Title: Promise
Summary: A childhood meeting, and ending with a promise kept for many years.
Rating: K
Genre: Friendship
The first time Natalie snuck off of her parents' property was when she was seven, and she didn't go very far—barely to the edge of the neatly kept trees. There, she saw a small village of worn-looking houses down a steep, grassy slope. The small girl crouched in the shadow of a shrub and peered down at the houses. People walked along the dirt road carrying baskets and buckets. A stray dog or two darted between their legs. She saw a group of children playing at the edge of the river, waving sticks at each other and running around, yelling. They looked as though they were having fun, and she wished she could join them. Still, she turned around and crept back to her house, unseen by anyone in the village.
The next time she snuck out was nearly two months later, right after her eighth birthday. Her parents had gone out on another one of their super-long vacations, leaving the elderly nursemaid to watch over their daughter. The old woman spent more time asleep than actually watching, however, which left Natalie with plenty of free time to do whatever she wanted. She tried to listen to her parents' rule about not mingling with the 'commoners,' but she eventually caved.
"It's boring staying inside all day, doing nothing but needle work, and reading, and baking," Natalie thought to herself as she snuck through the trees. She wanted to run around, and play, and dig in the dirt, and maybe finally have someone who liked to talk about the same things she did. Not spend more hours learning letters and doing math. Besides, it was such a beautiful day; it would be a waste to spend it indoors hunched over another boring book.
Natalie rounded a tree and came face to face with another kid. They stared at each other in stunned silence with matching expressions of wide-eyed surprise. The boy in front of Natalie had long blond hair and blue eyes way too big for his face. He held a stick in one hand and his clothes were covered in mud and grass stains. He didn't wear any shoes, and his arms and legs were covered with small scratches and scrapes. He was also a little shorter than she was.
Finally, Natalie recovered and held out her right hand, and chirped, "My name is Natalie. Pleased to meet you!"
The boy looked confused for a second before he grabbed her hand with his left hand and said in a hesitant voice, "Uh, I'm Matt?"
Natalie giggled as he shook her hand backwards. She bounced in place for a moment before asking, "What are you doing?"
Matt shifted back a little, looking nervous as he mumbled, "Seeing who lives in the nice house…" His eyes widened and he blurted out, "You can't tell my parents! Dad said he'll yell my ears off if he catches me up here again! And I like my ears!"
"Okay, but only if you don't tell mine that I'm out here," Natalie agreed. She looked at Matt's ears and nodded, "They're very nice ears. We wouldn't want someone to yell them off."
Matt looked relieved and he asked, "So, what're you doing out here?"
Natalie puffed her cheeks out in a pout, "It's a nice day, and I didn't want to spend it inside reading."
"Wow, you can read?" Matt asked with a wide grin that revealed he was missing one of his front teeth.
"Yeah, but I'd rather be running around," Natalie said with another pout.
"I like to run," Matt agreed cheerfully. He shifted from one leg to the other in an excited bounce before asking, "Want to see one of my favorite places to run?"
Natalie had only a brief moment of hesitation as she thought of what her parents would say. But she pushed it out of her mind almost immediately as the excitement of doing something new and interesting took over. "Yeah! Let's go!"
Matt immediately snagged Natalie's wrist with his free hand and darted off into the trees. Natalie yelped as she stumbled, trying to keep up with him, but soon found her stride and was running alongside him. She let out a laugh as they crashed through bushes and plants, scaring small animals underground or up trees. They reached a small stream, and Matt dashed clean through it, but didn't get too much further before he realized Natalie had stopped.
"What's wrong? We're almost there!" Matt called back, trotting back to the edge of the stream.
Natalie was looking at the water and the muddy bank with a frown. "It's muddy," she complained.
Matt frowned in confusion, "Yes? It doesn't hurt. Just run through. The water washes most of it off, anyway."
Natalie chewed on her tongue in thought for a moment before slipping her slipper shoes off. She held them in one hand as she stepped onto the mud, and giggled as it squelched up between her toes. She jumped there a few times, splattering mud everywhere, getting it all over her light blue dress without a care. Matt splashed across again with a grin to join her, and the two children leapt around for a while, churning the soft dirt into a fine mud. Finally, however, Matt tugged on Natalie's wrist, and they splashed through the stream together.
