To Spread the Word

[ChrisWk]

Chiharu could hear them talking in the distance, but he couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying, besides the times when Silmani would raise her voice, like when saying: ‘WHAT’ and ‘THAT’, however, that didn’t get him far as to figure out what they were saying.
The young silverhead picked up a stick and started drawing the the dirt with it, drawing the map of a kingdom, and more detailed: a town.
He had always drawn this exact map, never any changes to it. For some reason, he just knew it, and had always known it. Little did he know, that he knew the map of the world from just memory, and not only that, but it was nearly perfect as well.
(I don’t mind, go all out my short replies pale in comparison to yours >_< )

[GalacticBattles]

By this time,Silmani was standing over the man, and there was an unspoken threat in her narrowed eyes.
"You WILL tell me why you've come here and attacked us, and you will tell me NOW!"
At last, the man answered. "I come here because Mareydland is starving. We lost power over Corando twenty years before, and since then we all live in poverty, and our infants are dying."
The mention of dying infants and starving people pained Silmani visibly. The man seemed to see this and went on.
"The king of Mareydland and i must feed our people if the kingdom is ever to survive and become great again, and although the Griffane Valley was never part of the Empire, we intend to have it for ourselves. We want its fruits and its livestock and its people for ourselves, and i was sent here to take it. But most of the people have gone now."
A chill ran up Silmani's spine. "What did you want with the Griffane people?"
"We wanted slaves - laborers - farmers and shepherds."
"Why did you torture Chiharu? Answer me this instant!"
For the first time, the man took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Some of the stoic coldness had cracked, and Silmani saw this as a good sign.
When he opened his eyes once again, however, they were as baleful as ever.
"I wanted to take his life painfully because he is alive - and has become goodhearted.
"He is a Griffane boy. His mother was the daughter of a Griffane nobleman, and a Mareydian lord persuaded her to marry him. He used her wealth to feed soldiers of the Brothers of Horia and offered their child as a gift to the king of Mareydland before he was ever born."

Silmani came to Chiharu hours later. She was pale and looked exhausted.

[ChrisWk]

Chiharu sat there drawing his little map in the dirt, adding details here and there. It was getting rather complex by the time Silmani came down to the young silverhead. He put his stick away and sat down against his rock and wrapped his arms around his knees when he heard Silmani come walking down the hill towards him.
He was still not feeling too great and was a little upset, even though several hours had passed since the spanking and Silmani scolding him. It wasn't the fact that she had whipped his bottom or scolded him that he was upset about, but rather the fact that she punished him to the point where he was bawling, and still didn't forgive him, or so it seemed to the blue eyed boy when she didn't comfort him.
He heard her step over to him, and looked over in her general direction, but not making eye contact. "..Did he say anything worth mentioning?.." he asked, a little curious as to what they had been talking about for so long.

[GalacticBattles]

Silmani sat down without a word. She held out her arms for Chiharu.

[ChrisWk]

Despite being a little pouty about the punishment earlier, he had been longing for a hug for quite some time, and with only a slight hint of hesitation at first, he leaned over and hugged her tightly.

[GalacticBattles]

Despite his age, Silmani gathered him onto her lap and held him tightly. She pressed his cheek against hers, then kissed his forehead, and was silent for a long time.

[ChrisWk]

Chiharu was perhaps 13, but that didn't mean a thing, he was still a kid and loved hugs more than anything. Just that warm hug from Silmani was enough for him to forget about what had happened earlier. He didn't say anything either.

[GalacticBattles]

At length, Silmani cupped his face in her hands and met his eyes.
"My nephew, I have something to tell you - something of yourself and your mother and father."

[ChrisWk]

Chiharu looked up at her in slight confusion, as he had no idea that this would be what she had to say. He had never even seen his parents before, and no one in the village had either.
The young silverhead had never thought highly of his parents, but he was still very much interested in hearing about them.
"W-What?.."

[GalacticBattles]

Silmani sat there, then, and explained everything to him. She explained who Jiblissar really was, told him about the Brothers of Horia, about the plight of Mareydland and about his having been offered as a gift to the king.
"My nephew, the king saw in a dream that having thirty children would make him powerful, that each ofthem would conquer and rule a wealthy kingdom for him. But he did not have thirty children, and so he took them from other families, and, with fruits that he stole from the river that lay between Mareydland and Uniosen, believing they were blessed fruits, he attempted to bless himself by blessing each of his adopted children. All of the children that he took were from desperate, hungry families, with the exception of you. But your mother did not know about the evil inside of the king or in Jandal until they tried to force feed her the fruit while she was carrying you, tried to force her to accept that you belonged to the king. She struggled, refused to eat it. It's thought that something happened then that frightened your mother - even frightened you - so terribly that you were born gray-haired. All of the babies who were fed the fruit died. They weren't blessed as the king hoped they would be."