Aye, what a disaster of homecoming. Emerit woke up grumpy in her sloop. The events of previous trial left her sore through and through.
“Agh, Ri. What the feck did we come back to?” The Biqaj woman scratched the head of her temple monkey companion as she laid in her hammock, cherishing the rocking of the boat on the gentlest of waves. Ri in response nuzzled closer to Emerit’s neck. It was as close as Em got to an embrace from any creature she could trust. Scoffing, she just shook her head. She had no idea what to do, truth be told...for once.
Carefully moving away, the fisherwoman left her humble bed, making sure she would not send the poor creature tumbling down to the centre of the cot or worse yet, on the floor. Her bare feet on the wood sent all the small hairs to attention.
“Shite...t’is cold.” Looking around she quickly grabbed her boots to compliment the oversized sleeping shirt she was wearing. Despite the trial probably being another sweet kissed, light breezed cutie pie, Emerit saw only clouds disregarding their fluffy nature. They were still just fecking clouds.
Much like skirting around a topic no one wanted to address, Emerit walked around Havardr for the best of the morning. To get her mind off the matter, she spoke to people she knew and those she didn’t, finding it easier to impress those who were strangers to her. It wasn’t until walking past a small gathering that had some of the villagers selling crafts like nets, fishing hooks and others. It was an irregular thing this one. Happening on occasion and sometimes there would only be one soul trying to make extra nel for spending.
“Aye, heard Tunga wa’n’t at d’boats to-trial.” Emerit froze in spot, very much mid-step like a statue struck from ice by Ziell. Her eyes darted and buried into Sonja’s back who was speaking with a trinket maker, evaluating something made from a shell no doubt. For a fraction of a trill, nothing happened before childhood nature took over her feet. She bent in her knees in semi-crouch and started sneaking away right through the middle of the scarce crowd. Who the heck cared that some of the villagers were looking at her funny! She had to dodge the attention of one person only - the hag of a wife of her brother. The rest of them could shove it.
Untangling herself from the scrutiny of the few, Emerit dashed for her brother’s yurt. Whilst the harpy was out, Em had a chance to talk to her brother freely. She couldn't pass up the chance. At the end of the day, Sonja was the issue she was skirting. So she could shove it too with the rest of 'em!
“You’s two keep quiet, a’right? Pops and precious me has a talk to have.”
“But mu---”
“Mum is in the market buying you trinkets, I says. So if you make any noise she might not gives it you.”
Children were so gullible and in truth her favourite audience. After all, that little lie stapled together the lips of the twin boys quite securely from what Emerit could tell as she snuck indoors. Winking at the boys in a conspiracy, they giggled and the fisherwoman made her way to where Tunga laid on the bed, sickly white with laboured breathing.
Pain and regret stabbed at her heart at once. She was gone when the illness showed up for him. She was not around when he needed her even though he had his wife and the boys. Deep within, Emerit was regretful that arcs have robbed her of the treasures and relationships she could have nurtured here on the island and perhaps that was a universal discovery among all the folks of her clan who gained their freedom. Perhaps that’s why many did not stay for long, feeling the truth too heavy and oppressing in a place they once used to call home. Many did not return past the first time either. Or so they were told when they were kids.
“You looks like a whale slipped of yer hook, woman.” Tunga rasped not far from her. She must have got lost in herself for a moment, allowing guilt to take charge. With others, she would have hidden the momentary slip of gloom behind a cheery remark. With Tunga, there was no chance it’d pass. Moreover, her eyes already changed to a lonelier shade of silver.
“Aye. Per’aps even more than a whale.” The woman admitted, coming to sit on the edge of the bed, looking into the incredibly deep, rich blues of her brother. It was the colour of the ocean going to sleep, a colour he always had when extremely tired or ill.
“Sonja’s out if---”
“I know and no. I sure don’t wants her around.” To that Tunga tried to chuckle but the attempt ended in a grimace of pain. So profoundly it was felt by Emerit, that she laid her hand on his, leaning forward, mirroring the expression in lesser degree as if she could….she wanted to take it away and upon herself. The fact that he did not shake her hand off meant that either he was too weak to tell her to get lost, or he was actually more reasonable compared to the previous trial.
“How long?” Emerit asked softly, encouraged by the fact that she could touch her brother without retribution.
Tunga shrugged. “I don’ts know. Quite a few seasons, maybe arcs now.” Emerit didn’t know much about Ink bloom, only that it was painful and who knew if there was a cure. So she frowned, unhappy about the fact that her brother was suffering for so long. But she also felt angry for a moment that Sonja allowed it to get this bad as if it was his wife’s doing and not nature's mean backhanded hurdle thrown at their faces.
“Oi now, don’t’yu get all buttfacey with me, missus.” Tunga tried speaking in a harsh voice which did not quite make its point as his hand came to squeeze hers. Despite his outer tough shell, he still cared and that simple gesture embodied it. It soften the edge and healed the wounds slightly from yesterday's encounter. So much so Emerit;s eyes softened, perhaps even glazed over slightly as she offered him a smile.
“You know…it’s been tough without you, Em. It really has.” A man with a husky voice and emotions on his tongue was a man worth listening to, Emerit believed. So she settled back and looked at him with all the love she still felt for the poor bastard.
“I...didn’t blame you for going. I mean you gots your freedom the rightest of ways. Part of me was never sure if I wanteds to head out to the wide world, ye know. You were always the one with widest of eyes when stories were tolds and the pirates came back.” This time, a gentle chuckle tickled his chest even if a twitch of discomfort tugged on his face. “But over time...life got hard. I gots this ink bloom shite in me body and Sonja...she a fair woman. But fairs not enough to keep her by me side, not whilst I was healthy. Two arcs ago I took turn for worse, then moms and pops disappeared and now, feckin’ rumours about rotten whales…” He sighed exhaustedly. Life has weighed him down more than it should have.
“Shhh. Forgets about the whale. Let’s find out how we can get you better.” Emerit suggested softly, reaching forward to place her warm hand against his mucky cheek. She did not mind him ill, nor dirty, nor violent anymore. The pain clouded his judgement earlier. Of that she was sure. So she forgave him. But the damned illness did not dumb his stubborness as he shook his head at her suggestion.
“Nah, there’s nuthin you coulds do. Even Sonja’s herbs for pain aren’t working much anymore.”
“Well all the more reason to cast the nets wider!”
“Em, I tells ya no. Don’t be dragging a doctor up and down the island for a man who…” Who what? A shiver in his eyes that Emerit could not decipher for the first time in her life was broken by another painful attack which twisted his body ever so slightly. She believed she saw a secret message, a series of feelings that left her confused. Who what? What was he trying to silently tell her that she could not understand? So much for plain speaking among siblings eh? And before she could say much more, she heard behind her back, piercing the silence with a holler of anger.
“What the feck is you doin’ here?!” And so Sonja made her grand entrance.
