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Prose / Fantasy
Species Vulpine (Other)
Gender Male
Size 185 x 158
File Size 8.8 kB
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Blunt Objects
© 2014 by Walter Reimer
Art by
tegerio
Part 9.
“Enough nonsense, Verity,” Josef harrumphed. “You and Viktor used to tell a lot of tall tales. Remember when they told everyone they saw an actual Lowfolk, Kate?” His wife chuckled, and Verity’s ears blushed red. “Now, where’s Cedric and Eleanor, Verity? Louisa said they were waiting on you.”
“We were,” and heads turned as the Weatherwrights stepped onto the porch. Cedric and his wife came into the parlor, followed by their oldest son, Aelfric, and their youngest, Bertram. Aelfric stepped aside, and Ayyub was on his feet in an instant.
Isabeau’s hair had been done in a cascade of ringlets that fell to her shoulders, and her cream dress and contrasting light tan vest reminded him achingly of what she had worn when they first met. She looked at him, then looked down demurely. “Hello, Ayyub.”
He walked up to her and gently took her chin between his thumb and forefinger and lifted her face so that their eyes met. “Hello, Isabeau,” he said softly. He drew a bit closer, and their lips met as her eyes closed partway.
Somehow, the voices around them suddenly seemed miles away.
Even the gagging noises being made by Jake, Bertram, and (surprisingly) Louisa.
He wasn’t sure, but he thought time had paused as well.
When they broke the kiss and drew back slightly, he saw her smiling at him.
They turned as Aunt Verity snickered, “Do you two want some privacy?”
The older fennecs laughed as Isabeau blushed and stepped back, her paws on her hips. “Aunt Verity! That’s not very nice.”
“Nice? No,” Verity replied. “Appropriate?” Her expression grew sly. “Maybe,” prompting another round of laughter and more blushes, this time from both of the younger Elves. As soon as she recovered from her embarrassment, Isabeau huffed at her aunt, her brush flicking.
Ayyub deflected her anger by laying a paw on her shoulder. “Isabeau?”
“Hm? Yes, Ayyub?”
He kissed her on the tip of her nose. She yelped and drew back as everyone laughed, and he took advantage of the distraction. “Would you like a cup of tea?”
She gave him an arch look before smiling. “I’d be happy to have a cup of tea.”
“Good!”
Their parents chuckled and Katerina said, “While you lot enjoy your tea – Ayyub? Could you pour a round for everyone else, please? – I’ll get dinner ready.” She clapped her paws, and her daughters dutifully stood up to assist her. “Verity?”
“Kate?”
“Care to help me?”
The fennec vixen dipped her ears in thought, then nodded and stood up. “Of course.” The quintet walked out of the room as Ayyub started to make the rounds with the teapot.
From the direction of the kitchen they suddenly heard Katerina say, “Honestly, Verity, is that how you acted when you were being courted?"
There was a distinct “Hmmph. In my day, Katerina, there were Elves of action, not words. I remember when Viktor first put his paw up - "
There was a girlish squeal and Katerina interrupted. “Verity! You will not corrupt my daughters! Lisa! Pay attention to that batter, or you’ll get a spoon across your knuckles.”
“Hah! Your daughters don’t need any help, I’m thinking. Right, Linda?” Verity’s tone became insinuating.
There was an embarrassed silence, mirrored by the one in the parlor, and Ayyub ventured, “I imagine you were telling the whole truth about your aunt, Isabeau.”
The vixen gave him a slightly cross look, belied by her smile. “Wait until you get a chance to know her. She’s appointed herself as our chaperone while you’re here.”
His ears flicked. “Chaperone?”
“It’s an old custom here,” Cedric said, putting an arm around his wife’s shoulders.
“I take it someone chaperoned her and Viktor,” Hannah remarked drily.
Eleanor chuckled and Cedric said, “Someone did. Our Aunt Ulrika – well, she tried, give her credit for that. Verity always was a bit wilful.” He gave a glance over his muzzle at his only daughter. “I think I know someone who inherited that, by the way.”
Isabeau blushed very prettily, Ayyub thought as he put an arm around her waist. She unconsciously snuggled in beside him.
Jake suddenly asked, “Father, can Bertram and I go play pakta?”
“Too much mushy stuff?” Farukh asked with a twinkle in his eye.
