Kiya leaned back with her elbows in the sand. The day was bright and the sun was hot. Exactly the sort of day that Kiya liked. The waves were lapping up onto the sand in a lazy pattern. Normally she loved the crashing breaks, but today was more about the wind than the waves. She was testing a new sail for her wave board, but right now she just wanted to bask in the sunlight. She leaned up rub some more cream on her legs. Though she was half Ifranian and Skandian she was prone to sunburn. Her dark skin offered no protection whatsoever.
If her father gave into her request she wasn't sure when the next time she would be able to simply relax in the sun. A smile skipped across her face. Her father had never been able to deny her anything. Not that she was spoiled or a brat about anything. She rarely asked for anything save money to buy wood and the occasional bag of rock candy.
She felt the wind crawling up her back and whipping her hair around her head. "Nice," she smiled jumping to her feet and grabbing her new wave board. Unlike many of her countrymen Kiya was an excellent swimmer. Thanks in no part to her father. Kiya was always surprised that though Skandians were by far the best seamen in the world only a handful of them could actually swim.
She ran into the water with her board tucked under her arm. The wind started to pick up as she dove into the water. The stinging temperature caused her muscles to file a vigorous protest, but she kept paddling. They needed to get with the program because she wasn't stopping. This was going to be the only time she got to test her board before they had to leave for Hallsholm.
~~X~~
Ajon stood on the porch of his simple home and gazed out at the view. He could see his daughter out on the water wave riding. Her sail had worked. Of course he knew it would. His daughter had one of the best minds he had ever come across. And his father had been a shaman in his village. Maybe that was where she got it from, he mused. His chest swelled with pride as he watched her work. She skipped her board from one wave to the next as the wind caught the sail.
His daughter, Kiya, was the light of his life. Her curly black hair was blowing in the breeze as she surfed back up onto the sand. She shook herself off like a cat and caught her hair up in her fist before binding it with a yellow leather band. A birthday present from him a few years back. She never liked to braid her like the other Skandian girls. Though he didn't doubt that Kiya didn't fancy herself a real Skandian.
He sighed and walked back into the house to prepare dinner. He didn't think that cooking was simply a women's past time. He rather enjoyed the simple pleasures of cooking, and it helped that it was just him and Kiya. He could have taken another wife as a freeman, but no one could replace his wife, Lupa. She had been a dragon flower among lilies. The bread was nearly done as he went back into the kitchen to finish dinner.
He had tried to work, but thoughts of his daughter kept clouding his judgement and jewelry making required a steady hand. What she asked of him was impossible, but yet he could not deny her. He never could. His daughter wanted to be just like her mother. It made his heart squeeze to think of his daughter aboard a woflship, but she was just like her mother. Though she was slight of build she was as strong as an ox and witty as a fox.
If his daughter wanted to join the brotherband training who was he to deny her? But would the Oberjarl deny his daughter the chance to become a seawolf? Sure his wife had been a skirl on a wolfship, but she was a rouge and her entire crew were rouges who couldn't find work on any other woflship and thus had fallen under the command of a female.
"Hello father," Kiya called as she walked into the house. Ajon turned toward his daughter as he finished gutting the fish he was holding onto. She leaned her wave board up against the wall next to the door. Katrina was as brown as a cocoanut as she walked properly into the house. The light bounced off her skin and made her look like polished wood. She spent all her waking moments outside in the sun. Either wave riding or down at the bottom of the gully hunting for pearls or fishing. She was his best worker.
"Hello daughter mine." He finished with the fish in his hand before moving on to the next one. He was making his famed fish pie for dinner. A meal that he knew Kiya would enjoy and remember if she was accepted into the brotherband training.
He thought back to his own limited childhood. He was a mere boy when he was kidnapped during a raid on his seaside city, but he still remembered his home as if he had simply walked away yesterday. His mother had been a fierce warrior after the goddess Oya. Proud and beautiful his mother had been courted by men far and wide. Yet she allowed a gentle shaman to win her hand. His father wise and meek kept the home fires burning as his mother defended the tribe. Ajon had a thought to be a Ogoun warrior and join his mother in battle, but life had other plans for him as the white devils of the sea attacked their village.
