Passage Ch.5 Haplo's Children
Summary: Life is a journey with snapshots kept in your memories
Takes place after The Seventh Gate.
Hinted Alfred/Haplo and Marit/Haplo because after re-reading the books I realized that Marit wasn't so bad.
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A small girl with short hair ran past Alfred with a sharp needle and he shuddered, trying very hard not to think about what was happening in the tent behind him. Instead, he gazed across a bustling camp of about thirty patryns. A mensch would have been surprised at how quiet they were; all conversations were carried out in low tones and chores were done quickly and efficiently. Even with all the years that he had spent living and fighting with them he didn’t think he would ever grow completely comfortablce with their ways of thinking or living.
Several patryn were inscribing runes of accuracy on their weapons. A nearby Squatters camp had had sightings of an unusually large group of Chaordyn roaming nearby. Tomorrow they would hunt and whittle down their numbers. They wouldn’t wipe them out entirely; they had learned at great cost that utterly defeating or destroying a powerful enemy would often cause the Labyrinth to backlash and create an enemy twice as fearsome. The best strategy was to simply weaken an opponent.
Behind him the tent flaps rustled and he sighed in relief as he turned to see a young woman with short dark hair emerge. With a broad smile she embraced him. “My final tattoo, Alfred,” she proudly pointed to her hand. Alfred looked at the red and inflamed skin and paled, averting his eyes. After the fourth or fifth time that he fainted during a tattooing ceremony it had been decided that he should wait outside.
“I’m an adult now. I can fight as your equal.”
Meeting her blue eyes he smiled sadly, “You’ll always be a child to me, Cobalt.” Her eyes narrowed in annoyance, but grudgingly nodded and turned to stand at his side. Her name wasn’t really Cobalt. The name her heart rune spelled was Rue, just as the small girl bouncing up to him had also been named Rue.
“I made the needle that Haplo used,” her high voice declared.
“Yes Dancer, you did very good.” Patryns outside of the city or the Nexus never sang or played music. Sound carried too far in the Labyrinth, so they had learned to dance without music. Dancer had been named for her grace and love of this dance. Although Marit sometimes said that it was because she was incapable of sitting still. Marit exaggerated, of course; patryn children learned to fight and stay completely still and quiet or they died young.
Girls of varying ages were quietly leaving the tent. They were all so different; Flight, who collected weapons, Tawny, named for her unusual hair, Hunter, would could create incredible illusions with her runes, Sunny, who refused to wear shoes, and River, who always had a sarcastic retort ready. Yet except for Hunter underneath all their leather tunics were etched the runes which spelled the word and the name Rue.
Finally Marit and then Haplo came out. Haplo winced slightly as he straightened and Alfred knew that his heart rune was hurting again. Despite that, Haplo had his quiet smile firmly in place as he met his dark eyes. With a surprisingly easy comradery they turned as a group to collect their evening meal, the other patryns nodding respectfully as they passed, many making a point to include Cobalt to acknowledge her new status. They collected a simple meal of leavened bread and cold beans, and then settled on the hard ground. Alfred grimaced as his bones creaked in protest as he sat. When he looked up Haplo was watching worriedly and he attempted a reassuring smile. Haplo frowned, but turned to answer a question from Sunny.
Flight had pulled a sword out from somewhere and was sharpening it inbetween bites. To her side Cobalt was showing Dancer and Sunny her new tattoo with a hint of stifled pride. Tawny, ever hungry, had been caught attempting to steal River’s bread and was receiving some sharp, if quiet, words in response. Hunter and Haplo were laughing quietly at something and seeing their smiles Alfred reflexively smiled himself. Marit, sometimes bewildered at their children’s lightheartedness, was watching them too and shook her head in exasperation before returning to her meal.
Content, Alfred quickly finished off his beans. He would need his strength for tomorrow. Once finished Haplo quietly gathered a select group of patryn to discuss their strategy for tomorrow. Alfred, in dragon form, would chase the chaodyn into a nearby canyon, where they would be surrounded by the patryn who would lead with arrows and spears before engaging in close quarters. Once their numbers had been cut down enough Haplo would sound the call to retreat. If necessary Haplo could transport wounded on his back to a designated area. A select few healers and the youngest patryn, Sunny and Dancer, would stay back to receive any wounded. It hurt Alfred to know that the children would probably see horrific injuries and death tomorrow, may be killed or injured themselves, but he had accepted long ago that it was an evil that he would have to live with in the Labyrinth. Marit and Haplo took it better than him, but they had come from a long line of parents who knew that they and their children would be killed by the Labyrinth.
