Post by Tallaith on Nov 2, 2009 12:03:17 GMT -5
This post is meant to move my RP with Cay, who's going to be a mommy soon, and Leasung along. For those of you who don't know Lea well, this is a bit of a spoiler. Try to keep that in mind as you read and later RP with her.
Brendur, lemme know if I modded with Syfe and I'd be happy to go back and edit.
Her eyelashes felt as if they were gilded, so heavy she could barely keep her eyes slitted open in the musty and dim corner of the tiny room.
Syfe and Ceallian spoke softly at the bed, the bizzare blind healer perched on the edge of the rope frame and Leasung's cousin reclining, clumsily swaddled in piles of quilts and layers of furs, on the straw mattress like an empress lazing on the finest silk and satin couch.
Leasung swallowed another deep yawn. These visits, and all the visits of the healers, seemed to drag out so long and occur so frequently the young girl's private opinion was that the Captain should hire a half dozen of them to live in the room along with Ceallian and save everyone traveling time in the late autumn weather. The mother-to-be glowed with robust happiness. Her troubles only very rarely darkened her brilliant cheer and sometimes overwhelmed her steely stomach and made it hard for her to keep a good meal down. With a few small exceptions, she was the very model of a young lass expecting her first large and very energetic son within a few weeks.
Finally, the unnerving healer found her staff and tapped down the stairs and out of the room, without seeming to notice Leasung at all. Perhaps she knew the girl was almost always present for her visits with Ceallian; perhaps she also knew about Leasung's rather young relationship with Brendur, Syfe's brother. In any case, Syfe had never acknowledged Leasung's presence and Cay never commented on it either.
Leasung stretched luxuriously, arching her arms as far as she could in a graceful frame above her head. She smiled to Ceallian, who was already sipping something Syfe had left behind from a wooden flask. "Are you sure that is really good medicine for you, cousin?"
Cay laughed gently, patting the massive mound of her belly beneath all the bedding. Leasung had a hard time believing all that bulk would turn out to be a tiny baby. She figured her cousin had just let herself get very fat. "Of course. If Lady Holst says as much, I drink it. My son likes it too. He gives my insides a rest and lets me sleep too after I have had some of her tonics!"
Leasung's smirk melted after only a heartbeat into a warm, girlish smile. Ceallian never questioned the gender of her baby; Leasung thought she was an idiot to place so much hope in one small person without ever laying eyes on it. Most likely, the baby would die, like nearly half of all infants she had ever seen birthed, within a few months. It was foolish to make such a fuss about so fragile a gift.
"Do you know what is in that?"
Ceallian shook her head as she obediently finished off the liquid in the flask. "Tastes like honey, and something like earth smells when it has just been turned. It lets me rest, that is all I know!"
Leasung rolled her eyes as she turned her back on the bed to take her cloak from the hook on the opposite wall. "With how much that baby moves, how do you know she is not just drugging it, to get you some sleep? That can kill a child, you know."
Ceallian made no reply, but Leasung felt something in the very nature of the air in the room change. Her skin prickled into goosebumps. She could see each silken hair on her arms stand to rigid attention as she broke out into a slimy, chilled sweat. The air was suddenly heavy, perhaps one minute fraction hotter. It was hard to breathe.
"No. This is no poison, or drug. How can you question someone like Syfe?" Ceallian's voice was smooth and melodious, as always. But Leasung could literally feel her anger. "Where are you going?"
"I have to see the man I am hiring a horse from to make the last installment on his payment. For my trip to Esteldin. Remember? As soon as you have that baby in your arms, Grandmother commanded me to go there and see my brother, your cousin. He has been in service for years. I have not seen him since I was a little lass and he leads his men through that camp for a fortnight." She kept her back turned as she fastened her cloak, intentionally hiding her expression in case Ceallian finally opened her eyes enough to see the plain lie before her. It would be Leasung's luck, aye, to finally see the price of her freedom laid within her grasp before her, only to have her reaching hand slapped back by this idiot lass and her friends.
Ceallian pulled her bedclothes nearly to her chin. "Of course I remember. I was hoping you could delay it a little while after the baby is here, so we could learn to tend to him together. I will have to teach you all of that, I suppose, so you can be a good nurse when you get back. I hope the house is enough, and the pay!"
Leasung bit some color into her lips before she turned back to her cousin with a sunny, simpleton smile. "The house will be more than enough. I cannot imagine such a treasure! And I would tend the child for nothing, Lady, but a lass as poor as myself cannot marry without some kind of dowry! Any salary will be welcome." Every word that fell from her cold lips was mirrored inside with a protest twenty times the strength of what she said aloud; her soul roiled at the stupidity of the part she played before all these people. "I should go now. I will be back before dark with some supper. Aye?"
Ceallian nodded, the medicine of the blind healer already lulling her into sleep. It was during one of these drugged naps that Leasung managed to hide three heavy chests beneath the rope bed, and during another that she was able to drag them away again. There was something to be said for the benefits of medicine.
Two weeks. Perhaps less. The child could come at any time. He was large, obviously, and fought with Ceallian's insides as if he would punch his way out of her at any moment. Leasung felt a tiny pang of pity for the older girl as she found her way onto the foggy, icy streets of Bree-Town. She would be a new mother and alone when she discovered the betrayal that was forthcoming.
At least she would have some comfort in the new baby in her arms. Leasung shook her head as she skipped over the misty cobbles; odds were, the baby, the mother, or both had half a chance to die in birth. Life was so incredibly breakable. Why would any smart lass risk her own to produce another?
She dimissed these thoughts as she turned up a wide swath cut between rows of tottering houses. Her hand found the letter in her pocket. Without pausing, turning her gaze from the toes of her cheap shoes, or missing an inch of her stride, she slid the parchment into the post box on the stoop of one of the crumbling tenements. He would reply within the day.
