A/N This will be another one-shot collection, now, with all of my winter/holiday themed Emelan stories in one place. Each A/N will have the context of the chapter, and I will post the summary at the beginning of each, to make browsing easier! This first one is actually one of the first stories I wrote and posted, and I am just changing the title and summary so it is the first chapter in this new collection. Thanks for reading!
Summary: Set a few months after Briar's Book, Sandry is trying to find the perfect presents for her three friends. Purely holiday fluff.
Sandry pulled her hood up, protecting her blonde hair from the almost painfully cold rains that were falling. No way around it, she thought, trying to look at it optimistically. It will be raining for months, yet.
She skirted around the puddles forming on the cobbled street, a condition that Rosethorn had forced the girl to agree with in exchange for some time in the city while the still-sharp Dedicate handled the medicines at some of the poorest healing houses. The epidemic had drained everyone's pockets and energy. And, even though it had been almost seven months, with the added winter colds on the weak population there was more work than ever.
Sandry forced her mind away from those thoughts and the memories that came with them. There were other things to think about! Like Midwinter and what she was going to get for Briar, Tris, and Daja.
It would be their second Midwinter together but Sandry felt that it was the most important, in some way. They had become closer than ever, especially over the past few months but still they all claimed not to care about the holiday, and to Sandry who felt it was a time for them to become a family, this hurt. Sandry couldn't understand the others.
Why am I the only one trying to bring us closer together? Sandry wondered, her morose thoughts causing her to lose the forced happy attitude.
Wandering around the stalls in the rain, Sandry discarded most of the gift ideas she saw, even though they would have been suitable for her friends. A new book on weather for Tris, some plants for Briar, a piece of metal for Daja. All of it seemed so...shallow. There was more to her friends than their magic, she knew. All she had to do was remember them.
Sandry moved between two stalls, where she could stop, out of the way of the market crowd, and think. Rain ran off her hood and soaked into the hem of her skirt as she thought of the girl she had known first. A Trader; quiet, down-to-earth and intense. The smell of ash and soot and metal- But no, Sandry reminded herself, I am going under the magic- Visits with Polyam, when the Tenth Caravan Idaram had found its way south this past fall. A tenderly kept-up altar in her room at Discipline. Ten years with seafaring people. What had Daja mentioned, when they were up on the outer walls?
After rushing down to the water-side shops, and soaking her shoes in the process, Sandry stood in the salt air and thought of Tris. Stubborn, solitary, kind-on-the-side Tris. Sandry knew that she would like any book bought for her, but Sandry wanted something different. Something that showed she cared. She thought of the clean house, Tris did the best work, out of the four of them. Sandry thought about the tender looks Tris gave to animals, which everyone pretended not to notice, so the fierce redhead wouldn't get embarrassed. Sandry grinned. She knew just what to get Tris!
Standing outside a small shop, hugging her two purchases to her chest, to protect them from the rain, Sandry thought of the last of her friends. The only boy of their group, and the wildest, Briar was often impatient with the 'skirts'. He spent most of his time in the gardens or Rosethorn's work- Sandry! She scolded herself, Concentrate!- She thought of the boy, not the plant-magic. Street-quick, cunning and mischievous, Briar needed no help getting into trouble. But he did need help, and even though it was Tris dealing with it, Sandry thought her Midwinter gift might be a perfect excuse to offer her support.
"Lark is going to kill me when I bring you back like that," Rosethorn muttered, as she loaded the girl into the cart. Sandry was in such a good mood after her purchases that not even Rosethorn's sharp disapproval over the disheveled and soaked state she was in could cut through her enthusiasm.
Rain pattered against the ground outside as Midwinter came to an end. The midnight bells, calling the temple folk to prayer, echoed through the temple, dimmed by the fog that had risen with the rains. Sandry snuggled further down under her blanket, thinking of the cold weather just outside the walls. She rolled over to look at the desk, lit by the glow of her night-light stone that sat with her own Midwinter presents.
Even though they had spent the weeks leading up to the holiday complaining, it was clear to Sandry that the three had put as much thought into her gifts as she had put into theirs.
Daja had handed her a beginner's practice staff, and a promise to teach the noble how to wield it as soon as they could get outside. "It's about time you learned how to do more than lob mud," The Trader had informed the delighted noble.
Tris had given Sandry a beautiful little woodcarving of a deer leaning down, as if for a drink. Tris had simply explained that the rooms all needed some decoration, but Sandry had realized it was the redhead's way of repaying her for the bird wall-hanging that still took up the formerly blank space in Tris's room. It was the only way she could have said 'thank you'.
Briar had given Sandry a spindle of thread in front of the adults, but in private he had snuck her a lock-picking kit. He had noted her fascination with his skills months ago, and, to Briar, it made perfect sense that everyone should know how to pick locks. He had enough brains to realize that Niko, Lark and Rosethorn did not share that view on life, of course, Sandry thought, amused.
Sandry thought about her own purchases, trying to judge if they were as well suited. Daja's carving of a ship, its sails unfurled. A lasting addition to her family's shrine, in the Trader tradition of remembrance on Midwinter. Tris's tough leather gloves and a small birdcage, necessary since Tris had brought home yet another stray baby bird, this time a crow. For Briar, there had been two simple books and a writing kit, which he could use on his own now, after all Tris's lessons.
Sandry smiled sleepily, knowing that her choices had been the right ones. She shouldn't have been surprised that they had put the same amount of thought into their gifts for her.
After all, they were family.
Briar will be so mad, when I start calling him 'brother'. The thought made the noble smiled as she drifted off to sleep.