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batsutousaiYo.
So, this is an original story I typed up quick-quick like for my Creative Writing class here at uni. We're gonna workshop it next Weds and since I'm leaving for a convention before it's due in and coming back after, I had to rush to get it done and in. So I wrote the thing in, like, seven hours, the latter half of which saw me half asleep. ^.^"
Which reminds me, I should be asleep right now.
So, in a rush of sleepy amusement, I've decided to post this up here on LJ for youfreaks folks to read. Please, tear it to shreds. What you see here is exactly what I'm turning in to class, so if you see something that doesn't make sense, point it out, 'cause they may not. (Then again, they might point out every single flaw ever in this bitch and you all will find yourselves woefully lacking. XD)
At the end is a quick 'dictionary' of terms I used in this which are not English. Don't tell my Creative Writing class, but all of the words I stole are real words from other languages. If you can guess which ones, I'll give you a cookie.
And if any terms belong to more than one language and you point that out, I might give you two cookies. (Because that's so enticing.)
I should go to bed.
Please tear this apart, if you're reading it. It's rare that I write original stuff because I hate creating characters and the like. If you find anything - and I mean anything - tell me.
New World
Chapter One
Jael Silliman was a petite young woman with sun-less skin, silvery-grey eyes and dark green hair. Even among her people, she was a bit of an oddity. Skov Liv - the name of her race - tended to be sun-darkened with dark gold or brown eyes and pale blue or green hair. Most Skov Liv were also tall and muscular.
Jael was quite aware of her physical differences; it would have been difficult to not be aware of them, really. Her parents, her friends, all her school mates had looked like her polar opposite. When she had been a small child, she had often taken her father's hand in hers and stared in awe at his much darker skin. In school she had faced ridicule for her differences from her peers. As she grew into maturity, she watched her best friends be courted by their fellows from a distance. When she reached the age to find a job, she was turned down time and again until she was left with no other choice but to beg for a job she'd never wanted.
The job that Jael was forced to work was that of a shop keep. She spend her hours trading the sparkling stones her people used as money for the many potions and magical goods that the wizard she keep shop for created. The only reason he had hired her, she knew, was that he was not a Skov Liv, but a Bujný Dozorce, a different race that lived by her people's side and traded with them. The Bujný Dozorce were a many-coloured people and didn't shun others because of their skin or hair colour.
Jael was just cleaning up the shop after the expected closing time when the wizard she served slipped out of his workroom in the back of the small building he'd created from leaves and magic to house his shop and himself. "Were the trades well, dítĕ?"
Jael bit back her first retort that she was not a child, and said instead, "Yes, Trylleri Bruger Theodosius. We traded four of the blue ones and seven of the grey ones."
Theodosius, the wizard, nodded and picked up the pile of stones from the small table she set them on. "We're doing well, dítĕ. Soon, I shall leave this hole and settle over the waters."
Jael swallowed with difficulty. "How soon, Trylleri Bruger Theodosius?" Once the man left, there would be no one to take her on. None of her people wanted her in their stores as a permanent fixture.
Theodosius turned to blink at her with eyes of shifting colours - the sole, constant characteristic of the Bujný Dozorce - for a long moment before he smiled thinly. "Of what use would you be to me, dítĕ, that I could not find another over the waters to do?"
Jael ducked her head, ashamed that he'd read her with such ease. "Nothing."
Theodosius chuckled softly. "Indeed. Perhaps you should start looking for another of your bez lásky people to take you on."
Jael snapped her head up and glared at him. "My people are not, bez lásky!" she cried, angry that he dared to assume that others of her race held no love for one as different as she. Never mind that they both knew he was right - it was the principle of the thing.
Theodosius smiled nastily and waved his hand to set the last few things in the shop to rights with his magic. "Go home, dítĕ. Go home and think on what uses you may be to me after I leave this land that our peoples fight over. If you can give me an answer, I will take you with me. Away from those who hate you for reasons beyond your or their control."
"And what if I cannot think of a reason for you to keep me with you?" Jael spat back, half afraid of his answer.
