PM to join [hunt]Hunting for Amateurs Part 2

[Taylani]

After a season with the horse clan, Taylani had started picking up some of their mannerisms. Quite unexpectedly and unbeknownst to her that she was doing it. One of these mannerisms is it seemed harder for her to carry a conversation without gesturing. Her gestures, unlike Pavi, were really only emphasis to her words rather then any real meaning behind them. So when she spoke some times her hands seemed to move without her even being aware, gentle motions that made little sense other then that the got bigger when she got excited or angry, smaller when she was unsure.

At first his words drew a sharp glance at him, but when he continued her gaze softens once more and she examines his features with her eyes intently. As she did so, her fingers continue to cut and lay away the tubers for quick clean up and into his pouch. Her gaze travel across his features, his eyes that spoke more then words, the ever so slight tension that he held behind them when he speaks that made it difficult for her to continue to slice the tops off the tubers. Perhaps this is how all feelings start for two people, the empathy for the other's pain, the desire to ease sorrow. Or perhaps because their slightly chaotic relationship was so jumbled up that is where hers was. Either way she had to stop herself from distracting them further from their goal.

"Good thing your not married to a lady from the city." She said calmly, not flippantly but simply stating this as a way to sort her thoughts on his words. A way to banish the regret of the lack of dance ..the lack of music in her life. She shrugged, finishing the tops of the tubers for a moment so she laid the knife to the side and began picking up the roots, cradling them against her body so that she could carry more intending on depositing them in the bag. "So I don't dance. There will be other things for me to do." She smiled at him, trying to give her words conviction, hoping that one of them would believe the words at least.

"I just.." Again she stopped, to think about what she was trying to say, and to try and put it in words that someone whose common was not fluent could understand. "You can't provide the life I had planned on, that I worked hard for. Who is to say that that life would have panned out any more if I hadn't been discarded and then captured." She paused as she remembered the dream that she had where she had become a dancer, at the sacrifice of him and her child. The feeling she had when she woke up from that dream, the feeling of loneliness and guilt, and the pain of never knowing the child that grew within her let her adjust to not wanting to dance. At least, that is what she told herself.

"There are other things that you give besides Dance. Dance is not so..great." While her words are soft, and perhaps a little wistful, her smile she gives him now was not. The smile that was a smile of someone who finally realizes that the world did not revolve around her wants, desires or even her needs. Perhaps she had been a little bit spoiled to assume that she could focus on her own joys and dreams without worry about a family or her own family. "The first thing is this child you gave me. This child is Drykas. This child is yours. I assume it will still be considered....considered a Windchaser even though.." She made a gesture between the two of them, still not even knowing what to refer to them as. "I want to raise him as much as possible, or her..To do that I need to know you. What it was like growing up in your family, just ...talking about you, your siblings..." She ran out of steam, not sure if she made her self clear or if she just confused him more with her words. Standing, the movement only slightly stunted for the lack of her hands to balance her, since her arms were laden with the round vegetables that did not want to stack well. She moved closer to him "May I?" she asks, gesturing to his pouch with her chin, assuming he gave her the go ahead, she would begin to place the cut tubers in the pack.

[Fallan Windchaser]

His words had echoed some of the sadness in his heart, something that he was so used to that it was not even a part of him that he recognised, but her words to cut deeply into the wound that festered inside of him without even his conscious knowledge. Had the thought bridged between their minds, had she even been aware of it and vocalised it, perhaps the truth of it would have echoed in his mind.

His siblings likely would have suggested that he was the typical spoilt younger child on whom had been lavished all of the love which had been held back from the older ones. The elder children all carried responsibility, for him if nothing more and yet he had never had any. What surprise then that glutted with love he felt most keenly when it was not given, but witheld, that which he assumed was his birthright. How was he expected to react when finally responsibility was expected of him when it never had been?

Never had he had reason to return that unquestioning love except with the reflection of it, as freely given as it had been received. Spoilt and not knowing it, perhaps he had withheld his love when he found it lacking from his parents, even if they had never intended as such, and that love withheld where it had never been meant to had festered as much as the resentment.

