Varda feels a chill
9th March 1103
The girl murmured in her sleep, muttering and groaning, sometimes crying out in fright. She threw her slender limbs this way and that as she squirmed away from whatever nightmare chased her through the hallways of her dreams. Her face was pale, so very pale but for the angry red welts which ripped away from her lips as though her face was twisted into the most macabre of elongate grins. Her eyes were sunken into hollow pools that made her face appear hagged and skull like. And yet she was somehow so very beautiful that Varda could not look away. The girl muttered something in her foreign tongue and rolled onto her side.
“What did they do to her Hepsie?” she asked the other woman who had just finished examining the exhausted girl.
Hepsie was lucky she was so soundly asleep, it had not been easy for Varda and Osras to bring the struggling girl inside but once they had she had grown limp and supple and it had not been difficult for Varda to pull her soaking dress from her pallid arms and wrap her in one of Varda’s own nightgowns. When Hepsie had arrived she was already dry and safe, tucked up in Varda’s bed, deeply asleep.
“Well My lady… it doesn’t seem like… like they done anything actually. I mean, they hurt her poor little wrists they did where she was tied, an’ she’s got that nasty graze on her face from the gag. But other than frightening her half to death, she ain’t been harmed. She’s very cold though, I’d put on another blanket.”
“But what about the blood?” Varda murmured.
“Oh, there’s blood alright, but it ain’t nothin’ to worry about. She’s just got her woman’s troubles is all. They ain’t… hurt her in any other way that is to say.”
“So they didn’t rape her?” Varda snarled.
“Hush now, My Lady, she might hear you. No, they ain’t hurt her like that.”
“I don’t think she can understand us Hepsie. I’m so glad they didn’t hurt her badly, but I suppose they meant to. Do you think it was pirates?”
“It would be making sense it would. Poor little mite, brave thing she is too… must have escaped and jumped into the water, swam all the way by herself. But my lady, yew don’t think it’s Faldorn’s men do yew. They haven’t found us have they?”
Hepsie’s eyes grew wide with fear, an unnerving sight to see on a face that was usually so bravely defiant.
“I don’t believe so Hepsie. I think it’s more likely that it was pirates, I can more believe that they would sally forth this far north than Faldorn could find us. We just have to hope the pirates haven’t spotted our settlement. And that they don’t come looking for her.”
“Do you think they will?”
“I don’t know. But if they do the King will bring the full force of his power against them. Don’t worry, we have nothing to fear.”
“But where did she come from, Osras was telling me he ain’t heard nothing like her tongue before… nothing. Do yew think she’s from one of the borderlands. Further than Talmasia?”
“Perhaps, I’ve only met Talmasians but they themselves claim there are other lands, past the endless deserts. How a pirate ship would get hold of a borderlander though, your guess is as good as mine.”
“My Lady, I am done with the girl now, she just needs to be resting fer a good long why. Yew can call me when she wakes up, bur fer now just let her be sleeping. But My Lady, how are yew? How’s that baby of yers? Not suffering any from all this excitement?”
Varda gently rubbed her belly with a soft smile, “No, the baby is fine. Though it’s been kicking a lot with all this running around. But… that’s good… isn’t it?”
“Yes luv,” Hepsie smiled warmly, “that’s very good. Won’t be long now an’ yew an’ yer husband will have a bonny wee baby to play with. Now I’ll be taking my leave of yew. Just let me know if anything happens or send word if she wakes. I’ll be staying on the ship this night.”
“Thank you Hepsie,” she murmured, as Hepsie closed the door behind her with a soft click.
Varda shuffled over to the bed, her swollen feet aching beneath her heavy weight. The girl mumbled in her sleep, and flung her arms over her head, her face wrinkling into a frown.
Poor thing. Varda carefully stroked her thin arms that swam in the material of Varda’s too-large nightgown.
She gently tucked the girl’s trembling arms beneath the covers. Her hand brushed bare skin and she shivered at the chill of the girl’s body. She was as cold as when they had pulled her from the water and no amount of blankets would warm her. And yet Hepsie said she was perfectly fine and she did seem alright, though exhausted.
The girl mumbled softly, her pallid lips barely opening, “Ni ska inte döda mig.”
Awww, poor thing
Oh well, at least they got her inside. Is it too much to hope that someone on Mhalwae speaks her language?
“She’s just got her woman’s troubles is all.”
How old is this girl? Here I was thinking she was maybe seven or eight at most, but menstruating at that age seems like the sort of thing that only happens on House. At what age are you thinking of aging your children up to teenagers? I was thinking I’d start growing mine up at ten; at first it was more of an impatience thing than anything else, but yesterday I took pictures of a kid who’s supposed to be eight, and kids stretch so drastically that I don’t know how much taller they can go without getting ridiculous.
On the other hand, not everyone is that developed at ten or eleven, so there are advantages to aging them up later I suppose. *shrug* Guess it’s a preference thing.
Yes, I thought she was younger too. Verity, are we supposed to find that odd, or is that just a consequence of the game’s lack of 11-year-oldish kids? Hepsie didn’t seem to find it strange.
Also I find it quite worrying that she is still cold. Is she even human?? What if she is some kind of selkie or something? (Which would be really cool by the way.)
Sorry for not replying sooner guys, things have been really busy this week and I have been feeling so blah from lack of sunlight (there have been 4hours of sunlight in November here so far) that I haven’t been able to get the motivation to write anything.
She is actually 9 years old. Unfortunately I forgot to stretch her for the pictures from the previous chapter so she looks a lot younger. It is young to start getting you period although normal is considered between 8 and 16 with average age 12 according to wiki (but this is normal now… I think it was a bit later in medieval times since everyone was so malnourished). If she is normal
. It does actually have some importance which will be made clear later… it wasn’t just a trick to get you to think she had been raped.
She will look taller in the next chapter when I remember to fix the stretching. I must admit I am slightly worried about how to do this transition thing (it is kind of weird going straight from child to teen… how do you guys work around that sudden growth spurt?). I was also planning to grow them up at 10.
Kids are getting their periods at eight these days? Here I was, thinking ten was probably the earliest! I need to start keeping more current with medical news, I suppose.
Heheh… I always forget the stretching too. Don’t worry about it
As for the transition thing, I wouldn’t worry too much. I’ve read tons of great stories where sims go from toddler to kid to teen to adult in the space of what doesn’t seem like more than a few weeks and no one notices. Like, I’d probably drive myself insane using the soap opera aging myself, but there are people who manage to pull it off quite beautifully, so if that can be done, the more spaced out growth spurts are definitely doable, especially with stretching so you can differentiate your ten-year-olds from your fifteen-year-olds and whatnot.