|
Naysi
Nelsi whickered softly in greeting, rushing over to whuffle the girl’s hair and reassure herself of her “foal’s” well being. The girl smiled again, the muscles of her face protesting the unaccustomed work, then curled up in the corner, quickly falling back to sleep. Her dreams that night were more vivid than they had been during the day; they were also more frightening. The woman in pale green was there, but another older woman was also present and she was furious. With what or who the girl could not tell, but the older woman was yelling and the woman in green was very upset. The girl lay curled up behind the woman’s chair while the older woman ranted. Then suddenly the woman in pale green was gone and only the older woman stood there, staring down at the girl. She cringed away from that forbidding stare and ran. She ran and ran as far as her little legs would take her. Then, she woke, shuddering and shivering at the feet of the runner, Nelsi. The girl felt her eyes stinging but no tears fell. She lay there, shaking and shivering until she finally managed to doze off again. In the morning the girl did not wake and the stable master came to find out why Nelsi was being so calm of a sudden. He was shocked to see the dirty, frail little girl curled up in the mare’s stall. He immediately called the healer and had the child moved to the hold. The girl woke slowly, feeling oddly comfortable. She slowly became aware of her surroundings and tried to sit up. She was in a soft bed, with thick blankets and furs covering her. She struggled to sit up, not knowing how she’d gotten there, but desperately wanting to go back to Nelsi’s stall where she was safe. She heard a door open and sunk as deep into the thick blankets as she could. The movement however caught the healer’s eye and she immediately came to check on her patient. “Well, hello there,” smiled the woman as she saw the frightened eyes staring out at her from under the covers. “You’ve finally decided to wake, have you?” The girl said nothing, merely staring at the woman as she walked over to let some light into the room. The woman smiled at her then approached her slowly, reaching to pull the covers away from her. The girl cringed away and tried to burrow deeper under the covers. “Alright,” said the woman, backing away and taking a seat in a nearby chair, “we’ll take it slow. I’m Miram, the healer, and I’d be willing to bet you’re the reason the kitchen was in such a stir yesterday,” she smiled at the girl’s wide-eyed look. “We found an uneaten roll in the pocket of those rags you’d been wearing. How long had you been living in the stables?” The girl did not reply, but slowly began inching out from under the covers. The woman, Miram, was pleasant and she’d not had true human contact in so long. How long the girl did not know, but long enough for the bits of food she’d stolen from time to time and the handfuls of water she took from Nelsi’s bucket to cause her to be very malnourished. The woman would have continued talking but just then the door opened and Miram’s expression changed to one of anger. “I don’t care,” said a woman’s voice that made the girl cringe and burrow back under the covers, “I’m feeding and housing the child and I demand to know why she’s been in my barn upsetting my horses and giving my kitchen staff a fright!” “Lady Nirila,” said Miram, striding to the door and out of the girl’s line of sight, “my patient needs rest and quiet. She’s quite nervous, as she’s not had human contact in a very long time. Judging by how thin and malnourished she is I’d guess she’d been in the barn living off water, and bread when she could pilfer it, for about three turns. She needs to be brought back into human company very slowly or she will never be normal.” “I’ll have none of your healer excuses anymore, Miram,” declared the woman’s voice and the next thing the girl knew the covers were pulled completely from the bed. “Well, child, let’s have a look at you. I’ll know who’s been causing such havoc in my kitchens!” The girl just huddled there; too afraid to make any sort of move until finally the woman reached over and hauled her up by the soft night shirt they’d put on her. As soon as the girl and the older woman made eye contact they both gasped, the woman dropping her hold on the shirt and the girl shuddering and quickly assuming a defensive pose as if she feared she would be struck. “What sort of mockery is this?” cried the old woman. “What did you do find a girl who looked as much like my Naysa as you could and plant her here to upset an old woman? Get this girl out of my hold this instant! This instant!” The girl lay there, shuddering, but she could see the others in the room staring at the woman in shock. The older woman was shaking with outrage and the girl cringed, the voice exactly that of the older woman in her dreams. The woman, unable to contain herself any longer, stormed from the room, leaving the healer and young man looking quite bewildered. “Did I hear her correctly?” asked Miram to the young man. “Did she say this young girl looks much like her dead daughter Naysa?” “That’s the idea I got,” replied the young man, his eyes wide. “Didn’t Naysa have a daughter who disappeared after her death?” The young man just nodded, his eyes as wide as saucers. “Then, you don’t suppose?” Miram trailed off, turning to look at the girl lying shaking on the bed. She walked over and put the covers over the girl’s entire body but she couldn’t keep the girl from hearing her. “I’ll give Lady Nirila some time to cool off before I ask her about this possibility, though how that girl could have survived for seven turns…” The girl heard the door close and felt a hot wetness on her cheeks. She reached up a small hand to her face and felt the tears there. It had been so long since she’d had enough moisture in her to cry that it shocked her and the tears fell harder. She cried for a while but before long sleep took her once more. This time her dreams were much more vivid and part of her remembered the occurrences as more than just the fancy of dreams. Continue... |