Posted: 8-29-2014
A/Notes: There is an author soon to have a birthday. Her initials are A.W.P. and this story is a birthday gift for her. It was requested by vampygurl402. Both Vampy and I wish you a very Happy Birthday! Enjoy.
A Birthday Gift
"Aw, come on Roran," the young teen frowned with disappointment, and he flung his pack and bow to the ground, as he followed his older cousin into the fields. "This is the third time this season that you have agreed to go hunting with me and then changed your mind."
"I can't go now," came the unrepentant reply. "Father needs me."
"We just finished clearing the all the weeds yesterday. There isn't anything to do now, but watch the crop grow."
The younger boy's words fell unheeded, and the elder continued walking up the row of tall green tassels, undeterred from his purpose. Coming to a stop, the boy watched as the form of Roran grew more hidden behind the not quite straight rows of crops.
"Fine. Go ahead and abandon me, just like everyone else." The deep hurt sounded bitterly through the angry shout. "I'm not stupid you know. I can tell when you start making up excuses... If you don't want to spend time with me, just tell me to 'go get lost'. If you don't like me, then stop pretending you do."
The last few words were choked out through a tangle of emotion, as the furious boy turned and stomped back towards the humble thatched dwelling they both shared with Roran's father. Tears blurred the boy's vision as he snatched up his bow, quiver and pack and stomped off into the dark woods of the Spine.
Eragon's angry words echoed in Roran's ears. Why did his cousin have to be so melodramatic all of the time. Roran loved his cousin like a brother, but lately the elder had many other things on his mind besides hunting and goofing off. Why did the kid keep turning his choices into personal abandonment issues?... But Roran knew the answer to that. Eragon had been abandoned at birth, and no amount of reassurance by his adoptive family would ever heal that completely. It didn't matter that every moment since that fated birth, Roran and his parents had doted on the boy as if he were their own. No, it didn't matter. The boy was choosing to cling to his abandonment like a security blanket.
"Abandon me like everyone else," Roran muttered to himself, as he came to a halt in the shoulder high field. Turning around he watched Eragon grab his things and disappear into the woods, and he sighed. The last thing Roran wanted was for his cousin to believe that this was how he actually felt. But the elder boy was also starting to feel some anger bubbling under the surface. After all, he had done nothing so terrible or wrong. Eragon needed to stop taking everything he did as a personal rejection.
Roran wasn't even aware of it when his feet started moving, but he found himself sprinting up the path that Eragon had just taken, with determination on his face.
This determination pressed Roran to catch up with the younger boy before he had traveled very far, and once he had caught up his hand clamped down on Eragon's shoulder and swung him around to face him.
"Eragon!" he started his objection with a strong intensity. "Do you know how annoying it is to be accused of 'abandoning you' every time you don't get your way?"
"I don't do that!"
"Go ahead, abandon me, just like everyone else," Roran quoted scoffing. "You were abandoned once Eragon, twelve years ago. And if I recall, you were left in the safe and loving care of family, my family, your aunt and uncle... and me. You are part of a close-knit community who -in spite of your dubious heritage and your peculiar affinity for the Spine- has opened their arms to you and never once turned you away in need... Abandoned indeed."
"Go away!" Eragon scowled turning back to the path. But Roran took hold of him again and refused to let him go.
"Oh yeah right... Now who's abandoning who?"
"Nusence..." the younger boy snapped.
"Dreamer..." Roran retorted.
"Two-face..." Eragon spat growing more furious.
"Ingrate..." Roran sneered, leaning forward to emphasize his accusation.
"Liar..." the boy's last screamed charge echoed against the distant peaks before being swallowed by the following silence. And the two youths glared at each other with the sort of antipathy that only siblings are able to muster. Unfortunately, the staring contest ended as it usually did with the younger boy looking away and crumbling into a pile of dejection and angst.
"What are you doing here anyway," the boy demanded sourly, and Roran did his best not to fall into the 'pity the poor younger brother' routine. But apparently he took too long to come up with a reply, because the younger boy's anger began to resurface. "You aren't going to go hunting with me! So, what are you doing here?"
"Eragon, I meant to go with you. I really did. But there is just something that I have to get done. And it won't wait. Can you understand that?"
There was a pause while the frowning Eragon considered his response.
"Sure... Okay... So, what is it that won't wait?"
"I'm making something," Roran replied holding his hand up to stop his cousin from interrupting him. "And don't ask me what it is, cause it's a secret."
"And you don't think that I can keep a secret?"
"By the stars!" Roran swore through gritted teeth. "Eragon, you are so annoying sometimes. I'm making a pair of goatskin gloves as a birthday present, if you must know. And you are not to mention it to anyone."
"For Katrina? You are ditching me.. and a hunting trip.. to sew a present for a girl?"
Stunned disbelief turned into amusement, and Eragon even had the nerve to laugh.
"Oh, now I've heard everything. Does Uncle know you've turned into a girl?"
"Shut up Eragon!" the elder warned ominously.
"Or what?" taunted the younger boy. "You'll whack me with your crochet hook?"
*POW!*
Eragon did not see his cousin's fist, but he did see stars. Roran used a hook on the boy alright... A left hook.
"Father's gonna have my hide," Roran groaned as both he and Eragon gazed at the reflection in the shallow pond. The shining black-eye on the younger boy was gonna be hard to explain.
"Nah," Eragon said wincing as he touched the tender swollen flesh. "By the time I return from the hunt, it'll hardly be noticeable. If he does ask I'll just say I fell."
Roran nodded gratefully, even if he was tormented with guilt.
-Why couldn't he have just stayed in the fields and continued with his intended task? Why had he gone traipsing off after Eragon in the first place?-
"Please Roran," Eragon spoke pleadingly, breaking the silence. "Tell me you aren't serious about a girl..."
