Sword and Snow

To be honest, I really don’t remember much from that day despite it being one of the most pivotal moments of my life. I was way too little to remember things with enough clarity to be able to tell or recall what could conceivably be called a story.

What I do remember was all of us kids in the cart being pulled into a big stone building inside the town. The two nice ladies that had helped us get away from the bad men had been led somewhere else, but the nice man who had watched all of us while we were on the road was still with us. He kept an eye on us while guards hurried about their business.

I don’t know how long we were in that stone walled room for. I do remember that it was a little chilly, and looking back it was probably very prison-like. Or, I suppose, it was just a very sparse, functional room in a very functional stone building with few comforts.

A few guards had come and gone from the room and talked with Mister Milarn briefly before running off again.

Then the parents started filing in. It was only a few at a time, but there were tearful reunions across the board. One parent or two would come in for each kid, there’d be a bunch of hugging and some crying, then they would be taken from the room and the next parent would go in.

I found out later from my mothers that the surprisingly high number of still living parents wasn’t actually that unusual. Reportedly, the demonic sect actively avoided killing the parents of the kids they took. Apparently one of the survivors from a previous caravan had heard the ramblings of one of the crazed demonic Cultivators shouting about spreading despair and wanting all of the parents to suffer knowing their kids would be taken and…well, hopefully killed.

I didn’t want to think of the other potential options, even now.

It was apparently standard in the recent months of attacks that the survivors from most of the sect’s attacks on caravans would be practically just the parents of the missing children.

In any case, I do remember being one of two kids still sitting in that stone room alone at the end with Mister Milarn. He was doing his best to cheer us up and keep us happy, but I was doing fine. Honestly, I was pretty happy that my mom and dad weren’t there, because I was so sure they would have been angry with me, and probably would’ve hit me for disappearing like that.

It felt like there was a long time between when the last kid had gotten picked up by her parents and when Emery and Avuri were finally brought inside the room. They looked tired, but both smiled when they came into the room. They both waved to me and the other boy who was still there, and we both waved back. Then they were taken out of the room again by their guard along with Mister Milarn, who assured us he would be right back.

That wait I don’t recall taking very long. They all came back into the room, with their smiles still on, but they weren’t quite the same. Mister Milarn had walked over to the other boy in the room, scooped him up and left the room with him, while Emery and Avuri had come over to kneel in front of me. I’m pretty sure I was sitting on the ground just staring at them like the three year old I was.

“Hi.” Emery had said, her smile growing warm again. “Do you know your name, sweetie?”

“Stena.” I said, shyly. Emery and Avuri had shared a look and a shrug at the name. I’m not sure if Stena was the name actually given to me by my birth parents. It’s entirely possible I couldn’t say my actual name right. My mothers have even joked about it more than once, that I was officially named by myself.

“Stena, then.” Emery said, crouching and hugging her knees. She tried to look as friendly as she could, but she also looked sad. “I don’t…Hm. I don’t think your mommy and daddy are going to be able to come back for you, Stena.” She plopped down onto the floor in front of me as she spoke, and was clearly searching for the right thing to say to a small child.

“Did the…bad guys get them?” I asked. I remember Emery and Avuri both looking mildly confused that I wasn’t obviously upset but they both kept smiles in place as they continued.

“I think so. The bad guys hurt a lot of people, and we think that they took your parents too.” Avuri said, moving up next to Emery to also sit down on the hard, cold stone floor.

“Okay…” I said, my little three year old brain working to understand all that to the best of my ability. “So…so where do I live now?” I asked. Mom and Dad had always said I had no choice but to live with them and that I always had to stay with them no matter what. “Do I have to go live with the bad guys too, like Mom and Dad?” I asked, my voice laced with fear. “I don’t want to do that.”

Emery reached out a hand and gently placed it on top of my head, stroking in gentle, comforting circles. “Oh, sweetie, you don’t have to do that.”

“Then where?” I asked lamely.

Emery and Avuri exchanged another look. “I know we just met you, but how do you feel about staying with us?” Emery asked. “We have another girl who lost her mom and dad like you, too. Maybe you could be friends.”

My eyes went wide. “Friends?” I had never had a friend before. I was always stuck at home with Mom and Dad.

Avuri nodded. “Mhm. Do you know what friends are?”

I nodded. “I’ve never had one though. Mom and Dad didn’t let me leave our house.” I said. Another look passed between Emery and Avuri, one much darker than before.

“If you think you’re okay staying with us, the good guys taking care of this town said you could go with us.” Emery said, her hand ruffling my hair. “You’re also allowed to say no to us, and they’ll try to find you a nice family to live with here in the town.”