The girls had been hidden away in the tall steppes that ran around the village, so all the young boys who couldn't fight or run fast enough were snatched. Ajon had been neither. He had been captured trying to rescue his friends. His heart squeezed as he thought of the fate that awaited them when the landed in the world of ice and snow.
"Father." Kiya said softly from across the room.
Ajon shook himself from his memories and got back to the business of preparing dinner. "Tomorrow we will journey to see the Oberjarl." He announced. He knew she had been awaiting his answer for weeks now. He had admired her vow to not badger him about his decision. She had posed the question once and then left him to his own devices to work through the problem. Before he could turn around to face him be was knocked back over the sink by his daughter throwing herself at him.
"Oh thank you father. Thank you." She was hanging onto his neck and kissing him ferociously.
He chuckled and set his knife down to embrace his daughter. "Its only half the battle. Erak still has to agree to this. Brotherband training isn't easy and just because they let you train doesn't mean they have to let you graduate." He warned.
"Oh father I doubt my uncle will deny me." Kiya said confidently. Ajon had to chuckle at the authority in her voice. Ajon wasn't so sure. Erak and his wife Lupa hadn't parted on good terms. As the oldest male in the house Erak took his role as protector very seriously and when his baby sister asked to go into brotherband training he had forbade it. Lupa ran away from home and from what Ajon knew had never seen her brother again. Ajon had sent word that she had passed away, but Erak didn't attend the funeral pyre. Ajon wasn't even sure that the Oberjarl knew he had a niece. Ajon certainly never ventured to Hallsholm for anything. He sent his taxes in through the local Jarl.
"Pack up everything you will need for training we leave in the morning." Kiya gave him one last peck on the cheek before skipping away into her bedroom.
They rose bright and early the next morning. They weren't that far from the capital, but they couldn't follow a straight road in. They lived right on the coast of Skandia in the southern part so they had to go further inland to get north to the capital.
Most Skandians were not horse riders, but Ajon being an Ifranian he was born to ride a horse and he taught his daughter well. She road a beautiful chestnut mare while Ajon ride on a proud battle horse that he had bought in Celtica on a business trip. He was told the horse had been bought from a man in Arelaun.
It was a great time for both of them as they chatted and laughed like old friends the entire trip. Ajon had always had a great relationship with his daughter. Many men scoffed that he hadn't taken another wife to have a son, but Kiya was all he ever wanted. In his cultural woman were the power structure and the backbone of society. A firstborn girl was a sign of good luck and prosperity for any man. Ajon thought himself lucky to have had a daughter after the life he had been forced to live in Skandia.
They made great time and only had to stop once for lunch. IT was the leftovers of the fish pie from dinner with a few candied apples. They arrived in the capital city a little after high noon.
Ajon hadn't been to Hallsholm since his wife bought his freedom nearly twenty years ago and riding through the streets did not bring back happy memories. "Are you alright father?" Kiya asked as she sidled up to him on her mare.
He shook his head, "I'm fine." He gave her a tight smile and rode on. Hallsholm was small for a capital city so unlike his homeland that boasted bustling cities that he nearly wept at the sight of the simple pine log buildings. Even his seacoast town had been bigger than Skandia's capital. Maybe after Kiya was in brotherband training he would return home for a bit and try to track down his family.
He had been taken from his home during a unplanned fishing trip with two of his best friends. He had been barely seven years old when the burly seawolf had snatched him up by the scruff of his neck and stole him from the only home he had known.
It was a exercise to put himself into the here and now. This was his daughter's time to stake her claim. His time had set. Erak's Great Hall stood smack in the middle of the town and that's where Ajon directed his horse. Many of the towns people backed away from his horse with wide eyes. Ifranians were not common in Skandia and no doubt people were whispering about his intentions.
They tied their horses in the stockade. He watched Kiya as she looked around trying to take in everything. He knew she was trying to picture her mother running through the streets with her brown plaits flying behind her. Same as he was. He couldn't see how the town had been able to contain Lupa for the few years that it had.
Somehow he couldn't see his wife hustling around with a pail of water or a broom in her hand. Lupa had never been the domestic sort of woman. Lupa had been every much one of the boys as his brother in law seemed to be. Well from the stories he heard about the man.
