Troyfan16: Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you think it's interesting and am sorry the first bits repetitive.
UnicornTKD: Glad you enjoyed it, here's the next chapter for you.
Rockerforlife: Glad you enjoyed it so far, and hope you carry on enjoying it.
Chapter 1 The First Parting
I was always a happy child, growing up on the plains of my home, with my elder brother, Kay. We always had fun, racing across the flat lands, and when we tired of that we would race our horses, or engage in friendly mock archery contests, either that or duels. And perhaps when we wanted other children to play with we would engage in mock battles, and me and Kay always won, always, unless we were on opposite teams, and then it would always be a close run thing. Sometimes Kay would win, sometimes I would.
Being one of the few girls in these games I learnt early on not to rely on brute force, if I did that I would be beaten by one of the larger and heavier boys. So I learnt the secrets of sneaking about, and launching quick attacks before melting away again, before regrouping and launching yet another sneak attack. I also had to keep on modifying my tactics, as Kay soon learnt them all.
Eventually we were deemed too old to play these games and were sent to learn jobs beside the fire. I soon learnt how to craft the beaded necklaces and how to weave the mats and other items that our tribe was so famous for. This I soon tired of, and went to see how my brother Kay was being employed. I saw my father trying to teach him the arts of smithing, half heartedly.
This was not the smith before me that I knew my father to be. I knew my father to be absorbed in his work, and passionate about it. He would often enthuse to his daughter about some project or other. He would even let me help from time to time. I didn't know it then, but my plan wasn't just to sit by the hearth and weave or make trinkets. My father had other plans for me. There was only me and Kay in my family, so you may easily guess what my father plan was for me.
My brother was to be taken as a knight, although only he knew it. They all kept it from me, they thought I would be angry, and they had guessed right. But I did not know it at that time. So my father took me into his smithy, as he would his younger son, and taught me how to smelt swords and decorate them. I was never allowed to do this in the earlier years alone, it was deemed to difficult. I often looked over to see my big brother working away at the same sword he had been working on for a while with father's help. I would smile and help, never knowing what this sword meant.
I worked on a special present for Kay, because with all my limited intuition, I knew that something big was going on. So in my days I made him a special arrow, one I knew that could never be fired. I made the head all by myself with my father sitting and watching. Then I took to sitting in a corner for days, ignoring all other metal work, to my father and Kay's alarm. The shaft was wood, but I had been casting secretly shapes of horses and other such things, and so I spent time pinning them to the shaft.
I never showed Kay, only my father, who marvelled at how I had managed to make such precious little things to adorn the arrow. I told him how I had constructed them, and he looked on in wonder and awe. Then he pronounced that sometime in the future I would be sent not just to learn from him and mother, but also that I would be sent to Allard to learn jewellery crafting with metal, which was a highly prized art.
I nodded, but being the precocious child I was I asked why I could not go then. I got a very sharp answer from my usually placid father that I had to help prepare Kay for a journey. I was confused by this answer; I knew nothing of it then. So I settled down to placidly making Kay arrows and sometimes helping with his sword, not knowing in the future that my work would be used to kill and maim. I was a child on the brink of being in between the time when you are neither a child nor an adult. Secretly I was glad of the time spent crafting things. In the evening I would sit down by my family's hearth and weave things for my brother, sturdy cloaks, blankets with patterns on it, as well as serviceable blankets. I was aided in the task by my mother, who made reed mats for him, and pillows so that he would be able to sleep under the stars comfortably. Kay just sat with us in the evenings, brooding.
In my youth I would rush to show Kay everything I had made for him, hoping to startle them out of his dark moods. He would smile and ruffle my hair then, and tell me how wonderful I was. I almost let slip about his surprise, but I managed to guard that one secret jealously. I would keep that until the last moment, when I would have no choice but to reveal it to him.
I was glad I did not have to take up my studies with Allard. I was secretly scared of the man, as he seemed so large to me from my child's perspective. I would also have been secretly annoyed that my last moments with Kay were being stolen away from me. I was perhaps now the only person in my village that could make Kay laugh and smile as he once did, although soon even I stopped trying. There was too sombre and air for me to be the unaffected child that I once was.
All too soon the day had come when there was nothing else to be made, everything had been done that could be done. So the trio in my father's forge worked on orders for swords and arrows for the sons of the village. I was able to be a little happy for Kay; I knew at least that he would have some friends on his journey. My brother seemed to become worse with every passing day, especially when it brought the order for more arrows.
On these days it would be the waiting that would get to Kay, as well as the knowledge of what was coming. The only thing that would soothe him was me dragging him across the plains on his horse. He would chase me on my mare Fleetwind, and I would always triumph. When he even tired of that I would take him home and let him sit in his enforced gloom, it would pass, it always did, and then he would be the loving Kay he always was.
One evening I came home. There were the rest of my family sitting around the hearth, waiting for me. I took my place on the floor and accepted the bowl of stew I was given. I knew something was wrong. I kept on trying to start a conversation, but the others were strangely unwilling to talk. I soon finished my bowl, and went to collect the others, to wash in the stream.
"No, don't Kyna; your mother will clear them away," My father waved me down, and I settled with some apprehension.