The kit stuck his tongue out. “Yuck.”
“Run off and play, then,” his father laughed, “but keep an ear out. We’ll be having dinner soon.” The two fennecs cheered and ran out while the others chatted about business.
“We passed the Viceroy’s Palace on the way up here,” Hannah remarked.
“A very nice place,” Eleanor agreed. “He invites the whole district in every year for Winter Festival.”
“It must be beautiful inside.”
“Oh, it is. If some of the carpets were any thicker, the kits would sink out of sight. Prince Guillaume – well, he may keep to himself a lot because of his age, but we like him a lot more than the Governor.” When she saw Farukh and Ayyub’s questioning looks she added, “Back when King Thorwald first appointed a Governor down here – well, we didn’t take it well.”
“We were a republic at the time, run by prominent people,” Cedric took up the tale. “My grandfather was on the Council, and they sent a message to Albric Tor: Send your Governor, but make sure he has a spare head first.”
Ayyub almost choked on his tea. “I’ll bet that stirred things up.”
“Like a feral fox in a chicken coop, I daresay. They’d never have tried it if Old Irenaeus had been King, and they dashed well knew it,” the older fennec said. “But Thorwald was cagier than that. He sent Guillaume first, and when we realized he wasn’t going to lord it over us, feelings got a bit softer. Governor Longtooth’s a good sort,” and Cedric took a sip of his tea, and the conversation turned toward the treaty between Faerie and the city-states south of the border.
“It’s a good arrangement,” Farukh said. “We have a good trading relationship with the southern lands.”
“Before we came up here,” Ayyub said quietly, “I was in Tel Agraf.” Heads turned as he added, “I was invited to dinner by Shaykh Raddlen Rohl, that state’s ruler.”
“What did you two talk about?” Cedric asked.
“About the battle, of course – he and two other shaykhs managed to talk the fourth out of declaring war, and he described the peace as,” and he paused to think, “as ‘two small children, trying not to talk about their quarrel,’ or something like that.”
“You were down in the Four Sisters, and you didn’t get me anything?” Isabeau asked suddenly.
Ayyub gave her an amused look. “What makes you think I didn’t? The Shaykh tried to convince me that having more than one wife was a good idea,” and he chuckled. He stood up and held out a paw. “Would you like to take a short walk with me before dinner?”
Josef roused himself from his doze and sniffed. “Should be ready soon enough.” Judging from the smells coming from the direction of the kitchen, everyone agreed with his assessment.
Isabeau took his paw and stood up, and the two stepped out on the porch. Jake and Bertram had apparently abandoned their pakta game in favor of climbing one of the nearby maple trees. The late afternoon sun was casting long shadows as Isabeau said softly, “I love you.”
He raised her paw to his muzzle and kissed it. “I love you, too.” He smiled at her. “But your last letter hinted that something had come up. Can you tell me what it was?”
“Didn’t Aunt Katerina tell you?”
“No, they said that it was up to you to tell me.”
“Oh.” She sighed, looking troubled. “Ayyub, it’s like this – “
A harsh clanging interrupted her, and they turned to see Josef heading back into the house. Bertram yelled, “Dinnertime!” and he and Jake started running.
Ayyub sighed, slightly exasperated. “Glorious Fuma,” he prayed silently, “please entreat Your Holy Consort Tilki to kindly stop trying to drive me insane. Please?” His shoulders slumped and he followed his betrothed into the house.
Dinner was a simple but filling dish of chopped chicken and vegetables in a thickened sauce, served with fresh, hot biscuits. It tasted very good, but Ayyub’s mind wasn’t on it, and not on the wine being served to accompany it.
Isabeau had slipped off one of her shoes, and she was stroking his ankles as she sat across the table. Her smile was just as attractive, and he decided that he’d no longer try to talk about the letter. Let Isabeau broach the subject, whenever the Lady moved her to talk about it.
Hannah and Eleanor insisted on helping Katerina and Verity in clearing the table, while the others adjourned to the parlor. Jake, Bertram and Louisa watched as the other four daughters gossiped and chatted. Josef took a zither from its case and started tuning it as Farukh and Cedric chatted and Ayyub and Isabeau sat together and listened.
