Chapter 5: Family

The weather that evening was cool enough to make K'arah pull her cloak around her tightly and scoot nearer to their tiny campfire. They had no tents as they would just have added bulk to their already bulky saddlebags, so they spread their bedrolls on the deep grass of the forest floor. Epona and Dark, once they had been watered and rubbed down were let loose to graze on whatever they chose.

The two horses seemed well suited to each other's company. Dark was a young gelding, full of energy and boundless enthusiasm, and his attitude seemed to amuse Epona, who had several years on him and was much more mellow. She would make playful bites at his flanks when he got too close to her and in response he would dash wildly across the clearing whinnying and tossing his mane then canter back for another nip. K'arah was having great fun watching them.

Because it had been so near to dark when they stopped they had decided not to hunt or lay any traps for game, but to merely subside off of food they had packed and brought with them. K'arah was more than happy to share the foods that she had brought and began digging in her saddle bags for it.

"Have you ever had olives, Link?" She asked, pulling out a small cask of said fruit. The cask was a pale wood treated with oils to keep it water-proof and was only about the size of a small melon. She pulled the corking out of the top and brought the opening to her nose to catch a whiff.

Link glanced over at her from where he was polishing the blade of his sword. "I don't think so. What are they?"

"They're a kind of fruit we grow in Andor." She fished one out of the cask and held it up to be seen. "We pick them off the trees and pickle them in this brine. They're really salty but very flavorful. Here, try one." She passed off the small fruit to Link who looked at it curiously in his fingers. "Just be careful when you bite into it. There's a pit in the center that's as hard as a rock."

Link tentatively tasted the olive with the tip of his tongue, puckered his lips slightly at the saltiness of it, and then popped it into his mouth, chewing carefully. His face was thoughtful for a moment before K'arah asked, "What do you think?"

Link nodded. "They're good! Wow, you weren't kidding, they are salty. Can I have some more?"

"Sure." K'arah rose to her feet and moved over closer to him to sit down again. She offered the small cask and said, "Just go ahead and dig in."

Link selected another olive for himself and popped it into his mouth before twisting and rummaging in one of his saddle bags and producing a small round loaf of crusty brown bread and a pair of apples. He broke the loaf in half and offered one part to K'arah along with one of the bright green apples. K'arah accepted gratefully and positioned herself more comfortably on the ground, drawing her legs up and crossing one foot over the opposite knee. "Thank you, Link." She said.

Link chewed his mouthful of bread thoughtfully for a moment, still concentrating on the task of polishing his sword, before swallowing and looking at her. "For what? The bread? It's only fair; you gave me some of your olives, so I thought—"

"I didn't mean for the bread, though I am thankful for it." K'arah said. She set her bread and apple in her lap and leaned her weight back on her hands, tilting her head to the side and considering her companion. The fire light was highlighting his hair, making it shine like molten gold, and playing across the strong lines of his face. She revised in those moments her guess at his age; she had first thought him to be several years older than herself, perhaps twenty to twenty-three years, but looking at him now she could see that there was still a level of boyishness about his face. He was probably only as old as she was, seventeen, maybe eighteen. There was a subtle smattering of gold flecks along his jaw and chin, pale peach-fuzz that showed he'd probably never shaved. And the firelight was dancing in his eyes that were blue as sapphires. There was no denying that he was exceedingly handsome.

K'arah suddenly realized she'd been staring. She lowered her eyes to the bread in her lap and smiled shyly. "I meant thank you for all your help. You've been so kind to me and I'm basically a stranger to you."

Link nodded thoughtfully. K'arah thought that he must be very level-headed; he seemed to think things over very carefully before acting on them.

"Well, tell me about yourself." Link suggested. K'arah tipped her head the other way and looked at him again. "If you tell me about yourself and I tell you about myself, then we won't be strangers anymore."

K'arah smiled. "That's a wonderful idea. What do you want to know?"

Link sighed and leaned back on his hands in imitation of her pose. "Tell me about your family."

K'arah's smile deepened. "My family… I don't think you could possibly have picked a more convoluted subject if you tried. My family is old. As old as the kingdom of Andor itself, in fact. We were the original founding rulers and we were in power for several hundred years. But, just as the moon waxes and wanes, our dynasty began to wane about two thousand years ago. I'm starting in the middle, though, without giving you all the facts…

