Flavor of the Day. Rum Raisin.
AUTHOR: Shrimp
CHALLENGE: Flavor of the Day: analphabetic (unable to read or write; illiterate); Run Raisin 7: rival.
WORD COUNT: 1,708
RATING: PG-13 (talks of bullying)
NOTES: Man, I feel like I haven't posted in forever. This piece takes place in a part of the story which I've pretty much ignored so hopefully that puts a stop it. Reynard, Addison, and Bliss have to take a pause in their search for a way to fix Addison in order for the knights to actually do their job. They wind up meeting two other knights and work together. This is a conversation between Bliss and Reynard about one of the knights.
Bliss entered the room they had rented with the confident ease she had begun doing most things with since she had left Ontiss. No one questioned anything she did and if they did question her she could respond that she was doing whatever she wanted. She had never had that kind of freedom. Even before she had been taken from the Yzgar home she had always had to answer to Warmund and her mother. Years of semi-patience had paid off though. Finally she was her own woman.
“I hate him.” Bliss blinked at Reynard’s rapidly spoken words and shut the door carefully behind her. He was standing in the middle of the small room which led her to believe he had been pacing up until her entrance. His hands were fisted at his sides and his jaw was clenched. She had thought that he seemed tenser than usual since they arrived in the town. She had kept the thought to herself knowing that Reynard had a tendency to lean to the more serious side of things and the air in the town was already quite serious. Shape-shifting beasts and terrible illness would make anyone feel overwrought. Not only were Reynard and Addison tasked with solving the problems for the town folk who were living in fear and disease but two of their own brothers in arms had also responded to the call for help and one of them lay dying of the mysterious illness. Even Addison had seemed on edge to her.
”Who? Jared?” She questioned. She had often heard Reynard curse Addison for any number of his irritating behaviors but never with such barely contained fury. The only other person who had interacted enough with them to warrant any sort of passionate feeling was their friend from the Order. Sir Jared had been working with them to find the beast that had killed so many of the innocent people of the town and mauled Sir Oliver.
”Yes,” he responded as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. Bliss walked over to the bed and sat down. She leaned back so that her feet were off the floor and her back against the wall.
”But Addison says the three of you were best friends.” She tried to remember if Reynard had visibly shared their friend’s excitement over seeing Jared. Reynard was also so straight-faced she supposed she might have just assumed he was hiding his eagerness. Apparently he had been hiding his disappointment.
”Addison is an idiot.” Reynard shook his head and looked like he was about to start pacing again. Instead he sat down next to her. He took a moment to calm himself, his deep breaths pushing the slightest of motion through the mattress. When he was ready he angled himself to be better facing her though his eyes stayed on the door. “Addison was best friends with everyone at the Order. It doesn’t make is so for the rest of us.” Bliss grinned and walked her fingers along his chest.
“Are you jealous?”
“What?” He swatted her hand away and looked at her for a moment. Confusion softened the muscles that had been tight in his face.
”You shouldn’t be. You’re Addison’s real best friend,” she reassured matter-of-factly.
”I am NOT jealous.” He made eye contact briefly enough to show Bliss that he was serious. She frowned a little and pulled her legs up onto the bed. She folded them crosswise beneath her so that her feet were underneath her and her knees poked outwards. Almost out of habit now she placed her hands into her lap so that her skirt didn’t reveal her underclothes.
”Well, then why do you hate him? He seems nice. He’s fun and charming,” she questioned earnestly. Sir Jared was everything that she had ever pictured from hearing stories about knights in her youth. He was handsome and dark and tall, though not as tall as Reynard. He spoke to everyone with the same kind words and musical tone. He knew as many tales about knights and adventures as she did about the Yzgar history. Where Addison seemed boyish Jared seemed mature. Where Reynard seemed stoic Jared seemed ardent.
”Bah, that’s all part of his act.” Reynard waved a hand in the air as if that would rid the room of her compliments. “Besides, you’re a woman. He’s just trying to smile your skirt off.” Something seemed to dawn on him as the words came out of his mouth. He glanced over at Bliss from the corner of his eye. “He hasn’t has he?”
