Relonor's Journal

by River Gheuens

  The hawk turned his head to follow the darting of a mouse from a barrel close to a building, which was not very far away from the interesting boy. The hawk stared for a while to where the mouse had run under the building, before going back to the interesting boy.

  The older man was speaking, “Are you ready to see what all the villages have to offer to you?”

  The boy looked back to his mother, to see the encouraging smile on her face. The boy turned back to the man. “Yes.”

  The man smiled at the boy. “Well, you already know three of them. You have the Romani. In every land, they do the same things. They help us trade, throw Carnavals, heal people with medicine and make medicines to help people. But the Romani do not take any outsider for lessons, though many children have made their first Choice to them.

  “Now, you come from Moeraplaats. So, you know about Clan Cirkel and the Tribe of the Star-nosed Mole. These will be last to be seen, since you already know about the two people. First, we will cover the Tribe of the Buffalo. They live here in Centraleplaats. This tribe holds all the oral history of our people. While we have it written down in tomes, they have learned the history from their parents, and they from their parents. They are like walking tomes.”

  “How can a tome walk,” the boy asked.

  The man let out a huge laugh, which was filled with mirth. “Well, technically,” he leaned down to the boy before whispering loudly, “they do look like tomes with legs.”

  The boy laughed.

  “We will hear their stories tonight, as they tell of the Eruption. These scholars, along with the instructors, will teach you how to do science, to do mathematics, and to read and write when you come here for your lessons. Do you have any questions yet,” the man asked the boy.

  “Nope.”

  “Well then, let us visit the different Tribes first, then we can look at the other Clans. Once you finish your studies here in Centraleplaats, you will be able to go live in the village of your choice.

  “As you know from your village, the Clan, the Tribe and the Romani work together to get what is needed for the village. You are not limited to doing a Clan activity or a Tribe activity. The key is to contribute the best you can for the entire village.”

  The man walked into the sun’s rising light, to the outer line of teepees, which surrounded the human settlement. The boy followed with his mother, who was a few steps behind him. The hawk took to the air, to fly to another tree, which was along the path of the rising sun.

  “This Tribe is the Tribe of the Mountain Lion. They live East of here in the Bergenplaats, which is upon Tidal Mountain.” In the far distance, Tidal Mountain was visible, looking as if it were a stationary wave of water, which was black stone.

  The boy took in the view as the man continued. “They are known for their goat and sheep herds. They hunt deer in the forests for their village. They make some of the warmest clothes, which are lined with fur. They also look for metal ore in the mountains, so we can make swords, arrows, and anything else which requires metal….”

  The hawk saw the small mouse running across the field, towards the humans. He took to the sky as he fell from the branch with his wings tucked to his sides. He let gravity pull him towards the ground. He sped to the ground. Joy.

  He spread his wings before pulling out of the dive. He brushed the tops of the grasses and low bushes as he crossed the field. He was speeding towards the little clearing, as the mouse was running across the bare ground towards the human village. The thrill of the hunt was in full force. He extended his claws as soon as he broke into the small clearing of stone, which he dipped to just above the ground. His claws closed on the mouse as he grabbed the tasty morsel, before flapping his wings to take him back into the sky. Joy.

  The hawk banked back towards a tree, with the mouse in his talons. He landed on a tree branch before digging into the tasty flesh with his beak.

  After a few moments, the tasty snack was gone, having been eaten down to bone and fur. The remains fell from the tree, after the hawk released his prey’s body. The carcass falling to the ground caused the boy to looked up at the hawk, as they passed the tree, while the boy listened as the man talked.

  “That brings us to the Tribe of the Wolf, who live in the Groenplaats with Clan Dieren and the Romani. The Tribe hunts the buffalo of the grasslands. They care for the cattle they keep, while harvesting herbs and gathering minerals for making medicines.”

  The boy interrupted the old man with a question, “When do I get to choose to be a girl?”

  Entry 5

  7 Months Before

  Groenplaats

  I sat in my chair in my room as I thought of the last month. Today was the day I was supposed to be released, from the medical building. The medical people spent several weeks studying the my cut and scar, as they tried to figure out if they could do any more treatments to improve the injury.

  They were also worried about the damage done to my brain by the sword’s point. They spent the first week monitoring me for complications, which caused Vadoma to laughed at this. I mean seriously, she laughed at them before looking smug, as she said nothing else on the subject. They also spent a few weeks testing my cognitive abilities: reading, memory, coordination and reason.

  Vadoma had several heated arguments with the medical people on how to treat me. She had stood by her announcement, a few days after the duel, which was I was ready to be discharged.

  The healers had allowed the Samurai entry, to see me, when he came to question me on the duel, which was to investigate if the duel was in line with our laws. If he thought I had not adhered to the letter of the law, he would execute me for murder.

  After several questions, he confided in me everything looked like it was handled according to the law. He apologized to me for the mean comments which were said, with the assurance of if he had found the man living, he would have executed him for the dishonor he had shown unto me. The Samurai did not believe it was Aiden’s place to challenge me to a duel.

