I woke up the next morning to the sweet smell of bacon and sausage and the zethren shaped as hands rubbing my shoulders. I told it to stop, when I did, it immediately turned back into its rock shape and dropped to the ground, lifeless, unmoving. I chuckled a little with the amazing power I had as I followed the sweet aroma to the kitchen. I sat down at the table wishing dad would stay home again. My mom had already put down some sausage at the table, so I started munching.
“Hey Mom, What’s for breakfast?” I asked.
“The usual,” she replied, “eggs, bacon and sausage with milk.” Almost right after she said that Vensch came down stairs and sat down next to me. She seemed excited for some reason.
“Aamyst, Aamyst, are you going to the Fall Parade today?” she asked doubting that I would go.
“Not this year, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing I’d like.” I replied. She looked at me incredulously and pursued the thought. “Well, what is the kind of thing you would like. Wait, how do you even know you wouldn't like it? You haven’t gone since you were like five!”
“And I didn’t like it then so why would I like it now?”
“Never mind. Oh, thank you Mom!” While she was talking my mom had brought a plate full of scrambled eggs, and a plate full of bacon to the table. Immediately after my mom set the plates down Vensch started shoveling them onto her own plate.
A little while after I was done eating Backleon came downstairs. He saw my mom cleaning up and quickly started eating what he could before it was put in the cupboard.
“Hey Aamyst,” he said, “are you going to the Fall Parade?”
“No, not this year. It was never much fun to me.” I said.
“Aw, come on, you haven’t gone in years!” he could always persuade me without any effort for some reason.
“Okay,” I replied. “But if it’s not any fun you have to take me to the shop, okay?”
“Okay, and if you like it, your rock has to do things for me for a whole day, okay? And don’t try to lie to me, I can tell if your having a fun time or not.”
“Yeah, whatever.” I wasn’t planning on having a good time anyway.
When the time came to go, it was almost lunch time and I was kinda hungry. We locked the house and got on our neighbors wagon they let us borrow; since they weren’t going to the Fall Parade anyway. We actually have our own horse, but Dad always used it to get from home to work and vise versa. We got there at around lunchtime when everyone was setting up there tents. The Fall Parade always lasted two days. We started setting up our tent while our mother unloaded all the food she’d brought: food left-over from breakfast, some sandwiches, etc. along with a couple gallons of water. When we were done setting up the two tents-one for Vensch and my mom and one for Backleon and me-we went to help our mother get out the water jugs (they were too heavy for her). Once we got done with all that stuff, we set up the fold-up table that can only fit four people, and started eating. Around the middle of eating, the parade started. We saw all sorts of cool things and creatures. We actually saw a couple goblins juggling knives, and one unicorn pulling a cart full of little white two-legged creatures I didn’t recognize. Then they started spewing sparks from there mouths. For a second I thought they were dragons, but after a while I noticed they didn’t have any wings and all dragons are born with wings. A couple floats after that one, we saw more goblins throwing out candy that tried to run away! Near the end when it was getting dark, There was one float that took kids (under twelve years old) and put them in a jail they’d put werewolves into. There was another float that was the same kind of jail and actually had a real werewolf inside of it! Everyone was fifteen feet farther from that float than any other, and it had around ten armed quelvins surrounding it. Once it left I was hoping that another float would have another strange or dangerous animal like that or the unicorn. Sadly to say, I was having a blast, and Backleon knew it. Once the last weird float had gone by, it was dark so we started getting out dinner. We ate with the sweet music of the traditional Vinyall Band of Hastates. In the middle of my sandwich I quickly fell asleep to the wonderful, drowsy melody they played.

