Sweet & Sour

White powder rained down before Tlina’s eyes. There was something poetic about the way that it moved. Each touch of breeze lifted it, sent it gently aflutter in the air. It wafted to and fro, down, slightly up, and down again. It was beautiful. The wide mouth that loomed gaping across from her was decidedly less so.

Galaeanyss sat on her knees atop a stool on the opposite side of the table from Tlina. Her mouth hung open, a toothy smile stretched wide like that of a storybook monster. Her eyes sparkled with glee, the monster happily luring children to their doom. The six Turn old held the bag of flour over her head. She shook it, dumping its contents as much in to the mixing bowl as she did the kitchen table. She seemed to attract a fair amount of it herself. The front of her once-green play dress was now dull gray. Flour stuck to her face, clung tightly to the line of drool that seeped from her lips.

The bag crumpled empty. Nyssa dropped it haphazardly behind her. Tlina could not see where it landed, though she did hear the soft rustle as it rolled along the stony floor. Galaeanyss snatched up the pitcher of water. It was cold, Tlina knew. It still had the white outline of her powdery lips on it rim. The young Lady poured its contents in to the same bowl, most of it even made it inside. When it too was empty, Nyssa dropped it on to the table. The pitcher landed on its side. A crack appeared in the glass. No one paid it any mind.

Galaeanyss went at the concoction with a mad fury. The wooden spoon thrashed about. Bits of soupy sludge splattered joined the mess already on the table. When she was satisfied that it was a proper level of goo, she discarded the spoon in the fashion as she had the rest of her spent materials. “Done! Come on, Thlina,” she said as she slid carefully from her seat. Tlina joined her on the floor, bowl in hand.

The pair made their way through the halls of Crom Hold. Nyssa spotted her brother coming toward them. She wave frantically at the small of her back. The pair pressed their backs to the wall, the bowl hidden behind Tlina. They adopted blank expressions, harmless little sprites that they were.

Karyan walked past them. Nyssa followed him with her eyes. He came to an abrupt. He took two large steps backwards, bringing him directly in the front of the girls. His eyes floated over their flour-coated garments. His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Whath?” Galaeanyss spat out. Her own eyes mirroring her elder brother’s. “We ain’th doin’ nothin’.” The expression on the young man’s face said that he found her declaration to be highly unlikely. Still, frown in place, he continued on his way. The girls watched him go: ten meters, twenty, thirty. It was not until he rounded the corner that they pried themselves from the passage wall.

They continued down the tunnel, taking the third right that they came to. Other people passed them by. They were not amongst the members of the ruling family. They likewise received no recognition from the children. The two turned in to the royal quarters wing of the Hold. They made their way to the sixth door beyond the midway passage. There they stopped to survey the area. Drudges were going about their business, entering and leaving various rooms as they preformed their assigned tasks. Once the girls felt assured that no one was looking their way, they slipped inside Nykyr’s room.

“Gimme,” Galaeanyss instructed. Tlina dutifully handed over the bowl. Nyssa held it up to eye height. She peered over the rim, giddy with mischievous glee. She turned it over. The contents ran in a thick, gurbling stream down in to Nykyr’s Gather boots.

“~I’m~ the Lady,” she announced as if anyone other than her friend was there to hear it. “You will rethpecth muh authoritah.”

She shook the bowl once to get the last of the sticky substance to come out. Nyssa then handed the bowl back to Tlina. “Come on,” she told the filthy little blonde. “If we hurry, we can geth tho Hall before Sthory Thime.”

The two girls closed the door on their way out.

A girl?  His mother wanted him to meet some girl from Benden?

Nykyr was completely uninterested in doing such a thing.  But his mother had asked him to do it.  She'd told him it was his duty to help entertain the lovely little girls from other Holds, as a son of Crom.  She might be his future bride, after all, since she was his age.  And since it was his mother's wish to see him happy now and in the future, or so she said, he couldn't refuse-- she was the only one who seemed to love him, after all.

Hopefully he could trust her judgement about this little girl, even if wasn't really wanting to meet her in the first place.  What did he care about his future bride, anyway?  But Naryssa had claimed she was perfectly nice, and meeting her as soon as possible would be the best way to find out if they would get along.  

Then again, this was coming from the same woman who told him his younger sister would never do anything to hurt him-- Galaeanyss loved him especially more than his brothers, after all.  Which basically meant, he wasn't sure he could trust his mother's judgement at all.

Still, he could hope this time would be different, couldn't he?

With a sigh, Nykyr pushed open the door to his room and started yanking at his clothes.  He'd been attending to his fencing lessons when Naryssa had come to find him, so he really was in need of a bath before their visitors arrived.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to enjoy it, but in a minimal amount of time, he was clean, his hair combed, and he was donning a pair of pants, shirt, and vest he would usually wear to a lesser Gather.

Not that he cared about impressing the girl, but again, he his mother wanted him to do so.  So, of course, he'd wear what she desired.

Tying back his hair with a leather thong-- he hated it long, since it got in the way all the time, but again, his mother loved it-- he glanced around for his boots.  They should have been nice and shiny, since they'd been returned first thing this morning by the drudges who handled such things.  But something seemed amiss when he found them.

There was a bit of… mud, or something, still crusted on the top.  In faceted, there were several spatters he could see as he drew closer.  It didn't make any sense, since the placement should have been closer to the bottom, for the drops to have splashed upwards.  But somehow, they weren't.

Puzzled, Nykyr reached out to pick them up, and found them far heavier than they should have been.  Brow furrowing as he frowned, the twelve-turn-old son of Crom stared down into his boots and felt the anger rising inside.

Someone had filled his boots with… some sort of gooey mess.  And he was expected to wear them in the next candlemark!

Though he wouldn't have put it passed any of his brothers, he rather thought he could peg this particular prank on one sibling and one alone.  Plus her handmaiden.

Storming from his room with his boots in hand, Nykyr went in search of either his sister or his mother-- whichever he found first.

Galaeanyss was not hard to find. She was where she always was at that time of the Sevenday. It was when the Harpers came to tell stories to the kids. She tried to catch every show. She liked the eccentric ones the best.

Nyssa sat cross-legged on the carpeted floor. All of the Hold’s children that had been able to attend were clustered together in a semicircle. They were all quiet and attentive. One Harper was telling the story. There were two others in the room. They had brought small instruments with them adding plucky sound effects when they would be most effect in supplementing the tale.

Today’s story was about Luuuv the Happy Tunnelsnake. He had gotten a new toy for a traveling caravan. On his way home, he had been ambushed by the town bully, Berny the Angry Tunnelsnake. Berny had stolen his toy and had made Luuuv cry. Luuuv had followed Berny back to his evil lair, but Berny had trapped him in a cave. Luuuv was frightened because he was scared of the dark. then a small blue light floated through the room. Luuuv cowered in the corner, terrified of what it may be. But it turned out to be his good friend Trouser, who had come to save the day. All of the children threw they arms up in the air and cheered at the revelation. Now that Trouser was there, he would help Luuuv to get his toy back and together they would teach the bully a lesson about being nice.

Nyssa had heard this story before. Her favorite character was Berny. He was a take-charge kind of snake. He knew what he wanted. He knew what he had to do to get it. She respected his tenacity.