  I had been cooped up in this room for a month, as they waited to see if any further improvement could be done.

  What are you going to do, grow an eye for me?

  I had spent quite a bit of time learning my new sight, while I made theories about it as I recorded the experiments in my journal. When I first awoke, I could see about three steps from me. Today I can see about thirteen steps from my body.

  I call it wind vision, as I can see better with more wind. Everything is clear and crystal sharp with a breeze. Even in a closed room, the air moves around in lazy fashion, which gives me a dimmer vision of the room, in the colors of grays and blacks.

  It seems the blue in the vision was caused by blood loss, as I have not seen any more blue in my vision. Any extrapolations from this variable must be discarded to the fact of I can not reproduce this variable at this time.

  Vadoma and I spent that month talking, while getting to know each other. She was the only person who knew about my sight. I kept it a secret from everyone else. I did not want another thing which people could use to make fun of me.

  She learned what I liked to eat and had sun’s crest meal with me on most days. She would join mother, papa and me for every sun’s fall meal.

  Both of my parents were sweet on the girl who saved my life. We were becoming pretty close friends. It seems she does not mind I was different or mad as a hatter.

  While in the medical building, the healers had forbidden me from martial training and instructions, so I could heal properly. The healers had actually kicked papa out of the room when he asked about the form I had used in the duel.

  Papa and mother moved to Groenplaats to be closer to me. The duel had really shaken them up, especially mother. I had heard mother say a few times to the healers, “I almost lost my daughter.”

  My eye was a mess. The healers recommended I get an eye patch, to cover the empty eye socket. I declined them. Vadoma had said before the suggestion, when we were having a talk, “It does not matt
er how you look; it matters how you are on the inside.” While most people found the empty eye socket unnerving, she looked upon my face as a thing of beauty, with regret. I swear she quoted an obscure [Many Fey] quote to me, to make me feel better. It must be in one of the tomes I have yet to read, of her life before the Eruption. I must find that tome in the Centraleplaats Repository.

  Vadoma opened the door, before entering into the room with a smile on her face. The room lit up in my strange vision, as the wind moved more in the room, while it danced out of the window. “Guess what, you beautiful lady.”

  “You have went mad as a hatter and are here to kill me, by telling me that I have to be in this room one more day?” I quipped back, with a smile on my face.

  “Oh. Killing you would be, oh so much, fun. But alas, young lass, you get to get out of here, today!” I had to chuckle at her wit. Our banter had went from friendly to strange, over the last….

  Wait, I get out of this place?

  My chuckle stopped in mid chuckle, as my mouth was echoing what I had been thinking. “Wait, I get out of here today?”

  Relonor, why do you not listen to what is being said, instead of questioning it.

  “Yes, Sweets, I believe that is what she just said. Is your ears now loosing their capacity for listening,” mother asked as she walked through the door, while holding a clean set of clothes. She set them down on a chair in front of the armor stand, which was in the corner by the door. “I brought you a clean set of clothes, since I assume you want to be out of this place.”

  “Duh! Out! Both of you! So I can get dressed! I am a big girl and can do it myself!”

  “Are you sure, Relonor? I mean you do look kind of short there,” Vadoma quipped.

  “Oh, nice one, I will need to remember that one, for more future teasing,” mother replied instantly, which caused my face to blush intensely.

  “Both of you out of my room. Now!”

  ◆◆◆

  3 hour later

  In the forest, a mile from Groenplaats

  Vadoma and I sat on a rock in the woods, as we both panted, while being covered in sweat. Well, fine. I did not sit as just exist there, on the rock, after having a long sparring session with this cute wench. Fine, I was a puddle on the rock, with no energy left to do much of anything. Are you happy?

  “You look beat.” Vadoma looked down at me as I slumped to the rock, while taking the cold of the stone in, to cool off my sweaty cheek.

  “You would be too, if you had spent the last month in the hospital doing nothing! And more nothing. Then reading. And then…wait for it…more nothing.”

  “And looking at my butt,” she said accusingly.

  “I know nothing of what you speak. I mean, it was there, and I may have glanced at it, a time or two”

  “A time or two million, you mean. You are not that sneaky!”

  Well she had a point. I was not going to let her win. I opened my eye and looked into her face. “There seems to be a lack of evidence to prove I did that on purpose.”

  “You just admitted you did!”

  “I said, ‘I may have glanced at it, a time or three.’”

  “You said, ‘a time or two!’ Now it is, ‘a time or three?’ What, next is it going to be a time or four?”

  “Well, I may have glanced at it four times. It is very hard to remember.”

  “You can not remember my butt?”

  “I said nothing of the sort.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  “No, I did not.” I lifted my chin in challenge, at the end of our rapid quipping back and forth, which we would engage in.

  Her hand came to my left cheek, under the empty eye socket, as she looked into my eyes. Well fine, eye. I swear she was looking into my eyes, like I had both of them still. Her face slowly came towards mine, while asking with her eyes for….

  Is she going to kiss….

  A throat cleared next to the rock, as we both turned to the sound, as we fell apart. Papa was standing there while looking towards my weapons belt and weapons, which was laying on the ground in the clearing, a few paces from the rock, where I had let them fall with the exhaustion from a light sparring match with this infuriating wench.

