(Backdated entry)
Four pairs of hooves hit the ground at a fair pace. The pair of horses was nearly matched, raven manes and tails, seal brown over the rest. Both were young stallions, three year olds, and quite possibly the most agile and best ever bred in the area. The only difference between the two was one bore a white star on his nose and the other a wide white blaze that covered from nostrils to forelock. Starspell and Moonsong were the names the riders gave them respectively. They carried their riders with a steady rhythm of clip-clops punctuated by the occasional snort.
So nearly matched as well were the riders, save that Moonsong carried a young man dressed softly in a long tunic, where Starspell's was a young woman in well-worn leather. Matched pairs of brown eyes watched intently forward from their mounts, and wind whipped hair so dark it was nearly black, hers shot with gold and bound in a long braid, his gracing his shoulders. Both were paler than their family name would suggest, but browned by the sun. Ourna and Jiulan Torves, born together twenty years ago. Together in truth, for he had his tiny hand wrapped around her ankle, as if he was worried he would not find the way and she led him out.
They rode this time for militia business, beelining straight toward the home of the Matriarch, leader of the village Vesh and representative on the Council of Willows. Neither brother nor sister really cared they'd be interrupting her dinner.
And so the aged Matriarch stood in front of her thatched roof home, arms crossed and glaring as Ourna and Jiulan dismounted. Ourna moved to the rear of Starspell and unloaded something, dropping it on the ground at the feet of the grayhair.
“That's no rabbit.” The Matriarch spoke.
Ourna dropped her grisly package on the ground. The creature had been as long as a grown man's arm, gray fur, and possessed a mouth full of blade sharp teeth. Now it also sported a pair of arrow holes. “No, it's a nuisance. We found it having quite a meal on old Fizhter's chickens.”
“And so it's dead. Why come here with it?”
Giving the older woman a flat stare, Ourna answered, “Because it's the second we've caught since the beginning of Calibration. I thought you should know.”
“I know what you would say, Granddaughter, but I and the Council of Willows have spoken. That is all.” The old woman turned with finality to return to her dinner.
“It's a bad omen. I swear it.” Jiulan finally spoke up, stepping forward. “Please don't ignore this, Grandmother.”
The old woman drew herself up to her full formidable height and set her face. “You too, Jiulan? Why am I not surprised. Where one goes…” She pointed with a bony finger, seeming to take both of them in. “I will not say this again. I will not have you, either of you, turning lives upside down for Ourna's fantasies of glory. I would not let your father do it and I won't let you. The Council has given you both all that you will get. That. Is. All.” She turned on her toes and stormed back into her house.
Ourna took a step to follow, but was stayed by a hand on her shoulder. “Let it go, Ourna. She's not ready to listen to you yet. Not after the last meeting.”
“She mocks me, mocks my love of our people. If she thinks I seek glory….”
“….she doesn't know us. Or father. I do believe she wants the same as you, what's best for the Willows. But then…”
“…she's never forgiven him for being an outsider.”
Despite the conversation, matched pairs of deep brown eyes found one another and the siblings chuckled. “Speaking of Father, he and Mother are expecting us for dinner.” Jiulan squeezed his sister's shoulder. “And you know how they are when we're late.”
Ourna rolled her eyes, tension broken for the moment. “Yes, never hear the end.” She went to her horse and mounted easily, leaving the carcass of the animal quite on purpose. “But we shouldn't stay the night. Let's leave out after and head back. We can see if our chicken thief has a family.” She paused, tensing narrow shoulders again. “I think you're right. A bad omen.”
Jiulan merely nodded and swung up on his own mount.
The two rode their bark brown mounts past cultivated fields belonging to relatives, some they weren't certain of the relationship. Most everyone in Vesh called one another 'cousin'. It was a safe wager. Some late workers waved to them as they passed. They were both quite recognizable figures, Ourna, twenty year old captain of the Seven Willows militia, or what passed for it, and her twin, Jiulan, a tutor and teacher by trade. However, Jiulan was not simply stuck in books. Though the man favored a staff over a sword, he was nearly as good with his hunting bow as his sister. The same person trained both.
