Birthday

It was a rainy day, and the downpour was not letting up. I was sitting on the windowsill, looking out of the window and drifting off into my thoughts. My name is Dominique Darkswing, I am 9 years old and tomorrow is my tenth birthday. Because of the weather, I am forced to sit inside the manor and study even more, as there is not much to do anyway. However, I must admit that it is quite interesting and my Mum and Dad often help me.

My daily schedule is usually the same. Almost every day is the same: I wake up in the morning, the maids come and help me get dressed, then I go to breakfast. My Dad is often late for breakfast and it annoys my Mum, sometimes she gives him a scolding, but, to my surprise, my Dad seems to enjoy it a bit, or at least I feel that way. During breakfast, I usually talk with my parents and we discuss our plans for the day. In addition to my plans, my Mum asks me a lot of things: what I want to do today after studying, what I want for lunch, dinner, dessert, etc. My Dad doesn't stand aside either, listening to me just as attentively. After a little daily interrogation, I ask them about their plans for the day. After the main course, I finish my tea or other warm drink without dessert.

After breakfast, I go to study, read books or train my body. Various teachers come to teach me, usually they are not that young, however the lessons are very engaging anyway, they often tell me different fascinating stories from their past, about different adventures, etc. I especially favour the teacher of history and theory of magic, his stories are usually the most interesting. Although it is also worth mentioning the geography teacher and his stories of travelling to different countries and the etiquette teacher, though I don't really like this subject, but the teacher is just incredible. Clovis often helps her as well.

After studying, I go to lunch, and my Dad can be quite late with his business, and so can my Mum. But they still always come to have lunch together, of course, when my Dad isn't away because of his work, but he tells us about it during breakfast. Throughout lunch, not much happens, everyone eats quite quickly, while still having time to discuss how the first half of the day went, usually I still have tea with desserts or ice cream. Sometimes my Mum stays with me for dessert, especially when we spend time together afterwards in the afternoon.

After dessert, I can go on studying with my Mum helping me, alternatively we play together or walk around the estate. It does not happen every day that I get to spend time with my Mum, so I always look forward to these days. From time to time, my Mum and I go to the Royal Capital. That's what I like the most. The capital always seems so grand, there are so many beautiful sculptures, houses, streets and many other wonderful things and everything looks so elegant, fancy and dignified, and my Mum always takes me somewhere to have a good time. And the shops in the capital always have a whole bunch of various amazing things: from sweets and food to weapons and armour, they probably have everything! My Dad has travelled to the capital with us a couple of times, and it's always incredibly entertaining and enjoyable!

On days when we are not going anywhere, which is almost always, my Mum often tells me a lot of interesting things about all sorts of things: flowers, fruits, animals, magic. I really love listening to my Mum's travel stories, they are always filled with adventures and often even fights with various bandits and other bad guys. Mum often helped different people during her travels because she is very strong. Yes, my Mum is cool! She also loves to talk about her older brother and their adventures from childhood and more. He's currently on some kind of mission, so he hasn't visited for a while, but I'm really looking forward to meeting him! If there's one thing I don't like, it's her charming voice, it's an unfair weapon, always after we've played and my eyes show a little bit of fatigue, my mother will start singing a lullaby while hugging me. I have never managed to hold out. And no matter how many times I tell my Mum that I don't want to sleep, she just doesn't listen to me, it's just not fair!

Anyway, normally, between lunch and dinner, my Mum and I have small tea breaks with dessert. When it's time for dinner, we all get together again, but neither my Dad nor Mum are late anymore. Everyone is always waiting for dinner, often some interesting dishes are prepared for dinner, and usually dinner lasts more than an hour because everyone tells what they have been up to throughout the day, especially if someone has had some adventures, has some news or just want to tell something interesting.

After dinner, I go to my room and wait for the maids to prepare the bathroom and go to take a bath. That's the end of my normal day, and after my bath I go to bed. Oh, yeah, from time to time after the bath my Dad comes to spend some time with me, we can often play board games or I can just ask him something I'm interested in studying or anything else.

Coming back to today's gloomy day, I have already done all my chores and now I have nothing to do, everyone in the manor is busy preparing for my birthday tomorrow, and so are my parents. So today I'm spending time alone.

"Chloe! Come to the room!" I called loudly to my maid, hoping that at least I could play something with her.

A few seconds later, there was a light knock on the door of the room: "Young master, it's me, Chloe, I'm coming in." - The maid said with a pleasant, gentle voice. After that, the luxurious door opened slowly and with little to no sound at all, and a young-looking maid with light green hair entered the room. She had incredible hearing, thanks to which she could always hear me even at a great distance, and all thanks to the fact that she was an elf, which could be easily determined by her beautiful long pointed ears.

"You called for me, young master. What is it that you would like?" asked Chloe, walking quietly towards me.