A more mature Fallan might contemplated on those questions and perhaps found some truth in them, but Fallan was far too close to his own problems to even begin to understand where their roots lay. He was not even aware of why he had the feelings for Tay that he did or that she had somehow tapped into that need for connection with another soul where he had cut himself off from his mother.

What he could appreciate for the first time, through that chink in the armour of his soul was that someone he cared for had lost and suffered pain for something which he was in some part responsible for. His fate was slipping unknowingly from his fingers and into the hands of someone who would have no idea of the power that she might inherit if he allowed the process to continue.

Almost he could now take her in his arms and bear her back to Syliras, but that future was broken beyond remedy and he could only offer what was possible and not what was merely wishful thinking.

”Fallan think Tay wrong in thoughts.” His eyes clouded in the effort to think of the phrasing even as he nodded permission for her to put the roots into the pouch, though she needed it not and he had paused for a moment not understanding her unspoken question.

”Child Drykas yes, Child is Fallan yes, but child is Tay. ” Her words still echoed a desire to leave the Drykas behind and leave the children with Fallan to raise without a mother. It was indeed the bargain he had struck and how could he blame her for wishing that freedom too that she had not yet been granted for all of his words earlier.

”Child Windchaser,” and here he shook his head, ”Tay Windchaser in Fallan heart.” He was however not answering her question or talking as she wished, nor did he understand what he needed to say so he pursed his lips and dug deeper for a moment both in his thoughts as well as in the ground to remove the last resistant tuber before they moved on.

”Tay know Fallan mother, father, sister, brothers. Father and mother share control of family. Father home most, touch web, keep family safe. Mother live for horse, live with herd.” It sounded odd when he spoke the words when it never had before. Things were as they were, much as the fact that he never thought to question why rain fell, it was just the order of nature and the same had always been true of his family. It was right, it was the order of things, but now he looked with a more mature face on the situation and suddenly the situation presented him with questions he had never before thought to ask and worse it raised questions about his own assumptions. The thoughts were a deep river whose bottom was black and unseen and he backed away from it reflexively, unwilling to consider braving its depths.

He offered her the tuber to cut and to put in the bag.

”Fallan think time to pick berries,” he said the words with a smile, though it was slightly forced for she had opened a door into his own heart with her innocent questions which threatened to reveal a dark mirror which sat there.

[Taylani]

Instinctively Taylani knew, she isn't sure how she knew, but she did. She knew she had said something wrong, some how, because there was something different. Something darker in his expression, and her own brow furrows in remorse. She hadn't intended on causing that expression, to upset him which it was clear she had. It was clear not only behind his gray eyes, it was clear in his words, and it was clear in that last smile.

She did not interrupt thought, she let him finish his piece, listening to everything he said and her brow twitches upward when he spoke her name with his last. She remained silent even as he handed her the final tuber to cut, wipe off, and then place in the bag. She doesn't talk for a moment even after she raises, the bag in her hand heavier now with tubers but not too heavy that she struggled. A pleasant heaviness because it meant Fallan and herself had some success.

It was only after she stood that she moved towards him, not understanding what she had said wrong only wanting to make it right. She didn't know if she loved him, or if she could ever love him, she didn't understand the confusing feelings she had for him within her. She only knew that she didn't want this expression on his face, however she would not lie to him. Not even to spare his feelings.

"I know that this child is ..is mine too." She began, moving closer to him, close enough so that she had to tilt her head upwards to see him but not close enough that she was touching him. "I didn't mean that ..that it wouldn't be a part of me. Only that there is nothing about me that I will need to teach this child. Only things that I could give him from my past are hurts and dangers. That is what I meant when I say this child is yours and is Drykas." She shrugged struggling a little to fight off the urge to continue to clarify because she knew too long of explanations would be lost on someone not fluent in common. However she could not stop there, she needed to make him understand. "The old me was not suited out here, here is not good for someone used to walls and other people protecting her. So I have to become someone new..I have to learn along with this child, hopefully a little faster so that I can teach him or her how to be Drykas."

