"Aurelio," said the woman—Sofia Marcelli—between heavy breaths, proud of the boy she had given birth to. She then gave the maid the signal to step out for a bit, and that was the first moment spent alone between them.
Between the walls of the impressive mansion, Aurelio soon grew up to become a well-mannered young man, skilled in the arts of sword and water, and impressing even the best tutors around with the speed he was learning at.
A prodigy from the second he took his first steps, the kid had a gleam in his eyes, eager to take in the wonders of the world, and with a loving family by his side, it seemed like nothing could stop him from reaching the top of the world.
Only, the boy's family had never been complete. Aurelio had heard about it before; many families also had a "father."
"Are you Father?" the boy asked a man walking out of his mother's room. The man smiled and took a knee in front of the boy.
"Oh, Aurelio… How I wish such a fine lad could be called blood of mine! Unfortunately, my son is nowhere near as smart and handsome as you. You must have taken it from your mother."
With this, the man got up, gave the boy a piece of candy, and left the mansion without speaking another word. His smile had also faded after he took the first three steps.
Shrugging his shoulders, the young Aurelio threw the candy in his mouth and went back to his room.
"Guess I'll have to ask the next one," he said, knowing that somebody else would surely come and spend the night.
Different men came and went, all of them giving a different answer to the same question, yet none of them said they would be the boy's father.
One day, after weeks of asking, his mother visited Aurelio's room. As usual, they hugged when the woman came in and then sat down for a talk over a cup of tea.
Sitting down on her elegant green dress, the woman called Sofia Marcelli took a sip of the tea. Her lips, painted in a reddish purple, touched the edge of the cup and left a mark she soon after wiped off with a tissue.
"Aurelio, what's this about asking everyone if they are your father?"
It was rare to see his mother so serious. Her face, pretty as if sculpted by the most skilled Reman around, showed no twitch and no smile. She sat on the chair, flaunting her bountiful chest shown by her generous cleavage, even if there was nobody around to admire her beauty.
At the young age of four, Aurelio didn't notice the posture the woman had adopted out of habit, and he cared little for the clothes holding her already small waist tight. If anything, the boy only disliked the wide dress his mother often wore, as it made it hard for the little boy to hug her. Yet, the few times she got out of her room not wearing such dresses—times that often came as another man left the house—she wouldn't let him hug her either. Those were actually the only times his mother seemed agitated, even scary.
"Well, I learned about family recently, and I was told a family often has both a mother and a father?" the child answered.
Opening her eyes wide just for a moment, Sofia quickly regained her calm and put on the usual motherly smile that Aurelio liked the most.
"I see… And who told you that? Could you tell me?" she asked with a kind voice.
"Yes! It was the tutor you called in yesterday!"
"The tutor… I see… Thank you, dear. Here, take this," his mother said, handing him a piece of chocolate he was already familiar with, for it was chocolate that another kind man had given him before.
That night, the one who went to Sofia's room was the tutor mentioned by Aurelio. But instead of going alone, he went in with a couple of guards, and instead of the usual laughter and joy that would resound from the room, scary screams were heard throughout the whole mansion.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
It must have been that they were playing, since Aurelio's mother kept screaming something about a treasure.
"I've called you here to make me young again! Not to put weird ideas into his head!"
Whatever, adult play was something kids wouldn't understand. Or at least that's what a maid had told the boy many times when he wanted to play with his mother and her friends.
*****
Years passed, and as any teenager, Aurelio started feeling bored inside the house, so he often snuck out, playing with the youngsters in the capital.
The boy was convinced that he would get into trouble were he to get caught, but as more and more maids left his mother's side, there weren't enough people to surveil a rebellious teenager.
He was now around the age of 14, and he had learned many things from the children around. He had even made himself a girlfriend, a princess slightly older than him who one day brought the boy to her castle. She said they were going to play a game—a game that the boy thought consisted of sneaking past the guards—but it was only when they got to be all alone that Aurelio understood something. He understood how adults play.
Ever since that day, the boy looked at his mother with disgust, and as the times a man would visit her room increased to usually four a day, that disgust started troubling his young mind.
In the end, he loved his mother. The woman who would sometimes come to his room for tea looked the same as ever. She still wore her provocative dresses, took care of her makeup, and had the same habit of flaunting her body even though nobody was around to watch.
Few were the ones who could notice changes in her appearance, and one of those few people was Aurelio.
"Mother, since when did those circles under your eyes—"
"—become so dark," he wanted to ask, but for the first time in his life, his mother shut the boy up with a slap.
What followed was a scolding closer to a crazed attack, where the woman scratched at her own son, leaving marks on his skin that wouldn't heal for many months to come.
That night, another one of his tutors visited his mother's room. He went alone, as most tutors did ever since that incident ten years ago. Yet, after playing their adult games, another burst of screams like the one in Aurelio's room followed.
"If I lose this, I'll have nothing! Do you think anyone would come to my quarters if I looked my age? Find out where those waters are! Or your head will be thrown where that other guy is buried!"
*****
Another four years went by, and the smile on Sofia's face had completely faded.
In those four years, Aurelio learned to love his mother for who she was, and he never again said anything about her habits or looks. Instead, he now spent most of his time out with friends, as he preferred to see his mother only when it was necessary. That way, his love for her would stay untainted by the disgust he felt for her actions.
"Yo! Did you hear the news? They're looking for the next water representative!" said another son of nobility—Aurelio's best friend.
The water representative had ascended to godhood, and it was now time for somebody else to take his spot. Only a few were qualified to know about this, and even fewer were allowed to train for the position.
"Water…water? Maybe… maybe that representative knows!"
As the one controlling the water, there was no way the water representative wouldn't know about the water Aurelio's mother kept going on about.
"That's it! I'm going to become the representative myself!" he said.
Maybe that way, I can fulfill Mother's wish, and she can be my mother as when I was young, he thought.
But the representative could only be one, and the competitors were many, so Aurelio had to do something more; he had to find a way to surpass everyone.
"I know! An adventure!"
Maybe it was the young man's trapped self trying to get out, or maybe it was his sincere opinion that an adventure would solve the problem.
Aurelio's closest friend—the young man going by the name of Marco—was the first to question his rationale.
"Aurelio, what in the world makes you think an adventure is what makes you strong?"
"Hm? Isn't an adventure that pushes you to the limit the way to break those limits the fastest?"
"Ha? You're reading way too many novels, man!"
Maybe Marco was right. The boy who had been locked up in his mansion for most of his life used his free time on nothing but eat the candy and read the books brought by his mother's many visitors. Yet, that didn't quench the flame in his eyes, and the young man made his choice. He was going to become the water representative.
Aurelio gathered the whole group of friends he had and somehow convinced them all to follow him. Dario, Amara, Romeo, and Chiara were just some of the names called around in their big group. For Aurelio, the most important two were not them, but his friend, Marco, and his sweetheart, Gianna. He had many close friends, and it was thanks to them that Aurelio got to know what being important to somebody felt like.
As such, the wolves—afraid of nothing—set on their journey.
They were ready to face any hardships that would come their way, as long as it was still within the boundaries of Rema. As they were all of noble blood, the country should have been a safe place for them to play around, or at least that's what their parents thought.
*****
"Long before the world as we know it existed, there was a pack of strong wolves walking through a faraway land.
Those wolves cared a lot about one another, and while some scuffles here and there were unavoidable, there was nothing that could tear them apart.
Or that's what they thought, but one force in this world cannot be denied. "