"Then hope for a miracle," the wizard replied before slipping back into his workroom to sleep.
That night, Jael found no sleep.
---------
Theodosius Lemjin watched quietly as his dejected shop keep started opening the shop. He could tell from the dark circles under her eyes and her sluggish movements that she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. His pity for her was crushed under his annoyance at her and those who had forced her to disbelieve in herself so thoroughly.
Theodosius was not a stupid man - one hundred years taught one quite a lot - and he was not a cruel man. He enjoyed the company of the young Skov Liv that he had taken on four years ago. He liked her best on the rare occasion that she snapped back at him about how she wasn't a child or that he was wrong about one thing or another. Any sign of her backbone was rare, but he treasured the every occurrence.
The wizard was snapped from his thoughts as one of the village's few mate less females stepped into his personal space with a flirty smile and a sway of her hips. "Trylleri Bruger," she said in a silky voice, "I think I have a problem in my heart. Would you please check it for me?"
Biting back a list of curses he knew that would make the pain in her heart real, Theodosius replied, "I am not a doctor, dáma. I am a wizard."
The woman offered him a coy smile. "But surely-
"Have you gone deaf as well as dumb, Adlai?" a vexed voice cut in. Theodosius mentally thanked whatever powers had led him to Jael as she stepped between himself and the woman. "He's not going to help you - it's not something he is learned in. If you want some help for your heart, go down the lane to Læge Anaïs."
The woman, Adlai, drew herself up to her few height and stared down at the much shorter Jael. "I will not have a lunefuld in my business," she stated with a nasty glint in her dark eyes.
"That's enough," Theodosius snapped as Jael reared back, as if Adlai had struck her, rather than called her a name. He settled his hands on Jael's shoulders in a calming manner and stared at the other woman. "I will not have you insulting mine. You will leave or I will make your supposed heart problems worse."
Adlai spat on the ground between Jael's feet, then hurried out before Theodosius returned the non-verbal curse with a magical one.
"I'm sorry," Jael whispered, eyes on the spot of mud that had formed where Adlai's spit had hit.
Theodosius frowned at the young woman and stepped in front of her. "Look at me, Jael," he ordered, using her name for the first time since he'd taken her on. When her head snapped up, eyes wide with surprise, he gave her a smile. "What she said of you is not true."
"It is. I'm nothing like the rest of my people. I am a lunefuld," Jael replied, sounding as if it were a comment she often said.
Theodosius humphed disbelievingly. "What you Skov Liv call 'lunefuld', we Bujný Dozorce call natural. Your hair is a different colour - so what? Your eyes aren't like everyone else's - but so are mine. Your skin is paler than your fellows - a friend of mine's skin is even paler."
"That's the difference between your people and mine," Jael replied, eyes burning with a curious mix of sadness, passion and deeply buried pain. "Where your people see just another Bujný Dozorce who looks a little more different than the last, mine see an abnormality. I'm lucky my parents didn't kill me at birth."
"We don't see 'just another Bujný Dozorce'. We see a miracle, a gift from the powers beyond us," Theodosius snapped back, feeling annoyed.
"And you know my people don't believe in your 'powers'. We don't have your people's gift with magic."
"No. You just believe in killing that which is not the same. It's why your people have always looked exactly the same while we Bujný Dozorce have evolved and grown where your people remain stunted in your little crops of trees!"
"We remain safe because of our caution!" Jael snapped back, her voice raising in anger. "We haven't started killing ourselves off in wars over stupid things like land - in case you hadn't noticed!"
It took all of the self-control that Theodosius possessed to keep himself from unleashing a string of curses at her that would likely have killed her. Instead, he gritted his teeth and hissed, "Get out."
Jael fled, not foolish enough to stay in the presence of an angry wizard.
-------
When Jael didn't show up at the shop for the rest of the day, Theodosius decided it was for the best. When she didn't show up again the next day, he wondered if he'd gone too far with her. When the day following showed no sign of her, Theodosius decided he deserved it. When yet another day passed without her presence, the wizard figured that she'd probably gone to find another job.