She tossed her head, in the fashion that was habit for her, a mannerism that threw back her hair out of her face. A movement she is not even aware she does half the time. Next was something that was a bit more personal for her, his words about her being a Windchaser in his heart. She had given up much, and she was moving past all that was given up, slowly but surely she was. She didn't know if she loved him but she knew that she could not leave this place. She knew that she didn't want to leave from his bedroll, and she knew somewhere in her own heart that whether or not she loved or ever loved him she would be inexplicably tied to him. Both through this child, but also through experience.

However perhaps the Drykas did not view marriage and that as importantly as she and her own parents did. The linking of lives forever, was not something she was taught should be done on a spur of the moment whim. Perhaps for Drykas it was, she had even seen some men taking two or three wives, that might be an indication that the Drykas did not view marriage as important. As something just someone decides one day that they were going to be married. This was one thing she was not going to let go of, whether or not she ever was truly considered someone's wife. If she never got the mark of Chevas to display a lifelong commitment, even if she continued to bed Fallan until the day she died she would not cheapen in her mind the vow of marriage by claiming something that was not.

The only thing was to be able to express this to him. "I am not a Windchaser Fallan. You can not just buy someone and then call them your wife." She smiles, to try and take away any harshness her words might give, one hand raising to lay against his cheek, her thumb stroking his jaw line gently. "I am your bought woman, and will always be until you do something about that. that is something sacred to me."

Lifting, Taylani brushed her lips against his cheek, on the spot her thumb had caressed gently before backing up again. "The berries await." She shoulders the bag, and turned intending on beginning to walk away.

OOC noteI wasnt sure what you wanted to do after this one, feel free to walk them both to berries, or if Fallan would stop her he can do that as well. Up to you

[Fallan Windchaser]

There came a point when even self pity had reached the limit of what one man could swallow and it didn’t take too long before Fallan tired of it, conflicting as it did with the simple pleasures of the day and of being with Tay, alone for a change with no concern of onlookers or those who might overhear some chance comment.

He smiled at her words for they were almost the first admission that the child would be hers too and not just an inconvenience for whom the responsibility could be dumped at the first chance. The smile faltered a little as she continued but not because of her words but because he judged them wrong. Once more she underestimated herself and that served also to distract him from himself.

He understood what she was saying and he could appreciate that of course many of the things that she had learnt had no application here. If he were to go and live in Sylira then much of his knowledge about what they did this day would be without use and he would struggle to know where to go to buy the best food at the best prices or even to know when the best time to do that would be. But and it was a crucial difference, that was learnt knowledge and could be discarded or taken up at whim much as she now learnt those things that were necessary to know here.

The knowledge was a feeling in his heart rather than being words in his head and that made it much harder for him to impart to her in any way that might either make sense or allow her to understand what it was that he wanted to tell her. He had to allow her though as her words continued to flow over him that some of what she was had been formed by that knowledge, that someone who was used to walls, unused to the threat of danger that someone could pass the fear onto their child. In this she was right, that was a part of her that could not be allowed to remain, and yes she must learn to discard it, but also she was not a child, she could choose what she did and how she reacted while the child would only know what those that it trusted would pass on.

Of all the things that she said though, it was the statement that he had not the right to call her his wife just because he had bought her that cut the deepest for it sunk into a wound already made, a wound caused by the knowledge that what she said was right but it was knowledge that had been ignored by a desire for fantasy where all things were both possible and would become true. He smiled at her touch for it did much to soften the ice which had formed in his heart but still he could not escape the return of sadness which it brought.

He stood for a moment as she turned away, unable to be quite sure of what had just happened and what she had said. He made no move to restrain her, though the urge to do so was there, an urge which had many facets, some of which were desire and lust, others though were a need to understand what it was that she meant and whether it meant that she might stay and be with him.

His feet followed her after a short moment though his mind still struggled with the puzzle that she had gifted to him. He extended his stride to catch her up, slowed as she was by the tubers and he waved a signal to Stormdancer who had already lifted her head from the grass to study the apparent departure.

He shied away from the latter end to the conversation while his mind still picked at the knot which her words had caused in his heart.

