Chapter 3 – Aerial's Past - Unexpected Emotions
(Sadness crept over Aerial's face as she spoke) For three weeks after that night I would wake up early in the morning and vomit and it seemed like everyone was mad at me. Merrill was mad because I wouldn't take her advice and see the keeper for my mysterious illness which only plagued me in the mornings. After that it seemed to go away and still Maren, Junar, and Fenarel were mad at me for some odd reason, even Tamlen avoided me, he wouldn't even look at me. I never felt such loneliness for two more months I endured such loneliness, then one day while I was assisting Master Varathorn with fixing one of the aravels Junar came up to me and asked for a moment of my time and Master Varathorn said it was ok so he took me off a ways from earshot and told me that Tamlen had a message for me. I was so happy and what he told me made me cry right on the spot. With a look of concern Leliana asked, "What did he tell you to make you cry?"
(Tears rolled down Aerial's face as she continued to talk) The message was that Tamlen thought I was getting fat and he had no idea why he liked me in the first place. I neglected my duties and I ran to my aravel and cried my eyes out. That night I found Tamlen and Fenarel talking and I confronted Tamlen I told Fenarel to leave us and my look of hatred must have scared him because he left right away and I told Tamlen I got his message and all he said was ya.. so.. I was so angry that I punched him in the face and we started brawling and the aravel got damaged. Before Keeper Marethari could reach us he pushed me out of the way and said he would handle this. When the keeper questioned him about the fight he stayed silent and he got punished for it, I didn't understand why he wouldn't give my name to her.
(Aerial wiped away her tears and continued talking) The next day Keeper Marethari asked me to assist another female hunter who was expecting a baby to gather ingredients to find out if it is a boy or girl. Our task was to gather three wild chicken eggs from the same nest. We must have checked about a dozen nests when we found one with twelve eggs so we gathered the three eggs and went back to the keeper. She then sent Merrill on another task and asked me to assist her I obeyed her wishes. In a bowl she put the three eggs and asked the hunter to pick one and to my surprise she asked me to pick one and she took the third. She then took the hunter's egg and broke it open and looked at it then she tied a string on her egg and asked the hunter to lie down. I glanced over and I saw that the egg she broke open had two embryos and the egg that was tied to the string she brought over her stomach and it started to turn and all of a sudden it pointed down and the keeper smiled and told her that she was going to have twin boys. The hunter was so happy she thanked keeper Marethari and she left.
I asked keeper Marethari if that was all she needed of me and she said to me to lie down as well and she took my egg that I was holding and cracked it open the look she had was grave. She dangled the egg that was tied to the string over my stomach and it started to turn and I was shocked to see that it too had pointed down. I asked her what does that mean. She looked at me and said I was with child as well. I panicked and said it was not possible it must be wrong; she said that it was in fact her method was correct and I was indeed with child. She then told me that Tamlen had better marry me before the next full moon or I would be cast out of the clan for violating our most sacred customs. I had asked how she knew. And she told me the way we were acting around each other gave it away. And I had five days to get Tamlen to marry me. The shock hit me like a ton of bricks and keeper Marethari told me to go and lie down and I could tell Tamlen tomorrow, I had told her that I was supposed to assist Master Varathorn tomorrow she told me she would take care of it and how disappointed she was in me for getting myself in that condition.
That night I had weird dreams of me and Tamlen and our baby. Some dreams we were happily married with many sons, and some dreams I was alone in the woods with a baby crying in my arms and I couldn't stop crying myself. Another dream I was older with a daughter of eight and we came upon my old clan and I saw Tamlen but he was married with Maren and they had children of their own, they would not acknowledge me and they just walked away.
