Chapter 1: CHAPTER 1: THE ORPHANAGE

"The Hopebringer they call him, his parents gave him to an orphanage, leaving him with only two letters, and a suitcase."

-Richard Neil introducing Edgart Aldrich in the book "Ordeal of the Hopebringer"

 

It was midnight, when the streets were empty, and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of dogs barking and the howling of the wind. Two figures suddenly appeared out of thin air, a man and a woman. The man, with blonde hair and silver eyes, was bringing a suitcase, the woman with black hair and dark green eyes had a baby in her arms, the two of them were approaching an orphanage.

"Darius, is this really the right choice? he's our only child! He'll be alone in this world, and from what will happen, he'll be in danger too!"

The man, Darius as the woman calls him, stood in front of the door, his face was calm, void of emotion, then he put the suitcase in front of the door and two letters on top of it.

"I'm sorry Bella but bringing him with us will only bring more danger to him, at least in this way, we know what he will face, and we can prepare him for that."

As the woman, or Bella as the man call her, about to refute Darius cut her off by saying:

"But if we bring him with us, not only the danger to him will be higher because we will not know the danger that we will face, but it will bring more danger to the two of us, right now we can't protect ourselves, let alone him."

Bella stood in front of the door in silence, caressing the boy in her arms, holding her tears, thinking about how she must leave her only son into an orphanage, she thought about how she won't be able to watch him grow up.

"you're right, he will be in danger if we bring him, and in this way, he can also grow up with friends, not running away with his parents."

Darius looked at her, his face showing a sad smile, then he kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry darling…" he said, and then he looked at the boy in her arms, kissed his forehead and whispered to the boy's ear:

"We are sorry child, that we can't be with you, but I promise we will meet again. Be a good boy, grow up to be an excellent child, be an example and a good friend towards your peers, and know that we will always love you."

The man, this time shed a small tear from his eye, while the woman broke down in tears hearing his husband's words to his son. Then, she put her son on the doormat, and hugged her husband.

"Let's go, Bella, before they notice us."

Bella just nodded and knocked on the door.

"Good luck Edgart, may the guardian of knowledge guide and watch over you" she said. And kiss his forehead one last time.

A few minutes later, the door opened, the orphanage caretaker, Mrs. Phillips looked around, but there was no one outside, then she looked down, she saw a black-haired boy, no younger than 8 months old, sleeping soundly in a small basket, beside him a suitcase and on top of it two letters, with a seal that has an owl as a symbol.

"Oh, poor boy, where are your parents…" Mrs. Phillips cooed at the boy, caressing his hair.

"Let's get you inside, you must be freezing out here"

Mrs. Phillips then brought the boy, the suitcase, and the letters inside the orphanage, she put the boy close to the fireplace, warming him up, and then put the suitcase on the table and picked one of the letter that reads "to the caretaker of the orphanage", she unseals the letter and read the contents of the letter.

 

 

To the Caretaker of the orphanage,

We, the parents of the child, asked you to take care of him in place of us, we have no choice but to give him to you, otherwise he will always be in mortal danger.

His name is Edgart Alvis Aldrich, he was born on 19th of August last year, we asked you to take care of him to the best of your ability, we left you a bit of money at the bottom of the basket, find him a good family to grow up in, and please, do not open the other letter and the suitcase, remind the family that will adopt him that the other letter and the suitcase must be given to him at the time of his 11th birthday.

We apologize for this sudden transfer, and we sincerely hope that you can accept him and take him as one of your own.

Best Regards,

The Parents of the Child

Mrs. Phillips then looked at the boy who was still sleeping deeply, she always has a soft spot for babies, she can't abandon him, his parents left him, so if she ignores the letter, the boy will surely die. She kissed his forehead and brought him to her arms, then she walked to a room, the room was full of toys and baby cribs, then Mrs. Phillips put the boy in one of the cribs.

"Welcome to the family Edgart…" Mrs. Phillips smiles at the sleeping boy, kisses his forehead once again and exits the room quietly.

Five years have gone by in an instant, a 5-year-old boy, who is of course Edgart, or his friends call him 'Ed', is sitting in a room full of kids, while an old couple and Mrs. Phillips are standing at the corner of the room discussing.

"Okay, Barney come here darling" Mrs. Phillips spoke softly.

A boy, around 6 years old, suddenly stood up and walked towards Mrs. Phillips.

"Looks like Barney is getting adopted." A boy beside Ed whispered.

"Yeah, good for him…" Ed answered.

The old couple then greeted Barney, and while Barney was getting to know the couple, Mrs. Phillips asked the other kids to leave the room. Ed then stood up and walked towards the door, and into the orphanage's corridor.

