|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 4:48 pm
//____A Sad Day
((A little bit of Tamri's History, this is set about two years before everything else))
This day had been a long time coming but that didn't make it any easier to take. Tamri had known his mother was dying, she had been sick, starting shortly after Tamri's little brother was born, and some time ago she had sat him down and explained that she wasn't going to be around much longer. He was very little then and it was a lot to take in at the time. It hit him more as her condition worsened and he had to take on more responsibility, namely take care of his little brother.
The time that had followed had been hard. Tamri had loved his mother dear, as did most people who had ever gotten to know her. She was kind and his father always said that she was the most beautiful orderite he had ever seen. She had only ever shown love to others, particularly her sons.
Mostly what he remembered and loved was the stories that she use to tell him at night before bed. She would tell her tales about amazing stories about the Great Engagement, great dragon fights, even some that his father had done. No matter how fantastic he thought it was, he believed them all anyways. He loved her stories and he always hung on every word
Things could not stay the same though. Tamri's father did not take the illness well, his wife was the light of his life and the idea of losing her was not something he had ever considered. Once a great fighter, he had grown angry and turned to alcohol. He would avoid home as much as he could and when was he would often yell at his children. Tamri got it the worse, he was older, he should be responsible and stop having his head in the clouds with all those stupid stories that filled his head.
The years had been long and hard but today was probably going to be the day that was the worse. Tamri had woken up that day and gone about the day like it was any other. He made breakfast, checking the boots by the front door to see if his father was home, and surprised to see he was and then made breakfast for the whole family. Diri, his brother, was up first and Tamri saw to him and made sure he had started eating.
He was about to bring the food to his parents, in their own room as his mother was bed ridden by this point, there was however a series of loud noises that came from the room in question. The sound of something being knocked on the floor and suddenly the door swung open with force and the heavy foot falls of his father's stride. There was a look about him, he looked almost afraid when he walked into the kitchen and saw his boys. Tamri had never seen his father afraid of anything.
"Tam, watch your brother, let the doctor in when he gets here," he barked at his eldest and as fast as he had entered the room he was out the door.
Tamri in a moment as well was on his feet and ran back to his parent's room. There was only one thing that could upset his father so, his mother's health. He paused at the door for a moment, too scared to look for second before peering slowly into the room. It did nothing to ease his fear. She was still there, still alive, he could now hear her labored breathing, but she looked paler and so much worse then when he had said good night to her last night.
He closed the door again and when back to the main part of their small home in time to hear a knock on the door. It was the doctor, apparently alarmed enough by what ever Tamri's father had to said that he had come right there. After Tamri had let him in, he insisted that the boys leave them be, to go and play, but close at hand in case she took a turn for the worse.
The rest of Tamri's day consisted of absent mindly trying to entertain his brother, all the while his thoughts else where. Their father never returned home, Tamri kept thinking he would, so that he could be here if these were in fact the last hours they would get with the most important person in all of their lives, but he didn't.
It was just after he had put Diri to bed, telling his brother that today he was too tired to tell him a story, a tradition he had carried on after their mother was too sick to do it. He had gone back out to the kitchen and sat and waited for something, anything, to happen. It was then that the doctor emerged from his mother's room.
"She would like to speak with you," the doctor said with a solemn expression on his face, and then he led the young boy back to his mother's room.
“Tamri?” his mother said as he entered the room, in a weak voice. He had seen her sick before now but in this moment she looked so fragile. Her eyes were closed and when she had tried to look to him, she had barely moved.
“Yes mum,” he tried to reply but his voice failed him there and it came out a little more mumbled. He went to her side since he had no words and put his hand on hers so that she knew he was there.
“Tamri, you need to promise me, you'll look after your brother,” her words came slowly, a pause between each of them as she tried to recover her breath, “Don't be angry. Don't hate your father, he loves you.” For a moment it looked like she might go on, but what speaking she had done seemed to be a bit too much and she fell silent.
