Dragon Fire - Book 2 [discontinued due to rewrite]

Chapter 5

Marcie tucked the stray strand of hair behind her ear and smiled hesitantly at her onlookers.

Twelve people sat around a large table set in the centre of a large dining room, lavishly decorated (at least to her eyes) with banners and woven cloths along the walls and thick fur rugs covering the stone floor. Overhead a huge candle fixture loomed, it appeared to be covered in hundreds of orbs of what might have been glass, that enhanced the light cast by the candles, causing it to fill every corner of the large room and illuminate all the people staring at her.

Dara looked at these strangers through her also, so intrigued was he to their differing physical features. While he had been watching them for days, without Marcie's guidance he struggled to pick up human characteristics other than big, small, male, female.

She recognised the woman and one of the boys, one of only three of the number to have bright orange hair, a vibrancy she had never seen before. There were only three women, two of them mere girls, and identical in every way except one wore a simple brown floor length dress with tight bodice and the other wore a dark blue dress with a pattern of lace up the sleeves. It seemed a little inappropriate to wear on a farm and indeed, it bore splatters of mud on its skirt. The boys had their shirts off and they were all strong and lean, however the oldest appeared younger than her by at least a few years so she did not admire them for too long.

The woman (she remembered her name to be Gwinn) moved to stand behind the man at the head of the table. One of the three with orange hair he also had bright blue eyes, of which she had only ever seen on a fellow Forgotten. She stared openly at him in surprise. He would not be full Forgotten to have that hair colour and, she looked at him closer, many freckles speckled across his pale skinned face, chest and arms. Could he have been cast out for his coloring? She had never witness or heard of such a practice. Maybe his mother had been impregnated by a trader and she had allowed him to be taken away with them as a babe? Or, possibly more likely, his Trader mother had slept with a Forgotten and had his baby outside of the forest. He sat as the head of the table and she knew the lands that surrounded the house to be vast. Then he was a land owner and not a wanderer like his mothers family. Was this his choice or was it made for him.

Realising her rudeness she tore her eyes from him and addressed the woman Gwinn,

"Forgive my rudeness, I smelt food and felt very hungry" she smiled in what she hoped with a bashful manner,

"That's quite alright lass" Gwinn answered but her smile appeared strained, "We ave a little food left if yea wish to join us?"

"Please"

Gwinn ushered the boys on one side of the table to shuffle up and make room, this they did, none of their gazes moving from the woman in their midst. Marcie settled down on the bench and the two girls at on either side of her, their gazes appeared more appraising than the boys and she smiled at each in turn,

"Marcie" she told them, thumping her hand to her chest in greeting,

"EvaEstelle" they chimed in unison,

"Clearly please girls" Gwinn instructed as she placed a plate in front of Marcie.

The girls look at each other, then back at Marcie,

"EvaEstelle" they said again, but this time they pointed at each other,

When that was cleared up, they went down the line, all the boys put forward their names. Although she forgot most of the names straight away, she learnt that Niven was the oldest, Ash the youngest, and the two orange headed youths were Simon and Oska. She recognised Oska as the one to have visited her in the attic room. She nodded at him and he blushed scarlet again. The father was called Simeon, and he thumped his hand to his chest in a Forgotten greeting.

She had too ask,

"I am sorry sir, but are you of the Forgotten? Your eyes are of their colour..."

The table grew silent,

Simeon leaned back in his chair with ease and regarded her,

"Aye, my eyes be blue, but why, pray tell does yea have green?"

"My mother was a Trader" Marcie said with a shrug,

"Ar, we have that in common then, pray, did your mother raise you, or did she abandon you to be raised by other folk?" he said,

It seemed an oddly specific question but Marcie could see no harm in answering,

"She raised me with my father until her death from fever several years ago"

"A shame" Gwinn muttered sadly, placing some dried fruit on Marcie's plate,

Simeon nodded, "Alas, my mother did not realise she was carrying me until I did pain her so. My father being a mere roll on the hay, an the she would have naught ta do wit me. Left me with the village yonder-" he pointed off in a vague direction "-an continued on her way" He did not appear sad as he said this,

"The village people, they treated you well?" Marcie asked,

Then he did smile, a brilliant one that lit up his whole face,

"Aye that they did. The man who raised me did have no surviving sons and willed me all his land upon his death even though I was nay his blood. I built this rest stop here and made my own family" His wife stroked his chin affectionately and he beamed at her.

"Rest stop?" Marcie asked, the sight of the two life companions reminding her painfully of her father and how he had died,

"A place for Traders to store provisions and rest before the journey into the forest" Niven, the eldest explained before lapsing back into silence. The other children all listened enraptured in a way that made Marcie think they had heard it before but still found it fascinating,

"And your mother, is she still living?" Marcie asked,

The smile slipped fully off Simeons face, "Aye" he said,

"She comes through here? Through the rest stop on her journey?" Marcie tried to think of all the Trader women she knew who would be of the age to have a child as old as Simeon but she could recall no names only faces,

"Aye, the spiteful old hag" Gwinn said savagely, digging her fingers into the husbands shoulder, "The day she don't show up one year'll be the happiest I been since I first did meet her and she called me a dirty whore for marrying her halfbreed son"

Simeon reached up his hand to clasp his wifes fingers tightly. The children all lowered their gazes, occasionally glacing at each other darkly.

Marcie felt her stomach rumble so used the silence to eat. She cleared her plate in moments and still had room for more, however there did not appear to be anymore and so she stayed silent.

Simeon cleared his throat, "Well lass, I told you my story, whats yours?"

Marcie shrugged and focused on collecting the last few crumbs off her plate, sucking them off her finger one by one. She glanced up at the candle fixture,

"What is that? I've never seen anything like it before"

"It's a crystal chandelier, from the glass city of Pastel, the Traders brought it as a gift a few years back. Your story please." Gwinn's tone brokered no argument,

Marcie ran her finger round the plate and shrugged again,

Simeon leaned forward in his chair and fixed her with a gaze,

"Never in all the records have the Forgotten strayed out of the forest, never. Now you are the second" Marcie's head snapped up and she stared at him, he grimaced,

"Tell me why, in all this time, I have never set eyes upon those who dwell in The forgotten Forest and now, in a matter of years two have stumbled out, sick and dying"

It took a moment for Marcie to find her voice, "What did he look like, this other forgotten?"

Simeon glanced at his wife, "How do you know it is a he?"

"Answer me" Marcie demanded, her voice rising, the two girls on either side of her shied away, surprised at the change in her tone,

Simeon exchanged another look with his wife then turned back to Marcie,

"He looked like you."