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haebinIt's Sunday and that means a new chapter is waiting for you!
Please enjoy it! And thank you so, so much for reading!!! ♥
When, at the age of seven, her father had allowed Anwyn to walk to the village on her own and never stray a single step from the path, she set off happily and expectantly, as she had never been sent to the settlement alone before. She only knew it from the few times her father had been by her side.
It was a warm spring day, a gentle breeze was blowing, Anwyn could hear the waves breaking on the beach from afar and her bare feet carried her along the well-trodden path towards 'At the Big Oak'. She wore a simple brown dress, her hair hanging wildly over her narrow shoulders and cascading down her back.
Doran had given her the task of buying a loaf of bread at the small village market, which was held every tenth day and where all kinds of things could be bought.
Her heart pounding, Anwyn held the copper coins her father had entrusted her with in her small fist and shyly approached the market and the many people buying their groceries there. Wide-eyed, she walked past the various stalls and with her mouth open in amazement, she looked at all the food, such as different types of sausage, cheese, vegetables and fruit. There were chickens and geese for sale in small cages, and at one stand a sow and two goats were tethered. There were a few fabrics, baskets and jugs as well as a few pewter plates and mugs.
The market 'At the Great Oak' could not be compared with the markets in larger towns and certainly not with the large markets of the mostly elven communities in the Blackwater Lands, but for Anwyn, the little seven-year-old girl, this place was a sensation.
Her gaze wandered to the right and her eyes widened as she suddenly bumped into something, lost her balance and fell to the ground. Startled, she dropped the copper coins from her hand and backed away as two older boys suddenly pushed their way forward from the crowd, grabbed the coins and ran off laughing.
Anwyn looked after the boys in horror and tears gathered in her eyes as she sat here in the dust and dirt without the coins her father had entrusted her with to buy a loaf of bread. Her lips trembled as she tried to stifle the sobs that were coming when she happened to look up and was startled once more.
She stared up fearfully at the huge man who was looking at her grimly. A tear rolled down her cheek and, to her surprise, the man reached out his hand to Anwyn. She looked at him hesitantly and the stern look on his broad face vanished. A slight smile appeared on his broad lips and he said to her in a warm voice: “Give me your hand, child.”
Shyly, Anwyn complied with his request and took hold of his huge hand. Despite the obvious strength in his broad body, he gently pulled her to her feet and patted the dirt from her dress.
“These boys are worse than a bloody horde of goblins,” muttered the bald man, whose forehead and right temple were adorned with a deep scar. He shook his head.
“What did you want to buy, child?” he asked her and Anwyn lowered her gaze, chewing on her lower lip in embarrassment, not daring to say a word. She was deeply ashamed that she had not carried out this simple order.
The thought of returning to her father without the bread he had requested caused the young girl physical pain and her eyes filled with tears again.
“There you go, Child. You don't have to cry about it,” said the man with the deep voice and looked at her comfortingly. “Won't you tell me why you came to the market?”
He gave Anwyn an encouraging smile.
“I... I should buy a loaf of bread,” Anwyn said quietly and she sniffled sheepishly.
“Ah, I see,” the tall man replied sympathetically. “Merea, a loaf of bread and add a honey cookie.”
He turned to the young woman sitting behind the stall and reached for his coin purse. When Merea named the price for both baked goods, the tall man handed her some copper coins and reached for the food. He handed both to Anwyn with a smile, who stared at him open-mouthed and wide-eyed, speechless.
“Take it, child,” he said and Anwyn carefully grabbed the bread and pastries with both hands.
“Thank... thank you...” she stuttered, still staring at him in disbelief.
“Now that you have your loaf of bread, you can go home in good spirits.”
Without another word, the man turned around and left Anwyn staring after him for a while. As the noises and conversations around her increased, the young girl regained her senses, clutched the bread in her right hand while holding the sticky, honey-sweet pastry and ran like lightning towards the fisherman's hut to leave the marketplace behind her.
When she reached home, she immediately ran to her father and told him what had happened, even though she was ashamed that she had lost his coins. For a moment Anwyn feared he would punish her, but the old fisherman only nodded in understanding and then explained that the man had been Bealdwine, the village timber merchant. Anwyn asked her father with wide eyes if the man was a child of a giant, being so tall and broad, so different from the villagers, and Doran laughed out loud, but replied with a mischievous grin that it was quite possible.