Natalie shivered slightly at the cold water, but then they were running through the trees once more. She didn't even notice that she'd left her shoes behind, and was running barefoot. Then, they burst out of the trees on a grassy slope. Matt immediately lied down and rolled down the slope, laughing all the way. Natalie was quick to join him, and shrieked with laughter all the way down. They lay on the ground giggling as their vision spun from dizziness before Natalie jumped up and ran back up the hill to do it again.
They ran up and rolled down the hill over and over for hours. They played games of jumping over one another, and racing each other up. Neither one noticed how much time was passing until the sun began to sink in the sky and a cooler breeze began to blow. Natalie shivered from where she lay with a wide, breathless grin next to Matt, and that was when she noticed how late it was.
Natalie jolted upright with and said, "Uh, oh. I'd better get back before my nanny finds out I was gone."
Matt rolled his head to look at her before sitting up as well, "Okay, let's go. I have to eat dinner soon, anyway."
They backtracked through the trees, going a little slower than before. Natalie was smiling brightly as she and Matt talked about all kinds of things ranging from their least favorite food, to how cute cats were, to things their parents did that were confusion or irritating. They reached the edge of Natalie's yard, and stopped.
"Can you play tomorrow, too?" Matt asked. "No one else likes to roll down the hill with me."
Natalie frowned, "If I can sneak out again, maybe?"
Matt smiled hopefully, "I'll wait in the same place."
Natalie smiled back, "Okay. I hope to see you tomorrow.
Matt turned to go, calling back over his shoulder, "'Night, Natz!"
Natalie waved and turned to head back across her lawn. She opened her door very carefully, and tiptoed inside. She thought she had made it back undiscovered until a throat cleared. Natalie jumped and whirled around with a guilty expression to see her nanny watching her with a disapproving frown.
"And where have you been?" the old woman asked with an arched brow.
Natalie winced, "Outside?"
"Look at you: covered in mud and grass stains, your dress is ruined, and you must have half a tree tangled in your hair. And where are your shoes? Just wait until your father hears about this. Come now, let's get you cleaned up and then it's off to bed."
Natalie's eyes widened, "What about dinner?"
"You did not do your reading, and you snuck outside to get filthy. No dinner tonight."
Natalie's eyes widened even further at the unfairness of that. She stomped her foot and complained, "But I'm hungry!"
"Then perhaps you'll think of that the next time you decide to disobey," the woman said briskly with absolutely no sympathy.
Natalie scowled as she was herded upstairs, and muttered mutinously all the while. She took her bath and dressed in her nightgown before being tucked into bed with a final admonishment to be good tomorrow.
Natalie's nanny watched the young girl like a hawk over the next few days. There were no opportunities to sneak out to see Matt, and she hoped he wasn't mad. But five days later, Natalie was reading studiously, occasionally peeking at her nanny, who was drifting off with her knitting in her lap. As soon as the woman was asleep, Natalie carefully put her book down, and stood up. She tiptoed out of the room, dodging all the squeaky floorboards. Once she was in the hall, she moved a little faster, darting for the front door. She ran into the trees, heading for where she'd first met Matt.
To her amazement, Matt was sitting on the ground under a tree with a bored look on his face as he threw bits of dirt at a tree with varying degrees of accuracy. His expression changed drastically when Natalie called his name, and he scrambled up with an excited smile.
"You came!" he cheered, "I thought you forgot about me."
Natalie shook her head with a wide smile, "My nanny was being a nag and wouldn't let me go play. But then she fell asleep, so here I am!"
Matt made a face, "She sounds like my mom. Why are adults so boring?"
Natalie shrugged, "Dunno. So, what are we doing today?"
"Want to go back to the hill?" Matt asked hopefully. His smile fell when Natalie shook her head, "Aww, but that was so much fun…"
"I got in big trouble for that," Natalie whispered, "We have to do something that gets me less dirty."
Matt tilted his head thoughtfully before asking, "Can you teach me to read?"
Natalie blinked a few times in surprise, "Why would you want to do that?"
"Because then I can read all the best books on how to use a sword!" Matt declared, scooping up a stick to brandish with excessive flourish.
Natalie giggled as he swung the stick around with exaggerated yells and finally nodded, "Okay, I can try. Come on, I can draw in the dirt."