Leasung smiled in anticipation. Freedom may not come at such a dear price as most folks said.
Brendur, lemme know if I modded with Syfe and I'd be happy to go back and edit.
Her eyelashes felt as if they were gilded, so heavy she could barely keep her eyes slitted open in the musty and dim corner of the tiny room.
Syfe and Ceallian spoke softly at the bed, the bizzare blind healer perched on the edge of the rope frame and Leasung's cousin reclining, clumsily swaddled in piles of quilts and layers of furs, on the straw mattress like an empress lazing on the finest silk and satin couch.
Leasung swallowed another deep yawn. These visits, and all the visits of the healers, seemed to drag out so long and occur so frequently the young girl's private opinion was that the Captain should hire a half dozen of them to live in the room along with Ceallian and save everyone traveling time in the late autumn weather. The mother-to-be glowed with robust happiness. Her troubles only very rarely darkened her brilliant cheer and sometimes overwhelmed her steely stomach and made it hard for her to keep a good meal down. With a few small exceptions, she was the very model of a young lass expecting her first large and very energetic son within a few weeks.
Finally, the unnerving healer found her staff and tapped down the stairs and out of the room, without seeming to notice Leasung at all. Perhaps she knew the girl was almost always present for her visits with Ceallian; perhaps she also knew about Leasung's rather young relationship with Brendur, Syfe's brother. In any case, Syfe had never acknowledged Leasung's presence and Cay never commented on it either.
Leasung stretched luxuriously, arching her arms as far as she could in a graceful frame above her head. She smiled to Ceallian, who was already sipping something Syfe had left behind from a wooden flask. "Are you sure that is really good medicine for you, cousin?"
Cay laughed gently, patting the massive mound of her belly beneath all the bedding. Leasung had a hard time believing all that bulk would turn out to be a tiny baby. She figured her cousin had just let herself get very fat. "Of course. If Lady Holst says as much, I drink it. My son likes it too. He gives my insides a rest and lets me sleep too after I have had some of her tonics!"
Leasung's smirk melted after only a heartbeat into a warm, girlish smile. Ceallian never questioned the gender of her baby; Leasung thought she was an idiot to place so much hope in one small person without ever laying eyes on it. Most likely, the baby would die, like nearly half of all infants she had ever seen birthed, within a few months. It was foolish to make such a fuss about so fragile a gift.
"Do you know what is in that?"
Ceallian shook her head as she obediently finished off the liquid in the flask. "Tastes like honey, and something like earth smells when it has just been turned. It lets me rest, that is all I know!"
Leasung rolled her eyes as she turned her back on the bed to take her cloak from the hook on the opposite wall. "With how much that baby moves, how do you know she is not just drugging it, to get you some sleep? That can kill a child, you know."
Ceallian made no reply, but Leasung felt something in the very nature of the air in the room change. Her skin prickled into goosebumps. She could see each silken hair on her arms stand to rigid attention as she broke out into a slimy, chilled sweat. The air was suddenly heavy, perhaps one minute fraction hotter. It was hard to breathe.
"No. This is no poison, or drug. How can you question someone like Syfe?" Ceallian's voice was smooth and melodious, as always. But Leasung could literally feel her anger. "Where are you going?"
"I have to see the man I am hiring a horse from to make the last installment on his payment. For my trip to Esteldin. Remember? As soon as you have that baby in your arms, Grandmother commanded me to go there and see my brother, your cousin. He has been in service for years. I have not seen him since I was a little lass and he leads his men through that camp for a fortnight." She kept her back turned as she fastened her cloak, intentionally hiding her expression in case Ceallian finally opened her eyes enough to see the plain lie before her. It would be Leasung's luck, aye, to finally see the price of her freedom laid within her grasp before her, only to have her reaching hand slapped back by this idiot lass and her friends.
Ceallian pulled her bedclothes nearly to her chin. "Of course I remember. I was hoping you could delay it a little while after the baby is here, so we could learn to tend to him together. I will have to teach you all of that, I suppose, so you can be a good nurse when you get back. I hope the house is enough, and the pay!"
Leasung bit some color into her lips before she turned back to her cousin with a sunny, simpleton smile. "The house will be more than enough. I cannot imagine such a treasure! And I would tend the child for nothing, Lady, but a lass as poor as myself cannot marry without some kind of dowry! Any salary will be welcome." Every word that fell from her cold lips was mirrored inside with a protest twenty times the strength of what she said aloud; her soul roiled at the stupidity of the part she played before all these people. "I should go now. I will be back before dark with some supper. Aye?"
Ceallian nodded, the medicine of the blind healer already lulling her into sleep. It was during one of these drugged naps that Leasung managed to hide three heavy chests beneath the rope bed, and during another that she was able to drag them away again. There was something to be said for the benefits of medicine.
Two weeks. Perhaps less. The child could come at any time. He was large, obviously, and fought with Ceallian's insides as if he would punch his way out of her at any moment. Leasung felt a tiny pang of pity for the older girl as she found her way onto the foggy, icy streets of Bree-Town. She would be a new mother and alone when she discovered the betrayal that was forthcoming.
At least she would have some comfort in the new baby in her arms. Leasung shook her head as she skipped over the misty cobbles; odds were, the baby, the mother, or both had half a chance to die in birth. Life was so incredibly breakable. Why would any smart lass risk her own to produce another?
She dimissed these thoughts as she turned up a wide swath cut between rows of tottering houses. Her hand found the letter in her pocket. Without pausing, turning her gaze from the toes of her cheap shoes, or missing an inch of her stride, she slid the parchment into the post box on the stoop of one of the crumbling tenements. He would reply within the day.
Leasung smiled in anticipation. Freedom may not come at such a dear price as most folks said.