One door opens, and one chapter closes.
Wolf stood outside his father door. Finally he had made it to Elturel. He had left Ana just outside the squalid rooms playing with the other children in the muddy street. He was suddenly nervous. He had been away so long, so much had changed now. His father would still be the same as ever.
Now he actually had to think?
Wolf leant against the door frame. He knew his father still lived here. Nailed above the door frame was a slightly faded red rag that marked this as a Gur dwelling. His father would hold court here, resolve disputes, bed widows and so on and so forth. From inside came the sounds of his fathers fiddle.
He reached over his shoulder and plucked at a lute string. There was a pause then a coughing and shuffling noise from inside the door. Wolf gently knocked, and slowly opened the door. His father was inside sitting on his small bed. Gods, it was good to see him. The greeting Wolf had been preparing caught in his throat. Two steps and he had his father in his arms. Two breaths and they were both in tears, Wolf lost in the trauma of all that had happened in the year he had been away, his father lost in Wolfs sobs. They simply held each other, unashamed of the emotion. After a long moment Wolfs shoulders stopped heaving as he let go of the pain he had been holding for so long.
Eris patted and rubbed him on the back.
“It’s good to see you again” Wolf said with a choked half laugh.
“You have an odd way of showing it” replied Eris with tears in his own eyes. He led Wolf over to the bed, the only place to sit in the small room. They sat and held hands, and Wolf told him all that had happened in the last year, completely and honestly, leaving nothing out, even things he was ashamed of. The places he had seen, the friends he had made, the adventures he had, the fortunes and loves he had known and lost. And the bad, the violence, the deaths, what it was like to be stabbed in the guts, the man he had killed to save his own life, and his curse.
Despite himself Eris pulled back from Wolf when he heard of the curse. That hurt Wolf more than anything else, though he tried to hide it. They both sat uncomfortable before Eris took wolfs hand again. Gods, when did his father start looking so old?
“Did you throw salt over your shoulder under the new moon?” asked Eris after a long moment. Wolf nodded. Eris frowned. “And that still didn’t remove the curse?”
“I even mixed my blood with silver, cracked an egg underneath my bed, and sacrificed a goat” Wolf replied. Powerful magicks indeed! “This necklace is the only thing that keeps me alive”. Wolf touched one finger to the locket at his neck. Inside was the smallest bone chip from Binlinas knife, and a lock of hair from Volgara. “Every day it removes the curse... and every day the curse renews itself... the first half a day is fine. The second half it creeps upon me. Like a cramp in the guts. But i know what it is! It’s the...” Wolf fell silent as he saw the horror in his fathers eyes. He was hurting him by telling him. “It’s not that bad” Wolf lied.
He gripped the locket in his hands and let the magic healing flow, not into his own body, but into his fathers. Eris tried to jerk his hand free but Wolf held it tight, long enough to heal any ailments his father had been carrying.
“You were sick, weren’t you Pap?” Wolf said accusingly. Eris closed his eyes then nodded. He then leant forward and reached under the bed, bringing up a rag that was spotted with brown stains of crust.
“Consumption” his father said simply, naming the awful disease. Wolf felt his eyes tear up again. Why couldn’t things ever just stay as they were? He wasn’t ready to see his father get old.
“You’re better now, i’ll pay for it over the next day, but you’re better”. Eris slumped forwards, burying his head in his hands. Wolf wrapped his arms around his father and kissed the back of his head.
“Thankyou” came the muffled response.
Eventually his father sat up again, and they talked at length of how Wolf could cure himself. It would be a grim business to gather enough gold and support to do so, but Wolf swore himself to do what was needed, pricking his hand and letting blood fall onto a silver coin. He swore not just for his own sake, but for his father, for Ana, for his future children, for the memory of his wife and child, and for his people.
“Can I leave Ana with you until I see this done?”
Eris nodded and so it was done.
After saying emotional goodbyes to his father and Ana, he stood looking towards the spires of Elturel, the reins of Pony in his hand. A chapter had just been closed on one part of his life.
The next chapter... there was little doubt that it would be a grim one.
*Artwork by Linda dash
12.August.2015: Never forget.
