Chapter 987: The Same Root

The face of the boy was covered with suspicion, and a glint in his eyes made Rowan know that his small mind was working among many possibilities to decipher the truth within the words he would be hearing.

In many matters, this child might be naive, but it was also hard to deceive the little brat.

"Is it not obvious?" Rowan smiled, "The tears of the sun as you call it, how rare is it?"

Biting His lips, Romion thought about it for a short while, "Pretty rare, I only found this fruit two years ago and I have ranged around for thousands of miles to find a second to no avail, maybe if I have more chance to comb through the entire forest I will find another, but that would take many years. You can see why I cannot accept such precious... gifts."

"To you it is precious," Rowan replied, "and yet you did not hesitate to present it to me as a greeting gift."

"That is expected of me," Romion replied before looking down in shame and whispering, "Besides, I had already taken a sizable chunk from it and it was no longer complete."

"As I said before, to you it might be precious," Rowan waved his hand and the air rippled as a hundred Tears of the Sun appeared, the space around them exploded with light as if a hundred bright lanterns were lit around them.

Romion's mouth fell open, but the demonstration was not over, as with another wave of his hand, the number of fruit hovering in the air tripled.

The little boy staggered, and he slapped his cheeks to check if he was dreaming and frowning in concentration he suddenly leaped and touched the fruits hanging in the air randomly, to confirm if they were real or a mirage.

"How...how is this possible?"

Rowan smiled, "Look to the skies."

With his heart beating erratically, Romion slowly turned his head and looked upwards, and his mouth fell open and the strength left his legs. Collapsing into a puddle, he wanted to crawl towards his mother in fright but held himself back with a stubbornness that was deep in his bones.

Above him a golden rain was falling, each drop in this rain that covered the entire horizon from pole to pole was a Tear of the sun, their numbers were in the billions, creating a golden sea that roared towards the earth.

"Is my gift of seven Tears of the Sun acceptable?" Rowan asked the frightened child.

"Yes...yes, very, very acceptable," the child nodded furiously, his face that was white as a sheet rapidly glancing from Rowan to the sky, unable to decide which image was more earth-shattering.

Snapping his fingers, the entire horizon filled with Tears of the Sun vanished, leaving the seven that the boy had clutched tightly to his chest.

For a while the area was silent, only broken by the rapid breathing of Romion, after a while he slowly looked at Rowan, "Will I ever be able to do something like that one day?"

Rowan smiles cheekily, "Something like what?"

Romion bit his lips, "Summon an unlimited amount of food."

Rolling his eyes Rowan replied, "Of course, you can create a whole universe made of nothing but food if you want."

"Um, what is a universe?"

Sigh, "I can see that your education is lacking direction, perhaps you are focused too much on food."

Romion sniffed, regaining his color and coming back to his feet, "Food is the best thing in the world, of course, I need to know all about it. You never answered my questions, mister,"

Elura reached Romion and ruffled his hair, "He has not answered you child because you have not asked the most important question."

Romion was confused for a short moment before the light of enlightenment entered his eyes, "Forgive me, mister, I forgot my manners. I am Romion, known as the Child of the Green, Scion of Life, um, local terror, ... hungry ghost..." his voice grew weaker as he mumbled some other things under his breath before parking up once more,

"I am the Son of Elura, the Empyrean of Life, and you are welcome to my home. How may I address you?"

Rowan froze, he heard everything that Romion had been mumbling, and he did not know if he should laugh or cry. Whatever this child may be, he was never idle, and his adventures in five years must be enough to fill up an entire library if his titles were any indicator. He sighed and went down on one knee so that he could be at an equal eye level with the child, "Romion, that is a beautiful name, you can call me Rowan, although that is not my true name. I am afraid I cannot tell you my true name, it's long and unsuited to the ears."

The child mumbled, "Rowan, odd," he turned to Elura, "Mother is Rowan not what the folk in the river call my name in their tongue?"

Elura's eyes brightened, "Of course Child, your name in different cultures can be pronounced and spelled in different manners, but it is still essentially the same name and bears similar roots."

"So, does this make us... um," the child struggles to find the word,

"Namesake," Rowan completed it and the boy grinned,

"Yes, namesake, we share the same roots!" Romion cheered. With his developing mind he loved to learn and was always happy to quickly figure out solutions to the problems that ailed him, even if it was as minor as finding the right words to use.

"So there you have it," Rowan said, "Your answer to your question."

Looking up in confusion, Rowan cried out, "But you never answered my question."

"Did I not Romion... Rowan?"

"I don't underst... Oh, I think I get what you mean. Our names share similar roots, so you're telling me that because we are children from the same pod, then our path is similar. Whatever you can do now, then someday I will be able to do the same."

He looked towards Rowan for confirmation and beamed when he saw the nod of acknowledgment. Seeing Elura smiling down at him with pride, Romion thrust out his small chest.

This motion reminded him that he was holding seven Tears of the Suns in his arms, and without waiting for anything, the inner foodie in his soul came to life, and a few seconds later, he was lying on the ground, his stomach swollen like he was pregnant.

With a look of bliss on his face Romion rubbed his round stomach and before long he shifted to his mother snuggled on her thighs, and was asleep.

After a year of endless adventures, the boy fell asleep. But before he did, Rowan saw his eyes shift in suspicion as he mumbled to himself the words Elura spoke, "Why did I not notice how devious you were as a child? You have never truly changed, have you?... The same name... Are you my..."

Elura stroked the hair of Romion, the look of pride in her eyes was evident, "You were always more discerning than I could ever understand. There were moments when you made mistakes and committed dumb actions, but you only needed to close your eyes and rest and somehow, you could see the full picture. I knew that your fathers would never be able to tie you down for long, for they did not understand how special you were. They were not the dangerous ones. I understood how special you were, and so does my Maker, that is what makes her dangerous."

Elura patted the air next to her, "Place your head on my thighs, and rest your eyes. You can sleep, child, Mother will be here when you wake up."