”No. I barely get enough time alone to smile my own skirts off let alone-“
”It’s not my business. I’m sorry I asked,” he apologized loudly in an attempt to talk over her. If he hadn’t been so firm with himself he probably would have stuck his fingers in his ears to avoid hearing what she had to say. The man was seriously sexually repressed. As if she was meant to believe that he never took his pleasure into his own hands on all the nights he had spent alone.
“You know,” she drawled out, “you sound a bit paranoid. Maybe if you gave him a chance…“ She let what she was about to say trail off. The look on Reynard’s face brought her to silence. His eyes were looking at the knee he had raised onto the bed but his gaze was unfocused. The taut lines in his face had relaxed into a simple frown. He seemed small suddenly and she realized that mentally he was far away from her. After a long moment of silence he began to talk.
“When you enter the Order you’re supposed to leave your past behind you. Of course, that only becomes official when you graduate but the moment I entered I was ready to forget where I had come from. But it wasn’t as easy as all that. Everyone else who enrolled that season was a second or third or fourth son of some kind of lord. They all had last names at the very least. The brothers and knights don’t care where you come from. A prince or a farmer is all the same them. The other initiates cared though.” His voice was low as he reminisced. Bliss felt a nervous knot in her stomach form as she spoke but couldn’t pinpoint why.
”They didn’t accept you?” She ventured hoping her question would prompt him forward. Around the campfires and along the roads she and Addison had talked at length about anything and everything from their pasts. She knew of what it had been like to grow up lonely in a castle. He knew how it felt to be nothing more than a trinket for sale and display. Reynard always remained silent on his history, generally joining the conversations only to add credit or tweak details in Addison’s stories of their adventures. Bliss found herself eager to know more about the straight-laced knight. There was more to him than duty and honor and vows she assumed.
“I suppose when you get a group together there always has to be someone to shoulder the bullshit. Or there doesn’t have to be but there always is.” He was louder now, his brow furrowed as he let agitation seep into him. “Jared was the worst and I was an easy target. I couldn’t even read when I entered the Order. They had all learned as children but I had to learn when I got there. Jared thought it was hilarious that I was so behind them, below them, beneath them. He could read books and music and write poems and songs.” He paused for a breath and added, “That’s why his father sent him away anyway. Couldn’t have a bard in the family so they made him join the Order.” He sighed and ran a hand over his hair. He looked tired to Bliss, as if the act of remembering had been exhausting in and of itself. “Maybe it doesn’t matter.” Reynard shrugged and brought a forced smile to his face. “Maybe you’re right and I’m just petty and jealous.”
“Didn’t Addison know what was going on? Or the older knights?”
“Of course not. If I sought out help it would just prove everything they thought about me. I wasn’t cut out to be a knight. My place was with the pigs and dirt and crops. I was just there because Prince Addison had such a good, generous heart. I was his pet.” The last words were spoken on a wavering wisp of inhaled breath. He held the breath and then released slowly and carefully. When he continued it was in the same steady, bitter tinged tone as the rest. “I wouldn’t give them the pleasure of having me acknowledge that they were having an effect on me.”
“But… aren’t you taught to be good and just and honorable in the Order?” Bliss was grasping to understand how anyone could behave this way to Reynard. Reynard who only cared about telling the truth and doing the right thing. Reynard who went of his way and his comfort zone for his friendships. Reynard who had made his dreams reality and inspired seasons of lowborn boys to hope for more than the lives of their fathers. Reynard whose friendship she treasured because it had not come so easily as Addison’s.
“Yes. We studied and lived together for years. Things got better. Mostly they stopped bothering me though I never forged friendships with any of them.” Her question seemed to have called him from his reverie of the past. He sat up straighter and moved his gaze to focus on the door. He smiled bashfully, embarrassed at his outburst. “Maybe it’s time I let it all go. I suppose it’s no good to hold on to grudges from childhood. I must sound a bit silly, huh?” He turned his head to glance at her so they might both share a laugh at his ridiculousness. Before he could Bliss had her arms wrapped around his sides and her face planted firmly against his chest. She hugged him tightly until she felt his own limbs wrapped lightly around her in return.