The entire day—and the next few days after that—were spent teaching Matt the letters of the alphabet and their sounds with a few crude pictures to help. Matt was slow at first, but dedicated to learning. His d's, b's, and c's came out backwards more often than not, but he was a quick learner, and eager to read. They stopped at that when Natalie heard her name being called and had to leave, though she promised to help again the next day.
"I've gotta go. I'll bring some books next time," she told Matt.
Matt nodded with shining eyes, "Okay, see you soon!"
Natalie waved and trotted back to her house. Her nanny looked displeased at her vanishing again, but sighed and forgave her as she remembered hating sitting still as a kid, and Natalie hadn't ruined another dress. The young girl promised to finish her readings after dinner and get started early the next day.
It took a few days, but soon, Natalie was writing out simple sentences from her books in extra-large letters, and Matt was slowly and carefully reading though them. Natalie cheered when Matt successfully read four lines that she wrote out. The young girl gave Matt a few of her easiest books to keep reading through, promising that she had plenty at home, and had already read them.
Months passed that way. Natalie would work extra hard to get through her lessons so that she could go find Matt and all but repeat them with him. Days that they didn't do reading and writing were spent tromping through the woods, throwing rocks in the stream, and looking for animals to watch. They found a litter of kittens in a hollow tree, and squealed over how cute the little creatures were until the mother came and chased them off. They still came back almost every day after that to see them, though, until the mother cat was less suspicious. As long as they didn't try to touch the kittens, then she mostly ignored them.
Natalie's nanny was onto the girl's escapades almost immediately, but did nothing to stop her excursions and friendship with a common child. She thought it was a good thing the girl had a friend instead of being cooped up all day with her parents perpetually out of the house. And anything that got Natalie working without daydreaming or fussing was definitely a good thing in her books. In fact, the woman even began packing snacks for Natalie to take with her to share with her friend, and only made Natalie promise to be back at certain times and not to tell her parents.
It was that winter when everything changed. Natalie's parents were in the house for once, and it made it much harder for the girl to sneak out to see Matt and NoLegs, the feral cat from the litter they'd watched that had begun to follow them around to play. Worse than the presence of her stuffy parents, however, was the fact that they planned to send Natalie away to a boarding school. She had no say in the matter when it was revealed, and was shipped off without even getting the chance to say goodbye to her friend.
Tears ran down Natalie's cheeks as she looked out the window of the carriage taking her away. She really hoped her nanny would remember to let Matt know she hadn't simply forgotten about him, and would definitely miss him. The old woman had promised to pass along her message and to give Matt a few books to keep up with his reading while she was gone.
Matt sat huddled in the usual spot, bundled up in an oversized, hand-me-down jacket, waiting for Natalie. His friend had been missing for almost two weeks now, which was the longest that she hadn't shown up since he'd met her. He really hoped she would be out today, because there was fresh snow on the ground, and he wanted to build snowmen and have a snowball fight. He absently petted NoLegs' head from where it stuck out of the neck of his jacket. The cat meowed, asking what was taking so long.
"She'll be here soon, I know it," Matt told the cat in a certain tone.
As if in response to his words, he could suddenly hear footsteps crunching through the snow. Matt sprang to his feet with an excited smile, and NoLegs squirmed out of his jacket to bounce next to him. The boy's mouth opened to greet Natalie, but shut again with a snap when he saw an elderly woman with a bag over one arm, instead. Instantly, his eyes widened with fear at being caught trespassing. But before he could take one step, the woman spoke.
"Are you Matt?" she asked calmly.
Matt's eyes narrowed and he nodded slowly, "Yes. Who're you?"
The woman smiled slightly, "I would be the young Miss Natalie's nanny, and the one who has been sending you two sweets."
Matt's face split into a smile, "That was you? Thank you! Those cookies were the bestest cookies ever! Can you tell me when Natalie will come play? We promised to make snowmen when the snow finally came!"
"I'm sorry, Matt, Natalie won't be coming to play for some time," the nanny said in a gentle voice.
Matt's smile faltered, "Aww… Why? Is she sick?"
"No, but she's been sent away to a special school."
"I thought she learned at home?" Matt asked in confusion.
"Not this kind of learning," the nanny said with a shake of her head. "No, Natalie is going to learn to harness magic for spells."
Matt's eyes widened and shone with awe. "Really?" he squeaked in an excited voice.
"Really," the nanny confirmed with a smile. Her smile fell some as she added, "But learning magic takes time. A long time. So I'm afraid your friend won't be able to come play with you anymore."
