AVftS-12

Servant

Part of a series of archived posts in AVftS
AVftS-12
Author:	Jens
Date Posted:	March 5, 2019
Forum Post:	Linked!
Word Count:	857
Characters:	Osin, Síne
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Today was a resting day.

That’s what she kept thinking as she agitatedly paced through the small . Today would be no hunting. No cutting wood. No helping others lift heavy stuff. No physical activity whatsoever. Just staying home and doing nothing.

It felt like a punishment, even if it was self-imposed. She told herself she needed at least one day in the week to rest, as even her body had its limits. Probably. That’s what the villagers told her. She’d usually react by glaring at them, because that would make them leave her alone immediately, but that didn’t seem to work on some of them anymore. She knew the villagers had the best intentions with her, so she usually went along with whatever they suggested, but this was just so boring!

And once she got bored, it would get harder and harder to distract herself from thoughts she didn’t want to have.

Osin is what her parents named her. “Servant.” Might have well named her “Trash”, given what they did to her. She could hardly remember their faces anymore, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to. They probably forgot about her as soon as they exchanged her for a bag of gold. As hazy her memory of home was, the journey away from there was still as clear as day in her head. She could remember the smell of sweat, shit and seawater. The misery. Arriving in a land with strange people, who all spoke a language she wouldn’t learn how to speak properly for a long time. The fear and uncertainty she had felt, and had sworn to never ever feel again.

The first years were the toughest, but she survived, and it wasn’t all misery. The last few years in servitude were almost… pleasant. The people responsible for her kept her well-fed at least. But that all had to end as well. Once she ventured into Kingfisher’s Forest, she never looked back.

The villagers of Ceadaichte Mòir took her in, and she has learned to accept them. She repays them by helping them with work, or do some hunting for them.

She picked up one of the books she had borrowed from the teacher lady, Sine. Reading usually led to her getting headaches, but it would at least distract her from bad thoughts. She had only begun learning to read after she arrived in the village two years ago. She never really understood why she picked it up, because everything she’s read so far was never that interesting. Perhaps it was because she never had the chance to in her old life. This book in particular was about the Kingfisher’s Forest. Osin thought about how it got its name. She’s seen the king before, and he didn’t look like no fisherman. Maybe it was a play on words she didn’t understand because she was foreign. She didn’t know. She would ask Sine, but she was afraid she would have to listen to hours and hours of droning about the magical trees. And Osin could use that precious time to chop down said magical trees.

Nevertheless, Osin did think Sine was nice, despite everything. She did take the time to teach her how to read, despite her having the attention span of a mosquito and the patience of… well, her. Sine would lend her books, and Osin would try to read them. Any word she didn’t understand, she would try to write down on a piece of parchment. She would then shove the parchment in Sine’s face the following day and demand her to explain what the words meant.

As she concentrated on the book, she could feel her agitation diminish. Forest. Trees. Princesses. Whatever. It all made her sleepy.

BOOM!

“What the…”

WHO DARED DISTURB HER SLUMBER!?

Osin sat upright in her chair as the shaking ground and loud noise shook her awake. She quickly stood up and stumbled, disoriented for a moment. Shaking her head, she walked towards her window and peered outside. She could see smoke coming from the area beyond which the forest lied. Some people were outside, but nobody seemed to want to act. Grumbling, Osin went to grab her hatchet, bow and arrow and ventured outside. Soon enough, more and more people would also come out of their houses, but would stop in their tracks as they saw the hulking Elven woman with wild, dark hair walk steadfastly towards the woods, weapons at the ready.

Her piercing, grey eyes soon found a silhouette in the distance. Was it the instigator of the explosion? She had heard the sound before. It was never associated with good things. As she got closer, she recognised the silhouette. It was teacher lady. She kept her bow at the ready, arrow in her right hand. She didn’t see Sine for someone who would mess around with gunpowder, but in this world, you never know. Osin decided that she’d try to feel out the situation. She felt she would give the woman a fair warning before she’d pepper her with arrows, anyway.

“Oi! Sine! Don’t ye ken yer nae supposed tae play wi' fire?”