Part 9!

Hallie

That night, I went to sleep with a smile on my face. All afternoon, until it had grown too dark to venture outside, Jasper and I had talked and made dinner and explored and talked some more. Thankfully, he didn't ask too many questions about my prior situation, and so I kept him busy with questions of my own.

I learned that he hadn't always been living in the forest with his introverted uncle. When he was young, he lived in house in the village near the palace with his parents. His father was the king's blacksmith and his mother was the teacher at the nearby school. He said she was good teacher, had a quirky sense of humor, and a beautiful voice. Whenever he couldn't sleep or felt scared, she was always there to comfort him and tell him a story.

He was happy for many years. But then, the plague came. The sickness spread all over the land, and many people became ill and couldn't leave their beds. Doctors didn't know of any cure, and so many people died, including his mother. He said he remembered waking up one morning and she wasn't there to take him to school. She wasn't there to make him his favorite breakfast or tell him how much she loved him. Only his grieving father remained, left to gaze out the window at the empty street in the early hours of the morning.

Dark times followed. The Battle of the River Swan broke out and soon it wasn't safe to live at Ellenwood any more. And so his father took him into the woods and built a home for them in an old gypsy's abode. It was there Jasper grew up, learned how to track and hunt animals, and trade with the occasional traveler who went sailing down the neighboring river.

When it was safe again, his father used a bridge he had stumbled upon during one of his outings to provide a shortcut for him and his son into the village.

"It was then that-"

"Jasper!" His uncle interrupted, calling from the house.

"Coming Robin!" Jasper replied, standing up.

I hadn't realized how long we had been idling. Disappointed, I followed Jasper back made him promise  me that he would continue his story another time. He did.