Fairy Tale (of sorts), Part 1

    (After watching Pan's Labyrinth, I was inspired to write a fairy tale of my own. Here is the start.)

 

    Gregory Surdus had never bothered to look deep for answers. And why should he? They were always ready for him when he had exerted himself more than he could possibly bear, which, like a person who by not moving much is quickly out of breath, was always very soon. His family was very wealthy, and if Gregory had trouble with his studies, then-but it is silly to say he had trouble, for he never had to bother with them. Yet, despite all he could have, he was discontent, and therefore prone to wandering the expansive plains, where the only trees for miles around either followed little brooks, or were solitary figures, stubbornly rising amidst a sea of crops like a buoy at sea. Since there was seemingly so little in the prairie, and he had never have a searching mind, Gregory would quickly become bored with his walks in the fields, and return home almost as soon as he left, so it appeared; and he was always more upset when he was back.
    As of late there was a dark fog following the family, for Gregory's father had suddenly fallen ill, and the sickness became fatal. Rumor, like a vulture, then pecked at his remaining reputation and dragged it through the dirt as it went to the nearby town, where gossips spread the most vile things, particularly about his death. But he was buried without much ado about the cause, and as far as the police were concerned, that was that. Mr. Surdus' fortune was split four ways, the largest portion going to his wife, Gregory's mother, Nebona; then two equal portions going to Gregory and his oldest brother, Simon, whose mother was the first Mrs. Surdus (I should mention now that Gregory was only nine years old, and his brother was twenty-one); and the final portion split among the other of the Surdus family. The rest of the clan dispersed grumbling about the blow they had been dealt, and the house now held only Gregory, his mother, and Simon, who had just finished college and was now head of the family business. The two brothers were close, and Simon looked after Gregory very lovingly, and Gregory, for his part, was very jealous for his brother, always taking his side in any matter. Nebona had married Mr. Surdus when Simon was twelve, and though he was therefore under her care, he was always distant with her, holding a distrust that even he did not quite understand. However, despite this change in household, life continued in much the same way for the Surdus family.
    Then one day, Gregory happened to travel farther than he was usually wont to do; not out of curiosity, necessarily, but the vagrant, aimless quality of thinking that leads people to wander as carelessly as their thoughts. Before he realized it, he found himself in a new place, a ribbon of trees that stretched along a stream which weaved through the fields. He was about to turn back when he heard, faintly, a noise farther ahead. Walking just a little more, he saw what had made the commotion. There was a hermit thrashing about by the stream, pulling at his hair in anger. He seemed about to hurt himself when he suddenly calmed, took a deep breath, and turned to the stream. Waiting a few moments, he then began making gestures towards the stream, moving his arms all about, bending his wrists at certain times, wiggling his fingers with abandon; it seemed he was trying to see the reflection of his strange actions in the stream, but bursts of mud would cloud the view, and he became upset. What Gregory did not and would not know for a bit was that the hermit was deaf, and signed a language no one knew.