Rayala's Forging
Rayala looked on into the night from the top the battlements of Kordae (City)'s east facing gatehouse. The full moon lit the trail that snaked eastward to Fort Stonarch; where Jaekan would be coming from. Rayala had told herself not to worry, but she couldn't help but think of all the things that could go wrong on Jaekan's journey.
Her Forging was to be the following morning and she found it curious to think that the first time they had met it was because of another Forging, his sister's. Neither of them had attended the ceremony, but for different reasons. Jaekan already knew how it would go and wasn't interesting for him. But Rayala, Rayala had not attended the ceremony because of fear. She hated herself for that. For being to afraid of what people would think of her if they saw her eyes and the paleness of her skin to attend such an important event. For being to afraid to work and train in the open. It had been because of her private training, deep in the woods that she and Jaekan had met.
She didn't know what she was thinking when she had attacked him. If she had kiled or even seriously harmed him, there might have been a war with the Stonarch (Family)s. Maybe she was afraid of him or maybe just what he would think or say. But he had only wanted to know who she was and how she had gotten the tattoos she had inscribed herself with. She hadn't known what to think of the curious boy at the time, but as they spent more time with one another she had grown to like, even love him. He was always interested in the kata's she came up with, recording them regardless their usefulness. His fascination with her tattoos soon led to her inscribing thousands of symbols into his skin as well as receiving 2 on her shoulders that he did himself. He did not care about the tanning of her skin and her ever shifting irises held nothing but beauty for him. Jaekan had once told her that he could sit all day and do nothing but stare into her eyes all day and not grow tired. She had first dismissed this as no more than foolish talk, but quickly realized that he did not mean it as a joke or exaggeration, merely an observation. This filled her with a happiness that she couldn't describe. All her life her siblings had made fun of her and her parents all but ignored her, but Jaekan did not laugh, he did not insult her, and he certainly didn't ignore her. Over the 4 years they had known each other they had become closer and closer as friends until Jaekan had declared his intentions to marry her last year. Rayala had been overjoyed to her he was that committed to her. Her parents however had not been so pleased. In Jaekan's subsequent visits, her parents tried as they might to sway his interest to her older sister, Lora Kordae, which would give them a greater connection to the Stonarchs.
Comments