That night, when he was counting his earnings and adding them up with his savings to see how well he could travel alone, he was interrupted by a woman who looked vaguely familiar. He stood and met her in the middle of the small shop, smiling reassuringly when he saw her hands shaking with what he assumed was nerves. "What can I do for you, dáma?" he asked, knowing better than to assume he knew her troubles after his four years spent among the Skov Liv.
"You are the one Jael works for, correct?" the woman asked.
Theodosius blinked. "Yes, dáma."
The woman's shaking increased slightly at his answer. "Tell me, she's been here for the past few days. Or that you sent her on some errand. Or-"
"I didn't," Theodosius replied, getting a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Why?"
"Oh, Jael, mig yndig kun lidt sig," the woman half whispered, half cried.
"She never went home?" Theodosius asked of who he now knew to be Jael's mother, not really needing an answer. "And she's been missing for almost five days now?" He hurried back into his workshop for his spell book. It only took him a moment to find the spell he needed and he quickly cast it, pointing at himself, "Ca 'm naill acha 'm dendio."
His senses seemed to flare for a brief moment before he felt the urge to head to his left. He let out a sigh of relief - if Jael had been dead, he wouldn't have sensed anything. "Dáma Silliman," he said forcefully, but not unkindly. The woman looked up at him tearfully. "I can find Jael. If you would like, you may come with. If not, please stay here."
"I think I'll stay here, Trylleri Bruger," the woman whispered, calming herself. Theodosius nodded and brushed past her. Just as he reached the large leaf that counted for his door, the woman called after him, "Thank you, Trylleri Bruger. I don't know what I would have done, if not for you."
"If not for me, dáma, Jael would not have run away," he replied tersely, then slipped past the door before she could come up with a response to that.
-------
Jael wondered, once again, how much longer it would be before someone realized she was missing and sent out search parties. Then again, who would care to search for her.
"You're the idiot who angered the only one who would care enough to search for you," she reminded herself out loud. She wondered why she even bothered - it wasn't like it mattered if one of the forest creatures attacked her.
"Trylleri Bruger was right," she commented to the mushroom next to her feet. "I am a dítĕ. A barn." She smiled sadly. "He's always right."
"About time you realized that," Theodosius snapped from behind the girl as he picked at some ivy which had grabbed onto him earlier and refused to let go. Of all the things he hated about being a Bujný Dozorce in a Skov Liv forest, the plants had to be the worst. They didn't care for magic and liked to attack him every time he left the village.
"Trylleri Bruger!" Jael exclaimed, spinning to look at him. "You did come looking for me! I thought you'd be to angry with me..." she trailed off as he glanced up from the ivy with a cocked eyebrow.
"For one, you're still mine. For two, it was mostly my fault that we got into that fight. For three, your matka came by asking about you," the wizard quipped.
"Oh." Jael looked away. "I'm sor-"
"Jael, don't apologize." Theodosius sighed and gave up on the ivy. "Let's get you back to the village."
Jael nodded silently and the two walked back to the village in silence.
Jael's mother was ecstatic to have her child back and spent forever alternating between hugging the child and thanking the wizard. Jael finally told her mother to leave so she could speak to Theodosius alone.
The two stared at each other in silence for a long moment that stretched one and one and one until the rustling of the ivy still on Theodosius made both look at it; Jael in surprise and Theodosius in annoyance.
"New look?" Jael asked, laughter colouring her voice.
"It likes me," Theodosius replied with a glare.
"Actually, it wants you to get out of our forest," Jael corrected, eyes bright with the laughter that she'd hidden from her voice, "but that's not really important."
Theodosius stopped fighting with the ivy to stare at her. She understood the plant?!
Jael shifted uncomfortably after a long moment of the staring. "What?" she asked, frowning at the ground at her feet.
"You can understand the plant?" the wizard asked after a moment of searching for his voice.
Jael shrugged. "Yes."
"But I thought Skov Livs couldn't understand plants!"
