Winter Gathering

"Hurry Kerun!" Marigan called.
Like always, Marigan had a hard time mobilising her studious older brother. With his 17 years he pretended to know everything. In truth she was only 2 years younger and could hardly be called a child anymore. Especially not now when she would be expected to choose her future profession in 2 months time. She would be 16 then.
"You don't need to hurry. You're not at an age where you can act like a child anymore." Kerun sighed, "Be more like a lady will you? Mom would also like to see you get married soon."
"Married?!" Marigan shrieked, "to whom?"
"Master Aimon..."
"As if!" Marigan cut off her brother, "I wouldn't even get close enough to let that puffy midget touch me. And mom would agree I could find someone cuter..."
"Well I wouldn't want to touch you in the first place." Aimon's voice said from a little way behind her. The young master of the house, a couple of months older than Marigan, was standing in a doorway, looking like he always did: short, chubby and undesirable. The only good thing about him was his money. And maybe his hair. Marigan could see that his hair was pretty, if only he'd cut it a bit more stylishly, or maybe let it grow out like Kerun's.
"As I was trying to say," Kerun interrupted her thoughts, "Now that Master Aimon is here, we can leave."
"He has to come?!"
"She has to come?"
The both of them called at the same time, followed by an angry glare.
Kerun could barely contain a chuckle. Children! He sighed. If only he had passed the exams on his first trial, he'd be working by now and he wouldn't have the time to babysit as his mother so jokingly called going to a winter gather with his sister and the young master. The prospect of hearing the two of them argue back and forth galled the festivities already and Kerun felt his good mood sink.
"Quiet. You're going, that's the end of it."
Struggling back a bit, the two in the end followed him outside. The streets were already bursting with people, and things would only get worse as they closed in on the brightly coloured gypsy camp that had been erected at the edge of town. Little stalls vending food, drinks, spices, jewellery and other trinkets were lining the streets toward the village. The smell of meat roasting and fresh-baked bread rose from all around them and soon Kerun could not keep the two younger teens from nagging his ears off asking him for money to buy some food.
Filing quietly at the end of the queue, Kerun wordlessly cursed his sister for being a handful and his mother for not wanting her to visit the fair on her own. But soon his thoughts switched to his own anxieties. His clerk's license still hadn't come. If he hadn't passed his exams on the second trial he wouldn't be allowed another trial for years. Which in short meant he would have to do something else, maybe even go sailing like his eldest brother Onien. Kerun shuddered at the thought, he got seasick easily.
"Mister? Could you spare a coin for the hungry?" a sensual female voice interrupted Kerun's thinking. Tjenzina had been observing this young man closely and he seemed like just the type that she could get some money from. He was young, handsome and looked like he'd just broken up with his girlfriend. If she worked him right, she'd have an evening of fun, with all the food she could eat and maybe even a couple of coins to take home to her brothers and sisters.
"Mister?" she said again.
The eyes looking back up to her weren't the sad eyes she had imagined. The young man looked more than displeased with her presence, a sensation Tjen had not experienced many times.
"You hardly look hungry." A chubby child told her in a know-it-all voice.
"She's pretty." A young girl with blond hair remarked, "Hey Kerun!"
"What?"
"She asked you some money." Marigan said again while Aimon rolled his eyes. He just couldn't believe Marigan would want to give this beggar lady money. As far as he could see she wasn't that much different from the prostitutes his father sometimes invited into his rooms when his mother was away. She was prettier maybe, but not a girl to be taken serious. She was a gypsy too, folks that just couldn't be trusted.
"She hardly looks like she needs it Marigan." Kerun sighed.
"I can give you a reading for it in return." Tjen said, making the bow those rich noblemen seemed to like more than anything.
"A reading?" the girl asked with big eyes.
"She a gypsy." Aimon said, "She'll make up a prediction."
"Can you really tell the future?" Marigan asked.
Tjen looked into the eyes of the teenager and waited for the void to pass over her. It was always like that. Soon she felt it, an emptiness and then, some fleeting images that she could barely make sense of. Most of them faded, except one.
"I see this boy in your future." Tjen said, "And waving grass passing by as if you were looking down on it from a high place, racing."
"An antilope maybe?" Marigan asked, "Or a drak?"
"Who knows." Tjen shrugged, "Can I get paid now.
Grudgingly Kerun gave the gypsy a few coins. Tjen turned around and, with her pride somewhat hurt from not even being looked at by that Kerun fellow, she said, "If you come to the camp I can tell you more, and I'll be dancing too."
"I don't care for the fortunetelling, but I want to see the dancing Kerun." Aimon said.
"I want to see the dance too." Marigan insisted.
Kerun nodded briefly. Wherever they went, he'd have a dull time anyway, he might as well visit the camp. He hadn't seen one since he'd been an 8-year old brat and maybe, just maybe, he could use this for something as a future clerk. More than anything, he dreamed of writing the stories that entertained the nobles. If he could make a name like that he'd be settled for life.
Aimon walked out before them as they approached the Gypsy wagons. He had never been allowed to visit an actual camp. Besides, gypsies, even though not trustworthy, were said to all be beautiful. They were low in status too and if he acted right maybe he could get one to dance for him alone.
Tjen knew exactly how she could get this stuck up young man and the lecherous boy to admire her. The dance was complicated and needed more than one dancer, but if she got her sisters to help, the spectacle would be quite a sight.
Hurrying she grabbed the clothes they needed to change in and called for her sisters. The dance was wild and needed special cloths fastened to arms, legs and waist to adequately picture the rising storm at sunset. It was a traditional dance, but one not often performed to public.
So they started. Tjen and five of her closest relatives, turning and twirling around each other, running and jumping as if they were fighting with the wind. They performed on the music of a single drum played by her youngest brother. More music would have been better, but at this hour most musicians were either playing in the streets or preparing for the night to come.
Marigan looked in awe at the dancers, seeing for the first time the wild inhibited dancing that differed like night from day from the well-controlled, well-measured court dancing she'd seen when she'd snuck into the house of Master Sayren at one of his parties. She liked this one better. It almost seemed like the girls were flying, actually being lifted by the wind.
Kerun was watching the dancers, but he also kept a close eye on both Marigan and Aimon lest they'd decide to wander off. Trying to find two kids in a gypsy camp would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. He did not realise that it was his demeanour that had gotten Tjen so fired up.
As the dance continued the wind actually picked up, as if a storm was being summoned. A large shadow drew over the ground and then vanished, like a drak flying overhead. The shadow returned, bigger now. And getting ever bigger. The drak was landing!

