history of Hubero

It was in one of the castles that were sited in Verbatim. A wealthy town where every bard and merchant had to come at some time in his life.
It was when he was around 30 when he first set foot in the castle. A rather small castle, with only the things that were needed in the daily life, but beautiful in its simplicity. And so was the lady of the house.
With her raven-black hair and light blue eyes, she visited his dreams every night.

How it all started

It all seemed so peaceful when he walked through the gates, but he knew that looks could be diseasing, and as a bard, he would know it soon enough.
"Welcome bard. What is your business here?" A tall man, rather slim, asked him when the man noticed him looking around.
"I am looking to please you all." He bowed for the man. Although he knew that this man wasn't the lord of the castle, he needed to be trusted by that man.
"Ah. Are you any good bard?"
"You hurt my feelings.. Have you never heard of the wonderful Hubero?" He bowed even deeper than the last time.
"No never. But I'll tell my lord that the wonderful Hubero has arrived."
"Many thanks kind sir." He was in.. He thought when he saw the back of the man. 

When the man came back, he said: "You can settle here until Lord Dowrim says you can leave. If you can pass this nights trail. My name is Clive."
"I will do my best kind man." Again he bowed. He needed to look like he was a kind man that knew that his place was at the bottom of the food chain. Although he was better than most bards, he knew how to play it all.

His room was a small room, probably the smallest they had, but he didn't mind it at all. He placed his instruments, controlled every piece of them, and then went to look around.

He first saw the kitchen. He looked inside quickly and saw a large pot on the stove, another on a table and then the cook. A large woman of middle age. She had a wooden spoon in her hands when she saw him. She waved it dangerously because he shouldn't look in the kitchen.
Getting away from the kitchen, he entered the large room. Lots of wooden tables and matching chairs were in 3 lines standing in the room. One large table was in the other direction than the smaller ones. Probably for the lord and lady and special visitors.
5 children were running around, screaming with wooden swords, while there nannies were trying to keep them silent.
Grinning, he walked outside quickly. He entered a small garden, with some herbs and plants in them. He couldn't see any weed. But what he could see was a young woman that was looking sadly to nothing at all. He scraped his throat and when she looked up startled, he bowed for her.
"My name is Hubero the wonderful."
"I know." Her voice was as her appearance. Young, but o so beautiful. He had found his muse. "What brings you this castle?" She asked when she gave her hand for him to kiss it softly. Her skin was very soft, her fingers to fragile for all the rings on them.
"My feet kind lady." He said and when she smiled, he smiled back. Recovering, she stopped smiling and her face was emotionless again. "I have to go. If you need anything, just ask Clive." She said. Bowing and then turning around and walking towards the kitchen.
He was alone again, and he could feel that she had warmed this place. Everything felt cold when she wasn't in the garden.
He sighed and then went back exploring. He found the stables, his horse and mule were standing in one of them, and he looked if they were alright. 
"I take good care of them." A soft voice said from the darkness of the stables.
"The man who's taking such good care of them, shouldn't be afraid to come into the light."
"Of course not kind sir." A young boy, nearly 15 he thought stepped in the light. His face was covered in scars, his mouth could never smile. But his hazel eyes could. He wore his hair long, trying to cover all the scars. But Hubero had good eyes.
"Thank you for taking good care of them. I'm grateful."
He could see that the boys eyes lighted up by his words.
"Most men don't want to talk to me.. But Lady Tarsalia protects me from them."
"Well. If it means anything to you, I'll be your friend too. But now I hear some men call my name.. I must go." Bowing for the kid, he left the stables and looked around. Word travelled fast in this castle.. Two older men called him.
"Sir.. We were send out to find you. Diner is served."
"What about the boy in the stables?" Hubero asked.
"He isn't allowed to eat at the tables together with Lord Dowrim.
"beg your pardon? Why not?"
"Haven't you seen him?" Hubero said nothing more, those two just followed orders.

After a great meal, he had to play songs and tell stories. Although everybody was listening to him, Lord Dowrim didn't even tried to cover the fact that he was bored. At his side sat Lady Tarsalia. She was silent, but he could see that she loved his music and words. That she was trying to get away from this place with his stories.
When Lord Dowrim got up, Hubero stopped singing a ballade. He didn't even tried to wait until it was finished. Annoyed, he looked at the lord.
"I am going to sleep." He said with the most disgusting voice he had ever seen. He didn't like this lord Dowrim, and it had nothing to do with Lady Tarsalia.
When he was away, he saw that Lady Tarsalia  got up and followed her husband. The servants cleared the tables, and he left his instruments in his room, and then went outside to the stables, looking for the young boy.
As he had thought, he found him sleeping in some hay. He held him in his arms and carried him in his bedroom. He didn't care what people would think. He wouldn't let this kid get ill.

