Hey everyone! Eek!! *starts running from ladyofthebookworms torch wielding mob* Okay, I'll admit that this is the longest I've ever gone without an update, but I work in retail and this time of year really saps my creativity. (AKA, don't expect another update before the New Year.) But, I've gotten this much done, so enjoy and don't forget to review!! Oh, and before I forget, a ton of people wanted to know the story behind Leona as a dancing slave girl, so that will be a full length story that I will start after I finish The Guardian.
Disclaimer: I am merely borrowing C. S. Lewis' charming characters and world, and will eventually return them. The only thing that is mine is the plot.
Disclaimer 2: If this story in any way resembles any other fanfiction it is by complete accident, as I go out of my way to avoid reading fanfictions that resemble mine until mine are completed. My apologies to any other great minds.
Author's note: This story is set pre-, during- and post- The Last Battle. I am a first time fanfiction writer and any reviews are appreciated.
Chapter Twenty: Leona's Story: A Simple Life
"Dareena, if I find one more flute lying around the house, I'll break it!" The exasperated tones of Dareena's older sister, Fedara, came ringing through the open doorway of the kitchen. Dareena rolled her eyes at her younger brother who was helping her fold the clean laundry.
"You break my flute, I break your fingers," Dareena called back, sweetly.
Fedara bustled into the kitchen, proceeded by her vastly swollen stomach. She handed the carved wooden flute to her sister. "Would you please stop leaving your things all over the place?" Fedara said, in a slightly more genteel tone. "I'm trying to keep this house clean for at least a few days."
Dareena took the flute and tucked it into her waistband. Fedara left the kitchen with an exaggerated sigh, and Dareena went back to folding sheets with her only brother.
Fedara and her twin sister, Fencara were the oldest of the family of five children. Next came Dareena and finally the younger set of twins, another girl, Franquea, and the only boy of the brood. Their mother, Asheena, had named the girls in the grand Calormen fashion after her father's homeland, but the sensible Narnian Norrin had put his foot down with their only son and named him Frank.
Fourteen-year-old Frank looked at his favorite sister across the sheet they were folding. "I can't wait until Fedara has those babies. She's an absolute bear when she's 'nesting'. I can't see how you've managed to not shout at her. Fencara was never this bad when she was pregnant!"
Dareena gave her brother a stern look. "Feddy's absolutely miserable, Frank. It's her first pregnancy, and she's not having an easy time of it. And Cara only had one baby, Feddy's carrying two! I'd be a bear, too, if I was in her shoes!" Then in a quieter tone, "At least that's what I keep telling myself every time I want to kick her in the shins!"
Frank snorted and changed the subject. "So, are you going to tell Mother and Father tonight?"
Dareena sobered. She was not looking forward to telling the rest of her family her plans for the future, but time and musical apprenticeships waited for no woman. She nodded in answer to her brother's question, but said no more on the subject.
The visiting faun, Illone, had approached her the night before at a midwinter revel, and offered her an apprenticeship. The only catch was she would have to move to the castle of Cair Paravel in Narnia. This didn't seem like such a bad thing and had ecstatically rushed home to tell whomever she could find. The only person still awake had been Frank and while he had been excited for her, he offered a word of warning.
"Mother isn't going to like your moving as far away as Cair Paravel," Frank had said. "Particularly not to learn more music, and even more particularly not alone right before the pass is snowed over."
This warning had struck home to Dareena and she realized that her dream of becoming a professional musician may be harder than she had thought.
The kitchen was warm and filled with delicious smells by the time dinner was ready. Dareena poked her head out of the kitchen doorway into the greater part of the house and called, "Franquea! Would you please help your brother finish setting the table? Dinner is almost ready!" Hearing an answering call from a couple rooms away, she went back to her cooking.
The house was built against and into a cliff face, utilizing a series of caves that honeycombed the mountain. Mostly stone walls and few windows, the only wooden room was the added-on kitchen. There were only two entrances, the regular entryway in the kitchen and a rarely-used, short tunnel in the back of the living area that came out on the west side of the mountain. The house was cool in the summer and positively freezing in the winter, but there were hearths in every room and cunningly built chimneys carved into the rock sent the smoke curling out of the mountainside like fog. The family spent a fortune in candles and lamp oil, but woven rugs and tapestries covered every floor and wall and kept the heat inside.
