Derash keep
At Tier-rah’s they were received by Tier-rah’s man servant Minoe. Who ushered them into the waiting room as he went to summon his master. Mavrik felt a little apprehensive as he sat on Tier-rah’s crimson waiting room seats. He felt as if the walls would at any moment blurt out to his young siblings what they had witnessed. Was this a good idea? Mavrik thought.
“Thank you Minoe.” Mavrik looked up to see Tier-rah floating towards them.
He looked just as, if not more, beautiful as the last time Mavrik had seen him. They all stood up.
“Tier-rah.” Mavrik sighed, breathlessly and barely audibly. But just loud enough to draw puzzled looks from his siblings.
He quickly cleared his throat.
“Tier-rah.” He said more firmly as Tier-rah came to a stand in front of them.
“How are you?” Tier-rah said as he smiled at the children. He looked at them all closely. With particular interest in Manny, but not looking for longer than was pardonable.
“I, we. Are okay. It has been a while.”
“Yes it has Mavrik.” Tier-rah answered looking Mavrik in the eye. Mavrik felt all flustered once more. He felt his body warming to Tier-rah. He had to get a grip on himself, carrying on like a lovesick child.
Tier-rah looked as serene as ever. Which made Mavrik feel even guiltier than before. He had not seen Tier-rah in a while and all he could do was lust after him.
“Let us not just stand here.” Tier-rah led the way to one of the sitting rooms.
“Please sit sit.” Tier-rah said motioning them to sit.
Mavrik looked good he thought. The younger boy, rather chubby but not half bad. No, not bad at all. There were three others. Mavrik had said he had three brothers and three sisters. He wondered if the other brothers were as delectable as these two.
“Ah, this is my sister Avené and these are the twins Manny and a-a-Alorya.’
He enquired after how the children were. And a-a-Alorya who’s heart was in a flutter when Tier-rah had entered the waiting room was now completely in love with him.
“The others are in Derash outlands,’ Mavrik continued, “and we will be in the keep proper later.” Mavrik said, finally getting some measure of control over himself.
“Oh. I look forward to meeting them also. And what of your parents?”
Mavrik attempted what he hoped was an expression of loss and sorrow. He did not want Tier-rah to think he was callous and unfeeling about his parent’s death. And he also did not want to go into a long explanation about their relationship with their parents.
“They died,’ Mavrik said looking down for good measure, ‘Three days ago.” Injecting emotion into his voice.
“Died!”
“Yes a sudden and mysterious illness. Everything was tried but…”
“Oh Mavrik.” Tier-rah said putting his hand over Mavrik’s. Mavrik looked down at the long delicate fingers curled around his. Let’s just say pain over his
parents was not what was going through his mind.
“You poor children, but,’ Turning back to Mavrik, ‘What are you doing in Derash keep then?”
“We are on our way to our mother-mothers in the south.”
“Oh. Well you must be exhausted travelling all night.”
“We camped at the outskirts of your keep...” a-a-Alorya put in, recovering from some of her shyness.
“What! Camped? Mavrik why did you not come here?”
His real reason he could not say out loud in front of the children.
“Well there were six of us… I did not want to be any trouble…”
“Trouble? Oh Mavrik. I would have been happy to have you over. Really where are my manners. Children why do not you follow Minoe to the eating room and he will get you something nice to eat whilst Mavrik and I… catch up.”
Such a grand place was bound to have a lot of delicious things to eat. So the children followed Minoe, who had been standing nearby, eagerly. Leaving Mavrik alone with Tier-rah.
“Is there anything I can do Mavrik?” Tier-rah said stroking Mavrik’s arm.
“Well we do have a slight problem.”
“What?” Tier-rah asked as he continued to stroke Mavrik’s arm.
“We need to buy a carriage. Something simple and affordable to get us to our mother-mothers.”
“You mean you all left Tamrip keep without… on foot?”
“Our brother, a-Carrab stayed behind with his wife and we left everything with them,’ Tier-rah did not comment so he went on, ‘We are going to use a karakee. My brother Lon and my sister Mada are in the outlands as we speak, tracking karakee.”
“Tracking wild karakee?”
“Yes wild karakee.” Mavrik confirmed, feeling a little foolish even if it had not been his idea.
“Then you will be in Derash keep for some time then.”
“No we are leaving today.”
“To…,’ Tier-rah could not help laughing, ‘You must know that it will take longer than that to tame and train a karakee.”
“Well my sister seems to think she can do it. It’s crazy, I know, But we just lost our parents and this could be her delayed reaction to the shock and trauma so I thought what could it hurt to play along?”
“It is very good of you. Then you were always like that. I could get someone to drive you down to your mother-mo…”
“You do not have to go to all that trouble.”
“It is no trouble at all.”
Mavrik opened his mouth to protest. Which Tier-rah promptly put a silencing finger over.”
“It is no trouble Mavrik. I would be happy to do it. I just hope that either your brother or sister has experience with animals because it could be dangerous.”
“Lon is quite the expert tracker and trapper.”
“Good. So. Have you decided on a Kentish group? But then I suppose not, what with your parents illness and passing on and family obligations and what not. Do you plan to stay in the south permanently?” He was still stroking Mavrik’s arm.
“No I do not think... I do not know.”