As my mother stood there struggling to hold back her tears, Wilfred had left the room quicker than a bullet out of a barrel. I sat my mother down in a seat next to her, holding her hand trying to calm her down.
My mother was never like this usually, she was a strong woman who did everything by herself, she was never the type to get bullied by others and always stuck up for herself.
After the tears eventually stopped running down her face I managed to ask her.
"So what happened to dad, what's wrong?"
"Your father he's gone."
"What do you mean gone, is he... dead?"
I expected this outcome to happen. When the shadow plague infected someone, at most they wouldn't make it past a year, it was a miracle that he stayed alive for this long.
My other shook her head.
"Your father has been taken, he was taken by the shadow plaque." Tears started to roll down her face again.
I was shocked at what I heard. The shadow plague only took people if it was worth their effort. When a person is infected by the shadow plague one of two things happen to them. The first thing is the host goes mad and dies within the year.
The second thing is more instant, the shadow plague will try to host themselves inside the body, similar to the drop bear king that I saw a few years ago. Although this was a rare occurrence, it had a low chance of success so they would usually only do this if the host body was strong.
But my father's body hadn't been takin over instantly, so we all had assumed it would never happen.
My mother continued
"Your father has been fighting it inside his body the whole time, then one day he managed to take control for a small moment. He told me to tell the village to evacuate, that he could no longer fight against it. I helped the village evacuate but decided to stay by your fathers' side."
"Are you hurt?" I said panicking looking over her body to see if there were any visible wounds.
"No, I tried my best to come up with something to help him, but when he turned I realised there was nothing I could do without hurting him. HE told me.... he told me... to kill him, that it would be for the best... but I just couldn't Ray, how could I kill your father."
My mother started to break down in tiers again. Looking at her face I was angry. I was angry at the shadow plague for taking my father, I was angry at the humans for doing nothing about it but worst of all I was angry at my self.
Angry at myself because for the last fifteen years I had made close to no progress figuring out how to unlock my abilities. I had thought my father would be fine and one day when I had regained my dragon abilities I could use them to heal him, and now my heart feels as if it has been torn in two, for my mother has had to bear all the burden.
The two of us talked for a while before she left. I asked her what she would do now. She said that she was going to work at the adventure in a guild helping the people out. thankfully away from the frontlines.
But just before my mother left Avrion Academy she handed me a note. She said the note was from my father and he wrote it before he was infected by the shadow plaque. He originally wanted to give it to me once I had passed the entrance exam for Avrion academy, with the whole situation happening at the time my mother had completely forgotten about it until now.
I went to my room to read the contents of the letter.
"Dear Ray,
I knew you were talented and always could do it, after all, you have mine and your mother's genes inside you. Although you seemed to struggle a lot when you were younger I knew you were special from the moment I and your mother laid our eyes on you. After you came back from the forest carrying Gary on your back I went into the forest and saw the intermediate beast had been slain. For whatever reasons it seems you're hiding your true abilities but this is my message to you Ray, Don't ever let anyone bully you, not for your unique red hair or your interest or anything. I know you can become the number one knight of Avrion academy and I look forward to being there the graduate as number one."
I threw the letter into the bin and thought to myself.
"That stupid father of mine, how is he meant to see me become the best of Avrion academy now."
I went up to the roof of the building, it was the best place for me to gather my thoughts. It was a full moon tonight and the sound of the magical beast in the distance could be heard. The view seemed to calm my mind down. It seemed like the world was adding to my list of enemies.
****
Ian and Slyvia had just gotten back from their white sash training session when they entered the room everyone was there apart from Ray.
The group had a rota for room duties and today was Ian turn to take out the trash. When Ian went to take out the trash that day, he could see what looked like a letter to be in the bin. It was a strange thing for him to see because the squires were not allowed to receive letters from the outside. Ian wasn't trying to be nosy but couldn't help but read the first few lines.
"What you reading there big guy," Dan said.
Ian had just finished reading the contents of the letter and realised it was a very personal thing that no one should have seen.
"Umm nothing."
"Come on what are you hiding their big guy, perhaps a love confession."
Ian quickly put the letter behind his back.
Monk had silently crept up from behind Ian and snatched the letter from behind. Everyone had now gathered behind the letter and read it's contents.
"That's so sweet, but how did he get a letter from his parents I thought squires weren't allowed to receive them?" Slyvia asked.
Gary went back towards his bed.
"It's not as sweet as you guys think it is. Ray's father was infected by the shadow plaque. That letter must have been written from before the incident."
Everyone in the room had gone silent. No one there had experienced what Ray had gone through, but they had heard rumours and incidents of what it was like. They couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Some of them even thought that this was the reason why Ray was like he was. He never talked much to the group and liked to keep to himself.
Gary had known Ray the longest time but whenever the group would ask questions about Ray to him, it seemed as if Gary hardly knew him at all.
The group from then on decided that they would try to make more of an effort to interact with Ray, hoping that he would open up to them in the future.