Tyrus Paladium

          Tyrus tossed the last shovel full of dirt on his mother's grave, the only mother he had ever known. He knelt down by her grave one hand in the soil, the other resting on her marker. "Why hide the truth from me mother?" he softly whispered to the grave. He looked up into the tree he had chosen for his mothers final resting place. "Watch over her", he whispered to the tree as he slowly stood and braced his back against the tree, tears running down his face. "She was the only mother I knew", this he spoke in a normal voice level, to no one, no one was there to hear him, though his voice seemed loud to him.

image from: https://steemmonsters.com/
          A tree fairy dropped from the tree and rested on top of his shoulder, this initially startled Tyrus, he had thought the tree empty of the wee folk, he had not seen one in many months. "We will watch over her for you Tyrus", the tree fairy whispered into his ear.

          "You must now go and find the fire beetle nest, and rid our valley of them", the fairy stated. She did not ask, she did not command, she simply stated a fact to him. "If you do not, then we will die, and more will die, and your mother's death would have been meaningless."

          The fairy continued. "She may not have been your birth mother, but she raised you, taught you, imbued you with her abilities. Not many know of us Tyrus, we need your help, we need your protection." Tyrus listened to the now pleading voice, ears perking up at 'imbued'. Is that why I can hear them he thought and see them? Is this the problem of the sleepless nights? Were they warnings of things to come, did I ignore the warning, did I miss the message, is it my fault that she is gone. These were some of the thought running through his mind.

          "NO!!!, it is not your fault the death of your mother, it was a weakness on our part, we did not feel the burn of the beetles, they had somehow shrouded themselves from our vision." The fairy stated emphatically.

          Tyrus reached his hand toward the small fairy, and raised it to view eye to eye. He glanced in the little eyes of the tiny fairy, and saw the tears glistening in them, he felt a flood of emotional loss spread into his whole being as he stared deep in those eyes, and he knew the regret that the little fairy had.

          He placed the fairy on top of his mother's marker and knelt before it, "I will do as you ask, I will find this nest, and return to you when I have cleansed them from the valley here."

          The fairy looked up into his eyes and saw the truth and a small slice of his future, "When you have avenged your mothers, our mothers, death return, and I will tell you a story of life." with that the fairy flitted up into the tree. Tyrus looked at his mother's final resting place, and now understood a little bit more.

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My try at writing, this attempted story start was for the @steemmonsters contest in this post. As it happens @neoxian is a fan of @steemmonsters and is also running a writing contest in this post. So I have submitted to both contest the same story.

If I lightening should happen to strike and I win some cards from both contest, then I will donate any duplicate cards to a friend I know that will likely run a contest and distribute a portion of them as prizes.