“Good evening Boyar,” The guard said. “These kids came knocking on the gates, asking permission to pass through to the other side of the village.”
The Boyar looked skeptically to the three kids, then he asked Darren, “Boy, what color are you?”
Darren said without a moment of hesitation, “I am an orange Sire.” And he made a low bow to the man.
“No need to bow, boy,” The man said. “I am not the ruler of your nation, just another guard for this village, like our friend, Phil, here.” He pointed to the guard that escorted them from the gate all the way here.
“That’s a grand underestimation of your role, Peytr,” Phil addressed the Boyar, then he turned to the kids. “You can say that he is the first among equals.”
“I thought the first among equals, was Danna, my eldest daughter,” The Boyar said, and both men started to laugh to the hidden joke which passed over the heads of the three companions.
“So, what brought you this way then?” The Boyar asked the trio.
“I am a purple student of the second order,” Ethan said confidently, and he pointed to Darren and Mara. “And those are my trip comrades, from the orange nation,” He made a grand gesture, and continued, “we are doing our nature studies together.”
“Strange,” said the Boyar. “I thought you purples are all haughty and high.” He smiled, and added, “And having two orange students as companions to a purple is unfamiliar to me,” he looked with a raised eyebrow at the obviously older Darren.
“I started alone and each of them did the same,” Ethan said quickly. “Then we met on our quest for knowledge and decided to join efforts.” He paused, then he added as an afterthought, “Until we reach a point where we have to split that is.”
“I see.” The Boyar turned to cover some parchments on his desk by a big bronze statue shaped like a griffin, the symbol of the orange special fighting command; Ethan saw this and remembered mention of that symbol and what it stood for, from one of the poems that Malik back at the school used to serenade a lot about.
The Boyar said while his back was turned away from Ethan and his friends, “And why do you want to cross to the other side of the mountain? Couldn’t you just call on your magic to pass over the river?”
“Sire, I feel like you are mocking me,” Ethan said with enough indignation in his voice to make it feel like he really was offended, as he also remembered from his lessons that the feat of walking on water was only performed by the very advanced in magic purples.
“Why? I am just asking.” The Boyar turned to face Ethan with a smile. “I heard that all purples could perform such miracles on a daily basis, surely you could have carried over your friends here to the other side of the river.”
“Sire, I see that you were part of the fighting order of the Gryphon.” Ethan pointed to the statue. “And your order trains for an entire year with ours.” Ethan stretched his whole body to look taller than he is, as he barely came to the shoulders of the older men in height. “Surely you know the limitations of our ranks, and you know well that a second degree wizard is far from being able to perform such huge feats of magic.”
The Boyar laughed a deep and rich laugh, in which he was joined by the other man, Phil, then after his wave of mirth subsided, he said, “Okay, master wizard, may I know your names?”
Ethan was not prepared to give phony names, as their plan was just to get through this whole deal as fast as possible, so, he decided to give their real names since he rationalized that they were regular enough names around Agartha to belong to any nation.
“I am Ethan.” He pointed to his chest, then pointed towards his two friends. “This is Darren and that is Mara.”
“Well met.” The Boyar smiled and extended his hand to shake theirs. “I am Petyr, the Boyar of this small village, Mountain’s Child.”
The three shook the hand of the Boyar and waited to hear his verdict, Darren looked several times in amazement at Ethan, seemingly hearing some commentary about the other boy from a hidden person, Black as it might.
“There is indeed a road that traverses the village towards the other side of the mountain,” The Boyar finally said, “and I don’t mind your crossing through our village to go to the other side.”
From The Green Boy