Ch 2
Shei was getting used to his grace, figuring out the margin for just how much he had to lie by for the grace to pick it up and actually work. Lying by ommition never seemed to affect it, as if he stayed vague it only encouraged people to ask questions and he would be forced to either confess or scramble to come up with a lie. One such time was when he had been on a sort of thieving spree, and had been stealing things from market stalls, something he'd done ever since that day when he'd figured out about his lying. His room was filled with nicknacks and linens and things, and he was sorting through the things he wanted to keep, and what he wanted to give to his mother. Most of the linens would go of course, as he had no use for them at all, and Ma could make blankets or other fancy things with her sewing. He wasn't quite sure how sewing worked, but apparently his mother was pretty into it.
His mistake was expecting her to simply take the linens without asking questions, since she had been satisfied with a simple no when she had asked him if he'd stolen before. With an armful of linens, he brings them into her bedchamber and sets them down on a comfortable looking chair, the pile about half the size of Shei himself. She blinks at him, looking confused, "Shei darling… where did you say you got these from?" Not really feeling like lying outright to his mother again, he simply shrugs and sets about folding the linens for her, making the pile a bit neater to look at. She walks up behind him, setting a hand on his small shoulder, "Shei… I asked you a question…. Where did you get these things?" He shrugs again, still folding the linens, "from the market stalls, they let me take what I want. " Sensing she wouldn't be satisfied with that simple answer, he adds, "They always let me take whatever I want, maybe it's because they know who father is and are trying to suck up?" Being close to 12, he was learning to be a little more creative in his lies, but still being young, there was a limit to how fast his brain could work. His mother looks very skeptical, "Your father may be a noble, but I highly doubt that just because that's what he is people will let you take whatever you want whenever you want it."
He sighs, feeling a little bit caught, a feeling he didn't really care for. He also didn't want to admit defeat and simply lie to her for simplicities sake. "Well they did. You can either believe me when I say they simply let me take them, or you can believe I'm lying, either way these are now yours, I can't give them back without getting a refund, so it would be simplest if you just accept that I'm telling you the truth." She looks slightly abashed at this talk, going quiet for a while, and for a minute, Shei thinks he may have gotten away with it without having to lie. But after some time to think over her response, she quips, "I don't want you accepting any more of these favors from the people at the market. They may think it gives them influence over you, and therefore your father. I won't make you return what you've already gotten, but if I see you with anything new I will make you return it. Am I understood?" Sighing, he realizes with chagrin that he should have just lied to her, now he couldn't openly steal things without getting in trouble with his mother. Despite his attitude, he nods, finishing folding the last of the linen, "Yes, Ma."
That was the end of his theft from the markets, at least with things he didn't just eat or use immediately then throw away, so he still gets a fair bit of theft in regardless of his mother's words. Now that he was a little older, his battle training could start. He is given a sword and a straw filled dummy to hit. The sword is a little heavy, and he has a hard time keeping his arm up, but a few sharp words from his trainer is all it takes to get him to do just that, "Keep your sword up! You can't kill a man with your arm dangling, and you can't block a blow without lifting your blade, stop being a little nancy boy and hit the damn target ya ingrate!" Blushing rather darkly, he takes a few swings of his sword at the dummy, somehow managing to cut slices out of the bag covering the straw and letting the insides fall to the ground in small doses. His grace couldn't help him with his training, so he advances by his own skill alone, though his progress is followed closely by his trainer, who keeps him on his toes and eager to prove himself.
In addition to sword training, he is given his very first horse. It was young, a little small, but just big enough for him to ride. It had been raised in the stables, and had been broken in at a young age, so by the time Shei approaches the horse, it is ready to ride. He had been looking forward to this point in his life for quite a while, ever since he had first watched men riding horses out of the city in a great galloping rush, not to mention jousting, where two horses ran at each other and carried their riders into a collision with their big pointy stick he didn't know the name of. He was still to young to compete in any tournaments, but he could at least learn to ride right? When he first approached his horse, the mare looked at him with her big eyes and his heart just melted, he holds out his hand to pet her on her nose, and she moves her face forward, meeting his hand gently, sending an excited shiver down his spine. He had always loved animals, had even felt a little bad whenever he saw men come in with dead deer, rabbits, and other wild game. But once it was cooked, that was a whole other story. Like any proper man, he loved his meat, and ate as much of it as he could stomach, though his training and all the running around he did with other children his age kept him from gaining weight.