  It was my idea to have my first sparring session here in the woods, so no one could watch as I relearned my hands to eye coordination in a fight. Vadoma thought it a grand idea, as she knew I was not as confident as I should be in front of people.

  “Richard. A pleasure as always.” Vadoma stood before bowing to him, in a show of respect. Papa was a very serious person. He almost never seriously joked, while being rigid with how he carried himself and treated others, when he did not know them. Vadoma was starting to get past that phase with papa.

  I crawled off the rock to my feet, as my muscles were already complaining on the extreme use I had put them through, after a month of not using them to the degree, which I had just done. I bowed to papa, as I inclined my head to him in respectful greeting.

  “Vadoma, a pleasure as always. I see you take better care of your weapons than, Sweets. I have instructed her much better than this, I assure you.” Papa’s voice held a bit of disapproval to it.

  “Papa, please. I have respect for my weapons. I just could not hold them up, after the lack of training in the last month. I was already planning on giving them extra attention when I come back to Groenplaats, after this sun’s fall,” I responded wearily.

  Not taking care of your equipment was seen as a major lack of respect to anyone who has given you training. Even in the fields, when harvesting the vegetables, you wore your weapons. You did not put them on the ground. Having your weapons at hand is always a good idea, for you do not know when an attack will come, the instructors had drilled into our heads in Centraleplaats.

  “No excuse. Now, since you refused to tell me the fighting technique, show me.” Papa was always one of short words, while being to the point of what he was thinking or saying, when he was in his Sensei mode.

  “Yes, papa.” I walked to the discarded weapons on the ground a few paces from me in the middle of the small clearing, in which Vadoma and I had found on our walk. Gingerly, as my sore muscles complained to me, very well I will tell you, I bent over to retrieve my weapons belt. I held the belt up, while inspecting the belt to make sure there were no twists in the belt. After the inspection, I took both ends in one hand before slinging them around my back, as my other hand snaked behind me to catch the end, to bring it around my back, then loosely buckle the weapons belt around myself. I made sure the weapons rested where they were supposed to on my belt: my rapier on my left hip, with the main gauche on my right hip and the back dagger behind my right hip. After being satisfied with where the weapons sat, I tightened my belt down to hold the weapons in place.

  I drew myself up to my full height, as I moved my feet together, while I let my hands fall to the weapons on my hips. My right hand rested on the main gauche, while my left hand rested on the rapier.

  I looked through my good eye at the brown dirt with the low grasses, which grew in the dirt, mixed with the small purple flowers blooming in the grass. Stones across the clearing were barely visible over the knee high grasses and flowers. Beyond those plants, river birches and pines trees ran along the border of the clearing.

  My other ‘eye’ showed me a black and white visage of the same scene in black, gray and white, each time I blinked. White being where the wind touched more than where it did not. The green of the grass blended, dark black to bright white, the further you traveled up the grass’s leaves, as I blinked. The stone behind me was in a black, grays and white. Darker colors at the ground, while blending to the white at the top.

  I relaxed deeper, while closing my eye, as I was opening my ears. The sound of trickling water came from just beyond the trees to the right, scratchy movements of the grasses moving against each other in a whispering wind, a hawk screeching in the trees to my left, and the wind blowing gently through the trees. Even with my eye closed, the scenery
around me turned to black, gray and white, as it looked like a ghostly scene all around me. The music of nature came to mind.

  I let my hands fall to my sides, from the weapons, with my eyes still closed as I stepped my right foot straight in front of me. I moved my left foot to a point left of where I was standing, then ran it along the ground until my right foot was behind my left, as my knees bent to lower my point of balance closer to the ground. I moved my hands to my belt, as I centered my hands over my stomach, while I was keeping everything in my mind quiet. I kept a watchful glare on everything as I waited for movement.

  I stood there, waiting like a flower for a bee, patient as the hawk in the tree for any meal to make it’s move, and unmovable like the stone I had just been resting on. My legs burned with the tension the stance had them in, while I held the stance, as I embraced the pain. I let pain become a part of my existence, a part of my life and a part of my nature.

  “That is it? This is the form you used? That, child, is not a fighting stance! That is a meditation in such a weird way.” Papa said this, as he took a few steps closer.

  My ears heard the grasses moving around his legs, as the wind showed to me that he had started to circle me. His hands fell to his two short swords, which he wore at his hips, as he was crossing his arms in from of himself.

  I did not react, as I just continued to exist in the moment, while I let the music of nature rise and fall in my ears. In the back of my mind a warning bell was sounded.

  He is a master swordsman. You must beware. You must be on guard.

  I silenced the thought as I relaxed, while bringing my mind back to the music of nature.

  I watched his purposeful steps, as he moved closer to me. “Papa, you would stalk like a wolf in the night?” I was waiting, as my legs burned under tension, while keeping my mind empty of thought.

  He said not a word to me. I knew he was wanting to test me. This was the moment he would test me, thus I would show this style was indeed a good style.