Alice Blue #21, Metallic Gold #3
Name: kay_brooke
Story: The Myrrosta
Colors: Alice Blue #21 (today isn't any other day, you know), Metallic Gold #3 (lesson),
Styles/Supplies: Canvas, Seed Beads, Charcoal
Word Count: 1,976
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; no standard warnings apply
Summary: Neeln and his little sister have an unsual encounter.
Notes: I feel a little bad labeling this "Charcoal," but adult!Neeln is a villain in the book, so. Constructive criticism is welcome, either through comments or PM.
"Neeln! Neeln, don't let go!"
Neeln smiled and patted his little sister on the back, taking care not to loosen his grip on her. He leaned against the little russet pony she was sitting on. "Don't worry," he said. "I won't let you go." He reached around the rubbed the placid pony's nose. "Besides, Rose here won't let you fall. Will you, Rose?"
Lena bit her lip and adjusted her grip on the saddle's pommel. "Don't let go," she said again.
"I won't. Are you ready?"
She looked scared, but she nodded.
Neeln took the lead and started carefully leading the pony around in small circles in the clearing. The two suns were high in the sky and beating fiercely down on them, though it was nearly autumn. The climate was hotter here in southern Okkand, where Neeln had spent the summer with his aunt and uncle. His mother wanted him to get into the pony trade, just like her brother had done.
"Bring some wealth and respect to our name, son," she always told him, very carefully never mentioning his father.
Neeln's father wasn't absent, and his mother had never tried to leave him, but even as a young boy Neeln could see how much his mother resented his father, who was an unsuccessful merchant.
"Never become a merchant," his mother always told Neeln.
Neeln wasn't interested in becoming a merchant. Trouble was, Neeln wasn't interested in becoming much of anything. Fifteen years old, and he had no idea what he wanted to do to make his living. So his mother, despairing that he would wind up a laze-about even more pitiable than his own father, had sent him to his uncle to learn the horse and pony trading business.
He didn't like it. He had never spent much time around horses, because there were few people in his small village who could afford one, and even less use for them in the middle of the forest. They had merchants come through sometimes with their horses and carts, but Neeln's mother had always made him stay away from them. She didn't like merchants, and she didn't at all trust traveling ones.
"Always out to make money," she had told him once. "And if they can't sell you something useless, they'll steal the coin right off you! Then off they disappear, never to come back. Happened to my friend Shar, it did."
Neeln knew what had happened to Shar. That traveling merchant had stolen more than just her coin, but Neeln's mother always thought he was aware of much less than he really was. That was why he had stopped listening to her by the time he was seven. His mother told him what she wanted him to hear in order to keep him out of trouble, not the real truth.
The real truth, he had learned, he had to find out for himself.
And the truth was that he didn't like horses. He didn't like mucking out their stalls, he didn't like grooming them, he didn't like feeding them. He had at least learned enough about saddles and leads to no longer be completely baffled by the numerous hooks and clasps and other parts that were easily tangled. But horses were big, and they scared him a little even if he would never admit it. One wayward kick and he could be killed. One bucking while he was in the saddle and he could fall and break his head open. Neeln was like most teenage boys in that he didn't worry much about his own mortality, but horses reminded him of it in uncomfortable ways.
Ponies, though, were a different story. Ponies were smaller, more docile, not as frightening. And he had become especially fond of Rose, who was old and one of the few animals on the land who outright belonged to his aunt and uncle. So when his family had unexpectedly come to visit and Lena had demanded to see the horses, Neeln had taken her straight to Rose. That was the only animal he would trust anywhere near his beloved little sister.
Lena laughed as Neeln led the pony around another turn in the clearing. He saw that she was no longer holding on to the pommel with a death grip. He smiled at her. "I'm going to let go, all right?" he asked. "We'll just keep walking real slow, and I'll still be right here. Hold tight to that pommel."
She nodded, and Neeln eased his hand off her back. She leaned over slightly, grasping the pommel, and Neeln gently corrected her stance. "Sit up straight. Like you're a queen leading her retinue."
Lena smiled at that and sat up as straight as she could. "Not a retinue. I'm leading a parade!"
"Oh?" he said. "What's the parade for?"
"We just won a great battle."
Neeln nodded.
"Everyone's come out to see us," Lena continued. She started giving silly waves toward the tree line. "She's saved the whole land, the queen--" She broke off suddenly.
Neeln turned to look at her, a little concerned, and saw that she was staring into the tree line, her eyes wide. Neeln followed her gaze until he could see what she was looking at.
A pair of salkiy children stood right inside the tree line, but in plain view of the two children in the clearing. Neeln couldn't tell whether they were boys or girls. It was hard to tell in young salkiys.