For a while the young girl believed that her father had spoken the truth and now, as she walked behind the wood merchant and Conall, a soft smile stole onto her lips.
While Conall and Bealdwine agreed on the amount of wood and the half-elf suggested picking up the delivery himself, the now old man gave them a small discount.
“Anwyn?”
At the sound of her name, Anwyn looked up and shook her head sheepishly as she saw her father standing before her, Elyan in his arms and Brin on his right hand.
“Forgive me, father. I was thinking about Bealdwine and the wood delivery,” she apologized and stroked Brin's hair tenderly.
“Will we be able to put all our plans into action by the end of the summer?” she asked her father, walking alongside him to the chicken enclosure, where she put the bucket down and watched as Brin immediately grabbed the contents and threw them through the fence into the enclosure.
“We can be sure of that. Conall and Trálír are talented and won't take long to finish the furniture,” Doran replied as his gaze suddenly darkened slightly. Anwyn looked at him questioningly.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Well,” the old fisherman cleared his throat sheepishly. “Without Conall's help, I won't be able to catch as many fish as the Blackwater Castle expects me to.” The smile on his lips was thin and in his eyes Anwyn recognized the sorrow over his own state of health. She placed her hand on his upper arm comfortingly.
“I'm sure we'll find a solution,” she said in an understanding voice, her gaze filled with deep affection. “What are you going to do now?” Anwyn asked, looking at her father, who was now gently stroking Elyan's back with his right hand.
“We're going to feed the animals now, aren't we Brin?” The young half-elf looked up at the old man with an enthusiastic nod and then tossed the food once more into the excitedly clucking crowd of chickens.
“It's so easy to get the boys excited,” Doran muttered and Anwyn grinned.
“I know, all it takes is a dog or a few chickens and they'll be busy for hours.”
Father and daughter exchanged an amused glance before Anwyn turned away, waved to Eleri who had just come out of the cellar of her own house and then strode to the fence and strapped on the back basket.
With a smile on her lips, Anwyn walked through the gate, closed it behind her and turned left, heading west. It was the same path she took to the village but before she reached it she turned left once more. It took a good eye to find the well-trodden path through the bushes and tall grass that led straight into the forest. Many roots were covered in grass and Anwyn always had her eyes on the ground to avoid tripping over one or getting caught in it. While her gaze glided over the ground and she pushed aside many a branch that was in the way, her hearing was focused on detecting sounds such as the grunting of a wild boar, the satisfied or threatening growl of a bear or one of the other wild animals that eked out an existence in the forest. She listened for short, cracking noises like the breaking of a branch, which could be a warning for a stranger sneaking through the dense woods or an animal.
Anwyn approached the edge of the forest with great concentration and breathed a sigh of relief when she reached it.
Although the trees were close together and barely let any sunlight through the dense canopy, she would have more freedom to move than in the thick tangle of bushes and tall grasses.
It wasn't long before Anwyn spotted the first blackberry bushes. Satisfied, she walked towards them, unhooked the back basket and placed it on the ground. She skillfully picked one berry after the other and dropped them into the basket. If she was successful today and could fill this basket, she would return home with more than 20 kilograms of fruit. And if she could do this on two or three more days, there would be so much fruit ready for processing that they wouldn't have to worry about food to get through the winter without any problems.
Concentrating on getting on with her work, Anwyn had no time to think about anything, everything was focused on harvesting one bush after another. After a while, when she had harvested the fourth bramble bush, she strapped on her backpack again and walked a little further into the forest. On the way to a clearing, she spotted several wild raspberries and was delighted when she stopped, took the back basket off again and put it on the ground. She had already harvested some fruit, but the basket was not yet so full that it would cause her pain to pick it up or put it down. This would only happen when the basket was half full of fruit.
