Charity – Thom
The spring floods have wreaked devastation on the villages in this valley. The road is solid mud—impassable to wagons--and the surrounding fields will have to be replanted once the water drains away.
Master Si-cham has finishing re-tucking the ends of his long orange robe into his belt to keep it out of the mud. It exposes his muck-covered leggings and knobby knees, but his appearance has never been one of his concerns. He leans heavily on his walking staff, glad of a chance to catch his breath, and waits for his companion to catch up.
Squelching loudly through greedy mud that tries to keep its tenacious hold at every step, Thom makes his way laboriously over to Si-cham.
"Faugh!" Thom calls in disgust as he draws near. "I would have said it was impossible to hate this journey any more than I did six hours ago, when we left, but my loathing has reached new heights previously unattained by man." His pale, narrow face is pinched with annoyance and fatigue. "Master Si-cham, your taste in destinations leaves much to be desired."
"A little mud never hurt anyone Master Thom," replies Si-cham cheerfully. "The nobility of Tusaine and Galla have the custom of taking baths in a particular kind of mud as a restorative for ill-health. It's also said to do wonders for one's skin."
Thom makes a terrible face. "Pigs bathe in mud too, and the only thing it restores is their stench."
"What did those villagers have to say?" Si-cham enquires. "And don't think that I didn't see you slipping your dinner to that young man. We can't stop to help everyone along the way," he cautions. Thom has a prickly nature and an abrasive tongue, but Si-cham's favourite and most Gifted student has a remarkably kind heart underneath.
Typically, Thom brushes off any mention of his generosity. "You're getting as blind as a bat, Old Man," he sneers. "You saw no such thing." Less defensively he adds, "They're in a bad way. Home unlivable, crops ruined, animals drowned. They'll have to apply to their Lord's bounty and hope the Fief can be their support until they can plant again. But everyone is in the same situation. I doubt there will be enough to go around."
"Well thanks to you, this family at least will have food in their bellies tonight," Si-cham says. He adopts a severe tone of voice, but Thom will know him well enough to hear the humour in his words. "As your Master, I forbid you to give anyone the clothes off your back. I refuse to be seen with a naked disciple. As the head of our order, I have my dignity to maintain."
"Hah!" says Thom, looking down his sharp nose witheringly. "You stopped being my Master when I passed the exams—ten years ahead of schedule, I might add! And I couldn't possibly give these robes away. No one would have them. Was it Mithros' terrible joke on his mortal servants that he requires us to dress in hideous orange sackcloth? Or was the priest who picked these robes merely colour-blind and possessed of a skin like sandpaper?" Thom's considerable vanity is hindered by his merely average looks and by the hated orange robes, which go badly with his colouring. Streaks of sweat have turned his reddish eyebrows and hair dark brown. There is mud in his beard.
Si-cham enjoys teasing him and finds much amusement in Thom's sharp comments. "Protest away, Master Thom. It looks as though Lady Alanna is not the only Trebond who follows the Code of Chivalry," he observes slyly.
"My dear sister has far more important things to do as Champion than waste her time on hopeless missions of mercy in the Kingdom's finest-quality muck. No doubt she goes on clean missions."
Thom adores his sister. He takes every opportunity he can to talk about her accomplishments as a knight with such pride. Yet he fails to see the worth in himself. Privately, Si-cham thinks that the Goddess did Tortall's people a great service the day that she handed out extraordinary blessings to both of Trebond's newly-born twins.
Out loud he merely says, "Well Master Thom, if my old bones can handle a few more miles of this road, then your youthful vigour should give you no reason to complain. Let's be off: we have a dam to repair."