They walked across the hard packed earth into the Great Hall of the Oberjarl. It was the middle of the day and the middle of tax season so angry jarls and skirls were coming and going from the Great Hall with rapid frequency. One nearly bowled Kiya over, but she leapt out of the way just in time.
"Mind where you step girl." The seawolf snarled. He was not a man that suffered the likes of women. Especially when they weren't cowering in a corner away from him, and this little jumped up girl had better learn her place before he taught it to her.
"Mind where you step." Kiya shot back. She saw her father turn with a horrified look on his face. Her father grabbed her elbow and yanked her out of the line of fire before she got into a fight.
"Kiya mind your tongue. Getting into a fight in the Oberjarl's house will not endear you to him." He whispered. He knew Kiya had a warrior's spirit, and she wasn't one to be pushed around by anyone, but she had to start learning some restraint. She was smart enough to see her father's logic as they were ushered into the dining hall. He couldn't remember the last time he had to scold her.
The hilfsman, Borsa, as Ajon remembered, stopped them in their tracks. "What business have you with the Oberjarl?" He asked.
"I am Ajon freeman and husband of Lupa Starfollower. I have a matter to discuss only with the Oberjarl." At his announcement it seemed all activity in the dining hall stopped. Borsa's face burst into a brilliant shade of purple and then red.
"Excuse me," he stammer as he tried to run down the length of the dining hall toward the Oberjarl. Once he reached Erak he had a very heated discussion with him. Erak stood up from his chair. Kiya shrank back behind her father. Her uncle was a massive man. Maybe the biggest Skandian man she had ever seen. His beard was covering the entire lower half of his face and his mouth was open in the most curious little 'O' that almost erased Kiya's fear.
Erak footsteps rang out in the hall as he walked down the length toward Kiya and her father. Ajon squared his shoulders and stood tall and proud as the Oberjarl approached. He stopped short when he was but a breath away from her father. Kiya saw the family resemblance immediately. Her mother's nobel nose was larger than life on her uncles face as well as her twinkling eyes. Though on Erak they looked menacing.
"I wanted to make her funeral," Erak said as a way of greeting. His voice was deep and rumbled like rocks falling into the sea. "I was away on state business." He said softly holding out his hand for Ajon to shake. The men grasped hands and after a heartbeat Erak pulled Ajon in for a hug. The tension in the dining hall evaporated and Kiya relaxed. From the stories her mother told her Erak had a fearsome temper and the battleax skills to back it up. She had been expecting to be tossed out on their ears.
"Oberjarl." Ajon said once both men let go. Both of them blinked away tears. "This is Kiya. Lupa's daughter." He pushed Kiya forward gently. Erak rocked back on his heels as if struck and blinked down at Kiya.
She stared up at her uncle as he stared down at her. His big hand touched a piece of her hair that has come a loose from her leather band. "My sister lives in you." He said gathering Kiya up in a bear hug. Kiya felt the breath being squeezed from her lungs but she was't going to tell him to let go. "Prepare a banquet tonight for my niece Kiya Starfollower." He bellowed. The sound made Kiya's ears ring as she was right by his mouth when he spoke. He set her down gently. Tears were stinging her eyes. This was the homecoming she had dreamed about but never dared to give voice to.
Erak leaned down and kissed her on the forehead before laying his heavy hand on Ajon's shoulder. "Come brother let's drink." The other seawolves in the room growled their approval. Kiya was dismissed to go off and let the menfolk do what they did best. She had a sour face at this, but Ajon was firm. As tough as she was Kiya was still a child and there were things that children just shouldn't be a party too, and a rough and tumble crowd of drunken seawolves was one of them.
The rest of lunch was a blur of names and faces that Ajon was going to struggle to remember, but it felt good to be accepted without
Ajon sat in the private quarters of his brother-in-law. He never thought Erak would have welcomed them with open arms. Lupa had said the last time she had seen Erak he was swinging his battleax and hurling curses. From what he heard around town Erak and his battleax were something to be feared.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Erak asked sitting down in the scrubbed table and chairs that dominated the room. A dainty chandelier took up most of the table, but Ajon was sitting facing the Oberjarl.