Suddenly, someone stops him from walking by tapping his shoulder. He then turns around and sees Mrs. Phillips.

"Hello Ed, could you be a dear and help me bring this box to Mr. Adams across the street?" Mrs. Phillips asked softly.

"Hello Mrs. Phillips, of course I'll help you!" Ed said while smiling.

Ed then picks up the box and walks towards the entrance of the corridor but then is interrupted again by a shout.

"Ed!" a boy screamed. "Let's go to the library again!" he said.

"Not now Richard, Mrs. Phillips asked me to give this to Mr. Adams across the street"

"Then I'll come with you! After that we can come to the library again!" the boy, or Richard as Ed called him, screamed again.

"Alright-alright stop shouting." Ed said.

The two boys then went outside, Ed stopped for a second, looking at the small garden he, his friends, and Mrs. Philips built, breathing the cold autumn air, and admiring the fallen leaves that glided beautifully to the ground below. 

"Beautiful…" he whispered. 

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"What?" the boy beside him said. Ed stared at the boy for a few seconds, and then he said "Nothing." Richard stared at Ed, showing a confused look, then shrugged.

The two boys then continued walking across the street, towards Mr. Adams house. After walking a couple of minutes, they arrived at the front door, and Ed moved closer towards the door and knocked it. As he waited a couple of seconds, the door opened, and what greeted Ed, behind the door was an old man, looking like he's in his 80's. Once he saw Ed, the old man smiled and greeted the boy.

"Hello Ed!" the old man said. "What brings you here to my humble abode."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Adams, Mrs. Phillips asked to deliver this box to you." Ed said while smiling.

"Ah! It must be the candles, I Asked Agatha to give me some scented candles, this old nose craved for some nice aroma." The old man smiled creepily.

The corners of Ed's mouth twitched, Mr. Adams is always like this, asking Mrs. Phillips brings him weird things to fulfill his weird desires. 'Oh well' he thought. 'An old man with his needs I guess.' He once again smiled while trying not to look at the old man with a judgmental look. "I guess that's it, Mr. Adams, have a good day!" he said, trying to leave as quickly as he could. "Have a good day to you too Ed!" the old man said and instantly closed his doors. "That old man is so creepy," Richard said, looking at the door disgustingly. "Tell me about it…" Ed said. "Alright let's go to the library then" Ed said while walking away from the old man's house.

A couple of minutes later, on the middle of the road to the library, Richard suddenly asked:

"Hey Ed, do you think we'll be adopted one day? I mean, don't get me wrong it's not like I don't like it here, but I want real parents, the one who cares about you and loves you unconditionally."

Ed looked at Richard strangely and spoke. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"Nothing, it's just when I saw Barney getting adopted this morning, I feel a bit jealous you know" Richard said with a sad smile on his face.

Ed thought a bit, then shrugged. "Well, in my honest opinion, I don't really care about getting adopted to be honest, as long as I got you, Mrs. Phillips, and our other mates, I consider you all family, blood related or not, for me, family is a connection between people that truly cared about each other, do you think me, or Mrs. Phillips, or the others don't care about you?"

"Well of course not! They care a lot about me, and I care about them too!" said Richard, quickly denying Ed's question.

"Then there you go, you don't have to be adopted to get a family Richie, we are all already family, aren't we?" Ed said, smiling at Richard.

"Well of course!" Richard exclaimed, lifting his previously bad mood.

"The library is just upfront, let's go quickly." Ed said, still smiling at Richard to ease his mood.

The two boys arrived at the library, and then they were instantly greeted by a young woman, her looks indicating that she is probably somewhere in her mid-twenties, when seeing the two boys, she smiled. "Hello boys, come to read again?" she said. Before Ed can say something, Richard suddenly said, "Of course not Ms. Allison, we also came to see you!", the woman looked at Richard and smiled, Ed then looked at Richard, who is grinning madly at Ms. Allison, and said, "Don't tell me, I come all the way here just to see you eyeballing Ms. Allison here…" Richard, who noticed that Ed looked at him solemnly, suddenly shivered and quickly refuted, "N-No, I came here to read some history books too." Richard stuttered.

Ed, who is still looking at Richard intently, suddenly shrugged, then said, "All right then, as usual you do you, I'll go to the fictional section as usual." Ed then turned around and waved his hand lazily.

Ever since Ed was introduced to books, he always was drawn to fictional books. He liked reading stories of heroes who venture to a mystical land, or stories who show the advancements of human technologies, he didn't know why, but he's always loved them. Richard, however, was the opposite, he liked history, and Richard is always a peculiar boy, he absorbs knowledge like it was nothing, once he read a history book containing a lot of information, but he always memorized it in just one reading session, he's a smart boy on top of that funny charade.