"They can't." Jael shrugged again, obviously uncomfortable with the direction their conversation was taking. "It's just one more thing that sets me apart."
"That's a gift, Jael! You could do so much for your people with that sort of ability! You have the ability to learn things about the plants around us that we could never, in a million years, hope to learn!"
Jael huffed, her discomfort dissipating with the arrival of her temper. "Of course. The rest of the village is really going to listen to a lunefuld like me."
"I'm sure that you could-"
"Just stop trying, won't you?! It's not going to happen! Ever!" Jael snapped before he could finish. Then, suddenly, she added, "And get off him, for miracle's sake!"
The ivy slid to the floor and slunk out of the shop.
Theodosius turned back from watching the ivy leave to stare at Jael again.
"Don't," the young woman half ordered, half begged. "Just, don't."
Theodosius looked beyond her at the pile of glittering stones on the table Jael always sat at when there was no one in the store to torment her. He ran some quick calculations through his mind, then focused back in on Jael, who looked tired. "How would you like to go over the waters with me?"
Jael blinked. Then blinked again. Then moved her mouth, as if to speak, but nothing came out. Finally, after a long moment of silence, she managed to ask, "You're joking, right?"
"Nope."
Jael fainted.
-~/\~-
End of Chapter One
-~\/~-
Translations of the non-English words and phrases I used, for your benefit:
dítĕ - child (in the language of the Bujný Dozorce)
barn - child (in the language of the Skov Liv)
dáma - madam
bez lásky - loveless
lunefuld - freak
mig yndig kun lidt sig - my sweet little one
matka - mother
Trylleri Bruger - Magic User (a title used for wizards)
Læge - Healer (a title used for nurses, doctors, and their magical counterparts)
Ca 'm naill acha 'm dendio - find me the one on my mind (a spell)
I think that one of the first things I'm going to do with this chapter after I've gotten some sleep and a couple days away from it is going to be flushing out the world I'm creating for this fic in the first half or so.
Right. Sleep.
~Bats ^.^"
So, this is an original story I typed up quick-quick like for my Creative Writing class here at uni. We're gonna workshop it next Weds and since I'm leaving for a convention before it's due in and coming back after, I had to rush to get it done and in. So I wrote the thing in, like, seven hours, the latter half of which saw me half asleep. ^.^"
Which reminds me, I should be asleep right now.
So, in a rush of sleepy amusement, I've decided to post this up here on LJ for you
At the end is a quick 'dictionary' of terms I used in this which are not English. Don't tell my Creative Writing class, but all of the words I stole are real words from other languages. If you can guess which ones, I'll give you a cookie.
And if any terms belong to more than one language and you point that out, I might give you two cookies. (Because that's so enticing.)
I should go to bed.
Please tear this apart, if you're reading it. It's rare that I write original stuff because I hate creating characters and the like. If you find anything - and I mean anything - tell me.
Chapter One
Jael Silliman was a petite young woman with sun-less skin, silvery-grey eyes and dark green hair. Even among her people, she was a bit of an oddity. Skov Liv - the name of her race - tended to be sun-darkened with dark gold or brown eyes and pale blue or green hair. Most Skov Liv were also tall and muscular.
Jael was quite aware of her physical differences; it would have been difficult to not be aware of them, really. Her parents, her friends, all her school mates had looked like her polar opposite. When she had been a small child, she had often taken her father's hand in hers and stared in awe at his much darker skin. In school she had faced ridicule for her differences from her peers. As she grew into maturity, she watched her best friends be courted by their fellows from a distance. When she reached the age to find a job, she was turned down time and again until she was left with no other choice but to beg for a job she'd never wanted.
The job that Jael was forced to work was that of a shop keep. She spend her hours trading the sparkling stones her people used as money for the many potions and magical goods that the wizard she keep shop for created. The only reason he had hired her, she knew, was that he was not a Skov Liv, but a Bujný Dozorce, a different race that lived by her people's side and traded with them. The Bujný Dozorce were a many-coloured people and didn't shun others because of their skin or hair colour.
