[OOM] Bower Lake.
For days, it seems as if Sparrow is barely inches from death. He sleeps always, never moves, barely breathes. He’s icy to the touch, and nothing will warm him up. His heart barely beats.
Theresa watches over him, mends the bullet wound, sets his many, many broken bones, and keeps him as warm as she can. The dog sits by her, maintaining a constant vigil, and is always there even when Theresa must leave to find wood for the fire, or food.
On one of her trips out, she sees a tall, blue robed figure with a scythe, watching her intently. He strides off into the snow, and she doesn’t follow. She knows she’ll never see him again.
Eventually, Sparrow awakens, and sees the dog first. Theresa explains what happens. He accepts it silently.
His cheeks had been wet from fresh tears, when she found him, but in the ten years that he stays at the Gypsy Camp, he never cries. When Theresa tells him that his sister didn’t survive, he doesn’t cry.
When he finds he can’t walk, he doesn’t cry, and when a sickness strikes and threatens to take his life, he suffers through it without even wet eyes. When, after a year, he takes his first steps, there aren’t any tears of joy, and when he steps out into the sunlight for the first time since his last day in Bowerstone, he barely smiles.
Over time, he changes. Grief makes him determined, and determination makes him strong, and as people pass through the camp, he learns from them.
From the mercenaries, he learns how to wield a sword, from the retired sailors he learns how to shoot a gun, from the thieves he learns how to sneak. The gypsies teach him how to survive when times are hard, and the traders teach him how to charm a man into giving up the shirt on his back.
Theresa teaches him how to look where other people cannot, how to find the answers to any question he might ask, and the first question he asks is ’where is Lord Lucien Fairfax?’
By the time he’s nineteen, he’s tall, hardy, strong and fast, hawk-featured, dark-haired and with a bright, charming smile. He keeps a gun at his side and a sword on his back, and he knows how to use both.
Theresa sees him staring at Castle Fairfax every day, and she knows what he’s thinking.
Three weeks after his nineteenth birthday, she decides he’s ready.
Theresa watches over him, mends the bullet wound, sets his many, many broken bones, and keeps him as warm as she can. The dog sits by her, maintaining a constant vigil, and is always there even when Theresa must leave to find wood for the fire, or food.
On one of her trips out, she sees a tall, blue robed figure with a scythe, watching her intently. He strides off into the snow, and she doesn’t follow. She knows she’ll never see him again.
Eventually, Sparrow awakens, and sees the dog first. Theresa explains what happens. He accepts it silently.
His cheeks had been wet from fresh tears, when she found him, but in the ten years that he stays at the Gypsy Camp, he never cries. When Theresa tells him that his sister didn’t survive, he doesn’t cry.
When he finds he can’t walk, he doesn’t cry, and when a sickness strikes and threatens to take his life, he suffers through it without even wet eyes. When, after a year, he takes his first steps, there aren’t any tears of joy, and when he steps out into the sunlight for the first time since his last day in Bowerstone, he barely smiles.
Over time, he changes. Grief makes him determined, and determination makes him strong, and as people pass through the camp, he learns from them.
From the mercenaries, he learns how to wield a sword, from the retired sailors he learns how to shoot a gun, from the thieves he learns how to sneak. The gypsies teach him how to survive when times are hard, and the traders teach him how to charm a man into giving up the shirt on his back.
Theresa teaches him how to look where other people cannot, how to find the answers to any question he might ask, and the first question he asks is ’where is Lord Lucien Fairfax?’
By the time he’s nineteen, he’s tall, hardy, strong and fast, hawk-featured, dark-haired and with a bright, charming smile. He keeps a gun at his side and a sword on his back, and he knows how to use both.
Theresa sees him staring at Castle Fairfax every day, and she knows what he’s thinking.
Three weeks after his nineteenth birthday, she decides he’s ready.