forth...
Twin laughs burst through Stans' impending doom. Tentatively he looked at the twins, both bent over laughing with thankfully different laughs. One high and one low.

"Did you see the look on his face?" Core breathed through his laughing.
"My sister needs me! Please!" Aria mocked him and gave her brother a high five.

"What?" Stans shook on the ground.

Aria looked at him with sparkling eyes. "We got you good! So good!"

Stans' pounding heart refused to slow and a feeling he hadn't felt in awhile boiled out of him. His fear shifted gears and became anger. No, more than that, it became full out rage. All his fear, pain, and suffering came to the surface. He had built a wall after his parents had left; a wall to protect Creak. He had never let himself break for fear it would destroy his sister. She had needed a constant in her life and Stans had worked hard to be that for her. But she wasn't here now and when his wall threatened to break he let it. A rush of ten years of pain and abandonment converted into anger and had Stans lunging at Aria.
She didn't fight back as Stans pounded her. Hit after hit, tears leaking from his eyes.

"That's wasn't funny!" He screamed at her. "Don't you see I don't have time for your... your little games! My sister is being hunted by the king! And I'm here traveling with two twin elves who would rather mess with me than help me! If your 'so called' Rebel Kingdom is full of people like you two than I can't imagine a better world!" He took a breath to try and calm himself as Core forcefully pulled him off of Aria.

But Stans wasn't done. "You say you want a better world! A world without oppression! But are you even trying? No you're not!"

His eyes narrowed until he could barely see her. "You call me a coward, but from what I can see you're no better than I am."

Aria stood up and brushed herself off. "It was just a joke." She looked at him with pity and it made Stans sick. "What horrible thing happened to you that you can't even take a joke?"

Stans wouldn't tell her, he couldn't. Aria looked at him like he was a wounded animal and maybe he was. But he wouldn't give her any other reason to pity him.

As his anger slowly faded, Stans looked at the damage to Aria's face. Blood poured from her nose and her eye was swelling up. She was already turning black and blue and her lip was split.

Guilt washed over him. Stans' father always told him never to hit a girl, no matter how annoying she might be. Hitting a girl was ungentleman-like and such things were frowned upon.

He was about to reach out to her, but Sir Core stood between them. Looking over the twin's head, Stans caught Aria's eye.

"I'm sorry..." He began. "Really I don't know what came over me."

She shook her head as he struggled to find the words to explain why he had done what he had done.
"It's okay, Stans." She looked at her brother. "I would be more than a little crazy if Core disappeared without me."

Stans wanted to correct her. Creak hadn't wanted to leave him. She wouldn't want to do that... would she?

For the second time, Stans found himself crying. A grown man crying. It was more than embarrassing.

Strong arms came around him as Core pulled him in for a hug. Slapping him on the back, he said, "It's okay man. We'll find your sister."

"Yeah." Aria came around and wrapped her arms around both of them. "I promise we'll find her. Even if the Queen Isabelle won't help you, we certainly will."

Stans tried to compose himself, but it was hopeless. Without his sister everything seemed hopeless.

"Thanks." He mumbled, grateful for their support. They may be willing to help him, but Stans wasn't sure if it would really make a difference.
It would just be them against the whole world and Stans didn't like those odds.