Jael was just cleaning up the shop after the expected closing time when the wizard she served slipped out of his workroom in the back of the small building he'd created from leaves and magic to house his shop and himself. "Were the trades well, dítĕ?"
Jael bit back her first retort that she was not a child, and said instead, "Yes, Trylleri Bruger Theodosius. We traded four of the blue ones and seven of the grey ones."
Theodosius, the wizard, nodded and picked up the pile of stones from the small table she set them on. "We're doing well, dítĕ. Soon, I shall leave this hole and settle over the waters."
Jael swallowed with difficulty. "How soon, Trylleri Bruger Theodosius?" Once the man left, there would be no one to take her on. None of her people wanted her in their stores as a permanent fixture.
Theodosius turned to blink at her with eyes of shifting colours - the sole, constant characteristic of the Bujný Dozorce - for a long moment before he smiled thinly. "Of what use would you be to me, dítĕ, that I could not find another over the waters to do?"
Jael ducked her head, ashamed that he'd read her with such ease. "Nothing."
Theodosius chuckled softly. "Indeed. Perhaps you should start looking for another of your bez lásky people to take you on."
Jael snapped her head up and glared at him. "My people are not, bez lásky!" she cried, angry that he dared to assume that others of her race held no love for one as different as she. Never mind that they both knew he was right - it was the principle of the thing.
Theodosius smiled nastily and waved his hand to set the last few things in the shop to rights with his magic. "Go home, dítĕ. Go home and think on what uses you may be to me after I leave this land that our peoples fight over. If you can give me an answer, I will take you with me. Away from those who hate you for reasons beyond your or their control."
"And what if I cannot think of a reason for you to keep me with you?" Jael spat back, half afraid of his answer.
"Then hope for a miracle," the wizard replied before slipping back into his workroom to sleep.
That night, Jael found no sleep.
---------
Theodosius Lemjin watched quietly as his dejected shop keep started opening the shop. He could tell from the dark circles under her eyes and her sluggish movements that she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. His pity for her was crushed under his annoyance at her and those who had forced her to disbelieve in herself so thoroughly.
Theodosius was not a stupid man - one hundred years taught one quite a lot - and he was not a cruel man. He enjoyed the company of the young Skov Liv that he had taken on four years ago. He liked her best on the rare occasion that she snapped back at him about how she wasn't a child or that he was wrong about one thing or another. Any sign of her backbone was rare, but he treasured the every occurrence.
The wizard was snapped from his thoughts as one of the village's few mate less females stepped into his personal space with a flirty smile and a sway of her hips. "Trylleri Bruger," she said in a silky voice, "I think I have a problem in my heart. Would you please check it for me?"
Biting back a list of curses he knew that would make the pain in her heart real, Theodosius replied, "I am not a doctor, dáma. I am a wizard."
The woman offered him a coy smile. "But surely-
"Have you gone deaf as well as dumb, Adlai?" a vexed voice cut in. Theodosius mentally thanked whatever powers had led him to Jael as she stepped between himself and the woman. "He's not going to help you - it's not something he is learned in. If you want some help for your heart, go down the lane to Læge Anaïs."
The woman, Adlai, drew herself up to her few height and stared down at the much shorter Jael. "I will not have a lunefuld in my business," she stated with a nasty glint in her dark eyes.
"That's enough," Theodosius snapped as Jael reared back, as if Adlai had struck her, rather than called her a name. He settled his hands on Jael's shoulders in a calming manner and stared at the other woman. "I will not have you insulting mine. You will leave or I will make your supposed heart problems worse."
Adlai spat on the ground between Jael's feet, then hurried out before Theodosius returned the non-verbal curse with a magical one.
"I'm sorry," Jael whispered, eyes on the spot of mud that had formed where Adlai's spit had hit.
Theodosius frowned at the young woman and stepped in front of her. "Look at me, Jael," he ordered, using her name for the first time since he'd taken her on. When her head snapped up, eyes wide with surprise, he gave her a smile. "What she said of you is not true."
