Legacies of light

Walking into the room, Setanta says, “Someone called for me.”

Looking at him, I say, “What did you do!”

Rubbing the back of his head, he says, “I promised a bunch of rewards to those who make the most food, and then everyone started to get real excited.”

“What kind of rewards?”

“Oh, a castle.”

From the back, Ferdiad hits Setanta and says, “You idiot!”

“Hey, I was just trying to provide for our picnic.”

My brother says, “You know what is not relaxing? A GIANT MONEY HUNGREY CROWD.”

Minabród says, “Ferdiad would you please calm them down?”

“Yes momm-, I mean mother. Now Ibar come join me.”

Ferdiad walks away slightly embarrassed, and as he does. Setanta then proceeds, to run towards Minagrain and shout, “You look radiant as always!”

With the happiest expression, I have seen her make yet she jumps towards Setanta and gives him a big hug.

Setanta then says, “How are you doing wife number one.”

She then proceeds to make motions which I do not understand the purpose of and Setanta makes some back at her. Looking at Minagrain with a sigh of disbelief, I say, “You shouldn’t let Setanta populate that fairy.”

Continuing to take equipment for our picnic, she says, “If I did such a thing my little sun would cry for days, and Setanta has royal education he knows how to handle himself.”

Taking quick peaks at them in the other room, I say, “That’s what makes it worse, he knows how to behave he just chooses not to. He is a brute at heart.”

Minabród walking over to me, says, “Look closely, and tell me what you think they are doing.”

After a little bit of staring, I notice the way they are currently acting is similar to a conversation, so I say, “Are they communicating with each other?”

“Exactly, it probably isn’t a surprise that my daughter can’t speak, and using her tail to form words is very painful. So Setanta took it upon himself to bring her to the castle and translate our entire language into a physical way of speaking.”

“You can’t be serious? Do you know how much time that would take?”

“A long time, he apparently cut out most of his sleep to do it over months. Then after the fact he forced all of us in the village and the Gorias castle to learn it just to communicate with her.”

Seeing the both of them talk I start to feel a little teary-eyed. “Setanta is a bit much at times, but what he has done for my daughter and son will never be understated.”

“I see, I guess I could say the same for my family.”

Suddenly something strikes me. Didn’t those maids say they didn’t want another woman to ruin their love story? According to this story, they should all know of Minagrain’s existence.

So because I was another woman who is close to Setanta, they decided I should be pushed down so I don’t mess up these two's tale of romance. Those evil maids, who do they think I am? You think I would make that girl cry!

Walking into the room, Ferdiad says, “We are all set.”

Setanta jumping up says, “Let this picnic begin!” Minagrain also jumps up a lets out a cute roar

-Break-

In the middle of a blanket, I grab a bit of food and put it in my mouth saying, “DELICIOUS!”

As I crew, I say, “This stuff is even better than the stuff back at the castle.

Minabród puts a cloth to my mouth, and says, “Please chew with your mouth closed or the food will get everywhere.”

Ferdiad in a calm and collected tone says, “Well such a reaction is normal for your first time eating this food, but after a while, it starts to taste pretty normal.”

Ferdiad talks a bit of one of the many giant mountains of food around us all, and then says with a delighted expression, “HOW LOVELY!”

Pushing into him, I say, “What is that about it being normal?”

Looking away, he says, “I never expected it to taste so good, they must have stepped up their game.”

Setanta says, “Ferdiad loves pretending that he is higher class than he is, at the end of the day we are all just animals and should relax more.”

Looking at Setanta with annoyed eyes, Ferdiad says, “I would get to relax more if you started behaving like the future king of Gorias.”

Running behind Minabród, Setanta says, “Ferdiad is so mean all the time.”

“I know what you mean, he complained directly at his mother after such a long time apart.”

Hugging Minabród Setanta says, “I would never complain to a fairy like you.”

With her hands to her cheeks, she says, “Ahh, thank you so much you really do make me feel like a young woman Setanta.”

Ferdiad screams, “GET THE AWAY FROM MY MOTHER!!”

Φ As Ferdiad and Setanta fight in the distance, I nibble on some of the food around me, and then I take notice of Minagrain. She has picked up some food and is bringing it near the horses.

Getting up, I grab the food out of her hand which surprises her. Then I say, “Horses have very specific foods they can’t and can eat.”

She looks at me with a scared face, almost as if she is about to cry, so I start to panic and say, “So please feed him with this instead.”

Placing fruits in her hands, she starts to cheer up, and walks towards the horse from behind. Grabbing her, I say, “Please walk towards him from the front, he would like it better.”

Moving up to Crunniuc from the front, she puts forward her hand and he starts to eat out of it. She looks at me with a happy face almost as if she wants someone to congratulate her.

So I say, “Good job.” Then walking closer, I put her hand on its neck and say, “Crunniuc likes to be pet as he eats so try.”

She moves her hand and Crunniuc makes a happy expression in return. Looking at me she smiles, and I say, “He is a very nice boy, so if you ever want to pet him go ahead.”

From behind me, I hear, “LOOK HERE IBAR!”

Turning around, I see Setanta with his arms around Laeg, and he says, “LOOK I HAVE TAKEN YOUR SISTER!”

“Hey let go of her.”

“No way, if you try and take my wife then I will take your sister.”