"Kyna, we've all been lying to you for a while and I thought that it wasn't right and that we should tell you the truth," Kay spoke looking directly at me.
"You know I'm going away soon?" Kay queried.
"Of course I do, I'm not that silly," I had begun to sulk at the prospect of being lied to.
"Kyna, please, you're not making this any easier," my father sighed heavily.
I listened then, not saying a word. I listened as they told me that my brother would be leaving soon, to serve for fifteen years in the Roman Army. I was numb. I can't remember what I was fiddling with, but it fell from my hands, and I barely noticed. I knew nothing but what was being told to me. I knew about the battle for our freedom which we lost, but now, to be thus affected with it. I never thought it would be my brother, my family that would be torn apart.
I think I did nothing else but sit there for the whole evening. I dimly remember Kay kneeling next to me, pleading with me to talk to him, to assure him that everything was alright, even though we all knew it wasn't. I don't think I answered him, I couldn't. It was as if I was seeing everything through a fog, and I knew then that I couldn't talk. I couldn't tell my brother that everything was alright, because it wasn't.
I think I grew up that night. I left the child behind me, never to play the childish games as I once did. My whole world had been shattered and they expected me to be the same. I wasn't. Looking back I could see my childhood stretching out in happy golden sun drenched days behind me. The sun would still shine, I may be happy, but it would never be the same. I had lost my innocence.
I was bidden to go to bed as I usually did. I lay down and my head touched the pillows, but I did nothing, my eyes didn't close, they stared blankly, not seeing what was before them. I absorbed what was happening, and what was going on around me whilst my family fell into a deep sleep. When all was still and even the glow from the fire had died down, then it hit me.
I cried then bitterly. I curled up in a ball and sobbed. I know not now whether I was crying for the loss of my childhood or the loss of my brother. All I can say is that I was lamenting the passing of both, for my brother was my childhood. He had been my protector and friend, my teacher and my pupil. He would let me teach him things if he wanted to know them. He was once my steadfast companion.
But no more. He was being torn away from me. Taken to some distant shore far away from all of us, out of reach. We couldn't write I didn't have the knowledge then. I would later on, after all of my experiences, but by the time I learnt to write it was futile. Anyway my brother never knew how to read, I don't think he ever learnt, unlike me. So my letters would have meant nothing to him, perhaps he would have used them as kindling for all the use they would have been.
All I really wanted was for someone to tell me things were alright, to hold me and soothe me until I stopped crying. But that isn't always the case for adults. Sometimes they have to be alone, and learn to dry their own tears, and to comfort themselves with the harsh world of reality. Eventually my tears stopped running, only when I fell asleep, exhausted by my crying.
I awoke to the sunshine. It seemed paler now then it ever did before. Kay had already bundled his things together, he had heard the horn call that told us the Romans were here. I dressed hurriedly, tugging at my dress and pulling my hair into a quick braid. I scrambled around the tent, knocking things over in my haste to look for the arrow. Kay came in and collected his things, raising an eyebrow as I rummaged around.
I grasped upon my arrow finally and raced outside. I saw Kay at his horse, talking to father, who was embracing my mother. I raced across to them and stood proudly, holding the arrow out in front of me like a trophy. Kay smiled down at me, and then stopped as he saw the arrow I had created. It brought tears to his eyes which he did not shed. His fingers traced the patterns before he leant down from his horse and kissed my cheek.
"Thank you, I'll treasure it forever," my brother placed his sparkling present amongst the rest of his arrows before riding off.
I don't remember that day, or that night very clearly. All I remember is my mother crying lots and father comforting her. I went for a long walk on the plains without my mare; I didn't want her mood to be spoilt by mine. I went back late at night and slept, a deep sleep, still exhausted from the previous evening. I felt lost without my brother or any work laid before me.
The next day I woke lost. I took my mare and rode as far away from my village as I dared, hoping to catch a glimpse of the retinue my brother was travelling in. I fancied I saw the shining armour of the Romans in the distance, but I couldn't be sure. I stayed there, sliding from my mare, who left me alone, though it broke her heart to do so. She had already lost her brother, now she must have feared she was loosing her mistress.
I sat down in the long grass and waited. I knew not what for. It rained hard, and the thunder gods roared out their anger in the skies. A bolt of lightning struck not far from me, and I didn't flinch, even though the sound could well have deafened me. It didn't though, and I sat deadened to everything, not minding that I was soaked through to the skin. I didn't feel cold, although later they told me I caught a fever and could have died.
But I didn't. I lived, and I learnt from Allard the skills of his craft. And I helped my father in the smithy, and my mother in the home, and eventually my madness passed. The desire to take Fleetwind and ride as fast as I could after my brother passed. What was left behind was a part of the girl I used to be, and only a fragment of the woman I would become.
I imagined then that the worst hardship was being separated from my brother. But then I didn't know of how cruel the Romans can be. I didn't know that I would face much worse hardships than just loosing my brother. What I dreaded most was loosing someone else, my mother or father, or my teacher Allard. That would have been the end of my world. Little did I know how my world would end.
Author's note: I hope you all enjoyed this as much as you did the prologue. I'm sorry if you found it boring and repetetive, maybe later on I will go back and re write it for you all.