[Katara's Room]
Rylan groaned, the ache in his head driving daggers of pain just behind his
eyes. Opening them slowly, he looked through his blurry vision to see the
barmaid looking down at him, "Bout time au woke up." she smiled.
"What the hell'd I get hit with?" he asked, trying to return her smile, but
the pain in the side of his head killed it before it could appear.
"Bottle of Rhennish..." she stated matter-of-factly, then added with a small
sigh, "I keep telling au to stay away from it...but au never listen to me.
See what happens? Au get blindsided with it!" she grinned playfully.
Holding the tweezers in one hand, she held his head steady with the other,
and pulled a sliver of glass from one of the many cuts on his head.
"Ow! Hey!" he sqirmed away at that, "What the..."
"Oh, au big baby; just hold still!" she turned his head back again, holding
it more firmly. "If au hadn't gotten into a fight, au wouldn't be hurt
now." she paused to give him a fake glare, and removed yet another piece of
glass, "Fighting in a bar like a common street-thug!" she smiled, and
clueless as to his situation, added with a slight raise of her brow, "What
would ninte mother have said?"
He paused a moment, his eyes fixing on her, an unmistakable look of
resentment and anger breifly shinning behind them. Reminding himself that
she didn't know, he shrugged and looked away again. "She wouldn't care."
then winced as Katara removed another small shard of glass.
"Don't be silly." Katara shook her head, removing a fourth piece of glass.
"Of course she'd care. She's ninte mother..."
"Na, Katara. She wouldn't." he shrugged indifferently, looking back up into
the girl's startled blue eyes, "She never cared. Period."
Not knowing what to say to that, but wanting to keep him talking, she stated
softly with a shake of her head, "Mothers do na hate their children,
Rylan."
"All parents hate their children." he answers just as quietly. "Some never
say so, but they do just the same. D`Tarik's father said it himself.
Children are na-thing but burdens. One minute au'rh a normal person, going
on happily with life...then au have a kid, and au become a total ahz!" he
shook his head firmly, "Na happening to me. I'm never being that stupid."
"Really?" Katara asked with a knowing smile, "Na even if au met the right
girl?"
"Especially if I met the right girl!" he immediately answered. "I'd only
end up hating her too!"
Katara sat back at that, fighting the urge to just slap some sense into him.
Starring at him angrily, her voice quiet, she asked. "So...what au'rh
saying is that na matter what happens between us...au'rh going to hate me.
Is that what I'm hearing?" At his confused look at that, she remembered her
talk with Emni as she helped her unpack, and silently thanked the medical
assistant for that talk. Weilding the information like a weapon she asked
quietly, "Is that how au felt about this other girl, Rylan? The io who
died? Would au have grown to hate her too had she lived? Do I have to die
to keep ninte love?"
"Na....I didn't...that's na..." he stumbled on the words, confused by the
whole thing. Shrugging he offered hopefully, "I only meant...that I've seen
it happen. I don't want that to happen to us."
"What do au mean, au have seen it happen?" her brow rose again, crossing her
arms in front of her, "D`Tarik's father? Au don't know the whole situation
with that family. He was a drunk for Elements sake! And a man that
obviously had his priorities screwed to begin with!"
"And au?" Rylan asked, trying to make her see what he meant, "Are au
telling me that ninte parents loved and cherished au, Katara? How'd au end
up a slave, if that was the case?"
"My mother did na hate me, Rylan." she shook her head, "My father saw me as
an embarrassment, ie. My mother was a slave, and I was born of her -- and
he was married to begin with." she paused a moment, then shrugged, "And as
much as I resent him, I have to admit that he at least sold me to my uncle,
who was kind enough to make me the beneficiary of his will."
"Ie...well au were lucky then!" Rylan shot back sarcastically, moving into a
sitting position, "Na all of us had parents that so graciously saw to our
futures!" Rubbing a hand angrily over his eyes, wincing in pain as his hand
inadvertantly drove the still embedded glass in deeper, he apologized, "I'm
sorry, Katara....I didn't mean that...."
"Na." she answered quietly, uncrossing her arms, "Au did. But I think I
understand...." moving to sit a little closer to him, she moved his head
until his eyes looked into her own, "Au are na ninte parents Rylan. I
don't know what they did to au...maybe au will tell me someday...but au are
*na* them. Na unless au *choose* to be. They have their faults...they made
their mistakes.... but au do na have to repeat them."
Frowning at that, he looked away from her again. Shaking his head, he
admitted quietly, "I was io of their mistakes. They told me that." he
shrugged as if it didn't really matter. "So, ie...au'rh right about that
much." he nodded, "I don't have to repeat their mistakes...and I won't.
That's what I meant before."
"Au are na a mistake, Rylan." She smiled, again turning his head to look at
her, "The Elements don't allow mistakes. Au have a purpose, just as every
io else on this ship does. Everything au have done...everything au have
experienced...led au to this moment. For a reason."
He laughed sarcastically, "Au don't know me, Katara. I never even
graduated the Academy...I was kicked out of my House...."
"And now au are here." she shrugged, having heard some of that story from
Emni, "An erie`Arrain, and na only a member of this ship...but the RS of it
as well." Letting him ponder that a moment, she smiled again, nudging his
shoulder playfully, "And then au met me....." then giggled a little to see
the customary grin return to his face. Pulling him closer to her, she
pulled his head down gently until he rested it on her shoulder. Holding him
close to her, her hand lazily playing with his hair, she whispered "It all
matters, Rylan. Everything. Even the littlest things au don't think
matter...do in the end of it all."
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