The family business was weaving, and every member of the family was expected to take part in the upkeep of the business or the house. Asheena had inherited the business and the coveted patterns from her parents and ruled the roost with a firm but not usually overbearing hand. The two older girls, both now married, helped weave the intricate blankets, rugs, and tapestries that would in turn be taken by Norrin to various ports and cities to be sold. Frank helped his father with the more commercial area of the business and Franquea was still learning to weave. Dareena had never shown any interest or talent for weaving, much to her mother's confusion, and had willingly taken over organizing the upkeep of the house and family.
Even though the hours seemed long at times, there was always laughter and play echoing through the house. After the work was done for the day, there would be talk and games, or going out to socialize with the neighbors. There would be dances every so often and fauns and centaurs would occasionally come over the border from Narnia and join in. Dareena loved those times the most, and she would bother the visitors for new songs or ways of playing instruments, which most of them were happy to give. She had gotten quite good at her flute playing and her collection of vocal songs was getting very large. She had been flattered beyond words when she had been asked to sing solo to the visiting court bard of Narnia, who had been staying with a relative and had come for the revel the night before. She had been astounded when the faun had come up to her later that night and offered to teach her personally if she would come to Narnia and learn at court. For a few minutes she was afraid that the faun was teasing her. She knew that she was a good singer and player, but she never thought that she was that good.
The table was set, the food was ready and plates were being filled. The family was gathered around the table and Dareena watched her older sister, Cara, try to feed cooked carrots to her eleven month old daughter, with little success. Fencara and Fedara were identical down to the last eyelash so Dareena was happy for more than one reason when her older sisters married. The only ways to tell them apart was to see which husband was doting on them and the fact that, so far, they had never been pregnant at the same time.
Compliments were sent Dareena's way for the dinner, and seeing that everyone seemed to be in a good mood, she felt that there wouldn't be a better time to make her announcement.
"Did you know I met the Narnian court bard last night?" Dareena started, rather bravely she thought.
"Oh, that's nice, dear," Asheena said rather absentmindedly. She was also watching the antics of her carrot-covered grandchild.
Dareena took a deep breath. "He offered me an apprenticeship in Narnia to learn music from him and the other bards at court."
"Really? That's nice, de-- What?" Asheena started to respond automatically, and then comprehended what her middle child had actually said. "You want to go all the way to Narnia in the middle of winter? With a complete stranger! Absolutely not, what nonsense is this?"
"Mama!" Dareena exclaimed, hurt that her mother wouldn't even begin to listen to her. "It's what I want to do! I want to take his offer. I may never get another chance like this!"
"Reena, love," Asheena said, in a more soothing tone. "I have no problem with your singing and playing at parties and such, but it's just not realistic to think that you can make a living by it. I won't see my daughter as some starving artist."
"Illone said that I could be one of the best musicians that he's ever encountered if I devote myself to it," Dareena said.
"I don't care if he thinks you could bewitch a country by your voice alone. You are not going," Asheena said.
Dareena bristled. "I've been a woman grown for over three years, Mama. I don't need your permission, but I would like your blessing."
"I may not be able to stop you from going, but you will not have my blessing for this foolishness. I will not have you wandering across the countryside chasing a dream," Asheena said firmly.
Dareena got angrily to her feet, tears in her eyes. "What is the point of dreams if you never chase them?" she said. "I would rather have tried to achieve my goals and failed than never try at all!" Then, not able to so much as look at her mother without wanting to scream, she pushed her chair aside, hurried to the doorway and ran outside, grabbing her cloak as she went.
She sat on an upturned log by the kitchen door and stared at the horizon. The sun was setting and turning the sky every shade from orange to purple and reflecting off of the sparse snow on the ground. It seemed perverse that nature would go out of its way to be beautiful when her mood was so black.
She didn't turn her head to look when someone came out of the kitchen door and sat down beside her. She knew who it would be. She didn't pull away when a work roughened hand gently started rubbing her shoulder.
