Completed Farewell, All Dreams of Lullabies

[Solemn Warborn]

66th of Winter, 510 AV Farewell, All Dreams of Lullabies Dasha let her son go. It was time for her to leave. Actually, it was yesterday that she had intended to leave, but when she had taken her cub into her arms for what she knew was the last time, she could not let him go. It was evening when she had meant to say goodbye, so she held him through the night. While the time crept nearer and nearer for her to leave, she wept, and her cub wept silently with her. He kept his tears quiet, knowing that any show of his own grief and pain would only make this more difficult for her. When she let go and stepped back, the Benshira man, her bondmate, stepped forward and placed his hands on top of the cub’s head. He smiled at the cub, a warm smile that spoke of peace, a peace that the cub could not comprehend. The Benshira man had only been in the cub’s life two fortnights, but his calm and hospitality (even when he was in another’s home) had been something the child had never encountered. This desert native had been the only man to serve as a role model to him, the only man to have taken up the role of father for the child. The man spoke to him in Shiber, and it took the cub several moments to understand what was said. It was a blessing. “May peace find you in whatever home you find.” The Benshira man kissed the back of each hand and, the blessing finished, stepped away with another smile. As he moved away, Dasha stepped forward, put her hand against the cub’s back and, with a gentle pressure, guided him to the Vantha family that had promised to watch over him. The girl held out her arms as Dasha led the cub to her, but rather than pulling him in to her, the girl let him come all the way to her before gently closing her arms about him. “What’s your name?” The cub shook his head. He didn’t have a name; he had never needed one, as his mother had been the only one he needed to respond to and he always knew when she was addressing him. He shook his head again. “Surely, you have a name.” Dasha shook her head along with her cub this time. “I never gave him one.” “That’s okay. We can give him one now,” the Vantha child said, taking his face in her hands. Her shimmering eyes wavered from violet to blue as she looked into his eyes, trying to decide on a good name for him. What she saw there was something astounding and majestic and foreign, yet small and natural. He was somber; his eyes, red from crying. Almost hidden by his sleepy eyelids, there was a sense of understanding that this was the way things had to be. His eyes were forlorn but resolute. “Solemn.” Dasha smiled at her cub. The name was perfect. “It’s beautiful, my cub, my Solemn.” With the primal grace she always moved with, she removed her shashka and placed it into his hands as he turned toward her. Hiberna let him move freely in her embrace, giving no resistance, and draped her arms over his shoulders. Dasha placed her hands on Solemn’s as they wrapped around the scabbard of the saber. “Keep this safe for me. We will see each other again.” She leaned forward, kissing his forehead, and Solemn felt a tear fall down his cheek, uncertain if it was hers or his own. When Dasha leaned away and stood, she mouthed to him, “I love you.” Solemn mouthed it back. He longed to say it aloud, but he knew if he even tried to speak, he would burst into tears. The Benshira man took Dasha’s arm and led her away. Her motherly instincts strong, Dasha never broke eye contact with her cub as she walked backward away. The cub leaned backward, pressing himself deeper into the girl’s warm embrace as he watched his mother walk away. While he knew the girl was doing everything she could to comfort him, everything about the moment felt cold and foreign. Her body was hard, not soft like his mother’s. Every bone of hers dug into his muscles and hurt, but while his mother drew farther away, her body seemed to grow warmer and warmer. What had she said her name was? Hiberna. Why did he even care? His mother was leaving him. He was losing everything in this moment. Not only was he losing his mother, he was losing her soft embrace, the proud look in her eyes whenever he accomplished something, her warm encouragement when he failed, the knowledge and lessons she taught him, her stories and the lively way she told them, her love, her lullabies… Her lullabies. Every night, she sang him a lullaby as she tucked him in and he was falling asleep. It seemed there was no end to the number of lullabies she knew, that she could have a fresh one he had never heard for every night for the entirety of his life. Occasionally, she would repeat one she had already done, either due to her own fondness for it or at the request of her cub. They were in a variety of languages she had encountered during her many travels. Many of them, the child did not understand; some, even she did not. Among the lullabies were many that her mouth had been the first to perform. She had taken great pleasure in creating songs and singing them for her cub. The best thing about her lullabies though was once he had fallen asleep he dreamed of the songs all through the night. That would end today. Never again, he was sure, would he dream of lullabies. His mother was leaving him. Nothing else should matter. But it did matter, and he did care. This girl mattered, even though he hardly knew her. His mother slipped out of sight, and Hiberna’s arms tightened around him. Despite the harsh, northern cold of Avanthal, he felt his body warming. He kept strong for a while, long after Dasha had slipped out of sight, so long that some of those around him thought that perhaps he was finished grieving. But the girl behind him knew better, and the closer he came to losing it, the tighter and warmer her embrace became. His grief burst out of him so suddenly that those closest by started. Bitterly and without reserve, he sobbed. The empty feeling in his chest stole his breath and twisted his