|
|
Post by Eric on Mar 5, 2008 5:25:06 GMT 9.5
"Oh that would be nice," Eric said. "What was that stuff?" he asked after seeing the medicine.
|
|
|
|
Post by Treijim on Mar 7, 2008 8:37:34 GMT 9.5
"It's medicine for my mum," Cole said. "She's not well."
Cole led them along a quiet street where they could overlook most of the town to their left. The street here was on a hill, and it had been cut into to create level ground and more vertical rises, so houses could be built against it. They came down the other side of the hill and turned left into a tight gathering of smaller homes.
There was one with a display of rugs outside the doorway. Cole went to it and turned to Eric.
"This is my home," Cole said. "Want to come inside?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Eric on Mar 9, 2008 1:57:05 GMT 9.5
Eric looked over the face of the house. Taking in the rugs, the hill it was built on, the door Cole was standing by. "Sure," he answered. "What are these though?" he asked, following Cole inside.
|
|
|
|
Post by Treijim on Mar 11, 2008 19:14:49 GMT 9.5
"They're rugs," Cole said. "You put them on floors to protect your feet and decorate homes. My mum makes them and sells them."
If an ordinary person were to enter the house, the words 'dusty' and 'cheap' would probably come immediately to mind. The walls were pale and somewhat bluish. The only furniture was a round table and two chairs in the middle of the room, and a display shelf on the right wall with some books and a chest of drawers beneath it. The only light came from the window by the door, and light plummeted into the room with reflective brilliance. There was a clicking coming from another room, but it soon stopped. A woman with long hair peered around the corner.
"Oh, you're home," she said. Her initial eeriness shrank away as she embraced Cole in a warm hug. She then stood straight and turned to Eric, now wearing a motherly smile, her face glowing in sunlight. "And who is this? A friend?" She said the last words with hopefulness.
"Yeah, sort of," Cole said. He, too, turned to Eric, in the hopes that he'd introduce himself.
|
|
|
|
Post by Eric on Mar 12, 2008 4:21:29 GMT 9.5
"Hi, I'm Eric," the savage boy said. "You make things for money?" he asked bluntly. "Those things out front." This building provided whole new wonders to Eric's curious mind, and he didn't stay still to wait for the answer. Instead he wandered over to the shelves and grabbed a book. He flipped it open and gazed blankly at the letters and words. He frowned in concentration, but couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Putting the book back he looked down at the drawers, but didn't think them interesting and finally sat down in a chair. "Ugh, how do you sit on these?" he asked, trying a number of positions before finally sitting with his legs out in front and his back against the back of the chair. "If you're Cole mom, where's his dad? All animals have a mom and a dad, even humans."
|
|
|
|
Post by Treijim on Mar 14, 2008 3:31:34 GMT 9.5
For some moments she looked at Eric blankly, still wearing the same smile. His questions seemed to faze her. When he went to grab the book, she raised a hand to her mouth, perhaps thinking he might knock something precious over. When he didn't, and instead went to sit, she looked at Cole with a questioning motherly face. He looked back and shrugged.
"Yes," she finally said. "I make rugs for money. Something tells me you're not interested in buying one." She laughed lightly at herself and walked across the room to the doorway on the right. "Do you boys want some hot chocolate? I just heated the kettle." But she vanished into the kitchen to prepare the drinks without waiting for an answer.
Before Eric could chase her for an answer, Cole sat opposite him, speaking quietly; "Dad is out. Everyone says he's dead, but I don't listen to them. He's just waiting for me to find him." He stared into Eric's eyes with quite a cool disposition and then they shifted to the front door idly. He fell silent.
|
|
|
|
Post by Eric on Mar 14, 2008 12:10:53 GMT 9.5
Eric shrugged. "Of course. Father's leave the mother and children all the time. They're more solo." He was speaking from the view of an animal and didn't see how it was unusual for a father to leave. He'd been curious as to whether Cole's father had left or was dead. But now he knew, it wasn't strange to him.
He returned Cole stare with his own. Eric's eyes had a fierceness in them that slightly contrasted Cole's flat, coolness. eyes that were human, but had something akin to a wild animal's in them.
Eric sniffed the air as Cole's mother was making the hot chocolate. He noted the sweet smell and grinned. "What's that smell? It smells like it'll taste good."
|
|
|
|
Post by Treijim on Mar 15, 2008 8:49:38 GMT 9.5
Cole nodded. "It does taste good. You'll like it, because it's fairly natural."
He drifted into silence again. Either he wasn't good at conversation, or he felt Eric didn't want to hear anything he had to say, or he was just tired and didn't feel like talking much. His nose, too, caught the smell, and he savoured it as it grew stronger. Eventually, his mother came back with a wooden tray with three mugs on it, all steaming hot. Hers was not chocolate.
