Intimate Lovers Cry

When inside, the cottage was smaller than he expected. "Even when there was tons of opportunity they must not have been doing very well." He thought. There was a small table with four chairs two of which were mismatched. In the corner was a small wood burning oven and a sink that was rigged to pump water from the swamp when it was still full.

"How was your bath, boy." He caught Frides walking into the cabin.

"I told you just this morning that we don't use the bath anymore. You'll throw out your back going into town to get a barrel of water every other day." Louseres scolded Russoman for not remembering, out of a deeply well placed closeness.

"Oh yeah? Well you look much cleaner." He looked Frides up and down and could get a good look at him now.

"You are too kind to take in a stranger and cloth me. I apologize we haven't properly introduced ourselves. My Name is Russo... Frides." He extended his hand.

"Right, I'm Russoman and this is Louser..." Before he could finish the name, he was struck in the head by a wooden spoon.

"You think you're funny, huh? Don't call me by that name!"

"I almost forgot." He grinned sheepishly rubbing his stinging scalp. "This is Louse and you can go ahead and call me Russo. Louse was born and raised here but I left Oania long before it was decimated. Where are you from?"

"I'm sorry. I'm from Opryke and..." Frides stuttered.

Frides was cut off by Russo. "Don't lie to me boy. If you can't say, then just say so. Don't insult our hospitality with lies it will only make us look bad in the light of the twelve and open you to retribution."

Frides stiffened, "I apologize. I'd prefer not to tell you."

Louse turned around knocking the spoon out of the pot. "We're going to take you in and feed you and you can't trust us enough to tell us where you're from. Kick him out of here Russo."

"Calm down Louse!" Russo commanded. Frides sat still not sure what to do next. Maybe it would be best for him to leave. "I just told him to be honest. Did he lie or try to cover that he was lyin'? No." Russo pinched his nose between his eyes."I'm sorry please have a seat."

Frides reached down and picked up the wooden spoon then walked over and handed it to Louse. "I am grateful for your hospitality."

"Alright, have it your way. Dinners almost ready anyway, wouldn't want it to go to waste." Louse took the spoon and went back to nursing her stew.

They eat and Russo and Louse talk about what had been going on here.

"A handful of years back, our Lord closed up the river that filled the swamp down here. Not completely but with each year that passed, we lost a few more inches of water. Some of the people that live in the swamp got fed up and decided to revolt. The Peace Corps didn't even show up because it was so short. They didn't have much fighting experience with glow. Most only knew how to make farming tools and a few knew how to make an axe or a small knife. It was about two hundred of them." Russo explained.

"Our eldest went with them but our youngest worked in the fields above the castle. Thank god for that or he might went with him" Louse dropped her head and Russo put a hand on her shoulder.

"What happened?" Frides had to ask. It would almost be rude not to.

"Those boys died that day. No one dares to speak up anymore, now." Russo got up and walked across the room and reached up on top of the cabinet and pulled out three cups and a flagon. He walked over to the table and uncorked it pouring himself and Louse a mug.

When he got to Frides he had intended to decline but he was beginning to realize they kept the old way of the twelve and it'd be best to mind his manners. Frides picked up his cup, "To the health of my host."

"To the health of my guest." Russo said with Louse. There was more to the toast and was usually done before eating but this was an informal occasion but in this sort of company it was a gesture of respect, well received by Russo and Louse alike.

"I saw the look in your eyes when that hill spat you out." Russo had downed his cup in an instant. Frides grabbed the flagon and filled his cup again. It was common tradition that the guests should refill any cups. It was an act of service in gratitude.

"I thought I was going to die." He admitted. "I'd never been more scared and filled with regret than that since... for a while." It was true he didn't have to tell these people who he was or what his purpose was but he could at least be honest in the ways that he could.

"When you get to live as long as I have, we have, there are wonderful things you get to see. The tree's grow in joy, right along with the boys that look up to you for advice, grow into men with children of their own. We were blessed with two strong healthy boys. And sadly you see things that you shouldn't. I've lived to see my home dying right before my eyes. I've lived to see the light leave my own sons eyes and knelt down next to his joyless body. With these old hands, I had to bury him. My back still aches from the work of digging. His brother wasn't able to come down and grieve a traitor the Lord said. The Lord Addidel didn't allow anyone to leave the patty farms. My only regret is I didn't go with him. I'd give my life a million times if I could have saved him." Russo's eyes watered and his lips quivered as he said the words. He put his hands over his face.

"Russo." Louse grabbed him and pulled him into her embrace.