CHALLENGE: Flavor of the Day: analphabetic (unable to read or write; illiterate); Run Raisin 7: rival.
WORD COUNT: 1,708
RATING: PG-13 (talks of bullying)
NOTES: Man, I feel like I haven't posted in forever. This piece takes place in a part of the story which I've pretty much ignored so hopefully that puts a stop it. Reynard, Addison, and Bliss have to take a pause in their search for a way to fix Addison in order for the knights to actually do their job. They wind up meeting two other knights and work together. This is a conversation between Bliss and Reynard about one of the knights.
Bliss entered the room they had rented with the confident ease she had begun doing most things with since she had left Ontiss. No one questioned anything she did and if they did question her she could respond that she was doing whatever she wanted. She had never had that kind of freedom. Even before she had been taken from the Yzgar home she had always had to answer to Warmund and her mother. Years of semi-patience had paid off though. Finally she was her own woman.
“I hate him.” Bliss blinked at Reynard’s rapidly spoken words and shut the door carefully behind her. He was standing in the middle of the small room which led her to believe he had been pacing up until her entrance. His hands were fisted at his sides and his jaw was clenched. She had thought that he seemed tenser than usual since they arrived in the town. She had kept the thought to herself knowing that Reynard had a tendency to lean to the more serious side of things and the air in the town was already quite serious. Shape-shifting beasts and terrible illness would make anyone feel overwrought. Not only were Reynard and Addison tasked with solving the problems for the town folk who were living in fear and disease but two of their own brothers in arms had also responded to the call for help and one of them lay dying of the mysterious illness. Even Addison had seemed on edge to her.
”Who? Jared?” She questioned. She had often heard Reynard curse Addison for any number of his irritating behaviors but never with such barely contained fury. The only other person who had interacted enough with them to warrant any sort of passionate feeling was their friend from the Order. Sir Jared had been working with them to find the beast that had killed so many of the innocent people of the town and mauled Sir Oliver.
”Yes,” he responded as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. Bliss walked over to the bed and sat down. She leaned back so that her feet were off the floor and her back against the wall.
”But Addison says the three of you were best friends.” She tried to remember if Reynard had visibly shared their friend’s excitement over seeing Jared. Reynard was also so straight-faced she supposed she might have just assumed he was hiding his eagerness. Apparently he had been hiding his disappointment.
”Addison is an idiot.” Reynard shook his head and looked like he was about to start pacing again. Instead he sat down next to her. He took a moment to calm himself, his deep breaths pushing the slightest of motion through the mattress. When he was ready he angled himself to be better facing her though his eyes stayed on the door. “Addison was best friends with everyone at the Order. It doesn’t make is so for the rest of us.” Bliss grinned and walked her fingers along his chest.
“Are you jealous?”
“What?” He swatted her hand away and looked at her for a moment. Confusion softened the muscles that had been tight in his face.
”You shouldn’t be. You’re Addison’s real best friend,” she reassured matter-of-factly.
”I am NOT jealous.” He made eye contact briefly enough to show Bliss that he was serious. She frowned a little and pulled her legs up onto the bed. She folded them crosswise beneath her so that her feet were underneath her and her knees poked outwards. Almost out of habit now she placed her hands into her lap so that her skirt didn’t reveal her underclothes.
”Well, then why do you hate him? He seems nice. He’s fun and charming,” she questioned earnestly. Sir Jared was everything that she had ever pictured from hearing stories about knights in her youth. He was handsome and dark and tall, though not as tall as Reynard. He spoke to everyone with the same kind words and musical tone. He knew as many tales about knights and adventures as she did about the Yzgar history. Where Addison seemed boyish Jared seemed mature. Where Reynard seemed stoic Jared seemed ardent.
”Bah, that’s all part of his act.” Reynard waved a hand in the air as if that would rid the room of her compliments. “Besides, you’re a woman. He’s just trying to smile your skirt off.” Something seemed to dawn on him as the words came out of his mouth. He glanced over at Bliss from the corner of his eye. “He hasn’t has he?”
