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Long Lost Love Caden Ives wiped his forehead as a young woman stepped up to him with a dipper of water. "A drink, sir?" She offered, her deep golden-brown eyes meeting his green. He hesitated, then took the dipper eagerly, glancing down at her. She was typical Domani - dark and sensual, and quite unlike himself at that. At the age of fifteen, Caden was regarded as a foreigner even if he had spent all his years there in Bandar Eban. His Blonde hair and green eyes were uncommon amongst the boys and men working in the docks. He was even avoided since he stood out so. Working bare-chested he did attain some of the bronze-coloured skin the others owned, though he would never gain the same shade of skin as the dark-haired. Why did she offer her water to me? Her small, full lips promised passion somehow, and her figure revealed that she was not a lazy girl. His eyes met hers, over the dipper, and she inhaled sharply for some reason. He recognized her now, she had frequented the docks the last days for seemingly no reason. Wiping sweat from his right hand on his baggy cotton trousers, he made sure to keep his eyes on hers. "I am Delilah, but please, call me Del," she said then smiling. She seemed hesitant, a dark eyebrow arched over her left eye, waiting. He straightened, remembering himself. "I am Caden Ives," he said in his Domani accent – one which betrayed his looks – and then glanced over at the dockmaster. If he would be caught talking with a young woman, he could loose his place and pay. Looking back when he saw the dockmaster occupied with a few Mayene merchants, he ran his hand through his hair, trying to grasp the unusual situation. "I've seen you around the last few days, Del, are you waiting for someone or something? Maybe I could keep an eye out for it or them?" He asked, merely offering to help the young woman. Dimwit! You sound like you pretend to be man-grown. Smiling, slowly, she let her eyes drift slowly down Caden's face, then back to his eyes. "I am not waiting for something or someone to arrive, just merely for someone to notice and take action.” Caden chuckled, realizing how he had just set himself up. How could this be happening, was she interested in him? Maybe she has a liking for the unknown and wants to play her game with the strange boy, he thought, knowing what Domani women – young and older – went for when dealing with men. But he corrected himself, since she lacked the playful glint in the eye that other women owned when they were out to toy with the older and dark-haired. "Well, Del, I have noticed, as for action..." He paused, taking a breath to collect his thought and glancing again at the dockmaster. He was beginning to come his way. She is not toying with you, he thought, angered with the notion, or is she? There was only one way to find out. "Would you care to meet me later, Del? I finish work late, but I would like to talk with you more, perhaps?" Relieved, Caden saw Del nodding, smiling to him with her full lips. She was not mocking him after all. "I will meet you here, Caden, later tonight, if you like?" She hesitated, then continued. "I would like to make you dinner- I have plenty, and a small house of my own that I rent over the storefront of the seamstress I work for?" She asked him, and Caden even thought she sounded worried about him rejecting her. How could she be that? She could have any man she wanted! He paused as the dockmaster shouted at him to continue working. It seems he was in a good mood this day. "Agreed, Del. Later tonight. Second bell?" She nodded, and walked away from him. Going back to work, Caden felt his heart beating quicker than usual and smiled from time to time when he thought about how she had noticed him. Him, the foreigner boy.
Later that day, Caden walked through the streets of Bandar Eban. Dressed in his finest tunic and washed from the sweat of the days labour after a quick visit at his and his uncle's house, he glanced to the people he passed by through damp strands of blonde hair. His green eyes took in the nobles and commoners alike, feeling left out as usual. When they see me, they think I’m the abandoned son of some long gone merchant. He ignored them as he made his way to his and Del’s meeting place in the docks. Rounding a corner a while later, Caden lifted his gaze to see a raven-haired young woman leave her home, and no sooner did she come ten yards from her door when she was lift of the ground and carried into an intersecting alley. Delilah? Could it really have been her? Before he had collected his thoughts, he was running hard towards where the two had vanished. His boots were worn and used, yet provided good footing on the stone pavement. Rounding the corner to where the big man had vanished with the young woman, Caden folded his hands into fists and made his way through darkness. When he caught up with them, he discovered that the man had not been alone. It was Del, and she was lying unconscious between three bulky figures. Bloody rodents, he growled for himself and glared back when they turned to meet his green eyes. He should be afraid, but his anger coiled in fear’s place. He stopped and drew up his shoulders menacingly. “Leave,” he said, the single word acid. What was he doing? There were three of them, all in filthy rags yet nonetheless bigger than him. He was fuelled with anger, light-headed by it. Even if his blood was foreign, his temper was pure Domani. No reason to contemplate further than that. He was regarded with chuckles and glib remarks. “Now blondie, leave thiss to the elderss,” one hissed between a gap in his brown teeth, showing out in the inky beard he wore. He was short and stout and his, like the others, rags could be smelled all the way to where Caden stood. “Ya have to find ya own woman. ‘Tis one is ours,” another said, his face scarred by pox. “Ya don evan know what to do wi’ a woman, laddie!” he taunted and took a step in his direction. The last of the three only stared back at him, threatening him with the dead centres of his grey eyes. His bald head glinted in the night-lights of the city. “Your choice then,” he concluded and raised his fists, advancing a step at the time, one side forward. His honour had often been tested by others than his uncle and the dockmaster, and he had equally often been forced to defend it. Now he defended the honour of a woman for the first time. When he reached the pox-scarred one, he ducked under his fist and sent his own into the man’s mid-riff. Grunting, the man stumbled once before Caden straightened and struck him again over the scarred jaw. The bum stumbled once more before he hit the