[ O neglected story don’t cry, I’ve written another cringey worthy pile of ill thought out puke for you. Note the restricted dialogue with Roberet and Ariuy, I figured any attempt at long conversation would be cringe worthy to read at best. ]
Roberet sits reading a report, "These can get tiresome can't they?" he says reading it, he looks up and around to find himself talking to nobody. He cracks a small smile to himself, putting away the report and bringing out the pieces of paper he saved for his story. He begins to write again.
After many hours, I was, after some serious consideration, ready for the celebrations. It must be noted by you dear reader, that being brought up by one of the families did have its benefits, one of these benefits was a fine fashion sense and of course the capital to fund it. I distinctly remember wearing a white shirt made out of the finest materials, white with pretty patterns on the breast of the shirt, it was a tight shirt, a vain attempt to show off my athletic figure. Complemented by clean black trousers with a belt which had a golden buckle(A family trademark...somewhat) and clean black boots. This by the villages standard was rather minimal, however the days heat had not let up yet and although cooler than day, the eve still had a warm feel to it. I was in no mood to sweat the night out.
"C'mon Rob, even mother is ready!” Brust shouted. I was still standing staring at the mirror at the time, I hurriedly applied a pleasantly smelling fragrance and raced out of my room to the downstairs where the rest of the family were waiting. Arco and Brust were wearing similar formal clothes to me. Mother and Father were in far more extravagant clothes, with mother in an elegant blue dress with copious amounts of jewellery on her.
My dear reader to this point I have neglected to write about my parents, they were good to me, they had their faults as we all do, but were very good to me.
My father kept himself busy with the farm, he was a very blunt man, perhaps too blunt for the sensitive village politics, which is why he involved himself as little as possible with most quarrels between the families. He spent most time with Brust, being the heir to his farm it was only natural for him to do so. He wanted Brust to be the perfect son, the prize of the family and thus spent a lot of time trying to mould him. Arco and I always felt a little neglected as a result of…. none the less father still wanted the best and little expense was spared on us.
My Mother was rather different; I feel I inherited a lot more of her personality than my fathers. Unlike father she was constantly involved in the politics of the Village, encouraging the farms extravagance to show off. She went along way in keeping the family name being one that was highly respected. A feat more impressive when it is put into consideration that we, her sons, did occasionally give what I can only put as grief to other sensitive families. Her elegance and grace was combined with a sharp mind and tongue, always able to understand fully any situation. She was very caring to all three of us.
"There he is!" My father said, holding my mothers hand "I think we can go now....unless we have forgotten something?" he looks to my mother
She shakes her head slightly "No, we can go." She responds with a disarming smile, this facial expression changes to a sterner look as she looks at Arco, Brust and I "Now my sons, do enjoy yourselves but do not upset anyone, there are other peoples sensitivities to consider and more importantly this families good name to consider. Is that understood?" We all nodded, not that this was the first time such a reminded was given and forgotten.
Making our way to the tavern the night was warm and beautifully still, we could see the village centre lights becoming bigger and bigger as we walked, a beautiful sight. I felt at ease, all was calm, my nerves of seeing this girl once again had not hit. A good sign I thought at the time. As we walked into the village centre, it was alive and buzzing, a number of stalls offering a variety of goods and jovial music could already be heard coming from inside the tavern.
Mother and Father, hand in hand began walking to each stall, briefly inspecting them before moving on to the next one. For my brothers and I, there was only one option, the tavern. We calmly walked in; Brust walked over some of the families children that were around our age.Being brought up together and all having the pressures of being sons of the families, we were friends with then naturally, however that same pressure also meant that a bravado had to be kept, even in childhood friendship….the rivalry was there. Arco walked straight to the bar, a surprising move I thought at the time, banter was his speciality, especially with contending with children of the other families. However I saw a large group of dwarves by the bar, equipped with the finest armour, though it looked used. They were outsiders, hunters, often employed by folk of the village to keep violent beasts from coming near the farms. More to the point they were one of the few groups of people that Arco treated with serious respect, he worshipped them. I figured the contrast between his clean and dull life to theirs was the attraction.
As for me, I stood at the entrance looking around the room for her. I looked around the room over and over, at first I could not see her amongst the large crowd at the tavern, my heart sunk, she was not here I thought at the time. Then I saw her, not talking to anyone, quietly sitting on a chair, nursing a glass of wine. It was then the nerves, as always just right before conversation with her, started to hit. Before I could move, she caught me looking at her, she stood up a gave a small smile to me. I fear dear reader my description of her could not do her any justice; alas I shall give it a try. She had smooth long brown her going just past her shoulders, big teal blue eyes with thin rich red lips and the softest skin. Her name was Ariuy, and no other lady In my many years, has made go through the turmoil of emotions that she has.
As I walked up to her, I remember my stomach being in a knot, nothing out of the usual for encounters with her. With a thousand thoughts engulfing my mind and my stomach crippled it was minor miracle that I managed to get myself over to where she was sitting. It was also a minor miracle that I had managed to sat down next to her and strike conversation. However once we began talking it seemed the easiest thing to keep up. As cliché as it may be, I’ve never felt so comfortable talking to anyone else, it just seemed as if all was right in the Realm when I was with her. We conversed through the night with little distraction, only other thing I remember was Arco stumbling out of the Tavern, it turned out he couldn’t keep up with his dwarves company.
The night went on and the Tavern was now at the point of being unpleasant, it was packed out and there was barely space to breathe.
“I’m starting to not like it in here…..want to accompany me outside?” Ariuy said looking around at all the people.
“Sure, it’s getting a bit unbearable in here..isn’t it?” I replied then had a look around myself
Ariuy finished her last bit of wine and we headed out of the tavern
“Think we need to walk off that wine, c’mon lets go for a stroll” she said smiling. As we began to walk she grab hold of and held my hand, that moment we stared into each other’s eyes, said nothing and carried on walking hand in hand. We made our way to the other side of the lake, the night was still warm.
“Say Robbie” she said letting go of my hand, and pausing our walk to look over to the island on the lake, “Fancy a swim?” she continued revealing a mischievous smile to me
“What? In these nice clothes” I said with some amusement on my face
She simply shrugged and smiled at me
“Last one on that island over there is a gobble” she said laughing, just before she made her into the lake and started swimming towards the island. I immediately followed and started swimming myself.
We made our way onto the island and sat down together to catch our breath after frantic swimming.
“Think I won that one!” Ariuy said laughing
“No fair! You had a head start” I responded laughing as well. After a few seconds we stopped laughing and gazed into each other’s eyes and then slowly we kissed. What followed after that was a night of sheer passion which before or after I have never had.
Little did I know at that time that this would be my biggest mistake and one that would change everything for me.
Roberet stops for a moment, he begins to read it over what he has read with a slow smile appearing on his face.