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thulcandranSo I was literally in the act of clicking the login button to post this when the power went out for good, the night before last. The morning revealed a telephone pole, cracked about four-six feet from its top, leaning at about a fifteen-twenty degree angle, and the afternoon revealed a tree that had split off entirely at the base, and taken down an entire net of power lines, a block farther south. Describing this to friends prompted "Oh God are you okay!" sort of reactions, but honestly at this point I'm under-awed by this kind of weather. This is the third such storm in two years, and at this point, it's just sort of "...really, another hurricane? Fine." I'm glad power's back on, though. Eating in the dark is more tiresome than you might think.
Now, without further ado, and given the quite unnecessary drama, the thing.
It's my job to tend the spiders. That sounds worse than it is, probably. The kids from the village probably would think so, but they don't know their arses from their elbows. I've been here in the keep for years, now, I don't know. Maybe ten? I remember when the land was at war, vaguely, usually when I'm waking up. I remember the village as a dim haze through smoke, and then nothing. I only saw it for the first time last year, other than that. The keep is my home.
I know more than they think, though. I know the keep wasn't always my home, I know I used to be in the village. I never knew my parents, but I think they must have been villagers. But when I was very small, too small to remember really, Hanna took me in, and I've lived here ever since. The village kids have said enough just out of earshot for me to know that this - well, that, and the generals. This village used to be under someone else, and the keep, too. There was a seige, some time, a long time ago I think, and now Lord Darvhill rules it. I don't know if he is a better ruler or not, but I think he must be, because the guards are always patrolling, and there isn't fighting anymore, not like there was so many years ago.
Hanna works for Lord Darvhill, she makes things run smooth and keeps the mold out of the castle and when the weather is bad, she keeps things from going worse. Last year, there was a lot of rain and it flooded and the villagers had to come into the keep. The guards weren't happy about it, but they couldn't do anything. They kept saying things went missing afterwards, that's when I got to see the village, we all went in to see about the headman and people getting settled in. The kids from the village said that Lord Darvhill was a vile hillman and his guards were petty mercenaries, and I got in a fight with some of them. Hanna was upset.
But things are mostly good. I tend the spiders, and collect the silk they spin, and Hanna uses it in her potions when she makes them. Someday I'll know how to do everything she does, she said. Lord Darvhill says he doesn't know what he would do if anything happened to her, but she said someday I have to take on her work so everything keeps going and the village stays okay. I don't know why the village wouldn't be okay.
Jared told me that Hanna kept the village from burning down when Lord Darvhill put the keep to seige, and that's why the villagers don't like her or me, because she was in his camp. I don't know why keeping the village from burning was a bad thing. If the villagers had burned down rather than let Lord Darvhill take the town and the keep, they wouldn't be around now to trade their wool and crops. Jared is the captain of the guard, and sometimes Hanna makes me go into the forest to get berries while she makes something for his neck that he hurt in the seige. I saw the scar once, it's down between his shoulders.
Once I walked into Hanna's room while she was helping his neck, and she was rubbing it between his shoulders, but I left before I saw anything else. She doesn't want me to see her with Jared, I think she thinks I will tell people. I don't know who I would tell, besides the guards, and they already know, I heard Korren telling him that he should have found a prettier witch in the village, and then Korren was cleaning the latrines for a week.
I know I'm supposed to take over for Hanna someday. But I think that when I am old enough, I'm going to go out the wall with Korren's son and we're going to the city to join the Emperor's couriers. They always need more people. It's dangerous, but it's better than staying here forever. We're going to see the rest of Fiel and then the whole world.
-Fin-
I shall note here that this piece, born merely of the first sentence, which just sort of popped into my head, ties both into the story I've been working on for the past few months, and the novel I plan to do starting at midnight tonight. During NaNo, to avoid trying to post anything coherent of the story here, I'll be breaking the short story into pieces and posting those in something resembling chronological order. Perhaps one a week, perhaps more. Iunno. Anyway, good day and good luck to you all.
Now, without further ado, and given the quite unnecessary drama, the thing.
It's my job to tend the spiders. That sounds worse than it is, probably. The kids from the village probably would think so, but they don't know their arses from their elbows. I've been here in the keep for years, now, I don't know. Maybe ten? I remember when the land was at war, vaguely, usually when I'm waking up. I remember the village as a dim haze through smoke, and then nothing. I only saw it for the first time last year, other than that. The keep is my home.
I know more than they think, though. I know the keep wasn't always my home, I know I used to be in the village. I never knew my parents, but I think they must have been villagers. But when I was very small, too small to remember really, Hanna took me in, and I've lived here ever since. The village kids have said enough just out of earshot for me to know that this - well, that, and the generals. This village used to be under someone else, and the keep, too. There was a seige, some time, a long time ago I think, and now Lord Darvhill rules it. I don't know if he is a better ruler or not, but I think he must be, because the guards are always patrolling, and there isn't fighting anymore, not like there was so many years ago.
Hanna works for Lord Darvhill, she makes things run smooth and keeps the mold out of the castle and when the weather is bad, she keeps things from going worse. Last year, there was a lot of rain and it flooded and the villagers had to come into the keep. The guards weren't happy about it, but they couldn't do anything. They kept saying things went missing afterwards, that's when I got to see the village, we all went in to see about the headman and people getting settled in. The kids from the village said that Lord Darvhill was a vile hillman and his guards were petty mercenaries, and I got in a fight with some of them. Hanna was upset.
But things are mostly good. I tend the spiders, and collect the silk they spin, and Hanna uses it in her potions when she makes them. Someday I'll know how to do everything she does, she said. Lord Darvhill says he doesn't know what he would do if anything happened to her, but she said someday I have to take on her work so everything keeps going and the village stays okay. I don't know why the village wouldn't be okay.
Jared told me that Hanna kept the village from burning down when Lord Darvhill put the keep to seige, and that's why the villagers don't like her or me, because she was in his camp. I don't know why keeping the village from burning was a bad thing. If the villagers had burned down rather than let Lord Darvhill take the town and the keep, they wouldn't be around now to trade their wool and crops. Jared is the captain of the guard, and sometimes Hanna makes me go into the forest to get berries while she makes something for his neck that he hurt in the seige. I saw the scar once, it's down between his shoulders.
Once I walked into Hanna's room while she was helping his neck, and she was rubbing it between his shoulders, but I left before I saw anything else. She doesn't want me to see her with Jared, I think she thinks I will tell people. I don't know who I would tell, besides the guards, and they already know, I heard Korren telling him that he should have found a prettier witch in the village, and then Korren was cleaning the latrines for a week.
I know I'm supposed to take over for Hanna someday. But I think that when I am old enough, I'm going to go out the wall with Korren's son and we're going to the city to join the Emperor's couriers. They always need more people. It's dangerous, but it's better than staying here forever. We're going to see the rest of Fiel and then the whole world.
-Fin-
I shall note here that this piece, born merely of the first sentence, which just sort of popped into my head, ties both into the story I've been working on for the past few months, and the novel I plan to do starting at midnight tonight. During NaNo, to avoid trying to post anything coherent of the story here, I'll be breaking the short story into pieces and posting those in something resembling chronological order. Perhaps one a week, perhaps more. Iunno. Anyway, good day and good luck to you all.