Josef was playing a sprightly hunting tune when small cakes and tea were brought out for dessert. Ayyub sipped at his tea as Josef asked, “They still drink a lot of tea in the Army, Ayyub?”
“Yes, sir. The FAFI brews it up by the tun.” He took another sip. “It tastes nothing like this, I’ll tell you.”
The older man laughed as his paws glided over the zither’s strings. “You’ll have to talk to Isabeau’s Uncle Hubert about that. He’s a tea farmer. Come on then, lad, give us a song.”
Several pairs of ears perked. “A song, sir?”
“Yes, a song. Nothing wrong with your ears, boy. I’m sure you learned a lot of songs in the Army.”
“Well, sir, none that I could repeat around the ladies . . . “
Verity snorted. “How about The Elf-lass on Her Back?” she asked teasingly, ignoring the sudden horrified looks on her sister’s and sister-in-law’s faces.
Ayyub gulped. “No, ma’am, I – wait a minute. Mr. Broadlea?”
“Call me Josef, son.”
“Josef, do you know Will She Not Come Back Again?”
The older tod grinned widely. “’Course I do,” and his fingertips began to pluck at the zither’s strings while Ayyub stood up and moved to stand beside him.
The tune was the local regiment’s favorite marching tune, and after Josef plucked out the chorus, Ayyub began to sing in a baritone voice:
“My true love has gone away
While I was a-soldiering;
My manly heart would break in two,
Should she not come back again.
Will she not come back again?
Will she not come back again?
My true love has gone away,
Will she not come back again?”
His eyes were on Isabeau as he sang, and as he started the second verse tears began to gleam in her eyes.
“Elvish ants are fleet of foot
Swift they be, yet still too slow;
The wind itself can’t blow too fast
That bears me back to my true love.
Will she not come back again?
Will she not come back again?
My true love has gone away,
Will she not come back again?”
The younger children in the room simply looked disgusted, while Verity had a fond smile on her face as she recalled her late husband.
"Sweet the nightbird’s song and long,
Echoing lightly o’er the fen;
To my heart he sings this song,
‘Yes, she will come back again.’”
He wasn’t able to complete the final chorus, because Isabeau had practically leaped into his arms and kissed him as their parents applauded.
© 2014 by Walter Reimer
Art by
tegerioPart 9.
“Enough nonsense, Verity,” Josef harrumphed. “You and Viktor used to tell a lot of tall tales. Remember when they told everyone they saw an actual Lowfolk, Kate?” His wife chuckled, and Verity’s ears blushed red. “Now, where’s Cedric and Eleanor, Verity? Louisa said they were waiting on you.”
“We were,” and heads turned as the Weatherwrights stepped onto the porch. Cedric and his wife came into the parlor, followed by their oldest son, Aelfric, and their youngest, Bertram. Aelfric stepped aside, and Ayyub was on his feet in an instant.
Isabeau’s hair had been done in a cascade of ringlets that fell to her shoulders, and her cream dress and contrasting light tan vest reminded him achingly of what she had worn when they first met. She looked at him, then looked down demurely. “Hello, Ayyub.”
He walked up to her and gently took her chin between his thumb and forefinger and lifted her face so that their eyes met. “Hello, Isabeau,” he said softly. He drew a bit closer, and their lips met as her eyes closed partway.
Somehow, the voices around them suddenly seemed miles away.
Even the gagging noises being made by Jake, Bertram, and (surprisingly) Louisa.
He wasn’t sure, but he thought time had paused as well.
When they broke the kiss and drew back slightly, he saw her smiling at him.
They turned as Aunt Verity snickered, “Do you two want some privacy?”
The older fennecs laughed as Isabeau blushed and stepped back, her paws on her hips. “Aunt Verity! That’s not very nice.”
“Nice? No,” Verity replied. “Appropriate?” Her expression grew sly. “Maybe,” prompting another round of laughter and more blushes, this time from both of the younger Elves. As soon as she recovered from her embarrassment, Isabeau huffed at her aunt, her brush flicking.
Ayyub deflected her anger by laying a paw on her shoulder. “Isabeau?”
“Hm? Yes, Ayyub?”
He kissed her on the tip of her nose. She yelped and drew back as everyone laughed, and he took advantage of the distraction. “Would you like a cup of tea?”
She gave him an arch look before smiling. “I’d be happy to have a cup of tea.”