Looking across from him he met Haplo’s understanding eyes. He watched him in his quiet way before nodding. They would meet tonight and join together their circles, just as they always did when they knew that there was a major conflict on the way.
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Marit watched the quiet camp, deep shadows pooled in smears across the landscape. Night in the Labyrinth was still, too still, hiding lurking evil. Behind her was a small tent, shared by Haplo, Alfred and herself, to its side Haplo’s most children slept in a larger tent. Flight was on watch at the moment. Haplo and Alfred were quiet in the tent behind her; none of Alfred’s stammering or Haplo’s calm statements. She couldn’t pretend to understand what they had. She and Haplo thought alike, understood each other, could almost read each other’s thoughts at times. But he and Alfred shared a heart she could not read and could not understand. At first it had made her angry that she would never have all of Haplo, but in time she came to accept it. Alfred had a part of Haplo and she couldn’t have, and Marit had her own piece of him that Alfred couldn’t have.
A slender form slipped the children’s tent; Tawny on her way to replace her sister on the watch. They nodded a greeting to each other. There was one thing that all three of them could share; the girls. They had searched long and hard through the Labyrinth for the Rue that Marit had given birth to so long ago, and maybe they had found her, and maybe they hadn’t. Alfred and Haplo couldn’t bear to take an orphaned child from a loving guardian, whatever her name, and so they had found, and left, many Rues in their travels. Along the way though, they had found some in the hands of uncaring parents or alone with no one to care for them, and had taken them along. Most of them were named Rue, but some of them, like Hunter, had a different name. In the end it didn’t matter, just like it didn’t really matter if Haplo had fathered them or not. Somehow or another they had found themselves to be the parents of a large and strange family.
A few, although thankfully not many, they had been forced to bury alongside the road; a grief that had nearly destroyed them all. Alfred said that as long as they continued to love, no matter what was thrown their way it would be good enough. Marit rolled her eyes, but somewhere deep inside couldn’t help but agree and so had continued to welcome children into her arms even after so many years and many hardships. Many of their children were fully grown now, and some lead their own groups of patryn warriors. Others, like Flight, had chosen to stay with them. Many of the patryn affectionately called them “the Labyrinth’s Rue” and wherever they travelled brought what their three strange parents had taught them; not only how to fight with body and mind, but also how to fight with their hearts, by loving deeply and without reserve.
Takes place after The Seventh Gate.
Hinted Alfred/Haplo and Marit/Haplo because after re-reading the books I realized that Marit wasn't so bad.
-------
A small girl with short hair ran past Alfred with a sharp needle and he shuddered, trying very hard not to think about what was happening in the tent behind him. Instead, he gazed across a bustling camp of about thirty patryns. A mensch would have been surprised at how quiet they were; all conversations were carried out in low tones and chores were done quickly and efficiently. Even with all the years that he had spent living and fighting with them he didn’t think he would ever grow completely comfortablce with their ways of thinking or living.
Several patryn were inscribing runes of accuracy on their weapons. A nearby Squatters camp had had sightings of an unusually large group of Chaordyn roaming nearby. Tomorrow they would hunt and whittle down their numbers. They wouldn’t wipe them out entirely; they had learned at great cost that utterly defeating or destroying a powerful enemy would often cause the Labyrinth to backlash and create an enemy twice as fearsome. The best strategy was to simply weaken an opponent.
Behind him the tent flaps rustled and he sighed in relief as he turned to see a young woman with short dark hair emerge. With a broad smile she embraced him. “My final tattoo, Alfred,” she proudly pointed to her hand. Alfred looked at the red and inflamed skin and paled, averting his eyes. After the fourth or fifth time that he fainted during a tattooing ceremony it had been decided that he should wait outside.
“I’m an adult now. I can fight as your equal.”
Meeting her blue eyes he smiled sadly, “You’ll always be a child to me, Cobalt.” Her eyes narrowed in annoyance, but grudgingly nodded and turned to stand at his side. Her name wasn’t really Cobalt. The name her heart rune spelled was Rue, just as the small girl bouncing up to him had also been named Rue.
“I made the needle that Haplo used,” her high voice declared.
“Yes Dancer, you did very good.” Patryns outside of the city or the Nexus never sang or played music. Sound carried too far in the Labyrinth, so they had learned to dance without music. Dancer had been named for her grace and love of this dance. Although Marit sometimes said that it was because she was incapable of sitting still. Marit exaggerated, of course; patryn children learned to fight and stay completely still and quiet or they died young.