Despite being eager to learn to ride, actually getting on the horse for the first time was a task in itself. He looks up at the horse's saddle, his head coming up to the seat, he had to have help just to get up. He sticks his left foot in the stirrup, bouncing on his right foot as he grips the handle of the saddle, trying to build up a little momentum for his ascent. Grunting, he pushes off the ground, getting about halfway up before he falters and comes to a halt, not quite high enough to swing his leg over. His riding trainer approaches and lift him up gently into the saddle, and Shei swings his leg over and puts his right foot in the other stirrup. He was in the saddle! At last!
Taking the reins, he takes it slow, following his riding trainers instructions closely, "Keep your hands low, close to the saddle, when you're ready to move simply give her a light kick with your heels, remember to pull the reins in the direction you want to go. Go ahead now boy… give her a little kick." Gulping, he does as he is told, bumping her sides with his heels, rousing her to step forward and start plodding her way around the pen. His riding trainer followed closely on the ground beside him, reassuring him that if he fell, there was a 50% chance that he would be caught, depending entirely on which way he fell. Despite being nervous about falling, he was doing ok, going slow and keeping an even pace. Eventually, after making a few rounds around the pen, the trainer stopped following him around and simply stood in the center, speaking encouraging words to him in a manner that wouldn't spook the horse.
After another few rounds, Shei is feeling much braver and much more sure of himself, so he clicks his heels against her sides again, encouraging her to speed up a little, and she falls into an even trot. He's a tiny bit jostled now, but its not so much that he can't hold himself in his seat with some effort. Riding a horse just felt natural to him, as natural as breathing, even though he was still learning the basics, and had a little bit of difficulty steering now that she was going just a bit faster, but with practice he would get better at it. After about half an hour more of just riding around in circles, he wants to stop, but hasn't quite figured out that bit. "How do I stop now?" He asks, sounding a little nervous, earning a soft laugh from his trainer, "Lightly pull back on the reins, she'll stop." He does as he is told, lifting the reins to his chest until she comes to a complete stop, hoofing at the ground. Getting down was a little scarier than getting up, but with a hand on his backside, he manages it. Taking the horse by the reins, he leads her into the barn and into her stall, Shei smiling up at his horse. "She still needs a name you know, as her owner it's up to you to give her one," the trainer says, smiling down at the young man. Shei thinks this over for a while, wanting to give her a perfect name. "A name… for a pretty horse…" He ponders the possibilities for a minute or two, before smiling as he thinks of one, "Spring… after my favorite season…that's a pretty name for a pretty girl… right?" He looks to his trainer for approval and finds a soft smile, "Plenty good enough Master Shei."
Shei was no longer considered a child, though he was still too young to be considered an adult, though in his mind he is old enough to be a man. His view of females was shifting a little, still finding most girls his age giggly and annoying, but some of them were changing in certain pleasant ways. His gaze isn't just on girls however, some of the other teenage boys catching his eye, though he is confused about that aspect of his feelings. He had never heard of boys being attracted to other boys, so he keeps his feelings to himself. It's not just girl's his own age he finds attractive either, a rather plain looking woman, in her early thirties, with mismatched eyes signaling she was graced, but he wasn't sure what her grace was exactly, as he had never spoken to her before. One of her eyes was the brightest yellow he had ever seen, and the other was a deep and soul piercing black. Her eyes would be enticing to almost anyone, if it were not for the general distance most people instinctively craved from the graced. The graced were not outright feared, but no one who was not graced would choose to be around a graced, unless of course their grace was particularly useful, like archery for guards, or cooking for chefs. Some graces were useless, like a swimming grace, or a grace that lets you hold your breath indefinitely.
