Aurelius and I Read Online Free PDF

Both times.”
    It was only as the words left my mouth that I realised how silly they sounded, evidently so did my grandmother.
    “So you honestly think this all just happened randomly do you? Come on, Charlie, wake up and smell the cocoa. You have lived in one small town all your life and you have never once so much as noticed this tall, loud, man who dresses as though he were part of the circus, and then you just happen to run into him. Twice! In the space of just one week! I don’t think so.”
    I didn’t think so either. I was suddenly becoming very suspicious of Aurelius-Octavius Jumbleberry-Jones. Or maybe it was more a case of my attentions being drawn to suspicions I had already harboured somewhere inside myself.
    “But what would Aurelius want with me?” I asked.
    “I’m afraid I couldn’t tell you that for certain, Charlie. But I think I could hazard a pretty good guess.” She stopped, sighed, and took a sip of her coffee while she gathered her thoughts. When she began to speak again her voice was softer than it had been before and seemed tinged with sadness and regret.
    “Charlie, I am afraid that I have not always been entirely honest with you before now. Despite what I may have led you to believe, I have not told you all I know about magic. More importantly, I have not told you how I know what I know.” She stopped and sighed again before sitting silently for several moments. “Charlie, the truth is that I am a Protector. And I believe that you are one too.”
     
    ***
     
    And so dear reader, as promised, I shall now reveal to you what a protector is and why such a thing should matter. I shall try to explain it in the exact way that it was explained to me. I fully realise that such a concept will be much easier to believe for any of you who have healed sick animals with your bare hands or witnessed any other apparent miracles in the past. As for the rest of you, I have no doubt that the following information may appear to be fictional in nature, but I assure you that you only feel this way because that is what the world wants you to believe. All I ask of you is that you keep an open mind as you peruse the following pages.
     
    ***
     
    Of course, my first question to my Grandmother had been to ask what exactly a Protector was. Judging from the dramatic way she had released the information that I was one, I imagined it must be something important, and yet I had never heard the term used before – by anybody. She replied that, in order to properly answer my question she would first have to give me a little history lesson. According to my memory, it went something like this...
    “Many centuries ago,” the old woman began in her best storytelling voice, “when human beings had made their way out of the caves and had begun to read and write and to form civilisations, the existence of magic and magical creatures was merely an accepted part of life. People feared attacks from giant sea serpents in the same way that they feared severe storms. They worried about the threat of vampires just as much as that of lions or tigers. And there is no need for you to take my word on this, Charlie, tales of fearsome minotaurs and seductive mermaids fill the writings of the time.”
    “But, they’re just legends,” I interrupted.
    “Oh they are, are they?” she replied with a mischievously raised eyebrow. “Well then, if you’re so certain of that fact, perhaps you could answer me this; Why is it that a tale of ancient warriors battling the undead written two thousand years ago is labelled a myth or a legend, but a story about a king and his armies written two hundred years ago is labelled history?”
    “Well...” I began, but before my still developing mind could begin to formulate an answer I was cut off by further questions.
    “What makes Henry VIII and his six wives a fact, but Theseus’s defeat of the minotaur a fallacy? Were you present at either event? Was any living person? No. Was either event