When you First Get Love

Melain

Thamron and Magdeline were running fast. A little too fast, and as they both jumped over a log and out into a clearing, they realized the clearing was actually just an incredibly large pit in the ground. The two fell, plummeting into the bog below with sick, slapping echoey sounds followed by their groans, that took a little too long to surface for Gigi's liking.

"What did I tell you two about environmental awareness? You're supposed to try to pay attention to everything! Not having a competition!" she yelled down the slope which she had already been waiting on the top of before they'd even fallen.

Gigi didn't look her age, and no one really knew how old she was. She was also one of the only people around who looked as she did, with the space between her brows being oddly high pitched compared to most, brought to a small point; her lips, all the shades of the sky as the sun goes down on a warm day. And while you could guess pretty quickly she was old, she didn't let her age deter her from torturing her grandchildren into success.

She slapped her palm with a medium sized stick she'd been using to direct them around for what felt like hours.

"Kids! Seriously, you need to remember! The world keeps moving around you if you're not fast enough. Get up and correct this!"

Thamron and Magdaleine were still lying face down in the mud as she yelled at them from above. Movement was an arduous task. Gigi only got to take them out like this twice a year, and the kids couldn't tell whether it was not enough, or too much.

"Why does......she," Magdeline spat out some mud, "make us do this? We could probably tell Mom and she'd make it-".

Thamron interrupted her spitting out a gratuitous amount of mud himself, loudly and seemingly in her direction. Magdeline saw a speck of white in it, wondering whether it was a piece of tooth.

"Stop, Madga. Just trust her. She knows more than anyone, anywhere." and he pulled himself up on all fours, panting, steadily allowing dirty spit to stream out of his mouth until he appeared satisfied with the amount, and wiped his face with the back of his arm, not really doing him any good.

Magda still lay there, staring at her brother in slight disbelief and awe simultaneously. She didn't get it. What did he know that she didn't? Why was everyone always keeping secrets from her?

Thamron had already gotten up, and was making his way back up the ravine and back into the forest before Madga gathered what strength of will she had left to clamber onto her own hands and knees.

Stupid Gigi. Stupid Tham. Stupid me for always following.

Thamron and Gigi were talking and had already started to go off into the distance , leaving young Magdaline behind.

"Wait, no guys, wait up!!" tears streamed from her eyes as she slunk out of the mud, slipping, and being gripped into the depths by the muddy earth below which seemed to want to kill her in it's loving embrace. Tears continued to fall as she threw herself forward over and over again to get out of this pit and to catch up.

Gigi's "walk" was not a peaceful thing. Never had been. If she weren't so gentle and loving at home in front of her parents and caretakers, she would have hated her, but Magda could tell she really did love them. She had mentioned several times over the past few years how she was doing all this to them because she truly loved them. She just "couldn't let them live blindly." She would repeatedly say that she was just ensuring they had the best chance possible to make it in this world.

Magda knew a little bit about the world, and she really didn't understand why Gigi thought it would involve high-stakes battling.

The world wasn't great, sure, but it just always seemed to Magda there were just too many people for it to be peaceful. Too many pieces to the puzzle. That, overall, it wasn't all that bad, and actually at times could be rather enjoyable.

An out-of-breath Magda climbed over the pit's edge to see they'd gotten quite far ahead. They appeared to be having a discussion where only a few words and distinguishable sounds made their way to Magda's ears.

"Time to.."

"But Gigi, w..."

"b...nothing Thamron, y....."

"..but she d...... u....stand!!"

The trees rustle with the incoming evening's breeze, likely carrying a storm. Magda walked far enough behind them to have the opportunity to sulk.

Why won't they talk to me!? I'm right back here, and they know it, so why can't they just turn around and be honest for once?!

Though, she knew this wasn't how she always felt about it. Her parents were worse. Not only were they not honest with her, they weren't really honest with anyone. Her mother looked similar to Gigi, but not enough to look different from everyone else in their village. If Magda hadn't seen the same irredecent glimmer in her mother's eye that she saw in Gigi's when she was excited about something she cared about, she would never have known. If she weren't so.....coldly precise about everything she did, she probably wouldn't have been called stern and garish by the surrounding townsmen. She wished she had the chance to love her too, she thought to herself, throwing her own pity party as much as she could while everyone seemed to be moving on without her.

Magda was 8. Thamron was 10. Gigi was a little scared.

The world, these children's parents, and society as everyone knows it would never let these children live peacefully if they had the chance. Her presence, and her warriors, were the main things keeping the children safe at home, in the arms of parents that were too wound up in their own misgivings to do well by them. Gigi ensured on this excursion that both the children could hunt for themselves.

Thamron had caught a boar with an odd, jagged cylindrical tube he'd found in the forest. He would have kept it, had it not broken upon him trying to pull it back out. Magda attempted to forage before Gigi got on to her for not trying hard enough, and Magda found vines, tied them together to make a rope, and then a small snare over a pit before Gigi could be satisfied with her lack of trying.

Gigi made a fire and they all roasted the boar in pieces after Gigi had shown them how to strip and clean it. Thamron was stuck on the idea of bringing some home for his parents, against Gigi's recommendation, but he won due to it being his first real dangerous kill. The sky decided to weep heavily on them on their way home, clearing the mud from their clothes and hair.

Hammers clanged against anvils, men cursed and cards slammed, as rain trickled sweetly as they made their way through the village back to the stronghold. Some stared, some truly couldn't have cared less as they passed by. A couple of older, decrepit women spat at them all, particularly Gigi before they made it to the gated walls to their parent's fortress.

The Fortress of Melain.