Dragon's Legacy

Chapter 6: The Meeting

         The last time Feldon called a Thing was when the new villagers migrated. It was a mostly ceremonial vote to allow the immigrants right to live among them. Ceremonial because there was no real doubt to whether they could stay or not; homes were already being built. At the time, everyone gathered around the jarl's longhouse, and the community leaders sat at a long table inside. Elders, captains, and Bak would sit as Feldon stood at the head to declare the Thing. Sherra helped Rael limp there from the infirmary, holding Azmond's hand through the whole thing. They'd struggled to peek through the windows in the thatch walls, listening carefully as the booming voices of the leaders resounded underneath the ship-like roof.

This Thing was different. People began to congregate at the jarl's longhouse, only to redirected by the jarl's wife, Shieldmaiden Edith. The woman was taller even than Rael, and as muscular as Derrol. Rael had seen her around other captains, with a smile as bright as the sun and a booming laugh that rang like thunder. But now, her eyes were hard-set and her voice was grim.

"The situation is still unfolding." She said in a tone that sounded oft repeated. "Shaman Bak and his apprentices are using the grapevine to understand what's going on. Jarl Feldon is with them now."

Sherra, Gault, Azmond, and Rael were soon joined by others walking down the paths to the west trunk of the Grand Mangrove. Their group of a dozen people swelled into dozens, then hundreds as they reached Bak's hut. There were those in raider gear, gator-leather cuirasses not completely strapped. Hunters in their cloaks and spidersilk face nets, a few still holding their unstrung bows and fishing spears. Chinampa farmers, smelling of peat and willow, were dusting their hands off their thick kilts. Assorted artisans like Sherra and Gault stood with them too, a few of the apprentices still holding the half-finished products. The gathered crowd of hundreds talked in hushed murmurs. Azmond, nervous around all the people, huddled closer to Rael and clenched their left arm. Rael smiled at him encouragingly and pulled him in a sidelong embrace. The kid's tension left him, freeing Rael's arm enough to tussle his messy, stark-white hair and caress his ridged horns.

"You should brush his hair." Sherra noted in a faint voice as she watched them. "Yours is short, so I can understand not taking care of it. But his is almost shoulder length now."

"Maybe I should cut it." Rael and Sherra almost chuckled at Azmond's reaction. He frowned and covered his viciously shaking head.

"You know boys." Sherra nudged Gault as he rolled his eyes and smiled. "Always trying they can prove they can take the heat with their long hair and beards."

"It's tradition." Gault assented, then leaned to Rael to explain. "Ancient Faulk raiders would grow out their hair so that they could have pieces of themselves for their loved ones to remember them by. Nowadays, we can more easily bring back the bodies of our fallen brethren, but then..." Gault noticed Sherra's smile. "Right, sorry. Maybe I should have been a skald."

"Don't apologize." Sherra cooed. "I find it adorable. And I think your shaved face makes you sexy." She kissed him on the cheek.

"You sure the long hair isn't too hot for you?" Rael asked Azmond, pointedly ignoring the couple's flirting. He shrugged. "Is it because all the other kids have long hair?" Azmond shook his head vigorously again. "Alright then."

'I guess I have to teach him how to brush his hair.'

The crowd shifted and quieted as a stocky man with dark brown hair braided into his beard walked from the hut. Jarl Feldon was nearly three heads shorter than his wife with a face that always seemed to glare at whatever crossed his path. His rippling muscles, however, made it clear that he was a powerful and respected Faulk warrior. He'd recently darkened the skin around his eyes. Rael wasn't sure what it meant, but the sparse few whispers that reignited in a subtle smolder meant it must have been important. He raised a hand and silence reigned once more.