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This is the story of Drusian Bette Erdofei, comrade to Lana Goreillfei, and currently an Official Staffbearer. It tells of her struggle to become a Staffbearer apprentice at the age of 12. [I have completely reordered it and added several scenes 9/12/01; Made into Chapter format 9/17/01]
Normally I loved to go sucero-cat
hunting. Erdo and I used to always go together; it was he who
had taught me everything I knew of the hunt. Ever since he had
attained his majority and become involved in "adult"
business I had had to do everything we used to do together alone,
or, even worse, with my sisters.
Today I had to hunt with Alda.
She was being such a snot about "taking care of me"
on the hunt that I would almost rather have been with Irdele and
her incessant talk of baking. Maybe it was just that the four
years difference between us made us such completely different
people, but Alda and I never got along.
Alda paused to examine a track.
After a moment's thought she pointed south and started to move
out. When she saw me waiting, unmoving, she yelled. "Come
on!"
I shook my head and pointed at
other signs. After hours of dealing with her inability to track
I was fed up. The cat had turned further east than south here.
"You may be here to 'protect' me, sis, but I'm the one who
knows how to track, and that is not the creature we're tracking,
which is heading east and up the mountain. Go south if you wish,
I am going east."
Alda exploded. "Fine! I've
had it with your know-it-all twelve-year-old attitude! Go get
killed in the rocks, I wash my hands of you." She stalked
off, back stiff like that of an angry cat, heading the wrong direction.
Satisfied with myself, and indeed
a bit too proud, I started after the cat.
An hour later I moved into rough
terrain. Here the forest was sparse, the land broken up by huge
boulders and scree. Vision was worse than in the forest, and the
surprises that could come from missing a step far more dangerous.
I had to concentrate harder on the trail, for the rocky ground
kept little mark of anything's passage.
I was concentrating so hard on
finding my path that I did not hear the rockslide at first. I
slowly became aware of a deep rumbling sound. Having lived in
the mountains all my life I knew what it meant and I was afraid.
The ground around was so full of boulders that I could not see
if the rockslide it portended was coming towards me.
Panic-stricken I climbed the nearest
boulder to see. There it was, a tumbling, seething mass of rocks
and snow, rushing towards me. My already rising panic soared and
I clung to the boulder, hoping that its roots were deep enough
in the mountain that I would not be swept away. "Oh, Mother,
Goddess and Queen-in-Heaven, " I prayed, "get me through
this... Please?"
On the last squeak of the please,
the rockslide hit the front edge of my boulder. It washed over
the boulder, and unwilling to watch I closed my eyes and hung
on as tightly as I possibly could.
When I opened my eyes I saw a landscape
not much changed. True, there were fewer boulders ahead of me
and more behind me, but this dry, rocky region had slides all
the time. Little grew there to be destroyed, and the movement
of a few boulders made no difference in the overall desolate picture.
An immense sense of relief flooded
me. "Ayvedhe, thank you, Mother-Goddess. Thank you Stonebuilder
for making this rock so well." In my luck I had indeed chosen
a boulder well rooted into the mountain.
I sat on the boulder for a few
more minutes, shaking and sweating in relief. When I had regained
my composure I climbed down carefully and set off again after
the sucero-cat.
When I got home (cat's carcass
in tow) I went straight to the kitchen. Irdele intercepted me
on my way in. "Someone's in trouble." She said, with
a nasty teasing smile, and walked away.
Mom was in the kitchen, as always
a center of peaces in my world. She was silent when I put up the
carcass on the chopping block, silent while we skinned it together.
That was always mom's way. She never talked until you did, and
she listened quietly. When she did respond, her words were given
as calm suggestions, yet always taken with the weight of command.
So I told her all that had happened
that afternoon. I found myself slipping into a biased view of
Alda's actions, weighting the story in my favor, telling the truth,
but in such a manner as to put myself completely in the right.
We've all done that as children, putting a spin on the truths
we tell our parents and teachers.
Mom just nodded and listened, delicate
fingers working swiftly. I always felt clumsy and ugly next to
mom. She was such a beauty, always graceful and dignified in her
movements. Although everyone told me I was growing up to look
like here, I did not believe I could ever match her beauty and
grace.
When I had finished she was quiet
for a few minutes, as we finished slicing for smoking and cooking.
"Your sister returned hours ago, worried. She thought you
would--as she put it-- 'have the sense to come home.' " She
paused and looked at me. "Ah, my sweet, impetuous, stubborn
Drusian. Sometimes I wonder how you can look like me and be so
like your father." I bristled and she laughed. "Peace,
little love. You certainly didn't get those qualities from me."
Her unspoken chiding hit home.
I did feel a bit reckless and stupid after getting stuck in that
rockfall. "I'm sorry mom. I just got so fed up with Alda.
We don't work well together at all."
Mom nodded. "I know. You're
too adventurous for her. She still worried about you though."
She made a gesture of dismissal. I curtseyed reverently and left.
Irdele's promised trouble never arrived. I apologized to Alda--a hard thing to do--and she in turn apologized to me. Mom must have talked to Pa before dinner, because he didn't even yell once. That was fine with me.. My own guilt and worry about that rockslide was penance enough.