"Lupa asked me not to," He said softly. Erak's face darkened. "You hadn't seen your sister in nearly twenty years and your parting was not a joyous one. She was scared you were still mad and would turn Kiya away. And she is after all my daughter." Ajon added. Skandians were not the friendliest folks when it came to outsiders and half-breeds like Kiya. Especially since he was a former slave.
"So why come now?" He pushed out.
Ajon took a deep breath. "Kiya is her mam's daughter Erak. She wants to start brotherband training." He flinched back waiting for the cursing and ax flinging to start.
Erak leaned back in his chair and stared at Ajon he opened his mouth as if to stay something, but closed it before the thought escaped. He pushed his massive frame out of his chair and started to pace around the room. His shadow danced across the wall. Ajon allowed him the reprieve to think.
"If you has asked me this question a few years ago I would have ripped off you head and chained Kiya to my wrist till she married, but over the years I have seen things and learned things. I saw a boy no bigger than this stool take down an entire army. I saw a girl no bigger than the boy stand during a battle and knock a man senseless with naught but a pebble." He took a deep breath. "If Sigurd will allow it Kiya will go into brotherband training." His heart squeezed as he said this. He feared that she would get her feelings hurt or worse she wouldn't get picked and then her heart would get broken.
Ajon stood, "Lupa would have been proud to call you brother." Both men embraced and hugged it out.
~~X~~
Kiya hadn't liked the dismissive tone of her father. Not at all. She hated being kept out of things. It just wasn't in her nature. And her father had never done it before, but then they weren't home and Skandians did not value their woman as Ifarians like her father did.
Kya wandered around the Great Hall looking for something to do. Most of the girls she saw were scurrying around with work to do. They were ladened with laundry, platters of food or ale or buckets of water. Kiya sighed. This was not the life she wanted for herself. She couldn't live that sort of life. She had the fire of a warrior in her belly and the blood of a seawolf pumping through her veins. Her grandmother had been one of the feistiest warriors in Ifaria. How could Kiya be any less?
She moved out from the Great Wall toward the wharf. Men were coming and going as they moored their wolfships. It was a spectacular dance watching them bring their ships into the harbor. The skirl at the helm barking orders to his men. The men obeying without question, without delay. The trust they had in their skirl was unmatched. It made Kiya's chest swell to think that one day she would command that kind of trust.
Kiya left the harbor and moved inland. She walked along a well worn foot path that lead her up and into the woods. It was a warm day out so up under the canopy of trees the temperature dropped slightly. It had her wishing she had warn her cowhide jacket. She heard running water and she increased her steps to get back into the sunshine again.
She followed the sound as she nearly stumbled out into a rock cliff that overhung a small gully. The rock face wrapped around the side of the cliff creating a natural harbor. Kiya sat down and hung her feet over the side of the cliff and watched the birds dive bombing for fish. It wasn't the way she wanted to spend her afternoon but it was better than watching the womenfolk go about their boring lives.
Kiya sat up as she spotted a ship on the horizon. The bow of the tiny ship kept dipping too low in the waves instead of riding on top of the wave. The ship was not built to slice through the waves like normal wolfships were. Kiya jumped to her feet. Who the hell was at the helm? The wind picked up and caught the sails. The ship lurched forward throwing the figure at the tiller off their feet. Kiya couldn't believe what she was seeing. She had never seen such terrible sailing from a Skandian. Even a boy could have stirred a ship better than that. She looked for a way down to the dock. Once she spotted it she raced down.
The ship tried to tack across the waves but the skirl misjudged and once again the ship was tossed back into the mix of froth and water. Kiya wanted to scream. That skirl was going to get everyone killed, and the ship was coming in entirely too fast. They were going to smash into the rocks. "Trim your sails!" she cried waving her arms trying to get anyone's attention. Her heart was pounding in her chest. "Trim your damned sails," she shouted. Someone on deck was pointing out at her. "The sails! Trim them!" If they didn't listen they were going to pass the point of no return. Someone on deck was scrambling to yank at the yardarm. Kiya was about the throw up she was so scared. How in the hell did they get out of the harbor? Finally someone was able to get the sail down and the ship slowed but whoever was at the tiller had no idea what they were doing and they weren't going to be able to pull into the harbor without smashing the boat to bits. "Weight the anchor!" she shouted. The person on the deck waved an arm and soon the anchor dropped down in the water.