Matt shook his head with a smile, "That's okay. She's learning magic! She told me she always wanted to learn how to use magic! I can wait while she does that. When will she be back?"
"Not for close to eight years."
Matt's jaw dropped, "Eight years?! But she'll be an old lady and I'll be an old man by then! How are we supposed to go fight monsters and find treasure together if we both have big, old, gray beards and wrinkles?"
The old woman laughed heartily, "Silly child, you won't get a beard or wrinkles that soon in your life!"
Matt looked unconvinced, but he nodded, "Okay, then. I guess I'll just have to become the bestest swordsman ever while she'd becoming the bestest mage, then we can go find treasure!"
The nanny smiled at Matt's brave enthusiasm. She held out the bag she was carrying and said, "Natalie told me she's been teaching you how to read and write, and wanted me to give you these to keep helping you. You really got her working on her own reading, so thank you, and if you ever need help with something, don't hesitate to knock and ask for Kerry. I'll help whenever I can."
Matt accepted the bag, and staggered some at how heavy it was. He peered in the sack and saw a number of large books. A few seconds later, and he made a face as he thought about having to read them. The novelty of learning to read had long since worn off, and he'd only really kept learning because Natalie had told him it was fun to teach him. Then it hit Matt that the books were a gift from Natalie, and he immediately vowed to read every single one, no matter how boring it was. He looked back up at the kind, old woman smiling at him.
"Thank you! Tell Natalie when she comes back that I said I'm going to read all of them, and that she'd better be ready to go fight monsters because I'll be waiting!" he said to the old woman.
Kerry smiled and nodded, "I will. Take care on your way home, Matt."
Matt nodded and turned to go with the sack over one shoulder, calling for NoLegs. The boy and cat tromped off through the snow, heading for the small village. The old woman watched him go with a soft smile. She could see why Natalie had liked the boy so much: he was like a little ball of sunshine and enthusiasm. She really hoped he would remember his promise when Natalie came home, because she doubted Natalie would forget about her first friend.
OOOOOO
Natalie launched out of the carriage onto her front lawn with an excited smile. It had been way too long since she'd seen home. She grinned as the bushes and flowers seemed so much smaller now, eight years later. She stood almost twice as tall as she had when she was eight, and had gained all the curves of a young woman. She now had a twisting wooden staff across her back, proof of her graduation from the magic academy where she'd done remarkably well, passing the top of her class in everything.
It had been a fruitful experience, but very lonely. She hadn't made any really close friends as almost the women there were a lot older than her, and any around her age had been very snobbish while the men had only been interested in flirting with her. Her only bright points aside from the lessons had been letters from home which, during the first four years, had often included tidbits about the occasional visit from Matt for help with reading.
Natalie's smile fell as she thought about Matt. He hadn't been seen at the manor at all during the last three years, and the last year that he had been by had only seen him a few times. Kerry had mentioned that Matt had long since finished the books, and hadn't been interested in reading more. She also talked about how he had acquired a sword. The young mage supposed he must have set off to slay monsters without her. And while she'd eventually expected that after so long apart and having only known each other for a short time, she was still a little hurt that he'd left her behind.
The mage was broken out of her thoughts by the rattling of the carriage pulling away, and she blew out a sigh as she scooped up her travel bag and headed for the house. She walked in the front door, and called a greeting. Kerry was already waiting to give her a welcoming hug. Natalie returned the embrace tightly before standing back to look over her nanny.
"You don't look like you've changed one bit," Natalie noted with a grin.
Kerry huffed, but was beaming at Natalie, "Well, I see your attitude hasn't changed nearly as much as your body. And what a fine young woman you've become. I bet you turn every man's head as you pass!"
Natalie rolled her eyes with pink cheeks, "Something like that, yes." She smiled widely and added, "Thank you so much for sending those letters; I think I would have gone batty without them. And thank you for helping Matt with his reading. He… hasn't been by at all since your last letter, has he?"
Kerry's smile faded some, "No, he hasn't. I'm sorry, Natalie."
Natalie shrugged, trying not to show how much that bugged her. "It's fine. I suppose it was pretty childish to expect him to still be here after so long. He'll be turning eighteen in just a couple more weeks. He's probably got a girlfriend and tons of monsters to occupy his time."