The next morning, the boy woke up and woke Hubero with a shriek.
"It's ok.." He said when he was getting up, stretching his muscles. They all aced because he had slept in a chair.
"But sir... I shouldn't be here. I'm not allowed in the house when Lord Dowrim is in."
"Well then that's about to change. What's your name?"
"But..." When he saw the look in his eyes, he said: "Lady Tarsalia calls me Hywll."
"That's a lovely name." Smiling at the boy, he said: "If anything bad happens to you, you have to tell it to me. I'll take care of you."
"Let me go back to the stables, now that Lord Dowrim isn't awake jet.. That way he won't find out."
"Only if you promise me that you'll come back tonight to sleep here."
"Ok sir."
"Call me Hubero, please.."
The boy grinned at him and then ran outside to the stables.
His heart broke when he had to let the kid go, but Hywll would be in so much more trouble when Lord Dowrim would find out. He would have to talk to Lady Tarsalia about it. She would listen..

He had followed her all day, hoping that she would be alone for a moment, but when she was outside, people gathered around her and adored her. WHen she was inside, she had to see that everything was going well.
In a last act of dispair, he went to the garden where he had found her yesterday and waited.
He was in luck. Later that day, she entered the garden. She wanted to go away when she saw him, but he had heared her light step on the rocks of the garden.
"I hope that I can take some of your time." He asked in a voice that he had never heard before. Normally his voice was always light and joyful, but now it was low and demanding.
"What do you want kind sir?" She asked, he knew it was out of her education that she stayed.
"I want to talk to you about Hywll."
"Don't hurt him! Leave him alone!" She screamed, then recovering to her cold attitude again.
"I will never hurt him, unlike other men." He said, aiming at her eyes. When she looked back, he knew that they were talking about the same one.
"Lord Dowrim dislikes him, but doesn't hurt him."
"Oh is that why he sleeps in the stables? Or doesn't eat at the table?"
"Only if he isn't away. He travels a lot.."
Not saying a word, just looking, she came and sat next to him.
"Please... Don't force me to act against the wished of my husband." Grabbing his hands, he saw despair in her eyes. And the way she said husband made his hairs in his neck jump upright.
"Don't you love him?" He knew that most of the girls were married to older men that they had never seen, but not loving and still staying was horrible.
She looked around quickly and whispered: "I hate him.. I sometimes think of killing him when he is snoring beside me." Looking at her, shocked he saw that she had said more than she wanted too.
"I didn't know.." He said under his breath.
"How could you? You've been here only one day. I liked your singing." She said. He grabbed the opportunity that she gave him to change subject.
"I was singing for you, Lady Tarsalia.." He whispered when he was looking in her light blue eyes. She was still holding his hands, and he could feel the warmth of them on his skin. Even though he knew her just one day, it seemed that they knew each other for much longer, and some twist of fait had made her marry and as hole in stead of him. 
He got closer, and kissed her. She kissed him back, clinging on to his shoulders if she would fall.
But then reality hit them, and they stopped, and she ran away inside again.
Hating himself for what he had done, he went the other way. Hoping that nobody would have seen them. 

Nobody had seen them, and at night, when he would play, he would see the little sparkle in her eyes whenever she looked at him. He sang of love, and of how it always won. 
Then, when everybody was asleep, he took Hywll inside. He had saved some sweets for the boy, and he ate it gratefully.

How it ended

Every day since then, he spend singing and dancing for the castle. And when the lord was gone, he would secretly sneak into the bed of Tarsalia. He loved her with all his heart, and at first she had been scared. But then, when she gave herself to him, bloomed open as a beautiful flower that saw the first sun after the cold winter.
He loved her madly, but the hard part was, not to show her when others were around.
Although he almost certainly knew that some men of the household knew it, they all kept silent. 

He had stayed in the castle just outside Verbatim for about 7 years now, and he never once thought of the wild nature. But when Lord Dowrim came back from jet another trip, he found that his heart bleed when he saw both of them going up the stairs. 
Although he knew that Tarsalia hated Dowrim, he still felt the sting of jealousy. 
In despair, he took his horse and rode to nowhere. Hoping to forget her love, her touch and her body, he drove his horse as far away as he could. But when his horse fell, and he with it, he still felt that his heart longed for the touch of Tarsalia.
Getting back on his horse, it hadn't been hurt in the fall, he drove back.

When he got back, it was late at night, but he sensed that something was wrong. 
One of the servants came running to him with a light and said: "Lady Tarsalia... Lord Dowrim knows.." He felt that every bit of colour got away from his face, and he felt cold.
"Where is she?"
"Upstairs in her room. Save her Hubero.. She deserves better than this.." It was the cook that had come to him, running with a light.
"Pack my things and saddle 2 horses and my mule." He shouted at her when he ran towards the bedroom where he had spend so many hours.