My sister then jumps up into the air and crashes back down on Setanta saying, “Don’t go grabbing woman, you idiot.”

Minagrain wasting no time runs up and pats Setanta on his head, and in return he says, “You truly are the best definitely wife number one material.”

Φ Looking at Ferdiad, I ask, “Are you ok with that?”

With a scary yet determined look, Ferdiad says, “I fully trust Setanta with my sister. Though if he takes any woman after her I will kill him.”

Laughing, Setanta says, “You make a lot of those jokes.”

Ferdiad laughs back at him and says, “They aren’t jokes.”

Suddenly Setanta bashes his head against Ferdiad and says, “You truly must not expect me to be bound to one woman.”

“Do whatever the hell you want, but my sister won’t be one of many. If you marry her it will her and no one else.”

They both start to fight, and as they do Minabród says, “You know you complain a lot for how similar you are.”

Ferdiad says, “I am not similar to Setanta at all, I would never do something reckless like he does.”

“Oh really, because I happen to recall a giant hundred-man army at our front door a few years ago saying my son had punched the future ruler of Gorias in the face.”

“HE WAS JUST SO ANNOYING!”

“He was so annoying that it was worth having all your family executed.”

Ceasing his fight, Ferdiad says, “No.”

Setanta laughs and says, “Look at the baby answering to his mother. I guess someone as childish as you still need your carer.”

“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR THAT FROM YOU!”

They both start to fight and I say, “It must have been a horrible experience.”

“You can’t imagine the fright I had that my son had hurt a relative of not only the king of Gorias but the high king himself.”

With a smile, she says, “Though it happened to be the best thing in our lives.”

With a smile, I say, “I see.”

Then moment later I am distracted by Minagrain staring into the distance, and as she does I see a rainbow.

Walking up to her, I say, “Do you like rainbows?”

She nods her head very energetically up and down.

My brother says, “That is strange, I didn’t think I rained today?”

Minabród says, “It was probably due to pixies’.”

“Pixies’?”

“A type of wonderbeast that can be used to mimic natural phenomena, like sunlight and rain. They are really cute, and many appear around this area.”

Minagrain starts to jump up and down really quickly, and I ask, “Do you like them?”

She nods, then Minabród says, “I would really like to show her some but it is hard to catch any of them.”

Suddenly, Setanta and Ferdiad pick us all up and throw us on the horses.

Setanta says, “Well good for you that won’t be a problem today.”

Ferdiad says, “Because these two riders here will be able to catch them in no time.”

My brother says, “You can’t just spring this on us.”

Setanta points at Minagrain's face and says, “You won’t do it for us.”

Looking at her hopeful expression my brother relents, and I say, “Might as well. Minabród, Minagrain, both of you hold on!”

With that, me and my brother began to ride towards the rainbow as fast as we could. While I ride, I feel the wind blow through my hair, the sights that blur together as we move, and the motion my horse sends through my body as I ride.

I really do love riding a horse, it makes it feel like I am leaving all my worries and problems behind and all that matters is making this beautiful beast move to its heart's content.

As we see the pixie wonderbeasts, me and my brother look at each other with determination and then we start to race each other to our destination. Soon we are neck by neck, but my brother pulls ahead and Minagrain grabs a pixie out of the sky.

The pixie has the same body shapes as fat babies with insect wings. Though their body texture and colour remind me of radishes, in all honesty, it looks very silly to me.

Me and my brother try to hold back our laughter when seeing them, but Minagrain and Minabród look at it like stare at them with the same expression one does when seeing a baby.

Soon after this Setanta and Ferdiad came to join us, and upon seeing the pixies’ they burst out in laughter, making both me and my brother lose control of our laughter as well.

The day continued from that point on and all in all, I had way more fun than I ever did before.

-Break-

On the back of all our horses, we wave goodbye to Minagrain and Minabród, and then moments later we ride off into the night sky.

Ferdiad asks, “How was today.”

I say, “I had fun, it relaxed me.” My brother nods his head in agreement with me.

Following this up, I say, “Though it really showed how much better you are than us Ferdiad. I sort of doubted you came from a fir bolg family like ours due to how great you are, but you were also from a peasant family unlike us commoners and still this amazing makes me realize how normal I am.”

While riding Setanta turns around on his horse, and says, “I hate humans.”

“What?” My brother says.

“They are cowards who only think of themselves in the long run. Every single one of them is a natural-born slave, who will bow their heads to a pile of shit if it meant they could benefit. They have no backbone.

So I hate all beastkin who act like that, I hate all beastkin who act like they are humans. Look here and remember this you’re amazing and so is everyone else, the only thing that stops someone from being amazing is their will.”

My brother says, “I think you might be exp-.”

“I don’t want to hear it, because remember before the red branch, before being fir bolg, we were all just the Tuatha Dé Dannan. So on a basic level, there truly is no difference between any of us.

I have seen countless riders, and I have known since the first time I got on a horse with you two that, you are some of the best I have ever known. You both might be facing some walls now but I know you have it in you to overcome it.”

Me and my brother both smile and say, “Thanks.”

“Now let’s get back! The last one back has to do twice the laps tomorrow,” Setanta says as he races forward.

Ferdiad soon follows after him, and I say, “You bastards.”

My brother says, “Our horses are older and tried!”

We start to race after those two and continue like this all the way till we reach the castle.