"It's not just a girl," Roran explained defensively. "This is Katrina. She is different."
"No she isn't..." Eragon argued in ignorance.
"Yes she is," Roran insisted. His stance was so firm that Eragon accepted his statement, but he still wasn't satisfied.
"Why?" Eragon asked.
"No!" Roran bellowed, his own anger resurfacing. He was not about to be interrogated any further, especially on this subject. But in spite of his firm refusal, the younger boy kept pressing.
"Why is she different?"
"Why do you care?" responded Roran in a challenging tone, hoping to thwart the younger boy's inquiry with one of his own.
"If I am going to lose a brother, I want to know why!" And Eragon's blatant sincerity was enough to undermine Roran's defenses.
"You are not losing a brother," the elder blurted in exasperation. But seeing Eragon's unconvinced expression, Roran heaved a sigh of surrender.
"Okay, okay... You remember a few years back? Right after Ma died? How everything sort of fell apart after the burial, and I ran off and disappeared for a couple days?"
"I sure do..." Eragon answered with so much conviction that Roran was a bit taken aback. "Uncle was nearly half-mad with worry till Katrina came and told us where you were."
"Wait!" Roran exclaimed in astonishment. "You knew?!"
"Uh... sure we did." Eragon replied hesitantly. He hadn't expected Roran to be so surprised about it. "Katrina told us you just needed a little time, and Uncle agreed you'd be back when you were ready. So we just waited for you to return... What was it, three whole days?" Eragon snickered after the last.
Roran stood there stunned. He didn't quite know how to feel about this bit of news, but his uncertainty over it gave him time to pause and replay all that he could remember of the event in his mind.
He told himself that he wasn't going to cry. He had to be strong. He had to be a man. No, he couldn't cry. But no matter how much effort he put into the attempt, tears streamed down his face anew like rivers of sorrow. His Ma was gone forever...
"Roran?" came the whispered voice from behind him. "Are you alright?" It was Katrina's voice, soft and concerned, and all Roran wanted to do now was crawl under a rock and hide. Of all the people who could find him, it had to be her... the last person he would want to be seen crying in front of. All he could do in response was to groan, and she lay a gentle hand on his back, her concern growing into worry. "Please Roran..."
"No," the boy moaned, trying to shift her hand off his back. "Just leave me alone."
"I will not," Katrina snapped authoritatively. "And you can't make me, so stop your fussing."
This new bossy attitude was something Roran had not ever seen in her before, and he turned towards her with confusion on his face. The girl's fiery insistent glare reflected the copper highlights in her cascading hair, making this passionate flash of temper seem all the more natural on her. Roran's confusion only deepened as he watched her expression melt into a smile of pure devotion... And he felt his heart catch within him.
"You didn't leave me alone when you found me here three years ago," she said leaning closer, willing him to remember. "And I'm not leaving you."
Roran was stunned by her words. He had not really known why he'd chosen the falls to run to. He hadn't imagined anyone would ever follow him there. But someone had, she had, and the two of them locked gazes as both of them recalled the past tragedies, each playing out in their minds the events that had once before led them to this very spot...
That time the tragedy had been Katrina's. It had been her mother that had died, and so little was known about the event, and so grief-stricken had her father become after, that the young girl had wandered off in search of the mother she knew she would never find.
Birgit had noticed her absence first, and as Sloan had been in no condition to, she had quietly organized a search party. Roran had only been eleven, but his persistence payed off and he'd been permitted to join in the search.
The village men had spent the entire afternoon and evening scouring the edges of the Spine, and the twilight conspired to delay their efforts till the next morning. But Roran had kept looking, and had stumbled upon her at the foot of the falls where her mother, Ismira had fallen.
Night was falling, and the path would have been treacherous to take in the dark, so the young Roran had sat with the grieving girl through the night, and had walked her back to the village the following morning.
"So Katrina is different because she found you in the woods..." Eragon's voice sounded disappointed, as he tried his best to fathom his cousin's motivation in this matter. And the statement pulled Roran from the memories he had been absorbed in.
"No," Roran corrected, finally past the point of caring whether Eragon understood or not. "She is different because she understands me. I understand her. I was there for her when her mother died, and she was there for me... We share something that I can't explain. That's all I know."
The younger boy seemed to grow emotionally upon hearing his cousin's explanation. No longer was he looking petulant or angry or disappointed, but instead he sighed with resignation. Even still the silence hung between them for almost a full minute.
"Fine then," Eragon finally shrugged with eventual acceptance. "You love her... I'll just go hunting by myself then."
"Wait, I never say that I loved her!" Roran countered sharply.
"Oh yes you did," Eragon snorted. "I guess if you had to fall for someone, Katrina is about the best you could find."
Roran wanted to argue further, he wanted to deny the statement, he wanted to throttle the younger boy for his casual declaration. But the truth of his cousin's words rendered the older boy immobile, and all he could do was to watch as Eragon hefted his pack and bow over his shoulders, waved farewell and continued up the path, determined to salvage his hunt.
During the next couple minutes, Roran let everything sink in, and he accepted the truth that -up to that point- his feelings for Katrina had been covered with various excuses and disguises. But the truth was that he, Roran Garrowsson was in love with Katrina Ismirasdaughter. And now that the truth was openly staring him in the face, he was actually relieved.
A contented smile curled on his lips as he turned to head back home, back towards the crop-field and the small shed beyond it, where his secret project lay half finished. And all along the way, he saw the image of Katrina's beautiful face framed in her copper curls. And he saw that devoted smile that she had shared with him those years ago... that same smile he hoped to see again next week, as he handed to her...
... a birthday gift.