Fur Tempus

Aegar and Brax both flew through the air for a few moments, almost an impossibility if you carefully considered how a tackle from a high position to a low position could result in two people going airborne but....no one was paying attention!

"Aegar! What is WRONG with you?!" Thalia shouted at him as she hurried down the rest of the steps. 

The sword in Brax's hand went flying past the children and embedded itself in the wall. Aegar and Brax landed in a tangle on the opposite side of the room with Brax shoving Aegar off him.

"Get off me! Get off me! What's wrong with you?!" He shouted at Aegar, his eyes red with fury. He coked a fist back and punched Aegar in the face, who being younger and scrawnier than him, went flying a couple of feet away.

"ENOUGH!" A voice from the top of the stairs cut through the commotion with an authoritative tone demanding obedience. Everyone's heads turned. It was the director!

A dignified elderly man stood tall at the top of the stairs. A stylish cane in his right hand. His silver hair looked like layered feathers and perfectly complimented the sharp gaze of his blue eyes that sparkled with intelligence.

He word a finely tailored suit done in the latest style, it looked like it seamlessly wrapped around his chest. It was in the colors of the kingdom, black with yellow trim. 

"Aegar, you've caused me enough trouble! To my office now!" The director's gaze landed on the sword imbedded in the wall. 

"And someone remove that accursed sword from the wall!" Without sparing a glance at the children or Thalia he smartly turned and strode back through the second floor door. 

"Ooo, Aegar you're in trouble now!" 

"Ha ha ha! No way you're getting out of this one!"

"I don't want big brother to get in trouble..."

The reactions of the various children in the orphanage was immediate! Aside from the two youngest girls, whom Aegar treated very well, the rest condemned him.

"Heh. Looks like you're for the streets now, Aegar." Brax grinned at him maliciously. Aegar saw a wisp of that black haze no longer than a pinky nail hovering around his head before diving straight into Brax's ear. 

Aegar got up off the ground where he lay and wiped the trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his sleeve. He brushed himself off and straightened his nonexistent collar. Far be it from him to seem so weak after just a small punch....but damn it hurt!

Aegar gazed at the sword imbedded in the wall. Not a trace of that black wisp. He was about to start marching up the stairs when he felt a small hand clutch his clothes.

"Big brother, please don't leave us!" Remy's eyes were filled with tears as she clutched the hem of his shirt.

"Don't worry Remy!" Aegar grinned at her. "Big brother isn't going anywhere!" 

He patted her head and gently removed her hands from his clothing before giving her a wide smile. Then he marched up the stairs with purpose. It only took him a couple of minutes to reach the director's office. 

He'd like to say he almost never comes to the director's office but...there was that incident yesterday at the market. He swore he saw one of the farmer's chickens with the same evil aura as that sword and punted it!

He had to peel potatoes for hours! His hand cramped just thinking about it! Then there was that incident last week with the fake lady. How was he supposed to know it was a man having an affair with one of the lord's officials? He got locked up in the attic for three days and nights with no food! He got shivers down his spine just thinking about it. 

'Best to just get this over with.' Aegar thought to himself as he raised his fist to the door and knocked sharply three times. The director was really insistent that if you were to knock on any door, it must be swift and with confidence. Hence all the children learned to knock on his office door properly by age six!

"Enter." The director's muffled voice came from within. Aegar pushed open the door.

The inside of the director's office was opulently furnished with expensive rugs and chairs. There was a map of the world behind him. It had the continent they lived on, Aurus, and it was divided into 1 empire, 2 kingdoms, and a holy theocracy. 

Currently, they lived in the Dynus Kingdom in the south-western most part of the continent. The borders of the kingdom expand about seven week's travel in every direction except south, south-west, and south. After all, it's hard to expand into the ocean.

There was also a partial continent in the top left of the map. He had heard about it front a couple of sailors while out in the market one time. It was called Ytria. Occasionally a native from there escaped to here. 

There was an expedition organized by the kingdom once to go explore it. No one returned. Now it is considered forbidden territory and those who come from Ytria are treated with great respect. 

Aegar turned his attention to the director who sat at a nice red-hued desk, spartanly furnished, as he scratched something onto a paper with a nice looking quill. 

"Sit, Aegar." The director commanded without looking up. Aegar worried for himself as he had never in all his life been told to sit in one of the chairs. The scratching of the quill stopped as the director put it in an inkwell and looked straight at him.

"What am I to do with you, Aegar?" The director paused to push a pair of ornate spectacles further up his nose. 

"You've lived here all of your life! Yet it seems in the past year I have had to clean up after your mistakes time and time again!" Aegar physically shriveled as the director scolded him. Not that he didn't deserve it, but all of those mistakes were for a good cause!"

"Did you know the man who gave Brax that sword is one of our biggest donors? He is the advisor of the City Lord! Not only did he just deliver a huge donation, but he gifted that sword to Brax, saying he had potential! Potential!"

The director paused before giving Aegar a withering glace. "You just ruined years of hard work! Plans upon plans upon plans! This was the final straw, young man."

"But, sir, I can explain--" 

"SILENCE! DID I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO SPEAK?!" Spittle flew from the director's mouth as his eyes turned red from anger. 

"No sir..." Aegar muttered. 

"SPEAK UP BOY! YOU WILL ADDRESS ME PROPERLY!" More spittle flew from the director's mouth and that odd black aura he'd seen earlier seemed to glow around him.

"No, sir!" Aegar almost shouted. 

"Hmph. I'd say see to it that you don't do it again, however..." the director stared into his eyes with a burning gaze. "As of today boy, you are no longer welcome in this orphanage. Thalia will see you out."

As if on queue, the door to the director's office opened and Thalia stood there, staring at Aegar coldly. 

"Time to go, boy." She stated calmly, as if no event in the world could shake it from its pedestal as a hard, cold fact. For his part, Aegar didn't sit in the chair stunned like any other child would be in his place.

He got up out of the chair and followed her out of the office. The director spoke one more time before the door to his office closed completely.

"Pray you never have to meet me again, boy." And then the door clicked closed, a final conformation of the reality he lived in.

"Orphaned for real this time" he muttered as he followed Thalia all the way to the front of the orphanage. He didn't see any of the other children on his way downstairs. 

She held the door open for him and as he stepped through she planted a foot on his back and kicked him out.