”Fallan agree Tay need learn,” he returned to the earlier part of the conversation as a means to somehow roll it back to ask her what she had meant. ”Fallan think Tay head wrong.” He waved his arm out at the wilderness. ”Child be Drykas, learn ride Sea of Grass before walk, Tay learn, ride with them. Important yes, but not,” he shook his head. ”Not what child need learn. Tay here in Sea of Grass, small knowledge, but what make Tay, still Tay. Tay mother, father teach Tay heart. This make Tay not Syliras knowledge of Knight. Fallan need Tay teach heart child.” He concluded that point and was silent for a moment broken only by a clatter of hoof behind them on some unseen rock.

What had she meant? Did she mean a bought woman could not be his wife? It was the only thing that he could imagine that she meant which fitted her words, but how could he change that? He could not unbuy her, could not take her back the auctioneer and demand a refund for then surely someone else would buy her. Was that what she was suggesting? Make her someone elses and then to attempt to win her when he had no rights over her?

In front of them the berries became visible but still the riddle remained unsolved. It seemed important to her, this fact that she had been bought and he could understand that, but he could not make the logical jump to the solution which eluded him. He was sure that this was a problem that she expected him to solve and it was not an easy one for he was bound by honour and loyalty to the clan. He could not just give her up for he had promised to be responsible for her and he was coming to the view that she wanted to be properly free.

It gave him pause for thought and to attempt to recall what had happened earlier. He had told her she was free but it seemed that it was not enough for the fact remained of how they had come together and that now hung over him darkening the day and taking the edge from his enjoyment once more.

[Taylani]

Walking beside him, turning her head over her shoulder to make sure that Freedom followed Stormdance which she did, before looking ahead of them. She listened to his words, contemplating them a little. She wasn't sure exactly what he meant about teaching the baby heart. Unless he was using the word heart for love again. That made a little sense, but surely parenting was so much more then just loving a child. Wasn't it? She felt very ill-prepared for motherhood, and motherhood in a new place was daunting.

Perhaps she shouldn't have asked what she did. It seemed to have opened an entire can of worms, and marred an otherwise lovely day. How did that bode for her and Fallan's relationship in the future, and her own future for without Fallan exactly what would she do out here? They couldn't even have a simple conversation without it being twisted and turned into an emotional heap of ..well emotions. She gives a heavy sigh, just from the weariness of it. It was her fault of course, always having to bring up things that didn't need to be brought up.

That he didn't even so much as remark on her words about being his wife or just merely his bought woman was telling. She tried to not assume anything, tried to move her mind from the baby to the berries without letting it stop on the reasons he didn't remark on it. However that is not how her mind worked, it did stop and peruse the possibilities. The most likely one, in her view, was that he didn't mind that she was a bought woman and was perfectly comfortable with that.

She should be perfectly comfortable with that too, because it really didn't change anything between them did it? However there was still some part of her that did pang, but she wrote this off as just simply the death of another assumption that one day she would end up happily married with a family. Just one more thing to push beneath in her "Before" pile of thoughts and memories that were not to be perused..ever.

Once the berries came into view she gave him a smile, also a little more forced then the last but a smile all the same. "I remember those berries." She says, trying to put a lightness in her tone, trying to lighten the day back. "They have the thorns... right?" The berries that grew on squat bushes that were actually shorter then many of the grass stalks were black in nature. If they were the same ones that she was thinking of, the ones that one of the women had shown her on another outskirt walk, then they would have a deep purple juice that would stain lips and fingers. She had gotten her finger pricked more times then not picking them, but towards the end the women had shown her how to extract her hand to keep from stabbing herself with the ugly thorns.

Without thought her hand found his, twining her fingers through his as she stopped to look over the landscape. Taken back a little by the simple beauty that she had missed before. The greens of the grasses that were fading to yellow, the greens of bushes and vines of an hidden ecosystem that lived beneath the grasses. "It can be beautiful can't it?" She asked, almost to herself though it was out loud, amazed that she could find what she had always thought of as a stark landscape pretty. She still was not comfortable with the wide openness, she was starting to think that there will always be just that nagging sensation that something was creeping up on her just out of her eye, because there were no solid walls to protect her. But she was no longer frightened, though she didn't think she would be wandering out here alone any more.

