Just a short story since I won't be updating "The Coming of Balor" until Thursday. This actually happens during the Mumm-Ra war so all Balor and Brigid are eight years old, basically it's when the show takes place. Not in the past or future. Just the present!
With wooden swords, Llud taught Balor swordsmanship. Balor didn't have much interest, preferring pacifism but Llud wanted his cousin to know how to defend himself. The amount of disinterest from Balor was what kept causing him to be knocked down.
"Don't think because you're my cousin I'm going to go easy on you when it comes to learning swordsmanship!" Llud rammed his sword's hilt into Balor's left shoulder, once again knocking him down.
Balor didn't get up. He just sat there on the ground. Brigid was watching with worried eyes all the while Ekoto and Alaksandu talked to her. Balor was feeling jealous. One the son of the Chieftain of Evabon the other the Chieftain's nephew both of them older than Balor and better at fighting.
Looking at the wooden sword in his hand, Balor thought. Would he even have a chance against either of those two? Ekoto was something of a bully and Alaksandu was… A burning ember!
Throwing the sword aside, the boy stood up and walked away. "I've had enough of this!" Ten times he had been knocked down. Llud just shook his head. They'd continue another time.
Beneath a fruit tree, Brigid was sitting while Ekoto and Alaksandu spoke to her. The former was doing most of the speaking the latter only talked when he felt like it. As Balor approached, Ekoto threw a fallen fruit at him. It hit Balor in the right eye.
"That's for giving up, O great shaman!" Ekoto's mocking tone caused Brigid to get up and walk away from him and his cousin. Not understanding why she was walking away, Ekoto picked up a stone and hurled it at Balor. Hitting his left shoulder, the stone drew blood. "Ha! He's bleeding this time, Brigid!"
Brigid only took Balor's hand and walked away with him. She did not like either Ekoto or Alaksandu's company, Alaksandu's more so.
Going far from Wilusa, the two children went deep into the forest and stopped at the bank of the river Zannanza. Taking some leaves and soaking them in the water, Brigid pressed them against the cut on Balor's shoulder.
"Ekoto is simply terrible!" said Brigid. "He thinks that just because his father is Chieftain of Evabon he can treat you like that! I don't like him or Alaksandu. I wish they would leave me alone but I'm too much of a lady to say anything."
"Lady?" Balor tilted his head to one side. "You're eight years old… Same as me!"
Brigid gave Balor a smile. He was very insightful, so was she, but he didn't understand things all the time.
"If Llud had seen that I'm sure he would have protected you. Kat and Kit too if they were here!" Finishing cleaning the cut, Brigid gave Balor a kiss on the cheek. He started to turn black, only natural since Evabon had black blood. Brigid was a tender and affectionate soul, Balor was happy to call her his friend.
To say that Brigid loved Balor would be to state the obvious. To say that she had told Balor she loved him, however, would be a complete lie. To say Balor's love for Brigid was quickly growing would also for a lie for when it came to the emotion of love, Balor was slow in some cases. He had quickly come to love Gard and Wodanaz, Procyon too! His love for Pwyll was impossibly slow to coming into existence for the boy's father was hard to love. As for Brigid, his love for her was growing quicker than his love for his own father. A logical comparison would be comparing Balor's growing love for Brigid to the speed of Cheetara and his growing love for Pwyll to the speed of a tolac that had lost the use of its hind legs.
Balor swallowed nervously. Standing up, he took of his vest and walked into the river to swim. The river Zannanza was not a dangerous river to swim in, if one chose to swim at the part of it that went through the forest near Wilusa. It was safe and since twice learning how to swim, Balor found himself in the water once a day if he could find a body of water to swim in.
Sometimes Balor would swim sometimes he would just lie in the shallows. Evabon rarely ever lived in places where there was snow. The places they called home where always blazing hot during the day and freezing cold during the night. They might have had high tolerances for pain but they still felt the heat and cold just like any other race. To find ways to stay cool and warm themselves was only normal.
"The water is nice." Said Balor, floating on his back as if he were a lily pad. "Can you swim, Brigid?"
"Not very well." Replied Brigid. She stayed beneath the shade of the trees, watching the love of her little heart.
"I could teach you, you know! My sister taught me!" To Evabon there was no half-brothers or half-sisters or even stepbrothers or stepsisters. When it came to them there was just family. To Balor, Thoris was just his sister not half-sister. "I've learned to swim twice, you know."
"Oh?" Brigid walked over to the river and sat on the bank, dipping her feet down into the water.
"Yes, first time Gard, Lynx-O, Hattanzo, Calaban and me were going back to my village to fight Thomeheb! We were in a canoe and something, I don't know what above the land and coming towards us. I stood up, ignoring Gard, and Calaban started getting excited and started to jump and bark and that caused the canoe to tip over! I had to learn how to swim or I would have drowned!"
