What He Heard

Chapter 2

            They sat silently side by side in the empty meeting hall for several moments. It was Rune who broke the quiet. “So,” he said, looking at Willow. “Your family has Elders?”

            Willow shook herself out of her own worried thoughts, grateful for something that took her attention away from her roiling stomach and the agony of just waiting. “What? Oh, yeah. It’s sort of how we keep things going. There’s really too many of us for the family to just talk to each other to figure stuff out, so we have Elders. At least, that’s why I think we have them. A lot of what we do has always been that way, so no one really knows why it is that way.”

            “You guys really are a clan.”

            “Told you. I’m hoping, given what Eldest said, that she’s on our side. But it’s hard to tell with her. She’s too good at hiding things.”

            Rune’s eyebrows went up. “Eldest?”

            “Oh. Yeah. Eldest is the title given to whoever really is the oldest living family member. And whoever is Eldest is always one of the Elders. The other positions require a specific type of person while Eldest is whoever has seen the most really. It helps provide a balance in opinion.”

            “So who else is Elders? Position-wise since the only people I know are you and a couple of your cousins.”

            Willow smiled slightly at that. “You probably know more than you think. Now, bear in mind, that these positions date way, way back, when we still had to worry about the pitchfork and torch wielding villagers and that some of this probably goes all the way back to when we first settled in this area, pre-town days.”

            Rune chuckled. “That bad, eh?”

            She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t laugh. There’s the Chief Hunter, that’s Uncle Marlon, the Spiritual Leader, that’s Aunt Sylvia, the Chief Herbalist, that’s Aunt Briony, the Harmony Leader, that’s Uncle Oswald, the Intelligence Chief, that’s Aunt Tracy, and of course, the Eldest is Great-Aunt Agatha. Oh, and Uncle Allistair’s the Defense Leader.”

            His lips moved but no laughter escaped. “Harmony Leader?”

            “We all live super close together and are pretty much around each other all the time. Uncle Oswald’s job is to make sure we all get along. Trust me, the last thing you want is two of my family getting into it. We all pretty much have hot tempers and, oh yeah, we turn into giant bear-creatures.”

            Now Rune did laugh. “Touche. And that does make sense. So your Elders rule the family then?”

            Willow snorted. “More like keep us from killing each other and/or being discovered. Major family decisions are made like you saw. The family asks questions, every adult’s allowed to voice their opinion, then the Elders go into the back room and make a decision. It should’ve just been the Elders from the beginning, but I guess you’re the first person to find out by accident in a couple of decades, so everyone got a bit freaked. Pretty much the only people who find out these days are the fiancés of family members.”

            “God. That’s got to be a fun conversation. ‘Honey, I thought you should know, I turn into a shaggy creature when I’m not wearing silver. Just a heads up before we get married. Love ya.’ How many of them faint?”

            “Less than you’d think, but still way too many. And you think getting married as a normal person’s bad, try doing it when you’re a sasquatch. The amount of care you have to take to make sure the other person will keep the secret, won’t, even if the worse occurs and you divorce, become bitter and spiteful, and that can handle the fact that we’re not entirely human, is insane. We pretty much get told from the time we’re born about how careful we need to be about all of our relationships. It’s why most of the cousins don’t make friends outside of each other. I know I struggled with trying not to let you find out while trying not to lie to you. Of course, since you said you’d already figured it out, I clearly didn’t do a very good job of it.”

            Rune chuckled at her wry tone. “I’m a wannabe journalist. I’m good at putting facts together. The more you tell me about it, the more I’m glad I wasn’t born a sasquatch. Though, being this close and always having people who understand what you’re going through would be nice.”

            Willow frowned slightly at how wistful he sounded. “It’s really not at all great. Not when the whole family decides your business is also theirs.”

            Footsteps had them breaking their conversation off, both looking up as Allistair approached them. Willow leapt to her feet, Rune following a moment later. As if in revenge for her ignoring it, her stomach churned faster, making her feel sick as her mouth dried up. Her uncle’s face didn’t help any either, blank and serious as she so rarely saw it.

            He stopped in front of them, nodding at Willow. “We Elders have come to a decision.”

            She nodded, her hands clenched into fists. She glanced briefly at Rune, noting how his face had gone back to its colourless state, his eyes locked onto her uncle. Willow looked back at him, doing her best to fake a calm she didn’t feel in the slightest. “What is their judgment?”

            Allistair studied them both for a moment before saying, “Willow Reese is without fault in this situation. Her friend, Rune, is to be watched carefully for the next while to ascertain whether or not he’ll betray our trust. But provisionally, we think he’s fine.” Suddenly he grinned. “Personally, I think you’re a good kid and you’re good for Willow. She spent too much time alone before meeting you.”

            Silence reigned for several seconds while a rushing sound filled Willow’s ears. The intense relief had the edges of her eyes blacking over for a moment before she turned to look at Rune. He was grinning at her and she could feel an identical expression spreading across her own face. For now, the family had accepted him.