left wall with his head. He kept his footing though and raised his hands to his head in a wail. Caden leaped forward and kicked him over his kneecap without consideration. The sickening grind of bone and sinew when the leg bent backwards was the last he heard from him, as Caden saw him faint by the pain and slump to the stone pavement. The second one was already close. The hissing one, he managed to think before he received a blow to his face. The world spun around and around before he managed to support his weight against the wall. His legs trembled and his vision was somewhat off. His face hurt something fiercely. Orientating himself properly in the last instant, Caden managed to ward off another blow to his face, and then another. His fists raised in guard against the raining blows, Caden saw the third one trying to circle around his back, something glinting in his hand. Dagger! he thought, alarmed by the implications. One had small chance to survive an opponent with a dagger. However, he had to find a way. Fending of a blow to his ribs, he lashed out with a backhand blow and connected with the side of the man-snake’s face. Then he stepped through the man’s lax guard and drove his own knee skyward into the bottom of his chest. The bum took two steps back defensively, arms protecting his middle now. Caden shifted sides and kicked out with his other leg. The heel of his boot made a meaty sound before the low-life flew backwards and landed in a heap of rags and limbs. Turning around, Caden threw himself sideways before the knife of the last man ripped him open. He was late though, and his tunic made a tearing sound. Pain blossomed in his chest. Landing on his shoulder, he had to crawl backwards to gain some distance. The right side of his chest bled, he vaguely registered, as he stared back at the bald man. But he doubted the slash had gone far below his skin. The last man was quicker than his companions had been, and he bared pink gums when he lounged forward. He aimed to drive the dagger into his belly but Caden managed to roll away to the side. Scrambling to his feet, he made sure to move away from the armed man. He needed some distance. He needed to think. “Lost your courage, big boy?” the man growled, “I say you lost it. I say you lost it hard.” His low voice was oily and soiled, like his appearance. Snarling, he went after him. And Caden had just reached the wall. The touch felt like doom. No… It was then an idea came to him. Hope ran anew into his veins. Where he worked in the dock, they often played a game. He needed to… Ducking low to the side, Caden escaped the tip of the thrust. He lashed out with a foot and even managed to connect with the attacker’s groin. As the filthy man screamed, partly in anger and partly in pain, he got to his feet and made sure the man followed after him. Mind clouded by anger, the attacker bolted after when Caden ran straight against the other wall. Light, grant me this! he thought when the wall came towards him. And then in the last instant, he put his foot against the wall and pushed hard with the thigh-muscles. He managed to take two steps up the wall. Few managed to take three when they tried in the storehouse in the eastern parts of the docks. Then Caden pushed away, jumping from the wall and somersaulting backwards. He had seldom managed to land on his feet when trying; he was one of the less good among his loading team. But now, he did. And before he did, he heard the rouge grunt as he ran into the wall. Quickly, Caden rammed his open hand against the neck of his opponent. With a thud, the man’s face hit the stone, and it remained there as Caden pushed. The other hand free, he tried to smash in the man’s ribcage. His strikes were pure arm- and body-strength, without minding how well they hit. Over and over he pounded and the world was without sound. He felt a rage take him. His vision grew red and he screamed as high as his foe. The dagger clattered as it fell. Then the body slumped to the cold stone, and Caden found himself. Panting, he took a step to the wall and leaned against it, his vision narrowed to a narrow tunnel. I stand, he had to convince himself, and they don’t. I did it. Looking over to Delilah, Caden gathered himself and quickly picked her up in his arms. He needed to leave before any of them came to. He left the three figures and went back whence he came from.
He woke with a start, his eyes wild. When he recognized Delilah, seeing how she dabbed a rag against his face, he relaxed and collapsed back onto the bed, allowing her to help him. He said nothing as she cleaned the wound, and left the cooling rag as a compress on his eye. She got him a bowl of porridge, bringing hers along with her. She handed him the porridge, a spoon, and the mug of tea, then settled next to him on the bed. Caden only watched throughout the procedure, to weak to speak. He could not think about something to say either. "From this arrangement, I am going to assume you rescued me, Caden, and that you were too tired or concerned about my welfare to leave me alone and so stayed her," she said in her lovely voice, which soothed his mind not unlike the compress did to his eye. He started to protest, and she stalled him with a stunning smile. "I have only one objection- that we both could have been conscious to enjoy your stay." At that, she kissed him softly.
Months passed, and Caden frequented Delilah often after work and before he came home to uncle Tharenwo. Their relationship was strong, but they seldom had time to meet at length. One day, Caden found something in a storehouse which had been emptied from the goods of a wealthy merchant travelling for Ilian. It was a weapon unlike one he had seen before. It was not unlike a halberd, though shorter and with a slimmer blade. He had to check the inventory list to know that it was an ashandarei he had found. He was not willing to part with the magnificent weapon, and he knew his uncle would sell it, and probably for less gold than it was worth. No, he thought, I found it. It is mine. And I will learn how to use it. But he could not take it home. It was too big a weapon to conceal from Tharenwo. Intead he brought it to Del, and let her keep it until he found a way to begin his training with it. He was never able to do that though, because not short after, the Rune began to speak in his mind. His mind turned dark by the taint of the Shadow, and it urged him to flee his hometown. His mind taken and not truly his anymore, he did. Unknowing, he had left Delilah with child. Looking back, Caden regretted how he had left this chapter of his life half-read. |
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