There were salkiys all over Okkand, in the north and the south, but Neeln had seen very few of them while he was living with his parents. In the north salkiys kept to themselves, and they were good at hiding so that humans would never find them, not even if they were standing only a few handspans away. Sometimes he saw them at the market, trading fish and berries for human goods, but he had never spoken to one.
In the south it was different. Still secretive, still difficult to find, the salkiys here were nonetheless more open and friendly with their human neighbors. Salkiys had little reason to come around a horse and pony trading business since they didn't bother with either, but Neeln had seen many of them in the nearby village, trading and talking animatedly with the merchants and the other human villagers. Many of the villagers and the salkiys knew each other by name. He had even seen, for the first time ever, young salkiys, children clutching their mothers' hands and babies nestled in slings around the adult's back.
This was the first time he had seen salkiy children by themselves, and so close to his uncle's land.
"Are those salkiys?" Lena asked quietly.
"Yes," said Neeln. The two salkiys were staring back at them, and there was no way they could have thought they couldn't be seen, but neither group moved.
"Are they children?" Lena continued, and Neeln realized that, like him when he had first come here, she had probably never seen salkiy children before.
"They are," he confirmed.
"Do you know them?"
"No," said Neeln. He had still never talked to a salkiy, despite seeing them everywhere in the village. He didn't have business with any of them, and he wasn't sure what he would even say to a salkiy. So he mostly kept his head down and went about his business.
"Maybe we should go," he told Lena. He wasn't scared of a pair of children, salkiy or not, and this was his uncle's land, but he didn't want to make trouble. The salkiys probably didn't even understand they were on private property, and it was better just to let them through instead of trying to stop or question them.
He started to help Lena slide off the pony, but then the two salkiys stepped forward.
"Is it a horse?" asked the taller one His (Neeln decided to think of them both as boys, though he still wasn't sure if that was right or not) accent was thick in the way Neeln had heard the salkiys in the village speak it, but his words were perfectly understandable.
"No," said Neeln. "It's a pony. Her name is Rose."
The salkiy children looked at each other. "Pony?" repeated the taller one.
"It's like a horse," said Neeln. "Not as big."
"I think it is a baby horse," said the shorter salkiy, shyly. His voice was high-pitched enough that Neeln thought it might actually be a girl.
"Baby horses," said Neeln, "have long, spindly legs. But Rose here has short, stumpy legs, see?" He patted Rose's thigh. "She's all grown up, but just a pony."
The two salkiy children cocked their heads and regarded the pony for a moment. "You ride ponies?" asked the taller one.
"If you're not too big," said Neeln. "They're good for children."
The two salkiys looked at each other again. They seemed to want to say something, but neither one opened their mouths.
"I think they want to ride," Lena whispered. "You should let them."
Neeln shook his head. "I don't know."
"Just like you did for me," she insisted.
Neeln sighed. He didn't know if his uncle would like it if he let a pair of salkiys ride one of his ponies. But Rose was old and docile, and had not been raised to be traded. She was more just a family pet. So there was no business reason why he shouldn't let the salkiys ride.
Besides, his uncle didn't have to know.
"Do you want to ride?" he called to the salkiys.
The shorter one's face lit up, but the taller one looked wary. "My brother wants, but I do not know."
So the shorter one was a boy. "It's all right," he told the taller one. "He can ride. I'll keep him safe."
The shorter one, off his brother's look, took a cautious step forward. Before he could get near the pony, however, Neeln heard his uncle's deep, booming voice echo through the clearing. He snapped his head around; he couldn't see his uncle, but from the man's voice he was moving toward them down the path that led from the stables.
"Neeln! Lena! Your mother's asking for you!" A few moments later he entered the small clearing and spotted them. "Stop playing around on that pony and come back to the house," he told them. "Dinner's ready soon and your mother wants to ask you something, Neeln."
Neeln and Lena looked at each other. Neeln nodded. "Just finishing here."
"Did you enjoy your ride?" Neeln's uncle asked Lena.
She nodded vigorously. "Oh, yes. I love Rose, she's so lovely and sweet."
Neeln's uncle smiled and patted the pony fondly. "She is. Known that since the day she was born. Better even than her mother, who was the politest pony you ever did lay eyes on."
"Can I come out here again?" asked Lena.
"I suppose you can, if your brother wants it."
Off his uncle's look, Neeln just nodded. He was a little preoccupied with thoughts about what his mother might want. He thought he knew already: she was probably going to ask him if he wanted to stay even past the summer, if he wanted to become a formal apprentice to his uncle. Neeln knew the correct answer, the one she wanted to hear, was "yes." He just wasn't sure if that was what he wanted to answer.
His uncle started leading both Rose and Lena back up the path to the stables. Neeln followed, only remembering at the last moment about the salkiys. He turned to look at the tree line where they had stood, but the small gap between two trees was empty. He shrugged and jogged to catch up with his sister and uncle.
