• Memory • [Venora] Hedging the options

[Jachiel]

41 Ashan 700
(Companion thread to this one)

Two years after his first farming test, Jachiel found himself pulled aside by his eldest brother Aldris. "Our littlest sister's turned five, little Jay," Aldris told him, "and that means it's time she was tested. You remember your test? Well, now it's your turn to get the next one out there and set up for her test."

Jachiel gulped, then nodded. He remembered his own test only too well, and the thought of doing it to someone else made his tummy churn, but he drew himself to his full 7-arc height. "I can do it," he assured his big brother. "Honest, I can." Aldris nodded back. "See that you do."

In the end, he copied what had been done to him and grabbed her by the hand. "Come on, we need bird scarers, and you're five now. That's old enough to join us." His little sister beamed at his words with such delight that he nearly stopped right then and there and warned her what was to come. Only the fact that she pelted towards the fields and he, perforce, had to follow kept him from doing so.

They drew to a breathless halt on the edge of a field where the other children in the family waited and Aldris stooped to put his 15 arc hands on little Sis's shoulders. "Thou shalt endure, remember little one. That's what the Seven say. Be a big girl now. You'll be fine..." He pushed a clapper into the girl's hand, gave her a light push out into the field, and pulled Jachiel away as the rest of the group scattered. Jachiel winced at the yank on his arm and hurried to keep up as Aldris circled back to a hedge and signalled him to lie flat among the roots. "This too is a test," Aldris warned him in a whisper. "There is more to endurance than enduring what you do..."

[Jachiel]

Jachiel dropped down and wriggled a bit to stop a particularly lumpy stone from digging into his hip. The hedge made good cover. He was all but invisible beneath it, but he could clearly see his little sis stomping determinedly across the field. He blinked in surprise when she sat down in the middle of the field with just as much determination and swung her clapper around her head. It sounded even more of a racket from where he lay on the edge of the field, than it had when he was swinging it himself. He didn't see how that could be, but it clearly was.

Then he heard the words she was yelling, even through the clatter of the clapper. "Come back! I know you're there! Come back! Please!"

Aldris's heavy hand hit Jachiel's back and pinned him down before he even realised he'd started to respond to the call. He turned his head and stared at his oldest brother, lying beside him under the hedge. Aldris pressed a finger to his lips and shook his head. Jachiel subsided, but an ache gnawed inside him, as Aldris continued to hold him down. He wanted to answer. He wanted to sweep in and rescue her from the despair and loneliness that nobody had rescued him from. He wanted her safe - all of them safe - and the farm built up to hold and support all of them. Aldris had managed to go straight into working on the farm when he'd turned 15, why couldn't Jachiel? Why couldn't all of them? It would, he reckoned, be the perfect solution.

[Jachiel]

Out in the field, little sis's call was breaking up and mingling with the catch of breath that precedes tears. Even the clapper grew slower, quieter, and less regular. Jachiel turned his head a little and saw a small, knowing, smile on Aldris's mouth. That smile added a coldness to the ache inside, as he tightened his own mouth and wondered if Aldris had worn exactly that smile when he was crying. He rather suspected that Aldris had.

His own eyes prickled in sympathy and memory as his sister began to sob in earnest, but the fear of what Aldris might do made him blink them back, set his face hard and blank as he retreated inside himself, and press his body deeper into the soil in an effort to escape the heavy hand pinning him down.

The hand followed him down and hard fingers gripped his shirt, grinding into his spine. He was unprepared when they suddenly hauled him upwards and left him staggering on his feet as the whole family popped up from their hiding places around the field. Looking around, Jachiel saw the same hard look on all the older faces and the wash of fury and fear on little sis's face as she turned and saw him.

Aldris abandoned Jachiel and strode across the field to the young girl just as she demanded to know why he'd left her. Jachiel trailed after him, and caught the end of the same speech he had been given, about how farmers had to endure and this was a test to see if he had what it took. He didn't hear whether she'd passed or not.

[Jachiel]

When Jachiel brought her back to the house, Mama exclaimed over the dirt and tearstains that little sis had acquired, and asked, "Well, what happened to you?" Little sis burst into tears again. "They all ran away and hid and left me all alone! They thought it was funny to make me cry and I hate them!" Mama rounded instantly on Jachiel, and said, "How dare you laugh at someone else's tears. That is not the boy I brought up Jachiel Vanteer! What do you have to say to your sister?"

"I didn't laugh!" he protested, trying to explain. "I wanted to come back, but Aldris-" His mother cut him off. "Don't try to get out of this by telling ridiculous lies. Aldris is grown up and doing a man's work in the fields. He doesn't have the time to be playing stupid pranks with silly little boys like you. This is Venora, and you go against everything we stand for. You betrayed your little sister, you're trying to betray Aldris by throwing blame on him, and I won't have it. Thou shalt not betray! You can skip supper tonight and every night until that sinks in. Do you understand me?"

Jachiel stared at her, open-mouthed with her betrayal. He hadn't done it. He hadn't! And she wasn't even listening to him, or his explanations. She would rather believe just little sis. And Aldris. Aldris who could do no wrong, who had been the only one smiling, and who had hurt Jachiel just as much. It wasn't fair! He stared a moment longer, as his face crumpled, then fled without a word and sought a hiding place where he could cry in safety, and where nobody he had once trusted could ever find and betray him again.

[Malcolm]

Jachiel

Knowledge:
Rynlism: Thou shalt endure
Stealth: Hiding under cover
Persuasion: Explaining your version of the truth

Loot: n.a
Injuries: n.a
Fame: n.a
Magic: n.a

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 0/5
Structure: 5/5

Comment: Not a hell of a lot to give in the way of feedback sorry. Story was fine, spelling and such seemed great, would be nice if you had a boxcode (even just a simple free one) as it's hard to zoom in on my device and read this, but that's just me. Sometimes I felt there were breaks between posts you didn't need as it all rolled together rather smoothly, I would have just done one big post. Enjoy the rewards, sorry there wasn't much I could award in the way of knowledge (Jac didn't do too much).