"It is. I'm nothing like the rest of my people. I am a lunefuld," Jael replied, sounding as if it were a comment she often said.
Theodosius humphed disbelievingly. "What you Skov Liv call 'lunefuld', we Bujný Dozorce call natural. Your hair is a different colour - so what? Your eyes aren't like everyone else's - but so are mine. Your skin is paler than your fellows - a friend of mine's skin is even paler."
"That's the difference between your people and mine," Jael replied, eyes burning with a curious mix of sadness, passion and deeply buried pain. "Where your people see just another Bujný Dozorce who looks a little more different than the last, mine see an abnormality. I'm lucky my parents didn't kill me at birth."
"We don't see 'just another Bujný Dozorce'. We see a miracle, a gift from the powers beyond us," Theodosius snapped back, feeling annoyed.
"And you know my people don't believe in your 'powers'. We don't have your people's gift with magic."
"No. You just believe in killing that which is not the same. It's why your people have always looked exactly the same while we Bujný Dozorce have evolved and grown where your people remain stunted in your little crops of trees!"
"We remain safe because of our caution!" Jael snapped back, her voice raising in anger. "We haven't started killing ourselves off in wars over stupid things like land - in case you hadn't noticed!"
It took all of the self-control that Theodosius possessed to keep himself from unleashing a string of curses at her that would likely have killed her. Instead, he gritted his teeth and hissed, "Get out."
Jael fled, not foolish enough to stay in the presence of an angry wizard.
-------
When Jael didn't show up at the shop for the rest of the day, Theodosius decided it was for the best. When she didn't show up again the next day, he wondered if he'd gone too far with her. When the day following showed no sign of her, Theodosius decided he deserved it. When yet another day passed without her presence, the wizard figured that she'd probably gone to find another job.
That night, when he was counting his earnings and adding them up with his savings to see how well he could travel alone, he was interrupted by a woman who looked vaguely familiar. He stood and met her in the middle of the small shop, smiling reassuringly when he saw her hands shaking with what he assumed was nerves. "What can I do for you, dáma?" he asked, knowing better than to assume he knew her troubles after his four years spent among the Skov Liv.
"You are the one Jael works for, correct?" the woman asked.
Theodosius blinked. "Yes, dáma."
The woman's shaking increased slightly at his answer. "Tell me, she's been here for the past few days. Or that you sent her on some errand. Or-"
"I didn't," Theodosius replied, getting a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Why?"
"Oh, Jael, mig yndig kun lidt sig," the woman half whispered, half cried.
"She never went home?" Theodosius asked of who he now knew to be Jael's mother, not really needing an answer. "And she's been missing for almost five days now?" He hurried back into his workshop for his spell book. It only took him a moment to find the spell he needed and he quickly cast it, pointing at himself, "Ca 'm naill acha 'm dendio."
His senses seemed to flare for a brief moment before he felt the urge to head to his left. He let out a sigh of relief - if Jael had been dead, he wouldn't have sensed anything. "Dáma Silliman," he said forcefully, but not unkindly. The woman looked up at him tearfully. "I can find Jael. If you would like, you may come with. If not, please stay here."
"I think I'll stay here, Trylleri Bruger," the woman whispered, calming herself. Theodosius nodded and brushed past her. Just as he reached the large leaf that counted for his door, the woman called after him, "Thank you, Trylleri Bruger. I don't know what I would have done, if not for you."
"If not for me, dáma, Jael would not have run away," he replied tersely, then slipped past the door before she could come up with a response to that.
-------
Jael wondered, once again, how much longer it would be before someone realized she was missing and sent out search parties. Then again, who would care to search for her.
"You're the idiot who angered the only one who would care enough to search for you," she reminded herself out loud. She wondered why she even bothered - it wasn't like it mattered if one of the forest creatures attacked her.
"Trylleri Bruger was right," she commented to the mushroom next to her feet. "I am a dítĕ. A barn." She smiled sadly. "He's always right."
