Chapter 11

Freezing water splashed onto hard, unforgiving earth, quickly forming crystals of ice in the cold air. A pair of ragged leather boots jumped away, their owner cursing as her feet went partially numb. Frantically stamping to bring feeling back, the young woman pushed dirty blonde hair out of her face with blue-tinged fingers.

She regained control of herself and stepped over the puddle back to the well to draw a second bucket of water. As she glanced over to where the sun was setting, she caught a glimpse of bright red coming over the hill a half-mile or so away. Red like fire.

"Domenica!" she turned at the sound of her name. A village girl was rushing toward her. "There are strangers coming!" she pointed to the approaching blotch of red. She saw now it was hair. Hair....red like fire....

Water splashed all over Domenica's legs as she dropped the bucket again, but she didn't even feel it. It was like the fiery hair had warmed her up to a burning heat. And once burned, twice shy.

***

The Piper shivered as he rode back into the village he had sworn never to return to. Everywhere he looked, painful memories resurfaced.

"Fabio!" Both of the boys hiding in the tree flinched at the sound of the redhead's mother.

"Yes?" the boy who would become Firefox replied reluctantly.

"Where are you? I need you to do chores."

"I have to go." Fabio apologized to the blonde boy next to him.

"D-don't w-worry. I'll f-f-find Anzio or s-something." Ivo stuttered. He watched his friend streak across the field like a comet. He was half-surprised he didn't leave a trail of burning air in his wake. After he was sure Fabio was gone, Ivo leaned back against the tree and began singing, softly, under his breath at first, but gaining confidence and volume. He didn't stutter when he sang. Maybe that was why he liked it. Maybe it was the way the golden notes seemed to hover in the air like butterflies, or the feeling he got in his stomach when he hit a note just right.

"Why are you singing?" Anzio had crept up behind him, as usual. Starting, Ivo was at the bottom of the hill in seconds, staring up at him in horror. "Did you not want me to hear you?" he smirked.

"N-n-n-n-no." Ivo stuttered even more than usual around Anzio. That and the choking feeling those yellow eyes gave him around the most tender part of his throat made him avoid the cobbler's son at any cost.

The taller boy laughed. "Your voice sounds even worse when you sing. But at least you don't st-st-stutter." he walked away, knocking Ivo's shoulder as he passed too close to him.

Ugh. The Piper had left his insecurities behind in this town along with his stutter. He looked to his right and saw Minerva looking at him with concern. Smiling at her, he quickly glanced ahead to the town drawing ever closer. it looked as cold and morose as the night, seven years ago, when he, Firefox, and Anzio had left it in the dead of night without so much as saying goodbye.

Firefox's stomach felt like it was contracting into itself. He hadn't left on the best of terms with everyone, and he doubted their opinions of him had changed in seven years. Especially one person in particular....

Someone must have seen them coming. When they rode into town, a sizable crowd was assembled. And right in the middle of them, standing in the road blocking their horses, dirty-blonde hair whipping around her face in the chill evening air, was one angry looking young woman whose face Firefox immediately recognized. For a minute, he considered turning his horse around and fighting through Anzio's whole gang rather than face her.

He brought his horse to a halt, and his companions did the same. After a slight hesitation, he dismounted and walked over to the proud figure in front of him. Everyone else in town had cleared away from her, as if her aura of hatred had driven them back.

"Domenica." he started, but she slapped him viciously across the face.

"How dare you come back here." her eyes were slits. "You despicable bastard!"

"Domenica, let me--" she tried to slap him again, but a hand appeared on her shoulder, holding her back.

"Fabio." the village headman, Firefox's father Carnak, addressed him sternly. "My son. You have returned."

"Fabio?!" Jocasta snorted.

Firefox's father turned his hooded eyes toward her. "That is his name. Has he another I know nothing of?"

"I know him as Firefox." Jocasta didn't seem to notice the gasps and scandalized looks that went through the villagers. "And that's the Piper." Now everyone the two men had grown up with was staring at them as if they had sprouted extra heads, torn between flinching away and drawing closer. Even Domenica had heard of their doings and was looking a little frightened.

Firefox quickly appealed to his father. "Father. We have been through some hard times. We have nowhere else to go."

"I never dreamed..." his father said when he finally spoke, "that this would be your fate. You are my son, and so you may stay, but know that if you bring the filth and despair of your new way of life upon this village, you will never be forgiven."

"I understand. Thank you, Father." Firefox bobbed his head out of respect. As they were led to their lodgings, the crowd parted, avoiding them like the plague.

***

Firefox paused outside his parent's house. It was the finest in the village. Carnak had left him outside, no deigning to be present when he told his mother what he'd been up to the past seven years.

"Whose house is this?" Jocasta asked. She was strolling down the road toward him, apparently having ditched his father, the Piper, and Minerva.

"My mother is in there, waiting for me to tell her how I've been making a living lately." Firefox rubbed his forehead.

"Fire raising doesn't pay enough for her, eh?" Jocasta tapped the toe of her boot on the rain swept street. "Well, let's go in and have it over with."