"Let's play a game," I asked my maid, not that she could simply refuse me.

" Of course, what would you like to play? You have a whole cupboard full of board games and due to the weather conditions and the preparations at the estate, I'm afraid that's the only thing we'll be able to play today." - Chloe replied, as if she had been bored herself and was just waiting for my "request".

The second half of my day was spent playing with Chloe, then I went to dinner with my parents, we had a good chat and then I went to take a bath. After that, as usual, I went to bed, looking forward to tomorrow, because even though I was quite calm looking, I was really excited for my birthday!

....

The morning of the next day.

Waking up as I normally do, it took me a little while to realise that the manor was incredibly quiet, or rather, there was not a sound to be heard, not at all. This concerned me a little and I hesitantly called my green-haired maid.

"Chloe!" I shouted quite loudly, on guard, expecting some kind of surprise, ready to jump out of bed at any moment. A few seconds passed after I called Chloe, but nothing happened. About 10 seconds passed - still nothing... Suddenly the door opened abruptly and my Mum, Dad, Clovis, Chloe, my teachers and some other servants came into the room, loudly wishing me a happy birthday. I jumped out of bed in surprise.

"Happy birthday, Domi!" my parents greeted me together, flying into the room first, quickly coming to me and first my Mum, taking me in her arms, started to spin me around, still greeting me, then when she stopped, my Dad took me in his arms, also, once again, congratulating me on my celebration.

"Happy birthday, young master! May our ancestors bless you!" Clovis, with his usual calm voice and unruffled expression, and Chloe greeted me in turn: "Congratulations, young master, on your 10th birthday! I wish you all the best in life!" with her gentle voice and sincere warm smile, still standing near the door to the room while my Mum was circling me.

Emily, my mum's personal maid, also came to wish me a happy birthday, saying her greeting after Chloe along with the others. After everyone had congratulated me and left the room, except for Chloe, who helped me get dressed in my birthday suit, which for some reason made me look like a baby version of my dad, as I too had black hair, red eyes and still small horns that were so dark that they seemed to absorb all the light that hit them.

When I finally got dressed and went to breakfast, I realised that Mum, Dad and everyone else were also dressed up for special occasion and that the breakfast was also unusual, although there was nothing special about it, it was definitely not a normal breakfast. The food was... festive.

After breakfast, I went for a walk around the estate with Chloe. That's how I spent my time until lunch. I had lunch alone today, which surprised me a little. When I came in, Clovis was waiting for me in my room with a message from my parents not to wait for them.

After a leisurely lunch and a warm cup of tea with dessert, I returned to my room. The afternoon was not very interesting, I read a little bit of one of the books I like, went for a walk around the manor and its grounds, talking to the servants and guards during my wanderings and receiving even more congratulations on my event.

But the evening was the most interesting, when it was time for dinner, Chloe came to call me, which was not a new thing. When I walked into the hall where we always eat, I was surprised and fascinated, tonight's dinner was not just dinner, it was a feast. There was a whole pile of different food on the table, which usually takes no less than three dinners to eat, a pile of gifts on the next table, and my parents dressed as elegantly and festively as possible.

My Mum was wearing a gorgeous white dress with gold embellishments, her neck adorned with a necklace made of precious-looking metal and an amethyst stone in the centre that both blended in and stood out from the dress. Her hands were accessorised with several bracelets and rings that complemented the look, as well as the beautiful earrings in her ears and the exquisite tiara on her head. Her hair, in turn, was not far behind, unlike her usual straight hair, today part of it was braided, pulling part of her hair into a ponytail.

Dad was equally pompously dressed: a black suit, very much like a royal suit, decorated with various decorations made of different precious metals and accessories, he also had a cloak worn on one shoulder, whose colour matched the suit, and his hair was tied up in a small low ponytail as usual, but with an elaborate clip and carefully styled in the front. His beautiful black horns were also adorned with jewellery made of coloured metals and precious stones. He also wore several rings on his hands, which matched his look, although fewer than my mother's.

After I had recovered a little from my admiration for my parents' appearance, they stood up and came over to me and wished me a happy birthday again, and my dad took me in his arms again.

"Happy birthday once again, darling! I'm sorry we couldn't spend time with you today, we wanted to give you another surprise. Unfortunately, none of the invited guests could make it this year, but they sent you presents anyway." - my Mum said, trying to lift my already cheerful mood a little bit, as she seemed to think I was very sad about it today. I did have a surprisingly good time with everyone though.

My Dad was not far behind in his encouragement: "So, Domi, don't be upset. We hope that you will be able to have a good time in our little family company. Thus, let's celebrate, shall we?"

"What makes you think I was so sad today? I really would have liked to meet my uncle, grandfather and the others, but it's no reason to be sad if they didn't come. I am really happy to spend time with you. So, Mum, Dad, let's get to the table before it gets cold!"