"Be careful, Eric," she said. "It's very hot. Hold it carefully by its handle."
Cole took his first to demonstrate, and he sipped it carefully.
"I heard Jaron Carson got another large commission from the general," she said to Cole. "You know how nosy your father was in the general's affairs." She paused and eyed Eric subtly, but she said no more, hoping she had planted enough of the idea in her son's eager mind.
|
|
|
|
Post by Eric on Mar 15, 2008 9:53:05 GMT 9.5
Eric picked up the mug by the handle and could already feel the heat. He knew how make fire and to cook over one. So he also knew how to cool hot food. He'd never had a hot drink, but he figured it would be the same idea. He blew on it and took a small sip. It was very hot and he set it down to cool.
He looked up at the conversation between Cole and his mother. "What's a general?" he asked. "And what's a commission?" He pointed to the books he'd been trying to read earlier. "And those things, what are they? Why did you make the noise when I opened them cole's mom?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Treijim on Mar 17, 2008 19:01:31 GMT 9.5
"The general is the head of The Guards. Those are the men in uniform you may have seen. They protect us. A commission is like an instruction or a project." Cole's mother paused to sip her drink. "Jaron Carson makes potions. They're liquids that do different things to the body -- some good, and some bad. Sometimes Talos -- the general -- requests a new kind of medicine, or something to make his men stronger. Nobody is really told what the potions are. We all sort of guess."
"General Talos knew my father," Cole said, not looking at either person.
"Those are called books," she said to Eric. "They either tell a story, or teach you something. I... didn't realise I made a noise. Did I make a noise?" She looked at Cole.
Cole said nothing in response. "Can I leave tomorrow?" he asked suddenly, surprising her after the small silence.
"Ah..." She was at a loss for words.
|
|
|
|
Post by Eric on Mar 18, 2008 4:55:20 GMT 9.5
Eric listened intently to the definitions. "But those books aren't talking. How can they tell anything? Stories come through talking, not flat things like those," the boy said, confused. The potions had confused him enough already. He couldn't understand how something like water could make someone stronger. Or for that matter why anyone would want such a thing. "Oh wait, what's medicine?"
Eric looked to his spear which he'd left near the door. "Where go Cole?" he asked, turning back to his new friend.
|
|
|
|
Post by Treijim on Mar 21, 2008 16:15:18 GMT 9.5
"Medicine is something that makes you healthy," she said, taking her time with the next sip. "I'm sure you know of remedial herbs and such that you can find in the wilderness. It's like that, but in a more convenient form." She exchanged bemused glances with Cole.
"I want to go to Jaron's Manor," Cole explained to Eric. "It's in North Tasif, which is a very long way away. We'd either need to find escorts or ride horses. Can you ride a horse, Eric...?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Eric on Mar 22, 2008 14:50:40 GMT 9.5
Eric shook his head. "No I can't, I've never seen one, though I know what it is." He took a deep breath and drank the tea in a couple gulps. It was cool enough now and he gasped in slight surprise. "Oh! Those are bowl bush leaves. It's this plant that kind of looks like a bowl."
The boy jumped up, sick of being still. Eric wasn't the type to stay still unless it was night time. The war paint on his face was smeared and he looked in strong need of a second bath. "Cole's mom," he said looking to her. "Cole told me you could cut my hair and make something for me to hold my spear in. Could you?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Treijim on Mar 25, 2008 13:08:39 GMT 9.5
She laughed. "Yes, I suppose I could. Come sit outside."
They all went out of the back door where there was a small yard surrounded by a cobblestone wall that a child could probably only just peer over. She pulled up a chair for Eric and sat him at it. With a bowl of water that Cole fetched, a towel, and a pair of scissors, she got to work. After removing the longest clumps, she thinned out the rest and neatened it up, though not so much that Eric looked too proper.
After, she fetched a length of leather and began stitching a belt for him. Within minutes, she had a makeshift bandolier ready, and she handed it to him as though it was a birthday gift, along with some old clothes of Cole's. Cole nodded in approval.
"There," she said with a smile. "How do you like it?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Eric on Mar 28, 2008 10:07:20 GMT 9.5
Eric retreated into the house and changed into the clothes. He pulled on the brown shorts that were fairly similar to what Cole wore now and fastened the belt, than pulled on a red tunic which had an opening down the front and he pulled on the belt for that too which kept the tunic closed, thouse a little of his chest was still visible. Not that such a thing mattered to him. He fastened the bandolier over his shoulder and slipped his spear into it. Finally he pulled on a pair of simple boots and walked back out to Cole and his mom. "Well what do you think?" he asked. "I like it. Is there anything reflective around I can take a look in?"
|
|
