Two Brothers

Aerouant Adoh. I hate my name, my parents have this obsession with dragons. So they went and changed our family name when I was born to Aerouant which in the language of the Imperium means Dragon. Then they named me Adoh which means fire. My name means dragon fire. What sort of name is that?

Next to me was my brother Calum, he is just slightly shorter than me. His hair is black like mine but my eyes are golden like our mother's, while he is green like our father's. We both are walking towards our house where we live with our parents.

"So how many of the old man's plants did you manage to gather today?" I asked curiously as he always manages to get more done than me, which i am slowly beginning to find extremely annoying.

"I only managed to get two hundred and fifty-six today. It's not that much. I should be able to do better."

I just looked at him.

"Only two hundred and fifty-six! What is wrong with your head! That's...that's insane!" I stopped in the middle of the road and started complaining and yelling at him about how he always manages to pick so much. We continued like this for a good ten minutes. But not once did he complain, after all, I swear he does it to make me annoyed.

Once I had calmed down. We carried on walking to our house. We lived in a small rural village called Black Spire village. The biggest problem with the name is that there is no black spire near our village. Which made the name odd for all the travelers and villagers who lived here. The village itself was extremely standard. There was an inn, a blacksmith, and around six or seven different farms.

After walking down the main road while complaining about how it needs repairs badly. This was due to one of us always tripping up on the loose cobbles. We reached our home. I pushed open the large oak gate so that we could both get through into the central courtyard of our home. It was not the largest house in the village but it most definitely not the smallest either.

Our father had bought this with his money when he moved from the provincial capital city twenty-four years ago. He was a rather talented scholar of a falling noble family, so although he did not have loads of money compared to the common people he was extremely wealthy.

"Boys is that you?" Our mother yelled out from the kitchen as we came into the courtyard.

"Yeah, mum we're home." After I said that she walked out to see us. There was the most stunning smile on her face. It was the famous smile of the village. The smile that could stop any argument.

Our mother thought looked odd compared to most people. Her eyes and her hair are a golden colour and her cheeks were rosy like a setting sun. "Why did you marry dad again mum?" I asked in a confused voice after all it was like having an angel and a pig married together. With a slight smile, she started to tell the story.

"Well when I moved from my home, there was a great war going on. My family and I were trying to run from this war, we reached a city called Dragrad there we used the last of our wealth to buy some rooms in a tavern. We stayed for a few days. One day after coming back from roaming the city I came to the inn to find my family in chains. We had not paid some debt and were being enslaved.

On seeing me arrive my father told me to run and tried to resist the slavers, in response to his act the slavers….stabbed him in the chest, then they...cut off his head." At this point, she was frozen staring into the distance with a tear running down her face.

After pausing for a few seconds to get her emotions in check she carried on. "While running from the guards I ended up in the main market of the city. There were so many people there. You have never seen so many nice and colorful things…. Anyway, I was running through the market. The slavers were right behind me. Then like a knight, your father appeared before me. He stopped me running, his guards chased off the slavers but by the time they got to my family the slavers had taken my sister and mother and killed my brother…." She paused for a second again. "After that, your father took care of me. We eventually fell in love and I followed him here when he said he wanted to be a farmer. We then married then you two came along."

After that, she finished her story. I and brother ran straight into her and gave her a massive hug. We stayed like that for a few minutes.

"Alright you two, go get yourselves cleaned up for dinner."

I walked into my room, after going through the oak door, I entered my room. It was fairly simple, a wooden bed in the center with some straw and animal fur for comfort and warmth. There was also a fireplace made of a black stone called draconian. It was a material that was able to absorb the smoke the fire generates so that the room doesn't become a smokey paradise. There was also a small dresser made of oak, which had some of my most important belongings in.

I also had one book wrapped in some black leather. It was written in the common language which I had spent painful hours under my father's strict tutelage to learn how to read and write. He also taught me the Draconic script, which is the writing of the old Imperium, but I don't see the point in learning that after all only the top-tier nobles ever use it.

As I didn't have long left before dinner was going to be ready. I quickly grabbed some cold water and heated it above the fireplace. Once that was done I washed off all the dirt and grime that was on me from a long day's work in the fields. Then I put on some fresh clothes made of linen. These were the nicest clothes I had. The clothes were soft, comfortable to wear and in my favorite color black. Then I walked towards the main room of the house where we always eat our meals. It was a custom our family has had for a long time. We eat our meals in the same room together, if one person is not there we do not eat until they are.

Just outside the door, I saw my brother. He was in a similar attire but instead of black, his clothes were white.

"So you going to tell them tonight?" He asked.

While looking at him in a questioning way. "Tell them what?"

"Don't play dumb with me Adoh, I know you are leaving next week to go to the city to enlist in the army!" Although he said this in a raised manner it was still quiet enough so that our parents couldn't hear.

"Yeah, I'm going to tell them tonight. It's been long enough."

I then felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking behind me it was my father. He had a stoic expression.

"Aeronaut Adoh!"