"The night your mother was in labor with Garret I was at my wits end. There was water to boil, your mother was screaming, she was bleeding, Emily and Rose were taking care of her, but I was a nervous wreck." James said a glazed look of remembrance in his eyes. "I was running back and forth from our room to the kitchens with towels and water, unsure if I was doing anything right. There was a terrible blizzard outside and it was all I could do to keep a cooking fire lit in the kitchen to boil the water. As I rushed from the kitchen back towards your mother's and my room there was a faint knock at the door. Worried about your mother I took whatever it was I was carrying to the room first then returned to open the door. The wind had been howling so bad outside I had had to bar the door just to keep it closed. The door burst open just as soon as I had it unbarred and outside in the storm stood this woman. She was just a tiny little thing, and to this day I can’t say for sure, but it appeared that the only thing she was wearing was a bear skin pulled over her shoulders. She was shivering terribly bad, and it was obvious she had no money so I invited her in, barred the door behind her, gave my apologies and simply ushered her into a room on my way back to your mother. Just an hour later your brother was born and I spent the next few hours with your mother and cleaning up our room just happy that everything had gone well. I had completely forgotten the young woman in the other room." James paused to think a moment before continuing. “It was an hour or two past midnight when your mother awoke believing she heard Garret crying, but upon waking she found him still sound asleep, yet the sounds of a crying babe remained. She was too exhausted from giving birth to go find the source of the sound so she woke me up. I found you in the room I had allowed the young woman to stay in. You were in the middle of the cot wrapped in the bear hide that she had arrived in. You had only been born in the previous hours as your skull was still elongated to permit birthing, yet the young woman was nowhere to be found. Jack and I looked all over for any signs of tracks or blood in the snow outside but found nothing. The woman had vanished without a trace. Your mother was already nursing Garret and so put you to the breast as well, thinking that the woman would soon return to claim you. Days passed and then weeks, she never came nor did we ever see any sign of her so we decided to raise you as our own, and swore to one another that someday, when you were ready, we would tell you the truth of it. So in keeping a promise to your mother, bless her soul, I am breaking my own heart." James said tears still running down his face. "Your my son damn it no less than Garret no matter what." James said after a moment of thought.
Seth sat a moment choking back sobs, barely able to take a breath. His entire life had been a lie. Or had it? Just because he hadn't been born to James and Cassandra didn't make them any less his parents. Truth be told, they had saved his life by taking him in. Seth decided that it didn't matter. His family was still his family no matter what, the only problem Seth had with the sudden admission from his father, is for the first time in his whole life he didn't know who he was. Seth’s family was James and Garret, and even all their neighbors, who apparently all knew the real truth of the situation, but it was now also possible that Seth had another family entirely out there somewhere. Seth still felt a bit betrayed that everyone had seemingly kept this secret from him his whole life, and by doing so may have stolen from him a whole other life and family entirely. It just didn't fit though, Seth knew his father, he knew his neighbors, and he loved them all and knew that they had only done what they thought was best for him.
"Does Garret know?" Seth asked
James just shook his head, just beginning to recover and reign in his emotions.
"I hope you can forgive us and understand that we just wanted you to have a normal life, the best life we could give you, and that we all love you very much. James pleaded.
"I love you all too." Seth said looking around to everyone in the room. "But, do we have to tell Garret? I don't think I am ready for him to know yet if that's ok." Seth said.
"I had already decided to leave that up to you son, I've never seen a pair of siblings as close as you two." James said
"So what do we do now?" Seth asked. He took a deep breath, finally able to breathe again as the knots in his stomach began to subside.
"That too is up to you Seth, none of us knew just how you would take the news, but we all hoped…" James said trailing off.
"I think that you and mom and everyone else did what you thought was best." Seth said. "Though I wish you had either been honest with me all along or perhaps never told me at all. In any case you are all the only family I have ever known, and just because I am adopted don’t make us any less family." Seth said.
James grinned from ear to ear with a sigh of relief. The whole room seemed to feel lighter all of a sudden and James stood tall and grabbed his son in a monstrous hug. Before long Seth had hugged each of his neighbors, and with lots of apologies and words of encouragement Seth was finally ready to join his brother in their bedroom and get some rest for the journey tomorrow. Thus he said his goodbyes and left the alcove and quietly went to his room hoping not to wake his brother if he was already asleep.
Seth crept into the room he shared with his brother and was pleased to find Garret snoring lightly. A small candle burned on Seth’s bedside table, Garret had apparently lit it before going to sleep so Seth could see when he finally came to bed. Seth quickly and quietly undressed and crawled into bed, reassured by his brothers' actions that not only had he made the right choice not to tell his brother about his being adopted. He didn't want anything to change the relationship they shared.
Seth lay in his bed thinking a long time about his past and his family, but soon realized that what was done was done, so he instead focused on what lay ahead. Though his life was already irrevocably changed he was aware that starting tomorrow their lives would never be the same. Their journey wouldn’t take but two weeks, first winding south through the foothills of the mountains, then across the plains following the Rapagalon river ever south to their destination, the capital city of Valdadore. They would pass through, or at least near to several villages and towns along the way. It would be their first venture away from home without their father. At least they would be together. Seth imagined their journey south, imagining the many things they would see, people they might meet. Seth slowly drifted away from consciousness, drifting as he did into dreams of his own making, his subconscious mind bringing unconscious acceptance to whatever might lay ahead.
Seth found himself in the kitchen of the inn. The cooking fires were ablaze, warming the room to an almost uncomfortable level. His father could be heard in the common room speaking with guests. The wind blew outside, and rain hammered the roof. These were all very common memories to Seth, after all, often when the weather got bad all their neighbors would come and visit with one another in the common rooms at the inn. But still something was out of place that Seth could not place his finger on. The door separating the common room to the kitchen swung open just then, and the crackle of the cooking fires was drowned out beneath the sound of several boisterous conversations. A young woman entered the kitchen, smiling at him. She was beautiful with long brown hair falling around her shoulders in loose curls. Her skin was fair, the color of fresh milk. Her eyes too seemed to be smiling at him, enchanting him in their green depths. It was then that Seth realized what it was before that he couldn’t find. Nothing was missing, nothing even out of place. What was wrong about this room was its size. Everything here seemed overly large, and it only took a second for it to dawn on him. The room wasn’t large, He was small. He was a child, barely four years old, and the beautiful woman who stood before him smiling was his mother. He concentrated as hard as was possible to commit her face, her smile, even her scent to memory. Her expression changed then, changing to a look of concern. She must be wondering why I’m staring at her. Then her expression changed again, pulling her eyebrows together, her lips into a straight line, and scrunching up her eyes in thought. I knew it!! Garret got it from mom. Seeming to come to a conclusion, she knelt down bringing herself down until their eyes were level. She again smiled at him knowingly.