Mehtar Kotari was waiting outside the door as the twins approached and dismounted. Motioning to a boy in his employ to take care of the mounts, Kotari stiffly limped forward with a scowl on his face, still able to cut quite an intimidating figure, still the cut figure of an old warrior. In old habit, Ourna flinched and noted that Jiulan did the same. The aging man took another couple of agonizing seeming steps, then broke into a wide grin and opened his arms. “Kayiera!” He shouted over his shoulder. “Our children finally decided to drag themselves home.”
On the way in, the twins took turns telling what had happened that day, about the gray beast and the Matriarch. “Well, the council did give you a central headquarters for the militia, Ourna.” Kayiera spoke, cutting off any sort of soldier-talk from her husband.
“Yes, one that must be cleaned up for Jiulan's classes the next day.” Ourna retorted.
Jiulan, in turn, put an arm around his sister's shoulders. “We've shared much closer spaces.” Again, despite her irritation, Ourna felt tension drain out of her. Jiulan turned his attention. “What do you make of the beast, Father?”
The old man shrugged, also letting go of the topic of the Matriarch. “I don't go much in for omens and such. Seen far too many false. But it's troubling enough that I think you are doing the right thing and looking into it.” Kayiera nodded her agreement. The foursome passed into a room dominated by a long oak table and the smells of dinner, and each sat in their place.
For a time, the day's worries passed out of Ourna's mind and she concentrated on filling her belly. The others did as well, until Father broke the silence. “So, where's the appendage today? I half expected to be feeding him as well.”
“Tremaen?” Ourna said around a bite of chicken. Swallowing, she took a drink of the strong tea her mother often made. “His mother wanted him home today, so she had some unlikely story about needing the thatch patched.”
Kotari chortled. “Boy'd be more likely to fall through than patch. Either that or the Kiratu's will have the best roof in the Willows.”
“Kotari,” Kayiera broke in, “that's not nice. Trey's a nice young man. I've always liked him.”
“It's okay, Mother.” Jiulan said, chuckling softly. “I love him as a brother, but I know Father speaks true.” Ourna nodded in assent.
“Well, I always thought that we might be raising a house for you two, Ourna.” Kayiera straightened a bit.
Jiulan broke out laughing as Ourna choked on the next bite of chicken, forcing out emphatic “no's” between coughs. “I figured out years ago that that kind of thinking was a bad idea where Trey was concerned,” she managed, finally.”
“Missing tooth.” Jiulan nudged his sister with an elbow, and Ourna probed the space toward the back of her mouth with her tongue unconsciously.
Both parents blinked. “He had something to do with that? You told me it was a practice accident.” Kotari sounded on the edge of incredulous anger.
“Jiulan!” Ourna elbowed her brother back. She sighed and shook her head. “I was fourteen, Father, Trey sixteen, and it was when you and the Kiratus weren't speaking. We had this fool idea in our heads only a pair that young could possibly believe, that we could love and bring the families back together. So, we had this meeting place out in the woods.” She didn't look at either of her parents. “Trey and I would go there and speak all these wonderful sounding things. Then one day, we thought to try to kiss.” Ourna found laughter bubbling up in her. “Instead, he cracked his head so hard on the side of my face it chipped that tooth, and when he knelt to look at me, I accidentally raised my arm up so hard I broke his nose. Only Trey's luck.” She peered up at her father. He was actually laughing softly.
“I don't care that you lied then.”
“You would've killed him then. But, the end to this story is that we both decided that the fear of actually getting caught, as Jiulan did catch us only moments later, was far greater than this supposed great mythic love, and that was that.”
“Can't say I'm not relieved.” Kotari received another admonishment from his wife. The rest of dinner passed in silence.
As each rose from the table and the twins discussed leaving, Kotari held up a hand. “Before you two go running off again, I've got something for you.” He motioned with his hand for them to follow, limping into the sitting room. Ourna exchanged a puzzled look with her brother, who shrugged.
The twins each chose a seat, and their father remained standing. “I'm getting old, and when a man has more gray in his hair than anything else, he starts thinking about things, the past, the future.” Each twin moved to break in, but Kotari raised his hand and they stayed quiet. “And, since you've got this new building, now's as good a time as any to pass along a few things.” His voice dropped, and he grew that haunted distance that his children both recognized. “I brought little with me, and those things that did had meaning.”
From a table behind a chair, Kotari produced a bundle and hefted it over to Jiulan. “To my son, for his school.”
Though Ourna thought Jiulan had to know what was in the blanket wrapping, her brother still gasped. “Your books! But these ones are priceless out here. Father…”
“You have long had more use out of them than I have. Share them with Ourna, and say thank you, Jiulan.”