He analyzes everything he can about her, wanting to memorize it all, though he's not sure why he has this desire. Her hair wasn't groomed as well as the noble ladies, but it didn't look neglected either, she had to brush it herself at least every other day. The color of her hair was surprisingly opulent, the copper locks either left loose and free, framing her face pleasantly and swaying softly whenever it is stirred, or up in some sort of convenient bun or braid. Her hair was long enough to reach between her shoulder blades when in a smooth braid. Her face was nothing special if you just considered each part on it's own, minus the eyes of course, but when put all together, it was still nothing special, unless you took the time to look for something special about it. Her nose was long, but it fit her face, it would have looked scrunched up if it had been any smaller. Her brows were not exactly thin, but they framed her eyes in a rather flattering way, that made the contrast of the colors look that much more striking. Her lips, something Shei was sure to pay particular attention to, were slightly thin, and she had a habit of lightly chewing her bottom lip, so the skin would occasionally peel, but she was quick to peel the skin away whenever it flaked, leaving her lip smooth. Her neck was long, but not garishly so, and whenever she had her hair up the skin looked rather enticing to bite. Her shoulders were solid, but not as wide as a man's, strong from working most of her life. Her arms were well proportioned to her body, her hands looking worn in, but small, as sturdy as the rest of her, but obviously belonging to a woman. Her breasts sagged just a little, but that was natural for someone her age, at least that's what Shei assumed, as most other women had breasts like her's. They were not huge, but not nothing to look at either. Shei wondered what they would look like bare, as he had never seen a woman's breasts before. Her belly was not flat, and she never wore a corset, only noble ladies do after all. But Shei wasn't the type to feel distain for a woman for having curves, after all, most woman did. Her thighs and rear were slightly larger than they should be to be proportional to the rest of her, giving her lower half a plush soft look. The rest of her wasn't really worth looking at, but Shei could look at her for hours just to take in her form and imagine all the things he could do to all the different parts of her body.
Shei wasn't really sure how to go about courting a lady, let alone a servant woman who was much older than the teen, but in all honesty, he wasn't really interested in courting her, he was more interested in what she looked like underneath him, what her face looked like when she felt pleasure, how she sounded when she was particularly excited, if she sounded desperate when she was close to climaxing. These thoughts fill his mind near constantly, and he quickly becomes obsessed with her. He had never spent much time in her company, but lately he had made it a point to spend most of his free time pretending to read in the room she was in, be it the kitchen, or the servant's quarters, though he does his best to look aloof, as though it were purely happenstance that they were in the same room together. Whenever he thinks she's not looking his way, his eyes follow her, just over the edge of his book, sure to look down if he thought she would look his way.
As he watches her, he learns a few things about her he hadn't expected. The most important being that she had a daughter his age, a spry but sturdy thing, her hair a bright blonde, obviously her father's color, and her eyes were a matching pair, so she was not graced. He doesn't look at her daughter in quite as much detail as he did for his interest, but he still gives her a few glances every now and then. She was blonde, with blue eyes, a pretty typical pairing, he wondered if she had her mother's birth eye color, they were nowhere near as striking as the yellow and black that she had now. The girl was thin, probably a little underfed, her mother worked hard, but that kind of work only paid just enough to survive. Her hands were not quite as worn as her mother's, yet, but with time she would more than likely match her mother. Unless she got lucky and a lord fell in love with her and took her away from her mother.
Despite having a daughter, Shei never saw his interest with a man, which meant she either had a child out of wedlock, or her husband had died and she was now alone. He tries to think of a way to talk to her, to get in her good graces, to get her to like him enough that she would even consider bedding him. He tries to think, and a method forms in his mind, if he could become friends with her daughter, maybe he could start a dialog with her. Maybe he could even manage to bed the daughter before moving on to the mother… that would take some careful planning and a lot of tactics. One other thing he had learned from his time of watching her were the names of both his interest and his interest's daughter. Her name was Isabella, but everyone who was close to her called her Bella, and her daughter's name was Elizabeth. Bella… he smiled whenever the name popped up in his mind, finding it mature and fitting for the woman that held his eye.