"About time you realized that," Theodosius snapped from behind the girl as he picked at some ivy which had grabbed onto him earlier and refused to let go. Of all the things he hated about being a Bujný Dozorce in a Skov Liv forest, the plants had to be the worst. They didn't care for magic and liked to attack him every time he left the village.
"Trylleri Bruger!" Jael exclaimed, spinning to look at him. "You did come looking for me! I thought you'd be to angry with me..." she trailed off as he glanced up from the ivy with a cocked eyebrow.
"For one, you're still mine. For two, it was mostly my fault that we got into that fight. For three, your matka came by asking about you," the wizard quipped.
"Oh." Jael looked away. "I'm sor-"
"Jael, don't apologize." Theodosius sighed and gave up on the ivy. "Let's get you back to the village."
Jael nodded silently and the two walked back to the village in silence.
Jael's mother was ecstatic to have her child back and spent forever alternating between hugging the child and thanking the wizard. Jael finally told her mother to leave so she could speak to Theodosius alone.
The two stared at each other in silence for a long moment that stretched one and one and one until the rustling of the ivy still on Theodosius made both look at it; Jael in surprise and Theodosius in annoyance.
"New look?" Jael asked, laughter colouring her voice.
"It likes me," Theodosius replied with a glare.
"Actually, it wants you to get out of our forest," Jael corrected, eyes bright with the laughter that she'd hidden from her voice, "but that's not really important."
Theodosius stopped fighting with the ivy to stare at her. She understood the plant?!
Jael shifted uncomfortably after a long moment of the staring. "What?" she asked, frowning at the ground at her feet.
"You can understand the plant?" the wizard asked after a moment of searching for his voice.
Jael shrugged. "Yes."
"But I thought Skov Livs couldn't understand plants!"
"They can't." Jael shrugged again, obviously uncomfortable with the direction their conversation was taking. "It's just one more thing that sets me apart."
"That's a gift, Jael! You could do so much for your people with that sort of ability! You have the ability to learn things about the plants around us that we could never, in a million years, hope to learn!"
Jael huffed, her discomfort dissipating with the arrival of her temper. "Of course. The rest of the village is really going to listen to a lunefuld like me."
"I'm sure that you could-"
"Just stop trying, won't you?! It's not going to happen! Ever!" Jael snapped before he could finish. Then, suddenly, she added, "And get off him, for miracle's sake!"
The ivy slid to the floor and slunk out of the shop.
Theodosius turned back from watching the ivy leave to stare at Jael again.
"Don't," the young woman half ordered, half begged. "Just, don't."
Theodosius looked beyond her at the pile of glittering stones on the table Jael always sat at when there was no one in the store to torment her. He ran some quick calculations through his mind, then focused back in on Jael, who looked tired. "How would you like to go over the waters with me?"
Jael blinked. Then blinked again. Then moved her mouth, as if to speak, but nothing came out. Finally, after a long moment of silence, she managed to ask, "You're joking, right?"
"Nope."
Jael fainted.
End of Chapter One
-~\/~-
Translations of the non-English words and phrases I used, for your benefit:
dítĕ - child (in the language of the Bujný Dozorce)
barn - child (in the language of the Skov Liv)
dáma - madam
bez lásky - loveless
lunefuld - freak
mig yndig kun lidt sig - my sweet little one
matka - mother
Trylleri Bruger - Magic User (a title used for wizards)
Læge - Healer (a title used for nurses, doctors, and their magical counterparts)
Ca 'm naill acha 'm dendio - find me the one on my mind (a spell)
I think that one of the first things I'm going to do with this chapter after I've gotten some sleep and a couple days away from it is going to be flushing out the world I'm creating for this fic in the first half or so.
Right. Sleep.
~Bats ^.^"
no subject
Date: 15/2/07 18:35 (UTC)Hmmm.... Let me see if I can answer that in the next chapter. Or come up with a good excuse for class, then tell you.... ^.^"
Nope! Try again. XD
*hands over virtual cookie* Eh? And spend all that money on postage? Peh. I might send you something in that package Argent's gonna send after Katsu. Maybe. XP