He wished she would go on. He wanted her to give him more advice, to tell him how he was suppose to go on with out her. Would he have to deal the same way his father did? He didn't want that but he didn't know what to do. Without his mother he was lost.
He stayed with her until she passed. He had no idea how much time had passed. For Tamri it was an eternity as he thought about all the things he was losing. He didn't realize it had happened until the doctor came over, checked his mother and then put and hand on his shoulder and explain that he was sorry but she was gone. Things blurred after that, at some point in time he was ushered out of the room where his mother's body was and some time later he ended up in his own room with the vague thought of sleep and no real idea of what he had been doing for the last little while.
He was about crawl into bed when he noticed some movement in the bed on the other side of the room. Looking over at Diri, he saw his brother quickly lay back down and pull his blankets up to make it look like he had been sleeping all along.
"Diri, why are you up? Can't you sleep?" Tamri asked quietly and made his way over to his little brother's bed rather than his own.
The younger boy shook his head so animatedly that in the dark beneath the blanket, the older could still make it out. Tamri frowned, his brother probably didn't understand what was happening, he was still too young. All he knew was that everyone around him was sad.
So Tamri crawled into his brother's bed, a little too small for the both of them but it would have to do. "Okay, well how about I tell you a story now, so both of us can sleep."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 12:06 pm
//____Not a Warrior
It had been a long day of training, like every day was for Tamri. He was learning that he wasn't very good at fighting and each day he came home with more cuts and bruises. Nothing was ever serious but enough that he was sore at the end (and some times the beginning) of most days.
He gone through all his chores at home, making sure the place was clean and making sure his brother was fed before he had time to himself. He wasn't his normal energetic self while he did it, feeling exhausted as he did, but the work got done and that was the important part.
When he could actually relax, Tamri told Diri to go and play by himself for a while and he decided he would curl up on his bed with one of his mother's old books. He loved the books, always engrossing, always allowing him to escape when he was thinking too much about something.
He wasn't sure exactly how much time passed, it always slipped by quickly when he was reading. At some point however he became aware that the house was awfully quiet for a time when his brother was awake and playing. He also had a strange feeling. When he looked up from his book he noticed a pair of eyes just visible over the foot of his bed just staring at him.
“Dir, what are you doing?” Tamri asked. This wouldn't have been the first time his brother had done this, but normally he spoke up and said something. “Is something the matter?”
Diri did not respond with words at least not right away. He crawled up onto the bed and next to his brother. He hugged Tamri tightly for a moment before pulling back and looking at his elder brother with large worried eyes, “You okay?”
“Of course I'm okay,” he looked at his brother a little confused. This was something that usually went in reverse. Tamri was the one that looked after his brother so Diri could have a happy oblivious childhood and not have to worry about things.
Diri leaned over and poked Tamri's forehead where the bandage covered up the cut there. He was a child, small and a little clumsy and he poked her a little too hard and made the elder brother wince a little. The little one pulled back his hand instantly and hugged his brother instead, as tightly as he could manage.
“Oh Dir, I'm fine, it's just a little cut,” he wrapped his arm around his brother and patted him on the back.
It came as a bit of surprise really, that his brother would be so worried about an injury. When had explained to Diri that he would be home a little less often because he was training to fight dragons his brother had been incredibly excited. He too loved all the stories that had been passed down to them from their mother, Tamri would be one of the heroes from the story. It seemed odd that
“Don't want you to get hurt,” Diri muttered, barely audible with his head buried in Tamri's arm, “dragons are scary. They'll hurt you more.”
He didn't realized his brother thought of the future that much. He was still a child and he wasn't suppose to think of things like that. “Dir, I'm fine, I'm not even fighting dragons yet. I'll get better by then.”
“I don't want you to go away,” there were a few more muffled noises from Diri, and Tamri was fairly certain his brother was crying.
Tamri held onto his little brother tightly as he cried softly. He didn't say anything, just tried to comfort him. He waited until Diri had slowed and he suggested that they get ready for bed. Diri agreed and they went through their normal routine. After he had read to his brother, a story decidedly not about dragons tonight, and he had been tucked in and the lights turned out.