[Fallan Windchaser]

The initial dismay that she would not consider the possibility of being his wife was starting to fade a little as he began to realise that it had been a foolish thought and an unrealistic one about which to make assumptions. He bolstered his mood with the knowledge that he had made assumptions based on the childishly romantic thoughts which he had allowed himself to entertain.

That she was not prepared to accept him did not mean that she would not change her mind and he planted that seed of thought firmly and cultivated it assiduously his mind now opening up to new ideas, discarding the old dreams and seeing if there were new ways that it could be approached.

Perhaps she was right, perhaps he had been too quick with his words. Yes, he nodded to himself, that was part of the problem and who could blame her not to trust this secret conversation? The seed germinated softly and an idea came into being, one still huddled in the dark and in need of being gently nurtured but a possibility and one which might be the first step in the right direction. There was nothing he could do now about it, so he turned his attention back to the day, keeping the idea tight in his heart until the time was right to bring it into the light of day.

He nodded in answer to her question, forcing the smile back on his face, ”Tay right,” and he laughed, a soft sound that escaped from his lips of its own accord and not because he forced it from them. ”Bush not give berries easily. Make gift of blood to Caiyha.” Many were the time that he had been careless and paid the price with those berries. It brought to mind though that he had failed to bring a second bag, one where the berries would not mix in with the roots and become squashed. It was a minor irritation though as it was a problem that was not unusual for any of the gathering teams and the solution to it was all around them.

He did not pull away from her grip and instead held her fingers tightly in his, wishing that it would not be the only time, but knowing now in his heart that all assumptions were to be laid aside and the problems viewed with a fresh eye.

”Grass beautiful yes, gift from gods, Drykas protect.” He nodded and smiled more easily now for his heart was set on a new course, even if it might mean that it would break it for he placed a greater value on her smile than he had done before.

”Need baskets for berries, roots squash. Weave grass,” he waved his hand at a stand of taller broad bladed grass of the sort that he would normally use and tugged gently on her hand to divert them there before they reached the berries.

Once there he reluctantly let free her hand and pulled out his knife to slice free the long green strands. Dividing the bundle he passed half to Tay and settled himself down with crossed legs to start weaving. ”Tay know?” He asked without his voice revealing any indication of what he thought regarding that, for it had occurred to him as he cut the blades that she might not have needed to know how to do this.

Putting the grass down he sorted through and then started to build a simple weave under and over of the blades so that there were no gaps and the slightly rough and hooked edges of the grass blades served to lock them in place for him. When the mat was about a hands width in each direction then he turned it at an angle and bent the corners up one by one and wove the loose ends together to continue the pattern which now rose up at a diagonal on each side, then he brought the next side up and wove that until he had them all done and the basket started to assume a square shape. He continued until the sides were high enough to contain the berries that they would pick and then cut short the strands and wove the cut ends over the edge of the basket and into the weave the other side. He regarded it seriously and likely his siblings would have laughed at it, but it would do the job and he saw no need to finish it more than it was.

He offered it to Tay, ”Tay think it work?”

[Taylani]

There seemed to be another truce decided, for he gave her a smile to which she was glad. Perhaps she could find a bit of happiness out here, be content with her lot if even a forced smile from him can put her at ease. It made her own heart lighter to realize that, there might be an end of this tunnel that she blundered through. When his fingers tighten around hers, she glanced down to see his larger fingers tangled in her smaller ones and she felt just a little chink of the hardness that had become her heart crack. Not a physical feeling at all, but one that caught her off guard enough that she was caught by surprise at his gentle tug of her hand.

She followed his lead, moving through the hip high grass with him and once again regretted not bringing the small basket she had purchased days ago for her smaller foraging runs with the other women in the Amethyst clan when they invited her. The loss of his hand was a bit more significant then she thought it should be, the emptiness of her hand noted enough in her mind that her hand closed briefly.