"Who are Hattanzo and Calaban?"
"Hattazno is this drifter and Calaban was Gard's old tolac… Thomeheb killed him." Balor did miss Calaban. That big old tolac had been one of the nicest creatures Balor had ever known. He was always comfortable around beasts, unsurprising since if things had gone a certain way he would have become a feral child at the early age of one. "So do you want me to teach you how to swim?"
Brigid looked at the water. There was something of a fear she had when it came to water. It made her think of the terrible storms that had been a constant threat to her village and had a playmate of hers not died of drowning? "Maybe another time."
()
The day went by with those two talking. When they came back to Wilusa, Ekoto quickly approached Brigid with a dry, withered flower. Ekoto was a handsome boy in stark contrast to Balor was quite plain looking and seeing him with such a flower made Ekoto's flaws all the more apparent.
Brigid did not take the flower. She merely tried to get away from Ekoto who ended up following her with the flower intending to not stop until she took it from him.
Seeing this, an idea came to Balor. He could get a flower for Brigid. She showed her affection for him through kisses, so why shouldn't he give her a flower to show his?
The most beautiful and most fragrant flowers could be found in the wilderness. Balor would go there to find one!
Alaksandu watched as Balor left Wilusa. He had barely even been in the city three minutes and already he was leaving it again. Just where was he going? Piyama-Radu's nephew looked at the arrow he was holding. It was made of iron and the poison on the blade was not fatal, just weakening… The kind used to hunt game… Accidents did happen!
()
Balor had remembered seeing some flowers on the bank of the river Zannanza, so he returned to that spot. Sure enough there was flowers, red flowers! The same shade as Brigid's eyes!
Reaching out a hand to pick it, Balor stopped. If he were to pick the flower wouldn't it die? Being someone who didn't like fighting and liked killing even less. He had come to hate the killing of people… How did he feel about killing a plant? Not too good.
"Balor!" That was Wodanaz's voice! "Jump!"
Jump he did only for something sharp to go into his right heel. As he fell into the river, he saw Alaksandu pick the flower, not even giving Balor a glance.
()
Brigid did eventually escape from Ekoto. Finding sanctuary in the old battered house where Henti called her home, Brigid huddled in the corner of her cousin's bedchamber. Ekoto scared her, her had even scared Balor away! Even Alaksandu whom she despised had been scared away it seemed.
"Brigid?" And thus entered Alaksandu. Brigid's eyes fell upon the beautiful red flower in his hands. "It brings out your eyes." He gave it to the girl whose eyes widened in shock.
She had seen a flower like this earlier. She had been with Balor. Yes, this was one of the same flowers growing on the riverbank!
"Where is Balor?"
()
Where indeed?
Balor had crawled out of the river and pulled an iron arrow out of his right heel. Lying in the mud, the boy felt disoriented. Thirsty too! Three times he drank from the clean river water and yet his thirst did not go away. Worse, Balor felt like he had a fever coming.
Seeing a pair of red feet coming towards him, Balor looked up and saw Ekoto. The older boy only wanted to excel at swordplay and boxing, the javelin and the discus, the bow… Truth be told Evabon were barbarians to some extent. The Thunderans, the Dogs and the Avistans were the three great civilizations of Third Earth. They hung onto their cities that were once great, some of them returning to nearly stone-age society of tribal hunter-gatherers that the Evabon were long before their golden age. Ekoto was becoming a rather perfect example of the negative version of the term 'Barbarian.' He was uncultured, brutish, longing for fighting, only wanting a challenge! The terms savage, heathen and brute went quite well with him and he was a sore loser too! He saw too clearly that Brigid's affection was not for him but for Balor. Being a sore loser, Ekoto had searched for the Son of Pwyll to give him a beating. Upon finding him however, Ekoto did not kick Balor. He just stared. Finally looking at the iron arrow Balor had pulled out of his heel, Ekoto decided to help Balor up.
"What happened?" Ekoto's question was a logical place to start.
"Alaksandu tried to kill me!"
Hearing this, Ekoto dropped Balor. "You dare insult my family? How can you accuse my cousin of trying to kill you?"
"Because he did!" Balor crawled onto a rock, something for him to sit on. "Your cousin is like a burning ember! Whatever he touches will burn to the ground!"
"Shut up!" Within the blink of an eye, Ekoto scratched Balor's left cheek with the arrow's head. "If you didn't have any friends or family I'd kill you for that insult to my family!"
"It's no insult to speak the truth." Responded Balor. "And besides, Alaksandu didn't care about killing me since I've got family and friends. Why should you?"