"You're not coming." Firefox said firmly, and walked up to the door. He knocked, and a gray-haired woman with his blue eyes answered it. She shook her head as if she couldn't believe it, and smiling, hugged him with surprising strength.

"Fabio! You've come home!" her eyes met Jocasta's standing at a distance. "And you brought a girl! Who is this lovely lady?"

"Er..." Firefox was momentarily tongue-tied. Of course his mother would think he was involved with Jocasta, what was he thinking? He couldn't stop her from running to Jocasta and hugging her, too.

"Nice to meet you?" Jocasta stiffened at the unwanted contact, awkwardly patting her on the back. When Firefox's mother stepped back and cupped her face in her hands, a quick flash of disgust crossed her face before she forced a smile.

"But...you're so young!" she took her hands off Jocasta's face and spun to face her son. "She's so young!"

"I'm not...she's not my..." Firefox protested.

"I'm not his girlfriend." Jocasta said firmly.

"Oh. Well, that's good, you're so young!" she turned back to Firefox. "Oh, but I'm so glad you're back! Come inside for a cup of tea!" she dragged Jocasta and Firefox inside for an afternoon of anecdotes from Firefox's childhood.

***

The Piper left Minerva in his room so he could meet his parents alone first. As he walked down the familiar path, he couldn't help but be overwhelmed again. Here was where he had always hidden when his father came home drunk and Firefox's parents wouldn't let him in. That's where he had tried to kiss his first crush, Annabelle, and she pushed him away and called him a stupid blacksmith's son. Ugh. He still didn't understand why girls you've known your whole life think you're not worth shit and girls you've never met think you're incredibly interesting as long as you can write pretty songs about them.

"Hello." he spun around and saw, of all people, Annabelle and a group of her friends.

"Hi." he replied, politely and warily.

"We never knew youwere the Piper." one girl sidled closer to him. "We've heard so many stories." she giggled.

"We'd love to hear some of your songs." purred another girl. The other girls slowly advanced, with looks Ivo the blacksmith' son could only have dreamt of.

"Do you want to catch up with us? Tell us all about what you've been up to?" Annabelle came closer than the others. "We can go out in the woods where no one will..." Pause. "Interrupt."

"So, you're suddenly interested in me, now that I have friends that burn down villages? Or is it because a bunch of other girls find me attractive and you're just following the trend?" the Piper said icily.

"From what I hear, it doesn't really matter to you." the other girls were looking a little sheepish, but Annabelle pressed on.

"Go fuck yourselves. You sure won't get any man worth anything to do it." he sneered at her. He turned on his heel and strode off, Annabelle's shocked expression lifting his spirits and coaxing a satisfied smirk to his mouth. Maybe this could be fun.

The feeling lasted about until he got to his old house. Then that feeling in his knees he used to get so often here came back in full force. For a moment, he stood shivering on the doorstep, alert as if a wine bottle could come flying out the door at him. Then he knocked.

No one answered. He stood there a minute, feeling foolish, when an old voice from behind him said, "Hello, Ivo." he whipped around to see his mother, Enjassa, looking the worse for wear, as though the world washed all the color out of her. She had a thin face and big eyes that always looked hurt, giving her the look of a scared puppy. Her thin hair had gotten so white...

"Mother." he suddenly felt shame for what he'd done the past seven years. Actual shame. How long had it been since that queasy feeling had touched him?

"I saw you ride in." she drew her arms around herself against the cold. "I always guessed you were the Piper. When I heard of your voice, I knew it was that same boy I would always hear singing when he didn't think anyone was listening." the Piper tried to think of something to say, but he continued, "The woman who rode next to you. Who is she?"

"That was Minerva. I've asked her to marry me." he couldn't help but smile as the prospect of marrying Minerva sent a sudden rush of warmth into his stomach.

"That doesn't sound at all like the man you've become." remarked his mother.

"I know." he looked down, then said, "but I do love her. And that makes all the deplorable things I've done the last seven years worth it."

"I heard about those things." Enjassa's eyes clouded with pain. "Tell me about Minerva." she said softly.

"She's ten times better than any woman in this village, I know that." the Piper began. "You would like her. She has genuine good inside her. I don't know how she survived among the maids for so long."

"Have you...had her?"

The Piper paused, blushing. "Yes."

"Well there can't be that much good in her." Enjassa sniffed. "But she makes you happy, I know from the way you looked at her, and I love her for that." she paused as if unsure how to continue. "Is there...any particular reason you're getting married now?"

"Minerva is pregnant." he confessed, guessing her meaning.

"I didn't know if you knew...I've become something of the village healer when old Griselda died, I've leaned to spot these things...." she trailed off.

"Come meet her." the Piper suggested after a long silence.

"Later." she dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "I have things I must do."

"One more thing. Where is...Father?" the word was hateful and alien in his mouth, and he struggled not to let it show.

"He passed several years ago." Enjassa said without emotion. She kissed his cheek and left him speechless as it began to rain.