Chapter IX - The Balance
As the day began on Tenar's farm, Therru walked out of the house, pail in hand, to fetch some water from the well just outside the door. She turned the wheel and passed the water from the pail in the well to the one she carried. Then, taking it by the handle, she carried it inside and emptied it into a large barrel by the stove.
"Tenar, I brought the water in!" She called looking around the house for her guardian. "Where is she?" She said to herself as she walked into Tenar's room.
"Tenar! Are you still asleep?" She asked, peeking around the doorpost. On seeing a figure in Tenar's bed, she quietly knelt down beside it. "Tenar! Are you sick?" She asked concerned as she leant over the sleeping figure in the bed.
Just then, Arren turned over as he began to wake up from his sleep, and upon seeing him there in Tenar's bed, she gasped and hurriedly left.
Arren opened his eyes and squinted in the light at the figure that was leaning over him. He groaned and rolled over, then sat up as he realized who it was. "That girl!" He said hoarsely as he sat up in the bed.
As Therru sat at the table that morning, she scowled and stared at the cup in her hands.
"That must have been a surprise!" Tenar laughed; as she placed a bowl of steaming food on the table, and sat down to join her and Sparrowhawk. "I should have told you dear! I'm sorry." She apologized.
"Don't worry," Sparrowhawk comforted, "Arren is traveling with me; you have nothing to fear. He may seem a little wild at times but he has a good heart."
Just then, the faint patter of bare feet on stone could be heard. Tenar looked over her shoulder and saw Arren standing there, wrapped in a green blanket. "Good morning!" Tenar said cheerfully to him.
"Um…yes. Good morning." He replied drowsily, not quite understanding where he was and who these people were. He was glad to see Sparrowhawk's familiar face.
"I'm not hungry!" Therru said adamantly slamming her cup down on the table and storming out of the front door. Arren didn't understand. He'd saved her. Why was she acting so cold and heartless towards him?
"Therru!" Tenar called after her in shock. "Did you sleep well enough? How are you feeling now?" She asked him spooning something into another bowl.
"I'm feeling a lot better." He said shyly. "I didn't do anything to that girl!" He said in wonderment.
"Of course you didn't." Tenar said kindly as he sat at the fourth place at the table. "Come, try some breakfast. You'll need your strength for plowing."
"Plowing?" Arren asked.
The day was a bright and clear one, and the field that was being plowed was a long one. Arren held the plow steady as Sparrowhawk guided the ox over the ground. As the plow slid through the hard earth, Arren pushed and steadied it; the weight of it exhausted him.
"Whoa there." Sparrowhawk said to the beast as he stopped it and prodded the earth that was jamming between the plow. Arren let go of it for a minute and wiped the sweat from his brow using the back of his arm. As he lowered his arm to his side, he noticed his hands were feeling odd. As he studied them, he saw that they were callused and blistered. How much more, he wondered.
"Getting blisters?" Sparrowhawk asked him as he saw Arren observing his hands.
"Huh…Yes." Arren said exhausted.
"Maybe we should rest for a little while." Sparrowhawk suggested.
As they leant against the stonewall that divided Tenar's fields, they gazed out at the view. Fields full of wildflower, and butterflies flitting here and there. Sparrowhawk inhaled deeply as he said, "I love the smell of new turned earth."
"But…" Arren started but didn't finish.
"Yes lad?" He asked looking at him.
"I thought, you told me that you're a wizard?" He asked intrigued.
"I see. You want to know, why a wizard would spend his time working in the field like a farmer. Isn't that right?" He asked.
"Yes." He replied quietly.
"Listen to me Arren. Everything you see under the sun and stars owes its very existence to the balance. The wind and seas, the powers of earth and light, all that these do is well and rightly done within the equilibrium. But now men hold the power to control the world. Man must learn to do what leaf, and whale, and wind do naturally, it is for us to keep the balance. Everything that exists has its true name. The power of magic is nothing more than the power to command based on the knowledge of a things true name. But, use that power irresponsibly and the balance of the world is easily damaged. Spells should be made only when absolutely needed." Sparrowhawk said leaning against the wall and looking out at the world around him as he spoke.
"You two have been busy!" Tenar called to them, as she walked up to them, hamper in hand. "From the looks of thing's I'd say you've have earned yourselves a decent lunch." She said sitting down and taking out different various foods and making a sandwich of them.
"Are you feeling better now?" She asked Arren handing him a piece of bread and cheese. "Here, you need to eat well Arren, in order to regain your strength."
"Oh…uh…what about the girl?" Arren asked.
"Ah, you mean Therru?" She said smiling. "Well, it seems one of our spring lambs has taken ill, so she's busy nursing it today." She said packing back up the hamper and returning to the house.
As they finished their food, they took up their places at the plow.
"Do you want to change places?" Sparrowhawk asked Arren before they started.
"No, I can do it!" He said taking hold of the plow as Sparrowhawk pushed the ox on.
As they walked through the gates of Tenar's farm after a hard day of plowing, Tenar greeted them on her way back to the house.
"How did it go?" She asked them.
"That's all for today." Sparrowhawk told her heading over to the pail of water resting on the water well in her yard.
"Well, dinner's nearly ready, so wash up and come inside." She told them before disappearing through the front door.
"I'm going to put the ox back in the stable." Arren told Sparrowhawk.
"Thanks lad." He said bending down to wash in a pail of water.
As Arren entered the stables, he saw Therru kneeling down in a stall, a young lamb at her knees.
"There. You should be feeling better. You just need your mother's milk." She said stroking its head gently. "That's it!" She encouraged, as the lamb got to its feet. "Good girl." She laughed as it licked her face.
As she directed the lamb to drink its mother's milk, she stood up and quickly spun around, anger blazing from her brown eyes. "What do you want?" She demanded, staring at him and making him uneasy.
"Uh…nothing!" He stuttered.
"Why are you here? To hurt me? Are you going to kill this little lamb?" She shouted at him grabbing a wooden pole from the fence.
"No! No, I was just…" Arren said bewildered by her ferociousness.
"Go away! Get out of here now!" She demanded shoving the pole in his face. "I despise anyone who doesn't care about life!" She said angrily.
"Sorry." He whispered as she returned the pole to its place.
Arren looked down in shame at the remembrance of what he'd said when he was protecting her. "Life is nothing to me!" The words played repeatedly in his mind.
"Out of my way!" She ordered, grabbing the water pail at her feet and barging past him. As she made her way to the house, Arren reminisced about what he'd said. He was sorry. He hadn't mean it. He knew she wouldn't believe him if he told her that, but he hoped that someday she would see he really was sorry.
"Let's eat." Sparrowhawk said tucking in to the food Tenar had made.
"It is so good having men to help with the farm this time of year." Tenar said smiling. "Even if it is the two of you."
"I may not be much with a plow but I certainly know how to handle animals." Sparrowhawk said breaking some bread up.
"That's right!" Tenar said. "You used to be a goat herder, didn't you?" She said eating a spoonful of her food. As she looked at the two youths at the table, she noticed something wasn't quite right.
"What's wrong Arren? Is something bothering you?" Tenar asked looking at Arren who seemed to be distracted from his food.
"No!" He told her taking a spoonful of stew.
Therru glared at him from where she was sitting next to him. As Arren looked up, she suddenly diverted her gaze elsewhere. Tenar and Sparrowhawk looked at each other in puzzlement. Why were they acting so strangely around each other? Tenar gave up guessing and went back to eating her food; Sparrowhawk did likewise, both hoping that the youths would sort out their problems. Soon!
Next Chapter up soon!