Girls of varying ages were quietly leaving the tent. They were all so different; Flight, who collected weapons, Tawny, named for her unusual hair, Hunter, would could create incredible illusions with her runes, Sunny, who refused to wear shoes, and River, who always had a sarcastic retort ready. Yet except for Hunter underneath all their leather tunics were etched the runes which spelled the word and the name Rue.
Finally Marit and then Haplo came out. Haplo winced slightly as he straightened and Alfred knew that his heart rune was hurting again. Despite that, Haplo had his quiet smile firmly in place as he met his dark eyes. With a surprisingly easy comradery they turned as a group to collect their evening meal, the other patryns nodding respectfully as they passed, many making a point to include Cobalt to acknowledge her new status. They collected a simple meal of leavened bread and cold beans, and then settled on the hard ground. Alfred grimaced as his bones creaked in protest as he sat. When he looked up Haplo was watching worriedly and he attempted a reassuring smile. Haplo frowned, but turned to answer a question from Sunny.
Flight had pulled a sword out from somewhere and was sharpening it inbetween bites. To her side Cobalt was showing Dancer and Sunny her new tattoo with a hint of stifled pride. Tawny, ever hungry, had been caught attempting to steal River’s bread and was receiving some sharp, if quiet, words in response. Hunter and Haplo were laughing quietly at something and seeing their smiles Alfred reflexively smiled himself. Marit, sometimes bewildered at their children’s lightheartedness, was watching them too and shook her head in exasperation before returning to her meal.
Content, Alfred quickly finished off his beans. He would need his strength for tomorrow. Once finished Haplo quietly gathered a select group of patryn to discuss their strategy for tomorrow. Alfred, in dragon form, would chase the chaodyn into a nearby canyon, where they would be surrounded by the patryn who would lead with arrows and spears before engaging in close quarters. Once their numbers had been cut down enough Haplo would sound the call to retreat. If necessary Haplo could transport wounded on his back to a designated area. A select few healers and the youngest patryn, Sunny and Dancer, would stay back to receive any wounded. It hurt Alfred to know that the children would probably see horrific injuries and death tomorrow, may be killed or injured themselves, but he had accepted long ago that it was an evil that he would have to live with in the Labyrinth. Marit and Haplo took it better than him, but they had come from a long line of parents who knew that they and their children would be killed by the Labyrinth.
Looking across from him he met Haplo’s understanding eyes. He watched him in his quiet way before nodding. They would meet tonight and join together their circles, just as they always did when they knew that there was a major conflict on the way.
--------
Marit watched the quiet camp, deep shadows pooled in smears across the landscape. Night in the Labyrinth was still, too still, hiding lurking evil. Behind her was a small tent, shared by Haplo, Alfred and herself, to its side Haplo’s most children slept in a larger tent. Flight was on watch at the moment. Haplo and Alfred were quiet in the tent behind her; none of Alfred’s stammering or Haplo’s calm statements. She couldn’t pretend to understand what they had. She and Haplo thought alike, understood each other, could almost read each other’s thoughts at times. But he and Alfred shared a heart she could not read and could not understand. At first it had made her angry that she would never have all of Haplo, but in time she came to accept it. Alfred had a part of Haplo and she couldn’t have, and Marit had her own piece of him that Alfred couldn’t have.
A slender form slipped the children’s tent; Tawny on her way to replace her sister on the watch. They nodded a greeting to each other. There was one thing that all three of them could share; the girls. They had searched long and hard through the Labyrinth for the Rue that Marit had given birth to so long ago, and maybe they had found her, and maybe they hadn’t. Alfred and Haplo couldn’t bear to take an orphaned child from a loving guardian, whatever her name, and so they had found, and left, many Rues in their travels. Along the way though, they had found some in the hands of uncaring parents or alone with no one to care for them, and had taken them along. Most of them were named Rue, but some of them, like Hunter, had a different name. In the end it didn’t matter, just like it didn’t really matter if Haplo had fathered them or not. Somehow or another they had found themselves to be the parents of a large and strange family.
A few, although thankfully not many, they had been forced to bury alongside the road; a grief that had nearly destroyed them all. Alfred said that as long as they continued to love, no matter what was thrown their way it would be good enough. Marit rolled her eyes, but somewhere deep inside couldn’t help but agree and so had continued to welcome children into her arms even after so many years and many hardships. Many of their children were fully grown now, and some lead their own groups of patryn warriors. Others, like Flight, had chosen to stay with them. Many of the patryn affectionately called them “the Labyrinth’s Rue” and wherever they travelled brought what their three strange parents had taught them; not only how to fight with body and mind, but also how to fight with their hearts, by loving deeply and without reserve.