Greydragn's Layr

mini-dragon rampant Up The River Road mini-dragon rampant, reversed

Chapter III

"One very tired traveler is very much asleep." Danu announced in their native language when she rejoined the couple in the main room. Tolu had just sat down and leaned back in the chair, to stretch out her legs. Ari was sitting cross-legged next to the chair on a pillow. Danu took a place on the bench nest to the fire, near the other two, and looked into the flames. "Onne deserves it, he's been a good traveling companion and an apt student. True he spends most of his time trying to keep his feet from getting into trouble when we're walking, but that seems to run in the family."

Tolu laughed and ruffled Ari's hair.

    "I remember your grandfather telling Ari if she made it to adulthood with her nose and all her fingers and toes, he would be very much surprised." Ari smoothed her hair back into place.

    "Yes, but when I was ready to apprentice, he said I would probably make a good carpenter, having survived that long in one piece."

    "He was harder on you because you were his favorite, dents and all." Danu replied smiling.

    "Since the pair of you are intent upon dragging out the family history for examination, I (who was up at dawn to make that delivery), am going to drag my weary bones to bed. Danu, I will see you in the morning. Ari, be quiet when you come to bed." She swept out of the room.

    Danu turned to her sister. "Well, things are good for the two of you, but then I never doubted that they would. And the business looks like it's doing well. On the whole, lowland life agrees with you." Ari leaned back and rested her head on the upholstered arm of the chair.

    "I do miss the mountains now and then, but yes, I don't think we would have happier in the village. Too small a stage for Tolu, and I like the style of work here: more detail and ornamentation than home. And I do like having lots of people about. I never had your gift for solitude. Yes, life here fits us pretty well. A bit of content is a pleasant thing to have." She paused to watch her sister's face as Danu looked into the fire. "Are you going back to visit, or stay?"

    "To stay." Danu replied, still watching the flames.

    Ari paused, then began gently: "You were always impossible to predict, I never thought you'd stray that far from the world's roof, let alone settle by the ocean."

    "I wanted to be sure that I was staying in Kotrab because it was where I should be, rather than out of habit." She turned to look at her sister. "What you said, about this place fitting you, I never really felt that-- felt as though I had a place. I decided that I was staying because it was at least some place I knew. I understood the rules, but I wasn't really part of it, of anything. It was as though I was standing watching everything, and everybody, but never connected.

    So I came down from the mountains and walked to the coast to see if there was a 'fit' for me somewhere. I got to Elav and stopped. There didn't seem to be much point in going any farther. I decided that what was missing wasn't my place, but a piece of me."

She turned back to the fire, then continued.

    "It wasn't being disconnected from the world, but from myself, or from something inside myself. Going around the world wouldn't change that. I decided to stay and try some lowland living for a while. I went to work in local shop, you know the sort: bits of everything for village needs."

She took a log from the pile next to her, and put it carefully on the fire before continuing.

    "There were plenty of fishers in and out of the store--if you don't fish there is little else to make a living from--and they all looked much the same, and all smelled like fish and hard work. They were a little curious about me, mostly my accent and height. They were pleasant, but not much more. Ibbon and his cousin came in one day for line to mend their nets. The cousin was like everyone I had met, I had probably seen him before and forgotten him, but Ibbon...." She searched for the words. "Ibbon...when he came into a room, it was as though someone turned the lamp up." She smiled slightly and looked at Ari again.

    "I know, it sounds silly, like something in a book, but he had that effect: people would smile and stand a little taller when he talked to them. Anyway, they came to buy some supplies, all very business like, that is, the cousin was, but Ibbon kept smiling at me. It started as just a little polite grin, and got bigger and bigger until I thought the corners of his mouth might meet at the back of his head. I didn't say anything because I thought he was amusing himself by listening to my funny accent. But the more I looked at him, surreptitiously of course, the more, well, twinkle he had in his eyes. I kept trying to do my job and avoid noticing him." Danu looked at her feet.

    "At last, they had everything they needed and were nearly out the door when Ibbon turned back and asked me if I ever stopped at the pub for a drink. I said that I had never had occasion to, and he said that if I dropped in that evening after I closed the store and joined him, he would make it an occasion. And before I could think of a thing to say, he left."

    "You went."

    "That was the first time he suggested we partner."

    Ari laughed in a burst, then, remembering the two sleepers, lowered her voice. "I would have loved to have seen that! Danu the Reticent being swept off her feet by a charming fisherman."

Danu could not keep from smiling herself at the memory. Those dancing eyes across the table waiting for her to realize how inevitable things were, lovingly amused at her hesitation. She might wonder, but he knew.

    "I know how it all sounds, romantic nonsense, the sort of thing one reads in a gushing story: 'They met, and knew at once that it was to be...'." Danu tried to pull herself back from her reverie.

    "But you did, and perhaps it was. The cliché wouldn't exist if it never happened. You would never admit that you had feelings you couldn't control. Sometimes I wondered if you'd admit to having feelings at all."

    Danu closed her eyes and took a long breath. She then opened them and exhaled slowly before she answered.

    "I guess I always hoped that if I ignored them they would go away, and I would never have to deal with them, and the lack of control. Sometimes I felt as though I was being towed under and would drown."

    Ari's voice was so soft as to be nearly inaudible.

    "Dear heart, did it ever cross your mind that it wasn't that you were missing something, but that you had too much of it to keep to your self?"

    "I would never have believed it, until I met Ibbon. I found myself letting go, of my reserve, my fear. He was such a patient man, waiting for me to trust him, trust myself." Tears had begun to slip down her cheeks. She didn't move to brush them away. "I found the more I opened up, the more I allowed myself to trust, the stronger I felt. I became more self-assured and independent than I had ever been before. I had met someone I could share my life with, and I knew I didn't need him. Which is why I could love him and stay with him." She suddenly brushed the tears away. "I'm putting it badly. It's so hard to explain."

    "You could depend on him, without being dependent." Ari suggested.

    "Yes, exactly. I was so surprised by it--that connection. A boat at last in home port after a lifetime drift."  I finally knew the difference between not being sad, and being happy. Even the difference between happiness and joy."

She paused, looking in distance to something that was no longer there.

    Ari was silent, afraid even to move and break the spell that held them. The only sound was the fire's occassional snap.


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