Creative Commons – The Plainsrunner – Chapter Sixteen

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage gets a meal and a bed.

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Chapter Sixteen – Dinner

Dinner was good. In spite of her misgivings, Skylight was a good host, as was her husband, Fisher. Their son Star was also good. He was polite and hardly stared at Sage at all. For a boy his age, that is. He was about half her age – just about to leave true childhood and enter that transition phase before adulthood – and she remembered how she and her friends were then. When a stranger came to the village, they stared unabashedly, but Star was making an obvious effort to not do so.

Sage was impressed and thought she would make an effort, too. “This is nice,” she said. “Thank you.”

Skylight just nodded, chewing, but Fisher said, “You’re welcome. We’re glad to help.” Star watched, alert.

“This is more than simple help,” said Sage. “Taking a stranger into your nice home.”

Fisher said, “Whenever Digger needs us, we’ll be here.”

Sage wondered if he was aware of what his wife had been saying earlier, but she didn’t ask. She did say, “Digger seems like an interesting man. How did you meet him?”

In the silence, Fisher and Star were looking at Skylight, and she was frowning at her food. Sage felt the discomfort acutely, and tried to ease it. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s none of my business.”

Skylight nodded, but Fisher said, “It’s all right, Sage.” Then to his wife he said, “It’s okay, Sky. It’s your story and it’s all part of what makes me love you.”

Skylight looked at him and her expression softened, but she still said, “It’s not my story any more. That’s the past, and it can stay there.”

“Aw, Mom,” said Star. “I never get to hear.”

“Come on, Sky,” said Fisher. “The boy deserves to hear, and so does Sage. Your stories are so much alike.”

“But it’s not fair to you, Fish.”

“Never mind that,” he said. “It’s the story that brought you to me, so it’s a good story.”

Sage saw Star looking at his father. She saw the pride. When their eyes met across the table, she smiled at him. He got flustered, but he was smiling too.

Skylight was quiet, looking at her food again. Finally she nodded. “Okay,” she said, and started her story.

Skylight’s story was like Sage’s, in that they’d both left their villages and come to the city. Unlike Sage though, Skylight hadn’t been banished. She had left voluntarily. She was young and in love, and she ran away with her lover, Starlight. They were going to the city, looking for freedom and excitement. Like Sage, they followed a river, which joined hers just above the waterfall.

“But then he went and got himself killed,” said Skylight, fighting tears with anger. “He was protecting me from a day runner, and it killed him, and …”

Fisher picked it up for her. “They were almost here by then. Sky doesn’t have much memory of the last two days, but somehow she survived and made it. Digger found her and took care of her, then we met and that was the happiest day of my life. Then Star came along and our family was perfect.”

“So you’re not from the villages?”

“No. From down the coast. I wasn’t making a living fishing down there, so I came here.”

“You didn’t end up in the slum.”

“No. It wasn’t this bad then. I was able to find work, and I was doing all right.” His face clouded. “Some people tried to take advantage of me, but I got the advantage of them instead.” He smiled, but it wasn’t pleasant. “That’s when I changed my name to Fisher. Not long before we met.” He smiled at Skylight, much more pleasantly.

Sage looked at Star, who was looking at his parents with wide, shining eyes. She thought of his name, and of the name of Skylight’s lover: Starlight. She didn’t know it was showing in her face, and she was flustered when Fisher spoke.

“I see you’re wondering about the timing,” he said. He waved her down when she protested. “We’re not certain who is Star’s father. It could be me, or it could be Starlight. We’ve never done anything to find out. It’s not important to me. I couldn’t love him any more than I do.” He nodded at the love in the eyes of his family. “I insisted that we name Star after Starlight, because without him I wouldn’t have the two people who mean more to me than, well, any of that.”

Everyone ate quietly for a while, then Sage said, “Fisher is right, Skylight. Our stories are a lot alike.”

“Other than the fact that you did it alone,” said Skylight.

“You were alone for a while, too.”

“Oh sure, a couple of days. How long did you say you went?”

