Chapter thirty four

What he said was a house turned out to be a massive medieval castle complete with a moat,drawbridge, portcullis, and Crenelations. He carried me across the drawbridge still chatting with me in his booming voice as if carrying a grown man under one's armpit was a perfectly normal thing to do.

" When I was a kid I always wanted to be like those knights in the stories, but as I was a fairly talented earth mage my family wouldn't let me, of course in the end I told them they could stuff themselves and studied how to be a knight anyways. I built this castle because what kind of knight doesn't have a castle, am I right? Any who after I built the castle I of course needed a princess to rescue, and I just happened to meet the eldest absurdly beautiful daughter of the head of the Serafino family,they're fire mages if you haven't guessed from their name, that's her coming right now. Anyways where was I , ah yes ,you see sweet Mary hadn't inherited the family gift so my family was dead set against our relationship, and the Serafino family was against marrying the daughter of the head to an earth mage, in the end I told both families to stuff it and married her anyways. Hey honey,look at who I brought to stay with us !"

The woman he was talking to was a very beautiful redhead who didn't look any older than thirty. Wearing a simple green dress she seemed to ooze dignity and poise. Basically she was the direct opposite of Michael.

"Put the poor man down Michael, I'm sure he's had enough of your armpit by now. Hello Mr Demonbane, I apologize for my husband's behavior. He gets a little carried away sometimes. My name is Mary Steelbender, we are all very excited to have you staying with us."

"Its quite alright Ms Steelbender aside from the general manhandling, I actually enjoy his company. Oh and my name is Tom, this is my friend Lidia."

"See honey, he likes me. I was actually telling him our family story before you interrupted me . Anyway were was I , I wed Mary against both families wishes and nine months later our first child Isabella was born and both families disowned us. When she turned sixteen Isabella turned out to be a rare dual elemental mage, a magma mage. Both families came back saying how they were ready to forgive us, but guess what? I told them to stuff it and now we live alone in the castle ,just me , my wife, our daughter Isabella, and the youngest ,our son Carlos. , excluding the maids and various staff of course."

We finally made it to the front courtyard and Michael let me down. The ground was covered in a mosaic of a beautiful scene of running horses.

"You like the art? Did it myself, I did say I was a pretty decent earth mage. It was my first anniversary present to my wife, and each anniversary I change what it shows .Pretty neat huh? Well don't just stand there come in and let's get you settled down before lunch."

The inside of the castle was more modern looking. It had white walls and tiled flooring. They led me and Lidia to one side of the castle and Michael just gave it to us.

"This wing is yours, do whatever you want with it. And don't try to refuse ,this wing has always been deserted, plus it is the smallest wing with only sixteen rooms so its not much of a loss anyways. Now please rest in one of the rooms , a maid will call you when lunch is ready."

He left me and Lidia gawping stupidly like fish that had been taken out of the water.