Frost 23rd, Year 74, Age of Steel
It was cold, bitterly cold. Almost too much to stand. Alyssum could feel the shivers wracking her form as she wrapped her wings tighter around herself. She flattened her ears to her head and braced against the wind as she tried to keep up. Isra kept a brisk pace, glancing back at her charge every once in a while. The wind lashed at her flesh, chewing into her delicate skin and threatening to freeze her solid. It was a bitter and hateful experience. Atinaw could get cold during the winters, but Alyssum had never experienced a winter quite this cold before.
The poor thing was only 14 and this was the coldest winter she'd ever experienced in all of those years, the coldest winter that Atinaw had ever experienced since she'd been born. Surely there were those out there who shared her sentiments, but Isra didn't even seem phased. She just kept walking, keeping an entirely too steady pace as she moved forward and forward. Alyssum wondered how she could do it, how she could have the discipline to just brush off the freezing chill as it ate at their bodies and slowly drained them away.
Alyssum spread her wings so they didn't outright freeze to her poor little body, but the movements were janky at best. Her limbers were slow and they didn't move with any sense of fine muscle control. There was no this or that about the situation, it was a miserable one. Alyssum was miserable.
Did Isra want to be rid of her that badly? Was it so important to her caretaker that Alyssum was passed off to a different set of hands? The woman wouldn't so much as look at Alyssum more than necessary, only occasionally glancing back at her through those milky white eyes to ensure that Alyssum hadn't completely fallen behind. Could she even see? Did she even care?
The little Rathari began to shiver something fierce as the cold seeped fully into every layer of clothing she owned. Each article of clothing had been a beast Isra or herself had slain, taken to a tailor during one of their rare trips into town. The last trip had gone poorly, mostly because Alyssum didn't know how to act.
With Isra, she was a wild child. She acted like an animal, a beast, fully feral and untrained. She nipped and yelped and she didn't vocalize words all that well. She knew Vithmi at a very basic level, only because Isra has seen fit to teach her that much. Isra had said it was important Alyssum was fluent in her own tongue, whatever that meant. Language didn't matter to her, not in the traditional sense. She could press her ears flat to her skull and Isra alongside every other animal in the area would get exactly what it meant, and they wouldn't be shocked when she bared her fangs, unlike the children in that last town who wouldn't stop pulling on her poor tail.
They'd been talking too fast for Alyssum to understand, even though they were speaking Vithmi. They wouldn't speak slow, and they kept pulling on Alyssum out of curiosity. Inspecting her ears, her tail, her horns, pulling her this way and that. She'd gotten scared! Who could really blame her? She was just a child, one that'd been raised by Sharvalain who rarely lived in groups larger than 5 and often refused to even live in groups if they weren't caring for young.
It took Isra catching one when Alyssum was 2 for the young Rathari to be adopted, and even then, Isra didn't do much to correct Alyssum's upbringing.
It wasn't fair. It wasn't Alyssum's fault, and they were fine living the way they always had. Why could Alyssum stay with Isra? Why couldn't they travel the world like Isra promised they would? It just wasn't fair!
Alyssum sniffled, tail lashing back and forth as she kept up the trudge. Eventually, they arrived at a house, located on the outskirts of Raellon City proper. At least according to Isra. The house was large, and seem to have a built-in forge. Actually, it almost looked like there were two! What would someone even do with two separate forges? One of them was covered in squiggles that Alyssum couldn't understand.
Isra shuffled Alyssum in front of her, getting the both of them under the small awning and onto the porch. Isra rested one hand on Alyssum's left shoulder, keeping the tiny Rathari's body in front of her. She used her other hand to knock on the door, lowing it onto Alyssum's other shoulder once the task was complete.
"Oi, who's there?" A rough voice asked from behind the door, seemingly having no intention of opening it.
Alyssum felt the hands on her shoulder tighten slightly. "You know exactly who it is you daft old dog. Open the f***ing door, Rúnar!" Isra said, just short of shouting. Alyssum flinched, the words hurting her delicate ears. Isra didn't seem to notice though, not until she relaxed when the door actually swung open.
An old man, tall by the standards of humans but fairly average in height by the standards of many other races. He stood at roughly 6'4 and had an intimidating aura about him. It was obviously he was getting up there in the years, given the slight spattering of grey among his brown locks, but like most Rathari he'd stay young and spry for a while longer. His barrel chest was strong and proud, puffed slightly, though probably not intentional by any means. He glanced the pair up and down before stepping out of the way and making a sweeping arm motion.
Isra was quick to usher Alyssum through the door and it was shut behind him. The build carried the distinct scent of metals, fire, and soot. Hidden under that, Alyssum was vaguely able to pick up on the scent of dried plants, or so she believed. Ones that might even be familiar.
"This is the child?" The man who was evidently named Rúnar asked. Isra nodded while the much taller Rathari looked Alyssum up and down. She was torn between the urge to growl and whimper. The noise she ended up making was something between the two, a pathetic crackly sound as her voice broke on multiple occasions. "Isra, if you don't mind me saying, it's a bit pathetic." Alyssum couldn't be offended because she didn't even know what the word meant.