“About a month,” Sage answered.

Skylight nodded. “And that necklace you were wearing. Day flier talons, weren’t they? You didn’t just find those, did you?”

“Well, no,” said Sage. “I had to kill a day flier.”

Star was looking at her, mouth open, eyes wide. Skylight said, “Had to kill a day flier, eh? Only the one?”

“Yes,” said Sage. She pointed at her ears, both with the scars of day flier attacks. “It kept coming after me, so I had to make it stop. Killing it was the only way I could think of.”

They were quiet, to let her go on, and she realized it was her turn to tell her story. So she told them how she killed the big flier, and how it broke her spear. How she didn’t want to have to keep repairing it, so she learned how to scare them off. How she took the talons and the beak, both to honor her dead adversary, and for some more primitive reason that she didn’t really understand yet. She explained why she felt she had to eat a bit of each day runner she had to kill. She told them about all the fish she ate, and about meeting the traders. She made them laugh when she said how she challenged the big one. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” she said.

Chuckling, Fisher said, “You were near the end of your string. You must have been by then. But Tiny’s too stupid to notice something like that.”

“Tiny?” said Sage. “You know him?”

“Yes,” said Fisher. “Well, I mostly know Street. He’s a good man, as long as you don’t cross him.”

“He seemed all right to me, once things settled down.”

“He is all right, as long as you’re on his good side. From the sounds of things, I’d guess you are.”

“He said he knew my father, and respected him.”

“That’s okay then, but not enough by itself. If he likes you, it’s because he respects you, not your father.” He watched that sink in, then said, “He’s the only one Tiny will listen to. It’s lucky for you he was out on Street’s crew, and not someone else’s.”

“Or lucky for him,” said Sage, before she caught herself.

He laughed. “Or him,” he agreed.

After a brief silence, Skylight said, “There’s another difference in our stories, Sage. I went for love and adventure. Why did you leave your village?”

The silence became sharply deeper, and it was suddenly uncomfortable around the table. Star looked around with wide, uncertain eyes. Sage realized, to her surprise, that she felt shame. She felt tongue-tied by it. Even though she knew in her own mind that the elders had banished her not because she deserved it, but for superstition, she still felt shame. She pushed it down and stood up straighter. Clearly, she said, “I was banished.”

Star was shocked. His mother was from a village and he had heard her stories. Her village also banished people, and in the stories they always deserved it. He moved closer to her and she put a comforting hand on him.

Sage looked down, not meeting their eyes. She prepared to leave the table, only hoping that they would still let her use the little room to sleep in. She could leave tomorrow and find somewhere else, if anyone would have her. She was stopped by Fisher’s voice.

“Banished for what?” he asked.

Sage just wanted to leave, but she told them the story of the glider. She told them how it came down out of the sky, and how, when she told them, the elders banished her for it. She waited for them to kick her out of their home.

“That’s typical,” said Fisher. “Villages tend to be very superstitious places.”

“That’s right,” said Skylight, patting Star reassuringly. “Narrow, closed minds. Believe me, I know.”

Sage looked up to see them smiling at her. Even Star was smiling, with plenty of glances at his parents to be sure they still were.

Skylight said, “I saw that glider on your pack. You’re pretty brave to carry something like that in the open. There are plenty of people who would try to take it away from you.”

“Some of them did,” said Sage. “Digger showed up before I had to hurt them.”

They didn’t question her statement or assume that it was an empty boast. They didn’t doubt that she could have hurt them if she had to. “Lucky for them,” said Fisher.

“Digger said they would have killed me if they had to.”

“He’s right,” said Fisher. “They probably would have. Or tried anyway.” He grinned at her. “I wouldn’t have liked their chances.”

Sage grinned back and everything was okay again. They finished dinner, spiced with good conversation, until she had to plead exhaustion. Before she left Skylight told her about a good farrier who could put shoes on her, and Fisher gave her something called a flashlight. He also walked her to her room and stayed until she was safely inside, the door securely locked.