Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

"I told you," she said to Reese, her cousin as he thanked her. "I don't mind. I really don't. I like to be 'elpful an' besides, you pair livin' on here means I don't see you much." Reese seemed surprised as Vega complimented him, or even seemed to suggest that she might miss his brother and him. "An' since that's only a good thing," she carried on and Reese rolled his eyes, "I can 'elp sort it.It is my pleasure. So, what's the issue?"

Reese pointed to the mast and Vega nodded. "Yeah, a'right. So, this ceremony's in two trials. There's no way that's gonna hold the ropes enough to make a bridge." Reese nodded. "How're you feelin' about married life, then?" Vega asked and he shrugged, a little noncommittally.

"He's worried!" Shon said, sauntering out from below decks. "He is concerned that they will share stories of our wedding nights and he will be left with a dissatisfied bride when she hears of my prowess and skill" Vega and Reese both turned to look and simultaneously yawned fake yawns. The three of them stood on the deck and looked up. "Alright, so I'll go up there, fix the mast. You be on the 'alf-mast, Reese, an' Shon, you be on the bottom. We'll use a bucket to put stuff down an' bring it up, you both got it?"

The two of them looked at her and then Reese spoke up. "Eva, are you sure that you should be the one to.." He didn't get to finish as Vega punched him. Hard. "I'm stronger than you. I'm more flexible than you an' I also am a better climber. Plus, now that you've said that, I've gotta, cos it's like a total pride thing." Reese was still rubbing his shoulder and Vega grinned. "Arlo tells me boys don't like it when girls tell 'em that they're stronger. I say, boys don't like it when it's true. So shurrup yer gasbaggin' an' I'm gonna climb up. I'll take the rope, you get the other stuff."

Reese and Shon were twins, but they did not really look alike. Except in their expressions, sometimes. In this moment, they wore the same expression of frustration which really one can only feel to a family member who you have grown up with. They loved her, there was no doubting it, but she knew their weak spots and not just on their shoulders, or in where to pinch. She was right, of course, neither of them liked that she had grown stronger than them, more agile and, though neither would admit it, a better fighter too. Once she was out of earshot, Reese glanced at Shon. "That human man has been no good for her, you know. She has become more difficult than she used to be." Shon, for his part, nodded his head. Then, he looked at his twin and grinned. "I pity him, the poor guy". Reese chuckled and nodded. "Me too."

"Quit lollygaggin' you pair an' get on!" Vega yelled as she climbed.

The good thing about climbing the mast in the screaming winds and rampaging snow, Vega thought to herself as she did that, was that it had hand holds and foot holds build into it just for that reason. The bad thing was that they were rubbish, pure rubbish and she didn't entirely trust them. So, the going was slower than she would have liked, as she tested each one before she used it. When she heard Reese shouting up what was taking her so long, she yelled back down at him what she believed was an entirely reasonable response. "Boil yer head you plank of useless!!" It seemed only fair and the most positive she could muster. It was hard on her arms and legs, but one of the things that Vega had learnt from climbing trees and other, far less evenly shaped things, was that she climbed best when she used both her arms and her legs equally. Her legs kept her where she was, her arms took her up. Then, they swapped places.

Slowly, carefully and not taking any risks, Vega climbed the mast. When she reached the top, she wrapped her legs around the vertical pole and sat on the horizontal bar, then tied herself in place. Then, using the long length of rope, she lowered it and draped it over the bar, watching while Shon tied a bucket to the end of it. Then, holding on tightly, she pulled up the bucket slowly, hand over hand. It was heavy, she was high up and the wind was blowing. She had no intention of getting herself injured or pulling a muscle, so she was slow and careful. When the bucket was up there, she retrieved the contents and then lowered it back down, to Reese this time, who was doing the same as her on the half mast.

Basically, Vega knew that what she needed to do was to repair this yard, or the horizontal part of the mast. It was in a state and she pursed her lips at the fact that her father had allowed it to get such. What she needed to do was get to look at it and see whether it was mostly cosmetic, surface damage to the yard or whether they were in serious trouble.

"How're you doin' down there, Reese?" Vega yelled and waited for his reply. "I'm good! It looks worse than it is. You?"

