A splash of water in the face. What a way to way wake up after my first night in my new home, not that I actually slept in this said ‘new home’. My hair that already tends to be a mess was now brown with mud, making it look like literal sh-
“What the hell are you doing outside!?” my thoughts were interrupted by an almost whispering female voice that I assumed to be Lezine. “Wake up!” the voice seemed to be nervous, yet somehow worried. I finally opened my eyes and realized that it wasn’t Lezine. It was Sonese, the older, redhead girl, and it wasn’t day yet, it was still night, and there was still some time before dawn. “Come on, you stink of booze.” she was pulling me by my arm like I had done with Milo. Speaking of which, he was there too, behind Sonese.
She dragged me to a nearby river that, now that I think about it, probably was just down the same river I had fished in. I made a mental note: this part of the river is closer than where I went to fish. Sonese was still in her baby blue nightdress, though it was now getting dirty with mud. We arrived at the river and she started to take off my clothes, starting with my green shirt that father had handpicked for me to wear in my first day. She then took off the rest of my clothes and put them in the riverbank. Milo had also taken off his nightdress and was getting in the river. Sonese then made me get in too.
The river was weirdly slow and weak, and also shallow. Sonese helped both of us take a hurried bath, then got us out of the river and dressed us up again. She washed the mud off her clothes and led us back to the house. We had to sneak inside so Lezine wouldn’t wake up, Sonese put us in our beds and sneaked out, all that before dawn.
When morning came, Lezine woke us up, though we only pretended to sleep. We got up, changed clothes and started to tidy up our room.
“Did you call Sonese?” I asked Milo, while I did my bed. He kept quiet for a second, and then simply gave me a shy nod. “Thank you.” he seemed surprised by my response, probably thought I was going to get angry at him for ruining my night’s sleep in the outside.
After that, we went to the kitchen, to eat breakfast, though it was nothing near the breakfast I used to have with father, it was certainly good. Sometime later, Sonese and Geno appeared in the house and started to help with whatever Lezine told them to, and of course, I and Milo were no different. But like anything else in the world, it did not last forever, right after the basic daily chores were done, Geno and Milo went to play while Lezine thought Sonese how to use a loom. She tried to drag me into it too, but I refused like I never refused before, and ran to where the boys were playing.
Geno and Milo were playing fight with wooden swords with another three boys, all around the same age as them. It seemed they were dueling with each other, rather than the usual chaos that a child’s play is. Geno was fighting an older boy, and the other two boys I didn’t know were also fighting each other, leaving Milo as a spectator. I approached them and asked whether I could join.
“Fight Milo, he’s weaker than a girl.” was the answer I received, and indeed he was weaker than me, but I was older. I just accepted and pulled Milo to a makeshift arena – nothing more than a circle in the dirt – taking a wooden sword and giving him another, both supplied by Geno and his beaten opponent. Milo had no idea how to actually hold a sword in a guard, so he just held like you’d hold a bow. I had already a bit of experience with swords, so I used my favorite guard: standing with my left shoulder facing my opponent, holding my sword horizontally at eye level, holding the ‘blade’ itself with my freehand. Father thought me this guard for quickly putting down armored enemies, but I enjoyed it so much I used it for any occasion.
Milo started with an over the shoulders slash. I could tell he hated fighting, so I made him a favor and finished quickly. I blocked with my sword, having the impact take place in between the spots where I held the wooden sword, making force toward Milo’s sword. He staggered, allowing me to advance and poke his forehead with the tip of my sword. “Who’s next?” I asked, full of myself.
“I am!” Geno was excited. He seemed to be the best, and he loved fighting. He walked up to the ‘arena’ and took Milo’s sword. He then put his guard up: like me, he had his left shoulder facing the opponent, but he held his sword horizontally by his bellybutton, pointing the tip to me. As soon as I put my guard up, he charged me with a stab, that I just barely parried, throwing it to my left, but he did not stagger, but instead, he made a quick turn from right to left and attempted a slash in my sides. He only missed because I threw myself to the floor, falling ass first in the dirt. He then pointed he’s sword at my throat. “I win!” he said cheerfully, with a grin in his face. He was gracious in victory, extending his hand to me, offering help to get up; an offer I gladly accepted. “Who’s next?” he said, making fun of my arrogance.
We kept dueling with each other, and, like I had expected, Geno was undefeated, though I wasn’t far behind him in the score, losing only to him. Poor Milo, hated fighting, and with no intentions of learning how to, had lost every fight so far and wasn’t having any fun at all. Really, we just did that until dinner time. It certainly wasn’t a very productive day for any of us by any means. Me, Milo and Geno had to go back to Lezine when the sun started to go down to help prepare dinner. Aside from me not having to cook and clean by myself, the rest of the night went by just like the last one.
Milo was already putting on his nightdress when I noticed. “What are you doing!?” I said while reaching for the hidden pocket in my bag. “Do you think you’re just going to lie down and sleep, just like that!?” he looked at me with a surprised look.
“Are you going to drink again today?” he said, looking at me, frozen in the middle of putting on his nightdress. I looked back at him with an annoyed look.
“Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I!?” I opened the window and grabbed his hand, and exactly like last time, I pulled him to the window and he climbed out, with me right behind him. He started to walk towards the tavern, looking a bit down. “Wait a second. Where does Sonese live? Do you know?” he stopped for a second, looking up in the sky to think.