Concentrating on her work, Anwyn forgot the time until she suddenly felt very thirsty. Although she was standing in the forest and the trees provided Anwyn with shade, it was still warm and she felt beads of sweat running down the back of her neck and under her dress. And she could feel the fabric under her armpits becoming damp. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the palm of her hand and then wiped it off on her old, dark brown dress. To her displeasure, Anwyn realized that she had forgotten a water pouch with fresh water at home. Frustrated by her own forgetfulness, Anwyn decided a hand of rasberries would do her for now. Since she would be in the forest longer and expected to go deeper, she was sure to find a stream or two where she could quench her thirst. The fruits tasted sweet but the regular raspberry had a slightly sour note. But the mixture sweet and sour helped her out for the moment and the immediate thirst was gone. She paced the bushes within a radius of several meters, picked the fruit and even spotted an elderberry bush whose berries she happily collected as well.
Anwyn was deeply absorbed in her work, oblivious to the world around her, to time and her attention waned a little when she finally managed to spot some blueberries. The back basket she was now carrying again was more than half full and the weight on her shoulders pressed painfully into her muscles.
Pull yourself together, Anwyn, she admonished herself, because the hours of hard work were beginning to take their toll. She was tired, sweaty, hungry and thirsty and her legs ached from standing and bending down for so long and from the weight on her back. With a groan, she removed the back basket from her body and placed it on the floor with a soft moan that slipped over her lips. She slowly straightened up, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The pain in her shoulders and lower back, just above her buttocks, was excruciating.
She remembered that she would have to use an ointment herself tonight to relieve the pain, otherwise she would hardly be able to do her chores the next day.
Anwyn was about to bend down to the elder bush when a sudden noise reached her ear. Immediately her heart pounded so hard in her chest that she thought every animal, every creature in the forest would hear her. Yet she instantly remembered what she had learned from Trálír. Her grip went to her fish knife in seconds, she raised her hand and searched for the creature approaching her.
“Anwyn!”
Please enjoy it! And thank you so, so much for reading!!! ♥
When, at the age of seven, her father had allowed Anwyn to walk to the village on her own and never stray a single step from the path, she set off happily and expectantly, as she had never been sent to the settlement alone before. She only knew it from the few times her father had been by her side.
It was a warm spring day, a gentle breeze was blowing, Anwyn could hear the waves breaking on the beach from afar and her bare feet carried her along the well-trodden path towards 'At the Big Oak'. She wore a simple brown dress, her hair hanging wildly over her narrow shoulders and cascading down her back.
Doran had given her the task of buying a loaf of bread at the small village market, which was held every tenth day and where all kinds of things could be bought.
Her heart pounding, Anwyn held the copper coins her father had entrusted her with in her small fist and shyly approached the market and the many people buying their groceries there. Wide-eyed, she walked past the various stalls and with her mouth open in amazement, she looked at all the food, such as different types of sausage, cheese, vegetables and fruit. There were chickens and geese for sale in small cages, and at one stand a sow and two goats were tethered. There were a few fabrics, baskets and jugs as well as a few pewter plates and mugs.
The market 'At the Great Oak' could not be compared with the markets in larger towns and certainly not with the large markets of the mostly elven communities in the Blackwater Lands, but for Anwyn, the little seven-year-old girl, this place was a sensation.
Her gaze wandered to the right and her eyes widened as she suddenly bumped into something, lost her balance and fell to the ground. Startled, she dropped the copper coins from her hand and backed away as two older boys suddenly pushed their way forward from the crowd, grabbed the coins and ran off laughing.
Anwyn looked after the boys in horror and tears gathered in her eyes as she sat here in the dust and dirt without the coins her father had entrusted her with to buy a loaf of bread. Her lips trembled as she tried to stifle the sobs that were coming when she happened to look up and was startled once more.
She stared up fearfully at the huge man who was looking at her grimly. A tear rolled down her cheek and, to her surprise, the man reached out his hand to Anwyn. She looked at him hesitantly and the stern look on his broad face vanished. A slight smile appeared on his broad lips and he said to her in a warm voice: “Give me your hand, child.”
Shyly, Anwyn complied with his request and took hold of his huge hand. Despite the obvious strength in his broad body, he gently pulled her to her feet and patted the dirt from her dress.
“These boys are worse than a bloody horde of goblins,” muttered the bald man, whose forehead and right temple were adorned with a deep scar. He shook his head.
“What did you want to buy, child?” he asked her and Anwyn lowered her gaze, chewing on her lower lip in embarrassment, not daring to say a word. She was deeply ashamed that she had not carried out this simple order.
The thought of returning to her father without the bread he had requested caused the young girl physical pain and her eyes filled with tears again.