"We weren't there when he needed us Louse. We weren't there. Our boy." He sobbed into her chest.

"I know. I know." She held him still tighter as her own face reddened and tears fell from her face. "You drank too much, you damn fool." Frides got up and walked outside.

It didn't seem right to watch such an intimate moment between lovers, parents. Russo didn't seem like the most stoic man he had ever met, but he never imagined seeing him in there just fully break down after a few drinks. Even Louse, a woman that guarded her smiles so fiercely couldn't help it.

"Luca used to cry a lot." Frides younger brother always cried when things were hard or when he was scared. Especially at night, he thought someone was going to kill him in his sleep or poison his food. He trusted Frides the most but he always was weary of him all the same. Frides was always better at everything. Whenever he would hide from his teacher, Frides would come and find him. The moment when Frides would find him Luca's face would grew pale with fear. He didn't know why for a long time. When he did it was too late. A tear welled in his eye as he looked out into the woods thinking of his craven brother. He reached up and caught a tear off of his eye lid and looked down at it. "No."

"No?" Frides turned around as Louse slid the door closed behind her. He hadn't been himself for a while. He would lose the world around him for moments at a time. His teachers would always praise him for his perception and recollection. Still, since he left Siohiri, and the moment he had heard his brother was missing he had been missing time. He would get lost in his mind with just the smallest pebble of a memory and he would find himself recalling every moment with deft accuracy. The smells the sounds and the tones of the voices. Where his eyes were drawn and the reason why. More importantly he would search for what he missed and at worst he would want to stay there. To stay in the moments before he knew when he didn't have doubts.

"No what?" Louse repeated.

"Nothing." Frides wiped the tear off on his pants and crossed his arms over his chest. It was actually pretty cold out tonight. He drew his arms closer to his chest and rubbed his hands over his arms to warm up.

Louse put a hand on Frides back. "Come in son." Her touch was surprisingly gentle as she rubbed between his shoulder blades. It reminded him of his mothers touch. Calming and disarming, always there when he was unsure. She could smell his fears and would always come and find him. She would always come up with an excuse to get him closer to her or find a way to get in his orbit, only to slide a hand onto him. She knew he would never come to her or complain. When she did find him, it made everything better. She would say that he was more like his father than either of them knew but he never knew what that meant.

He simply knew that it helped him in ways he didn't understand and when he looked over to Louse, she smiled. Her lips dried and creased together the ends reaching right below her hardened cheek bones was the softest sliver of a smile. "I put the fire on and Russo is sleep. I rolled out our sons old mattress. It's old and smells a bit strong but you'll find it more comfortable than the dirt and safer than the roads this time of night."

Louse grabbed him by the elbow and lead him into the house. "Thank you, again."

"Russo would be embarrassed if the last time you saw him, he was weeping harder than a willow."

"No, thank you." He insisted.

"Well don't thank me too soon." Frides glimpsed Louse' smile widen, "Russo snores like the Great Boar in the sky."

In the distance Russo shook the walls in the bedroom with his snoring. Frides didn't envy Louse. He had been awoken just moments after getting to sleep he imagined. His body felt heavy and his head swam with the nightmare he was having.

Suddenly he was in the woods again when suddenly he was holding a purple hued Glow sword. The same one as before, it was always the same. No matter how he tried to throw the weapon it reappeared in his hands again. None the less he threw it away time and time again and there it was again. He heard a noise in the brush. Frantically he threw away one sword after another lighting up the woods around him. Lighting up the figure coming at him with a purple dagger.

"No. Wait." He stammered back dropping his hands and the sword in his hands only for another to appear. He looked down at it and when he looked up again the dark shape launched from it's previous place and his hands clasped the hilt defying his own will, forcing the sword up. "No!"

He awoke with a violent shutter. The snoring waking him from the worst part. Whether it happened or not wasn't important. It was enough and now his mind swam with the nightmarish images and the constant sobs of Russo after too much wine. "Regret."

He needed to get home. There were things he needed to get back to as soon as possible. What was he doing curled up on a rotten mat in the dining room of some cabin in a swamp. He had to get out of there and find Nero.

He got up and searched his pack for a pencil and paper but they were still soaked so he settled for some coins he had in his bag for the trouble. He bundled up his leather clothes that were still too damp to wear. He lightly moved around, even though he could have knocked over a dresser but nothing would have woken them.

When he circled around to the road that they encountered the Addidel Guard, he saw multiple dead soldiers and the remnants of tracks leading up the road to where he was sure to find Nero.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Thanks for reading!