The thought had crossed him mind before. What would happen if he were severly injured, or killed while fighting. Diri would be left, essentially all on his own, their father was useless. The brothers were all they had left. He had pushed those thoughts away, he had wanted to be some great warrior, and go on daring adventures that were of course dangerous because all good adventures were.
Look after your brother. It was one of the last things his mother had ever said to him. It had been something that he had tried to focus on for the past couple year. He woke up early to make sure his brother had a good breakfast, cleaned the house, did the chores, acted like a parent in the absence of their real ones all so that his brother could have a good life and a good childhood. Yet, what did any of that matter if Tamri ended up getting himself killed by a dragon or something else just because he had some crazy ideas of being an adventurer.
This truth hit him pretty hard. He could not just ignore what his mother asked him to do and it seemed like his dream was too dangerous for him to do it properly. There was a choice he had to make, but it seemed clear which he was going to choose.
Tamri would find something else to do. It would be sad and he would probably never get to adventure, but he had to grow up and this was just one of those things. You didn't always get what you want. Perhaps he could study history and read about other people's adventures, maybe he could even write his own stories about other people. He didn't know what it was that he would do, the only thing that was clear was that he was not going to be a warrior.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:59 pm
//____Two Adventure Loving Orderites
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:00 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:01 pm
//____The Paths of Light and Dark
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:05 pm
//____When I Grow Up
Tamri had made a list. A good long list of every job that he could think of in and around town. All of the ones that didn't directly involve fighting like being a warrior would. It had taken a while to get to it, like it meant some sort of finality, that he had decided for certain that he was no longer going to be a warrior, that he had put it up as long as he possibly could.
One morning he woke up feeling oddly determined and productive and decided that it was about time that he worked on it. He had brought a piece of paper to the breakfast table and started to write. As Diri ate he piped in with a few suggestion but most of them were childish ideas and while he had been behind Tamri's choice to change careers, some of the ones he suggested were just as dangerous. However he insisted that Tamri write down every single suggestion that he made, getting angry if his brother didn't comply.
When the list was done, it took up almost the whole sheet of paper. He went through it after that and crossed off all the things that had been write that upon second thought would be too dangerous or some of Diri's more silly suggestions. Pirate did not make it past the first set of cuts much the younger Orderite's protests. The second set of cuts was a little more difficult than the first one. That time he cut all the ones that he didn't think he could happily make a career out of. He was sure he had the ability and could easily pick up the skills to be a delivery boy but it wasn't something he really thought that he would enjoy doing for a long period of time.
The list had been decimated but what was left were a few jobs that he might actually consider. Pretty much all of them were scholarly jobs but that didn't surprise him in the least. He did really like books after all. The new revised list had things like librarian or researcher, like the dovaa he had met.
None of them seemed like bad jobs but he wasn't entirely sure what to do with the list now. How did he narrow it down to the one that he would do for the rest of his life? What if they didn't want him when he went to see them? Things were so much simpler when he was going to be a warrior, his job was just that and he was doing it because that was what was expected for most Orderite his age. Now that he was going against the grain it was so much more difficult.
He scanned the list over and over again trying to find one of the words that jumped out at him. Like he was looking for a sign. Each time he paused at the one listed at the bottom. Writer. He meant it like a story teller, a writer of fiction. He had almost crossed it off right at the beginning as one of the silly options on the list, he wasn't good enough, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. It stood out the most, the idea of writing down all the stories he told his brother and actually doing that for work but it seemed so much like a fairy tale in and of itself.
To think that he could be one of the authors that another person read, that helped them through hard times, that made them feel happy thoughts, like all his books had done for him. He would have never made it through his mother's death without all the books he had.
Yet each time he looked at the list, occasionally crossing off another, he stopped there.
It was the one that he wanted. He knew that and each time his eyes stopped he convinced himself a little more until what could only have been the twentieth time he finally tapped the paper and looked at his brother and said. “I think that is the right job for me.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
