1.2

    “What?” Heron blurted. He looked at his parents, and they just looked back at him. He turned to Godmother Keri. “What do you mean?” he insisted.

    Keri stared back at Heron levelly. Without turning her head, she slid her eyes to his parent’s faces, then back to Heron. “You haven’t told him, then?”

    Heron’s father started to answer, but was cut off immediately by a gesture from Keri. “That’s all right.” she said calmly. “I never expected you to.”

    “Tell me what?” Heron insisted, unintentionally speaking louder and looking from his Godmother to his parents. “Ma-”

    “Heron, shh.” His mother said softly. “Listen to Godmother Keri. You did want to explain, didn’t you?” She addressed that last part to Keri, who nodded.

    “Yes. Listen to me, Heron. Your parents... I had heard of them, but never met them before 13 years ago. But they were recommended to me. I’m your godmother because I rescued you as an infant and brought you here for them to adopt.” Keri paused to see if Heron needed some time to think it over.

1.1

 One - Keri

    Heron knew that his Godmother Keri was coming to visit, but didn’t expect her to be there when he got home from the market that day. The messenger bringing her letter had only just arrived at Heron’s home that morning, so his family didn’t expect her to get there for at least a day or two. His little sister was watching for him from the kitchen window and ran out to meet him before he’d walked more than halfway to the house from the main road that he’d walked on from the village. Sadie was only seven, about half Heron’s age and still shorter than most of the other kids her age who lived in the area. She skidded to a stop in front of him, raising dust clouds and grabbing the market basket from him.

    “Mama’s waiting around back!” Sadie spluttered breathlessly. “She’s got a clean shirt for you, and a- a basin! With a clean- towel. Hurry and wash up, I’ll bring the groceries in!” She was struggling to heft the full basket and still walk, but somehow managed to let go with one hand barely long enough to shoo at her older brother. “Go on!”

    “What’s going on?” Heron insisted. “Why do I-”

    Sadie hefted the basket higher off the ground, still trying to catch her breath. “Gramma Keri! She’s here already! Go! Quick! She and Papa are waiting for you! Come on!”

    Heron’s eyes went wide. “Really?” He thought his sister might be teasing him, but then realized she wouldn’t take over a chore like carrying the groceries in for a joke. If she were joking, she’d have tried to get him to run while still carrying the basket and trying not to spill any of the produce.

    He hurried to the back of the house near the pump and stripped off his shirt to wash up before putting on the clean shirt. His mother brushed the dust off his pants while he dried off with the towel she handed him.

    He then pulled the clean shirt on while his mother told him to go ahead to the living room where his father and godmother were. She smoothed his hair over while explaining that Godmother Keri wanted to talk to the three of them, so Mama was going to finish getting the stew ingredients in the pot for dinner, then leave Sadie to watch it while she joined the others.

    Sadie walked up with the groceries, and Mama took the basket from her so she could take it to the kitchen and get what she needed for the stew from it. “Go on ahead.” she said, “Sadie can put away your shirt and wash things.” Heron saw Sadie stick her tongue out at him for it, but she smiled and shooed him when he looked at her directly. She might not like to clean anything up, but he knew she wouldn’t really hate him for it.

    Heron was a little apprehensive, actually. It threw him off that his godmother had come sooner than expected, since it was the sort of thing she never would do under normal circumstances. Sadie called her Gramma, and she looked more than old enough to be their grandmother, but really Keri was just Heron’s Godmother and otherwise unrelated to the family. She generally didn’t pay much attention to Sadie but usually would bring the girl a little something every time she brought gifts for Heron and their parents. She was somewhat elegant and well-dressed, even though the clothes were old and didn’t fit her as well as they must have when she’d first bought them. Perhaps she had been wealthy in her younger days but didn’t have as much money now. Heron had never bothered to ask since Godmother Keri never seemed to want to talk about herself. She didn’t visit regularly and Heron never knew how far away she traveled from to get to his family’s home. He didn’t even know how his parents had ever come to meet a woman like her in the first place, since they didn’t talk about her either except to say that she liked for them to have everything nice and clean and orderly when she was coming to visit. She would come around as though she were inspecting the home and family, give them small gifts, ask about how they all were and especially how her Godson Heron was doing, then stay the night and leave early the next morning. Her coachman and messenger would always stay at the town inn, and come to get her at dawn.

    Heron walked to the living room, trying his best to use the proper posture that he’d been taught but never bothered with except when Godmother Keri came to visit. He bowed politely as soon as he entered the room, then looked up to make sure his godmother was sitting in the armchair she usually took, and walked up to kiss her hand because she liked things like that. Really, she must have come from some sort of local nobility in whatever province she lived in. Or a wealthy family with pretensions of associating with nobility? Heron was only a tiny bit curious, never enough to really put much effort towards trying to find out.

    “How are you, my boy?” Godmother Keri inquired airily. She acted like she was casually asking, but she always paid close attention to his answers. She withdrew her hand and daintily picked up the teacup sitting on the low table near her chair. She sipped it while asking Heron a string of follow-up questions, all about how his health was and where he was at in his schooling and what kind of games and hobbies he’d been into lately. He didn’t see why she’d care that he liked running and wrestling, or that he sometimes rode horses with a friend a couple ranches down the road. He didn’t care for taking care of his family’s chickens, and he hated to pluck them but had been trying to save the best feathers to use when his uncle came to visit because he was hoping to learn to make arrows from him. He did okay with school but didn’t have much interest in reading or arithmetic.

    Heron was very relieved when his mother came in from the kitchen. Godmother Keri told Heron to pull up chairs for his mother and himself to sit close so she wouldn’t have to talk very loudly, and she motioned for his father to also pull his chair closer.

    “The time has finally come.” she said importantly, speaking more to Heron’s parents than to him. “I am going to be taking Heron away with me tomorrow morning.”