“Good!”
Their parents chuckled and Katerina said, “While you lot enjoy your tea – Ayyub? Could you pour a round for everyone else, please? – I’ll get dinner ready.” She clapped her paws, and her daughters dutifully stood up to assist her. “Verity?”
“Kate?”
“Care to help me?”
The fennec vixen dipped her ears in thought, then nodded and stood up. “Of course.” The quintet walked out of the room as Ayyub started to make the rounds with the teapot.
From the direction of the kitchen they suddenly heard Katerina say, “Honestly, Verity, is that how you acted when you were being courted?"
There was a distinct “Hmmph. In my day, Katerina, there were Elves of action, not words. I remember when Viktor first put his paw up - "
There was a girlish squeal and Katerina interrupted. “Verity! You will not corrupt my daughters! Lisa! Pay attention to that batter, or you’ll get a spoon across your knuckles.”
“Hah! Your daughters don’t need any help, I’m thinking. Right, Linda?” Verity’s tone became insinuating.
There was an embarrassed silence, mirrored by the one in the parlor, and Ayyub ventured, “I imagine you were telling the whole truth about your aunt, Isabeau.”
The vixen gave him a slightly cross look, belied by her smile. “Wait until you get a chance to know her. She’s appointed herself as our chaperone while you’re here.”
His ears flicked. “Chaperone?”
“It’s an old custom here,” Cedric said, putting an arm around his wife’s shoulders.
“I take it someone chaperoned her and Viktor,” Hannah remarked drily.
Eleanor chuckled and Cedric said, “Someone did. Our Aunt Ulrika – well, she tried, give her credit for that. Verity always was a bit wilful.” He gave a glance over his muzzle at his only daughter. “I think I know someone who inherited that, by the way.”
Isabeau blushed very prettily, Ayyub thought as he put an arm around her waist. She unconsciously snuggled in beside him.
Jake suddenly asked, “Father, can Bertram and I go play pakta?”
“Too much mushy stuff?” Farukh asked with a twinkle in his eye.
The kit stuck his tongue out. “Yuck.”
“Run off and play, then,” his father laughed, “but keep an ear out. We’ll be having dinner soon.” The two fennecs cheered and ran out while the others chatted about business.
“We passed the Viceroy’s Palace on the way up here,” Hannah remarked.
“A very nice place,” Eleanor agreed. “He invites the whole district in every year for Winter Festival.”
“It must be beautiful inside.”
“Oh, it is. If some of the carpets were any thicker, the kits would sink out of sight. Prince Guillaume – well, he may keep to himself a lot because of his age, but we like him a lot more than the Governor.” When she saw Farukh and Ayyub’s questioning looks she added, “Back when King Thorwald first appointed a Governor down here – well, we didn’t take it well.”
“We were a republic at the time, run by prominent people,” Cedric took up the tale. “My grandfather was on the Council, and they sent a message to Albric Tor: Send your Governor, but make sure he has a spare head first.”
Ayyub almost choked on his tea. “I’ll bet that stirred things up.”
“Like a feral fox in a chicken coop, I daresay. They’d never have tried it if Old Irenaeus had been King, and they dashed well knew it,” the older fennec said. “But Thorwald was cagier than that. He sent Guillaume first, and when we realized he wasn’t going to lord it over us, feelings got a bit softer. Governor Longtooth’s a good sort,” and Cedric took a sip of his tea, and the conversation turned toward the treaty between Faerie and the city-states south of the border.
“It’s a good arrangement,” Farukh said. “We have a good trading relationship with the southern lands.”
“Before we came up here,” Ayyub said quietly, “I was in Tel Agraf.” Heads turned as he added, “I was invited to dinner by Shaykh Raddlen Rohl, that state’s ruler.”
“What did you two talk about?” Cedric asked.
“About the battle, of course – he and two other shaykhs managed to talk the fourth out of declaring war, and he described the peace as,” and he paused to think, “as ‘two small children, trying not to talk about their quarrel,’ or something like that.”
“You were down in the Four Sisters, and you didn’t get me anything?” Isabeau asked suddenly.
Ayyub gave her an amused look. “What makes you think I didn’t? The Shaykh tried to convince me that having more than one wife was a good idea,” and he chuckled. He stood up and held out a paw. “Would you like to take a short walk with me before dinner?”