I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself in my tent next to Backleon, who had woken me up by his loud snoring. I got out of the tent to see if anyone else was awake, finding no one else out I sat at the table and started eating a muffin my mom had brought for breakfast. After I ate a couple more muffins I started getting bored, and knowing that I couldn’t fall asleep because of Backleon’s incredible talent, I searched around for the zethren. I figured that it, if anything, would be able to cure the common disease of boredom. After looking for a long time I remembered leaving it on the birthday chair. I started feeling so totally bummed until I noticed that the sun, along with a couple people, was coming up. So I started walking over to other campsites seeing if there were any people there that I recognized. After walking around for a long futile walk, I went back to my campsite to find Vensch already up and eating some bacon. She looked up and asked
“Good morning, where you been?”.
“Oh, just around.” I sat down next to her and started eating a little bacon also.
After a little while of talking with Vensch, my mom and brother got up and started eating and talking along with us. Once breakfast was over we cleaned up and started playing a card game.
Then the second parade started. The second parade always started fairly late in the afternoon since everyone usually stays up really late partying. In this parade we saw much the same thing as before. A few differences, but basically the same thing. Once again, I was having fun. A few other floats in the second parade had some weird animals, but none of them were as cool as the werewolf! We left that place with a feeling of excitement, but at the same time for me I was a little disappointed that I’d have to give up the zethren for a day. We arrived finally, after giving back our neighbor’s wagon, at the same old house my parents have lived in for who knows how long. I immediately went to the birthday couch to find that the zethren was gone. I was so shocked, I could have sworn that I left it right there! I looked and looked, in my room, on the floor through the whole house, in everyone else’s room, all the while calling it with my mind. I couldn’t find it anywhere! Finally the whole family was looking for it to no avail. I was on the verge of having a stroke, my best present from my birthday was gone and I only got to use two to three times. I didn’t understand it though, I remember leaving it right on the birthday chair! I fell down on the chair, which was no longer the birthday chair since there wasn’t a birthday, thinking hard, concentrating on calling it to me. While concentrating I heard it’s answer very faintly, as if very far away, it was trying to get back to me but was unsuccessful in its efforts. The connection between us was suddenly stopped by some force in between us. After I couldn’t speak to it, I just sat there staring at the fireplace which now only had dim coals. I thought about who would know about me and the zethren, except Toggell who could have already kept it if he wanted it that bad. I started listing the people in my head. I couldn’t think of any except the people in my family, and my parents already taught us not to lie, cheat, or steal. By taking the zethren from me, they would have broken those few vital rules my family lives on. Finally I just couldn’t even think about it anymore without punching something. I went to my parents to ask them if they knew anything about the zethren, they answered me “no”, but that they wanted to tell me something. We went into their room and they told me something that changed me forever.

“Um, Aamyst,” my mom said, “Um, we want to tell you something we think you should know now that you’re old enough to stand it…” She looked flustered and looked to my dad for support.
“Your mother and I think you should know you’re not actually our child.” My dad looked at me with a look of deep regret. I looked into each of their eyes and saw they were serious and sorry.
“But, But…” I was at a loss of words, “But, how?” I was astonished at them saying something like this to me and mean it, they usually pull pranks on me for fun, but when they do that their looks are sinister and not sorrowful.
“We found you,” my mother said, “actually your father found you sixteen years ago, when we lived in a town instead of a plantation. He found you in a burnt hut crying your heart out, you were only two and could hardly talk, especially while crying.” She trailed off and let my father take control; she started getting choked up and I saw her eyes swell with tears.
“Well son,” my father explained, “I found you in a town that looked deserted, and every house was burnt down or still on fire. I grabbed you and went home, luckily you still had a blanket that was half clean and not on flames. Once I saw the expression on your mother’s face I knew we had to keep you.” I looked at his eyes and noticed they too started growing drops of water. He stopped and told me if I had anything to ask, he would try and answer. I had only two questions that I was really curious about,
“Who were my parents?” My father looked at me and shook his head,
“I-I don’t know.”
“And why didn’t you tell me before?” My mother looked up.
“Oh we wanted to, we wanted to so bad but, but you didn’t ever look like you could handle it, and most of the time you were so happy we felt guilty to tell you. Please understand, we always wanted to make good decisions only to help and strengthen you. We never wanted to hurt you because we love you so much. Now, thinking back, I think we should have told you earlier.” I looked at my parents but looked at them differently than how I always did in the past, I looked at them as strangers, I looked at them as some strange people who took care of me. It didn’t seem to me like they were my parents, but they had to be, I mean, they took me in, loved me, clothed me, fed me, those are all the traits of a parent. Except for the one missing trait, and that is that I wasn’t born from their loins. Therefore I wasn’t technically their child.
I left their room with questions buzzing through my mind: Where did I come from? Where were my parents? Who were my parents? Where was the town he found me in? Why was I abandoned? These questions were running into each other with strange answers I made up, like maybe they went hunting, but then why would it all be burned down? Then I thought, maybe they were killed… I immediately threw that answer away because I didn’t want to believe it. I just wanted it all straightened out, I hated being confused like this! I then thought well, at least I can get one answer. I went back in the room, after knocking, and asked my dad where the town was he found me in.

”Well,” my dad was saying, “well, I’m not entirely sure where, it was near the town we lived, I don’t remember where, oh I’m sorry, I know you have the right to know but, I, I just can’t remember. I’m sorry.” I looked at him again in that same strange way, then left the room feeling totally bewildered. I went downstairs and sat on the now normal chair and thought, just thought. I didn’t think about anything in particular, but I did think about what happened in general over the past two days. I fell asleep thinking about Felchid and his amazing capacity to withstand the power of the gem and not die. I still couldn’t understand it though, I thought that it was impossible to have the gem before you were twenty, but then again nothing is really impossible. Then I started wondering; I wonder if I could have my gem in now? It wasn’t really a question, and yet it was in a way. I thought I had asked too many questions already, so I thought I’d ask them tomorrow.
That night I missed having the comfort of my zethren massaging me through the night. Even though it was only one night that I had it massaging me, I still missed it bad.