Hours had passed since Oreius vanished into thin air, leaving Troy alone to clean the stable. It wasn't that Oreius had better things to do - he was dead, after all - but he certainly had no patience to deal with his distant descendant for any longer than he absolutely had to. When it came down between the cold embrace of death and spending time with his grandson, Oreius chose death.
Troy had managed to clean all eight stalls by bring a bucket of water and a rag and scrubbing the place clean to the best of his ability. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but it looked better than before. As for the horse bones, he had moved them all into one stall until he could figure out a better place for them. There was still one stall that needed cleaning, however: the tack room.
He approached the room with his bucket and rag, staring at all the equipment. The walls were lined with saddles, bridles, shovels, rakes and more - but what stood out to him most were two large chariots in the center of the tack room. They were magnificent, truly beautiful works of art.
One was black with silver details, the other red with golden details. Each had comfortable looking plush seats with a long T-shaped rod attached to the front, decorated with jewels. The wheels were magnificent and finely crafted out of metal, rusted over time. The chariots were built to be pulled by four horses each, judging by the width of the T-shaped rod that would brace the horses together and connect the brace to the seat.
He approached it slowly, not wanting to touch them - they were so aesthetic he felt as though they should be in the museum, and behaved as though they were on display. But there was something glittering on the seat of the red chariot that also caught his eye - a small golden ring.
He picked up the ring and examined it, feeling a strong connection to it. It held a bloodstone jewel with an interesting carving of the Chronos symbol and a horse in the center, a small design on the ring that looked like a vine and even an engraving in the interior of the ring. It was something latin, and he couldn't understand a word of it.
"It is yours," a voice said. Oreius had returned. Troy didn't turn to face his ancestor, but stayed focused on the ring. "It is your signet ring, your means of communication with others. It has been passed down between every Troy Knight, the engraving in its stone carries are unique insignia. By pressing the engraving into a note, we can send messages to each other and communicate in an instant."
"I like it," Troy said.
"Keep it," Oreius said. It was less of a suggestion, and more of a command. Troy listened, apparently, as he slid the ring onto his ring finger.
"EARTH! FIRE! WIND! WATER! HEART!" Troy shouted, raising his fist to the air. "CAPTAIN PLANET!"
Oreius sighed. Part of him hoped that he had other descendants that he would have been more capable of relating to, but then he would be even more upset that he was stuck with this fool.
"Well, hopefully you were listening to me before," Oreius started to fade away. "You're work here is done for tonight, you may return home to wherever you came from." There was still work to be done, but Oreius's patience had worn thin once again.
"Return again another time," he continued, regretting the offer the moment he said it. "Until then, farewell."
He faded away as Troy continued to examine his ring. He then closed his eyes and thought of returning home, and when he reopened his eyes he was there - alone in his bedroom, staring down at his new ring.
((Word count: 644) 
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