Chapter 4: The Talk
Once Everyone had finished eating, Yren and Tybrus said goodbye and left the Belltorn's house. The two walked silently back to their house, both of them thinking.
When the two got back into the house, Tybrus turned to Yren. The Smith had been waiting since the boy had been born to tell him about this, but he wasn't sure how he was going to take it.
Yren was at the top of his class as an Adventurer, and Tybrus was proud of his boy. The problem was that the secret that had been kept would change everything for the boy.
"I think it's about time that we had the talk, ya know," Tybrus said to his son as he walked over to take a chair by the unlit fireplace.
Yren nodded and walked over to the other chair next to his father. The boy had been expecting this, but Yren still wasn't sure what His father was going to talk to him about.
Over the last six years, Yren had been doing his very best to be at the top of his class in hopes of making his father proud. Not that his father didn't show his support for his son, but Yren knew there was a sadness inside of him.
"You have done better than I could have ever expected, ya know! I am proud to have such a great son, but tomorrow things are going to change. Not that I don't think you can handle it, but there are some things that I have kept a secret from you," Tybrus told Yren as he looked into the fire.
His voice had started off like normal, but Yren's father became more serious near the end, but Yren had seen this coming.
"I figured that much out, but what have you been hiding? Do I have some secret ability?! Or maybe a special skill that lets me get stronger faster?!" Yren asked, starting to get excited.
Tybrus slapped his hand to his face with frustration, but the truth of it was that he was grinning. Yren's father wiped the smirk off his face, turned to his son, and nodded.
At that moment, Time seemed to slow down for Yren as his heart sped up like a racing horse. The nod his father had just given him was not what he expected, but the look on his father's face was serious.
"There is much more to this story, so just be quiet, and I will explain everything that I know, ya know!" Tybrus growled as he stood up and put himself between the fire and his son.
"Wait, just one question!" Yren asked.
"I just said what a good kid you were, ya know!" Tybrus growled as he turned around with arms crossed, but at the sight of his son's excitement, he sighed, saying, "Ack, fine! One question, and then ya wait till I am done! You need to hear the whole store before you can start asking questions, ya know!"
"Are you the same as me?" Yren asked, but he already assumed the answer would be no.
Tybrus was an average Adventurer in everyone's eyes and a decent blacksmith, but there was nothing he was famous for. Unlike Siegried's father, who had claimed prizes from five different Dungeon Cores, Tybrus was considered average across the board.
When Yren had been younger, other kids had picked on him for this reason, but he always had Siegfried to back him up. Most of the time, the boys both would get made fun of, but now both had proven themselves to be the best in their classes.
The fact that his dad was average had never truly bothered Yren, but he had always felt that it did his father. That was why tears started to make Yren's eyes glassy when his father nodded.
"But then why have you-," Yren started to ask, but suddenly he could barely breathe.
A force crushed him in his chair like nothing he had ever felt before, making it hard for Yren to even breathe. Yren had felt this before, but he had never known a person's presence could be so overwhelming.
"I said one question, ya know?" Yren's father asked him, and then he pulled back all of his power.
Yren was left panting in his chair with sweat doting his body. The boy could have never imagined that his father had been such intense strength, but he wasn't about to interrupt Tybrus again.
"Now listen. I have wanted to tell you about your mother since you were born, but we chose to wait. Don't even think about asking; I am not finished yet! Yes, your mother is alive, but that is part of the problem," Tybrus explained as he turned back to the fire, knowing his son was going to try to ask another question.
For most of Yren's life, he had assumed that his mother had died. Tybrus always went silent and then would switch to another subject. Over the years, Yren had just stopped asking about her.
The news that his mother was alive excited him, but what his father had said right after filled him with worry. Whatever his father was going to tell him next must be the bad part.
"Twenty years ago, I completed my first Dungeon, making it all the way to the core. When I arrived, in place of what I had expected was a beautiful woman with white long flowing hair, pale skin, and red eyes. She was the picture of beauty, and I lost all words at the sight of her. There were monsters that also looked beautiful, but before that moment, I had only seen enemies. Mira was different, and when she spoke, her voice was like an angel's chorus in my ears," Tybrus explained as he looked into the fire.
Yren's father was reliving the moment in his head as he explained the story. The moment had been burned into his mind like a moving picture.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone