I do not own The Inheritance Cycle.
So I'm
procrastinating on finishing the next chapter.
I've had this half written for over two weeks and I've been dying to finish it but not knowing how until today, so I'm really happy about finishing this. And I had way too much fun writing this.
As always, enjoy,


Red Apple

The air pressed down around the vast gardens, of the silver colored stone walled of the estate that towered leniently over the fields, like a damp blanket. There wasn't a faint whisper of a breeze; the leaves in the gardens hung utterly still. As if to make for the winds inaction, the birds were louder than Tornac ever heard them before. He was perched halfway up an ancient apple tree on a broad branch that divided to make a comfortable seat.

A drop of sweat slowly trickled down his temple, and he wiped it away reaching for another ruby apple. Sinking his teeth into crisp fruit, he leaned back against the trunk and let the sweet flesh dissolve on his tongue. These apples were certainly the high point of the day. Not, he thought disdainfully, that it had been much of a day. He should have been inside the library locked away in a small room lined with leather-bound books, concentrating on some boring lecture from his mentor, Ceithin. Instead he had had a furious argument about something he could not recall and had run off.

He didn't remember running about the halls of his grandfather's estate, only that he had been determined to get away, until he found himself outside and he spotted a seductive glint of red fruit behind a barricade of achimenes and violets. He scanned the area swiftly for any inhabitants, before making a dash to the bench, which rested below the knobby branches in the center of the patch, and hopped onto its bench, reaching for a thick winding branch. He holstered himself up on the low branch and kicked at the bark for a knob to place his foot on, scratching his boots, and after finding a feeble bulge he pulled himself on to the branch, breathing hard. Then he stood, embracing the trunk lightly for balance, and charily reached a hand out and grasped a bough that reached just above his waist and climbed onto it. He scaled halfway up the tree, and unwilling to go any farther or scale back down, he sat and began to plunder the tree of its fruit. After he had his fill he stared idly through the leaves at the blue of the sky, which paled almost to white at the apex.

When he came aware of that someone was watching him, he wiped the sticky juices carefully on his trousers and glanced down through the leaves, he saw a pair of very pale blue eyes staring up at him, and he nearly toppled out of the tree. Straitening himself, Tornac nearly laughed at his own jumpiness, after all it was only Tipper.

"Hail, Lady Tipper, what brings you out here to this vista on a day as fine as this?" he called down.

"Oh, pipe down, Tornac," his sister said. "We both know why I'm out here. 'To this vista,' what is that suppose to mean?"

"I don't know, but I heard Father say it once."

"You really ought to stop repeating every word Father says."

"There are times when Father says some very wise things," Tornac argued.

"Yes," said Tipper, spinning a strand of pale blond around her finger tips. "When he tells you to keep your mouth shut and to open your ears, those are his wisest words to this date."

Tornac glared down at her through the leaves, and noted with satisfaction that one of the leaves blocked her blabbering mouth from his sight. "Go away, Tipper."

"No."

"Go away," he repeated.

"I will not," Tipper said, "and you cannot make me."

Tornac huffed in exasperation, because he knew that he could not make Tipper do anything she didn't wish to do. "Please, Tipper," he tried.

"If I go, I'll tell Grandfather where you are."

"I'll give you an apple."

"A whole apple just for me?" Tipper asked elatedly, fluttering her eyelashes up at him. "Oh, how so very generous of you, O' brother of mine."

Tornac narrowed his eyes at her mockery. "Stay if you must," he said, knowing now for certain that she would go until she saw fit, "but don't bother me."

"How am I going to bother you? You're just sitting up there gorging yourself on apples," said Tipper as she sat onto the stone bench. "I, for one, will quite surprised if there's a fruit lift shining in that tree by the time you done up there."

Tornac scowled and didn't answer, perhaps if he stayed quiet so would she.

He did not mind his sister, not truly, if anything he rather enjoyed her presence when she was not being bothersome and causing raucous. He learned to accept her attitude and cheek long ago, after all Tipper's words were better than his older brother's scorn and insolence. Many things were preferred over associating with Garnock, Tornac strongly believed, like suffering a slow and painful death by impalement or, perhaps, being eaten by a bear.

"Would you like to know what I think?" asked Tipper after a long moment of silence.

Tornac leaned against the trunk of tree, wishing that the bark would split apart to shallow him. "No."

"I think," Tipper continued as if he said nothing at all, "that you, older brother, are a coward."

"A what?!" he squealed in expiration, leaning forward from the tree to look down at Tipper's head. The bright sun glared off her pale hair, blinding him.

"A coward, you know, someone who lacks the courage to confront a tribulation."

"I do not lack courage!" he exclaimed.

Tipper glanced up at him with a skeptical expression. "You are hiding from an old man who can barely walk, Tornac, if that's not cowardly I don't know what is."

Tornac fidgeted in the tree wondering how his grandfather would punish him for his latest escapade. Would Grandfather flog him with a willow switch? Tornac uneasily considered the possibility: in his mind it seemed quite likely, he had done so before.

Picking a faultless red fruit from the tree, he said, "I am not hiding from Grandfather, I simply need time to think."

"In other words; you're hiding from your own grandfather," said Tipper mischievously. "The shame you have brought onto our family's name! Now we shall have to walk the streets with cowls covering our faces! Oh, brother, how could you? The shame is killing me! I'm dying because of you, Tornac! Isn't there any final words you have to have to say to your sister?"

"Go away, Tipper," Tornac said annoyed with her performance.

"'Go away, Tipper'," she repeated with a shake of her head. "I'm dying all you have to say is 'go away'." She stood up at stared into the leaves. "Farewell, dearest brother, I shall see you when you too pass into the Void."

Tornac threw the apple at her in answer.

Tipper, who saw the apple spinning towards her, danced out of the way and maturely stuck her tongue out at Tornac. "How very adult of you, Tornac," she said picking up the red apple and taking a bite out of it. The fair juices ran down her chin and she wiped them away with her sleeve.

Tornac watched his younger sister as she strode away, tripping gracelessly over the long skirts of her red dress, before jumping down from the tree and chasing after her, he doubled back to grab another apple and raced past her. When he passed Tipper, she dropped the apple onto the ground and pursued after him and straight into the estate, Tornac was scarcely in the lead. He was, after all, his father's son and his father was no coward.


A/N: I hoped I made it clear that Tipper is a big tomboy- in a family of swordmen I couldn't imagine that she would be a softspoken girl who likes to play with her dolls or to learn how to cook grand meals. Her and Tornac are closer to age, a year so apart- Tipper being the youngest, Tornac the middle child, and their older brother is several year older than the both of them. With Tipper being the only child around Tornac, this would force them into a healthy sibling relationship. 'Tipper' is a nickname Tornac gave to her when they were much younger (this is not like what Rose did to her name, she chose and insisted on being called 'Rose' instead of 'Muirgheal', where Tipper's nickname was given to her because of her own blunders). Tornac's parents aren't around as much, traveling around and whatsnot, so the main parental figure is his grandfather. Just thought I'd give you all some useless family background info.