A knock at the front sounded before Kerry could reply to that. The elderly woman moved to answer the guest, and her shoulders stiffened with surprise. Natalie cocked her head in confusion at that, and moved forwards to look out curiously. Her eyes fell on a tall young man with long blond hair and a sword with a green hilt across his back. He had a muscled physique that was partially hidden by his clothing and various pieces of light armor. And then Natalie stiffened as she met the man's blue eyes. Blue eyes she definitely recognized—blue eyes that took a moment before lighting up as they stared at her.
"Natalie!" Matt cried with delight and a wide, familiar grin.
His voice was much deeper than Natalie recalled, but it still held the same note of happiness at seeing her. Her own mouth opened and shut a few times while a gesture from Kerry had Matt stepping inside so that the door could be shut. Finally, Natalie seemed to get her mind working again.
"Matt? Is that really you?" she breathed in amazement.
Matt's grin only widened, "Yup! I promised to come get you to fight monsters and find treasure with, remember?"
Natalie's eyes welled with happy tears as her heart melted. She lunged forwards to tackle Matt with a hug, wrapping her arms around his strong chest. She felt him flail around as he spluttered in confusion before awkwardly patting her on the back with one hand. "You remembered," she whispered.
Matt finally returned the hug, "Of course I remembered. Why would I forget the most important promise I made to my best friend?"
Natalie pulled back to wipe her eyes with one arm and let out a laugh, "Of course. How have you been?"
"Pretty good," Matt replied with an easy shrug and a grin.
His grin took on a sly cast as he scanned Natalie up and down. She expected him to make some kind of ribald comment on her chest, and her mouth tightened.
"Ha! Looks like I'm taller than you, now," Matt noted with immense satisfaction. He held a hand up to the top of his head and then stuck it out over Natalie's, clearing her height by over half a foot, "By a lot, too."
Natalie deflated in shock at his complete lack of any kind of notice for her curves, and, strangely, felt a twinge of disappointment for that same reason. Then she snorted out a laugh as his words caught up to her and she recalled all the times Matt had complained about her being taller than him. She shook her head with a fond smile and turned to Kerry. The old woman had been watching the reunion with a warm smile, and shrewd eyes.
"We can talk over lunch, right?" Natalie asked hopefully.
Kerry nodded, "Of course. There's plenty of food, since your… parents sent word that they wouldn't be able to make it." The old woman's face showed her disgust with the once again absent parents, but it vanished as she turned to address Matt, "Would you like to join Natalie for lunch, Matt?"
Matt cheered, "Point the way, and pile on those awesome cookies!"
Natalie felt a flash of bitterness at her parents once again being away; they were always gone, and couldn't even be bothered to welcome their only child home after eight years away. But her unhappiness was easily pushed aside by Matt's cheer and enthusiasm, still as strong as it had been when he was eight. She led him down the hall to the dining room; she couldn't wait to get caught up, and, eventually, get out into the world to start adventuring. Her parents weren't there to demand she do something they wanted with her magic, and she would be sure to be long gone when they finally deigned to show up. She was sick of waiting for them to be there, and they had missed their last chance. It was time to start living her own life, not be conformed to be what they wanted.
And as she and Matt ate—or rather, as she ate, and Matt inhaled—and exchanged what they'd been doing with their lives, she knew she had made the right decision.
A/N: Yeah, I'm not dead, and I am still writing, just not in the places I really should be writing. (._.;) Anyway, this was just another origin story for Matt and Natalie. And NoLegs, too, I guess. I did one earlier, but this idea came to me while doing the mindless task of folding clothes for customers to unfold, and had to be written.
Fun fact for all of you about my writing life: I started writing with An Epic Retelling back in October of 2015, and recently put all of the words I've written into one document. It came out to over one million words. One. Million. Sweet Godcat, someone needs to stop me.
Anyway, I may post a few of those stories on FF (They are all EBF because I have issues), but they'd be in drabble-like chunks of plots in all genres and of all kinds that are not fully written (meaning they tend to start abruptly, and do not reach any real conclusion). I do plan to write several of the stories at some point, but not in the immediate future. But if reading some of my unfinished works interests any of you, please let me know in the reviews.
As for updates on my progress in Retribution, Shadow of the Blight, and The Long Road Home: I have started the next chapters in each of them, and am steadily working through them. Here's hoping I get one out soon, right?