"Your mama doesn't mean to hurt you," Norrin said. "She just worries about you. She doesn't want her little girl to travel so far away."
Dareena gave a soft snort. "Cair Paravel is less than four days travel away from here in good weather. You should know, Papa, you were born in Narnia."
"Four minutes away is too far away for your mother. She wants all of her brood safe in her sight," Norrin smiled. "Why else do you think that Feddy and Cara haven't moved away even though they are wed?"
"She wouldn't be so upset if I was going to Narnia to marry someone," Dareena said, flatly. "She just doesn't like my studying music."
"You are right and wrong," Norrin said. "We wouldn't be so worried if you were traveling to wed. It would mean that there was someone there to help you. Someone to watch your back. If you took this apprenticeship you would be alone. If something went wrong there would be nowhere for you to go. Home would be days away and you may not be in a position to get here on your own. Once the pass between Narnia and Archenland is fully snowed in, there is no traveling until spring."
Dareena couldn't argue with this, even though she wanted to. "She still doesn't like my singing. She'd rather I married or learned more of a trade."
"True," Norrin said. "Your mother and I both would like to see you happily wed, or learning a decent trade. Your voice may be a gift from Heaven, but what if something happens and you lose it? You will have nothing to fall back on. You never wanted to learn weaving, but you need to learn to do something. We don't have a problem with your singing, but it's not a reliable profession."
Dareena turned sad eyes onto her father. "But, it's what I want to do! I don't know if I could be happy doing anything else."
Norrin sighed. "You are a grown woman and we can't stop you if you truly wish to leave us. But you need to decide if chasing your dream is worth the price. Is the risk worth the cost that you would pay regardless of whether you succeed or fail?"
Norrin rose to his feet and gave his daughter's shoulder one last rub. "Think on it."
Left alone again, Dareena gave a sigh. She hated when her father did that! If he had simply ranted and raved like her mother, Dareena could pack her bags and be off. She may feel guilty for leaving once she had calmed down, but she would have left. But Norrin had given her calm, cool logic and arguments that she couldn't refute. Was it worth it? Was reaching out for a future that was uncertain worth the pain that leaving her family and the only life she had ever known would cause?
The sun slowly set as she sat on the upturned log. The dreams that had laid fallow and sleeping all her life, and had burst into glorious bloom at Illone's offer, withered in the cold frost that her father's logic and hard reality had brought.
"Father talked you out of it, didn't he?" Frank asked when Dareena finally came inside and sat down at the kitchen table. "Or rather, you let him talk you out of it."
Dareena didn't bother to reply. She was worn out. The emotional storm she had been riding had finally ebbed and left a numb depression in its wake.
"I don't understand," Frank said. "You finally have a chance to go places, see the world, sing! Everything you have ever wanted to do and you're throwing it away because Mama threw a tantrum and Papa pointed out all the things that might go wrong."
"What if they're right?" Dareena said dully. "It does seem almost too good to be true. What if I get all the way to Cair Paravel and everything goes to pieces and it's all a trick?"
"Then, you wait tables and wash dishes until you can get home again," Frank said, practically but with fervor. "Oh, Mama will gloat for a time, but within a few days all will be forgotten and forgiven."
Frank came around the table and handed his sister a fresh cup of tea. Dareena wrapped her cold hands around the cup and smiled at him.
"Do you think I should go?" she asked.
"I'll miss you horribly if you do," Frank said. "But, if it were me, and I'd been given the opportunity to live out a dream, I know that I'd rather have tried and failed then go through the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I had reached for it."
Dareena gave a soft smile and said more to herself than her brother, "Will I spend my future doing nothing but looking back on lost opportunities? Or mistakes made and learned from? Or experiences more wondrous than words can say?"
Dareena cocked her head at her brother, a new light in her eyes. "Do you think that they will be horribly angry with me if I go? Particularly since it's only five more days until Christmas?"
Frank shrugged. "It depends on which they you're referring to. The girls will gripe and moan, particularly once they realize that one of them will have to cook and clean! Mama will throw an almighty tantrum then sulk and worry for a few days. By the time your first letter arrives she'll have resigned herself to your having gone. Papa will worry about you even more than Mama, but he'll understand why you left. Christmas won't be the same without you, but we'll manage."
