Songbird: What it Means to be the Hero

{-Rennyn-}

He walked up to her and, with an only half-intentionally annoyed tone, whispered, “What are you doing here?”

She looked more confused than offended. “Well, that’s one way to greet me.”

“Rennyn, do you know her?” his mother asked innocently. “I don’t think I’ve seen her around before. New faces are hard to come by around here, I’d certainly remember seeing one of them…”

This “stranger” glanced over to his mother and Allyna. “This is my first time here, actually. We’re like… old friends, in a way.” Luckily she seemed to acknowledge his glare as his means of telling her not to go into too much detail. “I’m Kaylin.”

“I’m still confused on how you’ve met Rennyn,” Allyna remarked. “He’s never really left town, and if this is your first time here…”

“That isn’t important,” Rennyn insisted. He didn’t want to have to tell them. “Could the two of us talk alone for a little while?”

Allyna looked like she might’ve preferred to protest, but their mother ushered her out the door with a mumble of keeping their father outside. Rennyn still waited a moment after they left until he turned his attention back to Kaylin.

He felt a lot of different things, looking at her—a mix of relief and hesitance. He’d hoped that they’d never see each other, because that would mean that it was over. Yet… he hadn’t really been ready to say goodbye to her forever. He sighed and gestured to the table. “You can sit down over there. Do you want something? Water, fruit, or..?”

She shook her head. “Being back with you is enough for me, I don’t want to be too much trouble.”

“What are you doing here?” he repeated, just as quietly as the first, though this time more hesitant. He had to fight in order to stay above the rushing thoughts. He didn’t want to fall below them in her presence. After a moment, he sat down, too.

“I think you already realize why,” she said softly. “It’s… still not the end, you know.”

“And why couldn’t it be?” He only half-succeeded in beating down the panic. “It’s been two years. By the time I remember everything else I was almost immediately thrusted into something new. But it’s been two years, with all those memories, and no news of something bad.”

“You never saw it?”

“Never saw what?”

“The signs. They’ve been around for longer—a lot longer—than just the two years. He’s been in the shadows here the entire time.”

“Of course I didn’t.” If he did, he’d ignored them. “I was stupid enough to believe it was over! That this time, I could just be a normal person, with a normal family, and never think of fighting again! But apparently that was one of the dumbest things I could’ve ever made myself think…”

“Would you… rather stay here, then..?” she asked slowly, a thread of fear weaved into her voice even though her expression remained calm.

He was almost about to say yes—then he thought about it.

He really didn’t want to do this, but there was no one else who could. He knew his tricks and methods better than anyone else; he knew that, whatever came next, he was the only one with enough knowledge and skill to do it. As much as he wanted to stay with his family, to be normal, he had this almost annoying sense of duty. This was his job.

There wouldn’t be a world if he didn’t do it.

So, after a moment, he shook his head. “We both know I can’t. Do you know anything else? Has he already started something, or are we still going to have some time to prepare?”

“I think he’s started, but he hasn’t gotten far yet. This is his last chance of doing anything, anywhere… so he’s bound to start getting desperate soon. The only thing I know about him specifically is that he’s called Dhymos here. To be honest, I wasn’t told much other than to find you and what to do when I did. It’ll be best if we leave as soon as possible. Do you think you can be ready for an adventure in an hour or so?” She glanced at the door. “I suppose I should be asking, do you have an idea of what you’re going to tell your family? It didn’t look like you told them about me.”

“Did you really expect me to?”

“They’re your family, from the looks of it one of the best ones you’ve been able to stay with for this long. I didn’t think you’d just leave them in the dark about everything—you’d be able to talk to them…”

“Hey, Mom and Dad! Guess what, when I turned thirteen, I for some strange reason remembered that I’m not a normal kid! No, I’ve lived fourteen other lives, all as the damn hero, and you do not want to know what that was like,” Rennyn grumbled as he stood up to go to the door. “Yeah, I don’t think they really want to hear that. And they definitely wouldn’t understand it.”

But he still had to tell them something. He took a deep breath and opened the door. “Could… you three come back inside?”

They all nodded.

He closed the door behind all of them and considered the best way he wanted to explain it—hopefully, without really explaining anything at all. Things didn’t go well the last time he’d tried. “Kaylin came to tell me something, and… there’s something that we need to do. I have to be there to help her. No one else can do it.”

His mother frowned. “What’s going on?”

“You can tell us, whatever it is.” His father tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but Rennyn backed away. “You look serious—but we’re not going to let you go anywhere without knowing why.”

Allyna just had a curious look. Or… maybe it was confusion, wondering what had happened to make them both realize they had what the other wanted.

Rennyn looked at each of them, then to Kaylin, and eventually focused on the floor. “Something big and probably really bad is going to happen soon. The two of us need to figure out what exactly it is and how we can put a stop to it.”

“Whatever it is, someone else can—”

“No. This isn’t a job for knights or the lords. They probably don’t even realize that it’s happening and they might not ever know. It’s a job for someone who knows what they’re doing—someone who’s faced this kind of threat before. It needs a hero.” He sighed. “It needs me.”

“That still doesn’t answer any questions.”

When Rennyn failed to come up with anything else to say, Kaylin filled in for him.

“You should be proud,” she said slowly. “Your son is very special—someone gifted by the goddesses, meant to do things that no one else has ever done before. It wouldn’t be easy for you to understand and, honestly, I’m afraid that the full story isn’t something we have the time for anymore. Soon, something is going to happen that will have the potential to destroy the world. I know how crazy it sounds, but trust me—he’ll have someone watching his back. He’s a lot more capable than you might realize.” She looked at him and smiled. “And I’m sure he’s going to do plenty of great things.”

That seemed to do very little, because his parents still looked at each other with less-than-reassured looks.

Allyna had no such doubts. “So, if making sure he stays safe is the problem… I could go with him.” She’d apparently already had her argument figured out by the time their father went to say something. “We’ll look out for each other! Neither of us would be running off into danger on our own, I promise! Come on, you know that’s how we balance each other out. And work isn’t a problem either! The neighbors will be able to help until you can hire someone to do it until we come back.”

“I still don’t like this,” their mother admitted, “not a single bit. All I see is my two children getting hurt. Are you absolutely sure that there’s no one else..?”

Rennyn shook his head. “Trust me, Mom, if I knew that this could happen without me, I wouldn’t even think about leaving. I don’t want any of you to get hurt either, which means that this is something that I have to do.” He glanced at Allyna and Kaylin and, somehow, mustered something close to a reassuring smile. “We’ll all look out for each other, I promise.”

There was another promise that he wasn’t willing to make, but Allyna was: “We’ll both come home safely.”

Their parents looked between each other and seemed to share a silent conversation before they gave a sigh in unison.

“You’ll both be able to do it, as long as you have each other,” their father said. “Update us as often as you can, alright? No matter where you are, if you can get someone to send us a message, do it. Take care of yourselves and each other. We still don’t understand any of this, but if it ever becomes too much… just come back home. I’m sure whatever it is can be handled by someone else. Don’t put yourselves in harm’s way if you don’t have to.”

Allyna looked tremendously more excited than Rennyn did. Kaylin looked relieved.

“I… had originally intended on leaving in a few minutes,” Kaylin admitted, “just as soon as everything was gathered. But it can wait a little bit longer. I’ll allow you all a few more hours together before we set off.”