This short story needs an explanation. Yesterday I was shown a picture of Jah'ren and Cassandra which inspired me very much. This morning I was listening to a song and wanted to write something. This story is what happened to come out, and I didn't know where to put it, so I had to let it be a new story by itself.
Well, about the story: It is a short glimpse into Jah'ren's mind and past, a little more about his clan and his family. It happens while he and Cass is on the beach in my first story, and I did not realize I was writing about the picture I got yesterday before I suddenly was halfway through it. I can't link the picture here, but I can just tell you it's wonderful. Jah'ren is smiling and lifting Cass into the air while she's blushing.
I will post the lyrics to the song which inspired me under the story, if someone is interested. I did not want this to be a songfic, so it's not, but the lyrics were in my mind all the time while I wrote, so I felt like sharing them.
And wow belongs to Blizzard, the lyrics to the song "What sound" belongs to Lamb, and the beautiful picture belongs to Alinafee, who I want to dedicate this story to as well. (Maybe there will be more glimpses into Jah'ren's mind ;) Thanks for making the request sweety!)
****
He watched her pick up a shell from where the ocean met the beach. She was crouching down, turning the pink thing over and over in her hands, inspecting it with a look of approval on her face. Because of the warmth she was wearing no more than her underwear, and she had let her long, brown hair hang loose around her shoulder, just the way he liked it.
Jah'ren had never had a habit of thinking things over. Things just happened and either you learned from experience, or you did not. Now, as he watched the girl on the beach, he was thinking.
*
In the sandy hills of Durotar, where he grew up, life had seemed so easy. Either you fought, or you died. There had been friends back then, a small gang of whelps that grew older together, that fought and cried and survived together. Life had been harsh, but still easy, without choices that made you hesitate about what was right.
As he was the firstborn son of the chief there had always been a path for him, a fate he was supposed to fulfill. His older sister had no claim on the leadership, as was custom to their clan, although she had proved more than once that she would have been a better choice. She had grown up watching her friend from the Fogo Juba, the Firemane clan, be directed into her natural place as the future leader of the other clan, while Hetar herself had to take care of the wild little whelp that was destined to the title she would be denied.
Jah'ren remembered once his sister had gotten a thrashing from one of the tribe elders for calling her brother's name the wrong way. The young whelp had not understood why his sister was beaten and had bit the old troll in the calf to protect Hetar.
When he became older he had come to understand the meaning of his name, and why he could not let anyone use it wrong. His sister had still called him "Jah" when there was no one listening, and he had treasured the fact that she dared to.
The first syllable of his name was the number One in Zandali, while the last one meant son, referring to his position and destiny as the chief's first son. Hetar had once told him that she did not care if he was destined for chiefhood any more than she would care if he had been an ugly whelp with a constantly runny nose, to her he would always be her one brother, the brother she would always love.
After he left the clan and the tribe Jah'ren had long just used the first part of his name, but without his sister and the rest of his friends he had longed for an identity again and taken his full name back.
It had been a long time since he felt alive like he did now, watching Cassandra sitting on the sand, her small hands caressing and exploring the soft inside of a dead shell.
He had felt more alive than ever that day he stood up to his father, telling him that he had been out in the service of the Horde, he had seen and learned, and he wished to take the clan in another direction, to find a sanctuary and build a new future for them. His father had called him a coward and a fool and beaten him.
Jah'ren could still hear his mother yell out in fright when she entered the cave and saw her son laying bloody in a corner.
"Ya know what happens to traitors," his father had spitted. "I expected better of ya."
Those words had hurt more than the beating, and Jah'ren had crawled up on his knees, his mind burning in rage. It had been foolish to attack the older and stronger troll, but he had not been able to stop himself.
After being dragged through the camp so all the clan could see his disgrace, they had left him in a cave, telling him he was lucky not to be killed.
At that time, he would rather have been killed. He had cried from the shame and solitude as he lay in the cave, longing for his sister or his friends, knowing they were far away and that they too would be disgraced by his actions. The knowledge that he would have to go through the rest of his life without them, without a home, without a clan or tribe, almost broke him.
*
"You are awfully quiet," Cassandra said, throwing him a smooth pebble and smiling curiously.
He caught the pebble, again being filled with the warmth he felt when she smiled. From the day he had first met her he had not been able to explain to himself what that feeling was. He did not know exactly why he had followed her along the river, wishing to protect her and tame her, like she was some new pet. It had been his instincts that led him back then and it still was, instincts he had though dead for a long time.
He had been living in solitude, so sure he would never find companionship and friends again. It had been his punishment for pride and ambition. Still, from the moment he had felt the tremble in her hand as he held it, every longing he had felt these last years had suddenly been directed at her, making him need her.
"Jah think," he told her, letting his eyes run over her body as she stood up, the soft curves of her hips, her breasts, the red colour that was spreading across her cheeks as she felt his gaze.
"Jah?" she asked, sounding surprised. "You suddenly decided shortening your name?"
He did not answer, but went over to her to touch her hair. This made her blush even more, and she pulled away with a nervous smile.
"You are just lazy," she said, trying to get his focus away from her hair. "Now you are too lazy to pronounce your own name properly. Soon we'll be talking in single words and I'll understand even less of what you say."
She turned around, pulling her brown locks from his fingers.
"Me Jah'," she teased. "Jah' think."
Jah'ren threw his arms around her waist, lifting her while she kicked furiously at the air, giggling and squealing.
He enjoyed the feeling of their bodies so close together, the way the laughter made the muscles in her stomach shiver under his arms, the sound of her voice. It filled him with a peace he had thought he never would own again, and his lips pulled back in a happy grin against her back.
****
What is that sound
Ringing in my ears
The strangest sound
I've heard for years and years
The sound of two hearts
Beating side by side
The sound of one love
That neither one can hide
The sound that makes
the world go round
What is that sound
Running round my head
Funny, I thought
That part was long since dead
But now there's new life
Coursing through my veins
Because there's someone
Who'll make it beat again
The sound that makes
the world go round
What is that sound
Ringing in my ears
The strangest sound
I've heard for years and years
The sound of two hearts
Beating side by side
The sound of one love
That neither one can hide
***
Thanks for reading :)