Kiya wanted to faint with relief. Once the anchor caught the ship bobbed in the water gentle. Kiya stripped down to her undergarments and jumped into the water to swim out to the ship.
Someone lowered and rope ladder so she could climb up. It took Kiya a minute to climb up the rope and once she did she was ready to tear into the skirl. "You're girls," she blurted as she got a good look at the crew of the ship.
"In case you didn't know you're a girl too." Said one the raven haired oarsmen(girl).
Kiya got over her shock as she rounded on the skirl. "What the hell were you thinking?" she asked. The redhead behind the tiller looked literally green around the gills. "You could have killed everyone on the ship. Why didn't you tack north?" The girl just blinked at her. "Do you even know what you're doing?" Because any seawolf worth their salted pork knew how to sail.
"Leave her alone alright. We were doing good till the wind picked up." Said the other oarmens, a blond. She had a sweet milk maid face and the figure to match.
"It didn't occur to you that the wind is always going to be around if you're out in open sea?" Kiya asked looking at the all female crew. They seemed right shaken with the whole experience. It was a wonder they got the ship out into the open sea. "Do you have any idea of how dangerous sailing is?" They seemed to be play acting at being seawolves. Not surprising. Girl weren't taught how to sail and navigate.
"Its my brother's boat and he left for brotherband training so we took it out." A redhead girl spoke up. "Who are you anyways?" she eyed Kiya up and down. No doubt she was wondering just how Kiya knew so much about sailing. She obviously wasn't a Skandian.
"Kiya Starfollower." Kiya said proudly.
"You're related to the Oberjarl?" The skirl finally asked as she gathered herself.
"He's my uncle." They looked like they didn't believe her but then if she were an outsider how would she knew who the Oberjarl was to invoke his name and let alone his family name to use it correctly.
"You can sail?" Asked the redhead oarsmen.
"My mom was a seawolf she taught me. She was skirl of the Wolfstorm." Kiya announced. The girls all looked at her with wide eyes.
"No lie?" asked the redheaded boat owner.
Kiya laughed. "If I were going to lie I would think of something better to say." She smiled at all of them. "Mind if I bring her in?" she asked turning to the skirl.
The girl stepped aside. Kiya nodded. "Alright ladies. Raise the sail and drop the oars." The girls looked at her as if she were speaking Pictan. "Move it." she bellowed. The girls jumped into action. She pointed to a blond girl with her pigtails coiled up around her ears. "Raise the anchor." she girl bobbed her head and ran off. The boat turned and pointed straight at the dock. Under oars it wasn't moving as fast as the ship could go. "Trim the sails," Kiya ordered as she turned the tiller running the ship parallel with the dock. They came in slow and easy with the waves pushing them into the dock.
The ship bumped into the dock gently, and Kiya smiled. "That ladies is how you handle a ship." She announced proudly. The lowered the gangplank and everyone climbed off. Kiya retrieved her clothes.
They spent the day on the cliff watching the tide and gossiping like the girls they were. Kiya got to know all the girls. They were a friendly bunch who were of the same mind as Kiya. They knew there was something bigger and better beyond their mam's kitchens and they wanted it as badly as Kiya did. Herdis, the redhead had been at the tiller. Bera, the blond and Halldora, the raven were the oarsmen. Dalla, the blond with the coiled plaits has lifted the anchor. Freya had been acting as first mate, Torfa and Finna had seemed to just be standing around taking up deck space.
Kiya told them that she was trying to get into brotherband training which shocked them all down to their plaits.
"Will the Oberjarl really let you train?" Freya asked.
Kiya looked at her new friend, "I'm not sure but if my father can get him to agree I'm going." she knew her father would argue for her tooth and nail.
"Well the Oberjarl let us into brotherband training too?" Herdis spoke up. The girl was too soft spoken to make a good skirl and Kiya wondered how she had been elected the leader.
Kiya looked into the faces of all her new friends. "If I can do it I will get it done. Wait for my my the stockyard after the feast." she told them. They all nodded and broke up. Most of the girls had to get back home and get on with the womenly chores before their mams got after them.
Kiya skipped back to the Great Hall feeling great at having made some new friends and possibly a new crew.