”No. I barely get enough time alone to smile my own skirts off let alone-“
”It’s not my business. I’m sorry I asked,” he apologized loudly in an attempt to talk over her. If he hadn’t been so firm with himself he probably would have stuck his fingers in his ears to avoid hearing what she had to say. The man was seriously sexually repressed. As if she was meant to believe that he never took his pleasure into his own hands on all the nights he had spent alone.
“You know,” she drawled out, “you sound a bit paranoid. Maybe if you gave him a chance…“ She let what she was about to say trail off. The look on Reynard’s face brought her to silence. His eyes were looking at the knee he had raised onto the bed but his gaze was unfocused. The taut lines in his face had relaxed into a simple frown. He seemed small suddenly and she realized that mentally he was far away from her. After a long moment of silence he began to talk.
“When you enter the Order you’re supposed to leave your past behind you. Of course, that only becomes official when you graduate but the moment I entered I was ready to forget where I had come from. But it wasn’t as easy as all that. Everyone else who enrolled that season was a second or third or fourth son of some kind of lord. They all had last names at the very least. The brothers and knights don’t care where you come from. A prince or a farmer is all the same them. The other initiates cared though.” His voice was low as he reminisced. Bliss felt a nervous knot in her stomach form as she spoke but couldn’t pinpoint why.
”They didn’t accept you?” She ventured hoping her question would prompt him forward. Around the campfires and along the roads she and Addison had talked at length about anything and everything from their pasts. She knew of what it had been like to grow up lonely in a castle. He knew how it felt to be nothing more than a trinket for sale and display. Reynard always remained silent on his history, generally joining the conversations only to add credit or tweak details in Addison’s stories of their adventures. Bliss found herself eager to know more about the straight-laced knight. There was more to him than duty and honor and vows she assumed.
“I suppose when you get a group together there always has to be someone to shoulder the bullshit. Or there doesn’t have to be but there always is.” He was louder now, his brow furrowed as he let agitation seep into him. “Jared was the worst and I was an easy target. I couldn’t even read when I entered the Order. They had all learned as children but I had to learn when I got there. Jared thought it was hilarious that I was so behind them, below them, beneath them. He could read books and music and write poems and songs.” He paused for a breath and added, “That’s why his father sent him away anyway. Couldn’t have a bard in the family so they made him join the Order.” He sighed and ran a hand over his hair. He looked tired to Bliss, as if the act of remembering had been exhausting in and of itself. “Maybe it doesn’t matter.” Reynard shrugged and brought a forced smile to his face. “Maybe you’re right and I’m just petty and jealous.”
“Didn’t Addison know what was going on? Or the older knights?”
“Of course not. If I sought out help it would just prove everything they thought about me. I wasn’t cut out to be a knight. My place was with the pigs and dirt and crops. I was just there because Prince Addison had such a good, generous heart. I was his pet.” The last words were spoken on a wavering wisp of inhaled breath. He held the breath and then released slowly and carefully. When he continued it was in the same steady, bitter tinged tone as the rest. “I wouldn’t give them the pleasure of having me acknowledge that they were having an effect on me.”
“But… aren’t you taught to be good and just and honorable in the Order?” Bliss was grasping to understand how anyone could behave this way to Reynard. Reynard who only cared about telling the truth and doing the right thing. Reynard who went of his way and his comfort zone for his friendships. Reynard who had made his dreams reality and inspired seasons of lowborn boys to hope for more than the lives of their fathers. Reynard whose friendship she treasured because it had not come so easily as Addison’s.
“Yes. We studied and lived together for years. Things got better. Mostly they stopped bothering me though I never forged friendships with any of them.” Her question seemed to have called him from his reverie of the past. He sat up straighter and moved his gaze to focus on the door. He smiled bashfully, embarrassed at his outburst. “Maybe it’s time I let it all go. I suppose it’s no good to hold on to grudges from childhood. I must sound a bit silly, huh?” He turned his head to glance at her so they might both share a laugh at his ridiculousness. Before he could Bliss had her arms wrapped around his sides and her face planted firmly against his chest. She hugged him tightly until she felt his own limbs wrapped lightly around her in return.