“Somewhere that way, I think.” he pointed to the right, the opposite way to the tavern. I happily grabbed his hand and pulled him the way he pointed. We walked around that area for a while, but he couldn’t tell which house was her home. “Well, let’s ask someone.” I said, walking to the nearest doo r and knocking. Milo hid behind me when the door opened, expecting an adult to open it and scold us for being out in the streets so late at night.
“What are you doing here at this time?” said Geno that had appeared from the other side of the door.
“Oh, hey! Didn’t expect to be you! Do you know where Sonese lives?” he looked at us suspicious. “What do you want with her at this time?”
“Well, how about you come with us and discover?” I offered, happy to increase the size of the party. Geno looked at Milo hiding behind me, with a very uncomfortable look, and then he looked at my foul smile. After analyzing the situation, he opened a smile like he had just won a fight. He came out of the house and led us to Sonese’s home. Though I could feel Milo wanted to ask, neither I nor him asked why Geno answered the door, or why he just left without further ado.
We arrived at her house soon after we set out for it. I cheerfully knocked on the door, Milo once again hiding behind me, and Geno beside me. It took a while for someone to answer, and when the door was opened, a young man was there. “And you are?” he was barely an adult, and had not even a shadow of a beard, and his hair was cut short like Geno’s and it was the same color as Sonese’s.
“Does Sonese live here?” Geno asked calmly, before I could open my mouth. He looked at us almost in disbelief. “She’s sleeping. Go away.” he started to close the door, but I stopped with my bare foot, a plan which almost went south really fast, if not by Geno, who held the door. “Would you kindly wake her up then?” Geno took the words out of my mouth, though he said them in a slightly gentler manner. Way gentler. The man was annoyed now, and just wanted us to go away, so he went back inside and Sonese appeared soon after. She had her hair loose, some of it covering half of her face while she yawned.
I remember that night very well even today, and that is because of two reasons. One of them was the sight of Sonese in her nightdress. During my life, I’ve seen many beautiful persons and beings, such as the mysterious wandering singer, the elven bard, among others. But Sonese was something else, another scale of beauty, reserved only for her. Weird thing is: I hadn’t noticed that before I saw her in the moonlight. I am not going to lie, even today, just remembering that sight makes me question whether I really do like guys.
“What do you want?” she broke the trance that had been set upon the three of us with words that could’ve come out of the man that answered the door before her. “SO?” she was getting annoyed because of our silence. But I was speechless. And I’m sure so was Milo and Geno. So I did the only sensible thing: I grabbed her hand like I did to Milo and yanked her out of her house. Geno quickly followed me, but Milo stood still for a while, so I pulled him too.
So here is the scene: a twelve year old girl pulling a ten year old boy and a fourteen year old girl by their hands while being followed by another twelve year old boy busting into the tavern’s door. The bearded barman jumped a little when the door was kicked open by me, an act that almost had me in the ground.
“What are you doing!?” Sonese was sleepy and confused, more than she had ever been in her life. Soon she came back to her senses, but not quickly enough to see me take a sit and order a tankard. “Why did you bring me here?” she once again was confused, but now she had someone to look at while making the question. Me, by the way.
“To drink, I’d guess.” Geno answered weirdly serious while getting in a seat. The bartender handed a tankard for me and one for Geno and went to serve another two. Milo struggled to get in the seat and Sonese was still standing in disbelief.
“But why did you bring me along?”
“Because you helped me last night. And dwarves always repay with beer and parties!” no one really understood what I meant with ‘dwarves’, so they just ignored that part.
“So, because I helped you when you got piss drunk, you want me to get drunk with you?” she asked slowly and confused.
“…………………..” I kept silent for a while, alternating my look from my tankard to Sonese to my feet. “…………” the silence went on for a little while longer as I gulped down my beer while Sonese watched once again in disbelief. “Fuck yeah I do.” Geno took a cheerful sip as Milo’s and Sonese’s tankards arrived. “More, would you.” The bartender laughed at my cheerfulness. “And you!” I pointed at Sonese. “Are going to sit your gorgeous ass in a seat and chug down alcohol like there is no tomorrow.” she started to open her mouth to say something. “Ah! Shhh! No buts! Now sit your butt!” she seemed to shrink as I started to get annoyed.
Finally, she gave in and took a seat in the counter and drank about half of her tankard in a single go. Even poor little Milo could tell that she had some experience in drinking. She finished the tankard in her next big gulp. Beautiful and could chug down tankards of beer as if it’s water, in short, the perfect woman in my opinion. Geno laughed at the sight and cheered her on while drinking his own tankard. Even the ball of nerves and shyness that is Milo was laughing with us.
By the time I remembered to take the test, I already had forgotten how to write the first letter of ‘Kod’. And then the second reason as to why I never forgot this night happened: the euphoria that floated around the room was… surreal. The few people that were there were all drinking and dancing. But the star of the night was Sonese. Her hair floated around her as she danced up in the tables, her nightdress whirled around, making a large circle around her. Everyone admired her, including me. She smiled at us, and extended her hand to Geno, who was closest to her, and he held her hand as she pulled him up to the table. The two of them seemed to float as they danced.
Not going to lie. I blacked out sometime during the dancing and don’t really know what happened after that. All I know is that I woke up with Milo in my arms. Pretty sure that we were in his bed. I kind of imagined what had happened: something along the lines of ‘I got smashed and sober (or half sober) Milo brought me home’. My face hurt. It really hurt. My guess was that Lezine woke up and slapped me. Heh. I looked down to Milo, who was tightly wrapping his arms around me. I couldn’t find any slap mark in his right cheek, but I couldn’t see his left cheek. He seemed happy, embracing someone else. I opened a smile and closed my eyes.
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