Hello all, a little preamble before you begin. This is a work of non-consent/reluctance fiction, so if that isn't your fancy, skedaddle. It is set in a medieval time frame. I happen to be using Slavic references and names for the most part and will be filling you in on things you might not understand as the story progresses. This is my first story, so constructive criticism would be lovely!
All characters are over 18.
xxx
Sienna took a deep breath, feeling the crisp ocean air fill her lungs, and smiled. The saltiness of the air and the caws of the seabirds felt nostalgic, even though she had only been away for half a year. There was a bit of sand between her toes even though the beach was a couple hundred feet away. She didn't need to go any closer, she could see it from the bluff she stood on. The waves were calm, just trying to lure unsuspecting swimmers into the monstrous depths in Sienna's opinion. She couldn't see it, but she knew the undertow was still there. It had been there when she had been 7, and again when she was 16, and it would be there again now that she was 25. Only this time, she wasn't as willing to test out the waters - literally.
A speck cleared the horizon in her peripheral vision. Her eyes flicked to it, expecting it to disappear. There were plenty of animals in the sea, and when one big enough jumped that far away it created the same speck. It didn't disappear. She watched it for a minute, and at no point did the speck go underwater and resurface. Sienna frowned. She ran farther up the hill, to the cliff that jutted out above the sea. Her strong legs carried her quickly. The skirt she had decided to wear hampered her just enough to annoy her.
She hiked the two layers of her skirt up to her thighs as she sprinted up the hill, throwing herself to the ground a couple feet from precipice. She wiggled on her stomach, dislodging any rocks beneath her, knowing she may need to get comfortable. Sienna wasn't moving until she knew what that tiny moving dot was.
Her stomach lit up with excitement. Maybe she was about to discover a new animal. If the Mother was good, it would come to land and be large and slow. Something that could feed and clothe her village for the coming cold season. Last time the cold had struck, Sienna had found the little one that had frozen overnight. She couldn't help but feel like if she had hunted for just a bit longer, the child would have been fat enough to survive the night. It hadn't been her fault, there were more hunters that could have done the same, but she still felt a small rock in her throat whenever Sienna walked by the spot she had found her.
It took about half an hour for the figure to take shape, and by the time she understood what she was seeing, she was halfway down the hill sprinting for all she was worth. Sienna's village was at least a ten minutes run away, and she knew every second she wasted was a second their fate was sealed. Though the six months away she had spent their island scouting for new food had been a disappointment, she thanked the Mother for all the running she had done.
Grandma will know what to do. It's not over. Grandma will know.
Sienna chanted every variation she could in her head, but that didn't stop the panic bubbling in her chest.
Sienna flew into her village at full speed, her skirt hiked all the way up her legs, dashing past the children playing and the hunters practicing their sparring footwork. A couple women gasped as she pushed through them as they walked. "Sienna!"
She ignored them, skidding down the pathway to her hut. Her home was old but built with stones, so it was one of the few that didn't have to be repaired every storm season. Her grandmother had built it with a toddler, her mother, on her hip. Tears blurred in her eyes. Would they have to leave their homes?
Sienna shouldered the driftwood door open. Her mother was near the fire, peeling potatoes. "Mother, where is Grandma?"
Her mother looked at her and gasped. She must have looked a mess. "Sienna? What's wrong-"
"Grandma!" Sienna ran to her favourite room, the room where her Grandma kept the book and the two comfiest chairs in all of the village. There was a wood shelf that held small knickknacks her mother and Sienna had gathered throughout their lives. She reached past them, to the back of the shelf, and grabbed the one and only book she had ever seen. The small sentimental things on the shelf scattered and she slammed the book onto the dirt floor. "GRANDMA!"
"Sienna, what is it?"
A quiet voice filled the room. Both her Grandma and Mother stood at the threshold of the room, staring at her with a deep concern in their eyes. Sienna flipped through the book viciously, with little regard to the antique paper and irreplaceable drawings within.
"I was at the sea, and I saw a speck. It was that thing you told us about Grandma-"
Her Grandma kneeled one knee at a time in front of Sienna. "What did I tell you about?"
Her panic was making her words stick in her throat. Instead, she found the sketch and flipped the book so her Grandma and Mother could see. Sienna's Mother's eyes filled with tears as she covered her mouth. Her Grandma's jaw clenched and fear scored across her face.