Josef roused himself from his doze and sniffed. “Should be ready soon enough.” Judging from the smells coming from the direction of the kitchen, everyone agreed with his assessment.
Isabeau took his paw and stood up, and the two stepped out on the porch. Jake and Bertram had apparently abandoned their pakta game in favor of climbing one of the nearby maple trees. The late afternoon sun was casting long shadows as Isabeau said softly, “I love you.”
He raised her paw to his muzzle and kissed it. “I love you, too.” He smiled at her. “But your last letter hinted that something had come up. Can you tell me what it was?”
“Didn’t Aunt Katerina tell you?”
“No, they said that it was up to you to tell me.”
“Oh.” She sighed, looking troubled. “Ayyub, it’s like this – “
A harsh clanging interrupted her, and they turned to see Josef heading back into the house. Bertram yelled, “Dinnertime!” and he and Jake started running.
Ayyub sighed, slightly exasperated. “Glorious Fuma,” he prayed silently, “please entreat Your Holy Consort Tilki to kindly stop trying to drive me insane. Please?” His shoulders slumped and he followed his betrothed into the house.
Dinner was a simple but filling dish of chopped chicken and vegetables in a thickened sauce, served with fresh, hot biscuits. It tasted very good, but Ayyub’s mind wasn’t on it, and not on the wine being served to accompany it.
Isabeau had slipped off one of her shoes, and she was stroking his ankles as she sat across the table. Her smile was just as attractive, and he decided that he’d no longer try to talk about the letter. Let Isabeau broach the subject, whenever the Lady moved her to talk about it.
Hannah and Eleanor insisted on helping Katerina and Verity in clearing the table, while the others adjourned to the parlor. Jake, Bertram and Louisa watched as the other four daughters gossiped and chatted. Josef took a zither from its case and started tuning it as Farukh and Cedric chatted and Ayyub and Isabeau sat together and listened.
Josef was playing a sprightly hunting tune when small cakes and tea were brought out for dessert. Ayyub sipped at his tea as Josef asked, “They still drink a lot of tea in the Army, Ayyub?”
“Yes, sir. The FAFI brews it up by the tun.” He took another sip. “It tastes nothing like this, I’ll tell you.”
The older man laughed as his paws glided over the zither’s strings. “You’ll have to talk to Isabeau’s Uncle Hubert about that. He’s a tea farmer. Come on then, lad, give us a song.”
Several pairs of ears perked. “A song, sir?”
“Yes, a song. Nothing wrong with your ears, boy. I’m sure you learned a lot of songs in the Army.”
“Well, sir, none that I could repeat around the ladies . . . “
Verity snorted. “How about The Elf-lass on Her Back?” she asked teasingly, ignoring the sudden horrified looks on her sister’s and sister-in-law’s faces.
Ayyub gulped. “No, ma’am, I – wait a minute. Mr. Broadlea?”
“Call me Josef, son.”
“Josef, do you know Will She Not Come Back Again?”
The older tod grinned widely. “’Course I do,” and his fingertips began to pluck at the zither’s strings while Ayyub stood up and moved to stand beside him.
The tune was the local regiment’s favorite marching tune, and after Josef plucked out the chorus, Ayyub began to sing in a baritone voice:
“My true love has gone away
While I was a-soldiering;
My manly heart would break in two,
Should she not come back again.
Will she not come back again?
Will she not come back again?
My true love has gone away,
Will she not come back again?”
His eyes were on Isabeau as he sang, and as he started the second verse tears began to gleam in her eyes.
“Elvish ants are fleet of foot
Swift they be, yet still too slow;
The wind itself can’t blow too fast
That bears me back to my true love.
Will she not come back again?
Will she not come back again?
My true love has gone away,
Will she not come back again?”
The younger children in the room simply looked disgusted, while Verity had a fond smile on her face as she recalled her late husband.
"Sweet the nightbird’s song and long,
Echoing lightly o’er the fen;
To my heart he sings this song,
‘Yes, she will come back again.’”
He wasn’t able to complete the final chorus, because Isabeau had practically leaped into his arms and kissed him as their parents applauded.
Category Prose / Fantasy
Species Vulpine (Other)
Gender Male
Size 185 x 158px
File Size 8.8 kB
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