The Boy in Red

A Genderbent Fanfiction

By Violindance7

Chapter 2: The Fields


It was years ago, when they were younger.

Petra and I had been playing in the fields. We were running, playing hide and seek and tag. She was always so good at finding me, but I could out run her. It was my turn and I was running after her before she got to the big rock in the middle of the field. Then her father appeared out of nowhere on a big black horse. He was screaming, "We need to leave. Now!" He yanked her up as we heard the villagers screaming. The last I saw of her was her looking back at me as they rode away. They left the village, and I never saw her again.


"I must be crazy," he thought. For years he had imagined leaving the town and finding her. "It couldn't be her. Could it?" He wanted to get a closer look, but he knew the Reeve would only yell at him to get back to work. But he kept an eye on the girl as she set to work with her scythe. Between his work and the constant movement of people around them, Val could only catch a glimpse here and there. A hand gripping the rake, dark hair against tanned skin, the set of her jawbone. Not once did she ever look up from the rhythmic motion of the work. He was sure it was her, if he could only get closer. He longed to be near her, to know her again, to know if she was the same person he once called his best friend.

At last, she looked up, and their eyes met. She paused, her dark eyes still and opaque. Then she turned away, and his heart fell. As if nothing happened, she went back to swinging her scythe, and she did not look up again.

His thoughts ran frantically. "Does she not remember? Maybe it's not her. Maybe she belongs to someone else?" All he could do was get back to work, heartbroken and confused.


"Val."

Kneeling on the ground, tying up a sheaf of hay, he heard a female voice. "She remembers," he thought, excitement running through him. He was unsure of whether to look up or not.

"Val? Are you alright?"

He raised his head, only to see Henrietta Lazar holding out a jug of water.

"I thought you might have gone deaf from working so hard. You haven't taken a break all day so I thought I'd bring some water to you."

"Oh. Thank you." He ignored the water and reached for the thick copper mallet she was holding and lifted the cool metal to his cheek. While he held the mallet to his face, he tried to angle a glance at Petra, but Henrietta was blocking his view. Once he had held the mallet to both of his cheeks and the mallet was no longer cool, he handed it back to her, and she began to giggle. "What's so funny?"

"Had I known you were going to do that, I would have cleaned it. You've got a circle of soot on each of your cheeks." Before he had a chance to react, she brushed a hand against the left side of his face and showed a palm covered in soot. In spite of himself, he had to laugh. He declined her offer of a handkerchief and wiped the soot on his sleeves. He knew the water was just an excuse for Henrietta to be a part of the day. She was working with her father mending tools in the forge and therefore was once again apart from the others. Despite her wish to be like the other girls in the village, life had decided that Henrietta Lazar was destined to not be like others. Though when he looked down, and saw her leather boots, he thought about how hard it is to feel sympathy for someone for feeling different if being different meant you weren't starving. But clearly, he hadn't been subtle in his thoughts as Henrietta looked down too and blushed. "I know, they're stupid. But my grandmother constantly reminds me that a lady must always look her best."

"Well of course. Even at the cost of practicality." At first Val thought that might be misunderstood as rude, until Henrietta smiled.

"Of course. Why it is absolutely scandalous that I not wear a ball gown while mending tools by a roaring fire. Why the thought that I not be cooked alive almost makes one faint." They both laughed, but Val kept an eye on Petra to see if she noticed him talking to Henrietta, but she kept on working and showed no sign that she noticed. "Well, thank you for the chat. I suppose I'll offer water to everyone else."

"Right. Thank you for your mallet."

"Of course." Henrietta knew Val wasn't paying attention. Though she grew up different from the other children, she still knew some of them, Val in particular, and she knew when Val was in one of his states. A state in which the world melts away, and he's barely conscious of anything around him because he wants to be alone. Something always drew Henrietta to the boy with blonde hair and bright green eyes. He was different, whether it was the green eyes that made you feel as if you were talking to something not quite human, or his desire to see the world beyond the walls of the village, unafraid of what he might find. As she walked away to offer more people water, she thought about how he was different, and she was different. And maybe, they could at least be different together.


As the midday sun rose high in the sky, the villagers all stopped and ate their lunches, the women in one group and the men in the other. While his friends chatted and compared the different girls they saw today, Val kept an eye on the line for water. There she was, waiting in line and looking through her bag. Suddenly, she glanced up, and caught his eye again. "Should I say something to her?" he thought, "Does she recognize me?" She then turned away, and he had to let it go for now.


