Whisper to the Wind

(2) A Mother and A Father

As Whisper arrived in front of her house, she stared at the house quizically, contemplating whether or not to continue on into the house or to make her way back to the other other side of the woods where the village guard was located.

Whisper's father, after he had married her mother, had decided to take his new wife back to the small village he had grown up in. His parents had bought a house and moved to Valleystone long after her father, Syone, had moved out to explore the world. They had left the house to Syone and his wife and their growing child. Since they both refused to settle into the simple lifestyle, they took on the most adventure they could in a small village like Rippleville. Her father had joined the village guard and her mother had taken to hunting and spending much of her time in the woods. Many of the village wives thought that Chrisyanna was a a bad mother, leaving her children to grow up on their own while she was off galavanting in the woods. In all truth though, Whisper thought her and Norrine had been raised well. Their mother and father had always been there for them and taught them everything they knew about surviving in the wilderness.

The village guard had one small building where many of the men would gather during the breaks in their shift to play cards or eat something. It was also where the village council met to discuss 'important' issues. There was one room in that building large enough to fit half of the men in the village seated. If more came, they would have to stand.

Whisper walked into the building and immediately heard the sounds of whoops and laughs. Following those were the sounds of some heavy object hitting the ground, and hard. As Whisper peeked her head in, one of the men, Borin, glanced over to see her looking in.

"Well come on in, lass," He said, motioning for Whisper to walk in, "No need for ye to stand in the door way." Many of the men at the village guard knew Whisper well. When she had been a young girl, she would often come in with her father and watch the men play a game of cards. Occasionally her father would let her play.

"Hello, Borin. How are you today," Whisper asked politely as she stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. It seemed that all of the men were watching some sort of event in the room that usually seated the village council. Many of them were standing in the door and she couldn't see over them, but she could still hear the sounds of thumping, laughing, shouts, and cheers.

"Oh, nothin' much. It's been pretty slow today." Borin took a quick swig from the bottle in his hand, no doubt ale, and glanced over. A large smile came onto his face and he turned around to converse slightly with the man standing behind him.

"Have you happened to see my mother or father," Whisper asked as she took a step towards the men. She stood on her tip toes and attempted to see over the men's heads. All she saw was a man catch a clenched fist to his cheek and fall to the ground. There must have been some sort of fight going on.

Borin chuckled to himself before pointing over the crowds of men. "Well, ye're mum," Borin began, before stopping to take another swig, "was bet that she couldn't beat four of the men in a fist fight. So far, ye're mum's givin' em a run fer they're money." Whisper's eyes buldged and she quickly pushed through the crowds of me. Her being so small, they moved aside without even noticing she was there.

Whisper's mother was a small woman and at first look, you wouldn't think that this tiny woman could take four muscular men and win. Her long auburn hair was pulled behind her head into a tight braid and she had woven a piece of leather across the top of her head to keep the hair out of her face.

Three of the men were lying on the ground groaning, but one was slowly rising back to his feet and stumbling towards Chrisyanna. The one man up quickyl fell to the ground. He swung his fist out clumsily towards Chrisyanna, but with her small and agile body, she bent back and leaned around to the other side of his face. In one hand, she grabbed his fist and with the other, she threw out her own punch and landed solidly on his jaw. Before he had the chance to react, she kicked her left leg up and hit the weak spot in the back of his knees. The man fell to the ground.