"My full family name is Taedanyu'dai Rhakir jun-Inrah." Link looked at her with slightly wide, disbelieving eyes. "It's a mouthful I know, but it all means something. The actual clan name of my family is Taedanyu. The era we ruled was called the Taedanyu Dynasty. Rhakir is the name of the province my family rules nowadays and the name of the capital city of that province. The suffix 'dai' is a designation of rank, and it means that we are only one step below the current ruling family in terms of wealth, strength, and power. It literally translates from the ancient Andorian language to mean 'one step down from the top'. 'Jun' is the suffix in the royal family's name phrase and it means 'insurmountable', which is why when the ruling family falls out of favor they have to change their name. Where it appears in our name it is attached to a military designation, 'Inrah', which means 'Lord of Horse'. I told you before that my family's greatest pride is our horses and that is why. The Horse Lords are the highest ranking nobles and military officials in Andor, so the combined word 'jun-Inrah' means that my family holds a hereditary military position as the Leading Generals of the King's armies. So the whole thing together means that my family is the highest ranking family in the country underneath only the King's family itself. And even then the lines of power are sometimes blurry and no one quite knows who outranks whom. For instance, one time when I was a child my third cousin Cayn tried to pull rank on me. He wanted something and I wanted something else and we got into a fist fight over it, so we went to my father and the King, who is his second cousin, and asked them who was right. In that case, because of dispersion and exact political sway, I held rank over my third cousin, even though he was born into the ruling family and I was not. It's all very confusing to an outsider, I've been told, even though it makes perfect sense to us in Andor."

K'arah looked at Link again. She had been looking up at the night sky while recounting her tale. Now, looking at his face she could see he looked slightly overwhelmed at all the information. "That probably wasn't what you had in mind when you were asking about my family, was it?"

"Not really." Link shrugged. "It's a lot of cultural differences to hear about all at once, but I think I understood what you said. What I meant was tell my about your parents, your siblings, that kind of family."

K'arah nodded and moved her gaze to the fire. "Family is very important in Andor. I only have six immediate siblings, but I have so many cousins that I've lost count and I see them just as often as my brothers and sisters. We all live in the same house anyway. I have two older brothers and one younger brother, one older sister and two younger sisters, so I was born right in the middle. My sister Rishana is the eldest, then my brothers Daraken and Darien, they're twins and they look so much alike that we usually can't tell them apart. Then there's me, then my sister Tiyana, my brother Sorin, and my baby sister Raen. My father is Drinaan, who is the second cousin of the King of Andor who is called Zangulus. My father is a mighty warrior and the greatest Horse Lord alive. My mother is Dhalgara, originally from House Madrikhor'shen Nieda jun-Ondin, a house of performers of world renown. She's one of the most beautiful women in all of Andor and she has a grace from the Goddesses themselves. I wouldn't even know where to begin when telling you about my cousins."

K'arah shook her head, smiling fondly and turned her head to look at Link again. The expression on his face surprised her and she didn't quite know how to read it. It was a cross between sadness and longing mixed with a touch of envy. Uncomfortable, K'arah looked away and shrugged. "I've been yammering on and on though. Why don't you tell me about your family?"

Link was silent for a long time. K'arah thought he hadn't heard her and was about to repeat herself when she caught his eventual answer.

"I have no family…"

His voice was rough and low, spoken barely above a whisper, and hollow with untold emotions.

K'arah's heart went out to him. She was from a land where family was more important than almost anything else. You always knew who you were related to and how closely, and no matter what they were always there for you; to help you when you needed help, to fight by your side, to share meals together. Family was everything in Andor. She couldn't even begin to fathom life without her family.

"I've never known who my parents were, or if I had any siblings. I don't even have a surname. I've just always been Link. That's all. I've always lived alone, in my own little house, away from everyone else. Most of the time when I was a kid I played by myself. No one wanted to play with me, because I was different from them, and they didn't understand that. I went on my adventures alone. Though I made many friends along the way, none of them have stuck with me for very long. It's not so bad, I'm used to it. I actually get uncomfortable when I'm around too many people. I don't particularly like towns. Cities are even worse. I avoid them whenever possible. But sometimes I get lonely." He looked at her then and smiled. It was a slightly sad smile, but all the more genuine for that. "It's nice to travel with someone, too. Usually it's just me and Epona. So, what I'm trying to say is thank you for letting me tag along."

K'arah just smiled at him. "Thank you for coming with me. You're doing me a great favor by showing me through lands that are unfamiliar to me and introducing me to your princess. It will make things much easier to explain further down the road."

They were silent for a long time and merely sat there, munching on bread and apples and passing the cask of olives between them. After a while they came to the silent agreement that it was time to sleep, so they packed up their food and put it away. Epona and Dark had long since ceased their play and taken up space on the grass near the fire. K'arah pulled her blankets over herself and lay back to look at the stars before falling asleep.

(A/N) - I was pretty quick this time! Yay for me! We'll see how the next one goes. I've kind of been going in a pattern when doing updates. I cycle through my stories so that no one is left un-updated for too long. It works well for me, I guess. Anyway, as always, R&R, please!

Rae Tarules