Violet

Violet flinched as the knotted rope struck down across her back again.

"I hope it doesn't damage my robe. I don't have many clothes," she thought as she looked up at her father. The rope struck down again.

"I didn't mean it, father. I just repeated what I heard," she managed to say, hoping that it would have some mitigating effect. Her parents had been arguing over where the souls of those who died existed when a person died but was later raised. She'd just repeated what a neighbor back in the village had once said. The rope struck again, and she couldn't resist crying out this time. Violet quickly glanced over at her mother, but there was no hope to be found there.

"I shouldn't have said anything," Violet thought. "I should have known better. Talking is always a bad idea." Violet remembered an old piece of wisdom - better to keep your mouth and be thought a fool than open it and prove it. "I proved it today alright. You'd think I'd learn."

The rope struck down several more times before her father finally dropped his arm and tossed the rope under the bunk. He sighed and shook his head. "This hurts me more than it does you. Do you think I want to punish you?"

Violet looked down and declined to answer but wondered how it hurt her father more. Her legs trembled and her back was a mass of stinging pain.

"Go on with you. You're six years old, now. You should know to keep out of trouble," her father said, motioning her toward the door.

Violet promply fled the tiny cabin she shared with her parents, quickly closing the door behind her as she escaped into the main passage of the ship. Slowly tottering down the hallway toward one of her hiding places, she pretended not to notice Scholar Nicholas peering out of his barely opened door at her. It felt like his eyes were following her as she passed. "Nobody see me," she thought to herself. "Nobody see me."

The voyage to Aldenard was a long one and so while the hold compartments could be busy places at times they were often deserted. Violet was relieved to see that no one was working in the general supply hold when she arrived. She leaned against a barrel and gingerly tugged her robe over her head. It stuck a little in places on her back, but came of without too much pain.

Violet looked at her robe and sighed in disappointment. There were a few tears in the back, which were bad enough, but tolerable - she didn't have many clothes which didn't need mending - but there was blood staining the back around a few of the rents. "I'll have to ask a sailor for some sea water so I can wash out the blood." She trembled at the thought. The sailors didn't seem bad, but she'd have to talk to one, and opening her mouth always seemed to end badly. Violet briefly entertained the tought of using the water that collected in the deepest parts of the ship, but that could hardly be called cleaning. She decided to wait until it started to get dark, so that no one noticed the blood stains, then pulled her robe back on. "Could I borrow a needle and thread from someone," she wondered. She settled to the floor, leaning against the barrel. She felt like she should be crying, but she didn't have the energy for it. In a daze, she sat quietly.

A short while later, a soft knock came at the door. Violet started to her feet, suppressing a yelp as the movement jolted her back, wondering if she should hide or call out. "Who would be knocking at this compartment?" she wondered. As she dithered a voice called out softly, "Violet? I'm going to come in if that's okay." Violet looked around the room in confusion for a moment before the door slowly opened.

Scholar Nicholas stood at the door with a small bottle in one hand. Violet's parents owed a debt of gratitude to the scholar as he had encouraged them to come back with him to Aldenard to a city that was supposed to be full of scholars. As a result, she was nervous in his presence. If Scholar Nicholas became angry with her, her parents would surely be irate. He seemed still a bit shy of middle age but the hyur was fit from a great deal of travel. Violet didn't like to talk to him because she could never tell what he was thinking of her, though she tried to pay attention to his expressions. She could never tell if he was pleased to see her or bothered by her presence. Sometimes it felt like both.

"Hello, Violet," he began. "I always keep a bottle of this herbal concotion with me for cuts and bruises," he said, lifting up the bottle and shaking it gently in her direction. "I just thought that you might want to use a little?" He took a step into the room.

Violet gazed at the bottle but said nothing. Her shoulders twitched sightly. "What does he want from me," she thought. "I-I don't have any money for medicine," she managed to get out. Her parents would not be happy if she returned to the cabin owing money to the scholar.

Scholar Nicholas look a bit disappointed at her answer. "You don't need to pay me anything. I'm just concerned for your health. It's not expensive medicine; I made it myself. It will help, though. I promise." He gave her a small smile.

Violet wavered for another minute, then finally stepped forward and reached out for the medicine. But Scholar Nicholas pulled back slightly, and Violet wondered if she'd erred.

"It would be better if I helped you apply the medicine," Scholar Nicholas said. "Your back is a very awkward area to treat on your own, you know?" This made perfect sense to Violet, Of course it's difficult to apply medicine to your own back. Violet turned away from the scholar and pulled up her robe again. She heard Scholar Nicholas suck a breath sharply through his teeth.