stomach. Then he felt something he had not expected. Behind him, Hiberna trembled and shook. She was sobbing with him, her heart breaking at his sadness. And then another unexpected sensation came, a warming that was different from the one he had felt before. It felt like a dozen fires had been lit around them, but rather than warm them from the outside, the warmth seemed to stem from with them both and emanated out to the other. Turning in her embrace, he hugged her back, hoping he could be as much of a comfort to her as she was to him. At that moment, a connection formed between them. Though he knew nothing about her, he felt as if he understood her every motive and knew things about her that no one else did, things she held as her dearest secrets, and he knew, without knowing how, that she felt this too. It was the oddest thought to know someone knew all his secrets and his feelings, but with it came a comfort. It was okay that she knew, because he had wanted her to know and had been the one who had given her access to his mind and his soul. With this knowledge came a dozen emotions and feelings, every one of them good: love, warmth, peace, hope, contentment, happiness, and more. The cub, having heard his mother describe the bond between her and the Benshira man, knew this was a Kelvic bond, and though it may not have had the same strength that the adult bonds did, it was the strongest connection he had ever shared with another person. Every contour of her ribs pressed up against his now felt familiar, as if this was the only person he had ever hugged. No one else knew this bond had formed, and the cub and the girl held this secret as their most treasured of all. They remained this way for several hours, crying into each other’s shoulder. Eventually, her embrace loosened, and she held him out at arm’s length to better see him. She looked into his eyes, tears streaming down her own face. This girl who hardly knew him felt his pain and was sorrowful because of his sorrow. Suppressing a sob and wiping one of his cheeks free of tears, she spoke, as soft and gentle and almost as silent as the rolling fogs that were so frequent in the cold, Avanthal air. “Hush now, Solemn, my brother. Don’t cry.” Briefly, the thought crossed his mind that if he ran, he could catch his mother, but he did not chase her. For the first time in his life, Solemn’s reason for not running was not his laziness. He didn’t run, because everything he needed, everything he wanted, was right where he was. Without a doubt, he still missed his mother and hoped with all his heart she would return, but in this moment, Hiberna was his life and his comfort. She wiped his other cheek free of tears and did her best to smile bravely. “What can I do, Solemn? I can’t stand to see you sad anymore.” The day was drawing to its end, and though the sun had long ago set, there was still some remaining light of day that had not fled. This was the time of day when Solemn and Dasha would have been preparing for bed, but that was not to happen tonight. Worse still, there would be no lullaby. While Dasha prepared for sleep, she began to hum melodies to herself to decide which lullaby she wanted to use for that night. “Momma always sings me a lullaby before bed,” he said, referring to it in the present tense as if it were something that still happened. Up until yesterday, it did. “I don’t know any lullabies.” It broke her heart to say it, to know she couldn’t help him, but it was the truth. Solemn didn’t want to see her suffer due to his suffering, so he assured her that things were alright. “That’s okay.” Hiberna shook her head. It wasn’t okay. Nothing about the moment was right if she couldn’t comfort her little brother. “Teach me one, and I’ll sing it for you.” There was only one that came to Solemn’s mind. It was one his mother had created herself after she had arrived in Avanthal, one she had perfected when he was born, one she sang more often than any other. It was a myth about Aurora, how she was a child of the sun itself, and how she taught people to shine in order to be brave when there was no light. Dasha didn’t believe in the Gods and Goddesses, and these legends were her way of explaining the world.His voice trembling still from sorrow, Solemn began the song and sang every verse, without any hesitation in the order of the words. It was a fairly lengthy song, meant to calm even the most energetic and riled up children, but songs were Hiberna’s area of expertise, her natural place of comfort. After Solemn’s first time through, she had already memorized the words and most of the melody, and the parts she didn’t know she made up to fit with the parts she did. As soon as she moved into the first few words, Solemn understood that this was what her voice was designed for: low, quiet lullabies. Her voice was soft and soothing, but even in its gentleness, it was powerful. Hiberna came to the last verse and sang it several times over as it was her favorite part of the song. I was the light that Aurora brought and I will shine all the brighter when Aurora stops. Solemn hugged Hiberna close to him as she began the lullaby again, and even though the dusk air grew colder around them, Solemn felt warmer and warmer with each passing moment. Things were going to be okay, because now he had Hiberna. Things were going to be okay, because now, they had each other. He couldn’t be sure when her actual singing ended and where his dreaming of her lullaby began but knew it happened, because he awoke the next morning in front of a fire in his new home with her by his side.

[Epifanio Snowsong]

Grades

 

Solemn Warborn

Skills

• Socialization: +1
• Singing: +1

Lores

• Lore: Dasha: A Cub’s Mother
• Hiberna: My Kelvic Bond
• Dasha: A now Absent Mother
• Hiberna: A mothers Lullaby
• Solemn Warborn: A complicated childhood
• Benshira Man: Bonded to Dasha
• Hiberna: Like a sister

Comments: Great and Sad story. Have any question feel free to send me a PM.

Shimoje was here?