“Thank you, Father.” Jiulan was overwhelmed.
Kotari turned his attention to his daughter, and she found herself already shaking her head. “No, don't go digging your grave before you're ready for it.”
Ourna's father didn't even acknowledge he'd heard her. “Now, this bow…” She'd seen the weapon of pale wood on the wall every day in this house, often stared at it. “is clumsy enough that it's practically useless, but it would look nice in your headquarters. It was a gift from someone I respected and who respected me.” He handed it over, and she ran her hands over it.
“Thank you, F-”
“I'm not done.” Kotari retrieved his sword, a long, magnificent piece of gleaming steel. Though it must have seen dozens of battles in the old man's days, it looked new forged. “I know it's a bit heavy for you, but maybe you'll still grow into it. Heh, maybe you'll teach your brother the blade yet.”
“But, Father, what…”
“Say thank you, Ourna.” She looked into her father's eyes and saw what her brother must have, that finality of purpose that meant there was no arguing with the man.
“Thank you father.”
Each twin hugged the old man as he, in turn, kissed them on their foreheads. “Now, go hunt beast.”
Ourna and Jiulan chose a one of the safest of the ruins that surrounded Seven Willows to bed down in on their trip back south. No person in memory had been harmed there, but no animal would come near…and despite the relative safety, few humans would as well. Both could sleep the night without a watch. However, as what passed for dawn in Calibration approached, Ourna began to wake with the feeling something was not quite right.
She became aware that Jiulan had during the night plastered himself up against her, or she had him. Neither had ever thought much of it, a long habit since they shared a cradle when one or the other had become cold.
Cold.
In the middle of the months of Fire.
Suddenly Ourna was wide awake. She was greeted with the sight of Jiulan's breath frosting in the air, and then her own. Though it was still quite dark, every blade of grass, every stone, every tree seemed to be somehow grayer than they should be. Ourna bolted up, simultaneously reaching for her hunting bow and nudging her brother awake with a foot. “Jiulan!” She hissed at him.
Pushing himself up groggily, Jiulan rubbed at his eyes for a moment then stopped short. “What manner of sorcery is this?” He copied Ourna's act of reaching for a weapon.
“I don't know. Something seems like I should know something, but I can't think.” She got to her feet, bow drawn, and she started creeping around on her toes, expecting something, anything, to hop out of the darkness.
“I know the feeling. I know I've read this somewhere.” Jiulan joined Ourna in the search.
Suddenly, a horse was upon them, startling. In the split moment before she let an arrow fly, her mind recognized the odd white mount and stood down. Winterwind, half sister to her own Starspell. That meant the rider was…
“Tremaen!” She looked up at her old friend. The lack of light made his long pine needle green hair raven, and she could barely make out the trace of his fine boned features. But what was clear was that the man was trembling, and not entirely with the unnatural cold.
“Ourna, Captain…I…” She heard Tremaen swallow. “I'm glad I found you. Small…” He took an audible breath. “Small is under attack and quite possibly fallen by now.”
The twins moved quickly. “Who, what?” Ourna barked.
“The dead. I swear it, the dead are attacking.”
“That's where I've read this.” Jiulan said, with utter dread, mounting Moonsong. “Descriptions of Shadowlands.”
For a few moments, Ourna had the dread as well, but it was rapidly replaced by something else. “Why weren't the gongs sounded, Trey?” She asked in a tone of reprimand as she took her place on Starspell.
Her own sudden strength seemed infectious, as Tremaen's voice was much less shaky. “They were, but sound isn't carrying in this.”
Ourna nodded once. It made sense, then, that she didn't hear Tremaen's approach. “Very well then. Jiulan, ride to the closest village and start raising the rest. Trey, show me where.” She inched Starspell forward a couple of steps.
“Ourna,” Jiulan called softly, and she knew the tone of voice. Reaching out, she clasped hands with her brother.
“I have no time for discussion.” She said, gently. “Now, raise the closest village, send a rider on, and come join me. Come as quickly as you can.” They were born together, shared almost everything in life, and if they were to die today, they would die together. “I will not abandon you.”
“Nor I you.”
Letting go of Jiulan's hand, she cleared her throat and the voice of command returned. “Now, we ride, and I'll think of something before we get there.”