“There you go, Child. You don't have to cry about it,” said the man with the deep voice and looked at her comfortingly. “Won't you tell me why you came to the market?”
He gave Anwyn an encouraging smile.
“I... I should buy a loaf of bread,” Anwyn said quietly and she sniffled sheepishly.
“Ah, I see,” the tall man replied sympathetically. “Merea, a loaf of bread and add a honey cookie.”
He turned to the young woman sitting behind the stall and reached for his coin purse. When Merea named the price for both baked goods, the tall man handed her some copper coins and reached for the food. He handed both to Anwyn with a smile, who stared at him open-mouthed and wide-eyed, speechless.
“Take it, child,” he said and Anwyn carefully grabbed the bread and pastries with both hands.
“Thank... thank you...” she stuttered, still staring at him in disbelief.
“Now that you have your loaf of bread, you can go home in good spirits.”
Without another word, the man turned around and left Anwyn staring after him for a while. As the noises and conversations around her increased, the young girl regained her senses, clutched the bread in her right hand while holding the sticky, honey-sweet pastry and ran like lightning towards the fisherman's hut to leave the marketplace behind her.
When she reached home, she immediately ran to her father and told him what had happened, even though she was ashamed that she had lost his coins. For a moment Anwyn feared he would punish her, but the old fisherman only nodded in understanding and then explained that the man had been Bealdwine, the village timber merchant. Anwyn asked her father with wide eyes if the man was a child of a giant, being so tall and broad, so different from the villagers, and Doran laughed out loud, but replied with a mischievous grin that it was quite possible.
For a while the young girl believed that her father had spoken the truth and now, as she walked behind the wood merchant and Conall, a soft smile stole onto her lips.
While Conall and Bealdwine agreed on the amount of wood and the half-elf suggested picking up the delivery himself, the now old man gave them a small discount.
“Anwyn?”
At the sound of her name, Anwyn looked up and shook her head sheepishly as she saw her father standing before her, Elyan in his arms and Brin on his right hand.
“Forgive me, father. I was thinking about Bealdwine and the wood delivery,” she apologized and stroked Brin's hair tenderly.
“Will we be able to put all our plans into action by the end of the summer?” she asked her father, walking alongside him to the chicken enclosure, where she put the bucket down and watched as Brin immediately grabbed the contents and threw them through the fence into the enclosure.
“We can be sure of that. Conall and Trálír are talented and won't take long to finish the furniture,” Doran replied as his gaze suddenly darkened slightly. Anwyn looked at him questioningly.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Well,” the old fisherman cleared his throat sheepishly. “Without Conall's help, I won't be able to catch as many fish as the Blackwater Castle expects me to.” The smile on his lips was thin and in his eyes Anwyn recognized the sorrow over his own state of health. She placed her hand on his upper arm comfortingly.
“I'm sure we'll find a solution,” she said in an understanding voice, her gaze filled with deep affection. “What are you going to do now?” Anwyn asked, looking at her father, who was now gently stroking Elyan's back with his right hand.
“We're going to feed the animals now, aren't we Brin?” The young half-elf looked up at the old man with an enthusiastic nod and then tossed the food once more into the excitedly clucking crowd of chickens.
“It's so easy to get the boys excited,” Doran muttered and Anwyn grinned.
“I know, all it takes is a dog or a few chickens and they'll be busy for hours.”
Father and daughter exchanged an amused glance before Anwyn turned away, waved to Eleri who had just come out of the cellar of her own house and then strode to the fence and strapped on the back basket.
With a smile on her lips, Anwyn walked through the gate, closed it behind her and turned left, heading west. It was the same path she took to the village but before she reached it she turned left once more. It took a good eye to find the well-trodden path through the bushes and tall grass that led straight into the forest. Many roots were covered in grass and Anwyn always had her eyes on the ground to avoid tripping over one or getting caught in it. While her gaze glided over the ground and she pushed aside many a branch that was in the way, her hearing was focused on detecting sounds such as the grunting of a wild boar, the satisfied or threatening growl of a bear or one of the other wild animals that eked out an existence in the forest. She listened for short, cracking noises like the breaking of a branch, which could be a warning for a stranger sneaking through the dense woods or an animal.
