As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
Sareth wrote:"Yes, I think so. Just don't go doing some silly macho thing and getting yourself hurt. I don't want to be putting the local health care to the test just yet." Lillith smiled. "Alia, do you know where we might be able to find such a cart?"
Alia nodded. "There are a bunch down by the docks, if you don't mind one that smells like dead fish."
Personally, she thought it would be easier to disassemble the thing, but she didn't feel strongly enough about it to argue.
"They were both looking forward to starting a family, together."
Sister Rose felt that familiar dull ache in her ovaries again. "I can -- sympathize." Damn right I can. "We'll have to proceed here with the greatest possible compassion and caring. And we can't let them lose hope. From what I've heard about Errants --" from Kenny -- "even if one childbirth -- goes badly, that doesn't mean they all will. As horrible as the pain would be if this one -- doesn't work out, they can try again. We can't let their pain interfere with that. Or at least we can't cause them unnecessary pain."
They walked in silence for a minute or two, then Rose decided to take a chance. "If you don't mind me asking, do you have hopes for children yourself?"
Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
"I can -- sympathize. We'll have to proceed here with the greatest possible compassion and caring. And we can't let them lose hope. From what I've heard about Errants -- even if one childbirth -- goes badly, that doesn't mean they all will. As horrible as the pain would be if this one -- doesn't work out, they can try again. We can't let their pain interfere with that. Or at least we can't cause them unnecessary pain." They walked in silence for a minute or two, then Rose decided to take a chance. "If you don't mind me asking, do you have hopes for children yourself?"
"Hopes?" I echo. It's true, Kera prayed for a child. A family was something she wanted more than anything else. Still wants, I hope. But me? "I'm not sure if 'hopes' is the right word. I wouldn't mind a child, someday. As your friend Lillith surmised yesterday, I didn't use a contraception spell during the ceremony, so there's a chance, however minor, that I'll be a mother within the year. Am I hoping for that? No. But if Anilis wills it, then I won't mind."
There was another time when I didn't use a contraception spell. I wonder how things might have gone differently if Kenny had gotten me with child. Would he have left Rose to be with me and his child? Would it have saved his life? Or would it have just been that much more tragic when he died? No way to know now.
"What about you?" I ask. "Do you still want children of your own?"
"Fish smell I can live with. Just so long as I don't have to eat it." Lillith made a face. "We didn't get much fish back home, and the smell always convinced me to be glad I didn't eat meat." Though I am willing to admit that may have been the result of it having to be carted through arid conditions. Even smoked or salted it probably didn't hold up well. "Can you lead the way? I haven't been to the docks yet."
Sister Rose had had an answer to that one ready when she asked her own question, but it still hurt to say it.
"I certainly did," she said, "and I still will, when the time is right. If the time is right ... and the problem is, I'm running out of time."
She paused to wave at Lillith and Alia. Where were they going? On some balloon-related errand, presumably. She suppressed a shudder at the thought of her cousin at the controls of dwarven technology and went on. "One advantage that you half elves have over us human women is that you're fertile longer. I'd guess that you're about my own age, chronologically, and you still must have two thirds of your child-bearing years in front of you. It doesn't work that way with humans. For me, it's five more years, maybe eight or nine if I'm lucky. And that's only if I find someone I'm willing to have a family with." She smiled quietly at the thought of the kiss and embrace the night before ... but things definitely weren't at that point with Argus, not yet, anyway. Maybe they never would be. (But one could dream, as she had last night ... or at least contemplate possibilities in the abstract. Couldn't one?)
"The other thing," she continued, "is that we humans aren't immune to birth defects either, and for some kinds, the risk of having a baby with a defect increases as we get older. One of my childhood friends gave birth to a son who ..." She let her voice trail off, not wanting to probe that memory too closely. Anyway, they were coming to the Kondriel house ... and other birth defects were going to be the focus of their attention for a while.
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Brad wasn't a complete loss in social situations. "Argus, what's wrong?" he asked as they reached the edge of town. "You look, well, nervous."
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The scruffy man at the farm was finishing his late breakfast, and asking himself the obvious question: what now? The mountains to the east looked like serious business. They'd be hard to cross, and if the balloon came down in them, it would be hard to locate. Well, maybe he could find another farmer or two to talk to. He started to pack up, under a pair of watchful, if well hidden, eyes.
Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
Sareth wrote:"Fish smell I can live with. Just so long as I don't have to eat it." Lillith made a face. "We didn't get much fish back home, and the smell always convinced me to be glad I didn't eat meat. Can you lead the way? I haven't been to the docks yet."
"Sure," Alia agreed. Walking down to the docks, Alia smiled at the memory of last night. She hoped to get a few moments alone with Eli, but it seemed like he was going up in the balloon with Lillith's dufus boyfriend. Oh well, maybe afterwards.
"So, you really don't eat meat?" Alia asked. "Like, at all? Why not?" After she said it, Alia realized how childish that sounded. But, honestly she was really curious about this. After all, really, who didn't like fresh fish?
"I certainly did," she said, "and I still will, when the time is right. If the time is right ... and the problem is, I'm running out of time."
"One advantage that you half elves have over us human women is that you're fertile longer. I'd guess that you're about my own age, chronologically, and you still must have two thirds of your child-bearing years in front of you. It doesn't work that way with humans. For me, it's five more years, maybe eight or nine if I'm lucky. And that's only if I find someone I'm willing to have a family with."
"The other thing," she continued, "is that we humans aren't immune to birth defects either, and for some kinds, the risk of having a baby with a defect increases as we get older. One of my childhood friends gave birth to a son who ..."
I nod. "Well, we might be fertile longer, but we aren't as likely to concieve, so it usually balances out. I'm surprised by your estimates, though - you don't seem all that old, even in relative terms." I don't add that her estimates about me are a bit off as well - I have something closer to four fifths of my fertile years ahead of me. Then again, I also have more elven blood than most people in Snamish.
"Besides," I add, "In humans, a birth defect is just a birth defect. For half-elves, a birth defect marks you as a future mass murderer. Mother can't stand the idea that another disaster like the one that claimed her birth city could happen here. I hear other half-elven settlements don't have laws like ours. I also hear about other half-elven settlements being burned to the ground by insane Errants, or the elves that arrive to eliminate them. I'd rather cry over one dead child than watch them all be murdered."
I pause a few yards from Kera's house, keeping my voice down. I don't want her to hear me say something like that. Not with what's coming next. I wait for Rose to reply - I want to finish our conversation before we go any further. It wouldn't be fair to say something like that and then prevent her from responding.
"I also hear about other half-elven settlements being burned to the ground by insane Errants, or the elves that arrive to eliminate them. I'd rather cry over one dead child than watch them all be murdered."
"Point taken," Sister Rose conceded, suppressing a shudder. "On the way here, your mother and Argus and Lillith and Brad and Maduin and I got to see something off in the distance that looked like an elf 'eliminating' an Errant. The explosion was big enough to take out a small village -- a small human village. It was -- disquieting." She couldn't suppress the shudder this time.
"Well, let's do what we came for." She turned to knock at the door -- and suddenly she was stopped in her tracks by a most improbable, unexpected, extraordinary thought, one that caught her so thoroughly by surprise that she simply stood motionless mulling it over.
If we get in there and discover that Desiree's, and Drusia's, worst fears are realized, could -- could -- could I adopt this child?
Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
"Well, it's just..." Lillith shrugged. "Mother and I both have a strong affinity for life. We see and feel spirits wherever there may be. Some spirits are brighter and more vibrant than others." She shrugged. "Harvesting a vegetable... the spirit of the plant usually has either fled already, is meant to allow the loss of a few fruit full of seeds, or never had much of a spirit to begin with. We give thanks to them for their sacrifice, but it's a fairly dull thing. Animals..." She gave a strange smile. "We are just fine seeing others eat. But we really don't feel comfortable eating something that had such a bright spirit which still has some lingering strands coming off of it during the meal."
"On the way here, your mother and Argus and Lillith and Brad and Maduin and I got to see something off in the distance that looked like an elf 'eliminating' an Errant. The explosion was big enough to take out a small village -- a small human village. It was -- disquieting."
"Well, let's do what we came for."
I pale at the thought of elves attacking towns so close to Snamish. I'm not sure if I want to ask - I'm not really all that interested in the outside world. Besides the chance that I'd get killed, it just doesn't sound very pleasant.
Rose turns towards Kera's house, then stops. I almost run into her.
"What's wrong?" I ask her.
Beyond Rose, I see Kera peer at us from her window. Seeing me, she hurries over to the door. I look back at Rose, wondering what's the matter with her.