"Well..." she hear him say. "Well, indeed... No worries dear little Violet." She heard him opening the bottle and the sound of sloshing water. "Now, this is going to sting a bit at first on some of these cuts, but I promise it will start to feel better very soon."

Violet grunted as she felt a damp cloth press lightly against her back. The medicine felt cold and every part of her back seemed to hurt. With a trembling hand, Scholar Nicholas brushed the tincture over her back, and Violet gripped the barrel hard to keep as quiet as she could. When he had finished applying the medicine, Scholar Nicholas reached over and took the robe, holding it by the shoulders and examining it.

"This has seen better days," he muttered half to himself. "We'll have to do something about this, won't we Violet? It needs a bit of a wash and mend, no? A side benefit of the medicine is that it also cleaned your back. I wouldn't want you to put this filth against those wounds."

Violet blushed with embarrassment. He'd just said she was filthy, hadn't he? She looked down at her hands. "I guess I'm dirty," she thought. She hadn't really considered it before, but the scholar's skin did seem shinier than hers. She had thought this was just the coloring of her skin, but she could vaguely remember her mother washing her and her skin and scales looking the same all over, too.

"You stay here. I'm going to go back to my cabin and find something clean for you to wear temporarily," he said. He disappeared back into the corridor.

Violet was at a loss. She stood in the compartment, holding her robe in front of her small body. Why was he helping her? Father said that you can only trust family. Was this okay?

Scholar Nicholas returned shortly and handed her a shirt. "This is one of mine. It'll be big on you, but you just need something to wear until those tears close."

Violet donned the shirt, which was large enough on her tiny Au Ra frame to be a baggy dress. She worried that she would walk on the hem of the shirt and ruin it. "Th-th-thank you, sir," she stuttered out.

Scholar Nicholas knelt down on the floor and looked her in the eyes. "Violet," he said. "I know that you've already learned to read. Why don't I have a talk with your parents and have you do some schooling with me as your teacher? I think I can convince them."

Violet didn't trust Scholar Nicholas, yet, but so far he hadn't hurt her. In fact, he'd only helped her. She imagined that her parents would be only too happy to have her out of their hair so that they could "do their scholarly research in peace" as they liked to say. She wasn't sure if she should say yes to the scholar, though, and kept quiet.

Scholar Nicholas sighed again and rose to his feet, looking down at her. "Well, think about it, won't you? We still have many months to go on this voyage. It would help me pass the time, too." He smiled at her again.

After he'd gone, Violet sank to the floor, overtaken with exhaustion. She hated to get the borrowed shirt dirty, but she couldn't just stand up all the way until her back healed. She sat on top of her dirty robe, which was marginally cleaner than the floor, leaned against an overstuffed gunnysack and fell asleep.

"...let...Vi..let.."

Violet awoke to a soft voice and hand gently stroking her head. Alarmed, she sat up, shaking her head. "Ow, ow, ow," she thought, wincing. "I shouldn't have moved so fast. Oh, but that does seem a bit better already." She was relieved to see that it was only Scholar Nicholas come back. She smelled something good and her stomach growled. The scholar smiled at the sound and leaned back on his heels.

"I didn't see you at mess tonight, so I thought that you might still be here. I told the cook that you weren't well, and he allowed me to bring you a bowl of soup and some bread." Here Scholar Nicholas held out a bowl with a chunk of bread sticking out over the edge. Violet took the bowl politely and devoured the bread and soup. "Meals were the best part of being on this ship," she thought to herself.

Scholar Nicholas took her empty bowl and held it as he gazed at her. "I spoke to your parents earlier. They've agreed to allow me to give you an education while we're aboard. I'd like to see you in my cabin an hour after breakfast and an hour after lunch until further notice. Are you up to it?"

Violet wasn't happy that he hadn't waited for her answer before asking her parents. That said, he was nice to her and still hadn't hurt her.

"Y-yes, Scholar Nicholas," she said.

"You can just call me Nicholas," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, I couldn't, sir," Violet protested. "My parents would never allow me such familiarity with a scholar like you."

Nicholas gave Violet a wink. "Well, let's just keep that between ourselves then. In my cabin, you can call me Nicholas, and you can continue to call me Scholar Nicholas outside of it. It'll be our little secret. Maybe in time I can ask you to keep some of my secrets, too."

Violet had never had anyone to keep secrets with before. "How fun," she thought.