Bird of a Nest (bow 3)

Chapter 8

Ryraso dreamed.

It wasn't a lucid dream but he was aware it was not real. Watching from above as he looked down at his hometown. The sun was shining down on the cornfields and he could hear the sounds of his nephews playing in the backyard as a much younger version of himself packed a bag. His father filled the doorway, only now Ryraso read his body language different. When he had been younger, he had read his father as disappointed but now. Now he saw something else. Sadness. Sadness that his youngest was leaving and worry about the place he was leaving to. 

His relationship with father had not been the best but he had been loved by his father. He just didn't know how to show it to his weakest son who had chosen to sleep with men and go into a woman's field. Ryraso had no doubts his father loved him. He suspected his father had resigned himself to this fate when Ryraso had first shown healing talent. Navat was the best place to go. In hindsight, Ryraso wondered if the goddess had given him healing abilities to bring his blood back to Navat in the first place. 

"You are really doing this then?" his father commented, watching in the doorway. His clothes were well worn and stained with the mud and blood of the farm.  His feet were bare to keep the mud on his boots out of the house and he was holding a hat in his hats.  "You're really going to Navat?"

"Let me guess, you don't approve of living with another race?" Ryraso said sarcastically, not looking back at his father. He wasn't even really packing anymore, just refusing to look at him. Ryraso couldn't remember why anymore. Must have fought about something. 

"No," his father shook his head, a sad smile on his face. "Believe it or not, Ryraso, I have lived in Navat myself," he revealed. The younger Ryraso froze and turned to look at his father in shock. Ryraso smiled sadly. The moment his father had bothered to tell him that he hadn't lived in the valley his entire life. It had shaken his entire world and it was one of the first moments in his life where Ryraso started seeing the world differently. Everyone had secrets, even his farmer father had secrets.

"Dad," the younger Ryraso murmured. "You never said."

"I spent many years there once, a long time ago now," the man said wistfully. "I try not to think about it too much. I made a commitment to be here and not in the past," he explained gently,  tugged on his pendant, lightly. Ryraso frowned, looking at the pendant only dimly remembering what was on it now. His father had never taken it off. "It doesn't surprise me that one of my children would feel the call to go," he added softly.

"Why did you leave?" he demanded, brows furrowed. Ryraso remembered being angry at this revelation. Anger that his father had hidden this for so long after fighting so hard not to let him leave the valley. After lecturing him about the dangers of leaving the valley. 

"Of course. I never wanted this. Not until I met your mother," his father smiled sadly, wearing a look he had often had when referring to Ryraso's mother. He had never fallen in love again after her and as Ryraso learned in Navat, still was harbouring a love long lost before his mother too. He paused and a serious look covered his face. "Ry, you are my youngest. You have the eyes of your grandmother and her and mine's temper to match. It will serve you well in the coming months. The k'nairi can be hard creatures to deal with. They are not human, remember that. Most understand the taste of blood better than the crack of a word. There are exceptions, but don't be afraid of them, Ryraso. Being afraid gives them power and if you wish to gain their respect. You  must not falter ever."