During Seveyas ceremony I couldn't help but keep thinking back to my own. It was nothing as beautiful as this one was. I was not surrounded by women who loved me. I had only been 15 or 16 years old and my father had just passed away. One day he did not feel well and the next day he did not wake up. It was a frightening time around our wagons. Magda was going ballistic trying to ward off the evil spirits she was sure had crept into our home. My mother was not.. around then, and of my 4 brothers only one is left alive but he has gone to the cities on some quest for his clan that he wouldn’t tell me about. I was left to care for our father and to make sure no one found out about our mother.
I was too young, most people thought, to be left on my own after my fathers pyre. Those who knew us best also knew I was a bit spoiled for a woman of the plains. I was the only daughter, the baby and the favored. Tuchuk men love their daughters you know. Women are the mothers of the plains. I was a good daughter; I was well behaved and caring. When I say I was spoiled I do not mean I was at all bratty. I was thankful for the harder tasks which were often completed for me. I was eager to thank my father and my brothers however I could.
The clan was unsure what to do with me. I was too old to be taken in as a daughter for another family, but was I old enough to be ringed and mated? I was unsure of my future but I was complacent, young, and moldable. I would do what my elders thought was best for me. Fonce was the Ubar then and I only knew him in passing. Perhaps if I had gone to him then things would be different today.
I was waiting to hear what would happen, and I was not too terribly worried, I knew there were only three choices. I would be left on my own with all the help I could stand, I would be given to another family as a daughter or I would be ringed and given to Trayu who had just recently earned his first courage scars. (A story for another time I promise)
While I was waiting in my parents wagon.. Trayu was sitting with his own father at the clan fires, listening to the elders discuss me. There was briefly talk of sending me to the first fires as a year keeper to the Ubar, but then debate about how little interest I had taken in the colored pegs and wheel calendars.
What was brought up next, a fourth option, became the turning point in my life. It was what would spur Trayu into the panicky action of youth and a love that bordered on obsession. We were, after all, only teenagers.
"She is beautiful enough for the Love Wars." Spoke up one of Hectors sons. "I would fight for her."
Magda scoffed. "She has not been brought up for that." She was protective of me, even then.
"She could be trained, all women can be." Hectors son grinned. And no one said 'no' right away.
Perhaps a moment later they did say no, I will never know what was said. Perhaps they decided to send me to the Ubar to see if could be staked. I've never had the nerve to ask. Trayu, by that time, had already slunk away in the night. He had grabbed his older sister, who was as impetuous as he, and then... they came for me. I was still dressed for the day, having been expecting the Elders but I smiled when I heard Trayu and Lina. I stepped outside but before my feet hit the ground I was yanked up by the back of my dress and tossed over the front of Trayu's Saddle. He covered my mouth so my outraged scream would be muffled. Lina giggled and then kicked her mount into action, we followed suit. Trayu pulled me up to sit across his lap and I buried my face into his neck so no one would recognize me! This was not proper behavior for an unringed girl!
"Do not worry Asria, I have a surprise for you."
And he wasn't kidding. When we reached a remote part of the stream he let me down and I saw a glint of something in her hands just before Trayu took both of my arms and pulled them behind me so I could not fight. Lina was setting the ring in the tool and then grabbed my chin.
"Hold still, Asria!"
"What are you doing?! Lina! Trayu!" Tears spilled over my cheeks.. out of fear of how much that horrid thing was going to hurt and because I would not be having a party now and we were all going to be in so much trouble! The sound that thing made was the loudest I had ever heard. There was very little blood though my eyes watered with the pain. Lina held my chin still turning my face from side to side to inspect her work. My ring is slightly crooked, but so slight that no one has ever noticed but me and I.. do not mind so much now.
Trayu was pleased and let me go so he could hug me and then drag me back up on Silver. Lina, grinning, was right behind us as we raced back to the clan fires. My breathless protests went unheard and I was never really sure I meant them.
Trayu stole me away in the night as a girl but to the Yearkeepers clan he brought back a ringed woman. To my wagon that night.. he brought back his mate. I was so angry with him for taking away so many moments I had wanted to be special. It was not until his death that I realized that he never took anything away.. those moments were special.
They were the moments that defined a lifetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment