As a child I would spend most of my time in the garden of our home. The house itself was nothing special - a small family home for the lower middle class of Dale but the garden was always something a little more special. I think the best thing about the garden was that none of the rest of my family ever really ventured into it unless they had to which had caused it to become wild and untame and thus the land of many childhood fancies and play for myself.
My favourite game was a game called dragons which involved me pretending to be a dragon. I used to run around the garden like a mentalist, pretending to breath fire. I used to make dragon nests which I filled with the little treasure's of childhood - my few wooden toys, a glass bottle, a lost button and other such useless objects that are so appealing to a child and which would be chucked out by an adult. I once stole my mother's jewellary to use as my dragon treasure hoard. She was not impressed! Her face when she found me sitting on it still gives me nightmares over twenty years later! After a serious telling off from both my parents, my mother insisted a punishment of two days without food much to Granny M's consternation who on hearing this insisted that she bake me a large pie which I was aloud to eat all to myself. It was a good day...
It was on one such a game of dragons several months after the jewellary incident that I had a visitor. I was seven years old at the time making my brother just three. As per usual both my parents were inside, tending to every need of Denith whilst they aloud me to play in our garden wilderness. I was playing near the hedge at the bottom of the garden, running around with a red ribbon and pretending that I was setting things on fire like a dragon. I was roaring loudly which was probably why I didn't hear my visitor. I saw him first, a young lad of about my own age standing at the bottom of the garden. He was smaller than me but far stockier than me skinny frame. His blonde hair was neatly brushed and he wore a baggy tunic of blue to match his large blue eyes, the cut of his jaw and face gave him a slightly femnine look but he was still a pleasent looking child - at least compared to my unruly mass of ginger, knotted locks and the dirt that seemed to get all over my body and clothes which to my mother's displeasure.
We spent a good few minutes staring at each other before I ran over to him and waved the ribbon at him. "Hello!" I said, offering a confident smile, despite the oddness of the situation. It was a mystery at the time of how the boy managed to get into my back garden as the hedge was rather high and would be too much of a challange to climb for most people of his age. None of these thoughts really crossed my mind of course, he was there and that was that. He seemed rather more timid than me, offering a slight wave towards me rather than actually speaking. "You alright?" I asked, cocking me head on one side slightly in intrigue. He nods again before beckoning me closer. Cautiously I made my way towards him watching as he slowly lifted up a clenched fist and unfurled his slender fingers revealing a single acorn in the palm of his hand. He held it out towards me, indicating that I should take it, so I did and I peered down at it for some time before looking up, only to find the boy had disapeared again, the acorn being the only trace of his presence.
This was the first time I met Joran, the watcher who guarded my life in Dale, one of the greatest and most ill treated friends I ever had...
