RP post: In Gotland with Kate Barlow

[ostro_goth]

The door opens as if out of a hillside; and below the hill, a farm nestles.

In it centre, there's a large long-house built from field-stones and large beams, thatched in reed and low-eaved; around it, there are outbuildings: baking oven, smithy, chicken coop, storage and the like. Cows, sheep and goats are grazing on the hills around; there are chickens and geese in the yard, and horses in a meadow.

Children are playing hide-and-seek among the buildings, and two tall burly men, one older and one younger, are hard at work at the smithy, mending sickles and scythes.

It is the early evening.

Comments

[ikissdhimbck]

The first thing Kate notices as they walk out into the open is the smell. The air is fresh and clean, sweet with moisture from a fertile land. The scent of animals is pleasant, with the undertone of fresh goods all carried on a gentle breeze. She draws in a deep lungful.

It's practically idyllic. Kate's never seen a farm like this. It's so different from anything she grew up around in Texas. It does remind her of the countryside in France, but she never had the opportunity to wander it; so she beams, turning her face up to shower Teja in the fullness of her excitement.

[ostro_goth]

One of the children gives a screech, and then the entire horde comes streaming towards them, running and waving and shouting.

"There seem to be very many of those, when one first meets them," Teja says, fondly. "This is a good place to flourish in."

[ikissdhimbck]

She laughs gaily, watching the children rush to them.

'Miss Katherine! Miss Katherine!'

"I understand. It looks like a very productive place indeed."

She shoos away the memories of her schoolchildren once they turn to the day she left town; the way they all scattered and ran from her, hiding behind closed doors. Instead, she gives these children plenty of room so they can pounce on Teja properly.

[ostro_goth]

The first to reach Teja is a little blonde girl of about five or six, launching herself at him like a pouncing lynx, squealing with glee.

Other children, slightly older, cluster around Teja, and hugs them as the little girl clings to him quite well on her own, and then there's the oldest, teenagers, a boy and a girl. The boy has a tiny creature of about two, in short little shirts and of (as yet) indiscriminate gender, clinging to each of his hands, clearly twins, who are looking at Teja with big expectant eyes.

[ikissdhimbck]

It's sweet watching him like this. He's always so serious in Milliways, even when he's crawling with cats.

The children obviously love him. She stands back, laughing, keeping quiet until some of the older ones grow nearer. She greets them with a polite curtsy.

"How d'you do?"

[gotland_npc]

The oldest girl gives Kate a polite little curtsey.

"Greetings," she says. "Any friend of our King's is ever welcome with us."

She is about fourteen or fifteen, and trying to be more prim and formal than she is.

[ikissdhimbck]

"Thank you for your kindness."

That's the way with strangers, isn't it? You act on your best behavior, recall all your manners, and treat the other with reverence. Kate's sweet Southern voice turns a touch milder.

[ostro_goth]

"Can we go in now, or shall you all wrestle me to the ground?" Teja asks.

The children giggle. Even the serious older girl.

[ikissdhimbck]

"Y'wouldn't deny them their fun, would you, Teja?"

She smiles innocently.

"Besides, I haven't been introduced yet."

[ostro_goth]

"This is Kate Barlow, from a place close to the one William is from," Teja says. "She is a good friend, and takes care of the horses in the place that is my afterlife."

"Your horse was here!" a little boy pipes up. "Beaut! William took care of her!"

"That is Athalwin, one of Wachis's sons," Teja says. "These children are, by their parents and ages, the children of Wachis my former shield-bearer, and his wife Liuta: - Rauthgundis, who came into being when we were on Mount Vesuvius, and I still alive; Witichis and Athalwin, her younger brothers, and Ursula and Hilde, her even younger sisters. Her youngest brother Sameth is still so small, he cannot leave his mother's side yet. Hilde is the small monkey who climbed me; she has taken a special liking to me."

And he to her -- that is obvious.

"And the others are the children of my former cup-bearer and pupil, Adalgoth, and his wife Gotho: Alaric, who is almost as grown as Rauthgundis, and the twins, little Myrtia and Valeria. They are indeed named after the women that my predecessor Totila, and I, would each have married, had fate not intervened, as they were girls, and could not be a Teja and a Totila outright, as Adalgoth found fitting for twins. With enough years in-between, dead men's painful secrets become the stuff of stories, and I do not mind that."

[ikissdhimbck]

"She was!"

She turns her attention to the little boy, smile effulgent.

