Flashback Lock and Key (Irriel)

[Lianel Lighthand Terras]

1st of Fall, 470 A.V.

It was early, very early, but Lianel was still awake. She knew she should sleep, sleep was as important as most things her and her sister did, such as the weights they wore on their limbs to make them stronger, the short runs they took, often accompanied by their mother. Sleep was how the body rested so it could rise and do all of these things and more day after day, this she understood.

But Dad was coming home, and though she closed her eyes tightly and tried to think of sleepy things, stories, comfortable rocks, lizards to cuddle with, none of it worked. Dad was supposed to have arrived yesterday. Lianel had had a similar issue sleeping the night before, and had been impatient all day and into the evening waiting. Mom said everything was fine, that sometimes travel took longer, to have patience like Izurdin, but Lianel often thought that Izurdin was very old, and had many many years to gain his patience. She was only five, that was not many years, and not much time to get patience, so even though Mom fussed, Lianel did not worry. If anyone would understand her lack of patience, it was Izurdin, of this she was sure.

She rolled over one way, then another. Then glanced over at her twin in bed right beside her, sleeping like a pile of rocks, and swung her feet out of the bed and began to shake her.

"Irri, Irri, are you up? I can't sleep." Regardless of her twin's response, Lianel would crawl into her bed and attempt to tickle her sister in consciousness, reaching under her arms, a mischievous expression on her features now that she had found something to do that wasn't the impossible task of sleeping.

[Irriel Lighthand Terras]

For Irriel sleep always came easily. The moment her head hit the bed her mind instantly ventured to the day's adventures, the time she had spent doing her trainings, and of course the time spent with her mother. To fall into a dreams open embrace Irriel only needed to think of the rhythmic pounding of hammer on steel, and within ticks she was lost in a sleep as deep as a winter hibernation.

It was a good dream that the girl was having as well. She was racing through the many long chambers of the mountains, following a light that bobbed up and down, shifting from one color to the next. In the distance she could hear a soft hum, a melody that was quickly forgotten in the moment and as she was the little girl cared only about the fun and thrill of the running dream. A twist here, a dive there and she was in the forge, a figure made of light and fire stood a forge that burned with blue flames, hammering on a piece of silver metal that rang like a bell every time the hammer struck. Slowly Irriel came closer, walking around the figure to see it's face, to see who this person was that struck the metal and created such beautiful sounds, and she saw...

Irriel squealed as she was tickled, half laughing have groaning as she tucked in on her self, rolling sideways away from the wiggling fingers and right off the edge of the bed with a solid "umph". Blinking in confusion Irriel raised her head to peer over the edge of the bed, rubbing her eyes as she tried to focus on her sister's face and said with a barely perceptible mumble, "What is it Lianel... I'm trying to sleep."

The dream was now gone, evaporated with her slowly awakening mind until not even the memory of it remained.

[Lianel Lighthand Terras]

Once her sister had awoken, Lianel was initially perplexed as to her next move. Continued tickling was a must, but she paused, so as not to perhaps wake up their Mother and incur that particular wrath, then slid into bed next to Irriel.

"I can't sleep, just like last night." She pouted, bottom lip protruding in dramatic fashion. She envied her sister's ability to fall almost instantly into the deepest of slumbers, especially on nights like this. Lianel's mind was constantly working and thinking and keeping her awake, but on nights where she was expecting or awaiting something, well those were the worst.

"Dad was supposed to come home yesterday, will he be home soon you think, definitely today?" She had of course asked both Irriel and her mother this question multiple times over the course of the day. "Maybe I should run, or lift weights?" Dad's advice was to do physical exercise if one was not sleepy, once you were done with a rep, or a thorough jog, surely you would fall asleep after that.

"I asked Izurdin very nicely to bring Dad back yesterday but he didn't listen. Mom says he tests patience, but I think he's just so old he doesn't know what its like to be a kid." She jabbered on thoughtfully, taking up a good chunk of Irriel's pillow int he process as she snuggled in next to her twin, eyes darting to and fro, without a trace of tiredness in the brown depths.

[Irriel Lighthand Terras]

Mumbling continued as Irriel yawned big, stretching her arms over her head before slowly climbing back onto the bed. "Mum said he would be back soon..." she yawned again, making to lay once more on the pillow but saw that her sister had taken up the vast majority of it. So instead she just flopped down in the other direction so that her toes wiggled near Lianel's face, "Probably today... mum said soon and soon is today..." her young mind's logic said it made the most perfect sense, today was as soon as it could get right?

Even as she lay there her eyes were starting to close, sleep becoming her back and her words more slurred than ever, "Yeah, go run but I'll just... just..." her breathing began to deepen but with some effort the little girl managed to force her eyes open again and rubbed them fiercely, blinking several times up at the ceiling, "Maybe he just can't hear... Izurdin is old, and old people can't hear very well... maybe pray louder next time and he will listen...?"