She could tell he didn't look impressed. Or maybe it was disappointment staining his features.
"I"m aware," the woman said, taking off her jacket and hanging it next to the doorframe. She huffed slightly, managing to wrangle Alyssum out of her own jacket. "Pup, why don't you go sit by that fire there," Isra said, pointing towards the hearth.
"There's a kettle brewing if either of you would like a cup of tea," Rúnar offered, at least trying to play the part of a good host.
Isra shook her head before Alyssum could answer, eyes narrowing slightly. "Actually, I believe you and I need to have something of a chat." Isra quickly dragged Rúnar to a different room, shutting the door behind them. An extreme caution, but she'd learned from experience just how delicate Alyssum's hearing was. Anything short of going to a different room and the Rathari would hear.
Alyssum did know what to do, so she did the only thing she could think of. She sat down in front of the hearth, her body still shivering. She curled both her wings and her tail around her, quivering at the dampness. It was cold, so very cold. She removed another couple of layers of clothing. And then another. She kept this process up until she was left in little more than the clothes she usually wore under her traveling clothes. Not her small clothes, but the small shorts and shorts she usually wore oven them. Another layer that kept delicate portions of her body from getting snagged by sticker bushes.
Her clothes were damp, so she let them fall into a pile next to her. The poor thing was still shivering pretty badly as she moved a little closer to the fire, daring to open up her feathered wings so they might have a chance to dry. She hated the snow. Not as much as she hated the entire season of Searing, but she really wasn't one for snow.
She pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her head on them. She didn't like this room. She didn't like this house. It felt wrong. it didn't feel like home. Home was inn rooms and spacious tents, curled up into the side of Isra for warmth. This didn't feel right. Even when she was with Isra something felt like it was missing, but this outright felt wrong. This wasn't her home.
Small bubbly whimpers started to wrap around her chest as she lowered her head slightly. Her eyes started to grow as damp as her wings, and before she knew it she was dampening her knees with tears. She wanted to go home. She didn't want Isra to leave her.
After a short while she heard a door slam, flinching slightly she looked up with her puffy red eyes and her pathetic expression. Rúnar was the first one to leave the room, his gaze instantly connecting with Alyssum's form. He stopped dead in his tracks, his expression shifting into that of someone who was just slapped moments prior.
"Please, Rúnar," Isra said, weaving around his side. "I'm telling you, she's got promise. And you're dead out of other options."
It would later be told to Alyssum in the form of a story that Isra had promised to bring Rúnar an heir to adopt. Rúnar had been expecting someone who looked like they could become a smith, not whatever gangly uneducated wild child that Alyssum was at the time. Isra had brought Alyssum instead of what Rúnar wanted because she knew the child did have promise, and more importantly, she knew that Alyssum needed someone who could teach her how to actually be a person. Not some feral beast.
It would also be told to her that it wasn't Rúnar noticing some innate promise that made him stop in his tracks. It was the pathetic travel-weary form of a member of his own race who was left with no family and no chances of survival if she didn't find a place in the world. It was something so very, very familiar that made his stop dead in his tracks and rethink the strongly argued No that he'd been giving Isra for the last five minutes.
He sighed, powerful shoulders heaving as he took a couple of careful steps towards Alyssum who shied away. "Can you talk?" He asked her, kneeling down so he hopefully wasn't as intimidating.
Alyssum chewed on her lip for a moment. Hesitant. "Yes," she finally said, her voice as quiet and gentle and hummingbird wings, and just as frantic sounding given the panic that edged her tone.
"My name is Rúnar, do you know yours?"
"Alyssum..."
"Well, Alyssum, from this day forward I'm going to be your new uncle. You're going to be living with me." He said. Alyssum had been dreading those words, and it hurt the way that Isra's shoulders sagged with relief.
Alyssum looked between Rúnar and Isra in a panic, head snapping this way and that. "Take good care of her, okay?" Isra said. Her voice took on a wavering tone that Alyssum couldn't properly identify, she'd never heard it before.
Rúnar nodded, giving Isra the first smile Alyssum had seen on his face. It would be the first of many, but it didn't help settle her terrified nerves for right now. She didn't want Isra to leave her. What if he was dangerous? What if he decided he didn't want her? Would she just end up on the street? There was no telling what she'd have to do to survive.
Alyssum tried to make eye contact with her beloved caretaker, but Isra firmly turned her head away for Alyssum and quickly made for the door, taking her own coat off of the rack. "Be a good girl, okay?" Isra said. Alyssum felt her heartbreak. She also couldn't see the watery tears forming in Isra's eyes.
Alyssum had to watch Isra open up the door and walk out in the flurry of white, disappearing all too quickly for the sight. The door closed shut behind her, leaving Alyssum alone with Rúnar and the silence. For the second time that night she curled in on herself and did little more than cry.