I looked at both of them for a long time, thinking about it, then my three-year-old brain decided to bluntly ask, “Will you both be nice to me?”

They both smiled and chuckled at that. It was a much nicer sound than the one my parents had made when I asked them questions like that. “Of course.” Avuri said. “You’ll get at least three meals a day, your own room, and your own bed.”

“Unless you want to share with us, like the other girl does.” Emery added. “You’re welcome to do that too.”

That sounded really nice. If they weren’t going to be mean, that was at least better than when I was with my parents.

“I’ll stay with you.” I said, making up my mind.

And that was pretty much it. Emery and Avuri talked to the guard after that, and we left together.

I remember getting food in the town before we left, and it was really good. While we were sitting at a table outside and eating, I randomly turned to Emery and asked, “What should I call you?”

She looked a little surprised. “Oh, did we not tell you our names?”

I shook my head, and she smiled. “I’m Emery.” She said, placing a hand on her chest. Then she touched Avuri’s shoulder. “And this is Avuri.”

Avuri nodded without saying anything because her mouth was full. I scrunched up my nose and repeated, “Em-er-y. A-vu-ri.”

Avuri swallowed her mouthful then, and said, “Our other girl calls her ‘Mom’. And she calls me ‘Momri’. Is that easier?”

I nodded. “I can do that.”

We all ate a bit more in relative silence before I asked. “Are you my new Moms, then?”

Emery choked on her food at the sudden blunt question, but Avuri recovered quickly. “Do…you want us to be?” She asked lightly.

“I don’t know. If you’re nice to me, maybe.” I said and continued to eat my lunch. Emery and Avuri both laughed.

After lunch, we were on our way for real. My mothers bought a small sling bag and refashioned it so that I could ride in it while they basically flew with massive leaps. I took a few turns riding strapped to each of their chests as we traveled back to the Basin.

“Wow, Stena,” Kaili said, “your story is so…boring? I guess in comparison at least.” She was holding a stick with some meat on it over a campfire on the playground, as were a number of the kids. They had been trading stories about how they were each taken in by their Moms, though many had already heard these stories.

Stena shrugged. “Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to tell when you’re three. I barely remember a lot of what was going on around then.”

“But you took it all so well!” Enrik said, loudly. “Flyn and Evin were both taken in when they were little like that too, but all they did was cry for a while and want their parents. Hell, most of us were like that at first, I imagine.”

Stena snorted and smiled. “I guess you didn’t catch my hints during my storytime, then, Enrik.” She said, keeping her voice light. “I don’t remember my birth parents well. What I do remember of them was that they were…well, they weren’t good parents. They were abusive. They would hit me, and yell at me for everything.”

Stena paused before continuing. “Not so bad that I would get injured or anything, but I imagine that was because I was still little. I’m sure that if I had stayed with them as a family, I probably wouldn’t even be alive right now. I certainly wouldn’t be happy.”

With the mood soured, everyone went quiet for a bit before Kord piped up. “Wait. Didn’t Mom say you were a little hellion as a child, and that you were one of the most depressed out of all of us? That doesn’t match your story.”

Stena sighed. “Yeah, all that came later. I guess you don’t remember, Kord? It was around when you joined the family.”

He gave her a blank look and shook his head. “When Momri first took me in, I was pretty shut off from everyone.”

“Ha, that’s true. You shut yourself in your room and wouldn’t talk to me or Cierra for a while.” Stena said, lost in her reminiscing for a moment. “But anyway, it was around when I was ten that I started really being trouble for Mom. I was frustrated because Cierra was better than me at just about anything, and I felt…well, let’s just say I was massively depressed and leave it at that. That’s a story for another night, maybe.”

She kept her voice light and bright, then clapped to try to get everyone back on track. “Come on, y'all! We were supposed to be having fun out here while we made ourselves a camping dinner!”

Karn snorted derisively. “Oh, yeah, camping. A little ways from our houses in the playground. How exciting.”

Stena eyed them dangerously. “Keep talking like that, and I’m gonna take the skewer of beef you’ve got in your hand there, buddy.”

Karn defensively huddled around their long skewer as they tried to keep the meat over the fire. “I was just joking.” They stammered. “It’s great out here! Whoo!” They shouted, trying to sound excited.

Stena laughed. “Fine, just finish cooking your meat. Anyone who doesn’t think it’s cool to camp in the playground is more than welcome to go sleep in your bed. We don’t need you out here anyway.”

Ritz and Shara shouted together, “We think you’re cool, Stena!”

Stena pointed to them with her skewer. “See? They can stay.”