Minor Frustrations (open)

[Laeli]

Summer 80, 512 Laeli sat astride her mare, Jin, surveying the vast grasslands surrounding her. Somewhere out there, somewhere … there! The small flock of mostly ground dwelling birds shot up out of the chest high grass with a sound like cracking ice. Whirling in the bright blue sky, they careened off, to circle around, eventually, and return to their nesting ground. But the Drykas girl was no longer watching them. She had urged her Strider forward with a light squeeze of her knees, and sitting easily as the mare broke into a lope, she kept her eyes fixed on the spot where the birds had broken cover. It took but a few moments before she saw the lean shape of her Silkena hound, poised and still, pointing the way to the nests. He wasn’t a pointer by breeding, but her brothers had worked hard to train him for this, for her. Pulling up and sliding off the mare’s back, Laeli gave Jett a quick pat and word of praise, then stooped to push the grass aside. With a delighted little squeak, she spied not one or two, but four nests, all in a row, all close together. There was strength in number for the little birds. Dropping to her knees, Laeli quickly scoured the ground for what she had come hunting for, and she smiled as she began to pluck them up. There were seven in all. Five long, slender brown feathers, cross-hatched with black bars, fallen from the tails of the adults as they guarded the nests and then fed the young hatchlings. The half-grown birds stared at her with bright, dark eyes, and made anxious peeping sounds. Laeli grinned and when she had plucked the last tail feather from the dried grass of one of the nests, she said gently, “Don’t worry little ones. Your mothers will be right back, as soon as I’m gone.” Crawling backwards out of the little enclave, she straightened and rose. With the decorative feathers tucked safely in a leather pouch slung over her shoulder, she nimbly remounted her mare and they moved off, Jett at their heels. The girl was no more than a fifteen minute ride from the outskirts of the tent city. She probably still should not have gone out onto the grass by herself, but her brothers were all busy, and she could not find any of her friends to accompany her. Her supply of this type of feather was exhausted and she was making a wall hanging, a special order for a family that had recently built a new pavilion for a newly married son. She knew just how the feathers would look, tied into her knot work, and she was impatient to have it finished and delivered. Then her father could help her glyph good luck into the artwork and it would be ready to be hung in the new structure. There was one more item she needed though, to be able to complete the knotted artwork. Guiding Jin carefully through the increasingly congested spaces between pavilions, she finally reached the one she sought. The front of it was thrown open for trading, many crafted items set out on blankets for display. It belonged to another family of the Ruby Clan, friends of her own family, but she was not here for socializing. Dropping down off of Jin, she left the Strider standing, knowing she would not stray. Laeli perused the blankets and spotted what she needed. A woven basket contained beads of many colors, crafted of non-precious stones and glass and fired clay. She knelt to make her selection, carefully poking through the hundreds of beads to pick a matching set of two dozen, orange glass streaked with crimson. With the last one safely cupped in her palm, she rose and turned, with the intent of finding the merchant to pay for them. But as she turned, her foot caught in a small depression hidden under a clump of wiry grass. It was just enough to cause her to stumble, and as her hands shot out to balance, the beads flew out of her palm, and fell scattered all about in the grass and dirt. With a short expletive, and a withering look at the offending bit of grass, the girl sank to her knees once more and began to search anew for each of the bright, but tiny, glass spheres.

[Allan Saph]

Allan rode on his Strider, Sema, through the pavilion, when he spotted some lovely wall hangings, and dismounted his horse. He had been looking for something nice to hang on his wall when he saw a woman fall, clipping her feet on a bit of grass. He rushed over to her but she seemed alright, but the beads she was carrying were all over the ground.

He got down on his hands and knees, picking up beads. After a long time he had eventually picked them all up so he turned to the woman and handed her the beads.