Mikoraob landed in the tiny square space that was left over near Jagharta. His bright white-coloured skin and golden wings reflected the sunlight, causing him to seem almost luminous. He smirked a toothy grin and decided he looked ok next to all the festivities.
Folding his wings, he waited for his knight, Riku to descend. Mikoraob tried smiling to the people around him, causing only more of them to draw back. What was it with humans and teeth?
"Am I disturbing?" Riku asked, smiling despite the almost tangible feeling of tension.
The crowd mumbled a bit and shuffled their feet.
"I'll take that as a polite no." Riku grinned, "Me and Mikoraob are knights from Acicade Castle. We would like to do some judging for castles."
Mikoraob looked among the spectators and dancers. With twitching nostrils he sniffed up a few of the possible aspirants, looking into their eyes to attempt to look into their minds. He did whatever else it was he normally did, which also included some tricks and jokes to gain the favor of the audience.
His eyes finally lingered on a small group of four. One was obviously a gypsy lady, still wearing her dance costume. The other three were spectators.
"These four." he told Riku.
"Are you sure about the boy?" Riku whispered back to Mikoraob, "He looks rather young."
"He'll get quite big once puberty hits him." the drak replied, also whispering.
"How would you know?"
"Instinct?"
Riku cleared his throat and then called, "You four have been judged. I'll return here tomorrow for those of you who decide they'd like to become aspirants."

"We got judged!" Marigan exclaimed happily, "I guess it was a drak then in the premonition."
"Do you still believe that nonsense?" Aimon asked her, "She just made that up. Remember, she also said I would be in your future."
"Even predictions can be off at times." Marigan chided him.
"Hey Kerun, are you going to go to the castle?" Aimon asked.
"I don't know."
Kerun really didn't. The life as a Knight in the Castle was different from the life he'd been leading up till now. It would be dangerous, it would be a lot more physical too. What if his license came? Would he rather become a clerk than a knight? What if his license didn't come? Being a knight would mean he'd never have to worry about living.
"I'm going." Marigan said.
"You think Mom'll let you?" Kerun asked.
"She will if it is to a castle! What about you Aimon?"
"I can't go even if I wanted to." Aimon sighed, "I'm to become my father's successor."
"Would you want to?" Marigan insisted.
"Who wouldn't?"
"You could always sneak out."
"I couldn't."
"You just don't dare..."
"No, I just can't..."
"Sure you can, I know the way..."
Kerun sighed again and returned to his own thoughts. Would he? Could he? Should he?

Tjen was frozen. She had been judged. It had happened before that gypsies were found a good match with draks, but none in her family had ever gone to a castle. They stuck to the villages. She had never thought of becoming a knight, that just hadn't been one of her options.
"Are you going to leave us sister?" one of the younger ones asked.
"I don't know Irida. I don't know."
"We would miss you."
"I would miss you too. But you know, I could come visit and bring you some extra things too."
"Like ribbons for my hair? And clothes?"
"Maybe."
"I'd still miss you though."
Tjen smiled, "I'm happy to hear that I mean more to you than ribbons and clothes."
"Mommy!" Irida called when their mother appeared, "Tjen is going to become a knight!"
"What?"
"I've been judged, but I don't know what to do with it." Tjen shrugged, "I never thought of becoming a knight and it would be one less person to help make money."
"Do you want to?" her mother asked plainly.
"I want to say no, but in my heart I know it's yes."
"Then go. And visit. This is no different from marrying you off to another camp."
Her mother tried to act as if it meant little to her where her daughters ended up, but Tjen could see that her eyes had gotten a bit moist and that the edge of her mouth twitched a bit. Hugging her sister, Tjen decided to say goodbye to her family tonight.

Stats and Draks:
Marigan - Aimon - Kerun - Tjenzina

All images were made by me with images found on the web.