She moved to sit across from him, sinking to sit on her knees rather then cross legged, though now that she was wearing breeches rather than skirts it would be perfectly fine if she did so. "No, I have never seen it done..I know the concept." She explained, leaning forward so she could watch what he was doing. "My mother used a weave pattern in some of her designs...but I have never watched her do it, only seen the final product." Speaking of her mother sent the customary wave of homesickness but it wasn't debilitating, instead it was simply something to be noted and move on from. Perhaps he would send word to her again, maybe even allow her to know how to get word back some how.

She watched his fingers work, watched how they moved the grasses in and out between each other, the deft way he managed to coordinate and make it seem easy. Blue eyes widen, and a smile of simple pleasure at watching the crafting of something so simple yet functional. She accepts it, looking at the tight patterns, she was no expert but to her it was plainly beautiful. "I see why not, it might be difficult carrying it if we ride back rather then walk, because of the open top." She was thinking more on how she tended to ride, both hands clutching the Yvas. "But if we were careful it would work nicely."

Standing, she turns back toward the bushes of berries and with a smile over her shoulder begins to jog toward the bushes. Simply enjoying the movement through the tall grasses, her hair blowing back behind her. The jog was short though, and it wasn't too long before she stopped short in front of the bush, sinking once more to her knees so that she could have a better angle to try and slide her hand into the bush while avoiding the thorns.

[Fallan Windchaser]

He laughed at himself inside at her comment regarding the shortcomings of his basket for they were very much to the point and had he thought about it then he could have done better. Indeed the point was well enough made that he considered making another, but decided against it at the last moment. He would have to carry it then and try not to drop it for he did not need both hands to ride.

”Fallan carry home,” he answered with a grin and a shrug at his own foolishness. He realised now that he had been seeking to impress her and in his enthusiasm to do so had in fact failed to do so in the way that he wanted. Some time he would need to show her how to make this sort of basket for it was an everyday need here where such things were needed for one task and then might well be discarded again. Certainly Fallans travelling kit was too small to include such things no matter how inconvenient it might be to need to improvise on the spot.

He was a little torn now between that journey home and the time they still had here. If they did not go back then it would be just them, but when they returned so he must decide about an action to finalise this day in a way that could not be denied or gone back upon. It was certainly something that he had never envisaged and helped him to understand how unrealistic his previous wishful thinking had been.

But these thoughts were not helping and neither was he, so he abandoned them, casting them out even as he stood and went to help Tay with the picking. It was perhaps inevitable that the first berry he picked left him with a scratch along the back of his hand from a thorn he had not noticed and so after dropping it into the basket he sucked the back of his hand then shook his head.

”First gift,” he grinned, with a joking rationalisation for his carelessness. He wished that he could see into her heart and to know what it was that she thought, but realised that once again he was allowing his thoughts to shift into a direction that was not productive nor conducive to enjoying this time alone with her.

”When will child be born?” He asked the question softly and with a glance over at her. ”Fallan think healer know. Does Pavilion know? Tay want secret?” He wasn’t sure, as he never was, quite whether or not she would understand his questions, but then she always seemed apt at managing to unpick the meaning of his words.

It had not occurred to him before to wonder whether there was knowledge or speculation in the Pavilion and he didn’t know either what her opinions on the subject were or what she might expect on that side.

[Taylani]

Taylani inspected the bush, eying the branches closely looking for particularly large gaps in the leaves and wood of the bush. She finds a decent size hole in the bush that would allow her to reach her hand up, pretty easily and gave access to many plump berries but it was from beneath the bush. A quick glance around her, searching the grass for anything that might be on the ground she didn't want to lay on before she turns and lays on her back. The gap in the branches was perfect it seemed, as long as she reached carefully.

She gives him a grin when he scratched his hand and mentioned the gift, not because he had gotten scratched but because of the amusement on his own face. When he wasn't contemplating his family or her, he sometimes got an almost boyish quality about him when he was relaxed. It made him seem a lot less..severe and she enjoyed that.