"You wore! And a bard! I hope you burn in hell!" The hidius voice of Dowrim pierced through his flesh. He had almost reached the top floor.
He slammed against the door and opened it. "Stop!" He screamed to Dowrim.
He was just in time. Dowrim was holding a knife in his hand, and was about to swing it into her belly. She was lying silently on the bed. She didn't move.. Why didn't she move? he thought for a moment. But then dived when the knive had turned towards him. Dowrim was a better fighter than he was, but he had another power in him, he had adrenaline and even anger. And that together made him to fight better then him.
He didn't kill him, he just knocked him unconscious.
Dowrim fell to the ground, his knife still in his hand. Hubero was breathing hard, and his arms was bloody. He ran to the bed and fell on it, holding her cold hands.
"Please don't go... Please.." He begged her. His tears rolled over his cheeks and fell on her face, her arms, her neck. He kissed that lovely mouth of hers, and felt something he had hoped for, but never had thought it would have happened. Her grasp tightened around his hands, and her eyes opened.
Between his tears he smiled and said: "I thought I lost you.."
"For a moment there you did.." He picked her of the bed and walked over her husbands ugly body.
"Is he dead?" She asked in a whisper.
"No.. just unconscious.. But lets get out of here before he wakes up again.."
Hugging him, they walked down the stairs and outside.
The cook had done what he had asked. His instruments, mule and 3 horses were waiting for them.
"Hywll!" Hubero yelled, hoping the young man would hear it and come.
"I'm already here." A soft voice called in front of the horses. 
He was now 22 years old, and he was, even though his scars weren't gone, a pretty boy. He had never asked from where the scars had come, or where his mother and father were. He knew that it was just too painful.
"Lets get out of here. He turned towards the cook. "Thank you.." He whispered and smiled at her. Even though her eyes were scared, she smiled back, urging them to leave.
He got on his horse and held Tarsalia in his arms.

They had travelled far away from the small castle, and Tarsalia became herself again. A warm loving person with lots of love to give.
But they were all scared of Lord Dowrim. He would look for them until the end of his days. They knew that, but they never spoke of it.

Hubero wondered how there life would turn out to be. He had wished for it, but never like this. Tarsalia had never really spend any time on the road, and he thought that she would get miserable. But it all turned out that he was the one getting rather depressed for Tarsalia.
She smiled, sang and danced as much as she could. And she would look at him with all the love in the world spilled in those beautiful blue eyes. And her smile made that he started to forget about Dowrim.

At some point, he was telling a story of dragons, warriors and love, when he got silent and his eyes bigger, the others looked around and their mouth fell open, as his had fallen open.
"What's that?" Tarsalia whispered.
"It hurts the great Hubero that you didn't listen to him." He said grinning, forgetting the large dragon for a moment.
Tarsalia looked back and smiled at him.
"Guys... Somebody jumped off.." Looking back at them

"Hello. My name is Mary."
"Well hello Mary. What brings you to these parts?" Hubero asked in his lightest voice.
"My drak. She told me that you 3 would be great aspirants."
"But where is that?" Tarsalia asked
"Far from this world. But we really need your help. Too few aspirants come to Icarus.."
"Of course we'll help." Hywll said looking at her. She smiled at him "Follow me."

Hubero went to a place called Castle Descas. It was a warm place in the desert. Huffing and puffing, he spend his days singing. He had insisted that his instruments went along.
Tarsalia and Hywll had gone to other places, making him longing for her and wondering if everything was alright with Hywll.

HAtching of Weerloos

Hubero had been waiting patientatly untill one of the 3 draks would pair with him.
And then it was time for the last drakling to leave it’s mother’s wings, this one was brown-tan in colour, not quite a mud, not really a desert, with a soft orange hue that seemed to suggest some gold as well. Hubero could hear the audience holding it's breath. It was a rare drak. The first to hatch in Castle Descas.
Waving his wings slightly, the male drakling bowed before Hubero, touching the ground swiftly with his nose.
"It is an honour to meet you, my name is Weerloosss."
"Is it now?" Hubero asked with an arched eyebrow, in older language the name had meaning which made Hubero wonder how this drakling knew about it. Weerloos meant defenceless, but even if the drakling was now, he would not be so forever.
"It is not I who is defenceless." The drak said cryptically, "It is those I must protect, like you. But first I must eat… and grow."
"Follow me." Hubero said, flourishing an elaborate bow.
"Thank you." The courteous male drak answered, "After you."
They both went to the feast. He hoped that Tarsalia would have been here. She would have been so happy, but her clutch was also about to hatch, so she couldn't be present.
"If I wasss bigger, I would have flown you their." 
"I know my Weerloos." 
But he got an unexpected visitor. Hywll, together with Mary who had brought them here came. 
"Good day Hubero." Hywll bowed, but Hubero pulled him up and hugged him.
"Hello old friend. How are you?"
"Great. Ijkios has hatched, and he and Issnidi are going to fly here."
"Is it really? How wonderful. But you are coming to Wo Yao Fei right?"
"Nobody could keep me away." Hywll grinned. "A rust drak? You don't see that often." 
"Wow.. A rust? And what is your name?" Mary asked the drak.
"Weerloosss kind Lady." Weerloos bowed for her, and then went back to eat.
"Lets dance!" Mary called out when her favorite song was played.
"I should play tonight as well.." Hubero said to the eating drak next to him. "It's been a while."
"You'll do great." Weerloos assured.

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