Vega mumbled to herself "I'm 'opin' it's the same an' please Xiur, if you don't mind, don't let this yard break as I go to look, cos I'm not really plannin' on gettin' splatted or breakin' any bones to-trial, if you don't mind. That a'right?" That little side conversation with XIur done, Vega yelled down. "I'm hopin' it's the same, but it's slow goin' up here! Wind's takin' my breath away!"

"You'd never know!" Reese replied and Vega chuckled. "Anyone ever tell you yer funny, plonker? Cos they lied!" She grinned as she got to the first bit of the yard which seemed rotten and she used the brush and chisel which had been sent up in the bucket and she breathed a sigh of relief. "It's a'right. The actual woods a'right underneath. It's cosmetic, but I'm gonna treat it any'ow, cos we've only jus' caught it in time!"

Reese called up. "Same!" Strangely, as they worked, moving out towards the ends of the yards, both of them risking falling a considerable distance, though her much further than him, all banter stopped as though by an unspoken, unwritten yet completely understood rule and instead, they kept in constant contact, shouting back and forth, just to remind themselves that each other was there.

There were a lot of words for how it felt, up there on the main mast top yard and Vega considered them carefully. It was terrifying, certainly but more than anything it was exhilarating. She felt alive and alert and she grinned to herself. Would she, or Arlo come to that, ever stop getting this rush from living life right in the moment? Honestly, she didn't know but in this trill, Vega truly hoped not. "If it's a'right with you, Xiur, I'd like to not stop this, not till we're both so old that all we can do is remember it. An' while we're there, if I could not stop feelin' like this, more'n this, every time I see 'im, that'd be great. Cos I don't know 'ow I managed before, but I can't imagine anythin' else now." Holding on tight, she lowered her head and carried on working. It was easy enough to do, she just needed to clean away the peeling varnish on the way out and then, once she reached the end, having cleaned it all, she started to work her way back, varnishing as she went.

"How're you doin, Reese?" Vega yelled and her cousin replied. "I'm good! Shon's calling up too, all good!" That was good, because Vega couldn't hear Shon over the wind, but there it was. He was safe. They both were and Vega was pleased in ways that she could not quite put into words. Still, she concentrated on the job in hand.

It took a few breaks, but Arlo knew where she was, her father and he were stocking up stuff for their soon-to-be journey out of Scalvoris and Vega got into a rhythm in what she was doing. Her hands were busy, it took strength for her to hold on and she was aching all over, but her mind had time to wander. Wander it did and she considered how much had changed for her, for them on Scalvoris. She'd come here because she missed him, but there, perching on the top of the main mast of her father's ship, Vega thought back to why she'd insisted on them splitting up, separating after they'd been to Rharne. Something Arlo said to her the trial before swam into her head, as she remembered it. Her part in his life, them together, that was his mothers dream for him, he'd said and Vega realised that she'd been completely spun out by how at home she'd felt in Rharne with him and his family. And so, she'd run.

It was a surprise to her, to realise that, because Vega did not consider herself someone who did such things, but it was all tied up in issues from her childhood. Arlo was human after all, and she was already a mixture of two races. Internally, she knew, if she loved him as she did then she was taking the final step away from her biqaj life. As she carefully applied varnish to the yard, Vega smiled and realised that, rather than losing who she was she had found herself in the decision she had made. She was more biqaj than she had ever been, in that she was a free spirit, living her life and being where she was with who she wanted to be and when she wanted to be there.

"Well, nuts an' knickers, Xiur, I never really thought about it before," she said, thoughtfully. "I fell in love with a 'uman, an' in doin' that, I realised that I'm as biqaj as I need to be. As sev'ryn, too, cos I'm just all me, an' that's all I wanna be." Had she done as had been suggested to her, more than once, and settled down with a 'nice biqaj boy' or, in Desnind, a 'nice sev'ryn' one, Vega realised that she would have spent her life being half this or half that. But now? "I found out where the two bits of me fit together. An' who'd 'ave thought that Arlo Creede would be the one to help me figure it out. Bein' me is all I needed," she said to the Immortal she followed as she started the climb down, "to bridge the gap."