Anwyn approached the edge of the forest with great concentration and breathed a sigh of relief when she reached it.
Although the trees were close together and barely let any sunlight through the dense canopy, she would have more freedom to move than in the thick tangle of bushes and tall grasses.
It wasn't long before Anwyn spotted the first blackberry bushes. Satisfied, she walked towards them, unhooked the back basket and placed it on the ground. She skillfully picked one berry after the other and dropped them into the basket. If she was successful today and could fill this basket, she would return home with more than 20 kilograms of fruit. And if she could do this on two or three more days, there would be so much fruit ready for processing that they wouldn't have to worry about food to get through the winter without any problems.
Concentrating on getting on with her work, Anwyn had no time to think about anything, everything was focused on harvesting one bush after another. After a while, when she had harvested the fourth bramble bush, she strapped on her backpack again and walked a little further into the forest. On the way to a clearing, she spotted several wild raspberries and was delighted when she stopped, took the back basket off again and put it on the ground. She had already harvested some fruit, but the basket was not yet so full that it would cause her pain to pick it up or put it down. This would only happen when the basket was half full of fruit.
Concentrating on her work, Anwyn forgot the time until she suddenly felt very thirsty. Although she was standing in the forest and the trees provided Anwyn with shade, it was still warm and she felt beads of sweat running down the back of her neck and under her dress. And she could feel the fabric under her armpits becoming damp. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the palm of her hand and then wiped it off on her old, dark brown dress. To her displeasure, Anwyn realized that she had forgotten a water pouch with fresh water at home. Frustrated by her own forgetfulness, Anwyn decided a hand of rasberries would do her for now. Since she would be in the forest longer and expected to go deeper, she was sure to find a stream or two where she could quench her thirst. The fruits tasted sweet but the regular raspberry had a slightly sour note. But the mixture sweet and sour helped her out for the moment and the immediate thirst was gone. She paced the bushes within a radius of several meters, picked the fruit and even spotted an elderberry bush whose berries she happily collected as well.
Anwyn was deeply absorbed in her work, oblivious to the world around her, to time and her attention waned a little when she finally managed to spot some blueberries. The back basket she was now carrying again was more than half full and the weight on her shoulders pressed painfully into her muscles.
Pull yourself together, Anwyn, she admonished herself, because the hours of hard work were beginning to take their toll. She was tired, sweaty, hungry and thirsty and her legs ached from standing and bending down for so long and from the weight on her back. With a groan, she removed the back basket from her body and placed it on the floor with a soft moan that slipped over her lips. She slowly straightened up, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The pain in her shoulders and lower back, just above her buttocks, was excruciating.
She remembered that she would have to use an ointment herself tonight to relieve the pain, otherwise she would hardly be able to do her chores the next day.
Anwyn was about to bend down to the elder bush when a sudden noise reached her ear. Immediately her heart pounded so hard in her chest that she thought every animal, every creature in the forest would hear her. Yet she instantly remembered what she had learned from Trálír. Her grip went to her fish knife in seconds, she raised her hand and searched for the creature approaching her.
“Anwyn!”
(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-16 03:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-30 02:33 pm (UTC)But the children of the past also grew up earlier than us or all the children of today. I remember all the things my father told me about his childhood.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-16 05:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-30 02:35 pm (UTC)🧡🧡🧡
(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-16 08:27 pm (UTC)Und wie lieb ist bitte Bealdwine? Zu ihm fällt mir sofort der Begriff "Gentle Giant" ein ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2025-04-03 11:31 am (UTC)Groß und breit, vielleicht ein bisschen düster mit der Narbe im Gesicht aber mit einem guten Herzen.
Ich liebe es einfach wenn sich plötzlich Nebencharaktere ergeben, die so eigentlich gar nicht geplant waren. Ich fühle mich immer als wäre ich wie gesagt nur ein Schreibwerkzeug und die Geschichte sowie alle Charaktere haben nur auf mich gewartet und ich darf ihnen die Chance geben sie niederzuschreiben. ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2025-04-05 03:57 pm (UTC)Das finde ich echt sooo spannend! Ich habe schon von vielen Autor*innen gehört, dass es ihnen beim Schreiben ähnlich geht.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-05-01 11:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-17 08:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-04-03 11:33 am (UTC)