Berach's Jewel

Chapter One

A/N: Mwahahaha, I decided to start uploading a week early as our plans for the collections cover and title went really well! :)

The setting sun showed that it was time to finish the day's work, and Daveth picked up his pack, full with fresh pea pods.

"Aldred?" he called, "Do you think we should go back now to Kjell? It's sunset soon, and I heard wolf packs earlier."

He shuddered. If you found a lone wolf it was easy for an adult to scare it off with a stick and shouting; if you found a pack or a mother's den, you were dead. Their pack instinct was too strong together. He'd seen disembowelled men and women brought back after a wolf attack when he was younger and the clear message was to never leave town alone after dark.

"Aye, we should go back while we can see where we're walking. Kjell has been waiting for us to make dinner for a while now," he replied.

The two men fell into step, following the path of the wooden boards laid down on the ground, to help them walk through the deep mud that always formed by late winter. Passing the empty wheat fields, with hessian sacks of peas and beans over their shoulders, they saw a few people still out seeding the fields for the harvest next year. Slaves.

As they neared the door to their wooden house, they smelled salt. It was only in autumn that they could eat fresh food, so in order to feed themselves around the year they had to preserve part of their harvest now so they wouldn't starve later. As they lived a day's walk from the sea it wasn't hard to salt food to store when fresh food had run out.

"Hello father, Aldred. Could you help me in packing these baskets away? Then I can make dinner," said Kjell as they both walked in. There were large, tightly woven baskets that were sorted by plant. It was important that they were waterproof, or the vegetables would rot during rainstorms or flooding.

"We managed to get a few peas and beans from the plants - I think they have finished producing for the year, but what we picked today should be stored to grow next year's crop."

His father grunted, as he looked in the two bags to check. "It seems roughly right. We might need a few more bean pods though," said Aldred.

Kjell had earlier prepared the turnips, carrots, and beans for their dinner. She walked out the back entrance of their house, where they cooked their meals outdoors and emptied several bowls of each vegetable into a big pot over a fire. Pouring cold water in, she stirred it occasionally until it came to the boil.

As the sun set, Aldred joined his sister by the fire, after leaving the back door ajar and he offered her a blanket. She took it and wrapped it around her shoulders so she could still move her right arm easily, and fastened it in a knot.

"Have you been able to work on the Jalde's fields this month?" Kjell asked him.

He absent-mindedly poked the fire underneath the pot with a stick and sighed. "No not really, we've had a hard enough time of looking after our own after that short cold spell."

"Well, you know what happens to those who don't work enough for him."

Knocks pounded at the door. Daveth was still inside, putting the peas for next year's harvest in a basket. "I'll answer," he called out.

Getting up quietly from the upturned log she sat on, Kjell tiptoed to the barely open door. Daveth often told her to stay inside or only let her out when she was with other women, as it was unacceptable for an unmarried woman to go unaccompanied in his eyes. Even Aldred was meant to enforce this when their father left but he rarely did. He trusted Kjell.

Putting her ear to the door, she heard murmuring through it, although they were often too thick to hear conversations, due to the cold winters here and it also meant people could have their own privacy.

"Are you Daveth Dawsson?"

"Yes, I am. May I ask why you want to know?"

"You have an audience with the Jalde. Now," came the gruff reply.

As their voices faded away, Kjell quietly opened the door to enter their empty house, seeing their father being led away by men in the green colours of the Jalde.

"Well?" Her brother's voice echoed around the house behind her, peering into the house through the back door.

"The Jalde's men have taken him to the high-house."

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