“Alistar,” called the upstart cook, “Come and eat! If you don’t, then I can’t promise there’ll be anything left for you!”
“I’m going to stay in the river for a few more minutes,” he called back, subconsciously stooping lower as the eyes of the others drifted in his direction.
Oh no… He glanced downward to double check that nothing beneath the surface of the river was visible. What do I do? The sights that he had just seen were too fresh in his mind for him to forget them anytime soon, which posed quite a problem as his body was currently exhibiting the sort of reaction that one would expect from a healthy young lad such as himself.
His body didn’t show any signs of change as the minutes dragged by, so he resorted to drastic measures and opened a long cut on his forearm with a slight exertion of swordsman’s aura that he formed at the tip of an index finger. The pain immediately cleared his mind, allowing for him to calm down as a visible cloud of blood was carried away by the current. Casting a discreet mending spell, he followed after the others as soon as he had collected himself, a bit uncomfortable when he noticed that Lessa and Anice couldn’t meet his gaze.
This awkward air didn’t go unnoticed by some of their friends, though thankfully they didn’t bring it up. All in all, the evening proved to be a very enjoyable one, with everyone going in and out of the Greyline at their leisure while Woods continued to cook a seemingly endless supply of food for them.
Once everyone had grown tired of playing in the water, they cleared the hot rocks from the fire pit’s embers and nurtured a large bonfire around which all twelve of them gathered. No sooner had the flames reached the height of a man’s shoulders than Zech dragged his leather rucksack over to the tree stump where he’d been sitting and pulled out a large bottle of clear liquid.
“What’s that?” asked Emely, eyeing the concoction with curiosity.
“You didn’t…” said Woods, recognizing the bottle almost immediately. “Your parents are going to kill you. Ah, if they find out I was with you, they’ll kill me too.”
“What?” said Anice, running her fingers through damp, crimson hair that reached down to her navel. “Did you take that from the tavern?”
“I did,” he smiled. “It’s the spirits we make from fermented potatoes.”
“Spirits?” said Helen, brown eyes curious. “Ms. Ersen has some at least a few times a week, but she never lets me have any. Can I try it?”
Zech took a long pull from the bottle, which ended with an immediate grimace and a few off-putting coughs. “Why do you think I brought it? Just be aware that it’s terribly disgusting.”
Sitting next to the young swordsman, Helen accepted the bottle with interested hands and gingerly placed its mouth to her lips. She immediately spat out the sip she’d tried to swallow, doubling over and coughing so hard that by the time she calmed down her face was stained with tears and a little river of snot. She crawled over to the river as soon as she recovered and promptly washed her face.
“That was terrible!”
“I told you.”
Jaden took the bottle next, taking down a sizeable mouthful with a curled lip that was followed by a long, precarious exhale. “It tastes like the medicine Mother May makes whenever one of the kids are sick.”
Woods, Corrie, and Emely cast nervous glances at Helen, who nodded in agreement as she returned to her seat.
“It’s worth it, I promise,” smiled Zech, a mischievous look in his pale blue eyes. “If you can tough out a couple of sips, it’ll have you feeling right giddy for a few hours.”
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Jaden passed the bottle along to Corrie, who was forced to take a sip after an attempt to hand it off to Emely with a look of disinterest. The spirits gradually made their rounds, the bottle half-empty by the time the hour was out.
Zech hadn’t been lying about the taste of the drink, for whenever it came time for Alistar to take a turn he found himself suddenly appreciating the rough taste of Tramon’s favoured fire whiskey. As far as he was concerned, when it came to classifying spirits there were different grades of disgusting, and evidently the less revolting one was the higher its quality.
The following hours were quite fun. The guys wrestled, raced and joked with one another while the girls whispered amongst themselves or otherwise teased the boys for inconsequential things. The group horsed around until the dying hours of the day, deciding to leave once the twilit sky became heavily overcast and threatened to release a torrential rain.
Jaden saw the triplets home, while Zech and Corrie made sure that Helen and Emely returned to the orphanage in safe order. This left Alistar and Anice to escort Lessa back to her estate, the three of them enjoying the gleeful feeling of slight inebriation as they made the short trip across the city. Afterward, he and Anice returned home to find that, as usual, Caedmon and Alder weren’t present at the estate. Sensing that her father wasn’t around for the fifth night in a row, Anice became a bit disheartened and thus didn’t allow Alistar to retire to his room.
Tired as he was, he tried to sneak away but was pestered by his cousin like a lost puppy in search of affection. When he finally arrived at his quarters, he refused to allow her to sleep in his bed and forced her out of the room with a frustrated shove.
“Stupid Alie!” she called before he sensed her aura rushing off towards the stone staircase with angry steps.
Although he felt bad for sending her off, he knew that if she stuck around in their current state then he would run the risk of embarrassing himself just as had happened the previous time around. After catching a full view of her breasts at the river, there was no way that he’d be able to get any sleep with her lying by his side. Just the thought of what he’d seen, the surprising size and wonderfully rounded shapes, he doubted that he could ever look at her through the same lens again. She might have been immature, but there was no denying that Anice was growing into a captivating woman.
Her Name Day isn’t far off, he thought, drifting into sleep as he relived the blissful moment from earlier in the evening that would forever remain ingrained within his memory. I hope she likes her gift…
***
Alistar awoke late the following morning, surprised to find that Caedmon had returned home at some point during his slumber. Although he appeared tired and pale, his uncle seemed to be in the highest of spirits as most members of the household sat down to share a hefty breakfast.
“Did you guys make a breakthrough with one of your inventions?” asked Alistar, who was in the midst of helping himself to a heaping plate of seconds. “I can’t remember the last time you looked so pleased.”
As if he had been waiting for someone to ask, Caedmon stood up from his chair and retrieved a large cloth bag from beneath the table. Clearing a space in front of him, he pulled out ten identical books that were all bound with the same dark, tanned leather.
“I’m proud to say that the printing press is officially a success.” Handing the books out for the others at the table to inspect, he said, “Down to the last letter, these books are all the same. This particular work is what we’ve been working so hard to replicate over the past several weeks, an extensive lesson on letters that will make it much easier for the average person to learn how to read and write so long as they have a decent teacher.”
Smiling in equal elation, Alder added, “You should know that these were all made in a single day.”
Flipping through the pages of the copy that had been passed down to him, Alistar couldn’t help but be impressed. To copy ten books out by hand would have taken at least a month and a half, even for the most talented of scribes.
“Did Bishop Rendel approve of your petition, then?”
Hearing this, his uncle’s expression sank.
“He said that he would pass it on to the officials in Providence Region, but he seems oddly against it.” Perking up almost immediately, he added, “However, I think I’ve found a way to go around his efforts of suppressing our inventions. It’s not yet widely known, but around this time next year a large delegation from the imperial province will be conducting a grand tour throughout Civus, and they’ll be headed by a prominent bishop from the clergy.”
Following his uncle’s train of thought, Alistar said, “You hope to ask him about it, then?”
Caedmon nodded. “While he and Rendel are both bishops, this man holds far more influence.”
“Bishop Maels is the newly appointed ruler of the County of Karolen,” agreed Alder, whose dark hair was slicked back in its usual style. “Let alone someone like Rendel, he can almost speak on equal terms with King Glenden.”
The County of Karolen?