Some of the women were bathing in the river. Henrietta was swimming when she noticed some of the visiting women approaching the river bank. She thought nothing of it, until one in particular caught her eye. She was tall and dark, yet there was something about her that sent alarms ringing in her head. Immediately, she took a large gulp and sank beneath the surface. She needed to make the world disappear. To make the memories disappear.

The dark man had stolen something from papa. Mama was a fighter, she couldn't let anything go. And then the horse reared. She hit her head hard against the ground. There was so much blood, and I'd never seen papa so broken.

Her lungs were ready to burst, and she had to rise to the surface. Her head burst through, and she blinked away the water. She blinked again, and felt relief to see Petra was nowhere to be seen. But she knew, no matter how long she stayed underwater, she could never erase those memories.


Seeing Henrietta Lazar frightened Petra. Before Henrietta resurfaced, she quickly walked away, trying to get as far away from her as possible. "Why did I come back?" For years, she had avoided Daggerhorn, even after her father died. She didn't want to remember that day, the day she felt so ashamed. The day she realized she was the daughter of a thief, and a murderer. But she knew the reason she came back. Because of him. She was drawn to him, as if an unknown force were pushing her back to him. The boy with the green eyes. And here he was, still. Seeing him there, she knew she still loved him, after all these years. Yet he reminded her of the past. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounding of the horn in the fields, signaling the end of lunch. She was happy to go back to work. But as she walked towards the field, she continued to think, "Why did I return?"


The Reeve, the weary overseer, was pairing the women and the men, who would heave up the hay to the wagons and stomp them flat. Val glanced to his left at the line of women, searching for her. He found her in the middle, her eyes fixed on his. The distance between them suddenly felt too great, and he had to get closer. Without thinking, he sidestepped a few eager men, carefully counting the number of people in each line to make sure he was paired with Petra. As the Reeve got closer, his heart beat faster, until the Reeve placed a hand on his shoulder, then Petra's and muttered, "You and you." With a silent sigh of relief, he and Petra set to work. As the afternoon wore on, Val kept trying to make eye contact with Petra. But not once did she ever look at him, not even when they're fingers brushed as he lifted the bales of hay to her. He wanted to say something, but there was always someone nearby. He didn't want the first words he said to her to be heard by anyone else, they had to be heard by only her.

The day slowly wound to a close, and as the last few bales of hay were loaded on to the wagons, the villagers prepared to leave. Val knew it was now or never. "Petra…" She straightened from picking up her sack, and slowly turned to face him, and met his eyes. Before he could stop himself, he asked, "Do you remember?"

She took a step towards him. "How could I forget?" Before either of them could say anything else, they heard the horn signaling the end of the day and the start of the campfire celebration. Petra held his eyes a moment more before turning and walking away.


While water was boiled and chickens roasted over fires for the feast, the young men and women plotted. Discreetly, Priam and Ross dispersed Grandmother's tea among different groups to make sure there were no chaperones awake to ruin the fun later. Roxas and Lucius walked Claudette back to the village, and Val was tasked with hiding one of the old rowboats that were usually abandoned at the side of the river. Normally they were left alone, but they had to make sure nothing went wrong tonight. He dragged a sturdy boat to a few nearby bushes and was about to head back to the camp when he noticed a group of the visiting villagers being addressed by the Reeve. He was asking for volunteers to stay an extra few days to clear pine trees, but he was surprised when Petra was among the villagers who raised their hands. The Reeve did not expect to see a young woman among the volunteers, but the others hardly seemed fazed. It didn't matter to Val, he was just granted an extra few days to talk to Petra.

The feast was filled with merriment, in contrast to the dullness of the day. There was laughter and sharing of stories between villages. Val kept trying to get Petra's attention, but either he was being pulled into a conversation by one of his friends, or she was too far away for him to slip away unnoticed. As the feast drew to a close, the women were ordered across the river to the women's camp, despite several of the women's protests, and some of the men's. Some of the women were afraid the Wolf may attack, even though the Wolf had been offered a goat the night before. But their fears were soothed, and the women slowly moved towards the boats to take them to the other side of the river. Val stooped down to pick up his bag when he suddenly felt someone behind him. He felt warm breath on his ear as he heard, "Come find me later."

He turned to Petra. "How will I find you?"

"Watch for my light." And then she was gone.