Birthright: Chapter one
Chapter One
A snowflake, one among countless millions, fell in what could be described as a lazy decent from the sky. The first real day of winter was only a week away and this particular snowflake was one of the first to fall. In the silent black twilight it drifted slowly down. A gently wind caused it to drift slightly coming to rest upon the outside window ledge of a small cabin.
Snowflakes were eternal from the day they are made and this particular snowflake was older than the trees themselves. Having seen the subtlest of changes in the world around it this snowflake yet again found itself at the center of change.
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Snow was beginning to build up on the window ledge but each snowflake fell unnoticed. The warmth of the hearth drifted around the cabin keeping it pleasantly warm. That as well went unnoticed. A cup of now mildly warm carrot tea sat ignored on the table next to an old dusty bundle, a bundle that was consuming all the attention.
Lucky sat at the table staring down at the object of such complete attention remembering the last few minutes of his life. He was trying to reach an old cookbook high up in the cupboard when the leg on the stepstool snapped causing him to slip.
His first reaction was to reach out and grab onto something.
That something was the edge of the cupboard door.
His weight caused it to give way snapping off the hinge and tossing him to the floor in a pile. When he righted himself rubbing his back just above his cottontail he looked down and notice the leg had not so much as snapped, but broke through the wood of the floor.
The curious thing was that the floor wasn't supposed to be hollow. As he stood up and removed the stool from the floor he noticed a flicker of something.
Kneeling down Lucky tapped the broken board and noticed that it was loose. Hooking his padded finger into the hole he lifted on the board. A square section of the floor about the size of a small drawer came loose revealing a stowaway hole in the floor. Setting the broken board aside he lifted the candle from the table and lowered it
Casting faint light into the opening. Inside at the bottom of the hole was something bundled up in a dark green cloth. Resting on the bundle was a letter folded neatly and bound shut with wax. The whole package was layered in dust.
As his memory raced back to the present moment Lucky sat staring at the wax seal on the letter. It was a signet seal. A circle surrounding a line with a hare's foot to each side, the signet belonged to his family bloodline. The wax seal was something most every family did to identify each other but that practice had stopped countless generations ago. Lucky's family stopped using a seal some five hundred years ago.
Brushing the dust off the letter and bundle Lucky felt his chest tighten with a mix of uneasiness and anticipation. Pulling the letter off the bundle Lucky hooked a nail from his paw under the wax and broke the seal, and at the same time a log in the fireplace popped.
Lucky spun in his chair his breathing suddenly heavy feeling his heart pounding in his ears. Taking a few moments to collect himself he scolded himself for being so easily frightened over some old papers.
Gently blowing the dust off the letter he opened it setting down and reading.
"As you read this know that I am sorry to place this burden of knowledge upon you. I fear however the path left open to you with the absence of such. In this book I have placed all the knowledge I have. I leave this to you as the only tool I can to help you through the gap in time.
What must be done is tough but only the knowledge you can gain is what is needed. Open it. The key is within.
May the moon be watchful over you."
The letter was signed Liandra Hare, and dated five hundred and seven years ago. What was bothersome about it was that there was no addressee in the letter. Whomever she wrote it for she chose not to say.
Lucky stood up and went to the fireplace staring at the bricks. The cabin had been home to the Hare family for as old as the Hare family was and inlaid into the stone of the hearth was the family tree.
A huge carving that flowed from the bottom of the fireplace and reached nearly to the roof. Each and every family of his bloodline had an identical carving. It was a way to tell not only how many of them had been born but also just how long a home had housed a Hare.
Lucky stood on his large tip toes and traced his paw over the carving following branch after branch tracing lines in time.
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Along a small branch carved more narrow that the rest sat the name Liandra Morganus Hare. Even her name was carved differently. The very letters themselves seemed to be carved with admiration.
Lucky took a moment to calculate the number of branches per generation and followed it back past Liandra's name. Near the base of the tree trunk was a name. It was the second name ever carved into the tree. The letters were carved in the same way.
Lucian Hare was the second name on the tree right along with his wife Marianna Hare. The two of them were the first of the family. Every single name on the tree descended from their bloodline. Some of the Hare's thought of the two of them as great sages of the past.
Other simply thought them farmers. Some even thing they never really existed.
Having head much of the names on the tree Lucky believed them to very much be real. After all everyone had to come from somewhere.
What was curious was that they were the only two names carved different. Going back to Liandra's name Lucky traced upward dragging over the stool and standing on it, after checking its stability.
Following up the tree towards the current generation Lucky counted out five hundred and seven years ending at the top of the tree.
There nestled among the leaves of the carving rested dozens of names, all the current generations of the Hare family. Brushing a padded paw tip over his own name he went left and right; cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, twelve direct sibling, his mother and father.
All of who probably knew little that would help him discover the intended hare for the letter. Whoever it was intended for was long dead and that made finding out whom impossible.
Hopping down off the stool Lucky went to the table staring down at the half dusted bundle and sipped the cup of carrot tea. Instantly he cupped his paw over his mouth and forced himself to swallow the mouthful of cold forgotten tea.
"Awful," he said quietly to himself setting the cup back down.
Turning to the bundle he pulled the silk wrapping off the fabric and with a small flutter of dust unwrapped the bundle.
A very old, thick and well-made book sat unbundled on his table. The black leather of the cover was reinforced with silver binding and the whole cover held a small round family crest on it locking the cover shut somehow.
Tracing a finger over the lettering on the spine the book Lucky spoke the words out loud, "Liandra's Gift"
Lifting the book softly he turned it over and back again trying to find the lock. The letter said the key was inside so that made using it to open the book impossible. Setting the book down Lucky turned to the family tree thinking quietly. Tracing his eyes over the branches he followed Liandra's branches up the tree. Perhaps there was a second key for the book and the immediate progeny of hers had it.
When his eyes finished following the tree he felt his heart growing unsteady. The two names he was looking at were his mother and fathers name. His family was the only surviving blood relatives of Liandra's roots.
Lucky felt a knot of dread tighten his stomach. His mother and father were both dead. Killed for speaking hearsay against King Bael. Under King Bael's rule the Bael providence thrived admits an oppressive dangerous veil.
The rich stayed rich and the poor scatter to the winds in hiding.
With his parents dead Lucky and his twelve brothers and sisters each went their own way seeking to survive how they could.
It seemed the key had to be with one of his sibling.
Sitting back down Lucky strummed his padded fingers on the cover of the book imagining the things Liandra might have wrote. Things no living eyes have read in over five hundred years.
Lucky wondered whom she was so desperate to reach. He also felt the knot in his stomach growing tighter.