Story: The Myrrosta
Colors: Alice Blue #21 (today isn't any other day, you know), Metallic Gold #3 (lesson),
Styles/Supplies: Canvas, Seed Beads, Charcoal
Word Count: 1,976
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; no standard warnings apply
Summary: Neeln and his little sister have an unsual encounter.
Notes: I feel a little bad labeling this "Charcoal," but adult!Neeln is a villain in the book, so. Constructive criticism is welcome, either through comments or PM.
"Neeln! Neeln, don't let go!"
Neeln smiled and patted his little sister on the back, taking care not to loosen his grip on her. He leaned against the little russet pony she was sitting on. "Don't worry," he said. "I won't let you go." He reached around the rubbed the placid pony's nose. "Besides, Rose here won't let you fall. Will you, Rose?"
Lena bit her lip and adjusted her grip on the saddle's pommel. "Don't let go," she said again.
"I won't. Are you ready?"
She looked scared, but she nodded.
Neeln took the lead and started carefully leading the pony around in small circles in the clearing. The two suns were high in the sky and beating fiercely down on them, though it was nearly autumn. The climate was hotter here in southern Okkand, where Neeln had spent the summer with his aunt and uncle. His mother wanted him to get into the pony trade, just like her brother had done.
"Bring some wealth and respect to our name, son," she always told him, very carefully never mentioning his father.
Neeln's father wasn't absent, and his mother had never tried to leave him, but even as a young boy Neeln could see how much his mother resented his father, who was an unsuccessful merchant.
"Never become a merchant," his mother always told Neeln.
Neeln wasn't interested in becoming a merchant. Trouble was, Neeln wasn't interested in becoming much of anything. Fifteen years old, and he had no idea what he wanted to do to make his living. So his mother, despairing that he would wind up a laze-about even more pitiable than his own father, had sent him to his uncle to learn the horse and pony trading business.
He didn't like it. He had never spent much time around horses, because there were few people in his small village who could afford one, and even less use for them in the middle of the forest. They had merchants come through sometimes with their horses and carts, but Neeln's mother had always made him stay away from them. She didn't like merchants, and she didn't at all trust traveling ones.
"Always out to make money," she had told him once. "And if they can't sell you something useless, they'll steal the coin right off you! Then off they disappear, never to come back. Happened to my friend Shar, it did."
Neeln knew what had happened to Shar. That traveling merchant had stolen more than just her coin, but Neeln's mother always thought he was aware of much less than he really was. That was why he had stopped listening to her by the time he was seven. His mother told him what she wanted him to hear in order to keep him out of trouble, not the real truth.
The real truth, he had learned, he had to find out for himself.
And the truth was that he didn't like horses. He didn't like mucking out their stalls, he didn't like grooming them, he didn't like feeding them. He had at least learned enough about saddles and leads to no longer be completely baffled by the numerous hooks and clasps and other parts that were easily tangled. But horses were big, and they scared him a little even if he would never admit it. One wayward kick and he could be killed. One bucking while he was in the saddle and he could fall and break his head open. Neeln was like most teenage boys in that he didn't worry much about his own mortality, but horses reminded him of it in uncomfortable ways.
Ponies, though, were a different story. Ponies were smaller, more docile, not as frightening. And he had become especially fond of Rose, who was old and one of the few animals on the land who outright belonged to his aunt and uncle. So when his family had unexpectedly come to visit and Lena had demanded to see the horses, Neeln had taken her straight to Rose. That was the only animal he would trust anywhere near his beloved little sister.
Lena laughed as Neeln led the pony around another turn in the clearing. He saw that she was no longer holding on to the pommel with a death grip. He smiled at her. "I'm going to let go, all right?" he asked. "We'll just keep walking real slow, and I'll still be right here. Hold tight to that pommel."
She nodded, and Neeln eased his hand off her back. She leaned over slightly, grasping the pommel, and Neeln gently corrected her stance. "Sit up straight. Like you're a queen leading her retinue."
Lena smiled at that and sat up as straight as she could. "Not a retinue. I'm leading a parade!"
"Oh?" he said. "What's the parade for?"
"We just won a great battle."
Neeln nodded.
"Everyone's come out to see us," Lena continued. She started giving silly waves toward the tree line. "She's saved the whole land, the queen--" She broke off suddenly.
Neeln turned to look at her, a little concerned, and saw that she was staring into the tree line, her eyes wide. Neeln followed her gaze until he could see what she was looking at.
A pair of salkiy children stood right inside the tree line, but in plain view of the two children in the clearing. Neeln couldn't tell whether they were boys or girls. It was hard to tell in young salkiys.