"Because it would reflect badly on me!" Ekoto threw the arrow down into the water. "I have to earn the right to become Chieftain of Evabon after my father! If I were to do anything that would reflect badly on me I'd probably be stepped over in favor of Alaksandu or someone like you!"
"There is nothing wrong with knowing fighting is pointless and that is the point of it." Balor's answer did not please Ekoto.
Ekoto looked at the arrow in his hands. An answer like that left him unsure about what to do and he hated being unsure. "Uh, your skin is grey."
"You were trying to give a grey girl a flower. Give another reason for why someone like me can't be Chieftain of Evabon."
"You're dressed like a savage!"
"Hypocrite." Balor spending time around Dalv had given him quite the vocabulary. Ekoto didn't even know what a hypocrite was. Balor had left the older boy completely dumbfounded. "Now can you please help me back to Wilusa?"
Ekoto didn't give answer. He just pushed Balor off the rock and into the water. For all Ekoto cared, Balor could drown! With that, he left.
But Balor did not drown. Instead of landing in a deep area, he ended up landing in the shallows. As strong as he might have been, Balor was starting to feel a bit broken deep down.
()
When Balor returned to Wilusa, midnight had come. He wasn't feeling as weak as he had hours ago, the poison was beginning to wear off.
Straight to the house of Henti he went or rather he tried. Balor ended up passing out as soon as he got to the entrance.
Upon waking at daybreak, Balor found both Gard and Zuvowang sitting on both sides of him.
"Have an adventure yesterday?" asked Gard. Balor did not answer. "Sometimes it is dangerous to go looking for adventure, Balor. I got my first scars from an adult komrev when I was ten years old. They were pretty bad, many thought I'd die but I didn't. I survived."
Zuvowang chuckled. "You got your first scars at the age of ten, you old savage?" Who was Zuvowang to call Gard old when the latter was only a year older than the former?
"Yeah, I did! When did you get yours, you big sarcophagus?"
A confused look appeared on Zuvowang's face. "I don't know! I can't remember!"
Sitting up, Balor looked at the two elders. "Have either of you seen Brigid?"
"No, can't say I have!" replied Gard.
"When did I get my first scars?" Zuvowang didn't even hear Balor. He was looking at a crumbling wall trying to remember what he had just asked.
Balor got up and started to enter the house in search of Brigid when Gard spoke. "Balor…" Balor turned and saw Gard holding a wooden sword a child used for training. "If Ekoto does a ludicrous roll remember it doesn't work in actual combat. Just knock his sword out of his hand and knock him on the head with your sword." Balor took the wooden sword and nodded. He then returned to his search for Brigid.
Zuvowang turned his head to look at Gard. No longer was he trying to remember when he got his first scars. He now had a different question on his mind. "How do you know that move will work?"
"Because I was once on the receiving end of it."
()
Balor had a slight limp. He was trying to say off his right heel. Any time it touched the ground, Balor felt the pain he had yesterday when the arrow had gone into the heel and when he took it out.
Many of the suitors of Henti had died in the attack on Wilusa. There was now only three: Bethad, his arrogant elder brother Atrides and the wily Ulysses. Walking over to the three suitors, who of all of those who had come to seek Henti's hand in marriage were the nicest, Balor looked at them with wide eyes.
"Hello, boy!" Atrides placed a hand on Balor's head and ruffled his hair. He had dark blue eyes and a deep smooth voice. Atrides and Bethad were both yellow skinned. Atrides was large and powerful in appearance. "Looking for someone?"
"Brigid…"
"Henti's little cousin?" Balor nodded. Atrides began to scratch his chin. "Can't say I have. She might be sleeping. I didn't see her leave at all… She might be up stairs."
Balor thanked Atrides and walked up in search of Brigid. Once at the top of the stairs, Seeing Kerdig, he walked over to him and asked if he knew where Brigid was.
"She's being given a bath." Stated Kerdig. Balor did not like Kerdig. The fact that he pushed spikes into his own shoulders to amuse himself disturbed Balor to no end. There was currently eleven in his left shoulder and five in his right. It was most frightening! "No… I'm thinking of someone else… She's in the garden behind the house." Kerdig had begun to pull a spike out of his shoulder the moment he finished his sentence. Not wanting to see that, Balor ran away as fast as he could and ran to the garden.
Sure enough, Brigid was there. She was in a tree, staying away from Ekoto and Alaksandu who were fighting each other over the flower Alaksandu had been trying to give to Brigid all night.
Waving at her, Balor threw his wooden sword aside, which hit both Ekoto and Alaksandu in the head. This effectively knocked the two cousins out. Brigid jumped down from the tree while Balor limped over to the flower Ekoto and Alaksandu had been fighting over. He had intended to give Brigid a flower anyway.
He gave her the flower and then she kissed him on the left cheek, where a new scar was.
The End