Eskel
Full Member
Posts: 177
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No 12
Feb 4, 2005 11:49:41 GMT -5
Post by Eskel on Feb 4, 2005 11:49:41 GMT -5
Yes Taerlin.
Lotheg merely nods. They walk into the school together, holding hands.
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No 12
Feb 4, 2005 11:53:18 GMT -5
Post by Taerlin on Feb 4, 2005 11:53:18 GMT -5
*She bites her lip as she watches them go. So brave. Gods, let him be alive and in prision, or alive and merely hurt - something to explain where he was. Please, not death. Anything but that. She turns and begins to walk to towards the City Centre.*
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No 12
Feb 4, 2006 12:12:57 GMT -5
Post by Eiliant on Feb 4, 2006 12:12:57 GMT -5
*Eiliant whistles softly to himself. It is a nice day, if a little cold. He pulls his thick coat closer around him and hides his nose in his checkered scarf, which does the whistling no good. He walks down the road, watching the many people hurrying down with groceries, the carts, the wagons with horses, a bright blue carriage. The milkman is doing his rounds.
The young man passes a house with a red door. The garden looks like it will be beautiful in summer, but the stalks of the roses hang bare and dry now, and a little neglected. Mornar is what the door says. Eiliant raises an eyebrow and stops dead in his tracks. Mornar? He's heard that name before. He peers at the house in thought.
There is a little girl sitting behind the window. She has pigtails, and she is playing with a doll. A little Elf girl, no more than about forty years old, Eiliant hazards a guess. She does not seem to see him, so he stares at her undisguisedly curiously. She has white-blonde hair. Almost white. He likes the look of her. Perhaps one day he'll have a little girl like her. He smiles. That would be nice. If Rumerin lets him.
The girl looks up, straight at Eiliant's eyes, and jumps up. She dashes out of the window, and not a second later the door is thrown open wide. She is wearing a dark blue dress with black stockings. Clothing is a little sad for such a little girl, Eiliant muses. But he does not get a lot of time for thought. Her face, excited and flushed, falls almost as soon as she stares at him in awed dismay. Her voice is thin and only barely hopeful.*
"... Eskel?"
*Eskel Mornar. Of course. Eiliant shakes his head and pulls the scarf down his face. The little girl's lip trembles and her eyes start filling up. Whatever hope she still had is dashed to pieces, and the young man can read it on her face. He must look a little like this Eskel, he ponders. Or perhaps she is just too hopeful to really notice that he doesn't.*
"Sorry..."
*Inside, he can hear the constant wail of a baby. Gods, just what he needs to hear. What with Quenta and that little brat of hers... This baby sounds different. Not too well, actually. He gives the girl a quizzical look. She is still standing there, looking lost. Without giving it much of a second thought, Eiliant walks into the garden and up to the girl. He crouches by her.*
"... what's wrong?"
*She merely sobs. The wail is plain to him from here. How long has she been ignoring it for? Why isn't her mother here?*
"Where is your mother, little girl?"
"Dead."[/size]
*Hm. He tries to remember what he heard about Eskel Mornar, but he can't really think up anything. Rumerin would know. The guy was a student of the Academy, involved in the Lunaria episode on the wrong side, somehow. He died. Could this be his daughter? Surely an Academy student wouldn't have a child this age.*
"Is your little brother or sister sick?"
*He nods towards the inside of the house and notices the girl has goosebumps. She shrugs.*
"She's not my sister. She's my niece."
*So that is how it is. Eiliant nods.*
"Isn't anyone taking care of her? I'm Uthan, what's your name?"
*She seems a little better now. Just talking takes her mind off things, apparently.*
"I'm Lotheg. Taerlin isn't here. She's out somewhere."
*Eiliant sighs. Just great. He stands and looks over his shoulder. Nobody seems to be paying any attention to him. He simply puts his hand on the little girl's shoulder and ushers her inside. She lets him, and goes back to her doll. Such a trusting child, he marvels. He pulls the front door shut behind him.
Inside is kind of snug, but it isn't very warm. Eiliant frowns and takes a few cautious steps. Anybody here? Doesn't look like it. Oh, he has his story ready in case anyone did turn up, but there is no one in the livingroom, just him and little Lotheg. He follows the sound of the cries, and finds himself at the foot of the stairs in a tiny kitchen. A great many dirty dishes stand piled up on the sink. He walks up the stairs.*
"Who are you?"
*Eiliant jumps and turns. In the dooropening of the first room of the first floor corridor stands a boy. He looks a little older than Lotheg. Not much. He is tall for he age though.*
"I am Uthan Kip. I'm-"
"You're a guard."
*The boy looks positively hostile. Eiliant blinks and shakes his head. Of course it had been his intention to pass for a guard. Honest people don't tend to suspect them quite as much. He makes a helpless gesture.*
"... I'm an old classmate of Eskel's. I don't think you'd remember me."
*He smiles a little sheepishly. The boy still glares at him. He looks very suspicious, too.*
"... where is Taerlin?"
*Change of subject is always good. The boy shrugs reluctantly.*
"Why is that baby crying?"
"She's always crying."
"Can I have a look at her? My Dad's a doctor."
*The boy considers it a moment, then he shrugs and nods. He points at the door in the far end of the short corridor. Eiliant walks over and pushes it open. He finds himself looking into a bedroom. It smells like sick child and sleep in here. The sheets are a mess. Somebody has been sleeping on them, but hasn't been changing them for Gods know how long. There is a small cradle in the corner, which Eiliant promptly investigates. The boy has followed him and stands in the doorway.
Eiliant looks into the cradle. Inside is a small dark child with white-blonde hair. The baby can be no more than maybe half a year old, if that, he estimates. It is dressed in baby's pyjamas, and it has kicked off the little sheets. Its little face is contorted with weeping, and it smells sharply sour. Eiliant frowns. Why isn't the child's mother here? He very carefully picks the baby out of the cradle and rocks it a little. It keeps wailing tiredly. This baby is sick.
He turns around to find both the other children standing in the dooropening, staring at him helplessly. Eiliant strokes the baby's head.*
"What's her name? And what's yours?"
*He nods at the boy. But the boy shrugs and stares at him defiantly. Eiliant sighs.*
"This child is sick. She needs a healer. Is it normal for Taerlin to stay away this long?"
*Little Lotheg nods.*
"... isn't there any other adult in the house?"
*Lotheg shakes her head. Her brother puts his arm around her defensively. Eiliant nods thoughtfully. Then he straightens his back and wraps the little blanket from the cradle around the baby. Upon consideration he also wraps his scarf around the little dark child, and buttons his coat open to hold it inside, warm against him.*
"Get your coats."
*Lotheg seems to want to run off, but her brother stops her.*
"Why?
"... because... Eskel would want you to be better taken care of. And I'm taking the baby to a healer- I assume you want to keep an eye on her."
"You'll take us to the guards. But they've already been in here. And they've spoken to us. And to Taerlin. Over and over."
"Taerlin says the guards are going to kill her for what Eskel did."[/size]
*The boy frowns at his sister.*
"No she doesn't."
*Lotheg nods seriously.*
"Yes. She said so to Dalharil."
*Dalharil? Eiliant glances at the baby in his arms. "Daughter". Not likely to be the child's true name, but it'll do. He steps past the children.*
"Get your coats and come with me. We'll get her healed up and then we'll see what we can do about the guards, okay?"
*The two exchange glances, and then they run off to grab their coats. They follow him out. Eiliant wonders, as he walks down the street, what he's got himself into this time.*
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