"She's come home t'me spoiled for what good care she received here. No doubt I owe you some thanks as well, young master. All of you. She's my dearest friend; knowin' she was cared for meant a great deal."

She repeats each name as Teja supplies them, nodding or curtsying where appropriate, dropping to a crouch when addressing the littlest of them. She's warm and friendly, chuckling when he introduces Hilde, complimenting her on her acrobatics.

Teja earns a meaningful look when he finishes his tale of he and his predecessor, eyes as deep as the ocean and still, the quirk of her mouth wry and sorry. Soon enough she's brightening, hands outstretched to the children.

"S'a pleasure t'meet you all. Who's gonna flatter me by showin' us to the village?"

[ostro_goth]

"I do!" Athalwin shouts out first. He adored William, he adored the horses, and he is determined to adore this lady as well.

"It's not a village, that's all our home!" Hilde adds, proudly.

[ikissdhimbck]

One can only hope it's not so difficult; Kate's well on her way to adoring Athalwin already.

Wide eyes flash to Hilde.

"S'that so? Every last one'a you under the same roof?"

[ostro_goth]

"We all live in the longhouse," Hilde says. "The cows and horses too, in winter, because then it's too cold to put them on the pasture, but in summer everything is more scattered out. And there's the baking ovens, and my ma has been baking, and my pa and Adalgoth's are working on the scythes, there, look!"

"Let's just go there and look!" Athalwin says, plucking at Kate's hand.

He's the one who gets to show Kate around, after all!

[ikissdhimbck]

"Why, that sounds fine."

She warms at the thought of such community. All these children growing together. She easily relinquishes her hand, happy to have Athalwin tug her along.

Teja gets one last fleeting smile.

[ostro_goth]

"They have taken you over already," Teja says. He picks up Myrtia and Valeria, and follows Kate and the children towards the farmstead.

"Adalgoth and Wachis, Gotho and Liuta, were the ones that were always with me during my last months when I was king: they stood beside me in my last battle. When the time came to settle here, they chose to all stay together, and raise their children in one place, by the foot of the barrow-hill where I lie buried, still not deserting me."

[ikissdhimbck]

"I don't mind a bit."

She sure looks happy. It's been some time since she's been surrounded by children like this.

"Will I get t'meet them as well? These comrades of yours?"

She doesn't comment on the strangeness of his grave. She'll ask him about it during a quiet moment; now doesn't seem like the time. It sends a chill down her spine just thinking about it.

[ostro_goth]

"Of course you will," Teja says. "They would not let a guest of mine come and go without greeting her, and offering her their hospitality."

"It means we get an extra nice dinner!" Athalwin declares happily. "With dessert!"

[ikissdhimbck]

She laughs.

"I'm always in favor of facilitatin' dessert."

[ostro_goth]

"But first you'll have to meet my pa, and Adalgoth, and our mas," Athalwin says.

The kids say 'pa' and 'ma' the way William does: - they picked it up from him, and it makes their little double family even more unique.

[ikissdhimbck]

It makes her warm from head to toe. She's fond of William, always wishing she could do more for him if he were the kind to let her.

"I'd like t'meet everybody. An' I charge you all with the responsibility of showin' me all your very favorite things here."

[ostro_goth]

"Then we go meet the horses first," Athalwin declares, and the other children follow along to where he drags Kate.

[ikissdhimbck]

He'll find no resistance, neither hear no fussing from Kate. It's the first place she goes in every world.

The Musée Vivant du Cheval in France, with Jasper and Alice.

The great Fae stables, even as she'd been kidnapped, with Weyland.


The barn in Colorado.


It's her joy, and as such it's hard to tell among them which are the children and which is the adult.

[ostro_goth]

The horses come as called, and Athalwin tells her their names and where they're from, and then there's one of the men from the smithy, the younger one with the broad shoulders and the brown hair, and he proudly talks about the horses' ancestry, and which of them came from the south-lands, and who their sires and grand-sires belonged to.

"This is Adalgoth," Teja says, when he finally gets a word in edgeways. "And that is Kate Barlow, whose horse you gave shelter, when my world was ending."

[ikissdhimbck]

She listens with rapt attention, both to Athalwin and Adalgoth in equal measure.

She is very clearly in her element.

"It's a pleasure t'meet you."

She bows her head, dropping into a shallow curtsy.

"Y'have a very fine boy, an' many fine horses. I see now why Beaut seemed so contented when she came home."