"A boat, Sienna. That is a boat."
xxx
"Voivode, we've spotted land!"
Rorik swung up onto the deck, met by Casmir, his Second. And there it was.
It was but a small blip, but he could already see the tall cliffs and the mountain that sat in the background. This was it. A thrill raced through him. He had been right.
"You were right," Casmir said, a small smile gracing his usually dour face. Rorik said nothing. He didn't need to. When he sent word back with the ship he came on and the Chief came, he would be given all he wanted.
He had spent years digging through the scrolls of the neighbouring villages he had claimed for his Chief, and he had finally succeeded in finding what he needed. It had been hell trying to convince the Chief to give him all of the resources the journey the required, the men especially, but when given the proof Rorik had found it had been hard to deny him. Especially with the clan growing thin. The growing desperation had been mounting since Rorik was a child, and he refused to let his clansmen perish. All the men on the boat felt the same.
"Get the horses ready," Rorik told Casmir. "When we land, I leave with within the hour. The men need to hunt and prepare for the journey back. You will be on that ship when it leaves."
Casmir's smile disappeared and fell to a look that was damn near affronted. Rorik was too pleased to care. "Listen, brother, you are the only person I trust to carry our clans future back to it." Casmir's face was dour again, but less affronted than before.
"You better be right about how many there will be," Casmir said, but nodded and left to give orders.
"Nikolai!" Rorik yelled, not taking his eyes away from the growing land mass. A man about half a foot shorter than Rorik clomped up the stairs behind him, stopping on his right side. "You and Casmir will come with me when we land."
Rorik caught the grin spread across the hunters face as he bowed his head. "Of course, Voivode."
The two men were silent as they watched. The deck behind them was filled with a different energy now. The men knew what Rorik hoped to find once they landed. Before, the men had done their jobs, sure, but with the energy of men unsure of whether or not all of their long days were worth it. They had all volunteered for the mission, but some of them out of desperation more than anything.
Rorik had not been offended by their uncertainty. Even his men, who knew and trusted him with their lives, were unsure about travelling farther into the blue than any generation before had. Rorik himself had been struck with the same unpleasant feeling, having brief moments where the blue sea that surrounded him had told him he had sent himself and all the men who followed him to die. The moment would pass after he reminded himself of the evidence he had found; of the confession he had wrenched out of the Dojil man. He was right. He
was
right.
xxx
Sienna's mouth was in a tight, angry line as she clutched her bow in a small nook that overlooked her village. She was on the north side, the side that would afford her the best view if they came the way she had come into the village today. Yasim had sent the five hunters who had volunteered to stay to specific points surrounding the village so they would be able to watch and ambush if she ordered to. Sienna couldn't help but feel angry at her vantage point. She wasn't their best sparrer, but she was damn good, so she felt slapping a bow in her hands and telling her to only engage at a distance was a little insulting.
On top of that, watching the confused and scared families she had grown up around choose what to take with them was awful. They were being asked to leave everything they ever knew behind and walk until they couldn't anymore. The families did it, trusting their elders and knowing the possibilities of who might be on that ship.
It had been two generations since her grandmother and the 13 other women of the Gavali clan had escaped. They had crossed the big sea, manning a ship with most of them pregnant, only a few dedicated sailors to assist them. Sienna could only imagine the months they had spent on that boat. Babies had been born, food had grown scarce, and they had been sailing with no way of knowing where they would end up. Her Grandma didn't talk much about her time with the Gavali men, but from what Sienna had pieced together, the women there were not equal to the men. The women who were able to give birth even less so.
Sienna's grandmother had been what the Gavali called a "Daughter of Ziva". She was born with the ability to bear children to these men. When Sienna had asked why they couldn't just have babies with their wives instead of these Daughters, her Grandma had given her a soft smile and said, "No one knows, Sienna."
If Sienna were honest, she appreciated the thought Yasim had put into her position. She was the only female in the hunting team other than Yasim, and the bits and pieces her Grandma had told of life with the Gavali made her shudder. Sienna loved children, but the thought of giving birth until she died made her heartache. Not to mention the conversation she had overheard between her mother and Grandma as she packed for them to evacuate had scared the shit out of her.