Dareena took a deep breath, as though she were readying herself to dive head first into unknown waters. Her shoulders straightened and her eyes shone. She may end up regretting her decision, but at least she would not regret having stood by the wayside and let opportunities pass her by.
Frank grinned at her and pulled an empty travel pack down from the cupboard and handed it to her wordlessly. With a hand that trembled just a little with both fear and excitement Dareena took it from him.
As usual, Dareena woke up earlier than the rest of the family. She was always up and making breakfast before anyone else was awake, but today was different. She dressed quickly in her traveling clothes and pulled the full travel pack from the corner where she had put it before falling into bed. She hadn't packed much more than the essentials and a few mementos that she couldn't bear to leave behind. Traveling on foot would make carrying trinkets ridiculous. She had a bit of money saved away and it was, hopefully, enough to buy anything that she needed once she got to Narnia.
When she got to the kitchen, she was surprised to see Frank already there and building up the hearth fire.
"You're up early," Dareena said to her brother.
Frank grinned up at her from the hearth. "I didn't want to risk not getting to say goodbye."
"I wouldn't just leave without saying goodbye to everyone!" Dareena exclaimed, rather indignantly.
Frank sat back on his heels and looked at her. "You should, you know. If you stay to say goodbye, they will just talk you out of going, or forbid you from going at all."
Dareena shook her head. "I've made up my mind. I'm going. They can't talk me out of it!"
Frank sighed. "Yes, they can. And they will." He raised a hand to cut off his sister's protest. "Because you love them, and you are one of those wonderful people who will sacrifice almost anything for someone that you love. Even your own happiness."
She couldn't really argue. She knew in her heart that if her family pushed hard enough with their objections she would cave in and stay. She had a rather flexible backbone when it came to familial pressure.
Wordlessly, Frank pulled another travel bag filled with provisions from under the table and handed it to her. Unable to hold back another second, Dareena grabbed her brother in a fierce hug. To her surprise he even hugged her back. She supposed that he understood that they wouldn't see each other for a long time. Biting her lip to keep back the tears she shouldered both packs and looked at Frank one last time.
"Give everyone my love," she said. "Tell them that I'll write the moment I'm in Narnia. I'll expect you to write, too. I'll want to know about Feddy's babies. And don't forget to make sure someone banks the fire at night. I've always done it so no one will remember if you don't remind them."
Frank laughed and shooed her out the door. "I'll remember! And don't worry; I'll take the blame if anyone is upset that you left without saying goodbye."
Suddenly serious, Frank said, "Reena, please be careful. I know it's only a day and a half to where you need to meet Illone, and the pass into Narnia is guarded, but there are rumors of bandits in the mountains. Don't forget that Old Man Hunter's house got burned to the ground last month. Thankfully, he wasn't in it. I don't think that anyone will bother you. You don't have anything to steal, but still be careful."
"I will," she promised.
"Here," Frank said, pulling his dagger off of his belt and handing it to her. "Take it. I'll feel better if you have a weapon."
"I can't take your dagger!" she exclaimed. "Papa gave it to you for your birthday!"
Frank was insistent. "Take it! You need it more than I do."
She finally nodded and let him help her maneuver the various packs so that she could get the dagger onto her own belt. Frank gave her one last hug then gave her a little shove to get her moving.
"Go," he said. "Look back if you have to, but don't stop."
"I love you, little brother," she said, trying hard not to cry.
He grinned down at her from his superior height. "Not so little anymore... I love you too, big sister. Now go!"
Then he turned and trotted back to the house. She started up the footpath to the road that led to the pass from Archenland to Narnia. At the top of the rise she looked back for just a moment at the only home she'd ever had. Smoke was curling up from the kitchen chimney and the rising sun was shining off the cliff face into which the house was built. Taking a deep breath she turned her back and started walking briskly to the North, and Narnia.
TBC...
Author's notes for chapter. If Dareena's life seems too boring for words, that's kinda what I'm aiming for. I'm trying to give the impression that she was just a normal girl given an opportunity to fulfill her dreams. Let me know if I succeeded!