Ed looked at the books intently, carefully searching for something he wants to read, he then found a book, but the book is high up in the shelf, he tried to grab it, but when he almost grabbed it he stumbled, falling to the shelf, causing the shelf to shake, his weight isn't heavy enough to make the shelf fall, but the vibration is enough to make the books fall out of the place. 'Oh no.' He thought, then dozens of books fall to where he stood, he suddenly closed his eyes and plead in his mind to let the books stop, even if he knows it's useless, but to his surprise, the books didn't hit him, he slowly open his eyes and saw the most peculiar scene in his short 5 years of life, the book froze in the air, he stared at it for a few seconds, moved away from the books falling trajectory, and touched one of the book who fell, and all of the books suddenly continued to move, whatever he did it undo the frozen states of the books.

The loud sounds of the falling books attracted the attention of Ms. Allison, and she told him off on the spot and ordered him to fix his mess.

"What's wrong?" said the suddenly appearing Richard.

"Richard! You scared the bloody hell out of me!" Ed shouted, instantly getting a shush from Ms. Allison. "I accidentally made the books fall; then Ms. Alisson just gutted me," he grunted. Then he changed the topic by talking about the peculiar incident, "Listen, when the books were falling, I thought I was a goner, but when I closed my eyes and hoped I didn't feel the books hitting me at all, when I opened my eyes I saw the books floating in the air! I swear I'm not going crazy; the books just froze in the air like that, and when I touched one of the books, they suddenly started to fall again, it's weird!"

Richard then looked at Ed strangely, "are you mad?" he said, "you must be daydreaming or something, there's no way that happens."

"No! I swear it happens, I can't do it again but seriously it's really bizarre!" he tried to defend himself, but obviously it isn't working, so after all that he just stays silent, vowing to never talk about it ever again.

"Whatever you say Ed, anyway it's getting dark, let's get back before Mrs. Phillips finds us and spank our asses."

Ed just nodded and said goodbye to Ms. Allison, walking towards the orphanage.

On the way to the orphanage, while he was thinking about the strange incident that just happened, he felt a chill, like someone is staring at him, he rubbed the back of his neck and looked around, and when he turned his head to an abandoned house, he saw an old man, with weird purple robe, and half-moon spectacles looking at him, smiling, Ed then looked at the old man intently scanning for any sign of danger from that old man, and smiled at him. 'Weird old man' he thought. Then he grabbed Richard's arm, who was also looking at the old man strangely, and rushed to the orphanage.

"What was that?" Richard said.

"No idea, it's been a weird day today" Ed sighed. "Let's go, it's getting dark."

After a couple minutes of walking the two boys arrived at the orphanage, he then saw Mrs. Phillips standing at the front door. The two boys then looked at each other and gulped.

"Where have you two been?" Mrs. Phillips asked while glaring at the two boys.

"W-we went to the library Mrs. Phillips." Ed stuttered.

Mrs. Phillips just stood there in silence, still glaring at the two boys angrily. Then suddenly she grabbed Richard's arm and said.

"Let's go inside, Richard, there's a young couple that wants to meet you, Ed, go to your room."

Richard looked at Ed, but Ed just shrugged.

An hour later, in Ed's room a sudden bang was heard, the door opened violently.

"Ed, I'm getting adopted!" a boy shouted, Ed turned around to see whose voice it belonged and saw his friend, Richard.

"That's great!" Ed exclaimed, then hugged Richard.

But Richard suddenly realized something. "But then I can't see you again." Richard said softly, his face showing the emotion of sadness.

"That's alright, maybe I'll see you again once we've entered school." Ed comforted him.

"Y-yeah m-maybe I'll see you again at school, that would be great." Richard stuttered while holding back his tears and left Eds' room.

The next day in front of the orphanage, two boys stood opposite each other, one smiling sadly at the other one, and the other boy was crying. The boy who is smiling, Ed, hugged the crying boy, "it's alright brother, we will see each other soon enough." He spoke. The crying boy just nodded and walked towards the young couple who was standing in front of a car looking at the two boys sadly.

"Take care of him, he's bloody annoying but his heart is in the right place." Ed shouted to the young couple. They just laughed softly and said, "We will, we'll make sure he feels he has a family."

Richard and the couple entered the car, and Richard waved at Ed one last time while the car was driving away.

Ed just stood in front of the orphanage for a couple of minutes, looking at the direction the car went to, and whispered:

"Family huh…"

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