She continued to pluck the berries, carefully wrapping her fingers around the tops and just tugging gently till they popped off the bush. Once she wasn't as careful as she should have been and a berry squished in her fingers, squirting purple juice onto her nose and cheek. She wiped at it with her fingers but managed to only smear the purple spot, thanks to the highly staining quality of the juice. Taylani counted it a good thing she couldn't see a mirror to see what the purple had done to her face.

It taught her a valuable lesson on how to grab a berry and how not to. His question on the baby gave her pause, only because she hadn't really discussed it too much with him. When he asked about if the pavilion knew she was for a moment perplexed, and was thinking the actual pavilion that they lived in. It took her just a little to realize he was asking if his family knew.

"Waisana knows. I told her..that night in the pavilion." She didn't specify what night, figuring he would know what night she was speaking of. "Another healer as well..named Irea. I went to see her before..to check on activities and what to expect. She just basically told me to do what I do, though she did caution me to call a healer when the time came for the birthing."

Taylani leaned out from under the bush to get a clear look at his face, her brows furrowing gently, "Is that normal? I mean, I have obviously never given birth..and Mama, well she counted herself blessed just to have me so I never..was around a woman who carried a child. I just assumed..it was natural and not something that a healer would have to be at..." Once asked she slide back, to pick the last three or four berries left in her hidey hole she found.

"I haven't told anyone else Fallan. Not your family, not anyone." Once the last few berries in that gap was picked, Taylani carefully extracted her hand and sat up once more, taking measures to try and brush off any dirt that might have clung to her hair and back though it was awkward. From there she transferred the berries she stacked on the ground to the basket.

"I calculated that I ..conceived some night the week before we went on that Hunt with the Dawnwhisperer man, Shahar? So around the fourteenth of Summer." She watched him as she spoke, watched his face. She knew that he had wanted to get her with child at the moment he bought her. However wanting a child because of a cultural need is far different when its plans, then when there is an actual child growing in her belly. Not a lot to be done about it now. "I don't know your family well. I don't know if they would be ..happy about my being pregnant, or annoyed. I doubt I will be able to keep it secret for too many more weeks."

[Fallan Windchaser]

He managed to pick some more berries though his pride did not allow him to copy her technique and instead he used his other hand to move the branches, grasping them very carefully between the thorns. He had less success than she did with the berries, either because he was heavier handed or because they were more ripened where he stood but several squashed before he too learnt to be more careful.

He nodded at the news of the healers knowing for the one he had known of, the other was not unexpected, but healers generally told less than they knew so that didn’t worry him, he had been more curious if anyone else, especially the other women might have noticed, but then there was so far not so much to see, so likely enough she was right then; no one had noticed but sooner or later it would become obvious.

He had shrugged however to her question regarding what was normal with healers and pregnant women for he had not the faintest idea how that side of things worked. Whilst the facts of pregnancy had never been hidden from him, neither had he close experience of it either except in the most distant of ways.

”Fallan not sure normal. Child precious to family and clan.” It was something to be worried about closer to the event, but if the healers wanted to be there then he wasn’t going to attempt to stop them for it seemed better than not having them there.

”Family happy, want child, want Tay happy.” Whilst he couldn’t speak of all his family he had not witnessed any of them displaying anything but interest or concern for her. Likely they had been staying away from her more because he had not actively involved Tay in family matters, though that had never occurred to him before.

The Fortieth of Fall would mean a Summer child then he thought, pleased with the idea, his interest in the berries forgotten for the moment. He met her eyes, a mild furrow in his brow. ”When Tay want tell family? Can tell now or wait?” As she said they would know soon enough so he wasn’t entirely sure why she should want to wait but then he was no longer in charge of what she could or couldn’t do and whilst the child was also his, it was she that carried it and it would be her that would be receiving the attention from his family.

He refrained from attempting any suggestions as to what might be right or wrong and in any case he wasn’t sure those might be in any case. He erased the frown from his brow and replaced it with a smile, reminding himself to savour this moment when the next day might be different in some way he could not yet explain. He was also tempted to try and wipe her face but the berries did indeed stain and it was likely that he would just smear it more.