There were salkiys all over Okkand, in the north and the south, but Neeln had seen very few of them while he was living with his parents. In the north salkiys kept to themselves, and they were good at hiding so that humans would never find them, not even if they were standing only a few handspans away. Sometimes he saw them at the market, trading fish and berries for human goods, but he had never spoken to one.
In the south it was different. Still secretive, still difficult to find, the salkiys here were nonetheless more open and friendly with their human neighbors. Salkiys had little reason to come around a horse and pony trading business since they didn't bother with either, but Neeln had seen many of them in the nearby village, trading and talking animatedly with the merchants and the other human villagers. Many of the villagers and the salkiys knew each other by name. He had even seen, for the first time ever, young salkiys, children clutching their mothers' hands and babies nestled in slings around the adult's back.
This was the first time he had seen salkiy children by themselves, and so close to his uncle's land.
"Are those salkiys?" Lena asked quietly.
"Yes," said Neeln. The two salkiys were staring back at them, and there was no way they could have thought they couldn't be seen, but neither group moved.
"Are they children?" Lena continued, and Neeln realized that, like him when he had first come here, she had probably never seen salkiy children before.
"They are," he confirmed.
"Do you know them?"
"No," said Neeln. He had still never talked to a salkiy, despite seeing them everywhere in the village. He didn't have business with any of them, and he wasn't sure what he would even say to a salkiy. So he mostly kept his head down and went about his business.
"Maybe we should go," he told Lena. He wasn't scared of a pair of children, salkiy or not, and this was his uncle's land, but he didn't want to make trouble. The salkiys probably didn't even understand they were on private property, and it was better just to let them through instead of trying to stop or question them.
He started to help Lena slide off the pony, but then the two salkiys stepped forward.
"Is it a horse?" asked the taller one His (Neeln decided to think of them both as boys, though he still wasn't sure if that was right or not) accent was thick in the way Neeln had heard the salkiys in the village speak it, but his words were perfectly understandable.
"No," said Neeln. "It's a pony. Her name is Rose."
The salkiy children looked at each other. "Pony?" repeated the taller one.
"It's like a horse," said Neeln. "Not as big."
"I think it is a baby horse," said the shorter salkiy, shyly. His voice was high-pitched enough that Neeln thought it might actually be a girl.
"Baby horses," said Neeln, "have long, spindly legs. But Rose here has short, stumpy legs, see?" He patted Rose's thigh. "She's all grown up, but just a pony."
The two salkiy children cocked their heads and regarded the pony for a moment. "You ride ponies?" asked the taller one.
"If you're not too big," said Neeln. "They're good for children."
The two salkiys looked at each other again. They seemed to want to say something, but neither one opened their mouths.
"I think they want to ride," Lena whispered. "You should let them."
Neeln shook his head. "I don't know."
"Just like you did for me," she insisted.
Neeln sighed. He didn't know if his uncle would like it if he let a pair of salkiys ride one of his ponies. But Rose was old and docile, and had not been raised to be traded. She was more just a family pet. So there was no business reason why he shouldn't let the salkiys ride.
Besides, his uncle didn't have to know.
"Do you want to ride?" he called to the salkiys.
The shorter one's face lit up, but the taller one looked wary. "My brother wants, but I do not know."
So the shorter one was a boy. "It's all right," he told the taller one. "He can ride. I'll keep him safe."
The shorter one, off his brother's look, took a cautious step forward. Before he could get near the pony, however, Neeln heard his uncle's deep, booming voice echo through the clearing. He snapped his head around; he couldn't see his uncle, but from the man's voice he was moving toward them down the path that led from the stables.
"Neeln! Lena! Your mother's asking for you!" A few moments later he entered the small clearing and spotted them. "Stop playing around on that pony and come back to the house," he told them. "Dinner's ready soon and your mother wants to ask you something, Neeln."
Neeln and Lena looked at each other. Neeln nodded. "Just finishing here."
"Did you enjoy your ride?" Neeln's uncle asked Lena.
She nodded vigorously. "Oh, yes. I love Rose, she's so lovely and sweet."
Neeln's uncle smiled and patted the pony fondly. "She is. Known that since the day she was born. Better even than her mother, who was the politest pony you ever did lay eyes on."
"Can I come out here again?" asked Lena.
"I suppose you can, if your brother wants it."
Off his uncle's look, Neeln just nodded. He was a little preoccupied with thoughts about what his mother might want. He thought he knew already: she was probably going to ask him if he wanted to stay even past the summer, if he wanted to become a formal apprentice to his uncle. Neeln knew the correct answer, the one she wanted to hear, was "yes." He just wasn't sure if that was what he wanted to answer.
His uncle started leading both Rose and Lena back up the path to the stables. Neeln followed, only remembering at the last moment about the salkiys. He turned to look at the tree line where they had stood, but the small gap between two trees was empty. He shrugged and jogged to catch up with his sister and uncle.