How to Help, Part I
The birds chirped an early morning song. A warm breeze drifted lazily through the air. Oshal smiled, feeling the sun on his face. Even if he couldn’t see it anymore, at least he knew it was there.
On that particular morning, he was in the city with Roshil and their father. He hoped that as they grew older, they could still spend time together like this, even if he and Roshil were assigned to different cities in the kingdom.
On this outing, they had company. While Roshil and their father walked ahead of him, Master Durwey and Grand Master Gorkle walked behind them. They spoke in hushed tones that Oshal couldn’t hear well, but he wasn’t interested in what they were saying.
Nourd walked beside him, asking a volley of questions.
“Why are there so many human dwellings?” Nourd asked, pointing at the buildings.
“They aren’t all dwellings,” Oshal replied. “You can buy things in many of them, like food.”
“Humans hunt the forest creatures for their food,” Nourd said. “They slaughter them with their human weapons.”
Something about which Oshal had been warned beforehand was that while Nourd could speak and understand their language thanks to his druid abilities, relying entirely on them for human speech meant that his words came out sounding “strange”. Oshal didn’t see anything strange about it; it was just a little different than everyone else, like everyone in his family. To him, Nourd fit right in.
“We must get approval from Mother before doing any hunting,” Grand Master Gorkle said, “and are careful to only hunt as much as we need.”
While Oshal could sense both Grand Master Gorkle’s and Nourd’s dislike of his sister’s presence, he was grateful to have them both. He liked spending time with Nourd, who was far less complicated than anyone else at the castle, and Grand Master Gorkle could supply answers that satisfied Nourd better than Oshal could.
Roshil still wasn’t back to her normal self. Master Durwey had been the one to explain what was going on with Roshil and why she hadn’t been allowed to move around unsupervised for the past few weeks. Oshal had had the idea to go out with their father to cheer her up after her privileges had been restored a few days ago. Oshal had mentioned it to Nourd, Nourd had wanted to spend time with Oshal, and Grand Master Gorkle thought it would be good to help ease Nourd into the court while supervised. It would also help him to spend time with both Oshal and Roshil, to understand that Roshil wasn’t out to get anyone (which Oshal had tried to explain to Nourd multiple times, without success).
“We also get food from plants sometimes,” his father called back to them. “And sweets. We also have sweets.”
“What are ‘sweets’?” Nourd asked. “I am unfamiliar with that word.”
“They’re a little like honey,” Grand Master Gorkle said.
This filled Nourd with curiosity and a little excitement.
“I would like to consume one of these ‘sweets’. Where can I obtain one?”
There was little distance between Nourd’s feelings and his actions. While this made Master Durwey a little nervous (hence her presence with them), it made Oshal happy. Whenever something bothered Roshil, it took him days to navigate her feelings, especially when she realized it and shut him out of her emotions (something their mother had taught them both). Even with the new friends he’d made at the court in the past few years, it took time to figure out what was bothering them. If something bothered Nourd, he said it within moments of being bothered.
“You’ll have to be patient,” Grand Master Gorkle said. “Perhaps when we stop for lunch.”
“Why would we stop to get lunch? Won’t our lunch run away if we stop?”
“I hope not,” Oshal’s father said. “I don’t think my lunch has ever stood up and run away from me before. Not of its own accord, anyway.”
“Why must we be patient if we are not hunting for our food?”
“We don’t eat whenever we want,” Grand Master Gorkle said. “We don’t have to keep hunting for food. It’s available to us whenever we want it. Remember? We’ve talked about this before.”
“This place is confusing. I do not like that.”
While Nourd’s emotions flowed freely, Roshil’s stayed fairly consistent. If she’d been in a children’s picture book, there’d have been a black cloud hanging over her head. Oshal kept hoping that being with their father would make her happy again, but her misery was stubborn. Oshal and their father had made attempts to get her interested in anything, but they had yet to be successful.
As they walked past the forge, their father pointed it out to Roshil.
“I’ve seen it,” she said.
Oshal remembered the boundless enthusiasm Roshil had had when she’d first seen the forge. It had been like an explosion of rainbows in her head. Nothing had interested her more in the court than the forge. Oshal had seen her knit, build, and whittle, anything she could do to make something, but living on the move, they’d never had access to a forge. It’d been all Roshil talked about for months.
Now she felt empty, like she didn’t have any happiness left in her.
I must be able to do something.
Something occurred to him. An idea. A small way he could help his sister.
He concentrated on his happy memories. His joy at spending time with friends. The satisfaction of knowing he’d made people happy. While staying carefully closed off from everyone else, he focused on Roshil, and on seeing her happy.
His joy passed along her thread, channeling into her. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get through to her.
“Master Grund said I can start learning about enchantments,” she said. “He… he doesn’t… I’m not old enough to start enchanting anything yet, but he said I’ll have to learn eventually.”
Oshal smiled, happy that his sister was happy again.
“I do not like human magic,” Nourd said. “It is not the way of the forest.”
“It’s okay,” Oshal said. “Roshil’s responsible about it, like everyone else at the court.”
Oshal was pleased with himself. He wove happiness into Roshil, and everything had turned out okay. There was nothing to worry about.