Valente Valerie
Registered user
Global user
Registered: 10-2005
Posts: 27
Karma: 1 (+1/-0)
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Leaving Home pt1
"What did y'do?" Valente barreled through the door in a gust of wind and rain. The small, rich shimmerfin schools had been running the Dalereuth the past week and, no matter the rain, anyone who could haul a net was on the water. Valente had been at sea for three days. Sweeping his wide brimmed fisherman's hat from sweaty hair, he cared not for the way the youngsters dodged out of the room, or for the fishy water he was trailing all over the floor. It was his brother's face he cared about, the angry, guilty flush. It was his sister he wanted but he knew she wasn't here. He'd dreamt it. "Where is Vali?"
"Val, dammit, enough with the yelling!" Miklai shouted and dumped the pile of netting off his lap then stood, looming over his younger brother. "And don't bring the sea in with you, boy, leave the oilskins outside."
"I'm no boy!" Valente shouted. He thrust his hands, callused, blistered and battered from days of hard work. "Are these the hands of a boy? Where's my sister!"
Miklai flushed, adam's apple bobbing. Taller than his nedestro brother, he was landbound ever since an accident had left him too lame to walk the deck of a fishing sloop. He stayed home and repaired nets, did old men's work, while Val took his place on the sea. "Boy enough, Val, this is my mother's house and Vali is my sister too and it's to her future I'm looking!"
"If it's for her you're caring, why did you wait 'till I was out to sea to marry her off!"
"'Cause neither of you have the sense of a cralmac!"
"And you've not got the honor of a Dry Towner!" Val shouted, fists clenched as if it was an enemy he faced, not his own brother. "She's my sister -"
"Bastard!" Miklai, as Val's insults and accusations struck like knives, hit Valente with the strength of a fisherman and laid the younger boy out cold on the packed earth floor of their home. He stared dully down at Val with little Gabrin's shrieks loud in his ears.
"Get him to bed," he sank wearily into his chair. "Lelli, get him to bed and we'll sort this later."
TBC
---
Valente and Valerie of Fairlyn
|
|
10/24/2005, 5:06 pm
|
Send Email to Valente Valerie
Send PM to Valente Valerie
Blog
|
Valente Valerie
Registered user
Global user
Registered: 10-2005
Posts: 27
Karma: 1 (+1/-0)
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Leaving Home pt2
Like a wall creeper, silent and unnoticed, Valente could do nothing but watch. Weak morning light slipped past the warped edges of closed shutters as the thatcher Gregi climbed out of his bed, scratching his beard. "Sweet morning, love," he said, leaning back to whisper to a handful of brown curls. Val could do nothing but wallow in his sick rage and his sister only curled into a tighter ball until Gregi sighed and moved to dress. As soon as the man shut the door, Val watched his sister fling aside the bedclothes and roll out of bed, nightgown fluttering around her tanned calves.
From under the bed she dragged what Valente knew must have been her marriage dress; the fine blue lawn was the best his family could offer but Valerie showed little care of it. Instead, she used a fishwife's knife to cut free the pearls scattered over the collar - her dowry - and dropping them carefully into a leather pouch.
The dream throbbed in and out of focus, Valente clung to it even as it faded away, the last image in his mind was of his sister dressing, a modest braid falling down her back.
"Ah!" He'd thought to sit up but it was more clinging to the edge of his bed while the world tried to tip him off. Groaning, Val rolled onto his side as his stomach began to throb in time with the infernal aching in his head. The scraps of morning light that slipped past the narrow window were like knives in his eyes. Val buried his face in his rough pillow and wished Miklai had killed him. The musty smell of his own bedding made Val scramble for the piss pot, choking back bile. When he was done with it all, Val sat against the wall, lightheaded.
Up in the loft in his own bed, the girls must have dragged him there, he thought dully. All he remembered was the yelling and, his hands tightened on the piss pot, the way Miklai had treated him! Had treated Vali! He was no boy and Vali was no sheep to be given away without even her own brother there to stand for her. He clenched his teeth and the ache in his face made him pant, vision blurring. Miklai had a hard fist - they'd fought enough before for him to know it - and he'd really set Valente's head ringing this time.
When he could stand without puking, Val pulled on his clothes. His dream was bright in his mind, Vali was waiting for him, he knew it. Valente dragged a heavy kit bag from under his narrow bed and packed everything he owned into it. He wasn't going to spend the rest of his life under Miklai's shadow just because he was nedestro - it was no fault of his that their mother was like a cat in heat. There had to be something more than breaking his back dragging nets and coming home to find his sister pawned off to a man she'd hardly even met.
He slung his back over his shoulder then staggered, sweat breaking out on his lip. Val's whole body ached like someone had taken a stick to him while he slept and his stomach still churned like the sea in a storm. Still, Valente grabbed up his oilskins and climbed down the ladder to the main room, clinging carefully to the rungs as his head spun.
"Wat're you doin, Val?" Lelli had the baby on her hip and her sandy hair straggled down her back in a loose braid. It was just like every day and Val's throat tightened. His family, this, even Miklai and he wavered. How could he leave? This was what he knew and they needed him. It was only the silence that moved him along - his sister's voice gone from the house and the yard.
"Work, runt," he said, turning his face away at the lie. "I've work to do, Lelli. Like always."
"Are y'gonna be good with that?" Lelli asked anxiously. "Miklai laid a good one on you, we all saw it, Val. Y'think you two can stop with the fighting all the time? The baby cries."
"Aye," Valente muttered and pulled open the door. "I can stop the fighting. No worries, Lelli."
Cont in: The Road to Thendara
Last edited by Valente Valerie, 10/24/2005, 5:27 pm
---
Valente and Valerie of Fairlyn
|
|
10/24/2005, 5:24 pm
|
Send Email to Valente Valerie
Send PM to Valente Valerie
Blog
|
Add a reply
Powered by AkBBS 0.9.5b - Link to us
- Blogs
- Hall of Honour
- Chat
Click here to get your own free message board
|
You are not logged in (login)
Board's time is: 11/25/2009, 6:38 pm
|
|
|
